by Don Bendell
Designed and built by Lockheed Martin, the Super Hercules is the world’s most advanced tactical airlifter. It can be converted to any number of uses, from delivery of humanitarian supplies to air-to-air refueling to delivery of combat material. It can be used for deep covert penetration, combat rescue, and low-level night entry.
It has been purchased by air forces in Australia, Italy, the United Kingdom, Denmark, and, of course, the United States.
Then of the sister aircraft covering both Charlie and Fila and the quick reaction force if need be, the Department of Defense said of the Spooky:
The AC-130U is the most complex aircraft weapon system in the world today. It has more than 609,000 lines of software code in its mission computers and avionics systems. The newest addition to the command fleet, this heavily armed aircraft incorporates side-firing weapons integrated with sophisticated sensor, navigation and fire control systems to provide surgical firepower or area saturation during extended loiter periods, at night and in adverse weather. The sensor suite consists of an All Light Level Television system and an infrared detection set. A multi-mode strike radar provides extreme long-range target detection and identification. It is able to track 40mm and 105mm projectiles and return pinpoint impact locations to the crew for subsequent adjustment to the target. The fire control system offers a Dual Target Attack capability, whereby two targets up to one kilometer apart can be simultaneously engaged by two different sensors, using two different guns. No other air-ground attack platform in the world offers this capability. Navigational devices include the inertial navigation system (INS) and global positioning system (GPS). The aircraft is pressurized, enabling it to fly at higher altitudes, saving fuel and time, and allowing for greater range than the AC-130H. Defensive systems include a countermeasures dispensing system that releases chaff and flares to counter radar infrared-guided anti-aircraft missiles. Also infrared heat shields mounted underneath the engines disperse and hide engine heat sources from infrared-guided anti-aircraft missiles.
Having the most state-of-the-art aircraft available for this type of mission was going to be extremely critical for mission success. So now they would actually fly in with the quick reaction force on the Super Hercules. The larger Ranger quick reaction force would sit on full-alert, ready to board a C-130J Super Hercules at the U.S. airbase at Mosul, Iraq.
Their expensive vehicle, a new BMW, would be purchased by a CIA agent in Ankara, Turkey, and would be transported by him to Van, Turkey. From Van, an indigenous U.S.-sympathetic Iranian CIA agent handler would pick it up and drive it to Tabriz, Iran. From Tabriz, it would be transported to the desert location by two of the indigenous Iranian freedom fighters being advised and equipped by a team from the 5th Special Forces Group out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky. The 5th Group had long had a team on the ground with Iranian resistance fighters waiting to help with just such missions. The 5th Group team and its Iranian counterparts would be tasked with locating the best spot on the ground to locate the insertion point and landing area for the C130J Super Hercules. That would not be difficult in the vast Garmsar Desert south of Tehran. Out of sight of their Iranian counterparts, two American Special Forces team members would sweep the vehicle for electronic surveillance devices just to be sure that no indigenous agents involved were moles.
Pops summoned the Detachment-Delta financial officer and told him to take someone and drive to a BMW dealership in Fayetteville and buy a black loaded BMW with tinted windows, which would be identical to the one they would buy in Turkey. This would be used for Charlie and Fila to get used to, so they would not look like greenhorn car owners if Davood saw them in the car or if he rode with them. Pops wanted to ensure that both of them looked like they knew where everything was in the Beemer and that Charlie knew how it handled. And, in case Charlie was dead or wounded, he also wanted Fila to have plenty of hours behind the wheel.
It was decided that the 5th Group team members would use simple expedient landing zone markers to mark a flat, even, solid strip where the C-130 Super Herc could set down and take off. When the plane was inbound in the daytime, they would mark the strip with fluorescent orange air panels, which they carried with them. Or at night, they would mark it by burning small cans of gasoline buried in the ground.
They would locate and prepare a fara-kan, or ravine or wash (called a wadi in Iraq), where they could hide the plane, Little Birds, personnel, and equipment, too far from any roads in the desert to spot. The team would fix the site up in a way only a Special Forces-led unit could do so, and the C-130 would also carry in desert camo netting to effectively hide the site from any and all aircraft flying overhead. Any small military or law enforcement patrols that might somehow stumble on the site would be immediately destroyed and buried.
If the quick reaction forces did get involved, the key for the success of the whole operation, even more than the C-130 and AC-130, would be the Little Birds. They were vital to mission success with 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta on most missions.
Technically, the Little Bird was known as the Hughes H-6 “Cayuse” helicopter. It is the U.S. Army’s primary special operations light attack and cargo aircraft. The AH-6J attack variant can be equipped with two miniguns, or rockets. The MH-6J troop ship can handle everything from fast-rope insertions into jungle conditions to dropping off two operatives with motorcycles in better-developed areas.
It was decided to bring two Little Bird mechanics, volunteers with top secret security clearances, along on the C-130 Super Hercules, and they would also have an array of weapons to quickly convert one or two Little Birds from a slick version to a gunship if need be and also provide any needed maintenance.
Everybody was starting to think about Desert One and the fact that this was an operation going back into Iran and staging out of the desert, but there was one big difference. This was being totally controlled by Pops, the commanding officer of 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta. Desert One was comprised of Delta members, but there were too many cooks that spoiled the broth. Lessons had been learned. And this would be different. If the mission failed, it would be because of other causes. There would also be one set of planners constantly looking at the weather in the area, staging areas, and alert areas such as Mosul. The planning was just getting going, but it was being kept in-house as much as possible. Those at JSOC (Joint Special Operations Command) at Fort Bragg agreed and were in full support of Pops and his men, but even more important was his friendship with the CINC (commander in chief), who was a big supporter of Detachment-Delta.
Next, they would have to determine how Charlie and Fila would get in, affect the assassination, and get out safely with Davood Faraz Dabdeh’s excessive security measures and layers of bodyguards.
Various alternatives were discussed around the table, which now had been cleared of all support personnel except for Kerri Rhodes, the national security advisor. The only ones remaining were Pops, Weasel, Poke, Booty, Custer, Bones, the tall lanky lieutenant colonel who was Pops’s executive officer, and Kerri Rhodes. It was felt nobody else had a need-to-know and the fewer involved the better.
Pops liked to involve Bones in a lot of planning sessions in case anything ever happened to him. He was scheduled in two days to have a colonoscopy performed, and he wanted to ensure the command was covered just in case. He lectured all his men and women over forty years old to get colonoscopies on a regular basis, so he felt he had to set the example and did not want to cancel his appointment, a decision he had made six months earlier. He’d had his last colonoscopy five years earlier and there were no polyps or problems. He was not thrilled about having to take a laxative the night before, but remembered it really was not very bad at all.
Weasel said, “What about popping him with a Ruger Mark III pistol with a silencer in .22 Long Rifle? Eleven rounds, lightweight, quiet, easy maintenance.”
Charlie said, “What’s good enough for the Mossad is good enough for me, and Booty and I actually talked about the Ruger Ma
rk III, but we will be searched, or at least I will be. We did talk about Booty carrying one in a thigh holster under her dress.”
Pops said, “What if they use a metal detector on her?”
Fila laughed, saying, “Then we are dead.”
Charlie said, “We have discussed this already. Women are so insignificant to him, we doubt he will want to check her out. On top of that, she will be wearing a level IIIA Kevlar vest under her dress. When we first see him, I am going to beat her back with a stick for whatever excuse we make up. She won’t feel a thing but will scream and cry. We think that will help establish some early friendship, believe it or not.”
Weasel grinned, saying, “Booty’s tough. She earned a Silver Star in Afghanistan. Why not beat her without the body armor?”
Fila grinned back, saying, “You want to do that, Top?”
He laughed, putting his hands up and shaking his head.
Kerri Rhodes interjected, “You were awarded the Silver Star?”
Fila chuckled, saying, “Some general was trying to be politically correct, Ms. Rhodes.”
“Horse manure!” Pops said. “You left off the Purple Heart you also earned when you got wounded saving soldiers under fire.”
Kerri said, “I am very impressed, Sergeant Jannat.”
“Thank you, Ms. Rhodes, and please call me Booty or Fila.”
Kerri said, “Only if you will call me Kerri, please, all of you.”
She shot a glance toward Charlie when she said that, which only Fila noticed. She felt her face redden a little and that embarrassed her even more. Now Fila was very upset, as she had always been in control. She had let her guard down and let Charlie cross that secret boundary that no man had ever stepped over. He had been one with her, and she thought about him continuously. She knew that she was in love, and it scared her.
Kerri Rhodes was one of the closest people in the world to the President of the United States of America. She was at White House dinners all the time and was very well educated and good-looking, beautiful actually. She had handsome popular Hollywood stars interested in her, business leaders, and some of America’s most eligible successful bachelors. Fila thought about all of these things and wondered why the woman was so interested in Charlie. As a woman, she knew why, but it did not make her feel any more comfortable.
Charlie said, “The problem is that we do not know what city or setting we will meet him in. We don’t know if we can even get in to see him, or if we will be able to breach his layers of security. The CIA reports we read on him state that he already has doubles, like Hussein and bin Laden.”
“How are you going to even be able to speak to him?” Kerri asked. “If males and especially Dabdeh are so backward and chauvinistic, Fila can’t be your spokesperson.”
Fila said, “Yes, I can. Poke speaks Arabic at a level three or even four proficiency. He will wear hearing aids and will be an Iraqi businessman with an Iranian wife. I will translate for him, and we want to have an Iraqi and Iranian interpreter speaking to him through one of the hearing aids, in case he has trouble with saying the right words. If that is the case, he can say ‘Huh?’ in Arabic to stall for time, and through the hearing aids they can tell him what and how to say it.”
Pops said, “That sounds like a fine idea. Top, make sure that we have the very best translators. We also need the hearing aids made right away.”
More details were brought up and discussed, and at the end of the day, Pops called Charlie and Fila off to the side and said, “I’m having the new Beemer rigged with all the nice accoutrements that you would find on a 14 Company car in Great Britain. Two of our guys will do the rigging and then we will fly them with the materials to do the exact same thing to the Beemer over there.”
Charlie said, “Awesome, Colonel. That could save our lives. Thank you.”
Fila said, “Yes. Thank you very much.”
Pops shrugged it off and said, “We will have it ready to go when you two get back, but right now, I want you both to pick a place to go and get outside the AO for one full week. Go together somewhere. It won’t count against your leave time and you’ll get TDY,” he added, referring to temporary duty pay. “Just be sure you stay in the continental United States. We will have the car ready to train in when you get back.”
Charlie said, “Oh gee, Pops, I don’t know if we could make ourselves do such an assignment.”
Pops laughed and said, “Can you guys think of a good place to go?”
Fila smiled, looked over at Charlie and back at the CO, and said, “I can.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Pre-deployment
FILA looked all around at the tiny modular-looking homes dotting the small neighborhood. Many of them had old abandoned cars sitting in backyards, weeds growing around them and out the windows in some cases. A couple of the houses had junk piles or rubbish piles in the backyard, and every other house had a propane tank covered with spray-painted gang graffiti.
They pulled up in front of one small house that was much tidier than the rest in the block, and there was a tiny flower garden running along the front of it from both sides of the concrete slab that served as a porch. Charlie approached the front of the house and the screen door flew open and a moderately heavyset woman with a wide smile and tears in her eyes ran out, her arms wide open.
“Charlie!” she shouted with glee. “You’re home.”
Charlie bent over and swooped her up in a careful bear hug, saying, “Hi, Mom. I’ve missed you.”
She was very loving and kissed him on the cheek several times. He set her down, and she looked at the Iranian-American beauty.
“Young lady,” she said, “you are beautiful. What tribe are you?”
Fila laughed and said, “The Persians, ma’am.”
Charlie said, “Mom, this is Sergeant First Class Fila Jannat. She is my partner. Fila, this is my mom. Her name is Betty Walks Fast.”
Betty said, “Fila, I am glad to meet you, but you call me Mom.”
Fila’s face reddened, and she said, “Gee, I am . . . I am at a loss for words.”
Charlie said, “Mom! You just met her.”
“Charlie!” Betty said sarcastically and laughing. “How many women have you ever brought here for me to meet?”
Now he felt his own face redden, and Fila looked at him, hands on hips.
She said, “Yeah, Charlie, which number am I?”
Charlie looked down and sheepishly said, “The first.”
Now Fila’s breath caught, and she did not know how to respond.
Betty said, “Charlie, your uncle Eddie had a vision.”
Charlie interrupted while he looked in the oven and Betty slapped him with a towel. “Eddie Three Horses. He is what you would call a medicine man.”
Betty continued, “Eddie saw you riding a painted horse with its tail tied.”
Charlie explained, “When a horse’s tail is tied, that means the rider is at war.”
Betty said, “But I will tell you about that later. You are from Iran, Fila?”
“I am an American and a Christian, ma’am,” Fila responded, “but I grew up in Iran, in a Muslim family, then moved to Iraq as a young girl, and when I got a little older, I moved to America, and I was adopted by a wonderful family. He was a full bird colonel and was the commanding officer of the 5th Special Forces Group at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.”
“What are you cooking, Mom?”
“Antelope steaks, potatoes, carrots, peas, and salad,” Betty answered. “And for dessert, apple pie a la mode.”
Fila said, “Oh, I don’t want to impose.”
Charlie and Betty started laughing. Fila was puzzled.
“Mom did not know we were coming, right?”
Fila said, “Correct.”
“I will bet you that she made enough for four people anyway,” he explained. “Mom always senses when someone is coming and cooks enough for them. I can never surprise her.”
Charlie had never realized that she did that fo
r almost every meal and gave away the excess, with an admonition that they could never tell, to her church or dropped it off for the Tribal Police, who were actually called the Oglala Sioux Tribal Police Department. She wanted Charlie to know he could always come home and have a warm meal waiting. She also had many people who simply loved her and her cooking and often dropped in at dinnertime.
“Pour us some coffee, Charlie,” his mom said, “and let’s all go in the living room and talk. Dinner won’t be ready for an hour.”
She led the way into the living room, and Fila said, “Is there anything I can do to help, ma’am?”
Betty said, “Yes, Fila, I know you are an army sergeant, but please quit calling me ma’am and start calling me Mom.”
“Okay, Mom,” Fila said, grinning.
Betty said, “I am surprised you have not said anything yet about eating antelope.”
Fila laughed and explained, “Mom, I grew up eating things like goat’s eyes or berryooni, which is lamb lung, which we ate with kind of a bread called nan-e-taftton.”
“Oh, I guess nothing I cook will bother you,” Betty said. “Well, antelope and cougar are the two very best-tasting wild meats, in my opinion.”
Charlie walked in and said, “Mom, whatever you fix tastes great.”
“Wait until you two eat breakfast,” she said.
He smiled. “We already have reservations at the Rapid City Rushmore Plaza Holiday Inn, Mom. Sorry, but we have some other places we have to go while we’re here.”
“Okay, baby,” Betty said. “I know never to question what you do. You are both welcome to stay here, but anyhow, how long will you be in the area?”