Cadet 3 Read Online Free PDF Page B

Zealand was code-named
Operation Seahorse. The overall commander of the South Pacific
Theater and Seahorse was Lieutenant-General Hubert Sunderland
(Royal Australian Army). I prepared the operational plan for the
campaign. There has been a lot written about Seahorse, but not by
me. Here, for the first time, is the full story of that campaign as
told from my point of view [there follows a chapter on the New
Zealand campaign]…
    … In the end, we trapped the two hundred
thousand-odd man Chinese expeditionary force on the North Island
and forced them to surrender in March of 2012. I was General
Sunderland’s acting chief of staff during the campaign, there to
make sure Seahorse went as planned. I had initially joined the
South Pacific Command as a Second Lieutenant. By March 4, when
Marshal Lu Han’s First Amphibious Army laid down their arms in
Auckland, I was already a full Colonel. When I got back to
Washington, the General Staff (on General Cafferson’s suggestion)
promoted me over the heads of roughly fifty Brigadier- and Major-
Generals to Lieutenant General, put me in command of the Asian
Theater (which essentially meant putting me in operational command
of the entire war with China), and placed me on the General Staff,
subordinate only to Cafferson himself. I hope you will excuse my
lack of false and no doubt real modesty, when I say that at the age
of 21 I was the youngest soldier in American history ever to reach
such a high rank, probably the youngest in any army in
history.
    [Robin just read this and pointed out that
Lafayette was only 21 when he was promoted to Major-General in a
much smaller army, during the Revolutionary War, and added that if
I’m not careful, my head is going to get too big to fit through an
ordinary doorway. Too late, the damage has already been done.]
    As a result of the status I gained from
Seahorse, I had the leverage to have High Point closed, and to have
the remaining cadets there (including Robin’s younger sister,
Merry) offered the opportunity to transfer to West Point to take
the same course of instruction as the men. (All but two cadets of
the 210 at the NWMA transferred). I also was able to get my fellow
Cadet Cunts released from their sexual duties, and assigned to
normal posts for Second Lieutenants, or allowed to resign their
commissions with full pensions, if they wished. I am proud to say
that not one of my blood-sisters chose to leave the service…
    … The last time I saw General Cafferson,
the cancer had just about finished him. He was in an oxygen tent,
plugged into various machines, with tubes running out of him. I sat
next to his bed and he took my hand. His grip was so weak, it
frightened me.
    He coughed a little, then said “Jodie, I’m
as proud of you as if you were my own daughter. You are the most
brilliant soldier this country has produced in more than a
century...” That was the first time he had ever called me by my
first name. I knew from that alone that the end was near.
    He stopped to gasp for air before
continuing, “…but you have to understand that you have enemies, and
they will try to destroy you after I’m gone.”
    On one hand, I didn’t want to argue with a
dying man, but on the other, I didn’t want him to worry
unnecessarily about me, either. “I’m sure I’ll be fine sir. The
Chinese will never get a shot at me. I have excellent security,” I
said, trying to reassure him.
    He shook his head. “I’m not talking about
the Chinese. You came up so fast that you never learned about
politics at the General Staff level. Do you remember when those
Navy bastards tried to kill you to get at me?”
    He was referring to an incident that
occurred during my last term at High Point, when an Admiral had
come close to murdering me, Robin and Robin’s sisterMerry in order
to discredit the NWMA and bring Cafferson down. I will never forget
the Strangler’s Knots around our throats, and how two Admirals were
in the process of tightening the knots