Chapter 7 - The Box of Oak Leaves
The silence in the grand ballroom was suffocating.
Arthur Sterling and the other defense executives were staring at me with expressions bordering on idolatry. These were men who spent billions trying to equip soldiers, but they knew real valor when they saw it.
Preston’s face was an ugly, mottled gray. His hands trembled as he stared at me, the sister he had spent a decade ridiculing as an uneducated failure.
"Why... why didn't you say anything?" Preston stammered, his arrogance collapsing into pathetic bewilderment. "If this was true, why did you let us think... why did you let Mother talk to you like that?"
I looked at my brother, feeling no anger, only an immense, clean pity. "Because real service isn't a marketing pitch, Preston. I didn't take an oath to impress our mother’s cocktail friends. I took an oath to keep people alive."
"And that oath was honored beyond measure," General Sterling said. He turned and gestured toward his aide-de-camp, a crisp young major who carried a dark polished mahogany box.
The room watched in breathless anticipation as the aide stepped forward and presented the box to the General.
"Two weeks ago, the President of the United States officially declassified the actions of Task Force Viking in the Helmand Province," General Sterling announced to the room. "And with that declassification came an overdue debt."
General Sterling unlatched the brass hinges of the box.
Inside, nestled on midnight-blue velvet, lay a cross of bronze, suspended from a blue ribbon flanked by white and red stripes.
The Distinguished Service Cross.
The second-highest military decoration for extraordinary heroism in combat, surpassed only by the Medal of Honor.
Beside it rested the silver oak leaves of a Lieutenant Colonel.
May you like
A gasp echoed through the room. Several guests placed hands over their mouths. Arthur Sterling bowed his head in reverent awe.
"By order of the President of the United States," General Sterling proclaimed, his voice booming through the estate, "Major Harper Vance is hereby promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, and awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism in action against an armed enemy."
