Battle Born

by Dale Brown

  DEDICATION

  This novel is dedicated to all the men and women serving in the armed forces of the United States of America, and especially to the U.S. Air Force bomber crews. At this writing, for the first time since Vietnam, all of our country's heavy bomber forces are in action during the same conflict, over the Balkans. Doing more with less seems to be your specialty now, but it is a task and a duty you shoulder with extreme pride and professionalism.

  This story is also dedicated to the families of all who serve. Without their love and support, the best soldiers and the most powerful war machines in the world would be nothing more than empty shells.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Very special thanks go to two very special air warriors:

  Thanks to Air Force General Mike Loh (ret.), former commander of Air Combat Command, for his inspiration, guidance, and suggestions. He continues to be this nation's strongest and most authoritative advocate for the heavy bomber, strategic airpower, and a strong national defense.

  Thanks also to Colonel (BG selectee) Wil Fraser, former commander of the Twenty-eighth Bomb Wing, Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota, for his encouragement and support.

  Thanks to Colonel Anthony Przybyslawski, commander, Twenty-eighth Bomb Wing, Ellsworth AFB; Colonel Tim Bailey, vice-commander; Colonel Richard Newton, ops group commander; Lieutenant Colonel Sloan Butler, Twenty-eighth Operational Support Squadron commander; Lieutenant Colonel Stephen "Taz" Wolborsky, Thirty-seventh Bomb Squadron commander; and Chief Master Sergeant Paul Hammett, Twenty-eighth Bomb Wing Senior Enlisted Adviser, for spending the time in explaining the employment of the B-1B and the mission of the Bomb Wing.

  Thanks to all the Bomb Wing technicians and experts who demonstrated their skills, pride, and professionalism: Captain Scott Marsfield, Technical Sergeant Jerry Long, and Senior Airman Ryan Schod, Irfe support; Staff Sergeant Robert "Chico" Cortez, weapons loader trainer; Master Sergeant Keith Malone, munitions; and to all the other men and women of the Wing for their time and assistance.

  Special thanks to the crewdogs of the Thirty-seventh Bomb Squadron for hosting my spectacular flight in the Bone to Powder River: Captain Dave "Trooper" Johnson, aircraft commander; Captain Jason "PITA" Combs, copilot; Captain Chris "CK" Butler, OSO; and Captain Tom "Opie" Woods, OSO. These Tigers really showed me how lucky we are to have them on duty defending our country.

  Last but certainly not least, very special thanks to Staff Sergeant Steve Merrill, Twenty-eighth Bomb Wing public affairs, for his expertise, attention, and professionalism in organizing and conducting a great tour of the Twenty-eighth Bomb Wing.

  Thanks also to Michael Rascher and Nancy Dewey for their random acts of generosity and kindness.

  AUTHOR'S NOTE

  This is a work of fiction. Although some real-world names, organizations, and situations are used to enhance the authenticity of the story, any similarities to real-world persons, units, or situations are coincidental and all portrayals are purely the product of the author's imagination.

  Please visit my Web site at www.megafortress.com for more information on Battle Born and on future works in progress.

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  Kevin Martindale, President of the United States Ellen Christine Whiting, Vice President of the United

  States Corrie Law, chief of Vice President's Secret Service detail

  Philip Freeman, General, National Security Adviser Robert Plank, CIA Director Jeffrey Hartman, Secretary of State Jerrod Hale, White House Chief of Staff Arthur Chastain, Secretary of Defense Stuart L. Mortonson, Secretary of the Air Force George Balboa, Admiral, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Victor Hayes, General, USAF, Chief of Staff of the Air Force William Allen, Admiral, commander, U.S. Pacific

  Command

  Terrill Samson, Lieutenant General, USAF, commander, High Technology Aerospace Weapons Center, Elliott AFB, Groom Lake, Nevada

  Patrick S. McLanahan, Brigadier General, USAF

  David Luger, Lieutenant Colonel, USAF

  Hal Briggs, Lieutenant Colonel, USAF

  Nancy Cheshire, Lieutenant Colonel, USAF

  Adam Bretoff, General, Adjutant General, Nevada National Guard -

  Rebecca Catherine Furness, Lieutenant Colonel, NVANG, 111 BMS/CC John K. Long, Lieutenant Colonel, NVANG, 111 BMS/DO

  Rinc Seaver, Major, NVANG, 111 BMS/DN Annie Dewey, Captain, NVANG, copilot Chris Bowler, Master Sergeant, NVANG, crew chief

  REPUBLIC OF KOREA (SOUTH KOREA)

  Kwon Ki-chae, President of the ROK

  Lee Kyong-sik, Prime Minister

  Kang No-myong, Minister of Foreign Affairs

  Kim Kun-mo, General (Ret.), Minister of National Defense

  An Ki-sok, General, Chief of the General Staff Lee Ung-pae, Director of Agency for National Security Planning Park Yom, Lieutenant General, Chief of Staff of

  Republic of Korea Air Force. Pak Chung-chu, former First Vice President of North Korea and interim Vice President of United Korea

  DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KOREA (NORTH KOREA)

  Kim Jong-Il, President of North Korea

  Pak Chung-chu, First Vice President

  Kim Ung-tae, Vice-Marshal, commander, Artillery Command Cho Myong-nok, Lieutenant General, Chief of Staff of the Korean People's Army's Air Forces Kong Hwan-li, Captain, commanding Nodong missile unit Kim Yong-ku, Master Sergeant, Kong's assistant

  PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

  Jiang Zemin, President of China Chi Haotian, Minister of National Defense Chin Zi-hong, General, Chief of Staff of the People's Liberation Army

  Qian Qichian, Minister of Foreign Affairs Xu Zhengsheng, Assistant Deputy Secretary of Cultural Affairs, Chinese embassy, Pyongyang

  Zhou Chang-li, Ambassador to the United States

  RUSSIAN FEDERATION

  Yevgeniy Maksimovich Primakov, President of Russia Dmitriy Antonovich Aksenenko, Deputy Foreign Minister

  REPUBLIC OF JAPAN Kazumi Nagai, Prime Minister of Japan Ota Amari, Minister of Foreign Affairs REAL-WORLD NEWS EXCERPTS

  A CORNERED PYONGYANG COULD STRIKE OUT, WARNS U.S.

  -Manila, Philippines (Reuters), May 21, 1997 The commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific said Wednesday that forcing famine-hit North Korea into a corner could drive it to attack its southern neighbor, resulting in heavy loss of life.

  Adm. Joseph Prueher said the severity of the famine in the North remained unclear, but Washington's immediate concern was that Pyongyang "retains a considerable military capability to lash out."

  "Should they try and conduct a full-scale assault they will not prevail, but it would nonetheless be a very difficult situation with a lot of loss of life because of the military capability North Korea maintains," he said. . . .

  RIMPAC WILL ONLY INCREASE TENSION

  -Pyongyang, June 6, 1998-(KCNA [Korean Central News Agency, official government news agency of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea]) Rimpac joint military manoeuvres involving the United States, Japan, South Korea, etc, will be reportedly held on the Pacific for a month from early July.

  . . . The present South Korean regime, which styles itself a "government of people," is hell bent on confrontation and war preparations against the fellow countrymen in the north. It has frequently staged military exercises simulating an invasion of the north throughout South Korea under the pretext of "coping with the enemy's provocation of a limited war." It is obvious that the participation in the joint manoeuvres by the South Korean puppets, who are aggravating the situation of the Korean peninsula with north-south confrontation and war preparations, is aimed at invading the north in league with outside

  S. KOREA PLEDGES MILK TO THE NORTH

  -Washington Post, July 22, 1998 South Korea, overlooking recent spy incursions by North Korean agents, is sending 781 tons of powde
red milk to help the starving North.

  N. KOREA MAY BE BUILDING NUCLEAR SITE; ACTIVITY RAISES CONCERN ABOUT ARMS PRODUCTION

  -Washington Post, August 18, 1998 American intelligence is worried that some 15,000 North Korean workers are building a huge underground nuclear facility. The suspected activity runs counter to an agreement Pyongyang made to suspend nuclear weapons research in favor of massive amounts of aid dollars. The White House officially refused to comment on the matter, except to note that North Korea remains in compliance with the 1994 accord and the situation is being closely watched.

  CONGRESSIONAL AIDES REPORT HIGH HUNGER TOLL IN N. KOREA

  -Washington Post, August 20, 1998 Upwards of 800,000 North Koreans are dying from starvation or hunger-related illnesses. A group of bipartisan congressional staffers, following a week-long factfinding tour of North Korea, said the country is in miserable condition and the situation is only getting worse.

  PYONGYANG ROCKET 'CRASHED OFF ALASKA COAST'

  -South China Morning Post, September 17, 1998 North Korea's missile test nearly reached Alaska. A piece of the rocket traveled about 6,000 km and splashed into the Pacific near the Alaskan coast.

  H. KOREA REPORTED TRAINING PILOTS FOR KAMIKAZE ATTACKS

  -Baltimore Sun, September 20, 1998 North Korea is reportedly training some 140 pilots for kamikaze missions against key South Korean targets, should war break out on the divided peninsula.

  NK OFFICIAL SAYS WAR GROWING IMMINENT

  -Pacific Stars & Stripes, October I, 1998 North Korea's vice foreign minister, Choe Su Hon, said in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly that the danger of another Korean War is "getting even more imminent" because the peninsula remains divided. Choe said reunification would remove the danger but called the U.S, military presence in South Korea the major obstacle.

  EXPERT URGES MISSILE DEFENSE

  -Pacific Stars & Stripes, October 22, 1998 U.S, military strategist William Taylor warned Japan, South Korea and the U.S, are "totally naked" to missile attacks from rogue nations like North Korea. He urged that missile defense systems planning take priority in Washington, Tokyo and Seoul.

  PENTAGON: NUCLEAR UPGRADE NEEDED FOR DETERRENCE

  -Washington Times, December 4, 1998 A blue-ribbon Pentagon panel is urging the Clinton administration to improve the nation's nuclear forces for decades to come in the face of Russia's large arsenal and China's growing strategic force. The report by the Defense Science Board task force challenges key U.S. arms-control policies, including the ban on nuclear testing, reliance on arms-reduction agreements and monitoring of nuclear-warhead reliability. A major finding is that the Pentagon lacks a long-term planning mechanism for nuclear-weapons programs.

  JOINT 'MIND WARFARE' UNIT SET UP WITH U.S.

  -South China Morning Post, January 15,1999 U.S, and South Korean officials agreed to set up a joint psychological warfare unit that will attempt to win over North Korean civilians in the event of war.

  PORTRAIT OF A FAMINE: STARVING NORTH KOREANS WHO REACH CHINA DESCRIRE A SLOWLY OYIN6 COUNTRY

  -Washington Post, February 12, 1999 As best they can, North Korean refugees drag themselves through snow and bitter cold to reach haven in China. Those who survive their personal exodus disclose horrifying tales of a slowly dying country, where famine is a continuing nightmare. . . . Aid supplies gathered by various agencies and sent to North Korea don't usually get to ordinary people, despite what international aid agencies proclaim. Most food and medicine is routed to families of the Workers' Party and the military. . . .

  PROLOGUE.

  OVER NORTH-CENTRAL NEVADA.

  APRIL 2000.

  Get pumped, hogs!" the B-1B Lancer's pilot shouted excitedly on interphone. "We're coming up on the squid low-level. I'm ready to kick some ass! Let's show them who the top dogs are. I'm going to give us a few seconds on this way point, Long Dong. Thirty knots should do it. I want lots of room to rock and roll when they jump us. Power coming back to give us a few seconds' pad. I want some shacks!" He pulled the throttles back until the time over target matched the required time over target on the flight plan. Then he pulled off one more notch of throttle until he had a good twenty to-thirty-second pad.

  "Go for it, Rodeo," the B-lB's OSO, or offensive systems officer, responded eagerly. He glanced at his flight plan for the time over target, then at the time-to target readout on his forward instrument panel. Being a few seconds late at this point meant they could fly faster on the bomb run itself, where the threats were likely to be heaviest. They fully expected to get jumped by fighters on this run, which meant they'd be running all over the sky trying to stay alive. -

  As he made the airspeed adjustment, the pilot strained forward in his ejection seat to look at his wing- man, a second B-1B bomber in loose formation on his right wing. The B-l "Bone" (few called it by its official nickname, "Lancer") rarely fought alone. If one B-1B supersonic bomber was a devastating weapon, two were triply difficult to defeat. They would need every possible advantage to win this battle.

  Sure, this was only an exercise, not a true life-or death struggle. But everyone in the B-1B was playing it as if it were the real thing. As someone once said, "The more you sweat in practice, the less you bleed in battle." Besides, in the eyes of these U.S. Air Force heavy bombardment crewdogs, getting "shot down"-especially by the U.S. Navy-was almost as bad as a real-life kill.

  Naval Air Station Fallen was the home of the Navy Strike and Air Warfare Center and the new home of the "TOP GUN" Fighter Combat School. All aircraft carrier fighter and bomber aircrews were required to report to Navy Fallon before a deployment to certify their knowledge and skills in air-to-air and air-to-ground combat tactics. The Navy Fallon Target Range comprised over ten thousand square miles of an isolated corner of northern Nevada east of Reno, with some of the airspace restricted to all other aircraft from the surface to infinity, so the crews could practice live air-tog round bombing, gunnery, and air combat maneuvers. Powerful TV cameras located throughout the range would score each bomber crew's attacks, and instrument packages onboard each aircraft sent electronic telemetry to range control stations, allowing great scoring accuracy in air-to-air engagements during post-mission briefings.

  Because the Navy liked to mix it up with as many different "adversaries" as possible, the U.S. Air Force was frequently invited to "play" at Navy Fallon. For the USAF bomber crews, there was no greater thrill than to blow past the Navy's defenses and bomb some targets on their home turf.

  Ever since the B-lBs arrived in Reno, there had been a heated competition between the Air Force and Navy about who were northern Nevada's best military aviators. The competition would be even hotter today, because the B-l unit in the box was the Nevada Air National Guard's 111th "Aces High" Bomb Squadron from Reno-Tahoe International Airport, just a few miles west on Interstate 80 from Navy Fallon. The 111th was one of only three Air National Guard wings to fly the sleek, deadly B-1B Lancer. Some serious bragging rights were on the line here. "Get us some range clearance, Mad Dog," the pilot ordered.

  "Rog," the copilot responded. On the discrete "referee's" radio frequency, unknown to the defensive players, he announced, "Fallon Range Control, Fallon Range Control, Aces Two-One flight of two, Austin One Blue inbound, requesting range clearance."

  "Aces Two-One flight, this is Navy Fallon bomb plot," came the response. "Aces Two-One cleared hot into Navy Fallon ranges R-4804, R-4812, R-4810, Austin One MOA, Gabbs North MOA, and Ranch MOA routes and altitudes, maximum buzzer. Altimeter two niner-niner-eight. Remain this frequency, monitor GUARD."

  "Two-One, cleared into -04, -12, -10, Austin One, Gabbs North, and Ranch, two-niner-niner-eight, coming in hot and max buzzer, check," the copilot responded.

  "Two," the second B-l's pilot responded. The less a wingman said on the radio, the better.

  On interphone, the B-l's copilot announced^ "We're cleared in hot, maximum buzzer."

  "Let's go fry us up some squid, then!" the pilot shouted again. There was no re
sponse. The rest of the crew was getting ready for the action.

  Two systems operators, the OSO and the DSO-the defensive systems officer-sat behind the pilots in ejection seats in a small compartment just above the entry ladder hatch. As his name implied, the OSO handled the bomber's weapon and attack systems. The DSO's job was to call out threats as they appeared, monitor the system to make sure it responded properly when a radar threat came up, and take over operation of the defensive gear if the computers malfunctioned.

  A tone sounded over interphone, a slow, almost playful deedle . . , deedle . . , deedle. "E-band early warning radar, gang," the DSO announced. "Bad guys are searching for us. No height finder yet. Time to go low."

  "Copy," the pilot said. On the interpiane frequency, he radioed, "Trapper, take spacing. Keep it within eight miles."

  "Rog, Rodeo," the wingman's pilot responded, and began a slight turn, letting the distance between the two bombers increase. Although they would both be flying the same route and attacking the same target, they would fly slightly different paths, separated by at least thirty seconds. This would hopefully confuse and complicate the defender's task. The two bombers also used air-to-air TACAN to monitor the distance between them, and they had emergency procedures to follow if the distance dropped below three miles and they didn't have each other in sight. "See you in the winner's circle."

  "Radar altimeter set AUTO, bug set to 830, radar altimeter override armed," the copilot announced on interphone. "Both TFR channels set to one thousand hard ride. Wings full aft. Flight director set to NAV, pitch mode select switch to TERFLW, copilot."

  "Set pilot." The pilot was flipping switches before the copilot read each step. The command bars on his center vertical situation display, or VSD, dipped to twenty degrees nose-down. "Twenty pitch-down command. Here we go." When he pressed the TERFLW, or terrain following, switch on his Automatic Flight Control System control panel, the B-l bomber dove for the hard desert earth below like an eagle swooping in for the kill. In the automatic TERFLW descent, the

  350,000-pound bomber was screaming earthward at over fifteen thousand feet per minute.