Brigadier General Thomas Harbaugh, commander of the Strategic Air Command’s Third Air Division, the headquarters responsible for all SAC’s air operations in the Pacific, and the senior member of the Strategic Air Command’s STRATFOR team for Pacific operations, had joined Stone in the command post. To Harbaugh, Stone said, “Tom, we just lost the NIRTSat system. Masters doesn’t know when it’ll be back up. I need some current intel of Mindanao, and I need it
“I can call DIA and Space Command and get a KH-11 or LACROSSE satellite overflight,” Harbaugh said, “and you should get the photos by the time your birds start arriving here.”
“Hop on it,” Stone said. “But I want to discuss aircraft overflights as well. Unless we get Masters’ system on-line again, getting satellite imagery from Washington out here is too long for a naval battle. Besides, I want a few probes of the Chinese defenses. Let’s go over the Air Battle Force plans for ‘ferret’ flights; I want several packages put together to hand to General Jarrel when his birds start arriving.”
The officers in charge of each weapon squadron of the First Air Battle Wing were assembled in the Strategic Warfare Center briefing auditorium; the room was secured, the building closed down, and the doors guarded as the meeting began.
“Orders are as follows, ladies and gentlemen,” General Jarrel began. “By order of the President, all elements of the First Air Battle Wing have been directed to deploy immediately to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, and prepare for air operations under the direction of Pacific Air Forces and Pacific Command. Commander, First Air Battle Wing, will be myself, who will report to Major General Richard Stone, Chief, Strategic Forces deployed, Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, immediately upon arrival. Major General Stone becomes the overall Joint Task Force Commander effective immediately. First Air Battle Wing commander is dual-hatted as Joint Task Force Air Commander. The orders outline a few Marine Corps air units involved in the operation, along with naval air operations commanders. Rear Admiral Conner Walheim becomes Joint Naval Forces Commander. Joint Task Force Ground Forces Commander is Army Brigadier General Joseph Towle.” Jarrel folded the message form and stuck it in a flight-suit pocket. “No other details were given in the message, but that’s all we need to get going.
“I have distributed copies of the list of today’s nonflying crews and airframes; it composes about half of the force located here at Ellsworth, including eight B-52s, four B-ls, ten KC-135s, two KC-lOs, all twelve of our F-4Ds and Fs, ten F-15s, and six C-141s. That’s about all Andersen can handle at one time anyway.
“Crew rest is hereby waived for these crew members. They will pick up pre-planned mission packages, brief, and prepare for departure within six hours.” There was a rustle of surprise throughout the audience — they had planned and discussed a rapid deployment of a large number of aircraft such as this, but it had never been done before. “The bombers, KC-135 tankers, and some of the cargo aircraft will deploy nonstop to Andersen; the fighters and KC-lOs will get crew rest at Hickam before proceeding.
“All bomber aircraft will be fully loaded in ferry configuration; you have the list of stores they will carry. Deploying to Guam with weapons on board is always tricky because of the high fuel load needed for divert reserves, but we’ll have lots of tankers to support us, so we will load the bombers to get as close to max landing weight as possible with normal IFR fuel reserves…”
“Why was this decided, sir?” one of the squadron commanders asked. “Andersen has weapons — why not load up on gas and supplies and upload the weapons once they arrive on Guam?”
“I want those bombers ready to fight the minute they arrive at Andersen,” Jarrel replied. “My orders state that we are on combat alert as of right now, and the less time we spend getting ready for a mission after arriving on Guam, the more flexibility we’ll have. We could be tasked for strike operations while the Wing is en route, so I want to be ready — our crews better be ready to get a few hours’ sleep, mission plan, brief, pull the pins on the weapons, and go. If necessary, they will land, get their mission packets, pull the pins, do a hot refueling, and take off immediately.
