by Jack Strain
In a matter of ten minutes, Major General Byron Maxwell cued up comms traffic from Ranger units in Syria to a Fleet Marine commander in the Med. Wolfe was about to say something clever when suddenly all heads turned towards the source of a communication override that came over the PA system.
“Alert One Alert One. We have a priority Flash Update from NORAD. Early warning satellites confirm multiple missile launches converging on U.S. and Allied forces. Missile count above twenty and climbing.”
Major General Maxwell turned on the system mike and announced in a perfectly calm, almost stoic voice, “Confirm target area and pull up images on the main threat board.”
Seconds later, the two-hundred-inch high-definition digital screen lit up with crisp images of the Persian Gulf region and clearly designated American and Allied naval and air units. A series of multiple red streaks rising from a half a dozen different points along the Iranian coastline indicated a major anti-ship missile attack in progress, the second of the morning.
General Maxwell quickly scanned the threat board and keyed the mike, “Okay, people, look alive. We have Marines converging on the Iranian naval base at Abu Musa. Send flash message to all American commands of incoming missiles in the region and order any available airborne assets to converge on the launch zones. Suppression of mobile missile threat is now our immediate priority.”
President Wolfe watched with rapt fascination but had difficulty following everything, so he asked, “General, what are we looking at?”
Hiding his irritation of having to undertake a primer lesson in modern warfare in the middle of an attack, General Maxwell took his headset off and said, “Mr. President, we have the 11th and 15th MEUs hitting the Iranian naval base at Abu Musa right now as we speak. That’s about four thousand Marines, sir. They are landing on amphibs and flying into hot landing zones in Ospreys. The Iranians have timed their missile attack at a point where we are most vulnerable. U.S. and Allied naval vessels are supporting the landing, so they have the best chance of hurting us until we suppress their missile capabilities.”
President Wolfe was listening but watched the screen as blue and red symbols connected at various points. Too old for video games, he never really got the fascination with them until now. He said, “I see some red symbols dropping off. Are we going to ride this one out?”
“Mr. President, I am going to open up the secure channel, so we can listen to Captain Abbott who is the Air Defense commander for the Stennis Group. His flagship is the U.S.S Mobile Bay, an Aegis air-defense cruiser.”
After a momentary delay, the president and his small group of advisors were focused on the words of men and women ten thousand miles away who were calmly and professionally managing one of the most intense aspects of modern warfare, riding out a missile attack.
“. . . lift off, lift off. We have six more Vampires in the air. Designate raid four. Bearing 215 . . . looks like Qaders. Speed at Mach two and climbing . . .”
“. . . order the Spruance [DDG 111] to extend their missile envelope to cover raid four. Start lighting them up . . .”
“. . . Marines are receiving heavy fire from Iranian beach defenses. Two, repeat two, amtracs hit. Marines are requesting immediate air and fire support . . .”
“. . . negative that. Not until we clear these damn missiles . . .”
“. . . raid two vampires are all hit. Three missiles from raid three are now active tracking. Recommend full counter-measures . . .” [U.S. and Allied naval vessels began popping chaff bundles and placed Phalanx CIWS guns on automatic mode to target any leakers.]
“. . . oh shit, we have ten more missile tracks. Sea skimmers, designate raid five. Jesus, they are moving fast. Up to Mach three. Sunburns . . . we have Sunburns inbound . . .”
“. . . Sunburns? I thought we took those out when we took out their fleet units . . .”
“. . . Sir, they must have converted some to mobile launchers. Bastards played this one beautiful. Stockdale [DDG 106] reports almost out of Standard missiles. Recommend shifting the Decatur [DDG 73] to cover . . .”
“. . . But that will weaken the Stennis [CVN 74] air defense. But it’s either the Stennis or the Amphibs . . .”
“. . . Do it . . .”
The president stood open-mouthed completely absorbed by the stream of messages, and all the while watched as symbols on the screen kept shifting and red missile tracks went off the board. He was about to let out a cheer when he heard the unthinkable.
“. . . hit, hit. One Sunburn just got through and struck the Mesa Verde [LPD 19]. Repeat: The Mesa Verde has been hit . . .”
“. . . I need eyes on the Mesa. How bad . . .?”
“. . . Sir, she’s gone. She broke in half. Major secondary explosions. Rescue vessels already en route . . .”
The words cut through the room like an icy wind on a deep winter day - they could feel it in their bones. It stung. The U.S. Navy just lost its first ship in combat since the Second World War, and everyone in the room felt the weight of that realization.
Chairman General Duncan was the first to speak and barked out with his command voice that had been honed over four decades of leading men in combat and said, “Okay people, the Mesa Verde is gone and not a damn thing we can do about it. We have Marines in direct combat operations who need additional support. Get those Marines the fire support they need pronto. That is your first priority. The Verde comes later. Let’s move like we have a purpose. Now.”
Duncan then turned to address the president who looked to be in shock, “Mr. President, sir, I think its best if we go to the “Tank” for the briefing. Things are pretty hectic out here as you can see.”
Wolfe was looking down at the ground and slowly shaking his head. This wasn’t a video game. Men and women just died. In a grave voice, Wolfe asked, “How many, General? How many did we just lose?”
Standing ramrod straight, General Duncan’s ice-blue eyes stared at the president and never wavered. The man has to know this isn’t a fucking game. “Depends how many of my Marines have already landed, sir.”
“How many?”
“The Mesa Verde has a crew of about 350 and carries another 700 Marines. We won’t know for a while, sir, but I will keep you updated. I suggest we hold off releasing this to the American people for a few hours until we know more.”
Wolfe nodded back, as it hit him like a punch to the gut that all those sailors and Marines who were suddenly gone or left floating in oily waters in the Persian Gulf waiting to be rescued were there because of him. How many more would die before this war would end?
A sullen-looking President Wolfe followed close behind General Duncan while his aides followed a respectful distance to the rear. Dutch Shultz stopped short and held his arm out, startling Baxter Davis who exclaimed, “What the hell. Dutch?!”
“I’ll tell you what the hell, Baxter. Did you just watch the same thing I saw? How many mothers lost sons, wives their husbands, how many kids just lost a parent? You happy now? You’re finally getting the great war with Islam that you and your fellow nutcases have been getting a hard on for years. How many dead Americans did you figure a part of this little war?”
Baxter’s dark eyes flared in response, but instead of raising his voice, he simply shook his head side to side in complete derision and said, “You’re a goddamned broken record, Dutch. If you were around with FDR, I guess we would have thrown in the towel after Pearl Harbor? The Bataan Death March? North Africa? You tell me. Or did we keep fighting until the job got done?”
Tired of being made to look like some creampuff liberal pussy by Baxter, Shultz’s voice began to rise, “FDR didn’t pick that war. He had no other choice. This was a choice and our president, and MY friend, is going to blame himself for the rest of his life after today.”
“Blame himself? Why? He didn’t start this war. They started it, a long time ago. Only now we are starting to fight back. In war, people die, even someone who never served must understand that.”
Shultz
was about to respond when his emergency tone from his phone chirped. Doubly annoyed, he reached into his breast pocket, pulled it out and clicked on the flashing text symbol. He quickly clicked the video link and an Al-Jazeera news clip played. It was images from Tehran, and an English translation described the scene as a wide-angle shot showed hundreds of blackened corpses, many of them obviously children, laid out in an open field. Fires and heavy smoke were still buffering from two buildings in the foreground. Loud wales from grieving relatives could be heard clearly.
Oh, shit, this is bad. What in the hell have we gone and done?
Pausing the feed, Shultz showed Baxter his phone and said, “Yeah, people die, Baxter. By the looks of this, I would say a couple of hundred. Take a look.”
Shultz was deep in thought as he watched as even Baxter’s normal cocksure, know-it-all expression changed as he watched the clip.
The American people were cheering for their President last night, let’s see what happens when they hear about a sunken American ship and hundreds of dead kids. Now, what in the hell are we going to do?
Chapter Twenty Four
October 16th
MSNBC News Special Report
“Thank you for joining us on the eight o’clock hour for this MSNBC Special Report, America at War. I am Christopher Strawes, and to say the past twenty-four hours have been momentous would be a gross understatement. Since President Wolfe’s declaration of war against terror, American and Allied air, land, and sea forces have been in non-stop combat operations across the globe, but especially against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
“The challenge I have here tonight is where to begin. Any one of these events on any given night would have been the lead story and likely take up the majority of our program, but the scope of the American military offensive is unlike anything the world has seen since the Second World War.
“The Pentagon has confirmed that bombing raids against Iran’s missile and nuclear sites remain a priority, but MSNBC was the first to report two hours ago that Iran’s infrastructure continues to be a target. The Kharg Island Terminal Complex, responsible for 90% of all of Iran’s crude oil exports is on fire tonight and reported to be totally destroyed. The Pentagon has confirmed that Iran’s nine main oil refineries have all been struck by a combination of missiles and bombs. Satellite images above Iran show dark, heavy plumes of smoke and burning flames in cities and industrial centers across the country.
“This is a major blow for the citizens of Iran. Iran is the world’s third-largest exporter of crude oil, however, due to a combination of decades worth of sanctions and an exploding population, they have been forced to import upwards of 300,000 barrels per day of refined fuel because their domestic refineries were inadequate. The president promised the American people that Iran would be made to pay a price. Well, it appears that is exactly what is occurring.
“Let’s turn to Monica Cresswell reporting from Amman, Jordan. Monica, those images released earlier on al Jazeera seem to have unleashed a firestorm of unrest throughout the Muslim world. Can you give us some updates?”
“Thanks, Chris. As you can see behind me, there is a massive crowd in front of the U.S. Embassy protesting the American and Israeli attacks. Jordan has traditionally been one of the few Middle East nations who generally back the United States, but that may be changing. Those images released earlier today of hundreds of dead civilians were quite chilling.”
“Monica, the White House has still not officially responded to these reports of civilian casualties, but we are being told that they may number in the thousands. What are you hearing over there?”
In the background, the camera panned to several American and Israeli flags on fire and increasingly loud chanting from the surging crowd. “Sorry, Chris, it’s getting louder here, and our security people are telling us to hurry and finish. I do want to report that an Al Jazeera story that just broke an hour ago seems to have taken relatively peaceful demonstrations and started to turn them ugly when they reported that widespread failures in water lines in more than a dozen major Iranian cities caused isolated fires from American missile and bombing attacks to turn into citywide blazes that seem to have killed so many civilians.
Al Jazeera is reporting that we purposely turned off the water via some kind of cyber attack, and ever since then, the protests have become increasingly more violent. I have not been able to confirm, but . . . AHHHH!”
The MSNBC correspondent let out a piercing cry when she was struck in the head by a palm-sized rock. The camera panned haphazardly all over the pace and voices could be heard cursing and yelling as rocks rained down on the news crew.
Chris Straw started shouting into the camera, “Monica…Monica…are you all right…are you all right. Get out of there…get out.”
Then the screen went black, and a visibly shocked Hayes stared wide-eyed into the camera and for a second kept looking off camera and holding his hands up and finally said, “We have lost our feed from Amman. Clearly, something terrible has happened. We will keep our viewers apprised of the situation as soon as we know more. Now let’s turn to veteran foreign correspondent Sheila Benjamin. She’s live in Tel Aviv and loud sirens can be heard in the background as yet another barrage of missiles is raining down on Israel. Sheila, can you give us an update?”
The White House Situation Room
The principals-only meeting of the National Security Council had been going on for the past hour. Thus far, things have been grim. The loss of the Mesa Verde seemed to overshadow the overall successes of Avenging Angel. Most of the Marines had already landed, but the loss of life was high. The Russian-supplied Sunburn was a nasty anti-ship missile, a fast sea skimmer packing a powerful 750-pound warhead that ruptured the Mesa Verde’s jet fuel tanks used to fly the Marines’ tilt-rotor Osprey’s off the decks. The powerful explosion left 200 dead, and a very real PR nightmare for the administration.
The U.S. Navy doesn’t lose ships . . . until today.
However, the military men in the room knew it could have been far worse. There was no disputing the fact that Operation Cyber Strike had been a remarkable success. War games conducted over the past two decades predicted the potential for significant losses at sea if Iran decided to block the Strait of Hormuz and unleashed their anti-ship missiles and gunboats. Secretary Mahler had been quite clear on the matter and said without the massive cyber-attacks neutralizing Iran’s ballistic missile capability casualties would be far higher and more American ships would now rest at the bottom of the Arabian Sea.
More than nine hundred sorties and only two downed planes, and only one due to hostile fire. The Iranian and Syrian air forces were effectively destroyed leaving American warplanes in complete control of enemy airspaces. Cyber Command reports that their people still maintain control of both Iran’s and Syria’s defense and communication networks. More than fifty percent of all Iranian ballistic missile launches have been mission failures due to cyber-attacks and that most of the others either missed their target or were intercepted.
Left unsaid were the two dozen that made it through, including hits on-base facilities on Muharraq Airfield in Bahrain and Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. An American transport plane was struck on the runway but fortunately had already unloaded its Air Force personnel, though two pilots were lost in the explosion. Additionally, two Saudi refineries suffered deadly strikes and fires continued to burn through the night.
In twenty-four hours of operations, Iran was effectively reduced to a Third World power. In another forty-eight hours, Iran’s nuclear capability will be an afterthought. More than two dozen terror camps and Quds Force locations had been hit, several hit twice. The Iranian regime had effectively had its head cut off. The CIA reported that no one knows who’s in charge and reports of fighting between the Army and Revolutionary Guards already started.
Mahler informed the group that Marines seized the important Abu Mesa naval base and were now waiting for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade to mate up with Marin
e Pre-positioning Squadron Two that held equipment and thirty days’ worth of combat supplies for an entire brigade that was now steaming towards the Gulf from Diego Garcia.
In less than seventy-two hours, plans called for the Marines to seize the much larger Iranian naval base on Qeshm Island just across from Bandar Abbas. Suppression of Iran’s anti-ship missiles would continue to be a priority, but once this key strategic naval base was secured, oil would begin to flow again, and Iran’s ability to interdict movement through the Straits would be finished.
President Wolfe liked his briefings kept brief and to the point. If they were not, he was often observed looking around the room or seen doodling - but not this time. Today, he was clearly agitated and short-tempered. His face was flushed bright red and his eyes were glazed over and sporting heavy dark bags under them. But what really caused several disconcerting looks between his advisors was the fact that Wolfe’s normally perfectly groomed thick red hair was a mess, and instead of a suit and tie, his shirt was unbuttoned, and he was missing his jacket.
Secretary Mahler finished his briefing and nodded to the director of the CIA, Nicholas Tomasso, the former Congressman from New Mexico and a former spook himself in his younger days before - as he liked to joke about it – he sold out and decided to make some real money. Tomasso had thick dark hair and a menacing presence about him. More than a few of his fellow Congressmen joked over the years that on the weekends he used be an extra on the old HBO show The Sopranos. He actually liked that characterization and was known to play it up from time to time, but not this morning. Today he was all business.
“Mr. President, I think we need to discuss the growing unrest over the past twelve hours since Al Jazeera released those video clips. My station chiefs have been sending high priority cables since last night concerning increasingly violent demonstrations from Tunisia to Brussels. That reporter from MSNBC and her crew are still missing, and my people are saying she’s gone. She won’t be the last. Those images of the burned bodies piled in that park plus the non-stop social media feeds coming out of Iran, Syria, even Pakistan are creating a very dangerous situation.”