Lieutenant (j.g.) Bud Roberts
By Kimberly Knipp (MCK8686@aol.com)
I couldn’t believe what happened at JAG today! The Admiral and Major MacKenzie and I were held hostage by an escaped prison the Admiral defended years ago. I got myself in deeper by refusing to leave when Corporal Magida offered to let me go. I told them a good Navy man never leaves his fellow shipmates. Did I sound gung-ho or what? Commander Rabb wasn’t pleased but I know he would be proud of me all the same. Corporal Magida wanted us to retry him and he told me to be the judge! I tried to tell him I’m not even a lawyer yet so how could I be a judge? He asked me if I were honest…
He was so nervous that I just knew he was going to shoot one of us. He kept looking at the door and he and the Admiral got into a shouting match over the Admiral calling him Private when he felt he should still be called a corporal. Man, I’ve never seen anyone else who could face an enemy like Admiral Chegwidden! He yelled at Corporal Magida to shoot if he was going to shoot or let them go. He seemed so brave. I wonder if he ever gets scared of things? I feel that way sometimes about the Commander, too. He always seems so sure of himself. I wonder if I’ll ever feel that way? Mostly I feel like some nerdy computer geek who’s in the way. The Major treats me nice. She says I have a lot to offer to the cases and… well, I’m getting off track of what happened today.
Mr. Webb showed up out in the bullpen and so did the SRT - that’s Special Response Team – to try and get the Corporal to let us go. They brought all the records in from his original case and we found out they were sealed. Can you imagine that? Right away we knew something was wrong. I mean, they don’t just seal records. That’s when Mr. Webb showed up and then the SRT – and the Admiral seemed really worried about the Captain leading the team - Captain Osbourne. The Admiral said if he was involved then maybe he (the Admiral) and Corporal Magida were both set up. I wasn’t sure what he ant by that when he said it but then we found out Captain Osbourne was former CIA. No wonder the Admiral was so worried!
The Captain tried to shoot Corporal Magida but the Admiral saved him. I’ve never seen anyone move that fast! I heard Commander Rabb yell to look out and then the Admiral was yelling for the Corporal to get away from the door and then he told them the Corporal was wired with explosives. I asked him why he told them that and he said they wouldn’t risk blowing up the whole building. I wouldn’t have thought of that! Guess that’s why the Admiral is in charge!
Mr. Webb finally brought a woman in – a double agent – to talk Corporal Magida out of what he was doing and to tell him why she lied in court about him giving her information. The rest was like some action movie! The Captain tried to get to the Corporal through the air duct and Commander Rabb pulled him down and they were pointing guns at each other. I thought for sure they were going to shoot each other! The Captain finally put his gun and down and the Corporal Magida told Commander Rabb his gun wasn’t loaded! How ironic was that? All that time they were afraid he would shoot one of us and he never had any bullets! I think it’s a good thing the Admiral didn’t know that in the beginning. He was really mad and I think he would have gotten the Corporal back into custody without ever finding out he was innocent.
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It’s been a few days since the hold up in the Admiral’s office. They tried him again and it was so great! They dropped the charges and restored his rank and all his allowances and back pay and exchanged the time he was already in jail for the time he would have to serve for escaping and taking the Admiral hostage and… did I just write a run-on sentence or what?