She had no clue that he’d be there except that the war was over. Having their own airplanes helped the Army Air Corps men get home faster than the o...hers.Once the planes were parked the crews got leave. Most hitched rides on other Corps planes or pulled priority on trains and buses. The war had been brutal for the Eighth Air Force, losing more men over Europe than the Marines lost in both theatres.None of that mattered now. Kissing furiously, Sandra was so glad to feel Tom’s hand cupping her. Her GF would have to be kept completely out of the picture, so I had booked a private holiday apartment nearby so she didn’t have to travel too far (which is handy because of what she will be wearing). The first meet of my visit was actually going to be a coffee joint in the nearby town, just so we could make sure we were both ready to go that one step further in our relationship. I dressed smart casual so as to not look too out of place (no panties of course…I do have standards hehe), however. Ashley Templeton, the _being_ that had been Ashley Templeton, snorted indisgust.* * * * *How had he come to this? He'd been a rising star, a dramatic leading man.'Yes,' he thought to himself, he was a star, a star of "the Silents. "M-m-my d-damned st-stutter; as soon as sound came to the movies, I wasover."He'd had a few comic roles, the point of which was to _use_ that stutter.To _laugh_ at him. Years of therapists, acting coaches, whatever, "Cou-couldn't do a-a-a d-damned th-thing for me.". “Total breakdown is nine destroyers, five cruisers, five battlecruisers, one battleship, and one dreadnought.”“Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse. Which dreadnought?’“The Harbinger.”“Damn it!,” he shouted, throwing his empty mug, smashing it against the wall.“It’s not all bad news. In fact, it’s better than expected, actually. Twelve of the ships, including The Harbinger, were all commissioned in the last fifteen years or so. The captains and bridge crew in those twelve ships were.