An Army of Convicts by Cliff Roehr - HTML preview

Now, thought President Lomas, alone in his office, my division is in good hands. Orders were cut and published. By the time Adam reached Fort Hope he was greeted by a huge banner that proclaimed "Welcome Home, General Harcrow." The old General who had been in command of the division had been discretely reassigned to an intelligence post in the Pentagon and had already left Fort Hope.

Sure, General Harcrow was only twenty-two years old, but rather than being a hindrance, President Lomas viewed it as an asset. Adam Harcrow would now be postured to replace General Dobbs, when Dobbs retired. Adam was the spirit, the heart and soul of the elite forces and if they were to succeed in becoming an integral and necessary part of the army it would be left to General Harcrow to bring this about. The President had a bill drafted and attached to the Federal Highway Assistance Appropriations Act to make Acting General Harcrow's rank permanent. The bill, of course passed, as no Senator or Congressman wanted to be on record as having opposed it. Adam was now a full-fledged General and no one could dispute it, even after the President left office in a couple months. CNN equated that action to President Clinton's last days in office when he pardoned all his big contributors. President Lomas did not concern himself with the opinion expressed by CNN. General Dobbs was not in good health but he was determined to remain on the job until Adam had the credentials necessary to take over the command when he retired. Adam was Dobbs right-hand man and over the next year, Adam began to function more and more as the Commanding General, rather than the Deputy Commander, as General Dobbs was in and out of the hospital for one operation after another. Adam was constantly seen by the men at various training exercises and other activities. He was seen at The Gulch, playing golf and visiting with the men at one of the casino bars. He was seen in the PX drinking beer with the junior officers and even the senior enlisted men. His constant companion was Division Sergeant-Major Adams. You never saw one without the other. Division Headquarters had three offices opening off the reception room; one was Dobbs office, one was Adam's office and the third office was that of the Division Sergeant-Major, Henry Adams. It kind of crept up on him, so even he didn't realize that although he was not an officer, he had been functioning as the Deputy Commander of the Division, while Adam had been functioning as the Commander.

The grass in Firefighters Park was fully established now and the trees had grown noticeably. A new small building was erected in the center of the park. Adam had asked the manager of the PX to start making arrangements for a cookout at the building. With more and more men finishing their prison sentences and transferring to the Regular Army, this would be a great way to send them off to their new assignments. When a man's time was up, a birthday, or any other excuse they could think of, buddies would get together, buy what they need for a cookout at the PX and throw a bash in the park. Adam even extended the places where they could legally drink beer to include Firefighters Park.. The beer was only available at the PX building and only in paper cups and it had to be consumed on the premises. There was one other interesting addition to Firefighters Park. One of the caretakers was out one morning picking up some trash so he could run the lawnmower when he spotted a big black Labrador retriever under one of the picnic tables. How she got there no one knew. But what she was doing there became quite apparent as the day progressed. Instead of one dog there were suddenly five dogs and four of them were very small. A medic, who had been a veterinarian, was summoned and saw that she was placed in one of the cells in the base jail. He fed her, gave her water and examined her to see if there were going to be any problems. She was pronounced in good health and so were her four puppies.

When the pups were about a week old, the Lab and her pups were moved to a fancy new dog house that had suddenly appeared at the park. The PX manager just happened to come by with a fifty pound sack of dog food and some puppy chow. Somehow the inmates started calling the mother dog "Mommy". She was very friendly and playful but didn't want anyone messing with the puppies. As the pups grew they also received names but each of them was known by several names, depending on who was in the park at the moment. It is doubtful if any of the pups ever actually learned their names, they just came running to anyone who called them. As they grew they were all over the park. They wanted to play with anyone who showed them any attention or fed them. They weren't exactly Black Labs like their mother, they had longer hair and looked more like they might be half Golden Retriever, or Irish Setter.

The one pup that everyone knew by the same name was "Frisbee". He loved the things, and never tired of catching them and bringing them back to whoever threw them so they would throw them again. If a couple guys were playing catch with a frisbee he would suddenly show up out of nowhere, leap high in the air and intercept it in mid-flight. He would always return it to whoever had thrown it. When there was no one present to play with you would see him trotting around the park with his own frisbee in his mouth or taking a nap with his frisbee laying beside him.

Many of the men had dogs before they got into trouble and these dogs rapidly grew near and dear to their hearts. All the pups grew into big fat dogs because everyone was always feeding them, all except Frisbee, that is. He stayed lean and trim; probably because he got more exercise than the others. Mommy turned out to be everybody's favorite old dog. She was gentle and affectionate, once her pups got older and she realized that no one intended to harm them. These dogs carved a very special niche for themselves at Fort Hope and were enjoyed by all the men.

There was a USAFI (United States Armed Forces Institute) building on the base that offered anyone interested in furthering their education the opportunity to enroll in a wide variety of correspondence courses. The building was equipped with a limited number of classrooms. Several of the convict soldiers had their teaching credentials and began conducting classes on various subjects. Soon there was a building with twenty classrooms constructed from scrounged and surplus materials and a handsome donation from the Firefighters fund. Tuition was charged those wishing to attend and that money was used to pay instructors from the outside. Over the years the school sought and received academic accreditation. Now an inmate with no more than a high school diploma could obtain a two year Associates Degree in a variety of majors. The Institution was officially named Theodore Lomas College. It came under the umbrella of the University of California extension service. Many years in the future it would eventually become known as "The University of California at Fort Hope." The fire fighting season continued to be a busy one for the men at Fort Hope. Every year the recreation fund grew by more than a million dollars. A committee was elected by the men to determine what projects should be funded and for how much. The projects they funded eventually made Fort Hope the best equipped Fort in the army for recreational activities.

In their fourth year on the fire lines it was particularly dry on the California Coast, which is almost never dry but this year it was parched. All of Fort Hope's Firefighters had been called out for an enormous fire that was threatening the Giant Redwoods. Plane load after plane load of men were dropped in the rugged Coastal Range. Charlie Company of the third was clearing a brush path about half a mile in from the advancing flames and failed to see that the fire had broken through just a mile below their position and was now burning in behind them. When they finally noticed that the fire had them surrounded on three sides they made a break for the one side that was not burning. Before they could reach their escape hatch the dry grass had kindled and the tree top fire balls had began to jump to the trees along that route and they were completely surrounded. They only had about one square mile of unkindled area to maneuver in and their was no place to maneuver to. They were certainly doomed. At just about the same time three old Huey choppers from Fort Hope were ferrying in food and supplies to the base camp fifteen miles down the hill. When Charlie Company radioed in their situation the Fire Marshall in charge ordered air drops of chemicals and water to be dropped so as to open a path for them to escape by but everyone knew this would be too little and too late. The chopper jockeys from Fort Hope had also picked up the distress call. They landed their choppers and began to jettison their cargo by shoving everything indiscriminately out the side doors. Several of the men standing around joined them and the choppers were empty in less than two minutes, a job that usually took half an hour.
One, two, three, the old choppers rose from the base camp and headed up the hill. With flames lapping at the choppers on all sides, the first one went in and set down. It was filled to capacity with frightened men in ten seconds flat. As the last man grabbed hold the chopper rose and headed for a clearing just on the other side of the burning area. As the first chopper rose, the second was coming in. As the second filled up and took off the third landed and took off almost immediately. As soon as that one had made room the first one was back for a second load. The third chopper's second load accounted for the last of the men but it almost didn't make it out. The men were all suffering from smoke inhalation, especially the pilot. The load was heavier than the maximum capacity. The chopper tilted to one side almost driving the blades into a tree that was burning; it leaned to one side then righted and rose straight up.

With Charlie Company all out and safe, the choppers now had to go back to the kitchen forty miles away and load up with more food supplies. When they had unloaded at the base camp, most of the food they were carrying was lost. Nobody seemed to mind waiting an extra hour to be fed; most of them were too tired to eat anyway.

Adam and Dr. Golstadt were in the Officers Club one morning, having coffee and discussing the morale of the troops. "One thing I might suggest is that we be given final approval authority before a man is sent here." "Of course, it wouldn't be practical to send the men for us to interview them but they could send their prison records, rap sheets and their case histories of what got them into trouble in the first place." "I have done a little research profiling what we know about the men who have failed in this program and I think I am beginning to be able to identify the failures before they ever arrive here." "OK, what are we looking for then doctor?" "It's not so simple as to be reduced to a few words, Adam. What it would amount to would be comparing the profile of the applicant with what we know about the failures on twenty major points." "We could then give the applicant a score; the higher the score the less likely he would be to adapt to our program." "Sounds reasonable to me doc, I'll look into it." "We already have a profiling number on a sampling of men that have succeeded. You Adam, for example, are a two, I am a four; Henry is a three and so on. Some of the guys who have made it are way up in the fifteen range so the system is not foolproof. I have yet to come across a man that stayed who was above a fifteen, but many of those who failed were above fifteen. Unfortunately, several of those who washed out were sixes and sevens but I still think the system is worth implementing. If they try to send us a seventeen we simply won't accept him".

That same day Adam put the question to Dobbs, who thought it was a great idea. "From now on, Adam we will just not accept any man into the program who doc Golstadt says is not likely to succeed." "That one step will probably go a long way towards improving the desertion rate."

They had a dental office with four chairs but no dentists. Contract dentists from Blythe and Indio were being brought in and the army would only pay for emergency work. Adam had been searching the entire prison network of all state and federal prisons looking for dentists. He told the people at Headquarters, Sixth Army who were responsible for recruitment that Fort Hope was in desperate need of their own dentists.

The same thing was true for RN's. Not many men had become RN's in the first place and it seemed as though no RN had ever been sent to prison. They found one madman sent to prison for practicing euthanasia, which might be all right except for his poor choices in selecting those he disposed of. They found a famous physician who was serving a life sentence for assisting his terminally ill patients with suicide, but he was too old to take on a practice.

Finally one morning, Adam came in to find six new files in his in basket. There were three dentists and three RN's who were serving time in various prisons around the country. Adam's elation was short-lived however, when he learned that all six were women. Adam took the files and went to see General Dobbs. "What do you think general; we desperately need these job skills, but could we handle six women at this Fort?" "Why not, there are dozens of women over in the civilian inmate section and other than the fact that they tend to get married right away there haven't been any problems." "We are building cottages for the married inmates in that section and some of the men here have been asking why we can't do the same on this side." "Go ahead and accept these women; they won't be in the army but they will be treated as civilian inmates". "We could give them commissions in the army and still billet them with the civilians, sir." "Yeah, I don't see why that wouldn't work, bring them on in, if they otherwise qualify, of course." So Fort Hope had six brand new 1st Lieutenants and the first women soldiers at Fort Hope.

Within six months some of the NCO'S and officers who had been married before going to prison were being allowed to move their wives on post and were assigned one of the new housing units constructed for that purpose. The wives were free to come and go but the men were confined to the base. Along with the housing units came the commissary. Since the convict soldiers were not allowed to own motor vehicles, golf carts became very popular. Dependents automobiles were parked in a secure lighted parking area off post. A tram ran from the main gate to the parking lot at regular intervals. The men who had wives and children were just out of luck. There was no way society would tolerate moving children onto the fort. Firefighters Park was now used on Sundays for visitors with families. If the weather was nice they could bring their children in for a picnic but the place was heavily watched by MP's to make sure that no child ever left the park.

They ultimately came up with the idea that the wives and children could live just off post in a new fenced area half a mile from the enclosed fort. Married inmates who had children could commute by busses that ran between the fort to the family housing area. Word went out that the first time contraband (narcotics), which was about the only thing that was still contraband for these men, was found either in the family housing area or found coming into the fort itself through the housing area, the whole program would be shut down. If any of the kids living in the family housing area ever did bring any narcotics home, their fathers never found out about it. Two MP's lived there as well and kept a close watch on the teenage residents in particular. Couples were not allowed to raise their voices to one another in the family housing area or on the base. If they engaged in an argument, they had to do so in a civil tone or they would lose the privilege of having wives and families with them. The MP's were seldom summoned to a family disturbance and when they were the families were ordered to leave the post and the men were moved back to the barracks, or in some cases, washed out of the program and returned to prison. They were all aware of this and acted accordingly. The men with this privilege simply learned to keep their anger under control.

Captain Jeff Dawson had a wisdom tooth that just had to come out; it was aching constantly. He also needed other dental work, he knew, as he hadn't seen a dentist in several years. When he showed up at the dental office with the mother of all toothaches, he was ushered into the dentists office right away and seated in the chair to wait for the dentist to see him. About ten minutes later Cynthia Porter entered the room.

She had completed Dental College at Oregon Health Science University in Portland and went to work for a local dentist who had graduated two years ahead of her. They were married two months later. He turned out to be the worst kind of a husband. He came home drunk and beat her up pretty badly on several occasions. Finally she had enough and was waiting for him the next time that he failed to show up when he was expected. When he did come in at around two in the morning she was waiting just inside the door. She knew he was drunk because she could hear him cursing loudly as he fumbled for his keys. Eventually he found the right key and let himself in. Cynthia had intended to just teach him a lesson and hopefully avoid another beating, but as he stepped across the threshold, Cynthia lost control, struck him with the baseball bat she was holding and he hit the floor with a crushed forehead. He was pronounced DOA at the County Hospital.

Cynthia was guilty of capital murder and was a candidate for death row. Instead, she opted for one of the plea bargains that Oregon was so famous for and was serving twenty-five years without the possibility of parole when she heard about the Convict Army and how they were looking for qualified dentists. So here she was, pulling Jeff Dawson's wisdom tooth. She also got a pretty good look at Jeff's other teeth while she was at it. "Just how long has it been since you last saw a dentist, captain?" she inquired. "Too long, I hate to admit," said Jeff.

Before you leave make an appointment for a full dental evaluation and a thorough deep root cleaning she told him. I just fit you in today because you had a toothache but I can see you are going to need quite a lot of work." Jeff made the appointment as he was told and went back to the company office to take it easy the rest of the day. Jeff did need a lot of dental work and was scheduled for six more appointments. Sometime after his third appointment he had come to know Cynthia pretty well. The two kidded and joked with each other a lot now while she was drilling and filling. He couldn't get her off his mind. Was it just because she was a woman, or was there really something special about her? He couldn't honestly say but he sure thought about her an awful lot. One evening he and Tom Rich were dining at the Officers Club when who should walk in but Cynthia and another equally stunning woman of African American descent. Jeff spotted Cynthia immediately and was up from the table like a shot. "Cynthia, fancy meeting you here with all the clubs in this town to choose from." Cynthia laughed and said "Jeff I would like for you to meet my best friend, Lieutenant Della Marshall. She is an RN at the base hospital". By the time the introductions had begun,Tom was at Jeff's elbow. Jeff turned to Tom and said "this is my best friend Captain Tommy Rich; we have been friends since high school." "High school -- and you both ended up here?" "It's a long story, and if you will join us for dinner I will explain."

The girls joined them for dinner that night, and almost every night from then on. They shared their tales of woe and all grudgingly admitted they were better off now than if they had never committed their crime in the first place. Della had a story that paralleled Cynthia's in so many ways that it was almost spooky. They were both medical professionals and both had killed their abusive husbands, both were from Portland and both had copped to capital murder to avoid the risk of the gas chamber. Both Jeff and Tommy had given up hope of ever being able to enjoy the pleasures of a wife and family, but now the wheels were beginning to spin in their heads. Tommy and Della were black, Jeff and Cynthia were white, all four were officers in the United States Army and just maybe there was a chance to form lasting relationships. There was one problem and the girls broached it one evening. "You know, don't you Tommy, that we can never have a family?" Della blurted out one evening. "No I didn't know," Tommy volunteered. He was a little shocked at this since all four of them had marriage on their minds, although no one had actually discussed that aspect of their friendship. "Yes", said Della, we could probably obtain permission to marry, but to get permission, we would have to agree to an operation that would prevent us from ever having children." "Actually, we had to agree to that operation in order to get accepted into this program and it has already been performed," said Cynthia. "No use making this any harder than it is Della." "The good news is that the operation is sometimes reversible," Della added. "With the bonus time we are getting, your biological clocks will still be ticking when we finish our prison time" Jeff added. So right there and right then the four of them agreed to wed, this being the strangest marriage proposal anyone ever heard.

The six new female officers had all met men and six weddings had recently been performed. Captains Jeff Dawson and Tom Rich were two of the lucky grooms. The others were officers as well. Not that any of the women had anything against enlisted men, but they were all officers themselves and came into contact with other officers more often than they came in contact with the enlisted men. Six new officer's quarters were constructed on the base and the newlyweds settled in.

More female companionship was on the way. A thorough search of all the women's prisons turned up several hundred women with skills that could be utilized at Fort Hope. The old adage is that an army moves on its stomach, but the truth is that the army runs on paper work and at Fort Hope the paper work was a mess. Everything seemed to be screwed up. Pay records, shot records, everything. New barracks were constructed between Fort Hope and the Gulch, fences put up so it would look like a prison and a gate, manned at all times by MP's, was erected. This was off the main road between the Fort and the Gulch. This was to be known as the Female Facility. All of the women from the civilian prisoners section were moved over there first. There had been a number of incidents recently between the civilian male prisoner population and the women even though they had separate facilities in which to conduct all of their activities.

The new women were then brought in a few at a time. There were pharmacists, LPN's, a few more RN's and a lot of women with office backgrounds and skills. All of the offices on the post were now fenced off and the women transported by bus from the female facility to work. It seemed like everything they did created a need to do something else. More mess halls were built, more entertainment areas, PX's, necessary shops, etc., not only at the female facility but at the office compound. As soon as the women saw Firefighters Park they wanted to know if they could also use it. Dobbs, Harcrow, Spear, and Dixon were at a loss. Should we set aside certain times for the women or should we deny the women the use of the park or just let it be coed? They finally decided to let it be coed, but the MP patrols were increased, all secluded spots were removed from the landscaping and the women were forbidden from leaving the park, except in a bus. Busses were now running around the Fort pretty much like city busses. They were driven and maintained by the civilian male convicts. Fort Hope now had almost three thousand civilian convict workers. So far there had been no rapes or attempted rapes, probably because of the presence of the brothels in the Gulch. Budding romances were everywhere and there was little the Administration could do to prevent that.

The base chaplains performed more marriages every week. Couples all wanted individual housing and that was not a problem. Apartment houses with seven hundred square feet apartments sprang up in the dependent housing area. Anyone, civilian or military that was married could rent one. The rent was quite reasonable and the money was used to build more housing. This actually saved the army some money as the army no longer had to feed and house these people. They did give them a small allotment in addition to their pay so they could shop at the commissary. The thing that was always in the back of everyone's mind was that if they screwed up they would be stripped of their earned bonus time and returned to prison. This became just about the straightest community in the country. Fort Hope, like other military installations, adopted the same policy toward gays. Don't ask and don't tell. An open display of homosexuality was forbidden and grounds to be sent back to prison. There must have been gay men as well as gay women at Fort Hope, but if there were they kept it to themselves. There were no special facilities constructed to accommodate their privacy.

Once Adam had time to get his feet on the ground after returning from the Academy it wasn't so much a case of making changes or instituting new programs at Fort Hope as it was a case of making the ones that were there work better. Adam knew what it was; with all these new men and now women arriving and so many of the old ones going out to the Regular Army the Unit had lost its identity. Instilling pride in the Elite Forces was Adam, Dr. Golstadt and Hank's number one priority.

Once, while having dinner at the Carrington with Dr. Golstadt, Adam was moved to ask a question that had been bugging him for a long time. "Tell me something Doc, (nobody ever called him Winthrop) how did you ever come to commit the crime that you committed? Molestation of little girls just doesn't fit you somehow ?" "Adam, the answer to that is that I didn't commit any crime, I just admitted to several." "What do you mean, Doc?" "Oh it's a long story, Adam, but the way my personal life was going I was just following the course of least resistance. That accusation the first little girl made about me was completely false; then when the do-gooders got hold of the story things got worse. My marriage was on the rocks, I was faced with defending myself against millions of dollars in civil suits. My father-in-law hated my guts. Prison began to sound like a pretty viable alternative to what I was facing in Portland. My career had already been ruined and I didn't relish life as a homeless man. I chose this course, Adam and as God is my witness I have no interest in little girls whatsoever. Actually, my marriage was on the rocks because my wife found out I was a closet gay. Now I have been able to develop a meaningful relationship here at Fort Hope and am happier than I have ever been in my life. I am all wrapped up in this work Adam and never want anything else; I am a truly happy man, or at least I could be if my friend and I were allowed to come out of the closet and live together openly but I know that will never be." "I feel a lot better about you now than I did before I asked and you are quite right, until you have been discharged from your prison obligation you must remain in the closet and let whoever wants to think whatever they want about you and little girls."

Adam called a general meeting of all of the officers in the division. "Gentlemen," he started out, "We are at a crossroads. This outfit has grown rapidly and I have been away for almost four years." In many ways, this is not the outfit it was when I left. Sure, the outfit is much larger; however, that is -- or could be, a good thing. In many ways things have improved and in many ways they have either gotten out of hand or they are on the brink of getting out of hand. This is a problem, but the main problem that I am concerned about is the attitude of the officers and the men now compared to what it was four years ago. We were a cohesive unit then, but now we are a bunch of individuals with too many of us marching to his own drummer and putting self above the group. The way I see it is there are two ways correcting this: One is the traditional army way, to come down hard on the men, instill harsh military discipline, to punish those who do not conform. With these men that would, in my opinion, be counter productive. For the most part, our men are just like the men in the Regular Army, but in some ways they are quite different. They say that these men have drug problems, but I am of the opinion that this Division is largely made up of men who lack the ability to cope in a rational way with their personal problems. The other way to deal with our common problem is to convince the men that we are all in this together and we are all damn lucky to be here. I myself am a twenty-two year old Brigadier General that still owes the State of Oregon approximately twelve years hard time.
"This is an unconventional unit in a conventional army. I for one would be very upset if I had to give up this shiny silver star and go back to being locked up. I assume that none of you would relish the idea of giving up your army careers either, so here is what I think, and I expect to hear from you as to your opinions.

"I think that to salvage this program we need to de-emphasize rank and the pretense of being in the army and to rediscover who and what we really are, a bunch of convicts that have been given the chance of a lifetime. We should all be constantly aware that our very existence is in the hands of a bunch of old men and women in government and the military who for the most part don't appreciate us very much and would love to see us fail. The only man remaining in this unit that is not a convict is General Dobbs, who is terminally ill with prostate cancer and is trying to just hang on long enough for me to be eligible to replace him. This is important to President Lomas, our chief benefactor. Don't think for a moment that is because I am some sort of superman. It is because men like General Dobbs and General Lomas are acutely aware of the nature of the men in this Division. General Lomas regards this as his legacy to the nation, the thing he will be remembered for.

"As you know, the President's eight years in office is coming to a close. He leaves office in a couple months and his replacement could be a disaster for this program. Think for a moment what it could mean if a Regular Army general were assigned to this command and decided to shape this bunch of misfits up the old army way. If General Lomas could justify my selection as General Dobbs replacement at this time, General Dobbs would retire tomorrow and go home to die in peace. So what is happening, is that I am posturing myself to be presented as the only logical choice to replace Dobbs and if, when the time comes, I am not that replacement then we could all be in big trouble.

"My feeling is that we need to go out and reach every man in the unit on a personal level. We need to convince each and every one of them that in order to survive we need to be the best unit in the army, and by a large margin. I guess you could look at it as patriotism to our own selfish cau