by Unknown
MASH Unit Near Seoul
The MASH unit was operating out of portable field hospital tents set up just outside Seoul. The doctors worked on Ricks for five hours before having him wheeled into an intensive care unit. The surgeon walked out of the operating theater and slowly pulled the cap off his head. In some ways the MASH units were exactly like the television show. They took in badly mangled bodies and fixed them up to go to a larger hospital. In Ricks’ case, both legs had to be amputated just below the knee. He had tried to make things work, but they were so badly crushed he couldn’t restore blood flow to the feet. The things had popped like a watermelon being hit by a car. As he came out of the tent, two men were standing there waiting for him. Though tired, the doctor was always there to help.
“Hello, Colonel, what can I do for you today?” he asked.
“Doctor, we are waiting to hear about a sergeant named Ricks. Do you know if he’s out of surgery?”
The doctor was somewhat surprised. It was seldom that a wounded man got senior officer attention. And the man with him was a sergeant major. “Yes, he’s out. Why don’t you come with me?”
Hearing the noise of something landing at a pad, the doctor took the men into another climate-controlled tent and they sat down. “I just got out of surgery with your Sergeant Ricks. Unfortunately we had to remove both his legs. There was just no way to save them,” he said. He saw the pained reaction on the faces of the two men. “He lost a ton of blood, but we were able to replace it. His other vital signs are coming back. I was able to save about eight inches of his tibia and fibula so that it will be easier for him to wear a prosthetic. The rest of the cuts and bruises we were able to sew up with no problem. The big thing now is to watch him a few days in case of infection and then ship him home.” The doctor could tell his words were not helping the men, but he continued on. “Look, guys, I did my best. At least he’s alive and he can learn to walk again,” the doctor said.
“It’s OK, Doc,” said Hufham. “It’s just that Ricks has been with us since the very day this thing started. He’s got a new wife down in Pusan and…” he muttered out before stopping.
“Is there anything we can do to help?” asked Peterson.
“Not at present. When he wakes up he’ll need a lot of support. Losing limbs is pretty traumatic for a guy. If you can keep checking in when you can, I can let you know when he comes around, then maybe we can get his wife up to be with him. We won’t be moving him for a while,” he said.
The door opened and General Richardson walked in. Glancing over she saw Peterson and Hufham stand and went over to greet them. “Hello, Colonel, Sergeant Major. I was looking for you. What are you guys doing here?”
Peterson introduced the doctor and then broke the bad news.
“This is the Ricks who….” she asked.
“Yes, Ma’am. The doctor just had to amputate both his legs. But he’ll be fine,” said Peterson.
Richardson closed her eyes and hung her head a moment. “Guys, I’m sorry. Doctor, if there is anything that man needs, including a private plane flight to the States, you tell me and it will get done. I would appreciate updates on his condition if I may. Just make sure he recovers from this,” she said forcefully.
“We’re doing that already, General. I’ll get him through.”
“Good man. Is he awake?”
“No, General, that may take a while. He was pretty beat up. I’ll let you know when he wakes at the same time I let these guys know,” the doctor said.
“I appreciate it,” she said shaking his hand. “Now if I may drag these guys away?” she asked while pulling Peterson and Hufham aside. It was a sad thing the men had nearly lost one of their own, but now she needed to know about the mission.
Express Train, North Korea
The technicians were loaded onto a train making its way to Yuktae-dong. The passenger car they rode was plain and utilitarian; very different from the car just behind them. The American-made Pullman car had all the amenities for a head of state. It had been a gift from the People’s Republic of China when North Korea had become a nation. The heavily cushioned seats and polished surfaces were far above what the ordinary citizen used. Yet the fabrics were dated and looked a little worn. Cloth covers hid the rough spots making it look like some old grandmother’s parlor. Kim, Choi, and several others sat in the chairs and dozed as the diesel train made its way along the lines. The track had been covered and it would be difficult for anyone to see the train on the tracks.
“How much longer until we arrive?” Kim asked.
“Four more hours, Comrade Chairman,” said an older man who made sure their every need was fulfilled.
Kim rose and walked back to his sleeping cabin. “Do not wake me until we arrive,” he said before closing the door behind him.
USS Iowa
“Chris, how about taking the North Carolina a little farther north tonight and see if you can find anything going on,” said Hammond over the secure communications line. “I’m going to move up towards Hamhung and I’m sending Alabama up towards Tanchon. If you can take a look at the base in Yuktae-dong we can move a little closer to the border tomorrow night, over.”
“I’ll change course right away. The way things are going I doubt we’ll actually find anything. From the satellite feed we are about to take Pyongyang, over,” said Captain Hustvedt.
“That may be true, but we still got to earn our pay. I just have a feeling we might miss something, over.”
“You know I have been feeling the same way. I should arrive at the base about 2000, over.”
“Roger that. Let me know if you find anything. Sierra Whiskey out,” Hammond said signing off. “XO, let’s head north. We’ll cruise in our sector a little tonight then head up toward China. That might get interesting,” he said.
“Never know, they might come out and play with us a little,” Davis said. “Did you see the message about us having a visitor in a couple of days?”
“Yep. Didn’t say who it was but said it was a Washington delegation. I’m getting tired of VIPs.”
“No rest for the wicked. I’ll get us headed north,” Davis said. He got up from his seat in Strike and headed for the bridge.
Hammond sat back. The war was moving rapidly now. It probably wouldn’t be long before it was over. He thought about going back home, even though it would mean putting the ship back in mothballs. He rubbed his hand along a steel support on the bulkhead. She sure was a good one. Then there was Patricia Crowell. He smiled at himself. The remainder of the afternoon was spent finishing the ton of paperwork that never seemed to go away.
MASH Unit Near Seoul
The helicopter flared and landed at the MASH landing pad. Hufham exited the machine followed by Su Lynn. She looked ashen as she was led through the myriad of tents to the intensive care unit. The doctor recognized Hufham and came over. Hufham introduced him to Su Lynn.
“Sergeant Ricks is still improving. There’s no sign of infection, but he still hasn’t regained consciousness. He did have a little bit of a concussion, but I doubt that is the cause. In his case, it’s probably just his body healing itself,” the doctor said warmly.
“May I go see?” Su Lynn asked.
The doctor smiled. “Sure. Go on in and stay as long as you want,” he said to them. “If you need anything, just ask.”
The two walked into the walled off room. Ricks lay on a hospital bed with tubes running into his arms and one up through his nose. Another set of wires was running under his gown to a monitor showing his breathing and heart rates.
When she saw him, she began to weep. To Hufham, it seemed strange that someone could weep without making a sound, but the tears flowed, her mouth moved, and her chest heaved all the same. She took Ricks’ hand in her own and held it to her face as she sat beside the bed. She looked at his face, wishing for the eyes to open, then lay her head against his side and let it pour out.
Hufham watched for a while then placed his hand on her shoulder. She took hi
s hand and held it a moment, sharing her pain. After a few more minutes the tears subsided and the sobbing eased. Hufham pulled out a Kleenex and handed it to her. She wiped her eyes and blew her nose. Then she resumed looking into her husband’s face.
“Paul, why people like Dale get hurt?” she asked after she regained herself.
Hufham let out a sigh. Even he struggled with an answer to that one. “Su Lynn, there are always people in this world who want to hurt others. Sometimes it’s for power, sometimes it’s for hate, and sometimes it’s just because they want to. It doesn’t matter why, they just do it. Hitler did it. Napoleon, Hussein, Pol Pot, Amin, the list goes on. And they would go on hurting people until someone stands up and says stop. Even good people sometimes do things that hurt others, even though they don’t really mean to. That’s one of the things you have to always look out for; making sure the things you do don’t lead to somebody getting hurt.
“Well, Dale is one of the guys to stand up and say stop. For a long time our country has been doing that. We said stop to the British, stop to the Europeans trying to control the Americas, stop to the Spanish, stop to Germany and Japan, stop to the North Koreans one time before, stop to terrorists; we’ve said stop a lot of times. And we’ve had to say stop to ourselves a few times too. We stopped slavery, stopped racism, and even stopped ourselves when we got into a war and then found out it was for all the wrong reasons. Somewhere along the way someone said we needed to stop, and we did our best to make sure it did stop. This time, it was the North Koreans again. They wanted to hurt people, not only you, but our people in the United States as well. That’s why guys like Dale and me are here – to get it to stop.
“You see, if you don’t make them stop, the pain and suffering never ends. So everybody has to make a choice. You ask the question: Is what’s going on okay or does it need to stop? That’s why when those soldiers were trying to rape you, we stepped in. If we hadn’t you might not be married to this great guy. So what we do is very important. We are here to make sure no one gets hurt and no one gets bullied. When they do, we are here to say stop. In this case, Dale got hurt. But sometimes that happens to people trying to do the right thing.”
Su Lynn nodded. She still didn’t understand it all, but she knew Dale was trying to do the right things. That was enough. It was a side of Ricks she was only now getting to know and cherish.
A nurse came in carrying a cot and laid it beside the bed. “The doctor said you were welcome to stay with your husband at night if you want,” he said. Another nurse brought in some blankets and pillows.
“Thank you,” Su Lynn said. After a few more minutes of talking, Hufham left Su Lynn with Ricks. She sat up holding his hand and talking to him for over an hour before lying on the cot and pulling the blankets over her. She didn’t sleep much, but she was where she needed to be.
Chapter 21
October 23 – The Last Straw
Waters off Yuktae-dong, North Korea
USS North Carolina arrived off Yuktae-dong at 8:30 in the evening, launching her RPV while still thirty miles out. Flying over the old base the pilots noticed something strange on the screen. Light seemingly was shining through the roof of a large building. Switching to an infrared mode, they could make out the outline of a ship very dimly detailed under whatever it was trying to hide it. Some activity was going on aboard. Captain Hustvedt called away general quarters.
Under the painted tarp being used to camouflage the ship, the technicians were busy dismantling the warhead of one of the missiles. Several new components were being installed and the safety features temporarily disengaged so that new guidance for a much lower air burst would be achieved. A radar altimeter was also installed to make sure the weapon went off exactly as needed to achieve maximum effect. It was tedious work and the men were sweating profusely under the tarps and within the false containers. The first missile had been completed an hour before and the second was in pieces before them. The ignition wires were laid bare as they began installing the altimeter and resetting the barometric pressure sensors. The batteries had also been changed out so there would be plenty of power to run the system.
Kim was standing nearby watching the work. Although totally beyond his comprehension, it had to look like he understood it. Choi was standing not far away questioning one of the guards while the Defense Minister nervously watched the men along with Kim.
“Where will this one go,” Kim asked one of the technicians.
The man looked up from his work and wiped the sweat from his eyes with his dirty sleeve. “This one goes to Pusan, Comrade Chairman.”
“Good, very good,” Kim said. The first missile had been targeted for Daejeon. None would be wasted on countries outside Korea this time.
“We are within range, Captain,” said the Weapons Officer.
“Very well, batteries released.”
The 16-inch turrets were already locked onto the target hidden behind several hills on the island base. By standing far away, the shells would be fired high into the air and be able to hit the target instead of the hills in between them and the ship.
Down in Main Battery Plot among the walls of butterfly switches sat a lone operator in front of a PC. Bunches of wires were coming up out of the decks and attached to connectors that were then attached to some electronics boxes. These, in turn, had small cables that were plugged into the USB ports of the PC. On the screen was a colorful display that looked like the top of the old Ford Rangekeeper with additional drop down screens to add offsets and other inputs. The operator watched as the turret syncros lined up to what the PC generated for a gunfire solution. The 50 pound unit was taking the place of what used to weigh about a ton. He saw the trigger light flash on the upper right hand side of the screen. Topside, light once again brightened the night sky far out to sea.
“What is that sound?” asked Kim when he heard something getting louder.
He got his answer when the projectiles struck along the pier beside the ship. The blast rocked the big container ship back and forth against the pier. The technicians abandoned their work and began scrambling to get out from under the fake containers and out of the path of the falling projectiles.
Kim threw caution to the winds and began running toward the ship’s bridge for shelter. The rest of the ministers and party officials began looking for any place that would shield them.
The second salvo had been corrected from the first. Three of the 16-inch shells struck the ship. Two passed completely through before exploding underneath. The third struck the engine room and detonated inside. The ship shuddered and the containers were jerked back and forth. Inside the open missile, the bare leads shorted out against the main battery buss. Since the safety devices had been removed, there was nothing to prevent the ignition circuit from triggering.
Night became day as the nuclear warhead detonated. Its powerful EMP set off all eleven of the other bombs in one cataclysmic nuclear blast that vaporized every building and ship, flattening the hills on the island. Until they ceased to be, the hills briefly acted as a reflector, sending the massive blast wave both up into the sky and back toward the mainland, just two miles away. The blast rolled over Yuktae-dong like a steamroller, crushing every building and killing nearly 20,000 people as they prepared for bed. The massive pressure wave extended to Hongwan just twelve miles away. Flimsy buildings were blown apart and every pane of glass was shattered. Although the loss of life was not as bad as Yuktae-dong, the destruction was abhorrent.
Aboard the North Carolina Captain Hustvedt looked in horror as the bright light emerged behind the hills. He ran back to the bridge and grabbed the 1MC. “This is the Captain. We’ve had a nuclear explosion at the target. All hands set Circle William. All hands stay off the weather decks!” he yelled into the microphone.
“Right full rudder, all engines ahead flank. Take us directly away from that island as fast as we can,” he ordered. The men responded at once and the ship began to button up. Unfortunately the North Carolina had n
ot been designed for a nuclear attack and the Circle William status was not really much more than Zebra. But it was all they could do.
Hustvedt peered out the bridge wing window as the ship’s wake was illuminated by the growing mushroom cloud. The ship was moving away quickly when he saw the shockwave approach the ship. “Brace for impact,” he called out.
The shockwave struck the ship from the stern, giving off a dull boom and shaking the ship as it passed them at the speed of sound. Immediately the damage control teams went out with the Geiger counters. After a ten minute search they found that no radiation reached the ship. At a range of twenty miles, the ship escaped the blast and heat. Already there were no traces of the naval base or the island that once contained it.
It took a few minutes before the ionization allowed the transmission of radio waves. Fortunately, the hardening of the electronics against EMP had been effective. Hustvedt grabbed the encrypted radio. “All stations Sierra Whisky, this is Sierra Alpha. There has been a nuclear detonation at Yuktae-dong. I say again, there has been a nuclear detonation at Yuktae-dong. Ship struck by shockwave but undamaged. Ship was approximately twenty miles from detonation. Damage Control teams report no radiation. I say again, no radiation on the ship. Ship partially shielded by low hills on island. Ship proceeding away from the island at flank speed. Recommend you notify local authorities and governments down range.”
“Once again, this is Sierra Alpha. There has been a nuclear detonation at Yuktae-dong. Ship struck by shockwave but undamaged. Damage Control teams report no radiation. Ship proceeding away from the island at flank speed. Recommend you notify local authorities and governments down range. Sierra Whiskey, do you copy, over.”
“This is Sierra Whisky actual, we copy. Chris, do you know the cause of the detonation? Over,” asked Hammond on the radio.