Colonel Wright

By Carly Looper-Brown

Colonel Nathan Wrights Army career had been on the fast track. He beat the odds to even have that career. The learningdisabled kid whose teachers said couldnt be taught had proved his naysayers wrong. After twenty-five years in the Special Forces, he had also beaten the odds to stay alive through countless covert operations and combat missions. Now, after a tragic accident in Afghanistan, his soaring career has come crashing down. His injuries force him to leave the Army he loves, but once again Nathan has beaten the odds. He has lived and is walking on his own two feet. Through it all, Nathan knew God had a plan for his life. Now God has opened a new door for him by dropping a job at a military academy in Northeast Tennessee in his lap. Nathan knows God has a purpose for him at this school. All he has to do is go and find it.

Lori Kittridge has never put much thought behind finding Mr. Right. She has always been happy in her career. She never thought that much about her Christianity either. Then, Nathan Wright enters her life, and her world is turned upside down. His unbound openness in his faith in Jesus has her questioning her own faith. But worse than that, suddenly this handsome wounded warrior has her thinking of nothing but Mr. Rightor, more accurately, Colonel Right.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Sep 19, 2014
• ISBN: 9781490847931

Carly Looper-Brown

Carly Looper-Brown was bitten by the writing bug in creative writing class in elementary school. Carly lives in Northeast Tennessee. She has a degree in Childhood Development and works as a Teacher’s Aide at a private Christian school. Her favorite subjects to help in are creative writing and literature.

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Copyright © 2014 Carleen Looper.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-4793-1 (e)

WestBow Press rev. date: 09/17/2014

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Prologue

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Epilogue

About The Author

This book is

dedicated to the memory of SGM Claude Childers, U.S Army (Retired) and in honor of SGM Duane Amstein, U.S Army (Retired), my own JROTC instructors who taught me leadership skills and how to have confidence in myself, helped me build my self-esteem, and gave me some of the tools I needed to survive in the real world.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to say thank you to Janet Brandstrator, Jeannie Evans, and Melody Shannon whose constant encouragement wouldn’t allow me to give up on a life-long dream to see this story published.

Thanks to Janet, Jeannie, and Melody, as well as Kim Connors and Gloria Crain who have been my prayer warriors for over two years in this endeavor.

I would also like to say thank you to Harold and Janet Brandstrator, Ernie and Lorraine Stoltzfus, and Jeff and Beth Presley whose financial support made this E-book possible.

A special thanks to Bill Bledsoe for designing my book cover for me.

A special thank you, also, to Gwen Ash and Mary Wegener for holding my hand and walking me through my first publishing experience. They helped me deal with digital issues and guided me through the proofing process to make sure everything was just right and ready for publication.

PROLOGUE

D arkness was just beginning to fall over Kandahar, Afghanistan as a small task force of Airborne Rangers prepared for their mission. They would be making an assault on a Taliban hideout within the next hour. Their method of insertion would be to rappel from Black Hawk helicopters, a technique known as fast roping.

The ranking person on this mission was a full bird colonel named Nathan Wright. Officers with his kind of rank normally didn’t make missions like this one. He was a ground commander who normally assigned this kind of mission to younger lieutenants or sergeants. But for Nathan this one was personal. Five of the men under his command had been picked off by snipers who were suspected of taking refuge in this particular hideout and Nathan had a score to settle with those snipers. Even though Nathan was the ranking man, another man was in charge of the mission. The team leader was a young lieutenant who would ride in the other chopper. The lieutenant’s chopper would be the first one in and he would be the first man on the ground.

Nathan was pretty much just along for the ride, with no official position on the team other than as an observer. However, Nathan did have the go ahead to fire his weapon if fired upon just as the other men. Also along for the ride in Nathan’s chopper was a First Sergeant that Nathan had known and respected for many years. The First Sergeant carried the nickname, Top, as most First Sergeants did. The nickname came from the fact that a First Sergeant was the highest, or top, ranking NCO in a company.

The team had been briefed on the mission earlier in the day and everyone knew their job. When the team had finished preparing, they headed out to the two helicopters that were waiting for them. The engines of the giant beasts had already whined to a start and the blades were turning. The Rangers approached the choppers with their heads ducked and quickly loaded up into the cabins of the two birds, twenty men to a chopper.

As the chopper Nathan was on lifted off the ground and left the airbase behind, Nathan slapped the other Rangers on the back and wished them good luck. The men on this team respected the colonel greatly, even though he sometimes left them feeling a little uncomfortable. The colonel made no bones about the fact that he was a Christian and most of the men thought of him as a Jesus freak. But on a night like tonight, that wasn’t such a bad thing. If there was such a thing as God, these men were grateful to know they had someone along with them that was a praying man. Maybe the colonel could put in a good word with the Big Man on their behalf.

The choppers quickly reached their destination and the first chalk, or squad, of Rangers fast roped out of the first helicopter. Once the first Black Hawk had moved away from the insertion point, Nathan’s chopper was able to move into place and release its Rangers. The Top ordered the ropes down and started directing his Rangers out of the chopper. The men quickly rappelled down four ropes. Once everyone else was out, it was Nathan and the Top’s turn; the last two men on the ropes.

They had no more than cleared the skids of the Black Hawk when the chopper began to shake. Bells, whistles, and sirens began to ring out though the night and lights began to flash in the cockpit, warning the pilots that the chopper was in trouble. Nathan looked down and saw that he was still a long way from the ground. Even as he did so, the chopper began to shake more violently. He looked to the pilot in the cockpit and saw that the man was struggling to control the Black Hawk.

Nathan had been in the Rangers long enough to know the signs. This bird was going down. A thousand thoughts ran through Nathan’s mind in a matter of seconds. Among those thoughts was to wonder what in the world was going on. There hadn’t even been shots fired. How could the chopper be going down?

These thoughts had no more than crossed Nathan’s mind before he felt the chopper make one last violent swerving motion. The next thing he felt was himself falling, falling, falling…

ONE

Sixteen months later

C olonel Nathan J. Wright, United States Army Retired. Nathan repeated his rank, name and new title over and over to himself. The word retired made him wince every time. He still couldn’t believe it. A helicopter crash near Kandahar, Afghanistan had caused an injury bad enough to force him into retirement. Three of the vertebrae in his back had been crushed, as had his right hip and knee. It had taken him over a year to recover and learn how to walk all over again, but he had done it. He walked on his own two feet.

Now, however, no matter how hard he tried to convince the army that he had recovered and was able to go back on active duty, they wouldn’t listen. They wouldn’t even let him go back to his training command. The whole situation was hard for him to accept, especially since he knew men who had lost limbs and were now wearing prosthetics who were back on active duty.

What he wouldn’t give to get his hands on the doctor who signed the report that had ended his career. Twenty-five years. He had given them twenty-five years of his life. In fact he had almost died on more than one occasion, in places like Central and South America, Somalia, Afghanistan, and Iraq. He had also taught all he knew about surviving war and covert operations to a large number of Airborne Ranger trainees.

His career had been on the fast track. When he had been given a training command with the 82 Airborne Rangers at Ft. Benning GA and made Colonel, he’d started to dream of being a thirty-year man and even possibly making general some day. Then 9/11 had happened and he had asked for reassignment back into Special Forces, back into Black Ops. Everything had been fine for several years. He had adapted back into combat pretty easily. But then the crash happened and now, all of his career plans were shot out of the water.

Still, he couldn’t complain too much. He could walk. It had been a long hard journey to learn how to do it again, but he had done it, a fact that had amazed all of his doctors. He was alive, too. Three other men who had been in the same accident were not so lucky. Yet he knew that luck had nothing to do with it. To him it was plain and simply a God thing. God had wanted him to survive that crash and so he had. God had something more that He wanted Nathan to do. Nathan just had to figure out what it was and start doing it.

Nathan couldn’t believe he had taken this new job either. He was now the superintendent and commander of a military academy, a coed prep military academy at that. What did he know about running a school? All right, so he had been an instructor and had run his own training command at both Ft. Bragg and Ft. Benning, but teaching young men the finer points of jumping out of an airplane or fast roping out of a helicopter was one thing, running an academic institution was another.

Did he really want to play nursemaid to a bunch of teenage kids? He had a kid of his own to take care of. Did he really want to add that much more responsibility to his life? But here he was, driving down a winding road in northeast Tennessee, heading straight for Giltmore Military Academy.

Who was he kidding? He knew why he had taken the job. It was a stable, extremely well paying job that he could handle without having to be totally reprogrammed to fit into a civilian world. And it was a job that had basically been just dropped into his lap like a gift. He had also taken the job because it was close to home. His mother and father lived only an hour away in Johnson City, and his sister was only thirty minutes away in Greenville. That was quite a difference from the six-hour drive from Ft. Benning, Georgia to home that he was used to driving.

There had been another point too, the one thing that had clinched the deal in his mind. The whole thing had just been too ironic to pass up. He could just imagine the looks on the faces of some of his old teachers when they found out that he was in the education business. Him, Nathan J. Wright, the boy whose teachers said couldn’t be taught and would never amount to anything.

He had worked very hard to overcome his learning disability and become what he was today. He was thankful that the instructors at the military academy he had attended from seventh grade through high school had been more interested in helping him than the teachers at his elementary school had been.

How much further, Daddy?

The quiet little voice pulled Nathan out of his thoughts. He turned to his nine-year-old daughter and smiled. She had pulled the ear buds to her IPod off and was watching him, waiting for an answer to her favorite question when they were traveling.

We just left Aunt Deborah’s house twenty minutes ago and you’re already asking that question? The girl laughed and nodded her head up and down. It’s not much further, sweetheart. Ten minutes at the most.

Nathan watched her put her ear buds back in and turned back to look out the windshield. She was a beauty. Everyone always said that she was an even mix between her mother and father. They were right, too. She had his blond hair and stubborn chin and her mother’s wide green eyes and dainty nose. Thank the Lord she hadn’t inherited her mother’s selfish nature.

Ruth was a great kid, but Monica couldn’t see that. To her, Ruth was nothing but a cramp in her style. She didn’t want the girl around because she couldn’t find another man with Ruth in the way. That’s how Nathan had ended up with custody of his daughter, something he thanked God for everyday. Even during the years he had been fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, Monica hadn’t wanted to keep the child. Ruth had lived with Nathan’s parents instead. Nathan was glad that Ruth had not been forced to live with her mother, but he also knew she had been hurt by her mother’s unloving attitude.

What had he seen in Monica anyway, he wondered? He had met her not long after he had come back from Somalia and she had been a distraction to help him forget Mogadishu. She had been all he had ever wanted when they first met. She was a general’s daughter, a fact that even he was willing to admit had boosted his career plans along. She was also beautiful, young, sexy and passionate. Those were attributes that, at the time, had boosted his ego and his own passions. To be honest, she had been a trophy he could put on his arm and walk around with; a status symbol that said to all of his buddies, look at the fine lady I caught.

He had married her during a rebellious time in his life. He laughed to himself over that. Not many people would have said that it was a rebellious time. He had been doing his patriotic duty at the time, during a time when there were a lot of bad feelings toward the military and government.

No, his rebellion had been against something else entirely. It had been against his religious upbringing and faith. At some point, early in his army career, he had turned his back on Christ and all his family and church had instilled in him. After some of the things he had done in some of the war zones he had been in, there was little wonder why. So, when he met Monica, a Christian marriage had been the last thing on his mind. There were a lot of other things driving him; the kind of things that were about as far from being Christ-like as a person could get. Within months of their meeting, they were getting married.

Maybe, if they had waited longer, they could have saved each other a lot of heartache. It had been a rough marriage filled with conflict. They fought over everything, from finances, to his career, to her flirtations with other men, to whether or not to have children. When Ruth came along things only got worse. Monica hadn’t wanted children and Ruth had been an accident. However, Nathan had been ecstatic. He forced Monica to have the baby, even though she had wanted to abort it, and he had loved the little girl from the moment she was born.

The marriage got steadily worse after that. Eleven years after the marriage began, Nathan discovered that Monica was having her third affair, and the marriage ended in divorce. It wasn’t too long after that, that Nathan realized that a lot of his problems had started when he started leaving Christ out of his life. A friend of his got him back into church, and he rededicated his life to Christ. He still wasn’t perfect, but no Christian was, and he was doing better at following Christ these days.

Is that it, Daddy? Ruth exclaimed, pointing to a fenced in, wooded area on the right side of the road.

Nathan brought himself back to the present and looked out Ruth’s window to see what she had discovered. I think that’s part of it. The main buildings should be just up the road.

The brick buildings of Giltmore Military Academy stood a few miles up the road. COL Wright turned his car unto a smaller road that led up to those buildings and stopped at a small guard gate and hut. There was a boy dressed in BDU’s, battle dress uniform, standing there on duty. The moment the pimple-faced youth saw Nathan’s uniform and silver eagle he saluted. Nathan returned the salute and looked the boy’s uniform over. He was impressed. The boy looked sharp and he was on his toes.

Where is the Administration Office, Cadet? Nathan asked.

Turn right at the first cross road, sir. Then it’s the first building on your right, sir.

Thank you, Cadet… He squinted to read the name tag over the boy’s right breast pocket, Mullins.

You’re welcome, sir.

Nathan pulled his dark blue sedan through the gate and drove slowly up street. There was a huge football stadium to the left. Further to the left, just past the football field, he could also see a baseball field. He had heard that Giltmore was not only known as an outstanding school academically, it also excelled in its athletic programs.

He stopped at the stop sign at the first crossroad. He studied the four corners with interest. The football stadium was at the bottom left corner. Two huge, two-story buildings with signs proclaiming them to be the academic buildings were at the top left corner. At the top right hand corner there was a row of four huge Georgian style buildings. Each had a sign in its front yard that told the name of the buildings. They were Kittridge Hall, Grable Hall, Thompson Hall and Bentley Hall, left to right. Nathan decided that these must be the students’ barracks. The roads were clear of all traffic so Nathan made his right hand turn and parked in front of the building that sat on the forth corner. Sure enough the sign in the yard in front of this split-level building stated this was the Administration Building.

He straightened his uniform out as he got out of the car, then wiped his black patent leather shoes on the back of his trouser legs.

Is my gig line straight? he asked Ruth as he walked around the car to her side. His attempt to keep most of his weight off of his injured right leg resulted in a pronounced limp.

Ruth looked him over from head to toe, giving special attention to his gig line. The line formed by the edge of his shirt placket was supposed to line up with the right edge of his brass belt buckle and the line formed by the fly of his trousers. Military people referred to it as the gig line because it was the first place an inspector looked in hopes of finding a gig or mistake.

It’s straight, but there’s a smudge on your belt buckle, Ruth answered, after giving him a once over.

Nathan whipped out a handkerchief and shined the buckle up a little. When he was satisfied, he put the handkerchief back in his pocket and held his hand out to Ruth. Together they faced the admin building and headed up the concrete steps that led to the front door of the building.

Lori Kittridge hung the phone up and let out a long breath. The cadet at the gate had called up to inform her that an officer was on his way up. He hadn’t been able to read the officer’s nametag, but he did know that said officer was wearing a pair of silver eagles, which meant that he was a full bird Colonel. It couldn’t be the new superintendent, Lori thought to herself. He wasn’t expected until later that afternoon. Maybe it was just an old cadet who had come to visit. Or maybe it was a parent. Both possibilities happened all the time.

She turned around and groaned out loud. If it were COL Wright, he wouldn’t want to see the mess she had created. There was a huge stack of some of the cadets’ academic records surrounding her. She had just gotten around to taking last year’s senior cadets out of the file cabinet and reclassifying the other cadets’ files. It was a yearly job that she hated, and she had procrastinated doing it until she could no longer ignore it. She was just thankful that she didn’t have to do the same thing to the cadets’ JROTC records. That job was left up to the cadet S-1 Adjutant.

Please, Lord, let it just be an old cadet, she prayed as she knelt down in front of the file cabinets and started cramming the senor files into a storage box. At the very least let me get this mess cleaned up before he gets up here.

Nathan studied the front office of the administration building with interest as he pushed open the heavy glass-paned door that led into the room and ushered Ruth into the office. He wasn’t particularly surprised to find the large, open waiting area empty, considering the school was still in the midst of its summer session, but he had expected to at least find a receptionist. However the large office area seemed to be completely abandoned.

He walked forward to the reception counter that separated the waiting area from a large office bay filled with several computer toped desks that he assumed would normally be filled with office staff busy at work. Movement at the back of the room drew his attention and he saw that a young woman was knelling by one of the filing cabinets that lined the entire back wall of the office. Maybe she was the receptionist.

He found the swinging door that allowed access into the area behind the front counter and went through it, walking up to her. Just as he started to tap her shoulder, she stood up and turned, barreling right into him. She rocked back on her heals, stunned for a moment. He reached out and grabbed her shoulders to steady her.

Lori found herself staring into a broad chest covered in a light green shirt. That shirt was definitely a part of a U.S. Army class B uniform, the standard dark green trousers and short sleeved shirt. She looked up, up, and up until she was finally looking into eyes as black as onyx. She widened her gaze to include his other hawk-like features and her heartbeat increased. Goodness, he sure was handsome, whoever he was.

I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t mean to crash into you like that.

I’m sure you didn’t, he murmured, reluctantly letting go of her shoulders.

Talk about a beauty, Nathan thought, running his eyes over every one of her features. This lady sure was one. She had wide, brownish green eyes, thick dark brown hair, a lightly tanned face and a nice petite body. He wondered who she was. She wasn’t a cadet that was for sure. She was too old for that, and she was wearing jeans instead of a uniform. But since she was rummaging through the file cabinets, she had to work in the office.

Shouldn’t there be a cadet in here? he asked.

There’s only one on duty right now, and she’s out running an errand.

Other office workers?

I’m the only one working this afternoon.

I see.

Lori’s eyes drifted down to the nametag on the man’s right breast pocket. The name Wright was etched deeply into the black plastic. Her heart stopped for a moment, then started back up at double time. Her gaze shot right back up to his incredible eyes. This was the new superintendent and commander? Good heavens, he would scare the younger cadets right out of their boots. He had to be well over six feet tall and he was built like a bear. His deep-set black eyes would put the chill into even the sharpest cadet. He definitely didn’t look like the kind of man anyone would want to cross. But, for all his threatening features, he was still a good-looking man.

Colonel Wright, she said breathlessly, we weren’t expecting you until this afternoon.

We decided to come down a little early, Nathan said, turning toward Ruth. She walked to him, put her arms around his waist, and smiled shyly at Lori. This is my daughter, Ruth.

It’s nice to meet you, Ruth, Lori said, smiling down at the girl. And welcome to Giltmore…both of you. I’m Lori Kittridge. I’ll be your administrative assistant, Colonel.

You’re General Kittridge’s daughter? Nathan asked. He knew that the previous superintendent’s daughter had been the man’s personal assistant and that she was to serve in the same position for him.

Yes, sir. Why don’t I show you to your new office?

Lori brushed past them and walked away. The instant attraction she had for the man frustrated her a little. She had as much appreciation for a good looking man as any woman, but she didn’t normally react this way to men. She was known for her professionalism and generally looked at any man that she worked with as just another co-worker. She seldom gave them any thought