“Where is home, anyway?”
“Good point. Maybe you should take some time and find yourself one. After all, you fought for your homeland. You should actually have an actual home in your land, not just a string of FOBs, safe houses, and BOQs.”
“I guess he needs a home too,” Turnbull said, ruffling the dog’s fur. “But I’m too tired right now to think about it.”
“You can sleep on the Blackhawk. Get your stuff.”
“You’re looking at it.” Turnbull stood and stared at his M4 for a minute. He left it on the bench. Somebody else would put it to good use here. And he still had his .45.
They walked through town toward the high school, with the little dog trotting along at his heels. The helicopter had landed on the football field and waited with its blades rotating. In the parking lot, a platoon of US troops were mounting up into their vehicles again, ready to head north. Locals wandered by, men and women, young and old, most armed, looking grim, assessing the damage. Turnbull recognized some, but not all of the faces.
One thing he noted – they weren’t the faces of civilians anymore.
“Like I mentioned, there’s another problem we’re having,” Clay said. “I think you could help us with it.”
“You sure have a lot of problems. How screwed are you that I’m the solution?”
“Very. We can talk on the flight home.”
“I don’t think so. I’m going to sleep. And I’m not sure when or even if I’m ever waking up.”
Turnbull took off his cap, scooped up the dog, and trotted along behind Deeds in a low crouch toward the Blackhawk, the blades whirling above them. They were going to be the helicopter’s only passengers.
The crew chief helped Deeds in first. Deeds slid over on fabric seats and began buckling himself in.
Then the crew chief reached his hand out to help, but suddenly withdrew it.
“You can’t have an animal on the aircraft,” he yelled over the engine’s whine.
Turnbull ignored him and climbed into the passenger compartment without assistance, still clutching the puppy. He sat on the canvas seat with the dog next to him. It proceeded to growl at the crew chief.
“I said no dogs on the aircraft!” shouted the sergeant. It was bad enough to have to chauffeur some light colonel and his filthy civilian pal around like they were a couple of general officers, but this mutt was too much.
Turnbull stared, noting the chief’s body armor and that thinking between the eyes would be best. His Wilson .45 still had a full mag left.
Deeds leaned in, shouting above the engine roar.
“Son, let it go.”
“But Colonel, the regs say—”
“Let it go,” Deeds repeated in that voice he used when he was giving a direction, not a suggestion.
The crew chief grimaced, then waved his hand to the pilot. The engine revved up, the blades spun faster, and the aircraft lifted off as Turnbull himself buckled up and put on the headphones. He clutched the puppy tightly, leaned back, and shut his eyes.
“This is bullshit,” the crew chief sputtered into his mic, unable to let it go.
Turnbull didn’t even open his eyes as he keyed his mic and spoke just one more time before falling into a deep sleep.
“Stop talking.”
Author’s Note
Note that while there really is a Jasper, Indiana, the one depicted here is not it. While the places somewhat correspond to how the town is laid out on a map, my Jasper is fictitious. None of the characters here are based on real people, except for Indiana radio legend Tony Katz. He’s all too real.
Also, you’ll note that some of the details involving explosives are vague. That is purposeful. While field expedient explosives are real and can be deadly, this is not an instruction manual for making bombs and improvised explosive devices. You’ll have to trust me that the capabilities described here are real. Do not try it at home.
The big idea is that citizens armed with individual weapons can provide a powerful opposition to even a conventional military that is in the service of an oppressive government. The Founding Fathers knew exactly what they were doing when they enshrined the Second Amendment within the Bill of Rights. Let’s hope we never have to put their wisdom to the test.
About The Author
Kurt Schlichter is a senior columnist for Townhall.com, where his work appears twice a week. He is also a Los Angeles trial lawyer admitted in both California and Washington, D.C., and a retired Army Infantry colonel.
A Twitter activist (@KurtSchlichter) with over 100,000 followers, Kurt was personally recruited by Andrew Breitbart, and his writings on political and cultural issues have been regularly published in IJ Review, The Federalist, the New York Post, the Washington Examiner, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, the Washington Times, Army Times, the San Francisco Examiner, and elsewhere.
Kurt serves as a news source, an on-screen commentator, and a guest on nationally syndicated radio programs regarding political, military, and legal issues, at Fox News, Fox Business News, CNN, NewsMax, One America Network, The Blaze, and on The Hugh Hewitt Show, The Dr. Drew Show, The Larry Elder Show, The Tony Katz Show, The John Cardillo Show, The Dana Loesch Show, The Larry O’Connor Show, and The Derek Hunter Show, among others. Kurt appears weekly on Cam and Company with Cam Edwards, and averages four to five other media appearances a week.
He was a stand-up comic for several years, which led him to write three e-books that each reached number one on the Amazon Kindle “Political Humor” bestseller list: I Am a Conservative: Uncensored, Undiluted, and Absolutely Un-PC, I Am a Liberaclass="underline" A Conservative’s Guide to Dealing with Nature’s Most Irritating Mistake, and Fetch My Latte: Sharing Feelings with Stupid People.
In 2014, his book Conservative Insurgency: The Struggle to Take America Back 2013-2041 was published by Post Tree Press.
His 2016 novel People’s Republic hit number one on the Amazon Kindle “Political Thriller” bestseller list.
Kurt is a successful trial lawyer and name partner in a Los Angeles law firm representing Fortune 500 companies and individuals in matters ranging from routine business cases to confidential Hollywood disputes and political controversies. A member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, which recognizes attorneys who have won trial verdicts in excess of $1 million, his litigation strategy and legal analysis articles have been published in legal publications such as the Los Angeles Daily Journal and California Lawyer.
He is frequently engaged by noted conservatives in need of legal representation, and he was counsel for political commentator and author Ben Shapiro in the widely publicized “Clock Boy” defamation lawsuit, which resulted in the case being dismissed and Shapiro being awarded his attorney’s fees.
Kurt is a 1994 graduate of Loyola Law School, where he was a law review editor. He majored in communications and political science as an undergraduate at the University of California, San Diego, co-editing the conservative student paper California Review while also writing a regular column in the student humor paper The Koala.