“I am not so sure. They might see this as a good business opportunity. They would have free access to California.”
“And then we would have one more place to fight them.”
“Maybe not. Perhaps we could kill two birds with one stone.”
“General, I am trying to follow you but honestly I don’t see how that could possible benefit us. They would no more trust us than we would them,” the President replied.
“It would depend on how we presented. If we gave them a reason to join us that they could not refuse, then maybe they would put aside the differences between us,” the General said.
“Well, that is certainly a creative suggestion but I cannot see this working.”
“What would it hurt to approach them with such a proposal?”
“And just what would that proposal be? We let them move drugs as they desire and we will simply turn the other way?”
“No, no Señor Presidente. We would have to become partners with them.”
“What? You mean the government should join the cartels?”
“No. The cartels should join the government. We could legitimize their business. It would stop the cartel wars and much of the killing. Our only restrictions would be that they could not sell in Mexico. What they do in other countries would not concern us.”
“I am surprised at such a proposal. Especially from you General Medrano. We have been trying to rid our country of those murderers and now you suggest we become one of them. I’m very concerned that you would bring up such an idea.”
“Ah, well there is one more point I need to make so you will understand the full impact of the proposal.”
“I think I have heard quite enough.”
“Please Señor Presidente. Just let me finish.”
“Alright General but I must tell you I am disturbed.”
“Then here is the rest of my plan...”
****
Aaron Crocker and Jamie Stattler were given a small duplex outside of the Army National Guard headquarters just a few blocks off Sutherland Avenue. The complex was now shared with ARM. They were glad to see it was fully furnished since they had little besides the clothes on their backs.
After changing into fresh uniforms, they reported in to the ARM headquarters. Master Sargent Langford welcomed them and wrote down all of their information.
“You think you are good enough to be snipers?” he asked.
“Absolutely,” Crocker and Stattler answered in union.
“Let’s go see,” he said leading them to the new target range that had just been finished.
“You have your own weapons I see. Not military issue but I guess if you are happy with them and can shoot well enough, they will serve the purpose,” he told them.
He got them situated and had them start from sitting at a bench. They could use the tripod attached to the gun rails but nothing else. The starting distance was three hundred yards.
Aaron went first after shooting in two sighting rounds.
“You have five rounds. Only nines, tens, and X count. Everything else is a miss. Understand?”
“Got it,” Crocker replied and aimed through the scope. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, keeping a small amount in his lungs and squeezed the trigger. He fired the other four in semi-rapid succession.
Looking through a spotting scope the Master Sargent said, three ten’s and two X’s. Nice shooting.”
Jamie followed the same procedure that Aaron had done. She took her breath, let it out and squeezed the trigger five times.
“One Ten, four x’s,” He reported.
They continued on out at one hundred yard increments until they got to seven hundred yards. It was as far as the shooting range extended.
Aaron had one nine just a shade outside the ten ring. Three tens and one X. Once again Jamie did a little better, she had four tens and one X.
“No doubt about it, you two can shoot. Sniping is what it will be. Just one question. Are you going to team up or split up so you are both shooters or stay together as one shooter and one spotter?”
“Uh, well Sargent we are both shooters. I mean we haven’t needed a spotter so far.”
“Yes, but when you get into heaver fire fights you will find a spotter is critical to your survival. You can’t look everyplace at once. It’s the way it has to be if you are going to be snipers,” he told them.
“Then can we get back to you on that? We need to talk it over some before we commit,” Aaron said.
“Sure. Talk it over and just let me know. I’ll work on team assignments in case you split or put you in your own team if you decided one is willing to be the spotter,” the Sargent replied.
“Thanks Sargent. We will figure it out and get right back to you,” Jamie assured him.
The packed their gear and slowly walked back to the building.
“What do you think?” Aaron asked.
“What do you think?”
“Oh no. I asked first. I know you want to shoot. So do I, but on the other hand, I don’t want another partner.”
“That about sums it up,” Jamie replied
“So what do we say?” Aaron asked.
“We stay together and either take turns shooting or both shoot if the opportunity presents itself. Hey, it’s our lives we’re risking so we will just do our own thing,” Jamie said.
“Ya’ know young lady. You are one smart woman. That’s exactly what we will do.”
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Six E-3 Sentry (AWACS) long range warning aircraft flew over various parts of the American Republic States. These remarkable airborne early warning and surveillance planes are the eyes and ears of both aircraft and ground troops. As technologically advanced as they are, for the most part they are vulnerable to long range missile attacks. To counter that, a new high powered laser beam system has been installed on the E-3. While it works against some types of missiles, other types can still get through.
The aircraft of the United States was just out of visual range of the E-6 keeping watch on the Kentucky/Tennessee area. Suddenly their attack warning board lit up.
“We have a threat warning,” one of the operators said unnecessarily.
Every member knew the minute the bogie had lit up the plane with radar. They immediately sprang into a well-rehearsed chorography of defense maneuvers to evade the predator.
Unfortunately for them, the F-16s were equipped with the new Raytheon AIM-125 AMRAAM and Vympel R-80 missiles. A long range standoff missile could penetrate the electronic defenses of the E-6 Sentry.
“Jamming active.”
“Damn, it is still locked on. Deploy chaff and flairs.”
“Deployed.”
They waited but the missile kept coming. One of the problems with the E-6 with its huge radar dome was that maneuverability is relatively slow. There is no way it can pull a tight enough turn to evade a missile.
“We are toast, bail out, bail out,” the pilot yelled over the intercom.
The missile traveling at Mach 4 slammed into the E-6 just behind the cockpit slicing the aircraft in two before erupting in a huge explosion. The E-6 broke apart in thousands of pieces and plummeted toward the earth.
“Splash one Sentry,” the F-16 Falcon pilot reported.
“Roger. Linebackers are on schedule.”
“Copy. Will escort to target.”
The three B1-B bombers cleared the area where the E-6 had gone down and vectored toward Knoxville. Forty minutes later they released their deadly cargo of bombs. The main target was the downtown area extending from the Tennessee River to the spaghetti bowl area around Interstate 40 and I-275. Each one of the B1-B bombers unleashed over 125,000 pounds of bombs. Almost everything from Five Points to the University of Tennessee was leveled. The death toll was twenty-six thousand two hundred and seventy. Over forty-five thousand were wounded and another nine hundred unaccounted for.
****
“Aaron? Aaron can you hear me?” Jamie shouted.
“Aaron, can you hear me?” she yelled as loud as she could.
They had been standing only a few feet apart when the bomb had landed just across the street. The explosion and shockwave had collapsed their house. The last thing she remembered was flying backward and hitting something hard.
She felt behind her and realized she had a big knot on the back of her head. As far as she could tell she wasn’t bleeding. The smell of smoke was getting stronger by the minute. She continued to struggle, scraping the skin off her ankle until she was finally able to pull it out from under the beam. She tried to stand but realized that the ankle could well be broken. She crawled out of where the room had once been and found a large section of the roof had collapsed on that part of the house as well.
“Please. Aaron answer me,” she yelled, starting to choke on the smoke.
She could hear the crackle of fire getting louder. She knew that she didn’t have much time. Crawling over to the large section of roof she tried to look under it to see. Her eyes were watering, making it even harder. She reached under as far as she could and felt a shoe. Tugging hard, she finally pulled it free. It was just one of her old tennis shoes.
“Aaron,” she croaked as the smoke continued to get thicker.
It was getting hotter by the second and she knew she didn’t have much time left before the whole house went up in flames. She started crawling toward the back of the house. The outer wall was still standing and she finally made her way into the relatively fresh air.
“Are you alright?” a man said, suddenly appearing.
“My ankle is broken I think but my friend is trapped inside. Please. Get him out,” she begged.
“Do you know where exactly?”
“I think under the large roof section just on the other side of the kitchen.”
“I’ll give it a quick look but the house is going to go up in flames in another minute or so,” he said, rushing inside.
A minute later he came out coughing and gasping for breath. His face was black with soot. Streaks were on his cheeks from where tears had run down his face.
“Where is he?” Jamie said when he emerged.
“I couldn’t find anyone. I tried to crawl under the roof section but I could only go a short distance. I’m afraid that if your friend is in there he has probably died of smoke inhalation,” he said sitting down on the grass beside her and coughing.
“You can’t let him die. Please,” she said starting to crawl towards the house.
He reached out and wrapped his hand around her good leg.
“Don’t go in there unless you want to die too. I’m sorry but if he is in there, he is dead.”
As if to emphasize his words a huge ‘Whoosh’ caused them to raise their hands to protect their faces. The house had burst into flames.
“I’m sorry. There was nothing we could have done,” he said coughing once again.
“Aaron,” she whispered.
It was so unfair. She had finally found someone she actually cared about and now, in an instant, he was gone.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
The news of the bombing of Knoxville reached General MacMillan while he was coordinating security with the CSIS. The Canadian Security and Intelligence Service operated much like our Secret Service. The two groups were putting the final touches on the security plan that would be in place when President Quasim from the United States and President Jason from the American Republic held talks.
They had been expecting some sort of action but nothing on this scale. Over twenty-six thousand were dead and another forty thousand injured. CSIS head Antone Jabel came to deliver the news.
“Do you want to put everything on hold?” Jable asked.
“I honestly don’t know. I will need to get further instructions from the President,” MacMillan replied.
“I would not be surprised if the meeting was called off.”
“It would be hard to argue with you on that,” MacMillan said.
He called the President to determine what course of action, if any, he should take.
“I guess I really don’t know. You said he would do something but I guess I never expected that something to be of quite this magnitude,” Jason told him.
“I would not be surprised if he didn’t do something similar either tonight or tomorrow night. He is trying to show you that finding a solution to the fighting is of no concern to him. He wants to be in control of the meeting and this is one way of getting your attention,” Mac replied.
“What do you think we should do?” Jason asked.
“Sir, not to be flippant but that is hardly my call.”
“I realize that General, but nevertheless, I would like your opinion.”
“Well sir, since you are asking, I would bomb the hell out of one of their major cities.”
“That would make us as despicable as them. I don’t mind retaliation, but dropping bombs on innocent people is not what we should be about.”
“Sir. All I can say is that at times you have to fight fire with fire. If we are the good guys all the time they are going to ultimately clean our clock. War isn’t about being more civilized than the enemy. It’s about bringing them to their knees,” MacMillan told the President.
“I understand that the bombers came out of Wright-Patterson Air Base in Dayton, Ohio.”
“That’s what I’ve been told.”
“Then I want you to put together a mission to take out the entire base. I want everything leveled. Use whatever weapons you feel are necessary. Can you do that before the talks?”
“Mr. President, I will have planes in the air in eight hours.”
“Then do it General. Destroy as many aircraft as possible and make the facility totally unusable.”
“Consider it done,” MacMillan said.
“Are the talks still on?” Jabel asked after he had hung up from talking to the President.
“For the moment. He did not indicate that he wanted to call them off.”
“I don’t mean to pry but you suggested retaliation. What will happen if you do? Will President Quasim then want to call of the meeting?”
“I don’t know the answer to what President Quasim may or may not do. What I do know is that we can’t afford to allow this to go unanswered,” MacMillan told him.
“Yes, that’s all well and good but just as an outsider's opinion, I think this has the potential to escalate your war,” Jabel said.
Mac shook his head and said, “I know, but what else can we do? If we don’t do something they will become even bolder and then what? They think nothing of killing innocent civilians.”
“My friend, I do not have the answer to that. I am merely pointing out the possible repercussions.”
****
At 20:42 the last B-52H bomber took off from Shaw Air Force Base near Sumter, South Carolina. Escorting them was the 20th Fighter Wing. The six B-52s were surrounded by a dozen F-16 Falcon fighter aircraft.
Their flight path took them west to Tennessee until they cleared the tip of Virginia before turning north over Kentucky.
Once they crossed into Ohio they knew there was no way to avoid being identified. The fighter planes were prepared to protect the bombers at any cost. Almost immediately the Falcon’s threat warning alarms went off. The B-52’s had angled off to the east to avoid Cincinnati and then looped back to the North West for the bomb run.
Twenty miles from the target, F-15E Strike Eagles appeared. The F-16’s broke formation and immediately sat out to engage the much larger planes. The Falcons are far more agile in close combat and within minutes three of the Strike Eagles had been splashed. The battle raged on as the B-52’s continued their steady pace towards Dayton.
Suddenly one of the huge bombers exploded as a missile slammed into the side of it. Metal, bombs and human bodies rained down on the countryside belo
w. A second bomber had a huge part of its vertical stabilizer missing. Undaunted, the large aircraft continued its bombing run.
By the time they were at the release point. Two F-16 Falcons had been shot down and seven F-15 Eagles were either destroyed or wounded too badly to continue.
The bomber pilots released control to the bombardier and within seconds tons of iron bombs were slamming into Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. By the time the smoke cleared, the base no longer existed. Twenty-seven B1-B bombers were nothing but smoldering wreckage along with fifteen B-2 stealth bombers. At 282 million dollars apiece for the B1-B Lancer Bombers and another 750 Million dollars for each of the B-2’s the total cost, not including the shot down planes, was in excess of seventeen billion dollars.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
President Quasim was seething while waiting for General Ascot to arrive. Having the Vice President in the room wasn’t making his disposition any better.
General Ascot arrived at the White House and was immediately hustled to the Oval Office. The President had been pacing back and forth. Ascot knew that was never a good sign. Hanna Cole was sitting on the couch, leaning back with her arm over the back.
“About damn time,” the President snapped.
“I came as quickly as I could. Someone at the White House has issued a directive that all helicopters used by the Pentagon personnel must be cleared through here first,” the General said, taking a seat without waiting to be offered one.
“No one gave such an order from the White House,” the President said frowning.
“Someone did. When I called for one to get me over here I was told in no uncertain terms that I needed authorization.”
“That’s crazy. I never gave such an order. Hanna?”
“We were having too much unauthorized use of the Marine Helicopters. Something had to be done. I’m afraid I didn’t make it clear enough that top military personnel such as the General did not need authorization. Someone must not have understood the intent of the directive.”
A NATION AT WAR - The Second Civil War Book II (The Second Civil War - BOOK II 1) Page 15
