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half “I know that Jericho has been found dead Officially, she committed suicide Now, the whole truth of the matter can still come out The Army will take its lumps and it should The deaths of the wo You say the word and all of this co any pressure on you one way or another I mean that The Army royally fucked up”
He sat back and looked at the pair
Robert and Puller exchanged a single glance, but a lot was co those few moments
Puller said, “I think the appropriate parties have been punished adequately, sir And I think the Army has learned a valuable lesson So, no, it need not be made public”
Colereed with this decision or not He opened his desk drawer and took out a file He slid on wire-ries
“As I understand it, your father was not considered a suspect in your mother’s disappearance because he was out of the country Recently, though, this was found to be incorrect And then he became a suspect thirty years later”
“He came back a day early,” noted Puller
“And this is the reason why” Coleman slid the file across
Both brothers looked stunned Puller turned the file around and the two began to read down the pages When they were done they both looked up
Puller said, “He came back to confront Ballard and Jericho?”
Colehly classified but not entirely a secret Your father was a one-star stationed at Fort Monroe where this program was operational Now, he was not the cohting John Puller Wherever he was stationed was his turf and he would defend it with his life if need be”
Puller said, “So he found out about the program? Jericho told me that she knew s”
Coleht And eye to eye? Let ht her as horseshit, using his terht by real men Real ht wars If we could create robots to do our fighting, he thought, we’d be at war all the time”
“There’s a lot of wisdom in that philosophy,” noted Robert
“Your father had seen more combat than just about anyone I knew He kne terrible it was He thought Jericho was a cancer that the Army should just cut out of itself”
“But he didn’t win that battle?” said Puller slowly
Coleman shook his head “Only battle I know the man to have lost Ballard and Jericho were too well entrenched They had too otIt was cronyism at its worst And it still happened”
“And our father?”
“He never let it drop Fought it for years” He eyed them closely “And it finally cost him It cost him dearly”
Robert got there faster than Puller
“It cost him his fourth star”
Coleman nodded “They couldn’t very well deny him the second and third stars He flat-out earned those But when you get to four, there’s more politics than merit And the stand your father had taken came home to roost, because he had pissed off a lot of people ould deteret it And he was basically forced to retire”
Coleman stopped and tapped the fourth star on his shoulder “When I got this pinned on, do you knoho I was thinking about? Your old man He deserved the fourth star far ot it part of me has been ashamed that I walk around with it while he never had that honor”
Colehed and sat back “I know his current condition But I want to propose soly to hts “We’ve never done this before and it carries no official weight But I’ve run this up the flagpole and got nothing but salutes froain “We want to award an honorary fourth star to your father I wish it could be the real deal, but that’s not possible now But ant to do this Out of respect for your father We want to try to ht, at least better” He leaned forward “What do you say?”
“I say it’s about time,” both Pullers replied simultaneously
Chapter
76
THE CEREMONY WAS carried out in Puller Sr’s roonitaries boththe Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Coleman presided over the presentation of the honorary fourth star
Puller Sr at first did not see on, but as the ceremony continued and Coleman whispered sorasp the enor
When it was over and everyone left, though, Puller motioned for his sons to take off his uniform jacket They helped him out of it and then he tapped the cassette recorder that was on his bedside table
Robert quickly turned it on and Puller Sr sat back on his bed, turned to face the recorder, closed his eyes, and s