Fatal Terrain

by Dale Brown

  truth will be known soon enough anyway. But the Nationalists

  cannot hide from the effects of a neutron bomb in their bunkers

  and tunnels. Before the American carriers arrive, we will have

  retaken Quemoy."

  President Jiang was startled, even a bit intimidated, by Sun's

  ideas and by the strength of his convictions-but he was also

  intrigued by them. Here was a military man who was not afraid

  to lead, Jiang thought. Here was an officer who studied Chi-

  nese military history and ancient Chinese military teachings,

  then employed those time-honored and time-tested ideas to

  solve modem-day problems. Here was a man of action, a man

  willing to lead a struggle of liberation against the most tech-

  nologically powerful military force ever known-the United

  States of America.

  And he was not afraid to use the most terrible weapons

  known to man: atomic weapons, especially the neutron bomb.

  The neutron bomb, developed from stolen U. plans ten years

  earlier, was a small, "dirty" nuclear device that killed by sat-

  urating the target area with radiation. The nuclear yield was

  small enough that blast damage was confined to a few hundred

  meters from "ground zero," but the effects on human beings

  of the neutron radiation released by the weapon was devastat-

  62 DALE BROWN ,

  ing. Any living creature within two miles of the blast would

  die of radiation poisoning within forty-eight hours, no matter

  how deep underground they were; unprotected humans within

  five miles of the blast would die within seventy-two hours.

  Further, all significant traces of radiation would be gone within

  a week, leaving structures and machines virtually untouched

  and unaffected. The People's Liberation Army could march in

  and take Quemoy without firing a shot.

  "You speak of not conducting a direct engagement against

  American air or naval forces," Jiang asked, "but you speak

  of destroying American carriers and bases. Can you explain

  how this can be done, Admiral Sun? Do you plan on exploding

  nuclear weapons all over the Pacific now?"

  The confident smile that spread across Ji Guorning's face

  was filled with energy and enthusiasm-two emotions so alien

  in this old Commission chamber. "Comrade President," Sun

  said, "Sun-tzu teaches us that the army goes to war in the

  orthodox, but is victorious in the unorthodox. That is the key

  to victory against the Americans."

  As Jiang Zemin and the other members of the Military Corn-

  mission listened, it soon became obvious that Admiral Sun had

  carefully thought this plan out, and that he was highly intel-

  ligent and his staff highly competent. In just a few minutes,

  President Jiang actually believed that this man, this Black Ti-

  ger, could pull off the impossible.

  "The admiral should be congratulated for the attention to

  detail and daring of his plan," General Chin said, after Sun

  had finished. "But it is also a reckless and dangerous plan,

  one that could spell disaster to the republic if a full-scale con-

  frontation breaks out. I feel that Admiral Sun wants vengeance,

  and that in his thirst for revenge he is not thinking of the

  people nor of the fatherland. Your ideas have much merit,

  Comrade Admiral, and may withstand serious scrutiny by the

  Plans and Operations bureau of the Military Commission. But

  I believe the president wishes us to formulate a strategy that

  will achieve the Party's objectives quickly and effectively. The

  carrier Mao and the task force will accomplish those objec-

  tives."

  "Comrade President, I must say again, we must not send

  the Mao Zedong aircraft carrier battle group anywhere near

  Taiwan," gun said earnestly. "It would be seen as a large-

  scale provocation. I have a plan to draw the American carriers

  FATAL TERRA I N 63

  well within range of our shore-based attack planes. We would

  have the upper hand then. We must-"

  "I said be silent, Admiral," Chin said angrily. "That is your

  final warning."

  Admiral Sun looked as if he was going to continue the ar-

  gument-but a reassuring glance from the president himself,

  Jiang Zemin, caused him to relent. He bowed, folded his

  hands, kept his head lowered, and did not raise his eyes again

  for most of the rest of the meeting. He'd taken the chance to

  get his ideas presented in front of the Commission, and he'd

  failed, and he'd dishonored himself in doing so.

  "We will begin preparations for the invasion of Quemoy

  immediately," President Jiang announced. "The carrier battle

  group will be diverted north with its invasion force to blockade

  the island. Within thirty days, comrades, victory will be ours!"

  BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE

  NEAR SHREVEPORT, LOUISIANA

  -

  FRIDAY, 30 MAY 1997, 0845 HOURS LOCAL

  (0945 HOURS ET)

  "Like most transitions, my friends," Air Force Lieutenant

  General Terrill Samson, commander of Eighth Air Force, be-

  gan in a deep, emotional voice, "today we are witnesses to

  both an end and a beginning. Although you might have a tough

  task believing this is a happy occasion, I believe it truly is."

  Samson was standing before a crowd of about two hundred

  out on the flight line in front of Base Operations at Barksdale

  Air Force Base, Louisiana. It was still early in the morning,

  and the event was scheduled early to avoid the inevitable sum-

  mer heat and humidity common this time of year.

  Flanking Samson was the wing commander of Air Combat

  Command's Second Bomb Wing, Brigadier General George

  Vidriano, along with members of the staff of Eighth Air Force,

  the major Air Force operational command that for years had

  organized, trained, and equipped America's borfiber forces,

  and Colonel Joseph Maxwell, commander of the 917th Wing

  of the Air Force Reserves based at. Barksdale. Standing at pa-

  rade rest next to him was a detail of officers and NCOs, carry-

  64 DALE BROWN

  ing small blue-and-gold squadron guidons, representing the

  various squadrons based at Barksdale. Behind Samson were

  three Air Force aircraft, washed, waxed, and polished as bril-

  liantly as if they had just rolled off the assembly line: a T-38

  Talon jet trainer used for copilot proficiency training, an A- IO

  Thunderbolt 11 close-air support attack jet, and a huge, light

  gray B-52H Stratofortress strategic bomber, with cruise mis-

  siles hanging off its wing pylons.

  " We are here today," General Samson continued, "to stand

  down one of the world's premier bomber units, the Second

  Bomb Wing, and to retire the last of this nation's most suc-

  cessful aerial war machines, the B-52 Stratofortress bomber.

  In the sixty-four year history of Barksdale Air Force Base, the

  men and women assigned here have stood at the forefront of

  our nation's peace and security. They have proved this by an

  impressive string of awards and achievements: the Fairchild

  Trophy for the best bo
mber wing in bombing and navigation

  competition; twelve Air Force Outstanding Unit citations; and

  sixteen Eighth Air Force Outstanding Unit Awards.

  "But what makes me proudest of this base's legacy is its

  commitment to its community. The people of Bossier City and

  Shreveport, and the soldiers of Barksdale, have been tightly

  linked, supporting one another through good times and bad,

  through triumphs and tragedies. I was privileged to serve as a

  wing commander of the Second Bomb Wing during my ca-

  reer-the year we missed the Fairchild Trophy by missing one

  time-over-target by eleven seconds, I hasten to add-and so I

  know firsthand the link that has always existed between the

  uniformed and civilian members of the Bossier City and

  Shreveport community. It is a tradition that has set the standard

  for the rest of the United States' armed services.

  "I am pleased to tell you that the Air Force is giving back

  to this great community a great deal of the support that we

  have received over the decades. Barksdale Air Force Base will

  become Barksdale Jetport, with a variety of aviation and non-

  aviation businesses relocating here with state and federal as-

  sistance, including an aviation-career campus of Louisiana

  State University; the base hospital will become a joint Veterans

  Administration and community hospital; and the other build-

  ings, housing units, and dorn-fitories on base will be used for

  a variety of programs and industries, including job retraining

  and agricultural research.

  FATAL T ER RAI N 65

  In addition, the men and women of the 917th Wing of the

  Air Force Reserves under Brigadier General selectee Maxwell

  will still be here with the A-10 Thunderbolt II, but will even-

  tually transition from the B-52H to the B-IB Lancer bomber

  when all of the B-Is go to the Guard and Reserves; and the

  beautiful Eighth Air Force Museum will still be here, open to

  the public, mostly because of the generous support from our

  friends in western Louisiana and eastern Texas. The Air Force

  is committed to easing the impact of the loss of a one-hundred-

  and-sixty-million-dollar federal payroll to the citizens of the

  cities of Shreveport and Bossier City."

  Samson paused, fidgeted with his notes for a moment, then

  added solemnly, "I can also tell you that it has been an-

  nounced by the Pentagon that Eighth Air Force will stand

  down, as of October first of this year."

  There was a plainly shocked expression from most of the

  audience and even from most of the staff-this was news to

  almost everybody. "For sixty years, Eighth Air Force has been

  synonymous with the heavy bomber," Samson went on, stick-

  ing to his prepared remarks, even though he, like many in the

  audience, was obviously emotionally affected by the surprise

  announcement. "From northern Africa to Europe to Korea to

  Vietnam to the Kremlin to the Middle East, warplanes bearing

  the 'Mighty Eighth' seal have struck terror into the hearts of

  the enemy as they hunkered down against the relentless bom-

  bardment of our planes.

  "Our planes were rarely pretty-the B-17, B-29, B-36, even

  the B-52H behind me could hardly be called sexy except by

  a few romantic ex-crewdogs like myself. Our missions were

  certainly never very glamorous-Dresden, Hiroshima and Na-

  gasaki, Inchon Harbor, Linebacker Two, the Iraqi Second

  Corps and Republican Guards, and the nightmarish concept of

  MAD, or 'mutually assured destruction.' But the men, women,

  and machines of Eighth Air Force have always been victorious

  by the use of the world's deadliest war machines, the heavy

  bomber. As the old saying goes, 'fighters are fun, but bombers

  win wars,' and that has been true ever since Lieutenant Eugene

  M. Barksdale of the Eighth Aero Group, Army Air Corps, the

  pioneer for whom this base was named, first carried a seven-

  pound mortar shell aloft in his Curtis-Wright Aero to test out

  the then-outlandish idea of dropping bombs from an airplane."

  Finally, the emotions welling to the surface could be con-

  66 DALE BROWN

  tained no more. Ignoring the reporters and cameras-CNN

  was here, carrying this ceremony internationally, as were a

  number of local stations, but still the big three-star general

  ignored the warning lights flashing in his brain-Samson put

  aside his notes and affixed his audience with a deep, sincere

  stare, as he continued:

  "As commander of Eighth Air Force, the major operational

  command in charge of Air Combat Command's heavy and

  medium bomber forces, I can tell you that I'm not in agree-

  ment with my superiors on their decision to drastically reduce

  the size of the bomber force by retiring all the B-52H and F-

  I I I F bombers and to turn all of the sixty operational B - I B

  Lancer bombers over to the Air National Guard and Air Force

  Reserves, with the other thirty B-I bombers going into flyable

  storage. This decision will leave Air Combat Command with

  only twenty active-duty long-range bombers, the B-2A Spirit

  stealth bombers, by the year 2000-yes, twenty bombers,

  twenty planes." The audience, which was made up of com-

  munity leaders and military dependents, all very knowledge-

  able of the Air Force's plans for the heavy bomber force and

  how their plans affected their lives, shook their heads in sym-

  pathetic amazement.

  "The argument is of course that the B-2 stealth bomber is

  that much more capable, that the threat has changed, and the

  B-52s and B-Is are too costly to maintain and don't have

  enough precision-guided weapon capability. The newer planes,

  the F-15s and F-16s and F-22s and the Navy birds with their

  laser-guided weapons, can perform surgical strikes on any tar-

  get, while the 'heavies' lack a similar precision-kill capability

  and it would be far too costly to retrofit them to give them the

  same capability. I can't argue with the fact that the B-2 is an

  incredible warplane and it is redefining strategic warfare al-

  most every time it flies. I will also not argue that the threats

  facing the United States and its military have changed: we are

  no longer using nuclear deterrence to threaten any nation, a

  strategy that the people of Barksdale and the other warriors of

  the U. Air Force exemplified but whose time is now past.

  We now foresee numbers of low-intensity non-nuclear con-

  flicts similar to Desert Storm, rather than a major interconti-

  nental war between superpowers with the possible use of

  nuclear weapons.

  "But I will continue to argue the fact that when a crisis of

  FATAL TERRAIN 67

  any size erupts anywhere in the world, there is only one

  weapon system in existence, short of nuclear weapons-which

  in my mind are totally obsolete, except for the very small

  numbers that should be kept in case of a totally unforeseen

  political occurrence-that can quickly and effectively reduce

  or even eliminate an enemy's ability to wag
e war, and that is

  the heavy bomber," Samson went on, gripping the sides of

  the podium, as if he had to restrain himself from pounding on

  it or rushing into the audience to punctuate his points. "With

  or without forward bases,, with or without sea access, with or

  without warning, with or without cooperation from allies or

  other nations, only the long-range bombers, along with the

  tanker force and with the latest in standoff and near-precision

  guided-weapon technology, can destroy the enemy's will to

  fight. In the opening days of a conflict, the intercontinental-

  range bombers would make the difference between stabilizing

  or even eliminating the crisis, and losing control of it.

  "Twenty B-2 bombers plus the ready Reserve B-Is might

  be able to affect the course of a conflict in one region of the

  world for a few days, perhaps even a few weeks, until other

  land- or sea-based forces could arrive. My concern is, what if

  no other forces are available? What if the seas are denied us,

  unlikely as that scenario may be? We were lucky in Desert

  Storm because we had a great and powerful ally, Saudi Arabia,

  with large bases close to the action and plenty of fuel and with

  two major bodies of water under Coalition control to operate

  carriers and submarines. We were also very lucky because

  Saddarn Hussein chose not to sweep into northern Saudi Ara-

  bia and destroy Riyadh, the Saudi oil fields, or the numerous

  Saudi military bases there, and instead allowed the Coalition

  a full six months to prepare for war. We should not rely on

  any of those advantages in the next conflict.

  "And what if another even more serious conflict breaks out

  somewhere else in the world, so we are faced with two major

  low-intensity conflicts? In my opinion, eighty bombers, or

  whatever number of them that survive the first crisis, would

  be hard-pressed to respond to a second crisis elsewhere in the

  world with the speed and power necessary to make a differ-

  ence

  The audience was very quiet; a few nodding heads could be

  seen, a few surprised expressions at Samson speaking his mind

  so plainly. This was not an uplifting good-bye speech by the