I suggested to him that he should get with the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon and I also told him where we were. He replied by telling me I should have my men and myself stand down.
I replied, "I can’t do that General. I suggest you get some troops up here before any innocent people get hurt."
He started to loose his temper and yelled to my men to disobey my orders and to come back and no charges would be brought against them. Without letting any of my men answer, I barked back at him, "I have tactical command here General. Which supercedes your rank and commands to my men and I. So get the troops up here and get your ass over to the Pentagon! I will contact you in one hour with my demands!"
I then terminated the conversation. I asked Crew, "Is the P.A. system working on the outside of the complex?"
Crew replied, "Yes."
We could see that the police department had a S.W.A.T. team with them. They were starting to make their way past the bus and into the compound. I got on the P.A. system and yelled, "Freeze! Do not come any closer. If you proceed, you will be responsible for many children’s deaths."
With that said, they stopped dead in their tracks and began to back up. Right at that time the inside phone rang. I picked it up and said, "Colonel Kirklin."
"Colonel, this is Captain Bowers from the Washington Police Department. What seems to be the problem in there?"
I replied, "There is no problem in here Captain, unless your men are thinking of rushing this building. Be advised, I have 25 hostages in here. All of them are children. I also have heavy artillery, so I suggest your people back off. There will be troops coming in shortly from the base to take over."
He replied, "Understood Colonel, I just need to know if the children are ok."
I responded, "They are fine and they will stay that way unless someone does something stupid. This is a military operation and there will be no further negotiations from you or the police department. Do you understand?"
He replied, "I understand."
Crew then looked over to me with his hand on his earpiece and said, "Colonel I am picking up communications from the F.B.I. to the Whitehouse. It appears they know."
I then said to Crew, "Turn on a T.V. set to a local news channel and see if anything develops from the media. Also bring me up a split screen picture from one of the monitors from a spy satellite so I can see what’s coming our way?"