Fatal Terrain

by Dale Brown

  mand, General Steven Shaw. He was put on hold.

  Samson sighed but did not let himself become angry. He

  knew he was already effectively out of the picture-in more

  ways than one. Steve Shaw didn't need to talk to Ter-rill Sam-

  son for any important reason right now.

  Barksdale's sortie board was filled with tail numbers and

  parking areas, but all the sortie numbers and crew numbers

  were blank. That's because they were all for B-52H bombers,

  and the B-52s had all been retired, deactivated. By October,

  FATAL TERRAIN 429

  all of them would be flown to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base

  near Tucson, Arizona, there to be cut up and put on display

  so that Russian, Chinese, and whoever else's spy satellites

  could photograph the birds and be sure their wings had been

  clipped for good. Not that Barksdale's ramps were vacant.

  Some of the B- I Bs from the Seventh Bomb Wing out of Dyess

  Air Force Base, Abilene, Texas, who were going to become

  Air Force Reserve bombers in October, had dispersed to

  Barksdale-they would probably be assigned here full-time

  when Dyess turned into a B- I B training base.

  But all of the heavy bombers that had once been under Ter-

  rill Samson's command were now in the hands of U. Stra-

  tegic Command and Admiral Henry Danforth-and since

  Samson had opened his mouth and dared to contradict Dan-

  forth's blind preparation for a nuclear war that was not wanted

  and probably would never come except by some horrible ac-

  cident, Samson was not even entrusted with commanding his

  bombers under CINCSTRATCOM. He was a three-star gen-

  eral without a command, without any responsibilities. He still

  monitored the status of each and every bomber that was for-

  merly under his supervision, but he was not in the chain of

  command anymore-he was not even in the advice and con-

  sultation loop.

  The bomber SIOP generation, the preparation for all the

  land-based B-111 Lancer and B-2A Spirit bombers for nuclear

  war, was still not going very well. About three-quarters of the

  force was on alert now-but under DEFCON Three, 100 per-

  cent of the bombers had to be on alert. In addition, 25 percent

  of the force had to be dispersed to alternate operating loca-

  tions-Barksdale was one, along with Fairchild AFB in Spo-

  kane, Washington, Grand Forks AFB in North Dakota, and

  Castle AFB near Merced, California-but just a few bombers

  had arrived, and it would take days for them to get on alert

  with nuclear weapons aboard. All of the alternate fields were

  former bomber bases, but it had been months, even years, since

  any of them had any big bombers land there, let alone any

  bombers with nuclear weapons aboard.

  Terrill Samson could offer words of encouragement, or dis-

  pense advice, or rant and rave and threaten to kick ass if they

  didn't get moving faster. But it meant nothing. His words did

  not have any authority behind them anymore. Although his

  stand-down wasn't officially set until October, it was as if

  430 DALE BROWN

  Terrill Samson had already been relieved of command, and

  retired.

  ' 'Terrill, Steve here," General Shaw said, as he came on

  the line a few moments later. "STRATCOM wants to put the

  B-2s on airborne alert. You got something on the shelf that

  we can give them in the next couple hours?"

  "Yes, sir," Samson responded woodenly, disguising his

  shock and disbelief. Airborne alert, nicknamed "Chrome

  Dome" and immortalized in films like Dr. Strangelove, hadn't

  been done in more than twenty-five years because it was so

  dangerous to have nuclear-loaded bombers flying around for

  hours or even days on end-the old Strategic Air Command

  had lost two bombers and four nuclear gravity bombs during

  Chrome Dome missions. Now Danforth and Balboa, two Navy

  pukes, somehow thought it would be a good idea to do it again.

  "I expected a slightly stronger reaction from you, Earth-

  mover," Shaw remarked.

  :'Would it do any good, coming from me-or you?"

  'Probably not, but I'd like to hear it anyway," Shaw said.

  "First answer the question so I can give STRATCOM their

  answer, then talk to me."

  I 'We don't have any Beak-specific airborne alert tracks laid

  out," Samson responded, "but we can modify a few old B-

  52 racetracks and give them out to the B-2 crews. We can

  mate them to B-111 tracks, but we want to be sure we spread

  them out in case China decides to use nuclear warheads on

  air-to-air missiles." Samson wondered why his deputy, Gen-

  eral Michael Collier, who was the bomber chief for Strategic

  Command after Samson had been relieved, hadn't called in the

  request directly from STRATCOM headquarters at Off-utt. The

  only explanation was that Danforth, commander in chief of

  Strategic Command, was disregarding Collier's recommenda-

  tions, as he disregarded Samson's.

  "Sounds good. I knew I could count on you. Pass them

  along to Offutt soonest," Shaw ordered. "Now, lay it on me.

  Give me your thoughts. Quickly, please."

  "Yes, sir," Samson said.."I want to make another pitch to

  the Chief and the National Command Authority about the

  bomber force. We have got to take them off SIOP alert. I've

  got a series of plans we can present to the NCA--

  "I don't have time to make the same pitch we tried yester-

  day, Terrill," Shaw said. "I'm up to my eyeballs. STRAT-

  FATAL TER RAI N 431

  COM wants to put nukes on the Strike Eagles now."

  "What? "

  "You heard me," Shaw said. "We're going to have all four

  F- 15E Strike Eagle wings-the 3rd at Elmendorf, the 4th at

  Seymour-Johnson, the 366th at Mountain Home, and the 48th

  at Lakenheath-loaded for the SIOP and deployed to Elmen-

  dorf for operations against North Korea or China. CINC-

  STRATCOM is looking at North Korea starting a nuclear

  exchange within a few hours."

  "That's nuts, sir," Samson said. "That'll suck a fourth of

  your tankers away. Losing Guam was bad enough for the tank-

  ers-putting nukes on F- 15s for possible missions against

  North Korea will drain even more tankers away."

  "You're exactly correct, Earthmover, and that's the argu-

  ment I made-but the JCS and STRATCOM are on autopilot

  for Armaggedon. They think that if we put more nukes on

  more planes, the Chinese and North Koreans will back off,"

  Shaw said. "Anyway, I'm still waiting on a cocked-on-alert

  call from your Bones. Pass along a good word for me to the

  boys and girls at Whiteman for a good job in getting the B-

  2s loaded up so fast."

  They were loaded up and put on alert just so Danforth and

  Balboa could start dinking around with them, such as putting

  them on airborne alert, Samson thought bitterly. "I will, sir,"

  he responded; then, quickly, Samson went on: "Sir, I'd like a

  chance to meet with you and General Hayes on my plan to

  neutralize the Chinese strategic forces. We have missions on
r />   the shelf right now, ready to go, where we can take out every

  one of the Chinese long-range-missile silos without using nu-

  clear weapons. I'd like to-"

  'Sorry, Earthmover, but I can't," Shaw interrupted. "I

  went to STRATCOM with your suggestions without any luck,

  and I've got a second message in with the chief. They want

  to keep all the bombers on nuclear alert-they think it gives

  them the most leverage to have the bombers, especially the B-

  2s, loaded @vith nukes and threatening to destroy targets in

  China."

  "It's obviously not working, sir, because China went ahead

  and destroyed Andersen and nearly wiped out the capital city

  of Guam," Samson interjected, "and we still haven't retali-

  ated. Someone did, but it wasn't us.' I

  "Sorry, Earthmover," Shaw repeated. "To a certain extent,

  432 DALE BROWN

  1 happen to agree with the JCS. We can't risk losing the B-2s

  on a deep strike mission inside China."

  "The B-lBs can soften up China's air defense well enough

  for the B-2s to go in."

  "But then they're up against thousands of fighters and tri-

  ple-A sites," Shaw argued. "We can't destroy all of them.

  Eventually, the B-2s would be fully exposed. If we lost even

  ten percent of the B-2 fleet on this attack, it would be a stag-

  geringly demoralizing loss-and it would seem even worse if

  we didn't do commensurate damage to the Chinese military.

  We might then be forced to use ICBMs or nuclear cruise mis-

  siles to destroy Chinese targets, and then we'd be on the very

  slippery slope we want to stay off. We'd be sending nuclear

  warheads over the pole, over Russia. That would make the

  Russkies very nervous, and we don't want them involved in

  this fight, on either side."

  "Sir, we've got a plan that would practically ensure destruc-

  tion o the nese ong- and interme ate-range strategi of-

  fensive arsenal, without a devastating loss on our side-and

  without using nukes," Samson said. "But I need the B-1 and

  B-2 bombers. All of them. They're not doing any good loaded

  with nukes. With you, me, and General Hayes talking to the

  SECDEF or maybe even the President, we might be able to

  convince him to let us try my plan before it's too late."

  There was a slight pause on the other end, followed by an

  exasperated but resigned sigh; then: "Okay, Terrill, I'll make

  the request once more. But it's not going to work."

  "Thank you, sir," Samson said. "I can fly out to Washing-

  ton at any time to meet with the Chief or the NCA."

  "You just stay at Barksdale, a ' nd I'll tell you when to show

  to give your dog-and-pony show," Shaw said. "Keep quiet

  till then, okay?"

  "Yes, sir," Samson replied-but Shaw had hung up before

  Samson gave his response. It was not a friendly suggestion to

  keep quiet-it was an order.

  Sometime during the conversation with Shaw, Samson was

  handed a note. He asked a question of the briefer, then half-

  listened to the reply as he glanced at the messageform-and

  then his heart skipped a beat. He threw a "Continue on" order

  to his battle staff and dashed out of the battle staff room to

  the comm center. "What did you pick up?" he asked the com-

  mand post senior controller.

  FATAL TERRAIN 433

  "A message on that special SATCOM terminal you had

  installed here, sir," the senior controller said. He handed Sam-

  son a printout. "Auto decryption on this end." The message

  read: "HEADBANGER SENDS. URGENT REQUEST

  EMER AR RNDZVZ W/ SINGLE DRAGON16 25NI17E

  10K ONLOAD. USE RED7 ARFREQ. ADVISE ASAP.

  OUT.- A later message read: "HEADBANGER FINDS

  FOUR H-7 MANY H-6 AT TDELTA SKIPPING TFOX-

  TROT AND TGOLF. THX FOR EMERAR WITH

  DRAGON 16. NAV27 ARCP OK. OUT."

  " ' Wasn't Headbanger the call sign of that modified B-52

  that broke out of Andersen past the Navy and U. marshals

  and then disappeared, sir?" the senior controller asked.

  "It sure as hell is," Samson replied excitedly. "Shit. This

  means that not only is Elliott, McLanahan, and the rest of that

  motley crew alive, but they're flying a damned mission-over

  fucking China!"

  "That attack on the PRC garrison at Xiamen?"

  "A SEAD Wolverine cruise missile attack," Samson sur-

  mised. "A couple of those cruise missiles could wipe out doz-

  ens of SAM and triple-A sites. Then they get someone to

  follow up with cluster-bomb attacks."

  "The 'Dragon-16'? You don't suppose they mean Taiwa-

  nese F-16s? That EB-52 is flying SEAD missions for Taiwa-

  nese F-160"

  "Yep, and then continuing on deep inside China to do more

  bombing missions," Samson said proudly. "I'll bet the next

  intelligence message we get says that Wuhan has been attacked

  by unidentified bombers-maybe a couple other targets be-

  tween Xiamen and Wuhan, or between Wuhan and the East

  China Sea."

  "But I thought all the Taiwanese F-16s were destroyed,

  along with their bases."

  "Obviously some survived-along with one Megafortress

  and Jon Masters's tanker and a few of his gadgets," Samson

  said. He searched a map of China: "The Chinese H-6 bomber

  base is at Wuhan, west of Shanghai," he said. "It sounds like

  McLanahan found some H-7s-those are Tupolev-26 super-

  sonic bombers-and decided to expend their remaining weap-

  ons there, instead of a couple other preplanned targets. But

  where are they flying out of? Who is running that operation?"

  "We could find out," the senior controller said. "If I can

  434 DALE BROWN

  still receive their SATCOM transmissions, I suppose we can

  send them a message just as easy.

  General Samson broke out into a broad grin, the first one

  in many, many hours. "Move over, son," he said excitedly.

  "I've got to call me up some renegades so we can get to work

  c ng up tus war- . ore it gets comp. ete y out o ian(

  As Terrill Samson sat down to start typing out messages, he

  called for his executive officer. "Get the C-21 fueled up and

  ready to depart for Andrews. I want every preplanned strike

  package we've got to attack the Chinese ICBM complexes,

  bomber bases, and radar sites-and I want it all ready to go

  within the hour. Then contact Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Roma

  at Ellsworth and Colonel Anthony Jamieson at Whiteman, drag

  them off alert or wherever they are, and have them standing

  by with their conventional strike packages. Tell them I'm tak-

  ing some of their bombers off nuclear alert-and then we're

  going to work the way we were meant to go to work!"

  KAI-SHAN MILITARY COMPLEX, HEAR HUALIEN,

  REPUBLIC OF CHINA

  WEDNESDAY, 25 JUNE 1997, 0651 HOURS LOCAL

  (TUESDAY, 24 JUNE, 1751 HOURS ET)

  The roar of jet engines could be heard far below, creating a

  constant rumbling and vibration throughout the medical facil-

  ity. The Taiwanese staff appeared not to notice. They worked

  with silent efficiency, quickly and quietly loa
ding up medical

  supplies for the evacuation.

  David Luger had just been wheeled into an examination

  room from the X-ray lab. He was lying on a gurney, a thin

  sheet concealing all the other bandages on his left leg and arm.

  The left side of his body looked as if he had been spray-

  painted with a mixture of black, yellow, and brown paint-it

  looked like one continuous bruise from his head to ankle, and

  his left eye was swollen almost completely shut. "I tell ya,

  I'm okay," Luger was protesting to the doctor accompanying

  him. Patrick and Wendy McLanahan, Brad Elliott, and Jon

  Masters were waiting for him; Patrick's injuries, not nearly as

  serious as Luger's, had already been treated.

  FATAL T ER RAI N 435

  "What's the scoop, Doctor?" McLanahan asked the attend-

  ing physician, who was carrying Luger's X rays.

  "Severe concussion, as we suspected," the Taiwanese doc-

  tor replied, holding up each pertinent X ray as he spoke.

  "Slight cranial fracture. Partial hearing loss in the left ear,

  slight fracture in the left orbit. Cuts and bruises all along the

  left side of his body where he took the brunt of the explosion.

  Broken left knee, swollen left ankle and left foot. If I did not

  know he was hit by an exploding missile, I would say he had

  been hit by a bus."

  I 'I'm okay, I said," Luger protested. "Damn, we kicked

  some ass, didn't we?"

  "We sure did," Brad Elliott said, a broad smile on his face.

  "It was just like the first Old Dog flight. They threw every-

  thing but another Kavaznya laser at us, and we fought through

  it all and bombed the crap out of them!"

  "So let's gas up and get ready to fly another sortie," Luger

  said.

  "Not you, Dave," Patrick said. "You're grounded. We'll

  take the next run ourselves. I can handle both the OSO and

  DSO's stu

  "This damned headache won't keep me from at least help-

  ing mission-plan for you guys," Luger said. "We still have to

  knock out the air defense sites around Shanghai."

  "What I'd like to do is bomb the crap out of the Chinese

  ICBM silos and launch sites," Patrick McLanahan said, a def-

  inite tone of anger in his voice-very uncharacteristic for his