“Visible from space? Really?” asked Ryan with a touch of pride. “You didn’t tell me that.”
“And give you a big head? Perish the thought.” Calvin looked back at the colonel. “Sorry, sir, we digress. What can we do for you?”
“Well, if you can stay awake long enough, we need to know whatever you can tell us about enemy troop strength, enemy positioning and how we can break through here,” said the colonel.
“How you can break through?” asked Calvin. “You’re already through. By coming the way you did, you can march right down the other side of the hill and be behind enemy lines. The Chinese can’t be everywhere, so they are blocking the main valley. We could have left any time we wanted; we were just having too much fun here.”
“OK, so we can just go down the valley and sneak around the Chinese lines?” asked the colonel.
“Absolutely. It looks like you have transportation,” said Calvin, “so you can get down there and hit them from behind any time you’d like. Give me a map, and I’ll show you how to get there. Hell, let me ride in the front helo, and I’ll help lead you there.”
“I thought you were too tired to do anything?” asked the colonel.
“Well, sir, I’m getting my second wind and besides, I’m going that way, too. Oh, yeah, and no one’s shot at me in a couple of hours now. I guess I’m missing the whiz of bullets flying by my ear. Where’s a map?”
The 101st had arrived in helicopters from another one of the 160th SOAR units. Because of the missions they flew, the aviators in the 160th SOAR were the best-qualified in the Army; getting into the fields near Ryan’s house was a snap for them, whether they were flying one of their heavy-lift MH-47G Chinooks, medium-lift MH-60K/L Black Hawks, or their light utility A/MH-6M Little Birds. Some of their pilots had been flying all night to get the helicopters there. They would be stepping down for a rest break, while the pilots from the local unit took over. Experts in flying the local valleys, they would lead the assault.
Calvin quickly showed them the best route of flight to get down to the main valley that I-90 ran through. Judging by the sounds of gunfire that they had heard when they were at the truck stop, Calvin and Ryan judged that the line of battle was around the Olallie State Park, a fact that was confirmed by the colonel’s personal observation.
There was a quarry about a mile behind the battle line. They could land near the quarry, form up and then assault the Chinese battle lines from behind, rolling them up and opening up the line of advance. Once they broke the Chinese line, there was nothing to stop the Americans short of the city of Seattle.
Before the soldiers boarded their transport helos, Colonel Daly addressed them as a group. There were about 1,000 men, but his voice had that ‘command tone’ that carried, like several drill sergeants that Calvin had known. “Gentlemen!” he said, “The 101st Airborne Division was born on August 19, 1942. On that day, its first commander, Major General William C. Lee, read his General Order Number 5, promising his new recruits that the unit had ‘no history, but had a rendezvous with destiny.’” He looked down at a piece of paper he was holding. “General Lee then went on to tell them,
‘Due to the nature of our armament, and the tactics in which we shall perfect ourselves, we shall be called upon to carry out operations of far-reaching military importance and we shall habitually go into action when the need is immediate and extreme.
Let me call your attention to the fact that our badge is the great American eagle. This is a fitting emblem for a division that will crush its enemies by falling upon them like a thunderbolt from the skies.
The history we shall make, the record of high achievement we hope to write in the annals of the American Army and the American people, depends wholly and completely on the men of this division. Each individual, each officer and each enlisted man, must therefore regard himself as a necessary part of a complex and powerful instrument for the overcoming of the enemies of the nation. Each, in his own job, must realize that he is not only a means, but an indispensable means for obtaining the goal of victory. It is, therefore, not too much to say that the future itself, in whose molding we expect to have our share, is in the hands of the soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division.’
Colonel Daly looked up and continued, “Today’s mission is indeed of far-reaching military importance, and our need is both immediate and extreme. We come to take back our city that was taken from us ruthlessly and without warning. We will fall upon the enemy like General Lee’s thunderbolt from the skies, and we will snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. We will do these things, because you are the finest examples of your generation, and because each of you is that ‘indispensible means’ for obtaining the goal of victory. The future is in your hands today! I know you will not only make me, but our entire nation proud. Give ‘em hell!”
One thousand voices all yelled simultaneously, “Currahee!”
With that, the soldiers of the 101st went to their helicopters and off to war.
North of Naval Air Station Fallon, Fallon, NV, 0600 PDT
It had been a long wait, but they had finally been given the ‘go ahead’ to launch. Captain Jim ‘Muddy’ Waters, the Commander of Carrier Air Wing 2, was ready to lead his aviators into battle. He was also known as the air wing’s ‘CAG,’ an abbreviation for Carrier Air Group commander, a term used in the early days of carrier aviation. Although the ‘Air Group’ had become an ‘Air Wing,’ the term CAG had continued to this day (perhaps because ‘CAG’ was easier to say than ‘CAW’). Two days ago, he had lost several of his aviators on the opening day of the war to sneak attacks by the Chinese. He was ready to pay them back. With interest.
The key to air wing strike planning, as every aviator knows, is to build a sanctuary in which to operate. Depending on the mission, this might be high altitude (if the threat were only rifles and handheld SAMs), or it might be low level (for aircraft and larger SAMs).Until now, creating a sanctuary around Seattle would have been difficult due to the robust package of both high and low-level threats that the Chinese had brought with them.
His air wing had been waiting for the removal of either the HQ-19 or the PGZ-95 threats; now, they had been blessed to have both of them taken out. Could his air wing have removed the threats, themselves? He believed that they could have, through a process of wearing them away, but it would have put his aviators in harm’s way to take them out. He didn’t know what direct-action force on the ground had taken them out, nor did he care; he was just happy that he got to go hunting for bigger things.
Captain Waters’ mission today was to take out the Chinese ‘eye in the sky.’ Somehow, the Chinese had flown one of their giant AWACS planes to the United States and were basing it at Sea-Tac airfield. With it in the air, they had a great picture of everything flying within a 200 mile radius of Seattle. That couldn’t be allowed to continue. With it out of the way, U.S. aviators would be able to use the terrain that they knew so well to their own advantage, without the Chinese being able to look down and see them in the valleys.
A big group of his air wing’s aircraft was forming up just south of Eugene, Oregon, carefully staying outside the 200 mile exclusion zone that the Chinese had declared around Seattle. They were nothing more than a diversion, though. They would periodically fly toward the exclusion zone like they intended to attack, but would then break off at the last minute to stay outside it. It kept the Chinese on edge and hopefully focused their attention somewhere other than where the real threat was. Of course, they had to know that this was exactly what the Americans were doing, but they still had to honor the threat the strike package represented, nonetheless.
The real work would be done by the six aircraft in his group, which were currently being led toward Spokane by one of the Air Force’s KC-135 tankers. All of the F-18 aircraft were taking turns getting gas from the tanker, so that they would have as much as possible to fly the mission. CAG was flying in the #205 aircraft of the Blue Blasters of Strike Fighter Squadron 34. In its 75th year of
service, VFA-34 had a long and distinguished history dating back to World War II. Its most recent combat experience had not gone so well; the squadron had lost two of its aircraft to Chinese fire two days previously. One of their pilots, LTJG ‘Oscar’ Berkman, had been killed, and the other, LT ‘Calvin’ Hobbs, was trapped behind enemy lines. CAG and his wingman, ‘Blaster 206’ flown by LCDR Fred ‘Hugh’ Mungo, were flying in memory of Oscar.
The other four aircraft of the flight, the four ‘Kestrels’ of VFA-137, were flying in memory of the aircraft their squadron had lost on the first day of the war. ‘Falcon 303’ had been shot down and its pilot, LT Michael ‘Murph’ Murphy, killed. CDR Steve ‘Cool Breeze’ Jackson, the commanding officer of the squadron, had evaded the Chinese fire on the first night of the war. He was returning with a vengeance, shared by the other three pilots from his squadron that were with him.
Reaching the Washington border, the Hornets detached and began descending over Walla Walla as they headed west to begin their combat run-in. “Eagle 601, Blaster 205,” CAG radioed the E-2D. The E-2D was the carrier version of the Air Force AWACS aircraft. Like its bigger cousin, the two-engine turboprop aircraft provided early warning of incoming aircraft and directed friendly fighters to intercept them.
“Blaster 205, this is Eagle 601, go ahead,” the E-2 replied.
“Eagle 601, say status of the eye,” CAG asked. The Chinese ‘eye in the sky’ was a formerly Russian A-50 Mainstay AWACS aircraft. CAG was asking, in a somewhat obvious code, whether the A-50 was currently airborne.
“Blaster 205, Eagle 601, the eye is open; I say again, the eye is open.” The E-2 confirmed that the A-50 was airborne and operating over Seattle. There were other code words that would have been used if the aircraft had not been flying or if it had been operating in a different area.
“Roger, Blaster copies,” acknowledged the CAG. “Blaster and flight are proceeding on mission.”
“Roger,” replied the E-2, “good luck and good hunting.”
“Thanks, Eagle. Blaster, out,” said CAG, signing off.
Onboard the A-50 AWACS, Over Seattle, WA, 0615 PDT
The AWACS intercept officer wasn’t fooled. Sure, he saw the aircraft to the south, hanging out just outside the exclusion zone. As obvious as they were, they couldn’t be the real threat. He figured it was far more likely that the threat was the group of aircraft that had taken off from Fallon, joined with another, larger, aircraft, and were proceeding toward Spokane. Sure enough, they detached from the other aircraft, which was probably a tanker, and began proceeding toward the Seattle area, descending along the way so that the Chinese missile systems wouldn’t be able to see them. The AWACS would still be able to see them, most of the time, as they went low through the mountain valleys.
He didn’t know where they were going, but he doubted that he wanted them to get there. He would watch them and have some of his friends waiting.
Onboard Blaster 205, Cascade Mountains, WA, 0630 PDT
CAG watched as the four Super Hornets pulled forward into the lead. Like the offensive line of a football team, their job was to open up a hole in the enemy defenses and create a sanctuary in which he and his wingman could operate. They had continued to descend and were now flying at 200 feet above the ground and 420 knots. CAG loved flying low level, but was concentrating too hard on the mission to get any enjoyment out of it today.
As they reached the Cascade Mountains and began flying along the I-90 corridor, CAG could see the U.S. Army forces gathering behind the front lines to the east of North Bend. It was surprising how quickly they had been able to assemble this many troops, CAG thought, but when it’s your own country that you’re defending, you do whatever it takes.
The formation of aircraft reached the front lines, and CAG could see the forces fighting down below him. Although the Chinese didn’t have much warning that the Kestrels were coming, they were still able to shoot at them as they went by, and tracers filled the air. It was worse for the two Blasters. Three miles in trail of the Kestrels, the enemy had a little more warning they were coming. As the Blasters overflew the front line, tracers again filled the sky and a handheld surface-to-air missile rose from the Chinese side, but it did not lock on to either of the aircraft. As the formation cleared the fighting on the ground, the Kestrels began launching their HARMs.
The AGM-88 HARM was developed to counteract the proliferation of radar-guided SAMs. Prior to launch, the missile was given instructions for where to go, when to start looking and what type of missile system to look for. Finding a radar associated with that missile system, the HARM would follow its beam back to the transmitter, blowing up 100’ above it and showering it with 25,000 tungsten cubes. Any radar hit by the blast of a HARM would be rendered completely non-operational, shredded beyond repair.
While the HQ-19 missile system in North Bend had been destroyed, CAG knew that the Chinese had brought other missile systems with them. American reconnaissance aircraft had indications that a variety of them were operating in the vicinity of downtown Seattle. In addition to the Chinese Army’s missiles, the Chinese destroyer that had pulled into Tacoma was also known to have a surface-to-air capability. If the Chinese chose to try to shoot down the American F-18s, it would be a target rich environment for the HARMs.
The Kestrels launched a HARM every 15 seconds for the last two minutes that they were in the mountains. As they broke out of the mountains and pulled up, the missiles raced ahead of them to their preprogrammed destinations in Seattle and Tacoma, looking for radars to attack. The Americans hoped that the SAM radar would be radiating, so that the HARMs could lock on and destroy them. If the Chinese wanted to keep the radars off so that they didn’t get attacked by the HARMs, that was OK with the Americans, too. As long as the Chinese didn’t launch missiles at the American fighters, it was a ‘win’ for them.
As the American fighters pulled up, the warning indicators on the Kestrels began to illuminate as the Chinese missile systems tried to lock them up. Two of the radars, a Tomb Stone tracking radar from the HQ-9 system located at McChord air base and a Grill Pan radar from a HQ-18 system attracted the attention of HARMs and were destroyed. Additionally, the PLAN destroyer Changsha activated the Tomb Stone of its naval HQ-9 system, and attracted a HARM, as well. The blast of the missile cleaned off all of the radars and rigging on the front half of the ship, as well as four crewmen who were unlucky enough to be top-side at the time.
As the aircraft climbed, they saw what they had been briefed to expect, four J-20 stealth aircraft coming from the direction of Seattle-Tacoma Airport. The J-20 was a fifth-generation fighter that was designed and manufactured by the Chinese Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group, based in good part on technology stolen from the United States’ own F-22 and F-35 projects. The aircraft first flew in January, 2011, and had been in full production for over a year. As stealthy as they were, though, nothing that humankind had yet created could give it invisibility from the human eye, nor would the aircrafts’ stealth protect them from the wrath of the Americans’ guns as the four Super Hornets rushed to take on the J-20s. Even better, thought the Americans, the Chinese forces on the ground couldn’t fire SAMs at them while they were dog fighting the Chinese fighters.
CAG and Blaster 206 stayed low, roaring over houses and towns at better than 500 knots. Their mission wasn’t to play with the fighters one-on-one; their mission was with the AWACS. Reaching the water, they pulled up, their APG-73 radars searching for the A-50. The massive plane had a giant radar signature and was easily spotted by the Blasters. Both aircraft locked it up and prepared to fire their air-to-air missiles.
Onboard the A-50 AWACS, Over Seattle, WA, 0645 PDT
The AWACS intercept officer had been fooled. He had seen the HARM missiles being fired by the Hornets and guessed that the aircraft were coming to attack something either in Seattle or Tacoma. The profile indicated a ground attack, not that they were coming for him. Still, he had brought in the fighters to dispatch the Americans, but the Am
ericans not only ‘rose’ to the task, they had already been climbing as if they expected the fighters and welcomed battle with them. This was all wrong, as it indicated they were doing something other than what he was prepared to defend against. He had lost the other two aircraft in the ground clutter, but quickly picked them up again as they began climbing, coming right for him! He immediately began screaming at the fighters to come and help him, trying to get them to disengage with the decoys and come eliminate the two Americans that were coming to destroy him.
One of the J-20s broke off to come to his rescue and was immediately destroyed by Falcon 300, flown by the Kestrels’ Commanding Officer, CDR Steve ‘Cool Breeze’ Jackson. One of his other pilots, LT Carl ‘Guns’ Simpson in Falcon 310, also succeeded in shooting down a J-20. Guns, chosen for this mission because he had the highest gunnery scores of anyone in his squadron, had been unable to lock up the J-20 he was fighting with a missile. He had calmly switched to guns and hit the cockpit with a spray of cannon fire. The Chinese fighter had gone out of control and flown into the ground, the pilot already dead.
Onboard Blaster 205, Over Seattle, WA, 0645 PDT
The plan had worked, and both Blaster 205 and Blaster 206 had shots at the AWACS. “Fox 3,” CAG called over the radio, indicating his air-to-air missile launch. The call was echoed seconds later as his wingman fired his own advanced medium-range air-to-air missile (AMRAAM), and then two more times as they each fired another one at the lumbering AWACS.
“Watch out, CAG,” shouted Lieutenant Commander Dave ‘Swimmer’ Malloney over the radio. “You’ve got a bogey coming around toward your six!” Swimmer, the pilot of Falcon 301, had been fighting the J-20 when the enemy fighter had gone to try to help the AWACS; he was letting CAG know that the Chinese fighter was coming around behind him.
Occupied Seattle (Occupied Seattle Book 2) Page 18