Chapter 5: Prove You Can Do the Job Then You Will Get the Tools to Do It!

The Taylor and the Bautista families were sitting at one of the tables. Demetri and his men were sitting with them. Steven Nation and Ben Taylor had eaten with Jesus and then left to visit the chickens and new cows. Jenny looked at John with this “Look”.

“I’m sorry honey, I knew Tony was hurt and I reacted poorly.” John looked at Jenny for forgiveness.

“Why didn’t you let me know?” Jenny asked.

“I knew there was a war going on and I did not want to put you in harm’s way.” John knew as soon as he said it how wrong it sounded, “Truth is. I panicked and did not think.” Jenny climbed onto John’s lap facing him.

“What are you going to do next time?” Jenny asked.

“Call you up and take you with me?” John whispered.

Jenny was crying and whispered back, “I forgive you.”

“I’m sorry honey, our boy was dead, and I had to get to him,” John whispered fighting his tears.

“Okay.” Jenny hugged John tighter.

Willa was sitting on Tony’s lap. She was also crying, “Where is my warrior? The granddaughter of two chiefs. Some say with a Russian accent you are the best shot in the world.”

“I don’t like seeing you dead.” Willa hit Tony’s shoulder with her fist.

“Careful, I’m not fully healed yet.” Tony shared, “Dad suggested I ask you to finish it. He said now I have an idea about pain and what a woman feels when she has a baby.”

Something you would recommend?” Willa giggled.

“Not in this lifetime. He told Brad the same thing.” Tony shared, “I’ll leave that decision about babies to you.”

“I’ll heal you.” Willa took a deep breath, “Give me a few minutes to get my head on straight.”

“You can do it tonight,” Tony suggested wincing with the pain as he moved.

“I have plans for tonight.” Willa said roughly, then giggled, “You will need to be 100%.” Willa giggled some more.

Tony kissed Willa hard and after many seconds to recover, he turned to Demetri, “How long are you staying?”

“Four more days. Poncho and your dad have asked us to help train the men and women that plan to go north.

“Dad, can we get Poncho and his army some more M-16’s?” Tony asked John.

John nodded, “I think I have just the thing.” John turned to Poncho, “Poncho, would you be interested in a really good deal on 10,000 Remington R-15’s with a million rounds of ammunition? This shoots the .223 round with four, forty round magazines in Semi-Automatic. Each has what is called a combat scope.” John had met with a Remington salesperson the week before. The old US Government had an undelivered order. The shipment was sitting in a warehouse in Lonoke Arizona.

Demetri handed Poncho his M-16, “That is a combat scope.”

Poncho looked through the scope. Poncho asked. “How much?”

“I’ll give you a loan. About $20 a rifle and a penny per round for ammunition.” John suggested.

“Yes, when can we get them?” Poncho asked.

“Today soon enough?” John laughed then grabbed his phone. After looking up a number, he called it, “Roger, this is John Taylor, we will take them. All ten thousand with all your ammunition and extras. I will send you four ten-pound bricks of gold. Roger, go stand in front of the shipment. Call me back when you are there.” John looked at Poncho, “Where do you want the shipment?”

John and Jenny along with the fisherman kids had left. Sally gave Demetri a big kiss and a hug. She made a date for Sunday to meet at God. John had watched this budding love with some difficulty. He felt he should do something, but he also felt anything he did would be wrong. He looked at Jenny. She was no help; she was laughing at him. “You are to bring balance between the sexes!” Jenny told him.

“I’m still a dad!” John shook his head.

“And a damn good one!” Jenny laughed some more, “I’m proud to have your children, Mr. Taylor.”

Demetri and his men talked about what they could teach the men and women of José María Chetumal. Shooting their new weapons was the primary issue. Becoming five to ten-person units or squads would also be of immense help when in battle. Demetri and his men would have a day or more before John’s Minute Men volunteers showed up to help with the training. “Let’s set up a range!”

Along the North side of the town’s square was a dense forest. Ten targets were set up by using some old plywood and boards. At 100 feet a row of tables was built out of scrap lumber and plywood. This all happened very quickly. They had ten from the troops of Jesus ready to test the targets. Someone had found an old big box of balloons and they soon became the favorite targets. They had another twenty tables built where the men and women would learn to field dress (take apart) the new weapon and clean them. The R-15 could fire at 60 rounds per minute in semi-auto mode. The AR-15 and the M-16 were developed in the 1950s (sixty years before the R-15) and in the semi-auto mode, they both fired 45 rounds per minute. The R-15 was designed to stay level when shooting. The M-16 and AR-15 both had their muzzle climb several inches with each shot.

The first team of ten stepped up to the range. They had their carbines with them. Demetri with the help of Gloria had the ten take up the carbines and Demetri had the ten shoot at five balloons each when he yelled “FIRE”. The ten fired for thirty seconds with over 100 rounds being shot. Forty-eight of the 50 balloons were still there. Many thousands of the townspeople were behind the shooters witnessing the attempt.

Gloria announced the results, “123 rounds fired in thirty seconds with two targets hit.” Gloria waited for all to settle down, “Now we will have them use the new R-15’s.”

To save time, Demetri had had the shooters pick up the R-15’s. Demetri’s men were working with two shooters each and got the young men comfortable as much as possible in the two minutes allowed. Demetri looked down the line and when all was ready, “Ready FIRE!” He had a stopwatch. There were sixty-one rounds fired. The last balloon popped at 22.5 seconds. The crowd started yelling, laughing, and clapping.

When Gloria announced the results, “61 rounds fired in 22.5 seconds with 48 targets hit.” Everyone was in the town square. The earlier noise had brought them out in the sun to find out what was all the excitement about. Eleven thousand people were screaming and clapping and crying as they realized ten of their people could take out fifty of the enemy in twenty-three seconds. They also realized that five thousand of the town could take on fifty thousand of “them” and have a good chance of winning big.

Demetri looked at his men. They were all laughing and nodding their heads. He turned and looked at Willa and Tony. They were dancing with Brad and Gloria. Poncho was hugging his son, “We can win this war. We can clean our country of drugs. Thank you, God!” Poncho turned to his wife with his face reflecting confidence, joy, and love. His little boy was jumping up and down in the backpack.

“You sir can make this Mexico into a paradise!” Maria told her husband.

“Not me my love, but WE will make Mexico into a paradise!” Poncho hugged his wife as he came face to face with his laughing little boy. Junior kissed his dad on the forehead.

Demetri climbed up on Gloria’s little stand that was two feet high, “Let’s see what is possible. Willa, pick your team. Everybody is available.”

Willa, Tony, Brad, and Gloria put their heads together, “I want all of us on my team.” Willa announced.

“Willa, take our husbands, the six Russians, and Jesus. I’ll run it.” Gloria shared. Willa and Gloria locked eyes and a book of information passed between the two.

Willa nodded, “I see what you are thinking Gloria. Let’s do this.” Willa called out to her team. They lined up and fired their M-16’s and AR-15 at the 50 targets. The results were posted for all to see, 52 rounds, fifty targets in 9.7 seconds. Gloria let everyone know that this group was experienced with their guns. When new balloons were put up, the ten picked up the R-15’s for the first time to shoot, when all were ready, they looked at Gloria and she screamed “Ready FIRE!” When the counts were made, this was also posted. 51 rounds, fifty targets 7.7 seconds. The confidence of the people that they had a good weapon in the R-15’s, possibly better than the world-famous M-16’s boiled over as the town screamed in joy as they hugged each other. Even with ear protectors, Junior complained about the noise. There was proof that these R-15’s made everybody better and were easy to use.

The training continued. Demetri schooled the men and women on working as a team. If there was a target to the right or left after they had hit all their five balloons, they were to help. The times dropped to below twenty-five seconds and the number of rounds decreased. Tony, Brad, and Willa helped Demetri’s men in keeping the line moving. Men and women ten rows back got to hold and look at their new weapons. That little act took three seconds off the times. Demetri smiled when the first team hit all the balloons in under twenty seconds. From then on, the times bounced between twenty and twenty-five seconds. The time before all shooters were ready decreased to a minute and a half.

When Poncho saw that this was going to take three days for everyone to work through the training, he shared that fact with the men and women in the back 2/3’s of the lineup, “This will take some time, come back tomorrow and the next day. Feed the chickens, milk the cows, water the fruit trees and tend to the gardens.”

One of the men that were heading back to the housing, “I’ll make you and the instructors’ lunch, Poncho!”

“That would be wonderful,” Poncho yelled back.

Just after midnight, almost all had left the firing line to go to their houses to make lunch.

A group of twenty-one had come in by horseback earlier in the day. They said they were from Belize and had ridden hard to get here. They were sitting under some trees watering their horses and themselves on the south side of the square. They were waiting patiently to speak with both the US representatives and Poncho Bautista. They had been here for about two hours watching the training.

Another group of men came riding in. There were over 150 of them. As soon as they entered the town square, they started firing at the sixteen that were still there. There were Poncho and Lorenzo with their three sons along with Teresa. The six Russians and the four from Omak. Gloria still had the stopwatch and hit the button shortly after the first round was returned. When she stopped the watch, it was just under 25 seconds. Three of the men from Belize had been hit by some of the hundreds of bullets that the riders had fired. Many things took place at once. Several women ran to the three that were injured.

Teresa ended up with the leader. He had a grazing wound on his right arm. She had the man sitting on a bucket as she attended him. The man watched as the horses were counted and led away. Buckets were filled with bullets and identifications and other small things. A big cart was filled with guns, holsters, and saddlebags. Canteens that each of the riders had been also put into the cart.

“What’s your name mister?” Teresa asked as she tended to his arm. She had set her new R-15 against a tree.

“Wendell Smith. Aren’t you going to put a bandage on that miss?” The man answered, then went back to watching the action. It seemed that thousands had come back into the square from all directions.

“No, you won’t need a bandage.” Teresa had the wound closed and felt she was done, “Where you from Senor Smith?”

“We are from Belize.” Wendell Smith shared.

Teresa did not have enough experience to accept her feelings as truth when she heard a lie. When this man said Belize everything inside of her rang bullshit, “You will need to drink lots of water.”