Away Boarders

by Daniel V Gallery

  "All set any time," replied Jenkins.

  Out on the well deck, the Judge and Jughaid were standing by with an aerology balloon blown up to its full five-foot diameter.

  Suspended beneath it on a short line was a double handful of tinfoil with long streamers hanging down from it.

  "Okay, on deck - let the balloon go up," yelled Fatso.

  Up went the balloon, rising at two thousand feet a minute and propelled by a brisk breeze toward the Russian fleet.

  For several minutes after it went up, nothing happened. The Russian radar continued to sweep once around the horizon every minute, making a pronounced blip on the scope every time it swept past. Then the blip, instead of flashing on and off as the beam swept by, stopped and held steady.

  "Hah!" said Jenkins. "They've spotted our balloon."

  "They sure have," agreed the Professor.

  For several minutes the blip held steady. Jenkins and the Professor scanned the dials of their black boxes carefully for signs of any new radar activity.

  "They're making up their minds now," observed Jenkins. "Another minute or so will tell the tale."

  A few minutes later, he let out a whoop and said, "Hah! They fell for it! His homing signal just came on. A SAM is on its way up to our balloon now." He grabbed a pencil and scribbled down the frequency and pulse repetition rate of the new signal. "Bridge!" he yelled up the voice tube. "Watch the sky to the south - you may see an explosion in the air." He tuned another black box on the new signal to analyze its wave shape.

  Pretty soon there was a yell from the watchers outside and Fatso's voice came down the tube. "We just saw a hell of a big flash in the sky about ten miles south of us, up around ten thousand feet."

  "Yeah," replied Jenkins. "And we just lost our radar signals down here. That was their SAM - exploded by the balloon."

  A few minutes later there was a jubilant conference in the mess-room. "We gotta get this dope to the fleet right away," said Jenkins. "This could save us from losing some more planes."

  "Okay," said Fatso. "Write up a dispatch and we'll send it. Be careful what you say, because we can't code it and the Russians may read it."

  A few minutes later a dispatch went out to the America. It said, "Have info of vital importance to you. Suggest you send helicopter and pick up technician plus five hundred pounds of gear. Lieutenant Wigglesworth can amplify."

  "You wouldn't think they'd fall for a simple trick like that," observed Scuttlebutt. "Wasting a SAM on a silly goddamn balloon."

  "Well, the SAM couldn't tell from the echo it was getting whether it was from a balloon or a fighter plane," said Jenkins.

  "No. But you'd think they would notice this thing was only making thirty knots. It couldn't be a plane."

  "Sure," said Fatso. "But you gotta remember we caught them by surprise with this thing. All of a sudden their radar shows a blip coming over them. They probably had some young lieutenant on watch in CIC, and he was on the make to show how smart he is. The other night, as soon as they saw the blip from our plane coming over, they let go at it. They did the same thing this time. The SAM homed in and blew up the balloon without a trace, just the same as it did the plane. So now some young Russian lieutenant on watch in CIC will probably get a medal for shooting down another one of our planes. ... It just goes to show that sometimes you can dust off an old trick and use it over again. Even with all the black boxes we've got these days, people have to run 'em and you can sometimes fool people."

  Next morning the whirlybird from the America fluttered down on the well deck and took off Jenkins and his gear. On the America he was immediately ushered in to flag plot, where the Admiral and Captain were waiting for him.

  When the introductions were over, the Admiral said, "Well, what have you got, Jenkins?"

  Jenkins related the tale of the balloon. Soon after he got started, the Admiral interrupted and said, "Hell, yes. I remember the Germans pulling that stunt. Fooled a hell of a lot of very smart people with it, too."

  When Jenkins finished, the Admiral said, "Those trigger-happy bastards. Apparently they shoot down anything that comes over them at night, and no questions asked. This clinches what happened to our plane a couple of nights ago. They shot it down."

  "They sure did," said the Captain. "So what do we do about it?"

  "We just report it to Washington and let them handle it," said the Admiral. "And of course they won't do a damn thing about it because they'll say we've got no conclusive proof. But meantime we don't fly over those guys at night any more."

  "You don't have to stop flying over them now, sir," said Jenkins, pulling a notebook out of his pocket. "I've got here all the technical information we need about their search radars and guidance beam, and also the homing signals of the SAM. I've got a couple of black boxes you can put in your plane that will tell the pilot when they fire a SAM at him and will enable him to jam their homing signal and divert the SAM so it won't come close enough to bother him."

  "Well, that's fine," said the Admiral. "But for the time being anyway we don't fly any planes over those guys."

  Next day the America got a dispatch from Com Sixth Fleet saying, "Request you fly high-altitude photo flight over Cairo."

  When the Admiral saw this he said, "Well, the goddamn whiz kids are going to have their way after all. Get that electronics expert Jenkins up here."

  When Jenkins came into flag plot the Admiral said, "Just how sure are you that this gear you've got will perform as advertised?"

  "I'm certain of it," said Jenkins. "We got the proof of it the other night with that balloon."

  "The hell you say," said the Admiral. "All you got was proof that their homer and fuse work. You didn't get any check on your jamming equipment."

  "Well, yes. You're right about that, sir. But we know how their homer works. And we checked our jammer against our own missiles with the same homers in them. It works like a charm."

  "All right," said the Admiral. "I've got to send a flight over Cairo. I want it equipped with your gear."

  "Aye aye, sir," said Jenkins. "Can do."

  At the preflight briefing the next day the briefer said, "This will be a photo reconnaissance flight. Fly at forty-five thousand feet. All you have to do is turn your cameras on fifty miles from Cairo and fly directly over the city. As soon as you reach a point directly over the city, turn around and come back. You can outrun any MIG's they send up to intercept you, and we don't think their SAM's are operational yet. However, in case they are, your plane is equipped with detectors and jammers . . . You've been checked out on them, haven't you?"

  "Yeah," said the pilot. "I spent all yesterday afternoon with Jenkins."

  "Okay. So you know what indications you'll get on your radar scopes. As soon as you get the homing signal from the SAM, you just turn on your jammer and that's all there is to it."

  "Yeah," said the pilot. "And what's my story in case I do get shot down?"

  "You got lost. That's all. You didn't know where you were and you had no intention whatever of flying over Egypt."

  "Okay," said the pilot.

  The flight went off as briefed. Fifty miles from Cairo, the pilot switched his cameras on and they took pictures at ten-second intervals, showing the terrain below in fantastic detail. A woman carrying a jar on her head was clearly visible in those photos, taken from nine miles up. The SAM missile sites were unmistakable. Shortly after he switched his cameras on, the pilot began getting a blip on one of Jenkins' black boxes as the Cairo search radar beam swept past him. After about five blips, the beam steadied on him. The pilot poised his hand over the jamming button and mentally ran through his bail-out procedure. Soon his homing detector flashed on and the pilot shoved his jammer button.

  Looking ahead and down, he soon saw the SAM coming up at him and leaving a trail of white smoke behind it. Presently it began steering an erratic course and veering off to the right. It passed below him and about a mile abeam and went on its way harmlessly. This performance was repeated
by two other missiles before he turned back over Cairo and by one other as he retired. A group of six MIG's took off after him but couldn't catch him.

  Back on the ship after the plane returned the Admiral had Jenkins up to see him again. "Young man, I congratulate you," said the Admiral. "Your black boxes worked like a charm. They shot four SAM's at our lad and he diverted them all. None of them even came close."

  "Yes sir," said Jenkins. "The gear worked fine. Of course, one thing that made it easy was knowing the exact frequency and pulse repetition rate of their radars. We got that from that balloon business the other night. Without that, it would have been much more difficult. But we still could have done it."

  "I believe you said that balloon stunt was the idea of some sailor on that LCU, didn't you?" asked the Admiral.

  "Yes sir," said Jenkins. "It was the skipper's idea. Boatswain's Mate First Class Gioninni. He's a real sharp character."

  "Okay," said the Admiral. "I'm going to send him a letter of commendation."

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Egyptian Gunboat

  Meanwhile at the Newport News Shipbuilding Company yard in Portsmouth, Virginia, construction of a small ship of war was nearing completion. She was a two-hundred-foot gunboat, diesel powered, that would make thirty knots. No armament was being installed at Portsmouth, but mounting rings were built in the ship for four 40-mm guns and two SAM launchers. An Arab crew of eight men were in Portsmouth supervising construction, ready to take over and sail the ship to Egypt when she was finished.

  A conference was in progress between the chief constructor and the Egyptian skipper.

  "You have not put air conditioner in my cabin yet," said the skipper.

  "But I told you last week, the plans don't call for that," said the constructor.

  "But I want it," said the skipper, "and you've got to put it in."

  "Sorry," said the constructor.

  "The trials are coming off in about a week," said the skipper. "It will be a lot easier for you on the trials if I get it."

  "Look," said the shipbuilder. "The cost of this craft has already gone beyond the contract price, and this is a fixed-price contract. This isn't like a U.S. contract, where you have changes and overruns and the final price can be two or three times the original one. We've just got to take our loss on this one."

  "Couldn't you charge my air conditioner to that big U.S. carrier you're building?" asked the Egyptian. "No one would ever know the difference."

  "No," said the constructor.

  "You're apt to have trouble on the trials if I don't get it," said the Egyptian.

  "Well - we'll cross that bridge when we come to it." said the constructor. "I'm sorry, but you just can't have an air conditioner."

  Soon the skipper was in the office of the executive vice president.

  "Well - good morning," said the V.P. "How is that fine ship of yours coming along?"

  "Very well, sir," said the Egyptian. "Except we've found one small oversight in the plans which must be corrected."

  "What's that?" asked the V.P.

  "There's no air conditioning in the ship. It gets very hot in the Red Sea and we've got to have air conditioning in all living quarters."

  "Well," said the V.P., "this would involve a change of contract which would take at least six weeks, and we have a delivery date to meet with penalities for being late just two weeks from now."

  "I won't accept the ship without it," said the Arab.

  This was an alarming development. This contract had been a pain in the neck to the shipbuilders right from the start. The Egyptians had demanded a lot of changes; the company was losing money on the contract and was anxious to get the ship out of the yard and off their hands. "We have to deliver two weeks from today," said the V.P. "You can install air conditioning later, after you get to Egypt."

  "We'd never get it in Egypt," said the skipper. "It's got to be done here."

  "Well, the only way we can do it here is to negotiate a change in the contract - and you know how long that would take - at least a couple of months."

  "Well, look," said the Arab. "I don't want to be unreasonable. Maybe it would take you six weeks to air condition the whole ship. But you could air condition my cabin in a day. If you do that, I'll wait for the rest until we get to Egypt."

  The V.P. wanted no part of any contract negotiations for air conditioning the whole ship. He knew from sad experience that such negotiations with the Egyptians were long-winded affairs. He wanted to get rid of this craft as soon as possible. So he said, "All right, Captain - we'll put air conditioning in your cabin for you."

  This was all the Arab had set out to get that morning, anyway. So he left the V.P.'s office well satisfied with himself.

  While this was going on in Portsmouth, there was a formal meeting in the Secretary of State's office in Washington. The Israeli ambassador was calling to present a note from his government. The note protested the sale of the ship being built in Portsmouth for the Egyptians.

  "Mr. Secretary." said the ambassador as he presented the note, "This is a very serious matter to my government. My government has a small Navy intended primarily for harbor defense. If the Egyptians acquire this ship it will change the whole balance of power at sea at a time when peace in the Near East is balanced on a knife edge. Your government has refused to sell us fighter planes and the Russians are supplying MIG's to the Egyptians. My government strongly protests this sale and urges yours to stop it."

  "But, Mr. Ambassador," said the Secretary, "the contract for this ship was let over a year ago. There was nothing secret about it, and you've had a whole year to object before the ship was built. The shipbuilders now have considerable investment in it. If wc prevent the sale now, they will have to swallow a big loss."

  "Which is more important, Mr. Secretary - the peace of the Near East or a small loss to the shipbuilding company? After all, you have barred the sale of fighter planes to Israel, but you are supplying them to Libya. Those planes will go right to the Egyptians, and you know it. This will upset the balance in the air. The Russians are building up the Egyptian Army. There are twenty big Russian transport planes per day landing in Cairo with all sorts of arms and technical advisors. We are not just going to sit back and watch while the Egyptians build up their forces to the point where they can overwhelm us. Pretty soon, if this keeps up, we will have to strike before it is too late. This ship is meant for one purpose only - to attack us. I most urgently request that you stop delivery of it to Egypt."

  "Very well, Mr. Ambassador," said the Secretary. "I'll make your views known to my government. But I can't make any commitment to you right now as to what action we will take."

  Next day there was a meeting of the National Security Council in the White House. In addition to the usual members present, the Chief of Naval Operations and Chief of Staff of the Air Force were also there at the request of the President. The first item on the agenda that morning was the note from Israel. It was the lead story in most of the morning papers across the country that day, nearly all of them expressing sympathy with the Israeli position.

  "Why are they making a federal case over one lousy little gunboat?" asked the Air Force COS of the CNO.

  'They're just setting the stage for something else." said CNO. "This gunboat doesn't amount to a hill of beans."

  "I see by the papers," said the COS innocently, "that you have run into an overrun of two hundred forty million dollars on the nuclear carrier."

  "Urn - er - yes," said the CNO. "I also see where you have had to ground all your TFX's."

  "Harrrrumph," observed the COS.

  When the President entered, all hands stood up respectfully. The President gave them a curt nod, sat down, and tossed a copy of the New York Times on the table.

  "The first item of business," said the Secretary, "is the Israeli note received yesterday afternoon."

  "Before we take it up," said the President, fixing his eye on the Secretary of State, "I'd like to know why the first
time I hear about a thing of this kind is when I read it on the AP news ticker. Don't you people have the phone number of the White House?"

  "I apologize for that, Mr. President," said the Secretary. "I thought the news would keep overnight. But it seems there was a leak."

  "Can't you control security in your own shop any better than that?" demanded the President. "I'll swear that about half the time the way I find out what this government is doing is when somebody leaks it to the newspapers."

  "In this case I'm pretty sure the leak was the Israeli ambassador," said the Secretary.

  "I wouldn't be surprised," said the President. "He's thick as thieves with most of the press. He sure got a front-page splurge out of it," he added, pointing to the headlines in the New York Times. "Well - let's consider what we're going to do."

  "I'd like to have the CNO comment on this first," said the Secretary of State.

  "Well," said the CNO, "I think they are making a mountain out of a mole hill. This one small ship really won't upset the balance of naval power in the eastern Med. The Russians have quite a fleet there now, based on Alexandria. They are the ones who can swing the balance of power in the Med either by direct intervention or by turning over several of their ships to the Egyptians. The Israelis know that. I think they are just paving the way for another protest about selling those planes to Libya."

  "I agree," said the COS of the Air Force. "Naval power is of no significance between the Israelis and the Egyptians. Whichever side has control of the air can wipe out the other side's naval craft any time they want to. Right now the Israelis have control, and this new craft would be a sitting duck for them. I agree that this thing is probably just laying the ground for a further protest about the sale of those fighters to Libya. This could really upset the balance of power if they wind up in the hands of the Egyptians."

  "I won't say I agree that naval forces are just sitting ducks," said the CNO. "But if the Egyptians get those planes from the Libyans, and if they learn to flv them - it will make a difference, all right."