A Twist in Time by Frank J. Derfler

who wanted immediate payment on federal promissory certificates they had received for their service.  The newspapers called the protestors the 'Bonus Army'.  The recession was hurting the country and the Veterans wanted their full payment.  Washington DC police tried to disassemble the military-style camp created by the Bonus Army and there was gunfire. Hoover told MacArthur to use US Army forces to move them out.  Under MacArthur's orders, Major George S. Patton led the 3rd Cavalry Regiment on horseback, supported by tanks, in a charge against the camp.  Hundreds of the Veterans were injured and several were killed.   
     
    "But did you know," she asked, "that way before MacArthur and the Bonus Army there was an earlier battle between veterans and the Army?" 
     
    "Huh?" was his reply.
     
    "It was in 1783 and the circumstances were almost exactly the same.  Except, of course, there was no Capitol in Washington D.C.   Veterans of the Continental Army marched on Philadelphia and demanded their pay.  The U.S. Congress, even then they were nothing but thieves, ran up the road to Princeton, New Jersey while the Federal Army cleared out the protestors. " 
      
    "Hmmm.  Did you hear the twist about what happened to the Bonus Army after FDR got into office?"  He asked.
     
    "Didn't he meet with them and Eleanor poured them coffee?  I remember the photo in a book.  Always the personal touch for her." 
     
    "Yeah, but the twist," he replied, "is that in order to make peace, FDR offered the Bonus Army Veterans jobs working on Henry Flagler's railroad in the Florida Keys." he said.
     
    Janet's hand went to her mouth.  "I never put it together," she said.  "I always read that hundreds of World War One Veterans were killed in the nineteen thirty-five Labor Day hurricane.  I've been to Key West.  I've seen the railroad bridges in the Keys that were wrecked, but I never put it together with the Bonus Army.  My God, Patton ran them down with tanks, horses, and sabers in Washington and then FDR got them killed by neglect in Florida." 
     
    "Isn't history great stuff?"  Bill asked. 

Chapter  9:  "A Tough Decision"  
     
     
    Thursday, November 5, 2009  1441  Eastern 
     
    A Back Road on Homestead Air Reserve Base, Homestead, Florida 
     
    Excerpt from the Personal Narrative of Mr. Ted Arthurs, PhD
    Recorded May 2014
    CLASSIFIED SECRET/TA 
    "We have almost always operated in reactive mode.  We have to carefully analyze our options and weigh our actions.  The possibility of doing more harm than good is something we saw clearly in 1996. There are scenarios that show our planned actions to prevent the Vietnam War as causing a nuclear exchange that destroys a large part of Florida.  The possibility of doing harm is always a first consideration for us.  I wish politicians would take the same approach.”
     
     
    Major General Ted Arthurs was into the third mile of his run when the cell phone in the front pocket of his running shorts sounded the cavalry charge that indicated a call from the Project's Operations Room.  He stopped his jog, fished out the phone, slid his finger along the bottom bar and said, "Arthurs". 
     
    "Sir, we have a CRITIC message you should see."  It was the voice of Air Force Master Sergeant Jerry Novak, the current shift's Duty Controller.
     
    "I'm on the base road out past the fuel tanks in my running shorts.  Can you ask Missus Arthurs to come get me?" 
     
    "Sir, when she read the message she told us to tell you she was going to the school and then she tore out of here." 
     
    “What the hell?” The hair stood up on Ted's arms.  The only thing he could think of was some threat to their children.   As he looked around, the world looked peaceful, but what was out there?  Only a second passed and he still had the phone to his ear.  He was about to say something when he noticed a small Air Force blue pickup truck pull out of the fuel farm and head toward him.  "I'll