by James Rosone
“How in the hell did we not see this happening?” McElroy demanded. “And what kind of units are being offloaded?”
The colonel grimaced slightly. “Sir, most of our attention has been focused on what has been going on in Canada and along our northern border. We hadn’t been paying nearly as much attention to what was going on in Mexico because the government down there has been staying silent on this whole UN peacekeeper army. They didn’t have any forces participating in the exercise, so we’d focused our attention on the other nations.”
“This is unacceptable,” McElroy said, smacking the table once with an open hand. “We need better intelligence on what’s going on down there. What is the size and scope of this new force? What units specifically have been brought in and what other units are en route to join them? What the hell is the Navy doing? How could they not have seen this massive convoy of forces being delivered just a few hundred miles south of San Diego?” McElroy angrily barked in rapid-fire succession.
I should have been getting briefs on this for weeks now, McElroy thought as he gave his intelligence professionals the stink eye.
The Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Chester Smith, cleared his throat. “Sir, China and Mexico already conduct a large amount of trade between each other. So do Russia and Cuba. These countries already have a steady and consistent schedule of freighters and cargo ships moving between them. It appears that somewhere along the way, the Chinese and Russians swapped out a lot of the normal cargo with military equipment and troops—that’s how they were able to move large swaths of forces completely under our nose. I can assure you, we’re now fully aware of what they’re doing and will move to intercept them if the President orders us to.”
As much as McElroy would have loved to have the Navy begin searching Chinese- and Russian- flagged ships, he knew that wouldn’t fly—at least not until hostilities started, and that was something all of them were desperately trying to avoid.
Seeing a break in the conversation between the SecDef and the CNO, the colonel providing the brief added, “I know no one wants to hear this, but it’s hard to say what the full composition of the force arriving in Mexico is until more of the equipment is unloaded and deployed. What does concern us though, is that, in both Mexico and Cuba, it would appear the Chinese and Russians are offloading a myriad of advanced air defense weapon systems. Our satellites in Mexico are showing a number of HQ-19, HQ-26, and HQ-29 systems, which are essentially Chinese versions of the Russian S-300 and S-400 surface-to-air missile platforms. In Cuba, we’re seeing multiple S-300 and S-400 systems intermixed with other tracked anti-aircraft vehicles. It would appear the Russians are looking to turn Cuba into a heavily defended surface-to-air missile platform.”
“Good grief! They’ll be able to threaten aircraft flying over the entire state of California and the southern half of the country—not to mention the entire Gulf coast,” McElroy exclaimed angrily.
McElroy decided to shift to naval operations, hoping for some better news. “Admiral Smith, what is the status of the Pacific and Atlantic fleets?” he asked. “Are we ready to begin enforcing the blockade, and can we protect our coasts and port facilities?”
“We’re obviously a carrier short in the Pacific with the defection of the Nimitz,” the CNO replied glumly. “We also have two carriers down right now for maintenance, though we are doing everything in our power to cut that short and get them operational again. We’re probably looking at four to six weeks before both of them will be ready for action, at least. That said, since we’ve pulled our ships out of Japan, we’ve relocated them to our San Diego facilities. Even with the loss of the Nimitz, we’ll be ready to enforce a Pacific blockade. The Canadian Navy, along with the Chinese, aren’t nearly strong enough to break the blockade. Even if they tried to incorporate the Nimitz into their plans, the carrier is missing its airwing and more than seventy percent of its crew. They may have the ship in their possession, but at the moment, it’s an empty carcass.”
“What are our options with the Nimitz?” asked Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Peterson. “We clearly can’t just leave it alone. Not with what’s brewing.”
The CNO cringed. “We’ve thought about that, and we do have some recommendations. I was hoping to go over them with you shortly, but we can discuss them now.”
McElroy nodded for him to go ahead. “I have a feeling I know what you’re going to say, so let’s just dispense with the business none of us want to talk about but needs to be said.”
Admiral Smith let out a deep sigh. “We need to take it back,” he asserted. Then he held up a hand to forestall any questions. “Not only can we not just leave the ship alone to play neutral—we can’t risk its technology falling into the hands of the Russians or the Chinese. It’s also a massive military and political black eye, leaving the ship anchored in Canadian waters. Those crew videos they’ve been recording and airing on social media are having a huge negative effect on the rest of the Navy.”
The SecDef let out his breath in a huff. He was frustrated as hell with the situation. Admiral Smith was right. Those videos had become a huge problem—not just inside the Navy, but across the DoD. It was causing a lot of folks to question orders at a time when they needed the military to stay unified.
“How heavily guarded is the ship?” McElroy asked.
Smith leaned in. “We have a source currently on the ship. The sailor is providing us with some good intel about who all is on the ship, and what kind of guard force they have. As of this moment, there are no Chinese or Russian sailors on the ship, but that could change. So far, a company of German marines and a company of French marines have come on board to provide ship security. Our source has said members of both of these groups have had access to the combat information center and the classified systems there within the CIC, so I can’t guarantee that they aren’t already sharing that information with their home navies or the rest of the UN naval task force. For all we know, the Chinese and Russians are already being fed information from the French and Germans.”
Admiral Smith paused for a second before continuing. “The loss of the ship hurt our capabilities in the Pacific. However, the leakage of classified capabilities of the ship, our radar, weapons and communications systems is a far bigger concern. For all we know, the Chinese and Russians are already gaining access to what our full capabilities are. In reality, that’s probably more damaging to our ability to fight and win than losing the carrier in a battle would have been.”
McElroy shook his head in frustration. “I figured you’d say that. OK, if this is what has to happen, how do we do it in the least destructive way? Is there a way we can fly in an assault force and recapture the ship?” he asked.
The Marine general leaned forward. “The only way we could successfully land an assault force on the ship is if we can disable the carrier’s air defense systems,” he explained. “If we can’t, then they’d shoot our helicopters down before we even had a chance.”
Admiral Smith chimed in. “We do have a source on the ship—we could see if they would be able to disable the ship’s defensive weapons systems. If they could, do you believe your Marines could take the ship?”
The Marine general thought about that for a moment, and a slight smile crept across his face. “It’ll get messy, but I believe we could,” he concluded. “It’d have to be a lightning-fast raid, but I think I know just the unit to handle it.”
McElroy perked up at that comment. “OK, then, Admiral. I want you to find out from our source on the ship if they think they can disable the weapons systems. If they can, then I want your Marines ready to take our ship back.”
With that decision made, McElroy moved on to the main threat that needed to be dealt with. “What’s the situation on the other coast? What’s going on with this UN naval force forming up around Iceland?”
Admiral Smith shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “It’s brewing up to be a fight, sir. There’s no way around it. The UN is clearly not going to ba
ck down. At this juncture, most of the world wants to see us knocked down a few rungs. As a consequence, they’ve bought into this UN lie and they’ve been sending warships to this growing fleet, believing they can do it. What’s concerning is that the NSA has intercepted a flurry of messages between the UN force and the Russians. From what we’ve gathered, the Russians are committing most of their northern fleet to this fight. When you couple their ships with those of France, Germany, Italy and Norway, it’s shaping up to be quite the force.”
McElroy frowned. “So, what’s your assessment? Do we wait for them to launch the first volley or do we hit them first?” he asked.
“Our standard military doctrine would dictate that we strike them first. The last thing we want to do is wait for them to sort themselves and force us to react to them as opposed to forcing them to react to us. My concern with Russia, though, is how will they react if we successfully sink a large portion of their Navy? I don’t think they would opt to go nuclear, but you can never rule anything out when dealing with the Russians, and the same goes for China.”
McElroy brushed aside the nuclear concern. “Look, these countries have been warned to stand down,” he asserted. “The EU nations should know by now that when we issue a threat, we mean it. We told the Assad regime that if he used chemical weapons on his people, we’d respond with force. When they used chemical weapons, we hammered the air base that they were launched from. When they tested our resolve a second time, we hammered every facility in their country that was associated with their chemical weapons program. Likewise, we told the Russians if your forces got close to our forces in Syria or attacked our Kurdish allies, we’d attack them. When they disregarded our warning, we slaughtered two hundred of their paid mercenaries. Hell, we convinced that madman in North Korea to disarm and abandon his nuclear weapons program because we made it abundantly clear that if he didn’t, he wouldn’t stay in power for much longer. The EU, China and Russia know we’re not messing around. I want you to go ahead and put together a plan to neutralize this force before they have a chance to attack us. We’ll brief it to the President, and if he gives the go-ahead, then we’ll execute.”
The SecDef shifted his gaze to the Army officers. “We now have a new threat brewing on our southern border in addition to our northern border. How do you propose we handle this?”
General Vance Pruitt from the Army replied, “If we’re going to launch a preemptive attack on this naval force, then I’d recommend that we launch a massive preemptive attack on the UN’s ground forces as well. We could have the Air Force hammer them with a massive cruise missile strike and then quickly follow it up with an overwhelming number of air strikes. Once they’ve crippled the enemy’s air force and hammered their ground forces, we’d launch a ground invasion of Canada and Mexico. We’d then move swiftly to crush the enemy force and then withdraw to our own borders. As long as we don’t try to stay in Canada or Mexico and occupy any territory, we should be able to complete our combat operations within six to ten weeks at most.”
The Air Force Chief of Staff added, “If we hit their air force and air defense systems fast with a preemptive strike, it’ll reduce the number of aircraft losses we might otherwise take. We have to remember, a lot of the aircraft we’d be going up against aren’t old Cold War airframes. These are tier one NATO aircraft. Many of these nations are fielding the same aircraft we’re fielding. Shoot, the Canadians, Norwegians, Dutch and Italians collectively have eighty F-35s in Canada. The Russians and Chinese have also deployed several airwings of their most advanced aircraft.”
McElroy nodded his head. “I know. All these countries apparently knew a conflict was going to happen and summarily moved in their tier one equipment to Canada in preparation for it.” McElroy sighed. “It really pisses me off that so many of our European allies completely turned on us when they saw an opportunity to hit us.”
No one really said anything for a few moments as they all sat there waiting to see what the SecDef would say or order next. The political situation raging across the country was having a huge impact on the men and women working in the Pentagon. Many of them had colleagues who’d crossed over to the other side, and many more had family members urging them to do the same thing. As Chuck McElroy surveyed the room, he could see the looks of concern and frustration written on many of their faces. He knew he should probably say something encouraging, but he just didn’t know what to say.
Finally, he figured he’d just be honest and speak from his heart. “Look, I know no one is happy about what’s going on, and neither am I. None of us asked for this. Outside forces have taken advantage of the situation and figured out how to manipulate social media and our own news services to turn us on each other. Every one of you has a top-secret clearance and has seen the intelligence on what’s transpired. While many others in the public may not know the truth or want to accept it, you’ve seen the raw data. It’s our responsibility to make sure these outside forces don’t succeed in ripping our country apart from the inside. Do what you need to do to steel yourself for what’s about to come, because it’s going to get ugly before it gets better.”
He paused for a moment before turning to General Peterson. “I want options to present to the President by COB today. That gives you guys roughly five hours. After that, I want everyone to take the next few days to be with your families. Enjoy the downtime with them, because when you get back, things are going to shift into high gear.”
With his pep talk done, McElroy got up to head back to his office, leaving the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs to work out the details with them before they presented their plan to the President. Come January third, they’d begin preparations to end this standoff once and for all.
*******
Bellingham, Washington
Jake Baine was engrossed in a fascinating documentary on the History Channel, called The Men Who Built America. He was at least halfway into the episode where Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller began their rivalry to see who could build the largest corporate empire and become the world’s richest man when his wife, Marcy, called to him, “You want anything from Costco?”
Jake didn’t hear her. When he didn’t reply, Marcy snapped her fingers to get his attention. “Hey, zombie boy. I’m going to Costco. Do you want me to grab you anything?”
Jake paused the show, put the remote down and stood up. “Actually, I think I’ll come with you. We can get dinner while we’re there if you’d like.”
She shook her head and sported an amused grin. When they were dating, they used to eat there rather often when they wanted to have a cheap date. In Jake’s mind, nothing quite beat Costco’s dollar-fifty hot dog and drink combo.
“Really? A Costco dinner? We’re not broke, you know—we can afford McDonald’s,” she said sarcastically.
Jake laughed. “I know, but I like their pizza and those fresh-made churros.”
Marcy rolled her eyes, but then she smiled. “OK, fine. You twisted my arm. We can have dinner there. Get your shoes and jacket on.”
The two of them headed out the door and climbed into his Ford-150. It wasn’t too far of a drive—only about ten minutes from their subdivision. As they traveled down the lightly snow-dusted road, Jake gave the dash a little pat.
“Man, I love this truck,” he remarked quietly.
When he’d gotten back from his deployment to the Middle East at the end of 2016, Jake had spent a month shopping for a new truck until he’d found his F-150 Lariat on a DEA auction block down in Seattle. He’d made a few inquiries with some of his law enforcement contacts in the city and was able to bid on the truck. Fortunately for him, he’d won and snagged the truck for a song. He’d purchased the two-year-old truck, which would normally retail for around $30,000, for $21,000. Of course, it had a few bullet holes that needed to be patched up and some bodywork that needed to be done, but Jake didn’t mind. It was the truck he’d always wanted.
“You think it’s going to snow much?” Marcy asked.
&nb
sp; Jake turned on the windshield wipers to push the melting snow from the window. Not taking his eyes off the road, he replied, “Not sure. I didn’t see any news alerts about a snowstorm, but I could have missed something.”
As they drove down the road, Jake’s eyes were constantly on alert, checking and double-checking everything on the sides of the road and looking for anything that might be out of the ordinary. When they’d approach a parked car on the side of the road, he’d inspect the rear tires and the back of the car to see if they were sitting lower than the rest of the car. His eyes darted about, searching for signs of a new patch on the road or garbage that looked out of place. He might have returned home from the war, but his mind and his instincts were still very much in the thick of the combat that had nearly killed him several years ago.
When Jake and Marcy drove into the parking lot, Jake noticed how packed it was. “Is there a sale going on or something?” he asked.
She laughed. “No. It’s always this busy on Saturdays.”
He felt his forehead scrunching up involuntarily. “I guess I’m usually at home when you make these Costco or Wal-Mart runs,” he remarked.
Jake hated the feelings of anxiety he’d get when he was around large groups of people, or the fact that he couldn’t control any of the situations happening around him. Aside from his job with the county, he usually only ventured outside his house to go to church, visit the VFW lodge a couple times a month, and make his once-a-month journey to the rifle range with a couple of old Army buddies.
