Jethro Goes to War (Wandering Engineer Jethro's tale) Read Online Free Page A

away. We've
got three officers and fourteen senior non commissioned officers.
That is way too few chiefs for way too many indians folks. So keep an
eye out for the stars,” Major Forth said.
    It was a pain in the
ass for his manning tables. The only ships with officers were Firefly
and Sun-Yat. The officer in charge of training would rotate with
whatever ship was in port. The noncoms were going to have to carry
the ball for the training. Hopefully they were up for it. He changed
mental tracks quickly, trying to think of something, anything that
would work, but unfortunately drawing a blank. Fortunately most of
the other ships had small crews so he didn't need large marine
compliments on the gunships. But he wanted an officer on each as soon
as possible.
    “ Yes sir,”
his subordinates said or mumbled.
    “ We may have
discipline problems sir. I mean, I can only be in so many places at
the same time. We've got two assistant instructors for each platoon,
a dumb AI keeping watch, and each gunny is handling three platoons...
but still,” Thompskins said and waved helplessly. “Stuff
is going to be missed and fall through the cracks.”
    “ Any problems
come up, handle them,” the Major said with finality. “Or
if it is very serious and warrants my attention, I will,” he
grimaced. When he was in port of course. Technically he should detach
himself from Firefly and oversee the training personally. He was
still wrestling with that decision. “We're short handed across
the board. This is going to put holes in our manning tables on the
ships until this class graduates. So handle it.”
    “ Yes sir.”
    “ We're running
them through the basic wringer right away. Right after the initial
fitness evaluation Commander Thornby and Commander Standish are
running them through right now. Then we are running them through
psych evals over the next three days. After that we've got a day or
two of testing to get a handle on their education. We need to get rid
of the dead weight right off so we can focus on those who have the
guts to stick to the job. Hope you've got your running shoes.”
Schultz growled, smiling evilly to the other gunny.
    “ Crap,”
Thompskins sighed, sitting back. He knew he was outvoted. Not that
this was a democracy or anything. Knowing which way the wind was
blowing and going with it was the only safe course left now though.
    “ You want a
piece of advice? Show them you can handle the same thing right off
from the start. Lead from example, and put the fear of you into them
from day one. Scare the ever loviin' piss out of them and I guarantee
you there wont be many disciplinary problems. Land full force on each
and every transgression right away with both boots and they will
learn to toe the line. Or at least to shut up and act like they can,”
Schultz said with a shrug as the others looked at him. “That's
my plan anyway.”
    “ Easy for you
to say.”
    “ Yes. Easy to
say. Hard to do. Talk is cheap,” Schultz growled. He shifted
his amputated arm to draw attention to it. “But even without
this, and this,” he pointed to his eye patch. “I'll still
kick their asses. I'll make sure they know it too.”
    “ Which is the
point. Scare them straight and keep them there once you do. We need
them to follow orders even if they don't want too. It's your job to
get that through their thick heads. So when it comes to crunch time
they wont freeze up in combat and get killed or get their team
killed,” The Major said with a nod to Schultz. “I'll be
looking in from time to time. When I'm out Lieutenant Pendeckle or
Ensign Halsey will be the officer in charge.”
    “ Yes sir,”
the trainers said together.
    “ If that's it
then we've got a lot to do before tomorrow,” Forth said. The
Major rose. They hastily followed suit. “Dismissed with my
compliments. Get some rest. You'll need it.” He nodded as they
about faced and walked out.

Chapter 2
     
    Jethro watched
quietly from the shade of the statue. The