by James Rosone
As the emergency lights flicked on, Captain Richards placed his hands in front of his body and began to lift himself off the floor. He looked over and saw Admiral Lomas sitting in his chair; a dark red blotch began to grow across the front of his uniform. He staggered over to the Admiral and saw a small piece of metal had pierced his stomach, and blood was oozing around the wound.
“At least he’s unconscious,” thought Captain Richards. “He would be in a world of pain if he were awake.”
“Corpsman! I need a corpsman!” the Captain yelled to anyone in the room. A couple of sailors came over to him and saw the condition the admiral was in. He needed medical attention quickly.
“Sir, please step aside,” said a corpsman as he began to examine the admiral. After just a moment, he looked up at the Captain. “We need to get him down to medical. I need some people to help me carry him down.” He pointed to a couple of sailors and then directed them to get one of the medical stretchers.
The sailors carefully moved the Admiral from his chair and placed him on the stretcher, while the corpsman began to set up an IV. A young ensign led the way, yelling for people to make a hole for the admiral. Crew members who had been running throughout the corridor paused to let the stretcher with the admiral through.
Once the Admiral was carried out of the CIC, Captain Richards immediately turned his focus back to the emergency at hand. “Damage report! How badly have we been hit?” he demanded.
Before he got an answer, one of the chief petty officers grabbed the fire extinguisher from the wall mount and quickly put out a small fire that had started in the CIC. Then he opened a doorway leading to a hallway, to let the smoke escape the confines of the CIC.
The engineering officer was on the phone receiving an update when she covered the mouthpiece and turned towards the Captain. “Sir, it’s not good. It looks like the missiles punched through roughly eight decks before it exploded. We have fires spreading throughout the ship, and one of the fires is headed directly for the magazine room,” she responded with a grim face.
Another phone rang, this one at Richard’s station. He quickly picked it up. “This is the Captain, go ahead.”
“Sir, this is the lower deck damage control room. I’ve been trying to get through to CIC to give my report. I need to let you know that we are taking on a lot of water. We had several of the lower decks sealed that had been hit from the cruise missiles, but that last missile that hit us busted open several new areas. We are trying to control the flooding right now, but I need your permission to seal off the lower two decks of the ship if we are going to save her,” the officer said, almost pleading for someone to give him orders on what to do.
“How many men are still down in the lower decks, Lieutenant?” demanded the Captain. He wasn’t about to seal them off until he knew all his people were out of there.
“I don’t know Captain. A lot of those decks are flooded. It could be a handful, it could be a couple dozen. If we do not seal them off now though, the water is going to make its way to the decks above them, and if the flooding makes it to deck three, we are toast. That would expose half the ship to flooding, with no way to seal it off,” he replied.
Richards stood there for a second, trying to think. This was a nightmare scenario.
“What if I still have sailors down there, desperately trying to get out?” he worried.
He knew he had to save the ship though. “Seal the lower decks, Lieutenant,” he ordered. “Do what you need to do to save the ship. Keep us apprised of what you are doing.” Then he hung up the phone.
He quickly waved his senior engineering officer over and explained what had just transpired. Seeing that there was nothing left he could do in CIC, Captain Richards left and began to walk to the flight deck to survey the damage and see how he could help. He wanted to see the damage to his carrier and the rest of the battlegroup for himself, and he couldn’t do that while bottled up in the CIC. As he was on his way out, he saw several stretchers coming in from the flight deck. He ran over and helped hold the door open, so another sailor could assist in carrying the wounded sailors to medical. Then he proceeded out onto the flight deck.
What he saw was sickening. There was a huge hole in the center of the flight deck, just behind the catapults, and several demolished aircraft nearby. Turning, he looked aft and saw a second gaping hole with flames and thick black smoke rising from the cauldron of death that had been created by the enemy missile. As the captain surveyed the damage, he saw dozens upon dozens of brave sailors manning fire hoses, trying to put the massive flames out.
There were also bodies everywhere. Some sailors were missing legs or arms. People all over the place were crying out for help, begging for their loved ones as they wailed in agonizing pain. Some of them obviously knew they were in the process of dying. Richards walked over to a young sailor, who was trying to apply pressure on the chest of a fellow seaman who had a terrible gash. He saw the young woman crying as she desperately tried to stop the blood soaking through the bandage she had applied. Then he saw that she had also been injured as well. She had a small gash on her forehead that was bleeding badly, and was cradling one of her arms like she had broken it.
He knelt next to her and pulled out a bandage from an aid bag she had sitting next to her, and began to apply additional pressure on the wound of the man on the ground.
Captain Richards told her, “I’ll take over with him until a corpsman can help. Go ahead and get a bandage on your forehead.”
He yelled out to a couple of corpsmen who had just run out to the flight deck, getting their attention. When they saw it was the captain hailing them, they quickly ran to him. He directed them to take care of the sailor with the chest wound and told the young woman to follow them down to medical and get her arm taken care of.
Then Captain Richards got up and made his way to the edge of the flight deck, so he could survey the rest of the fleet around them. He looked off to the right and saw that the USS Reagan must have been hit by multiple ballistic missiles; nearly the entire flight deck appeared to be in flames and the ship looked to be dead in the water. Everywhere he looked, ships were on fire, billowing thick black smoke into the air. Many of the ships were dead in the water, while others still managed somehow to keep themselves moving.
Captain Richards turned around to examine his own ship. The superstructure where the bridge had once been was now a twisted metal hulk with flames licking around the few undamaged parts.
“We’ve lost the 7th Fleet,” Richards realized. “We’ve lost the Reagan and I may still end up losing the Vinson…”
*******
Following the Chinese attack, the carrier Carl Vinson, along with four destroyers and one cruiser, were able to limp away to the protection of the Japanese Navy. While the Carl Vinson survived, the damage to the flight deck, hangers and superstructure would require months, if not years to repair. The Reagan, along with three Ticonderoga cruisers and fourteen Arleigh Burke destroyers were sunk, along with the Blueridge. The 7th Fleet Commander, along with 13,200 other sailors, lost their lives, and another 7,000 more were injured. This was a crippling blow to the US, and would leave Japan vulnerable to the Chinese Navy until additional naval assets reached Japan.
Air Force One Has Landed
Killeen, Texas
Ft. Hood
After 32 hours in the air and four mid-air refuelings, the President directed the Secret Service to find a safe place to land the aircraft, so they could resupply it and begin to get things back to normal with his regular briefings and staff. When the ICBMs had been launched at Washington, the President suddenly found himself separated from nearly his entire staff. While Air Force One had an exceptional communications array and the ability to hold any level of classified briefings, it could not replace the sidebar or one-on-one meetings and discussions he needed to have with his staff.
The military, along with the Secret Service, determined that it was probably safe to land since the Chinese had not launche
d any ICBMs at the US following the nuking of Shenyang. It was determined that Air Force One would set down at Ft. Hood, Texas for the time being, until it was safe to return to Washington. The sprawling base could be easily defended and still had a contingent of nearly 12,000 soldiers. Once the aircraft had been refueled and resupplied, it would be moved to the runway and made ready to take off again, should the need to get the President airborne quickly again arise.
The civilian side of the airport had been shut down, and a plethora of additional security had been added to the surrounding area. The Air Force was also flying combat aircraft near the base for added protection. As Air Force One pulled to a halt on the military side of the airfield, a chair truck moved up to the aircraft, so the President could walk down and get back to the business of running the country on the ground.
When the outer door opened, several Secret Service members emerged and began to survey the area around the aircraft. They began to descend the stairway, and the President emerged and followed suit. The Army had sent over several Stryker vehicles to take Gates to the command building, along with a contingent of Special Forces. The armored convoy was also being escorted by several attack helicopters and additional Blackhawk helicopters. No one was going to attack the President on this installation, if the base commander had any say in the matter.
“Mr. President, it is a pleasure to meet you, Sir,” said Lieutenant General John Abrams as he extended a hand in greeting. “If you will please come with me, we can ride together in the Stryker,” he directed. Abrams was the commander of US 1st Army, the army command responsible for mobilization, readiness, and training, which had now become a critical command as the Army was in the process of increasing in size substantially.
The President reached out and shook the General’s hand, smiling warmly at him. “Thank you, General, for meeting me here and for allowing us to land at your base. I don’t think I could have taken any more hours cooped up in that plane.” Both men smiled and briefly laughed, breaking some of the tension they were both feeling.
The President ducked his head slightly as he climbed inside the back of the Stryker vehicle.
“So, this is what our men and women ride into battle,” he thought to himself.
As he got himself situated in the vehicle, a couple of his Secret Service agents also hopped in, and kept their weapons at the ready. Despite being surrounded by armed soldiers, they trusted no one with a loaded weapon around the President.
“Before we get to the base and I become inundated with briefings and decisions, how are things going on the mobilization front?” the President asked General Abrams. “Are we drafting enough soldiers? Are they going to be ready for what they are going to face?”
General Abrams answered, “It’s going to take some time, Mr. President, to get the soldiers trained. Depending on the number of casualties we take in Asia and Europe, these numbers should be sufficient; however, we need to be ready to double the size of the draft should the situation warrant it. My biggest concern is whether or not our forces will be able to hold the line long enough for the recruits to be trained and for our manufacturers to produce the vehicles and munitions needed to win. We are stretched incredibly thin everywhere right now.”
Gates had been pondering that same conundrum while on the plane. Things were moving so rapidly. “Thank you, General, for the insight. Those are big concerns of mine as well. Just do your best to get our men and women ready to fight.”
After his brief conversation with the General, the President made some small talk with several of the soldiers in the vehicle. He wanted to know what they were thinking and let them know he was just as concerned about them as they were about their families. The soldiers also offered up words of encouragement to the President, and urged him to not forget about the people of Oakland and San Francisco with all that was going on with the war; as it turned out, two of the soldiers in the vehicle were from the Oakland area, and had lost their families during the bombing.
The President really did like to spend time with the enlisted soldiers and junior officers; they tended to be the ones implementing the President’s orders, and often provided invaluable feedback on their effectiveness that senior leaders may not fully understand or appreciate.
As Gates arrived at the command building, he was greeted by the base commander and several other senior military leaders and members of his staff that had flown to the base to be with him. He extended his hand and thanked them for accommodating him. Then the base commander led the President and his small entourage to a secured conference room, which had been outfitted with several trays of sandwiches and plenty of drinks for anyone who wanted to grab a bite to eat.
While several additional members of his staff had flown out to Ft. Hood, the Secretaries of Defense and State remained at the Raven Rock facility for the time being, while most of the congressional leaders were at Mount Weather. The Pentagon would make an assessment in another twenty-four hours as to whether or not they felt it was safe for everyone to return to the capital.
A lot of congressional and senate leaders were not happy about being sequestered at Mount Weather. They desperately wanted to get back to Washington or to their constituents. They also hated the fact that none of them could communicate with the press, who had been explicitly excluded from accompanying them to Mount Weather. The only press that was with any members of the government right now was the White House Press pool, who had just arrived at Ft. Hood. The media was going crazy with conspiracy theories about what was happening or not happening while they had no one from the government to interview.
The sinking of the 7th Fleet and the war in Korea was keeping the pundits and talking heads speculating on what the President might do next, and how the US would respond to the loss of so many naval ships and sailors. The sooner Gates could get back in front of the cameras to calm the public, the better.
Back in the conference room at Ft. Hood, the President walked past the sandwiches and grabbed a water bottle before making his way to a seat that had a “POTUS” placard in front of it. Seated next to him were his National Security Advisor and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, who had been traveling with him on Air Force One.
“It’s good to see everyone again,” Gates said warmly. After a marathon flight, the President was glad to be back on the ground.
“Before we get going, I want to personally thank Admiral Robinson and his team for the outstanding performance of NORAD and our ballistic missile defense program. I know everyone feels terrible about the missile that got through in Oakland, but gentlemen, please remember, you also saved the lives of countless millions of Americans when you shot down the other 44 missiles. Given what has happened, I would like to petition Congress for an emergency funding bill to triple the size of our ballistic missile defense interceptors. Without such an important system in place, millions more Americans would have perished,” he said, nodding towards the Congressional leaders that were participating via secured video teleconference.
He was pleased to see them smile and nod in agreement. No one was going to stand in the way of providing additional money to the one weapons platform that saved tens of millions of Americans, regardless of party affiliation. Especially because they could see that if the US had had more missile interceptors, the cities of Oakland and San Francisco might have been saved.
“Getting back to business--how in the world did we lose the 7th Fleet? And what is going on with the ground war in Korea?” he probed, wanting to bring everyone’s focus back to why he had called this meeting in the first place.
A naval captain walked up to the front of the briefing room. He opened with a monologue of what had transpired, almost like a news anchor would recap clips of a breaking story. “Sir, in response to the nuclear attack on Shenyang, the People’s Republic of China officially declared war on the United States, Japan, and South Korea.” The briefer paused for a second to let that part sink in.
He saw the President nod in acknowledgement and co
ntinued, “Within an hour of declaring war, the Chinese launched an all-out attack against the US, ROK, and Japanese naval forces in the Yellow Sea. The Supercarrier Carl Vinson was nearly sunk by a Chinese anti-ship ballistic missile. As it was, the carrier will have to undergo extensive repairs once it arrives in port. The Supercarrier Ronald Reagan did sink, along with the USS Blueridge, which was the 7th Fleet Command and Control ship. Sadly, only the Carl Vinson and five other surface warships survived the missile swarm attack.”
Audible groans and gasps were heard from those in the room as the reality of the loss of so many sailors and ships hit them. In this single naval battle, the Navy had sustained over 20,000 casualties and lost nearly 20% of its surface ships.
“Despite the loss in surface ships, we had maneuvered a few dozen attack submarines into the area in case the Chinese did decide to enter the war. Our subs, along with several Japanese submarines, managed to sink twelve Chinese Navy submarines, at a loss of only two Japanese subs and one American sub.”
“One of the Ohio class submarines (which we had converted to become a cruise missile platform) fired off its compliment of 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles at many of the Chinese navy surface fleet vessels within a 1,300-mile radius of the battlegroup. They successfully sank 43 patrol boats, corvettes, and destroyers, along with three cruisers. They also hit five Chinese naval facilities, causing significant damage. A second Ohio class submarine fired off their compliment of 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles, disabling eight different Chinese air force airfields, ground radar stations and command and control nodes across the Shandong Province, directly opposite of South Korea.”
Most of the military members in the room nodded and smiled, satisfied with the results of the Navy’s silent service. The submarine force was really coming through for the US in its desperate time of need.