“Ms. Cole...we will discuss this later. It can wait for now. The General is here and we can move on. General Ascot, I would like for you to explain how the American Republic could retaliate against our forces in such a short time. We bombed Knoxville and within eight hours they were taking out a huge chunk of our B1 and B2 bombers,” he asked.
“Sir, it’s fairly simple. General MacMillan or General Adams calls up the President and outlines a plan. The President says Yea or Nay and they go off and do it. We, on the other hand, plan an operation after you give the order. Then we go back and come up with a plan. We come here where you, the Vice President, and whoever else you bring in, go over it and makes changes. We go back, make the changes and bring it back once again for approval. If it passes, we are given the go ahead. From that point on it takes about the same amount of time to implement the plan as it does on their side,” he replied.
He could see Cole sitting up and getting red in the neck. It wouldn’t be long before she blew her top. This should be fun, the thought.
“General, General, General,” she started, “Are you laying the blame on our doorstep? I can’t even begin to believe you are suggesting we are the ones causing the delays.”
“Madam Vice President, the President asked me a question. I answered it to the best of my ability. If you don’t like the answer, make up one of your own and save me the wasted time sitting in traffic.”
Cole came off the seat with her fist clenched and walked up to the General. He just looked at her with an amused expression. He could almost see steam coming out of her ears.
“How dare you talk down to me,” she hissed at him.
“Hanna,” the President interjected.
“Just who do you think you are? You are nothing but a little boy playing soldier,” she spat out.
“Hanna,” the President said raising his voice but she went on as if she never heard him.
“Let me tell you something soldier boy, you are not going to...”
“Ms. Cole,” the President’s voice cut through the air like a knife.
She stopped in mid-sentence and turned and glared at him.
“That will be enough,” the President said undaunted by her look of hate.
It became very quiet in the room. The President walked around his desk and sat down. He sat for a moment before he started in again.
“General, I’m sorry for any misunderstanding about air transportation. We will have that oversight corrected immediately. You and your staff will have no further problems with transportation, I can assure you.”
“Thank you sir.”
“Now as I understand what you are saying, they can respond quicker because of a shorter chain of command,” the President said calmly.
He glanced over at the Vice President and could see she was struggling for control of her emotions. Her face was still red and her hands were clenched into fists.
“That is essentially correct. The President gives an order and leaves it up to his Generals to determine the best method to solve the problem and then they simply take care of it. When the mission is complete, they debrief the President,” the General told him.
“Sir, if I may be totally honest, far too many past Presidents thought they could control a war from the White House. I understand the temptation but the simple fact is that only the men in the field really know what is needed and when. It takes far too long to get permission or to respond to a situation when the chain of command leads all the way back to the White House.”
“Hunh,” Hanna responded.
“So you are suggesting that I simply tell you what the mission should be and leave the rest up to you and your advisors?”
“Only if you want us to respond more quickly and to execute missions with a shorter turnaround time.”
“Thank you General Ascot. This has been most enlightening. Let me think on this a bit and I will get back to you. I appreciate your candor. Telling the Commander-in-Chief to back off isn’t an easy task.”
“No sir it isn’t.”
“Thank you General, we will let you know how we intend to proceed.”
“Understood. Mr. President, Madam Vice President,” the General said standing up and taking his leave.
The President waited a few moments before he spoke.
“Hanna. We have had these discussions too many times in the past. When I am holding a meeting, you are to listen and keep you temper under control. The General was absolutely right and I suspect the Helicopter was done as an annoyance. Now unless you intend to go fight on the front lines, I strongly suggest you find a way to work with General Ascot. He is our best leader and without his expertise we would be in a world of hurt. I am only going to say this one more time. If you want to be included in future decisions made by this office, you will keep you emotions and your mouth in check. When I want your opinion I will ask for it. Is that understood Madam Vice President?”
Hanna had only seen him like this on one or two occasions. She knew if she crossed the line now, she would be out on her ear. As much as it galled her, she was going to have to swallow her pride.
“I apologize for my outburst. It will not happen again. I will correct the problems with the Pentagon staff’s transportation immediately.”
“That’s good enough for me. There is no use to beat a dead horse. There is one other thing I would like you to do for me. I would like for you to apologize to General Ascot about the ‘soldier boy’ remark. The man is one of the most decorated soldiers in our service. He deserves your respect.”
She had to fight saying that she would never apologize to that man but she knew she was backed into a corner with no way out.
“Yes Mr. President. I will do so immediately,” she managed to get out.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
General Ascot went into action immediately upon his return. He wanted to be ready to strike the targets outlined in the mission plan quickly as soon as he got the go ahead from the President.
He was sure that the talk with Quasim would get the desired results. He needed to impress the President regarding how quickly they could respond.
B1-B, B-2 and a few B-52’s were loaded, moved to the taxiways with crews in place and ready to take off immediately. Fighters stood ready to start their engines to escort the bombers.
Now all he needed was the authorization to launch the attack. The General didn’t have to wait long.
****
The fighters started to roll down the runway and the bombers eased forward. Within minutes all aircraft were launched.
“Can you believe we are going to actually bomb Little Rock?” the copilot asked.
“I’m not too thrilled about it I can tell you that. I have a few relatives that live in the Little Rock area. I sure the hell don’t want to be the one that bombs them.”
“This is just crazy. How in the hell did we ever get to this point?”
“Hundreds of little things built up until it simply boiled over,” the pilot replied.
“Well I wish someone one would put a stop to it. Killing other Americans is just plain stupid,” the copilot replied.
“I don’t know if I can do this much longer. I’m thinking about resigning my commission.”
“You can’t do that. They won’t just let you quit. We have a draft in place. You have to serve.”
“Not as an officer. I can resign my commission and just be an enlisted man.”
“What the heck good would that do?”
“Well for one, I wouldn’t have to bomb our own cities and kill civilians. And for another thing, I wouldn’t have to be sitting here hoping we can even make it to the target without dying,” the pilot replied.
Almost as an exclamation point alarms sounded. The escort fighters were breaking off to attack the incoming bogies. Soon missile contrails filled the air as fighters engaged each other in deadly combat. A bomber just in front of them suddenly went up in a huge fireball. Another missile streaked by just a few feet from them.
Machine gu
n fire riddled the nose of the plane and the copilot suddenly fell face forward. His helmet was shattered like an eggshell. The plane shuttered and started to roll to the right. The pilot fought to regain control but it continued to roll.
“Get ready to bail out,” he yelled into the microphone.
He didn’t know if his crew had heard him or not, he was too busy fighting to regain control of the aircraft. He knew it was a lost cause when it started to stall and continued to roll over on its back. There was nothing he could do except eject.
He yelled one more time for everyone to bail out of the aircraft before he pulled the yellow and black ejection handles.
****
While everything had not gone exactly as planned, it was nevertheless a successful mission for the most part. Montgomery and Birmingham, Alabama had received substantial damage.
Jackson, Mississippi had been especially hard hit with all but two of the bombers getting through. Little Rock was only slightly damaged. The United States had lost nine bombers and seven fighters. Only four bombers had been able to drop their bombs and even one of them had a rack malfunction and was only able to drop bombs from the external hard points.
The damage to Tallahassee was minimal. They ran into stiff opposition long before they had reached their bombing vector and as a result only two bombers had gotten through. One had been limping along and was too far off course to do any real damage.
Dallas, like Jackson, sustained substantial damage. The bombers had targeted most of the area inside the I-635 loop. Especially hard hit, besides the downtown area, was the Naval Air Station. The entire area around Mountain Creek Lake had been left in ruins.
The devastation was horrendous. Landmark buildings such as the Dallas Theater Center designed by Frank Lloyd Wright were flattened. Even more horrific was the death total. Over forty-two thousand were confirmed dead, three times that many wounded and nearly sixteen thousand missing or unaccounted for. It was by far the largest loss of American lives in any single day’s conflict.
****
“You are telling me that they murdered over one hundred and fifty thousand innocent citizens during those raids?” President Jason asked holding his head in his hands.
“The death total will be a lot higher as they continue to dig bodies from the rubble,” General MacMillan said.
“My God. This is unbelievable. Our conference is due to start the day after tomorrow and they do this? What is wrong with those people? Surely the President didn’t authorize this,” he said leaning back in his chair.
“Sir, this could only have come from him. General Ascot would not have the authority to carry out such a mission without approval from the President.”
“But the peace conference. I mean...why would he do such a thing?”
“He wanted to be in a position of power. He wanted you to know that he could go after whatever targets he desired. The message was quite clear. Give up and get back in line or we will continue to bomb your cities.”
“He has to be crazy. Does he think that killing innocent civilians will make us simply roll over and do what he wants?”
“Yes sir. That is exactly what he believes.”
“And the world thought Hitler was insane. President Quasim has nothing on him. Unbelievable,” President Jason uttered.
“Sir. I have a suggestion if you are interested,” the General said.
“Oh dear. I’m not so sure I’m going to like this.”
“No sir, I’m sure you won’t but you need to hear it anyway,” the General replied.
“Go on,” President Jason said leaning forward.
The General had been right, he didn’t like it one bit.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
The two Presidents were meeting at last in Ottawa, Canada. Prime Minister Benoît had been on hand to greet both President Quasim and President Jason. The meeting was to take place at the Canadian Federal Parliament Building. The building, finished in 1927, contained the House of Commons and Senate Chambers and sits on the scenic Ottawa River.
The evening before the historic meeting was to take place Prime Minister Benoît hosted a small gathering at the Confederations Building.
Both Presidents were cool to one another but kept things cordial between them. Benoît had made it very clear to both men that he would allow no politics to be discussed during the gathering.
By 10:00 p.m. both Presidents had retired to their quarters to prepare for the next day’s meeting.
****
“Did you catch that smug look he had on his face?” President Jason said.
“It may have been there tonight but I think after we have our talks tomorrow, it will be quite a different look,” the Republic Affairs Chief, Mary Lake said.
“Everything depends on timing. It is the most critical element of the entire meeting.”
“Don’t worry so much. General MacMillan is an excellent tactician. He has surrounded himself with competent people. He is probably more aware of how important timing is than anyone. I would venture to say, the poor man will get very little sleep tonight,” she replied.
“You are right of course but...”
“Easy. No use getting worked up over things you can’t control. You have enough on your plate tomorrow without losing sleep over it.”
“Got it,” he finally answered.
“Now goodnight. Try to get some sleep. It is a huge day tomorrow,” Mary said on her way out of the room.
“I will give it my best shot,” he said as the door closed.
If there was ever a time to pray, this was it, he thought as he got undressed and climbed into the luxurious bed. He ran through all the things he wanted to say tomorrow and amazingly enough, he was asleep before he knew it.
****
General MacMillan had not gotten much sleep. In fact he had hardly slept at all. So many details had to work with a minimal margin of error. Finally he quit tossing and turning around 0400 and fell asleep.
It seemed like he had just closed his eyes when an orderly woke him. He sat up and slowly got out of bed. After finishing his personal hygiene routine, he had his driver take him to the flight line.
“Attention,” someone yelled as he got out of the car.
“Belay that. At ease,” he said quickly.
He looked around at the flight crews and smiled briefly.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I do not have to tell you how important the timing on this mission is. Actually it is the most critical element other than getting you all back safely,” he said and smiled again.
“Every detail has been set to specific time parameters. You have one of the most challenging elements. The variables you face are more arduous and dangerous. I want you all to know, timing and safety is all I care about on this mission. How well you hit the target, or even IF you hit it is not nearly as important. You have a difficult and hazardous journey ahead of you. I am proud of each of you for volunteering for this mission. May God watch over you as you carry out your assignments,” he said and saluted them.
The all snapped to attention and saluted the General back.
“Take me to the Operations Center,” he said to the driver after he got back in the car.
It was just a short drive and he immediately went to the Hot Room. Admirals Heathcoat and Greenfield were already in the room. They had been overseeing the maneuvering of the Republic's Naval ships.
“How are we doing Colin?”
“They are just outside of range and steaming parallel to the coast. They will launch at 0730 hours and will penetrate the air space at 0810 hours,” Admiral Heathcoat replied.
“And the subs?”
“The Virginia, Hartford, and New Hampshire are all on station. They will commence launch at 0815 hours.”
“What about the Annapolis and Springfield?”
“They are with the other ships as a secondary defense measure.
“Where is Colonel Fox?” the General asked looking around the room.
“He will
be right back. He went to gather the latest weather information.”
“Good, Good. Then I guess we can’t do much more for the time being,” MacMillan said, taking off his hat and sitting down in one of the chairs along the wall.
****
“Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen. The talks today are between the United States of America and the American Republic. The purpose of this meeting is to see if some form of peace accord can be established between the two opposing nations. Our role in this is to provide the facility, safeguard the delegates, and prevent hostilities from interfering with the dialogue. Now if you are both in agreement with the ground rules, we may proceed,” the Prime Minister said.
“I agree,” President Quasim replied.
“I certainly agree as well.”
“Excellent. Then gentlemen, since the American Republic President James Jason called for the meeting he may begin.”
“Thank you. President Quasim, first I would like to thank you for agreeing to meet with me and I would like to thank our host for allowing this to take place on Canadian soil,” he said by way of starting.
Both the Prime Minister and President Quasim nodded.
“Mr. President, to date it is our conservative estimate that we have lost the lives of over seven hundred and eighty thousand Americans in our current Civil War. Seven hundred and eighty thousand, men, women and children. We cannot, as civilized nations, allow this to continue. We are offering to stop all hostilities if you are willing to abide by the boundaries of the states as they now stand,” Jason said.
“Well, we certainly understand the concern. The fact that two hundred thousand have died plus who knows how many are wounded and missing, is a great concern to us on our side as well. The road to peace is really a very straight and short one. All you have to do is rejoin the United Stated of America and hostilities can end immediately,” Quasim replied.
“Mr. President, I respect your view but you must realize that the division was brought about by acts that were repugnant to the Republic States. You are saying that all we have to do is submit to your will and everything will be fine.”
A NATION AT WAR - The Second Civil War Book II (The Second Civil War - BOOK II 1) Page 16
