Captain Rodgers was at the briefer’s podium at the base of the Tank’s large, triangle-shaped conference table where everyone could see her and the screen clearly. It was a most imposing and decidedly uncomfortable spot — seven of the most senior, most powerful military men on the planet watching her, waiting for her, no doubt evaluating her performance every moment. The first few sessions in this room had been devastating for her. But that was a half-dozen crises ago, and it seemed like old hat now. She didn’t need the old trick of trying to imagine the Joint Chiefs naked to get through her nervousness — the fact that she knew something that these powerful men and women did
Present for the briefing was JCS Chairman General Wilbur Curtis; the Vice Chairman, Marine Corps General Mario Lanuza; the Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Randolph Cunningham; Commandant of the Marine Corps General Robert Peterson; Air Force Chief of Staff General William Falmouth; and Army Chief of Staff General John Bonneville, plus their aides and representatives from the other J-staff directorates. Curtis insisted on attendance by all Joint Staff members and directorates for these daily briefings — it was probably the only opportunity for the staff to get together as a team during their busy week.
The Chairman sat at the blunted apex of the triangle, with seats available beside him at the head of the table for the Secretary of Defense and the President of the United States if they chose to attend, although in his two years of office, the President had never set foot in this place. The four-star Joint Staff members and their aides and staffers sat on the Chairman’s left, the J-staff directorate representatives on the right, and guests and briefers at the base of the triangle near the back. Each seat had a small communications console and computer/TV monitor embedded in the table, which was fed from the giant Global Military Communications, Command, Control, and Intelligence Network operations center on another level of the Pentagon. The back wall of the Tank was a large rear-projection screen. Arranged above it was a series of red LED digital clocks with various times, and several members of the staff, by force of habit after long years aloft or at sea, gave themselves a time hack from those ultra-precise clocks every morning.
“The number-one topic I have for you today is the Philippines and South China Sea incidents,” Rodgers said after concluding her routine force status briefings. “In response to the attack on an oil-exploration barge a few months ago in the neutral zone in the Spratly Island chain, both the Philippines and China have stepped up naval activity in the area.
“Specifically, the Chinese have not added any new forces except for a few smaller shallow patrol boats. They have a very strong contingent there, including the destroyer
“The Filipinos have substantially increased their presence in the Spratly Islands following the attack on the oil barge. They have sent two of their three frigates into the disputed area and are now patrolling their section vigorously with both sea and air assets.
“But despite the naval buildup, the Philippine naval fleet is practically nonexistent,” Rodgers concluded. “All of their major combatants are old, slow, and unreliable. The crews are generally not well trained and rarely operate more than a day’s cruise away from their home ports.”
“So without the United States forces to back them up, they’re sitting ducks for the Chinese,” Admiral Cunningham said.
