Ecuperating - Chapter 18

He stayed there until the end of the Korean police action in ’54. He spent the next 20 years teaching science in a small college in Upper Michigan. His heart always had been with the resistance movement in France. He just loved that stuff, and when invited by Eric Tanner to join Lodge 16 in 1958, he grabbed at the chance for camaraderie and glory he had experienced during those years. He was Lodge 16’s ordinance officer.

Then there was Captain Bob Calwell. Lot’s of Bob’s here! He thought. Calwell was a runner, he read. The story was a good one. Calwell was a runner for the sixth Army as they made their way up through Italy. Calwell recanted the stories reluctantly. Some of the guys were like that. They had seen and done so much. Recalling it was painful.

The Germans had runners too, and it was an unwritten law among both the Americans and the Germans that the runners would be left pretty much alone, for they were the eyes and ears of each army, running from post to post with pertinent information that could not be received any other way. Most of them only carried a handgun, and it seems that is what identified them to each other.

A man from either army seen running with only a handgun was usually left alone by both sides. It wasn’t a rule, just common respect. In fact, they were reported as waving to one another as they ran by.

One day, as Calwell was coming back from the front, he noticed a cave on a mountainside near the trail he was on.

He went into the cave, partly as curiosity, but mostly to get out of the perennial rain that seems to come down every day in the spring. He followed the cave until he saw that it opened up into a small valley. There was fighting going on in the valley. An American company was pinned down by Germans on either flank. They couldn’t go ahead and they couldn’t back up.

They were taking a licking. As dark approached, Calwell slowly sneaked around the Germans and got behind the Americans. There were 42 fighting men left in the company. 14 were wounded badly. By three in the morning, Calwell had led the entire group around the Germans and back through the cave.

By dawn they were back to their own lines. Calwell received the Silver Star for that one, and a battlefield commission. His real honor came later however, as he led another company back through the tunnel and led the attack on the right flank of the Germans, capturing 350 in the little valley. For that he got the Congressional Medal of Honor.

He joined Lodge 16 the day Eric Tanner formed it. John was really getting into the stories of the deeds of the members of Lodge 16. He didn’t hear the door to one of the side bedrooms open and close. In fact, he didn’t hear the one on the other side open either. What he did hear was a man quietly whispering in his ear.

“What the hell are you doing here?” John just about fainted. “WhaWhere..?” he stammered.

“Did you actually think we didn’t have this place alarmed?” The man said disgustedly.

“Now..Who are you and what are you doing here?”

John thought about not answering, and just as quickly thought the better of it. He told them all. In fact, he would have told his parents had they asked. Or his sister. Certainly he told them about Carl McNabb, his uncle, who had sent him on this mission, and all about McNabb investigations.

It warranted another visit to McNabb investigations by the two FBI agents. Josh Carver and James Perry didn’t make the same mistake twice. They were dressed appropriately in their winter gear this time, with boots and overcoats and heavy gloves, not to mention hats with earmuffs. The last days of February were some of the coldest days of winter.

They waited outside McNabb investigations at 9:30 in the morning. Shirley arrived at 9:45.

“Hi guys!” she smiled at them.

“Fancy meeting you two here again! What did we do this time? Run a stoplight?” She opened the door and invited them in. “Lets see. Josh here takes his straight up and Jim; you want a little cream and sugar. Sit down while I make the coffee.” Shirley wiggled her way to the coffee corner. Jim and Josh watched appreciatively.

“We brought doughnuts this time,” Josh offered. “Carl likes the bismarcks, doesn’t he?”

“Yup! But don’t ever let his wife know about it! She doesn’t allow sweets in the house so Carl has to have them here. She’d kill him if she knew.”

They were sitting around the coffee pot when Carl walked in about 10:15.

“Hi guys. I’ve been expecting you. What the hell did you do with John? I haven’t heard from him since last night. I kind of thought you would have him in custody.”

“We do.” Jim admitted.

“We’re just wondering what to charge him with. And you, of course. Trespassing and breaking and entering comes to mind right off the bat for both of you. Maybe conspiring to commit a robbery.”

Carl laughed. “If you were serious you wouldn’t be sitting here. You’d have me in cuffs. Besides, you know as well as I do that it isn’t a crime to break into a building in an emergency. He was out hunting rabbits in the storm and lost his way. He found the building and broke in to save his life.”

“That’s bullshit!” Josh exclaimed.

“I know that, but the jury doesn’t. If you think a redneck jury up here will convict a man for what he did, you’re crazy. What do you think I had him carry a shotgun for? If you have checked, as I think you have, you’ll find he has a small game license too.” Carl poured a cup of coffee.

“Oh good! You guys bring the bismarks with you?” He sank his teeth in one and rolled his eyes back in his head.

“Shees! That’s good!”

“So,” he continued.

“What’s the deal?”

“Lodge 16 is still a place of interest for us,” Jim stated.