Almost a year later, at a party to celebrate the return of 2nd Group from an arduous deployment to Iraq, Faith had a chance to reflect upon the events that had occurred since he first arrived. Faith was greatly entertained by the way in which Soldiers in the MID retold the stories about the MID’s travails in dealing with The Dud and the difficulties they faced during their deployment. As the night grew longer, Faith noticed that the tales were getting taller. Having been personally present for the events being related, he knew they were in some cases being wildly exaggerated. But they were entertaining nonetheless, and Faith did nothing to correct them.
A lot had happened in the past year; on top of the combat losses suffered by the Group, several retirements, promotions, and other rotations had occurred. MSG Marion, the long-serving detachment sergeant of the MID, had been replaced by Master Sergeant Reynolds, who was laterally appointed to First Sergeant when the MID went from being a “detachment” to a “company” (although everyone still referred to it as the MID; the acronym MIC was, perhaps, too pejorative). Reynolds was Faith’s right hand during some extremely difficult times (see: case studies The Loving Wife, The Soul Plane Incident, and Karma). But now Reynolds was on his way out as well, having come down on the list for promotion to Sergeant Major.
The Group Commander had rotated out, and Chief Michaels, for so long Faith’s champion within the Group, had retired. The DCO remained for now; his PCS out of the Group on hold until the new Commander got settled in. There were many new faces within the MID, as well.
Some things hadn’t changed, though; The Dud was still… The Dud. He and Faith maintained their general antipathy towards each other, but until recently, there had been far fewer big blow-ups between the two. The mutual animosity between the two officers and their respective shops remained though; that hadn’t changed. And despite the passage of time, the enablers within the MID still struggled for credibility with the Special Forces Soldiers they supported. On that last issue in particular, Faith wondered if was going to be able to make headway.
There was some good news, though. The 2nd Group MID had gone from being the laughingstock of USASFC to being one of the best. In fact, they were in the running for the SOCOM’s “intel enablers of the year” award. Faith also felt like he was on the cusp of convincing the 2nd Group leadership to initiate a Group-internal assessment, selection, and training program for intelligence personnel assigned to the Group. Faith envisioned this as something that would start off small, within 2nd Group, then expand to all the Groups individually, and then be adopted by the USASFC schoolhouse. Ultimately, it was the goal to have every enabler, not just the intel types, go through a program comparable to what the 18-series Special Forces troops went through, only specific to those respective enabler MOSs.
Faith knew he faced an uphill battle; he sensed that many in the Group were suspicious of any type of selection for enablers. In fact, the current Group Commander, a new arrival who Faith did not yet know well, expressed extreme skepticism. The new commander once remarked to Faith, “I don’t trust anything not wearing a tab,” meaning anyone who wasn’t Special Forces qualified. But Faith felt that the MID had really made its bones within the Group by providing what was almost universally regarded as an extraordinary level of support to the ODAs, the command group, the battalions and companies, and to the other staff sections. This gave Faith some hope that the gains in the relationships between intelligence enablers and the 18-series personnel they supported could be sustained, improved, and eventually utilized in order to implement some changes that, Faith felt, would have permanent positive effects.
Faith had closely coordinated with the friends he had made amongst the 18-series Soldiers in 2nd Group, and incorporated their insights and suggestions into his plan for the enabler selection. Some of them went so far as to volunteer to be part-time graders for the assessment and selection portions of the program, and to help train those who made it through the process. Consequently, Faith was optimistic that he would be given the opportunity to try out his plan, and for it to succeed or fail on its own merits.
When he briefed the new Group Commander, however, the man was unconvinced.
“You focus on the 50-meter target, Faith,” he instructed, “Your first priority is getting us through the annual intel inspection. You do that, and then we’ll talk more about this little pet project of yours. And about you being the new Group S2, after Major Dudley moves over to Division.”
