This is a story about a young Marine Corps pilot during the era between the Korean War and the Viet Nam War. Reading the previous parts will lead to a better understanding of the plot and the characters.
*
Micaiah McDermott sat beside his wife's bed holding his newborn daughter for the first time. He was overwhelmed with emotions. The feeling flashed from awe, to joy, to love, to amazement. He touched the tiny hand with his big finger. The tiny fingers grasped his finger and pulled it toward the little mouth. He looked in wonder at Melissa. She gently smiled and reached for the baby. "I think she is hungry." Mica grinned. Melissa opened her little bed jacket and pulled back the bodice of her gown revealing a swollen breast. She moved the child closer and pressed the erect nipple to the little mouth.
There was no hesitation on the part of her daughter who instantly put her lips around the nipple and began to suckle. Mica's wife smiled up at him, "Sirima is an 'eager eater', isn't she?"
"Yes my love, she is a beautiful Princess, just like her mother."
Melissa looked at the Navy Nurse in her white starched crisp uniform, "Can our parents come in now?"
The Nurse smiled, "I think that would be fine if you feel up to it?"
"I feel fine, I am ready to get up and go home."
The Nurse laughed, "Not yet Mrs. McDermott, the doctor has to release you first. I'll get your parents."
A few moments later the room seemed packed with relatives and well-wishers, a flash bulb went off occasionally as the news people had gotten word of the royal birth. Maryalice, Melissa's mother, held the baby beside Melissa for a shot of three generations of Princesses.
Mica's parents were staying with Melissa's parents who were living in the apartment over the garage next to Mica's house. The crowd thinned out and Dawn and Billy Marker visited for a few minutes. Dawn kissed Melissa and hugged her with tears in both their eyes. Dawn asked if there were anything she could do to help. Melissa smiled, "No, Honey, thank you, it is so sweet of you to offer, but I will be ok, you have your hands full with your own new baby. I should be helping you."
"Melissa McDermott, you were like an old mother hen when Willy was born. I don't know how I would have made it without you helping us. Let me know when you need me and I'll be there. You know that!"
Billy stood in the hall laughing as Mica coughed from the cigar he was trying to smoke, "Mica, buddy, you should have passed out chocolate cigars, you sure can't handle real ones."
"Yeah, if I had a misspent youth like you did, I would be alright. If I had been stupid enough to take some dried out plant leaves chop them up and stuff a paper tube full of them, stick the tube in my mouth and set the other end on fire, then suck the smoke down into my lungs you would think I was cool. Yeah! Real slick!"
"When you say it like that you make it sound pretty stupid."
"It is pretty damned stupid."
Three weeks later the four friends sat in the McDermott home after a lovely dinner. They were sipping a small frozen Crème de Menthe. Dawn looked at Melissa, "Honey, we are going to miss you guys a whole lot. I can't believe this is Mica's last couple of days as a Marine."
Melissa's eyes filled with tears, "We will miss you guys too. But even if we stayed in the Corps we couldn't hope to be stationed together very much."
Billy agreed, "Well, Dawn and I have made up our minds that when I have my twenty years in next year we will have to totally reaccess our plans. If I make bird Colonel by then it would be a good boost in my retirement. Another factor is that the next step up in grade is a very long and tough one. I'll be pushing 45 by then and it will be much harder to find another job."
Mica raised his hand, "Billy at the end of next year we will be ready to start operations at the fish farm, we will have the flash freezing plant ready to go soon after that. I have decided that it needs to be a separate operation because it is silly to have that machinery sitting idle while we wait for the next fish harvest. We have a good man researching the farmers here locally and within a hundred miles or so about growing vegetables for us. We will probably sell both under our Carolina Beauty Brand and under store brands. A lot of the farmers like knowing they have a good part of their crop sold before they plant it. Like our guy tells them, "Sell half of what you plan to grow at a fair price now and gamble with the other half. Depending on the weather and other things you could get either more or less for your crop next spring."
"We are also investigating an animal and fish feed plant. We envision our own hog farms giving us pork products to freeze and sell with the butchering waste being ground and mixed with vegetable waste like husks, hulls, branches, stems, and peelings into feed. Body waste from the hogs would be processed into methane gas to power all the plants.
"We are also going to need a research facility to find and develop new products. I have my eye on a great manager to run the whole damned thing. It will be a big tough job, my guy can handle it though."
"Yeah, this guy must be good, a lot of what you are talking about more of less experimental stuff, right?"
"Billy, the job rates a good salary and profit sharing. I know you can handle it though."
"ME?"
"Why not you?" Your pay will likely double with lot's more perks and a better future, and if you do the job correctly and don't piss anyone off, you will hardly ever get shot at."
"Hey, that is half the fun of being a Marine. But seriously, that job sounds great. Are you sure you won't need someone sooner?
"I think we can use someone part time, say a guy who can look over things for a few hours a week and be real familiar with everything before we really get cranked up. We will put you on a salary, say $1000 a month to start."
Billy grinned, "You have me sniffing at the bait now. One more little move by me and you are going to set the hook, right?"
"Yeah, I hope you won't put up too big a fight. I need you Billy, you are perfect for this job, you have all the tools to do it right. I'm good at some things but you are better at organization than I am."
Billy grinned, "I don't know anything I was better at except way back in flight training. You were damned near perfect at everything but shooting. You couldn't hit shit."
"You are right about that, I suppose you are going to have to embarrass me in front of my wife by telling the story of how I almost flunked out of flight training."
Melissa said, "Hey, I absolutely have to hear it now, what happened?"
"Well, in Flight Training in the Air-to Air Gunnery Program we flew the North American T-6/ SNJ trainer. It carried one thirty caliber machine gun with 100 rounds of ammo. You had four live firing flights, firing a total of 400 rounds. To pass the course you had to get 25 hits for the 400 shots. To make a long story short, Mica had only four hits after three flights. He was about to wash out of flight training. Mica was beside himself. He couldn't figure out what he was doing wrong. We were supposed to have our final firing flights on Friday but the weather was bad so they were postponed until Monday.
