Night Patrol

Excerpt

Airman First Class Rich Connors looked over at the alarm clock and realized the time to get up had arrived. He got up, showered, shaved, put on his uniform, and left the barracks to get coffee, orange juice, and toast. His morning meal consisted of these very basic items each morning for breakfast. Rich's morning could be six o'clock at night or the normal morning depending on what shift he worked that day.

Rich was twenty-one years old, well built, six foot one, one hundred eighty-six pounds, blond, blue-eyed, and a Security Forces Officer in the United States Air Force stationed in the United Kingdom. His duties consisted of patrolling not one, but two, Air Force bases located northeast of London. He and other officers would drive from the main base over to the second base to work their shift, as there was no Base Police station on the second base.

Rich was assigned to the midnight shift most days since his rank consisted of only "two stripes," or Airman First Class, and he had to work his way up the seniority ladder to be able to work other shifts. When he arrived at the chow hall, he noted he had forty-five minutes to eat and report in at the base armory where he would check out his duty weapon and ammo.

As he sat at the table and looked around, various airmen were either going off duty or, like him, preparing to go on duty. You could usually tell which by whose eyes were half closed. Some of the airmen were really hot in Rich's eyes. They were like him, young, with military haircuts, in great shape, and thousands of miles from home. Almost every young airman looked good in those tight, green fatigues for the security troops or the dress uniforms for those assigned to base patrol.

Some of the guys met local English girls for companionship and sex. Even though bringing girls into the barracks violated regulations, he would find a girl or two in the bunks of some of the airmen in the Security Forces barracks. What you didn't find happening were two guys in the same bunk.

Even though "Don't ask, don't tell" had only a short life-span left, the men of the Air Force Security Force did not take well to anyone who might be gay. Just like any other situation where backup from other officers might be required, being out would be dangerous if no one responded to assist a man who needed backup because they hated gay guys.

Rich kept his sexuality close to the vest and tried to maintain strong custody of his eyes anytime he was around his buddies who were either naked or in the process of getting naked. Jokes flew between the men regardless of the facts and had to be expected. The common putdown occurred when someone called another a "fag."

Rich stopped daydreaming, left the chow hall, and arrived at the armory window, where he gave the airman on duty his weapons card. In return he received back his nine mm automatic and two clips worth of ammo. As he loaded the weapon with one clip and stored the other, he thought about how ridiculous it would be to end up being forced into a firefight with someone like the IRA with only two clips of ammo.

Guard mount came next, and Rich entered the Base Security Forces center and lined up with the other men coming on duty. They were called to attention by the Shift Staff Sergeant, and each man went through inspection for anything out of place on his uniform. Assignments for the shift were then given to each man.

"Connors, you've got Police Five. You're the only patrol we'll have over there tonight, so stay alert," Sergeant Milroy announced. "The brass has decided one base cop over there is enough from now on."

Being assigned to Police Five automatically meant the airman was assigned to the second base for the shift. The trip to Woodbridge took twenty minutes from Bentwaters, which bore the designation as the primary base. While technically the only police car on duty there, Security Forces guarding the ammo dumps and aircraft were also on both bases, and in an emergency, a heavily armed security truck could be sent to assist the Base Patrol Officer.

The airman, who usually got the post of desk sergeant, happened to be a real cutie. He stood only five feet four inches tall, but he had bright blond hair, blue eyes, a skinny body, and according to him, a ten-inch dick. Rich had seen Tony sitting on the bench outside the showers one day drying off with one leg up on the bench. Rich had almost swallowed his tongue when he saw what hung down between the young airman's legs. Soft, his cock had to have been at least eight or nine inches.

Most of the other guys were pretty decent, although there was always an asshole in any group who could make life miserable for someone in particular if he didn't like the guy. Rich's shift was no different.

Jenkins, a big guy who stood around six foot four, could be a total asshole. He would brag he could kick anyone's ass and had to be dealt with carefully. Because of his size, his usual assignment was to drive a truck that patrolled outside roads near the nuclear storage facilities which held the bombs for the jet aircraft in case they were ordered to take off with nukes. This assignment kept him away from most of the men.

Rich knew the American jets could reach continental Europe in just over ten minutes and not much could stop them. While planes constantly took off and landed during the day, if a night flight went out, it meant they had been ordered airborne for some reason and were probably armed with nukes.

Rich had only arrived at the American air bases three months prior to that shift. He finally got used to driving on the "wrong" side of the road and the other differences between America and England, America's closest ally. As he headed out onto civilian roads that would lead him to Woodbridge Air Force Base, he realized he was extremely horny. He could blame that on not getting laid since arriving in-country. He wondered if he could find the gay bars in London and pick up a Brit, go back to his hotel or the Brit's flat, and fuck the hell outta him.

He had to be careful because there was still another month before "Don't ask, don't tell" would officially be repealed, and he didn't want to get thrown out so close to freedom. He also didn't want the guys on base finding out his sexual orientation. By the time he had decided a weekend trip needed to take place, he'd arrived at the other base and reported in by radio to the "Big Dick," that he had arrived on station.

The second base consisted of houses for married personnel, whereas the main base contained all of the barracks for single men and women. There were very few single women assigned to these bases for some reason. His routine had him drive through all of the residential sections and then out to the high security areas which had their own security force guarding the planes and weapons. Security always had to remain at the highest level because, even though these were nuclear weapons bases, they were also "open bases." This meant anyone could just drive right onto the base without having to go through any gate operation or check. Rich always wondered about the common sense of the people who'd approved this kind of setup as being secure enough with such weapons on base.

When lunch time arrived in the middle of the night, he drove up to the main security gate and the tower guard opened the outer barrier. Rich then drove and stopped at a second gate. When the first gate closed, a guard came out and inspected his ID; this was done no matter how many times an individual had been seen there before. At a signal from the guard, the second gate rolled back and Rich drove into the area that housed the chow hall. He had to be careful to drive between a pair of yellow lines. If he crossed out of the space governed by the lines, he would be considered hostile and security forces would open fire on the vehicle.

He notified the Law Enforcement Desk Sergeant by radio that he had taken a break for lunch, got out of the patrol car, and entered the chow hall where about a dozen or so men were already seated and eating. As he went through the line getting food, he noticed one airman in particular who appeared very attractive and also happened to be a member of the Security Force.

When he left the end of the line, he felt braver than usual and approached the good looking senior airman.

"Excuse me, do you mind if I join you?" Rich asked with a smile.

"No, go ahead, sit. I'm Roger Belmont. I'm the midnight weapons guy over here."

"Nice to meet you, Roger. I'm Rich Connors, base patrol assigned to Woodbridge tonight."

"How long you been stationed here?" he asked. "I don't remember you, and since I hand out the weapons, I think I would have come across you before now."

"I've only been here three months now. How about you?" Rich asked.

"I've been here twice as long as you have. Having fun yet?" he asked with a chuckle.

"Ahh, no. Compared to my last base, this is pretty boring, and there's no social life," Rich replied.

"Social life, as in women? Hell, the only women are the locals, and half of their fathers hate us Yanks, which makes getting a date all the more difficult to score."

"Hate us? For what?" Rich asked.

"They hate us for when we practically took over the island during World War Two. The Brit men didn't have much because there wasn't much to have, and in came a load of Yanks with lots of money who stole a lot of women from their Brit boyfriends. They still haven't forgiven us for the way we acted. Most won't start a fight or anything since they also realize America put a lot into the war, even if we were late in entering, and saved their asses. We've long forgotten all about that period of history, but many fathers and grandfathers here haven't."

"Damn, would have never thought of World War Two! That war seems like a hundred years ago."

"Well, the war wasn't a hundred years ago and too many of the folks who lived through the Battle of Britain and all the bombing, which the Germans followed with the V-2 rocket strikes, are still alive. Lot of bad memories will die only when the people die. Damn good thing the Allies kicked Hitler's ass or this would be an even worse world."

Rich finished eating and began working on his second cup of coffee that he had gotten up and retrieved.

"What do you do for fun then?" Rich asked.

"Not much really. I have a local pub I like to go to in a town called Ipswich, but that's about it."

"But, what about sex? Don't you get laid at all?" Rich asked.

Roger blushed, stammered, and then said, "All the time. Let me introduce you to her," he said as he stuck out his right hand.