Gordon smiled as Fel asked him for advice on how to deal with the problem. Asked him as if it had been his pilots’ faults rather than Gordon’s pilots’ fault.
“As far as I can tell your pilot and squadron have done no wrong in this matter, it was simply a misunderstanding combined with one of my pilot’s tempers,” replied Gordon, and then with a chuckle added, “You might want to suggest to your pilots that they improve their arms.”
With that Jan promised to see General Fel again soon and then returned to his cabin. Once there he called up the official from High Command.
“Sir, after discussing the results of the Reaper Squadron experiment with their commander, Colonel Fel, I have come to the conclusion that it might be best to revise my comments on the result of the experiment. While their record still shows an admirable skill level, according to their commander they did have some problems with some of the tactics he was suggesting and didn’t quite follow orders without encouragement, because of their abstractness. I believe that this at least requires a footnote on the file and it should be noted that any commander doing future ventures along this path should be prepared for resistance within their own squadrons.”
“I understand General Fel. I’ll add these comments to the report. Thank you for being so honest. As well, try to keep us updated with any new situations. Furthermore, make sure your pilots, including the other squadrons onboard Swift Liberty, get their shore leave soon as I expect that you will be sent out on a mission.”
“I understand sir.” Gordon was surprised by this comment about a mission coming up soon, generally High Command didn’t mention these things in advance, in fact sometimes he wondered if High Command even made up assignments more than a day before they assigned them. Regardless he would find out about the mission soon enough....