by James Rosone
The room let out a collective gasp. They could not believe President Gates would say such a thing while US Forces were still fighting and dying in Europe. They began to scribble quickly, several of them sending Twitter quotes and text messages.
Gates ignored the sound of keys being rapidly clicked and continued. “We as Americans look to our military to protect us, to understand the threats that face us and have a plan to deal with them. Likewise, we also look to our political leaders to protect us, to understand the threats and ensure our military has the right resources, leaders, and equipment needed to fight and win America’s wars. Sadly, that has not happened, and it is for this reason that I have asked for, and received, the resignation of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the entire staff of the Joint Chiefs, the General of the Army, Air Force, Chief of Naval Operations, and the Commandant of the Marine Corps. I have also relieved the NATO Commander, who is also the commander at US European Command, the Naval Commander Europe, the Commander of US Air Force Europe, and US Army Europe.”
More audible gasps could be heard as the press continued to become more and more restless. They were chomping at the bit to yell out questions, but he was not done delivering the news.
“Everyone has seen the numerous videos on the internet and media of the fighting in Europe. A change in leadership was needed, and as President, it is my responsibility to protect our country. To that effect, as the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, I have taken decisive action and relieved the commanders responsible for both failing our nation, and more importantly, failing the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines they are responsible for leading.”
“In the aftermath of the Japanese sneak-attack at Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt fired and demoted the military commanders responsible for the defense of Hawaii and the Pacific Fleet. Roosevelt took decisive action and rallied the nation to defeat the Japanese and Adolf Hitler’s Germany. Today, I ask for that same support for our Armed Forces and for the country, to rally together as one nation, so that we can effectively meet this threat imposed upon us by Russia.”
“The recent cyber-attacks against our power grid and the brazen assault on two of our natural gas export terminals by Russian Special Forces show that they are determined to defeat us, not just on the battlefield, but in cyberspace, the media, and economically. Let me remind you of that attack on our natural gas terminals last night. Those were Russian Special Forces operating on American soil that carried out that attack. Russian soldiers…on American soil.” Gates let that sink in for a moment and could see the wheels spinning in the various reporters’ heads.
“I have charged the FBI and DHS with finding these saboteurs. In the meantime, I have authorized National Guard units across the country to augment the security around many of our critical infrastructure elements: power plant, bridges, water treatment facilities, and so on. Do not be alarmed if you see soldiers guarding these crucial places. If you see something suspicious, then say something. Report it. Do not wait for another attack to happen.”
As he continued to speak, the President could see a sense of bewilderment and then anger in their eyes as the realization of what he was saying was finally sinking in. America had been attacked at home--a foreign army was operating Special Forces on American soil, and that was not sitting well with them. Now he needed to hammer home his message of unity.
“We need to unite as a country and stand together against this threat. Today and tomorrow are going to be a day of reckoning for those who have sought to undermine our country and placed us in the danger in which we now find ourselves. I want to assure the American people that your government is going to win this war. We will not surrender or accept defeat at the hands of Vladimir Petrov. I will now leave you with Linda to answer some of your questions. I will be making another statement this afternoon, so please stay tuned for further information,” the President announced.
As he turned to leave the room, the President tilted his head down towards Linda. “You can do this, Linda. I trust you,” he encouraged. Then he walked off the stage through the side door, headed back to the West Wing.
Nearly all of the reporters jumped to their feet, shouting questions at the President as he slipped away into the hallway. Once Gates had left the room, they all turned to the Press Secretary and immediately began to shout out their questions, hoping she would choose their question to answer.
One of the CNN reporters shouted, “Linda, how can the administration simply fire the heads of all the branches of the military and Joint Chiefs of Staff overnight while the country is in the midst of a military disaster unfolding in Europe?!”
Linda raised her hand to try to calm the roaring lions so she could start to answer their many questions. She pointed at the CNN reporter who had just shouted at her. “Monica, I believe you just answered your own question,” she began. “The situation in Europe is dire. These military commanders were responsible for ensuring our forces were prepared to meet this challenge, and they were not. The President wants to turn things around and that means replacing those who have failed with someone else who can do the job,” Linda explained. She spoke cautiously but confidently, knowing that the press was currently snapping like a bunch of sharks that had located a source of blood.
The questioning continued for another hour while the major networks continued to report on the massive firings taking place across the military leadership. A number of former generals who were employed by the various news agencies were sounding off. Some were calling this a much-needed move and a sign of decisive leadership. Others called it reckless, and said it was dangerous to replace so much of the command structure in the middle of a war. Meanwhile, the real conflict continued, both on the battlefield and in cyberspace.
Traitors
Arlington, VA
Pentagon City
Carl Wiggins was nearly done getting ready for work when he saw the breaking news on the TV. “More news about the war in Ukraine,” he groaned. “I think I may have royally screwed up, giving the Russians a heads-up on our intentions in Ukraine. They said they were going to use the information to confront President Gates and get him to back down, not use it to launch a preemptive attack. What a mess.”
As he finished tying his shoes and was just about to grab his sport coat, he heard a knock on the door. Not sure who would be knocking at his door at this hour of the morning, he walked over and opened it, to find several men wearing FBI jackets holding their badges in his face as they pushed their way into his apartment.
“Hey, what is the meaning of this?” Carl demanded. “I didn’t give you permission to enter my house. I insist that you leave immediately!”
As he spoke, one of the FBI agents grabbed him firmly by arm and guiding him to the living room.
“You are Carl Wiggins, correct?” the agent asked in a forceful tone.
“Yes. I’m Carl Wiggins, and I demand to know what in the world is going on right now!” Carl replied angrily. People were crawling all over his apartment. One agent had a box and was cataloging and then collecting all of his electronic devices.
“I am Agent Walt Wittman from the FBI. We have a search warrant to search your home and seize any electronic devices. We also have a warrant for your arrest,” he said proudly, as if he had just arrested the most important person of his career.
Carl did a double-take before responding. “Arrest? Arrested for what?!” he yelled as Agent Wittman turned him around and began to place his handcuffs on his hands.
“Mr. Wiggins, you are under arrest for espionage and treason. We caught you providing classified intelligence to the Russians,” he replied calmly as he began to guide Carl through the doorway and into the hallway of his apartment building. “I advise you to remain silent and not say anything further, Mr. Wiggins.”
Carl could not believe it. He had been so careful. How could the FBI have found out he was providing intelligence to the Russians? As they placed Carl into the back of a government car, the reality of the situa
tion began to sink in.
“I am in serious trouble if they are charging me with treason,” he thought. “That can carry the death penalty…I’m going to have to cut a deal if I’m going to save my own skin.”
Ambush Alley
Prolisky, Ukraine
SFC Childers’s platoon had taken up residency in the small but strategically-positioned village of Prolisky. It was a small village between the international airport and the city of Kiev, and on one of three major routes the Russian army would have to travel to capture the city. The Russians had hit the British, German, and American armor units near the Boryspil Airport throughout the entire day, with both air and ground forces causing significant casualties despite the arrival of the two BCTs from the 1st Armored Division. The Russians were throwing their best tanks and aircraft into this fight and the NATO forces were getting hammered. By midafternoon, the bulk of NATO forces had fallen back to the surrounding villages and suburbs around Kiev, and would look to make this a street fight unless ordered otherwise.
Lieutenant Taylor walked up to Captain Jordan, the new troop commander, to get some final instructions for his platoon. Both men were physically and mentally exhausted from near constant fighting. “Sir, Sergeant Childers and the rest of my platoon are getting the rest of the artillery shells and claymores ready for the ambush. Once we light it off, my guys are supposed to abandon our positions and run to this point here,” he said, pointing to on the map. “Then, you want them to get ready for the next ambush?” he asked, wanting to clarify the mission and make sure he relayed the information properly back to his guys.
Captain Jordan had been the executive officer of Nemesis Troop for the past year. However, earlier in the morning, their captain had been killed during one of the many Russian air attacks. He was then given battlefield promotion to captain and told to take over by their Squadron Commander. Now he had the job of trying to carry out a series of ambushes designed to delay the Russian advance on Kiev.
“Yes, exactly,” Captain Jordan answered. “I have First Platoon here,” he explained, showing Taylor a point on the map. “They have another series of artillery shells ready along this stretch of the highway. Once your platoon falls back, they will need to get this position here and get ready for the third and final ambush. If all goes well, we’ll get three shots at hitting the Russians along this highway before we fall back to this section of the NATO lines. I was told that the 2nd BCT from 1st Armor that passed through our lines a couple of hours ago will be positioned here. We will function as their infantry support until told otherwise.”
Their meeting broke up and 2nd Lt. Taylor and the other 2nd Lt. from first platoon ran back to their respective platoons to get their men ready for the coming fight. Third and fourth platoons had already been consolidated into first and second platoons earlier in the morning, when they arrived in the village. The troop had taken more than forty-percent casualties since the start of the war, and there was no need to keep four significantly weakened platoons and spread their diminished supply of officers and NCOs across four platoons.
While Lieutenant Taylor had been coordinating the ambush with the rest of the company, Sergeant Childers was having the soldiers string up their claymore anti-personnel mines and 152mm artillery shells along the highway for the ambush.
“Peterson, you unscrew the fuse cap on the artillery round like this,” Childers explained as he demonstrated to a couple of the soldiers in his little group.
“Once you have the fuse cap removed, you take the blasting cap and place it inside the fuse well, and then seal it up like this.” After Childers had demonstrated what to do, he then began to take the back of a phone apart and started attaching a small copper wire from the phone’s circuit to another wire attached to the blasting cap.
“As you can see, we need to be careful when we wire this up. Once it’s done, each one of these rounds is going to be an independent IED that can be set off by sending a SMS text from this phone. So that we make sure they all go off at the same time, I’ve created a group text that will send the message to all of the phones attached to the IEDs simultaneously.”
One of the soldiers asked, “How did you learn all this?”
The question broke Childers concentration for a second, and brought a smile to his face. “I learned how to make these things back in 2003 in Iraq, during the invasion. I was with the Rangers and we had captured a couple of Saddam Fedayeen soldiers who had been building these types of IEDs to use against us. When we raided the building and captured those guys, they had a couple dozen of these things laying around. We had a few of the Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) guys with us, so they set out disarming them. Later that evening, when we got back to base, I talked with some of the EOD guys and they walked me through the process of how these guys were building them. The more we started to encounter these types of IED ambushes in Iraq and Afghanistan, we all started to learn a lot more about them--how to build them and how to disarm them.”
The soldiers listened to his story intently. They looked at him with a bit more awe and respect. Childers smiled and began to work with the IEDs again, turning their attention back to the task at hand.
“Ok, so look here. Once this is done, be careful as these IEDs are now live. We only have five of the blasting caps, so we must use these IEDs carefully. I want them placed inside these five buildings lining the street here,” he said, pointing to three buildings on the right, and two buildings on the left in the center of the village.
“We are going to use these IEDs for our secondary attack. Now, the rest of these 152mm artillery rounds are going to be placed in these vehicles lining the highway here, and along these four street gutters,” Childers explained as he showed them where he wanted the remaining artillery rounds placed.
One of the soldiers interrupted to ask, “--Sergeant Childers, if we don’t have any additional blasting caps, how are we going to remote detonate these other IEDs?”
Smiling at the question, he reached down and pulled out a roll of detonation cord. “We are going to use some det. cord for these. The ragheads in Iraq used to do this to us. It was pretty effective but pay attention, this is also dangerous and can kill you if you screw it up. Just like with the blasting cap, you place some of it down into the fuse well, then we wrap it around the round. We are going to daisy chain the remaining artillery rounds along the side of the highway in these abandoned vehicles here,” he pointed down the road to the group of vehicles he was referring to.
“In this case, we’ll have to trigger this manually. We’ll run the trigger wire back to this building here, which I’ll be in. I will personally trigger this IED when the Russians enter the kill zone.” The cacophony of battle down the road at the airport was growing in intensity. It wouldn’t be long before the Russians pushed their way through their ambush.
“Now listen up,” he said to the soldiers, wanting to make sure he had their full attention. “I want two of our M240s set up on the right side of the road in these buildings here,” he explained, pointing to the structures.
“Then, I want the other two M240s placed here, on the left side of the road. This will create a crossfire for our machine guns. Now, we only have two AT4s…I want one on each side of the road so we have good covering fire. When the Russians move through the ambush, I will detonate the first string of IEDs. If the Russians follow their standard doctrine, which they have thus far, they will dismount their troops from the BMPs and BTRs.”
“Those troops are going to fan out and move forward to clear the village,” Childers continued. “That is when I want you M240 gunners to let ‘em have it. They will charge the ambush just like we would, only this next time round, they are going to charge right into our second ambush.” His face lit up with a devilish grin, almost like he relished the destruction he was about to unleash on the enemy.
“When the claymores go off, they will send additional tanks and armored vehicles forward to push through the ambush. You M240 gunners need to get the h
ell out of dodge and head to the rally point once you hear the explosions. If you stay too long, I guarantee one of those Russian tanks is going to put a High Explosive (HE) round into your position.” Childers paused to look at the M240 crews to make sure they understood what he was telling them. He wanted them to stick around long enough to hit the infantry, but they needed to get out of there once the tanks started to move forward again or they would get blown up.
The men all nodded.
Luke pressed on. “Once you guys break contact, I’ll send the SMS to the IEDs, and hopefully, they will destroy the second group of tanks and armored vehicles.”
He sighed loudly, then looked back at his young soldiers and added, “Look, this is going to be tough. It’s going to be bloody and it’s going to happen fast. The key to this ambush is going to be speed. So, once it’s time to get out of here, you need to run like your life depends on it to the rally point. Don’t try to be heroes. Just do your jobs, remember your training, and let’s try to get out of this alive, all right?”
The soldiers all nodded in agreement, and responded with, “Yes, Sergeant.” Then they went back to work, getting everything set up.
Once Lieutenant Taylor got back to the cluster of houses that sat along the highway, he briefed his men on what the other platoons were going to do, and what their plan of action was once they carried out this ambush. They would hit the Russians hard once they walked into their trap and then quickly race to the next ambush point and try to repeat the process. He showed them on the map the second point and where the additional artillery shells had been placed so they could find them when they arrived. He also showed them where they would rendezvous with their unit once they crossed back into the new NATO lines.
Several Ukrainian army units streamed past their positions at this point. They looked ragged and beaten up. Most of the vehicles had scars cut into them from bullets and shrapnel. The soldiers looked dirty and exhausted--many of them had bandages covering bloody wounds.