Kyle could see it in their faces as they came out of the Commanders Review Board.
He watched Chad Hawkins come out walking tall. He looked like a corn-fed kid from Iowa, but inside was the archetypal hardened soldier: tough, powerful, and serious about it. He was practically skipping like a ten-year-old boy as he came down the steps.
Chad high-fived several of the guys. When he got to Kyle, he turned it into a hard handclasp and a solid one-armed hug and thud on the back.
“Kick ass, bro,” which was odd, as the man had barely spoken to him over the last month.
“Thanks, man.”
Andrew came out looking like he’d been ass-kicked and then mauled by a pit bull. The Delta cadre escorted him away before his wave of depression could affect the others, but Kyle still felt it. Andrew had survived
