Keynes' Cruisers Volume 2

[fester]

Lowell, Massachusetts September 12, 1962
Eleanor smiled as she snuggled next to her husband. Their five children knew not to disturb their parents as they watched the nightly news on their almost new television in the living room. The Boston station highlighted what President Kennedy had said in a speech at Rice University that afternoon:

We choose to go to the Moon. We choose to go to the Moon... We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard;

She giggled.

Her husband looked at her inquisitively.

"Do I want to know?"

"Not really, but did I ever tell you the time that the President bought me a drink in Rhode Island?"

"Only once or twice a week for the past three years...."

Soon the the sports desk had recapped the swoon of the Red Sox and the two lovers enjoyed the few minutes of silence before the rest of their world intruded.

 

[fester]

Hanoi, Republic of Vietnam January 1, 1963

The French flag came down with a flourish. The Foreign Legionnaires smartly pivoted and folded the flag even as the men who had been in the Tonkinese regiments came forward and raised a new flag for the country that had officially come into being eighteen seconds ago. Two wars and an ever present insurgency had sapped the colonial government of its will and its ability to hold onto Indochina. Agreements had been reached between the French, the Republic of China, the United States and the Commonwealth to guarantee security in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos as those countries found their footing.

Over the past eighteen months, troop ships had emptied the garrisons of their Metropolitan and African troops. Some of the regiments were being disbanded, others were reduced to cadre status, a few had headed to Algeria and Tunisia while a third were reinforcing the French army garrisoned east of Prague as the Soviets were being quite loud and aggressive again. Two ports, five airfields and seven training areas were open for foreign troops but anything more involved than half a dozen men looking for a cheap drink or a good time outside of their gates were now strictly regulated.

 

[fester]

Narvik, Norway, April 10, 1981

The bosun piped loudly as HMS Vanguard steamed out of the fjord. Hundreds of sailors came to attention and saluted to the war graves of the Norwegian coastal defense ships that drew first blood in the defense of the city that the carrier group had almost ruined after a long run ashore at the middle break during the NATO spring exercises. Two dozen warships from seven nations had crowded the waterfront. Sailors, marines and more than a few air force pukes had overwhelmed the city. A small contingent of old men never had to buy a drink or wait in line though as they tromped through the terrors of their youth.


Three days later, Vanguard had joined with Queen Elizabeth and her battle group to take on the American and French carrier force built around Nimitz, Eisenhower and Foch. The old carrier had one good day as her Buccaneers screamed in on a high level raid, seventy feet off the deck. The umpires had agreed that the flight of six bombers managed to put at least five bombs into Nimitz. The next day, the Hawkeyes had turned up their gain and flights of Tomcats and Phantoms had jumped two follow-on raids.

Eleven months later, the old carrier went to sea for the last time on a long slow journey to a scrap yard in India. Her bombers would reinforce RAF Germany while her fighters would go into an attrition and war emergency reserve for the three Queens that were now the center of the Fleet.

 

[fester]

Cranberry, Pennsylvania April 18, 1994

"Honey, if you're trying to pass a note without being seen, you're doing it wrong."

"What do you mean grandmere?"

The fourteen year old loved her grandmother. She always made the best pastries among all the adults in the family, and she had made it a point to show up to every event she ever had even if there were no other grandparents or parents in the stands for a Math Olympiad competition or a softball game. Grandmere had picked her up from 8th grade after the principal called her parents first and then her grandmother was called to pick her up. She had been caught passing notes to a friend during history class for the third time in a month.

"Whatever you're doing, you're tipping your teacher off. So show me how you're passing a note?"

"Okay" The young girl took out a piece of paper and quickly scribbled a doodle on it. She scrunched the paper into a tight ball and then reached out to hand her grandmother a silly little stick figure drawing.

"Did no one ever teach you how to pass a note girl!?' Anna Marie smiled as she remembered her misspent youth and the exhilerating scary nights in dark basements in Paris where she knew that one mistake would lead to, at best, a single bullet to the brain, and at worst, a desire for that quick escape. "I guess I'm going to have to teach you...."

"Now we're going to start with the basics; and the first thing is to act as normal as possible when you are doing the most abnormal and rule violating things... don't be nervous, don't look around looking for trouble, if you do look, just look at the corner of your eye as you reach down for your pencil case or tie your shoe or pick something up off the floor, or pick at a piece of lint in a friend's hair. We'll work on a brush pass and dead drops later on.

Three hours later, her granddaughter was giggling as her grandmother reviewed the basic rules of being an unnoticed troublemaker. And then a thought hit her...

"Grandmere, where and why did you learn all of this, everything you and Grandpa have told me about raising Mom was that you lived a quiet life."

"Well we did live a quiet life once we got to the States in '47, but before that there was the war, and people either picked up on how to survive and be useful or they died. And sometimes the best of them still died, but the dumb died quickly."

"Did you ever tell anyone what you did during the war? Besides work as a secretary for the railroads? "

"No, I have not."

"Can you?"

"Perhaps... and maybe if you stay out of trouble, you can listen."


THE END