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Been here since then. Actually, I was in Montana for less than a year, back when I was a teenager, but I’ve been back to visit friends several times since then.”
    He went silent, still looking at the commander. Then, as an afterthought, “I still own the home in Pennsylvania. My uncle manages its rental for me.”
    Commander Johnson looked thoughtful. “Going back to the job. Lee, you’re right. This will be a tough, possibly dangerous, assignment. I can probably get you the duty station of your choice after this job is done, if that will help?”
    Lee nodded. “I’d like to come back to San Diego when this is over.”
    “I can arrange that.”
    At that, Captain Neilsen spoke up. “Well, I do have a suggestion that Lee may or may not agree with. We’ve never talked about it. But here it is. Lee, as a former enlisted person, is classified as a limited duty officer. As an LDO, he can only compete for promotion against other LDO’s for a very limited number of available promotion opportunities. In other words, even though he is a phenomenal shiphandler, a certified fleet officer of the deck, a certified engineering officer of the watch, and a war hero, his promotional prospects are lousy. I would be willing to write a recommendation that Lee be re-designated from LDO tounrestricted line officer 4 . When I was stationed in BUPERS, there was authority to do this for certain individuals if their records warranted it. That would certainly apply here. I think that it would also give Lee more flexibility in this assignment. A line officer would probably have more freedom to snoop around than an LDO would have. I’d very heartily recommend this. Lee what would you think about that - assuming it can still be done?”
    There was a long silence as Lee thought about this. He had never considered such a change, but it did make sense. “Yeah, I’d appreciate that if it can happen.”
    Commander Johnson was not sure about this. “I really like the idea, but I don’t know if it’s possible. I’ll call back to BUPERS and see if we can do it. If we can, and Captain Neilsen writes a good recommendation, I don’t see that it would hurt anything.” With that, he excused himself and left the room to make phone calls to his superiors. The captain went along in case he was needed. Lee and Tom Wright took advantage of the time to talk at length about the situation in Philadelphia and the school the FBI had planned for Lee.
    Lunchtime came and went. Lee called the wardroom steward and had sandwiches brought in for himself and the agent. They ate and talked, both thoroughly engrossed in the puzzle of the shipyard’s missing money. The FBI agent was of the opinion that somebody in the shipyard was finding ways to take money out of the yard’s work on the ships’ expensive missile systems. Lee listened, but he really didn’t agree with the agent. He kept his opinions to himself, saying that he wanted to take a look at the actual work before he could comment on specifics. In his mind, he had already realized that Wright was hopelessly naïve regarding shipyards and their processes. Wright was just looking at the big-ticket overhaul items and suspecting them of being problems without having any concept of either their complexity or their accurate overhaul costs.
    It was after two o’clock before Commander Johnson returned. When he did, he had Captain Neilsen with him. The commander looked serious as he sat. “Lee, I’ve just been through two hours of argument. Apparently there is some old school bias against having line officers without college degrees. If it wasn’t for Captain Neilsen getting on the line, I wouldn’t have won the argument. But the captain did magic. It helped that he explained that this was his idea, not yours.”
    He paused, then continued, “If you take this job, you’ll become a regular Navy line officer on the day that you satisfactorily complete the FBI training course.”
    Lee nodded. “Thanks,