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  He had also enrolled in the army ROTC program and when he graduated became a second lieutenant with a two-year active duty requirement in the army. While in ROTC, Ray had gone to airborne school and qualified as a paratrooper. He had also been a member of the elite Bengal Raiders, a unit in the LSU ROTC program that received training from US Army Rangers. Ray had excelled in the program, and when he was commissioned as an infantry officer, he immediately applied to ranger school and was accepted. He also excelled there; and when he graduated, he was offered the chance to go to special forces school in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

  Ray had to think long and hard about this opportunity. If he successfully completed the training and became a Green Beret, it would require an extension of his active-duty requirement. While his parents had been proud of him for becoming an army officer, they had thought that after serving two years of active duty, he would serve the rest of his commitment in an army reserve unit near the plantation and would take over the day-to-day operations of the family business. His parents were getting old and tired, and they needed his help.

  On the other hand, Ray had always had a dream of defending his country as a Green Beret and had expressed this to his sister shortly before her death. Years before, he had watched the John Wayne movie called The Green Berets, and that was the basis for his desire to serve his country as an elite soldier. Jennie had emphatically told him to follow his dream despite the wishes of their parents. Then his sister had died, but Ray had not forgotten what she said but also was concerned about his parents.

  However, Ray had come up with a plan. His cousin Daniel had been an offshore oil field worker who had suffered a serious injury and had lost three fingers on his left hand when a chain used to stabilize a drilling rig had broken loose and hit him in the hand. After the accident, he could no longer work in the oil fields and had been living on disability, but Ray knew of his cousin’s abilities and work ethic, and he convinced his parents to hire Daniel to manage the plantation. He and his family could live in the guesthouse on the property that had once been an overseer’s cottage but had been greatly enlarged.

  It would help both Daniel’s family and Ray’s parents, and Ray could continue his career in the army. His parents understood how important that was to him, and they readily agreed. Daniel and his family were relieved and grateful for this opportunity, and while Daniel’s lost fingers kept him from working in the oil fields, he was still capable of doing everything that needed to be done on the plantation.

  Ray served in Operation Desert Storm, and by the time the attack occurred on 9/11, he was not only a Green Beret captain but was the executive officer of a Green Beret company. This followed several years of being a highly successful A team commander who had directed several covert missions. He and his company were ultimately heavily engaged during the invasion of Afghanistan, and Ray received the Silver Star for leading an operation that took down a key Taliban commander and his base. Shortly thereafter, Ray had been promoted to the rank of major. Four years later, when his company was in Iraq, the company commander was killed by an IED, and Ray became the new commander. His company went back to Afghanistan several more times, and during one of those times, he led the raids that Sergeant Magee had been a part of.

  Within six months after that action, he had received the tragic news that his father had died of a heart attack. He was granted leave to return home to attend his father’s funeral. When he got to the plantation, he received another shock: his mother, who had always been a robust woman, was frail and ill. He learned that she had been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and had only a few months to live. She also was living with the guilt of believing that worrying about her was what had led to Ray’s father’s heart attack.

  Ray was devastated. His parents had been all he had left of his immediate family since the death of his sister. Ray had spent virtually all his time in combat zones since 9/11 and had really no opportunity to meet a woman and establish a relationship. He had never married although he had always hoped to eventually because he really wanted to have a family. He felt he could not abandon his mother in this time of need, so after they returned from the funeral and his mother had been helped back to her bed, he sat with her for a long time.

  He took her frail hand in his and still tried to see the beautiful woman who had been his mother when he was growing up. She had been a classic Cajun beauty with dark hair that framed the features of a tanned face with thin lips and a perky nose. She had always been a hard worker, first in the fields of her family’s farm and then later in the fields of the plantation that belonged to her and her husband. Her body had always been fit and shapely, and she had aged well while keeping her natural beauty.

  Now she was just a shell of her former self, and Ray felt he could not leave her, so he told her that he was going to resign his commission as an army officer and take care of her. He explained that since he had been on active duty for over twenty years, he would get good retirement benefits. His mother listened patiently and then squeezed his hand tightly and looked deep into his eyes.

  “You will do no such thing, young man,” she said. “You do not understand how proud your father and I have been of you. You are fighting for our country, and you are an American hero. You are our hero. Daniel and his family will take care of me while you return to the fight.” She could see Ray’s hesitation, so she continued, “You have three days before you have to fly back to join your unit. So I want you to go to the barn, get your camping equipment and fishing gear, and go to your special place on the bayou. Take whatever food you need from the house and spend a couple days there fishing and talking to your father. He will be with you. He will convince you that I am right.”

  Ray agreed, and it was a therapeutic two days. This had been the spot where he and his father had often come and where he had often spent time on his own. It was the times out in the woods, whether he was alone, with his father, or his Boy Scout troop, that he felt closest to God. So he fulfilled his mother’s wish, set up camp, and started fishing. He quickly felt the peace he had always experienced at this spot, and he felt the comforting presence of his father. So he relaxed and fished. He snagged two nice catfish, cleaned them, fried them with a sliced potato over a campfire, and enjoyed his meal along with more than a few shots of scotch.

  He knew his parents were indeed proud of him and his dedication to his country. He was also proud of himself because he believed he was a good soldier. He also knew that he was becoming increasingly concerned with the state of the military and the government that controlled it. His own unit had been subjected to unnecessary danger because of ridiculous politically correct rules of engagement ordered by the president of the United States. High-ranking commanders who had objected to the rules had been quickly purged from the military.

  It was the hardest decision he ever had to make, but he knew that he could do nothing to save his mother while he could do things that would help save the men under his command and hopefully contribute to saving his country. He also knew it was what both his mother and late father wanted, so he met with his cousin Daniel the next morning and told him that once his mother passed away Ray was the sole heir and would inherit the plantation.

  “I want you and your family to continue living on the plantation and move into the main house, but you will no longer be just an employee. You will be a full partner in the plantation. You will draw your regular salary, and since you will be doing all the work, you will also receive 50 percent of the net profit. This will be permanent,” he told Daniel. “I will eventually retire from the army but have other plans for my future. I would like to be able to visit here whenever I can, but the plantation will be yours.”

  His young cousin was stunned and extremely grateful, and he assured Ray that he would take good care of the plantation. Ray had spent the rest of his time entirely with his mother and then gone back to his unit in Iraq. He was home again within six weeks to bury his mother,
but by then, his Green Beret company was in Fort Benning, Georgia, for rest and for “retraining.”

  Chapter XI

  Over the years, Ray had watched helplessly as his beloved US Army had become a poor shadow of its former greatness as had the rest of the military. Budget cuts had led to the loss of benefits and pay raises for troops. Even worse, the size of the military had been greatly reduced, and there were shortages of up-to-date equipment so that the branches could not always be effective fighting forces.

  He had also watched helplessly as the areas of the Middle East that he and his comrades had fought so hard to liberate were seeing the rise of terror group like ISIS and a resurgent al-Qaeda. The whole region was falling apart, and thousands of so-called refugees were flooding into Europe and even the United States and Canada. A significant number of them were working for the terrorist groups. This was leading up to increasing terrorist attacks around the world, and the government in Washington DC didn’t seem to know what to do, so they did very little. In fact, in some ways, it seemed to be allying with these enemies.

  Ray’s unit was redeployed to Afghanistan but only tasked with training members of the Afghan security force. That is what they had been doing when Ray’s parents had died. Now they were at Fort Benning for additional training. Ray was stunned by what the retraining consisted of. His unit and other Green Beret units were being trained for operations in the United States against potential “domestic terrorists.”

  The training materials that were marked “top secret” designated these potential domestic terrorists as members of civilian militia groups, members of the NRA, and other groups supporting the Second Amendment to the Constitution, people in right-to-life groups, Tea party, and other conservative organization members. Most disturbing to the Green Berets, all military veterans were on the list.

  Their training involved kicking down doors in a fake US city to practice arresting and, if necessary, killing American citizens. It also involved training in interrogation techniques that were long banned when it came to jihadists and other terrorists but were now apparently perfectly acceptable for members of the NRA and other Americans. Ray could tell that the other members of his team were as uneasy about this as he was.

  What they were being prepared to do violated several federal laws and, of course, the Bill of Rights of the US Constitution. It would also require him and his men to violate their oath of office. That was something that none of them were willing to do. Unfortunately, Ray had become aware that some of the other men going through the training did not feel that way.

  There were several groups that were mostly kept separated from the Green Beret teams. They were not special forces or even army rangers. They wore the uniforms of members of the United States Army, but many spoke very poor English and appeared to be from Middle Eastern or African countries. They were part of what was being called special contingency units and even wore unique patches that some of Ray’s team thought closely resembled the ISIS flag. The members of these special units seemed to be very enthusiastic about the training they were receiving.

  Once their training was done, Ray was approached by several members of his company who were scheduled to be up for reenlistment and had decided not to re-up. Two of his officers also informed him they were resigning their commissions and leaving the army. Ray understood completely and did not try to talk them out of it. He knew that there would be many more such conversations down the road.

  In fact, Ray had briefly considered resigning but decided he owed it to his men to stick it out as long as they could. All that changed about six months later when Ray heard from an officer up the chain of command that was a friend of his that all members of the active military officer corps were going to be required to take a new oath. It would not be to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States like their current oath but an oath to protect and defend the new government and its supreme leader. Anyone who refused to take the new oath would be dishonorably discharged and get no benefits.

  Ray passed this information on to his men, and all his officers immediately resigned their commissions. Ray did the same because he knew he could not take the new oath. However, Ray was not prepared to give up on his country. He needed to find a way to make a living, so he would be in a position of connecting with the public and monitor the pulse of the American people. He knew that what was coming was not what he and most Americans believed in.

  Ray started his quest by going home to the plantation where he again took his camping and fishing gear and went to his beloved spot on the bayou. He spent the first few days just fishing during the day, dining on his catch every night and then staring into the campfire, and asking for guidance from his father and his God. Then he started considering his options, and something his mother used to say to him came back over and over. She had been a renowned Cajun cook and had taught Ray everything she knew. She was highly impressed with how fast he caught on and how good he was. She told him on numerous occasions that he could become a famous chef if that was his desire.

  Instead, Ray had become a soldier serving his country. Now he realized that if he turned to cooking as a profession, it would provide him with the opportunity to indulge his passion for cooking, interact with the public, and have a perfect cover for preparing to resist the growing oppression by the government that he saw just over the horizon.

  Chapter XII

  Ray met with Daniel to inform him of his decision. He was going to move to New Orleans, go to culinary school, and become a chef. The arrangement with his cousin would continue, and Ray told him that he had previously drawn up a will leaving the plantation to him should something happen to Ray. Daniel had done a good job with the plantation, and he had made a substantial amount of money for both his family and Ray. When that was combined with the money Ray had saved over the years and with his pension, he hoped to open his own restaurant in New Orleans.

  His dream became reality much faster than he could have hoped. He enrolled in the New Orleans Culinary Institute, one of the finest in the world, and began his studies. He was the oldest person ever to enter the school, and his much younger classmates teased him about his age until they realized that Ray was an extremely talented cook and that they could learn from him. Ray kept his background as a soldier a secret from everyone except the school’s director who was also a veteran.

  Ray felt that if his true identity was known, it would interfere with his ultimate plan, and that was not just to own a restaurant. Ray breezed through the school and graduated with honors. He was offered several opportunities by top restaurants in New Orleans but turned them down and did what he wanted: opened his own place. It was small and located in a building that had once been an ornate private residence on Decatur Street in the French Quarter. It had later become an excellent and highly popular Irish pub but never reopened after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

  It had a well-equipped kitchen and a spacious dining area, so it had been leased several times by individuals who opened restaurants, but none were able to live up to the standards required by the discerning New Orleans restaurant diners who demanded only the best. Ray was undeterred by these previous failures and paid top dollar for chefs to assist him in the kitchen and for a waitstaff that would provide impeccable service to his customers. He also hired some young men and women in the neighborhood to hand out thousands of fliers in the neighborhood to both locals and tourists in the French Quarter.

  Ray knew that tourists would come and go, so the clientele of a successful restaurant in New Orleans, known to the locals as the Big Easy, had to be based on the city residents who once they tried the restaurant would keep coming back and recommend it to their friends. Ray decided to capitalize on his Cajun ancestry and named his place Thibodeaux’s Fine Cajun Cuisine. It took several months, but his plan for his restaurant worked.

  It quickly gained a reputation as a top eatery. Ray and his staff gave the people of New O
rleans the fine dining and service they expected from a great restaurant. It was going well for Ray but not for his country. He was seeing it deteriorate before his eyes. Basic freedoms were being lost; elections were being stolen and in some places were not even being held. Progressives had gained control of city and state governments, and where such control existed, it was fully supported by the federal government and the newly formed federal police.

  New Orleans had been a city controlled by liberal Democrats for years, and the politicians who were in charge were more than willing to let the federal government take over their city. The federal agents were aggressive in shutting down free speech and dissent and confiscating firearms from private citizens—when they could find them. Resistance to this new tyranny was quietly springing up all of the country, and New Orleans was no exception.

  However, Ray seemed only interested in the fame of his restaurant, and he cultivated the liberal politicians in the city, particularly the highest-ranking officials of the federal administration and federal police. He gave special discounts to them and always catered to their every need. He also led them to believe that he was supportive of the progressive agenda, and he would keep his ear to the ground and report any dissenters to them.

  This was the hat he wore in public, but in private, he had quickly made contact with the largest resistance group in the city and was actually gathering information for them. By listening in on conversations of the federal officials who tended to speak freely in his restaurant, particularly after a few predinner drinks and liberal servings of fine wine, Ray found out who was being targeted and what his customers’ plans were for crushing the resistance.

  He would pass this information to the resistance leaders during their after-hour meetings at the restaurant. This continued even after the EMP attack. Most of the restaurants in the city had been forced to shut down since power was very limited. That problem was almost immediately solved for Ray since his establishment was so popular with federal and local officials. The government provided him with a heavy-duty generator and plenty of fuel so he could keep his restaurant operating for the pleasure of the feds even while the rest of the city was disintegrating around them. This continued for months, and Ray got more valuable intelligence that saved the lives of some members of the resistance who had been identified as enemies of the state and were able to escape before they were picked up.