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troops; travel on secondary or back roads, at night if possible. If you
can travel by boat, do so only at night, stay hidden near the coastline,
and avoid all large coastal towns. Do not assist any Chinese or federal
government representatives or military personnel. If you are forced to
assist them, do so to save your own life, but escape when it is safe to
do so and resist to the best of your ability. Provide aid and comfort
to any of my militia members known to you. "Above all, pray for the
strength and courage we will need to resist the Chinese invaders. As
long as I live, I will do everything in my powers to remove the foreign
invaders from our homeland. May God give me, and you, my loyal brothers
and sisters, the strength to continue fighting until our country is once
again free. "This transmission will be recorded and repeated several
times daily. Do not give up the fight. Allah akbar. God is great.
Good luck." The opening sign reappeared, along with the national
anthem, and then Samar began to repeat the message, this time in
Tagalog, the native language of the Philippines. ANDERSEN APB, GUAM
TUESDAY, 4 OCTOBER 1994, 0211 HOURS LOCAL "What do you mean, it's down?"
Brad Elliott asked. He kicked off the sheets, and his one good foot was
hitting the floor milliseconds later as he readjusted the phone. "Sorry,
General, but that's what it looks like, " jon Masters said over the
phone. "Carter-Seven didn't download its last sensor pass over
Mindanao. We're checking on it right now, but I think our ground
equipment is malfunctioning. I can't poll the satellites."
"I'll be right there." Five minutes later, Major General Stone and
Lieutenant General Elliott were racing for the command post. They found
half of the back panels off the control consoles, the large-screen
high-definition computer monitor was blank, and technicians scrambling
everywhere. In the midst of it all was Jon Masters, wearing cut-off
jeans and a flowered Hawaiian shirt, with his ever-present squeeze
bottle of Pepsi in hand. "Doctor Masters, what's happening...?"
"We're finishing our checks, Brad, " Masters replied. "It's no problem.
We'll have the birds back on-line in no time."
"You mean we lost both of them...?"
"It's only temporary. "Can you launch another one?" Stone asked. "Do
you have a backup?" Masters wore an uncomfortably pained expression.
"Ahhh... I might have a problem there, Dick, " Masters said. "I have
the launch aircraft here, but I didn't bring a spare booster or payload.
They're all back in Arkansas."
"Big deal. Fly back to Arkansas and launch another one, Stone snapped.
"The EB-52s from HAWC will be here in less than fourteen hours, and the
First Air Battle Wing will be here in less than eighteen..."
"You see, I got a problem back home, " Masters said. "My board of
directors voted not to approve any more launches until our other
contractual obligations are-"
"Doctor Masters, you have a contract with the United States Fucking
Government!" Stone exploded. "I don't want excuses, I want your butt
back on that plane of yours so we can get another satellite up there.
Now you either get me one or I'll fry your ass. "That's not necessary,
General, " Masters said, totally unperturbed. "I can have the satellite
back up shortly. Not one NIRTSat has ever failed, and this will not be
the first, I promise you. Now let me get back to work." He did not wait
for a reply, but turned and left Stone with a drop-dead apoplectic look
on his face. Brigadier General Thomas Harbaugh, commander of the
Strategic Air Command's Third Air Division, the headquarters responsible
for all SAC's air operations in the Pacific, and the senior member of
the Strategic Air Command's STRATFOR team for Pacific operations, had
joined Stone in the command post. To Harbaugh, Stone said, "Tom, we
just lost the N1RTSat system. Masters doesn't know when it'll be back
up. I need some current intel of Mindanao, and I need it now."
"I can call DIA and Space Command and get a KH-11 or LACROSSE satellite
overflight, " Harbaugh said, "and you should get the photos by the time
your birds start arriving here."
"Hop on it, " Stone said. "But I want to discuss aircraft overflights
as well. Unless we get Masters' system on-line again, getting satellite
imagery from Washington out here is too long for a naval battle.
Besides, I want a few probes of the Chinese defenses. Let's go over the
Air Battle Force plans for 'ferret' flights; I want several packages put
together to hand to General Jarrel when his birds start arriving."
ELLSWORTH AIR FORCE BASE, SOUTH DAKOTA TWO HOURS LATER The officers in
charge of each weapon squadron of the First Air Battle Wing were
assembled in the Strategic Warfare Center briefing auditorium; the room
was secured, the building closed down, and the doors guarded as the
meeting began. "Orders are as follows, ladies and gentlemen, " General
Jarrel began. "By order of the President, all elements of the First Air
Battle Wing have been directed to deploy immediately to Andersen Air
Force Base, Guam, and prepare for air operations under the direction of
Pacific Air Forces and Pacific Command. Commander, First Air Battle
Wing, will be myself, who will report to Major General Richard Stone,
Chief, Strategic Forces deployed, Andersen Air Force Base, Guam,
immediately upon arrival. Major General Stone becomes the overall Joint
Task Force Commander effective immediately. First Air Battle Wing
commander is dual-hatted as Joint Task Force Air Commander. The orders
outline a few Marine Corps air units involved in the operation, along
with naval air operations commanders. Rear Admiral Conner Walheim
becomes Joint Naval Forces Commander. Joint Task Force Ground Forces
Commander is Army Brigadier General Joseph Towle." Jarrel folded the
message form and stuck it in a flight-suit pocket. "No other details
were given in the message, but that's all we need to get going. "I have
distributed copies of the list of today's nonflying crews and airframes;
it composes about half of the force located here at Ellsworth, including
eight B-52s, four B- Is, ten KC- 1355, two KC- 105, all twelve of our
F-4Ds and Fs, ten F-15s, and six C-141s. That's about all Andersen can
handle at one time anyway. "Crew rest is hereby waived for these crew
members. They will pick up pre-planned mission packages, brief, and
prepare for departure within six hours." There was a rustle of surprise
throughout the audience-they had planned and discussed a rapid
deployment of a large number of aircraft such as this, but it had never
been done before. "The bombers, KC-135 tankers, and some of the cargo
aircraft will deploy nonstop to Andersen; the fighters and KC- 1 0s will
get crew rest at Hickam before proceeding. "All bomber aircraft will be
fully loaded in ferry configuration; you have the list of stores they
will carry. Deploying to Guam with weapons on board is always tricky
because of the high fuel load needed for divert reserves, but we'll have
lots of tankers to support us, so we wil
l load the bombers to get as
close to max landing weight as possible with normal IFR fuel reserves.
"Why was this decided, sir?" one of the squadron commanders asked.
"Andersen has weapons-why not load up on gas and supplies and upload the
weapons once they arrive on Guam?"
"I want those bombers ready to fight the minute they arrive at Andersen,
" Jarrel replied. "My orders state that we are on combat alert as of
right now, and the less time we spend getting ready for a mission after
arriving on Guam, the more flexibility we'll have. We could be tasked
for strike operations while the Wing is en route, so I want to be
ready-our crews better be ready to get a few hours' sleep, mission plan,
brief, pull the pins on the weapons, and go. If necessary, they will
land, get their mission packets, pull the pins, do a hot refueling, and
take off immediately. "The remaining aircraft at Ellsworth will deploy
after six hours' crew rest under the same systembombers go direct with
weapons in ferry configuration, fighters RON at Hickam. Our OPLAN
specifies eighty percent of the First Air Battle Wing on the ramp at
Andersen within twenty-four hours. I think we can do better: I think we
can have eighty percent of the Wing flying in combat in twenty-four
hours. That is my goal. I know this is our first actual combat
deployment, and we're bound to be inventing procedures as we go along,
but this staff has practiced these procedures now for several months, so
I think we can do it. Questions?" No reply. "Next meeting in one hour;
that should be our last meeting before we start launching planes. I
expect the first group to be ready to go by then. Let's get to it,
ladies and gentlemen-move!" Jarrel watched as the members of the First
Air Battle Wing rapidly filed out of the auditorium. He knew the danger
these men and women were facing, and he didn't envy them. His own
father had been killed in action in Korea in 1953, and he had flown over
five hundred combat sorties as an F-5 and A-7 pilot during two tours in
Vietnam. He'd seen a lot of battle, a lot of death. No, he didn't envy
them at all. But they had ajob to do, just as he did. He turned and
headed back to his office. "God be with them, " he said to no one but
himself. OVER THE PHILIPPINE SEA, EAST OF MINDANAO THE PHILIPPINES
THURSDAY, 6 OCTOBER 1994, 0347 HOURS LOCAL (WEDNESDAY, 5 OCTOBER 1994,
1447 ET) There was no mistaking its identity or its purpose-few
airFhcraft in the world could fly like this. "Identity confirmed, sir, "
the Combat Information Center officer on the Chinese People's Liberation
Army Navy destroyer Feylin reported. "American subsonic spy plane,
bearing zero-six-five, altitude two-three-thousand meters, range
ninety-two kilometers and closing. Probably a U-2 or TR-1." The
commander of the Feylin shook his head in amazement. "Say speed and
altitude again?"
"Speed six-five-zero kilometers per hour, altitude... altitude now
twenty-three thousand meters." The destroyer captain could do nothing
but smile in astonishment. Twenty-three thousand meters-that was almost
twice the altitude that any Chinese fighter could safely go, and very
close to the upper-altitude limit of the Hong Qian-61 surface-to-air
missile system on the Chinese frigates stationed in the Philippine Sea.
"No response to our warning broadcasts, I assume, " the captain said.
"None, sir. Continuing west as before, on course for Davao."
"Then we will make good on our promise, " the captain said eagerly.
"Have Zhangyhum and Kasjeng moved into position?"
"Yes, sir. Destroyer Zunyi ready as well." "Very well. Let us see if
we can get ourselves an American spy plane. Range to target?"
"Eighty-three kilometers and closing." "Begin engagement procedures at
seventy-five kilometers." The frigates had only the shorter-range HQ-61
SAM system, but four of the five destroyers in the Philippine Sea and
eastern Celebes Sea area had the Hong Qian-91 surface-to-air missile,
with four times the range of the HQ-61-and the U-2 was coming within
range of Feylin 's system right now. Undoubtedly the U-2 would be able
to evade the first missile, but two more destroyers, Zhangyhum to the
north and Kazjeng to the south, were surrounding the U-2, so that no
matter which way it turned, it would be within range of someone's
missile system. The U-2 was being tracked by another destroyer, Zunyi.
This destroyer carried only surface-to-surface missiles, but it had the
Sea Eagle radar system, which could direct missile attacks launched from
other ships without using the telltale DRBR-51 missile-tracking radars.
They would not have to activate target-tracking radars until a few
seconds from impact, so the U-2 would have no chance to react. They were
going to make their first kill since October first, which, ironically,
was Revolution Day. This would serve as a warning to all other American
aircraft: stay away from the Philippines. "Bomb doors coming open, stand
by... bomb doors open. This had to be the first time in Patrick
McLanahan's recent memory that he was going to open the bomb doors on
his B-2 Black Knight stealth bomber-and not attack something. He and
Major Henry Cobb had already flown their B-2 nearly two thousand miles,
right into the heart of what seemed like half the Chinese Navy, all to
carry two bulbous objects that would not go "boom." They were flying at
two thousand feet over the dark waters of the Philippine Sea, threading
the needle through what apinside detection range now-if we lower the
pods, we'll definitely be in range. "Then let's get it over with, " Cobb
said. It was one of the few words he had said throughout the entire
flight-obviously he wished he were someplace else right now. "Rog. Pods
coming ....... True to his word, the second the two pods were deployed,
the computer re-evaluated their new radar cross-section, remeasured the
Sea Eagle radar's output power, and redrew the radar's effective
detection range "dome"-this time placing it squarely over the B-2 icon
at the lower center part of the SMFD. The radar cross-section of the
two pods was so large that Patrick estimated they'd have to fly at least
forty miles to get out of enemy radar coverage. "Air-search radar got
us, three o'clock, range . . . range forty miles." As the UPD-9 pod
finished its first circular sweep, more details of the area surrounding
them appeared-including one very unwelcome one. "Surface target, nine
o'clock, ten miles, no radar emissions, looks like a patrol boat . . .
shit, we got another patrol boat at twelve miles, two o'clock position.
Jesus, we're surrounded by Chinese patrol boats . . ." McLanahan
commanded the pods to retract immediately before any one of them got a
lock on the B-2. "Air target warning! Bearing one-eight-eight degrees,
range seventy-four kilometers... no speed or altitude reading available
. . . search radar active . . "What? Are you sure? Get a track on
that last contact!" the skipper of the Feylin shouted. "Negative track.
. . target disappeared, sir. Lost contact." The new radar contact
puzzled th
e destroyer commander, but it was obviously an anomaly or a
very small target, like a flock of birds. The real quarry was still
driving closer. "Status of the U-2."
"Range approaching seventy-five kilometers... now. "Very well. Combat,
bridge, commit forward HQ-91 system, stand by on DRBR-51
missile-guidance radar... now. Order Kazjeng and Zhangyhum to prepare
to engage." At that order, two HQ-9 1 missiles were fired from the
forward twin launchers of the destroyer Feylin at the U-2 spy plane,
lighting up the deck with brilliant flashes of light and a long tongue
of flame as the missiles shot skyward. The big supersonic missiles
reached full speed in seconds, exceeding twenty-five kilometers per
minute in the blink of an eye. There was no other radar that came up,
but even at a range of forty miles the sudden glare of the HQ-9 1
missile's rocket motor streaking off into space could clearly be seen.
The Chinese patrols were going after the U-2 spy plane. The
fortyyear-old U-2 used a new aerial camera, the CA-990, which could take
high-resolution pictures from long standoff distances, but to get
pictures of Davao, the U-2 had to fly as close as possible to the
Mindanao coast-very close to the Chinese warships. McLanahan risked it:
he deployed the reconnaissance pods again to get more photographs-and
perhaps to divert the Chinese warship's attention away from the
vulnerable U-2, although he realized that was a real long shot-and at
the same time hit the "Transmit" switch on his scrambled command radio:
"Kelly, this is Shadow, Giant Zero, Giant Zero. Out." "Giant Zero" was a
standard code name to warn an aircraft of a missile launch without an
associated missile-guidance radar appearing first. McLanahan let the
pods out for two spherical radar scans, about fifteen seconds, then
quickly retracted them once again... But even as he did, the yellow dome
surrounding them turned briefly to red, with riblike lines through it.
"Sea Eagle radar switching to target acquisition mode... they may have
found us. Pods retracted, bomb doors closed. Suddenly, more radar domes