The President waited for his regular morning update from General Hayes. They were just about done their talk when The President remarked, "By the way, General, I found those kosher dill pickles you were asking for. They'll be arriving with your regularly schedualed commissary shipment. The producers were more than willing to donate several thousand jars to our valliant troops."
"Thank you very much, " the General responded. "Mr. President, for going to all that trouble."
"No problem at all!" The President answered. "Continue the harrassment, General."
"Certainly, Mr. President!" the General answered.
The Pesident hung up then sat back. Now the hell began! The orders had been given, the men would be moving out. In two days the aircraft would be leaving their bases for the drops. Would they take the enemy by surprise, or would he be waiting? Would their casualties be light or horrendous? Would the Chinese get desperate and attack the alliance forces as they neared their borders? There were so many damned ifs and no way of knowing how ANY of them would go. You could only wait and that could drive you mad.
The protests were getting bigger. There had been two more acts of insanity, one in Boston, had killed 230 people. Another in Rhode Island had killed 30. But the majority of the pople still supported the war, but if this operation was a disaster that support would quickly fade.
The President tried to occupy himself with other things. Even in the midst of a war he had domestic problems. But it was hard to keep his thoughts from those men that would be leaping from planes into the darkness, not knowing what they would find on the ground. The waiting almost became unbearable!
His wife, and, Sing distracted him as best they could, but still everyone knew the pressure was bothering him and they wanted it over.

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