It was easy to mistake General Cal Jarrel for just another one of the four hundred or so crew dogs at the Air Force Strategic Warfare Center, and that was just fine with him. Jarrel was an unimposing five foot eleven, one-hundred- sixty-pound man, with boyish brown hair and brown eyes hidden behind standard-issue aluminum-framed aviator’s spectacles. Many of those close to the General thought that he was uncomfortable with the trappings of a general officer, and everyone on the base agreed that at the very least he was the most visible one-star anyone had ever known. On the flight line or on the indoor track in the base gym, he could be seen jogging early each morning with a crowd of several dozen staffers and visitors, which was how he kept his slight frame lean and trim despite an ever-increasing amount of time flying a desk instead of a B-52 Stratofortress, B-1B Excalibur, or F-111G Super ’Vark bomber. He was married to an environmental-law attorney from Georgia and was the harried father of two teenage boys.
Like many of the men and women in the Strategic Air Command of the mid-1990s, Jarrel appeared studious, introspective, unobtrusive, and soft-spoken — unlike their hotshot fighter-pilot colleagues, it was as if they understood that the awesome responsibility of carrying two-thirds of the nation’s nuclear deterrent force was something that was not to be advertised or bragged about.
Certainly, the critics thought, SAC’s twenty thousand aircrew members had little to boast about and nothing to look forward to for the next century — the fifty B-2s and one hundred rail-garrisoned Peacekeeper ICBMs planned to be operational by then might very well be the only nucleararmed weapons in SAC’s inventory. Virtually all of the B-52s, B-1B bombers, cruise missiles, and reconnaissance aircraft were rumored to be headed for conventionally arnrcd tactical-support roles, in the inactive reserves — or, worse, in the boneyard.
It was a winding-down period for SAC, which created questions about readiness, training, and motivation. That’s where Jarrel’s Strategic Warfare Center School, and the Air Battle Force, came in.
“Seats,” General Cal Jarrel said in a loud voice as he made his way to the stage. The aircrew members in the room took their seats and restlessly murmured comments among themselves as Jarrel stepped up to the podium. He was there to give the welcoming speech to a new crop of aircrew members that were to begin an intensive three-week course on strategic air combat — SAC’s “graduate school” on how to fly and fight. As was the case for the past year since becoming director of the Strategic Warfare Center, he had to convince each and every one of these men and women of the importance of what they were about to learn — and, in a very real sense, to convince the rest of the country and perhaps himself as well.
Lieutenant Colonel McLanahan listened to General Jar- rel’s comments, sitting on the edge of his auditorium seat. All around him were stealth bomber crews, who, like him, were there to attend the Strategic Warfare Center school.
When General Jarrel acknowledged the B-2 crews in his opening remarks, a ripple of applause — and a few Bronx cheers — passed over the crowd for the B-2 crews.
This is where I belong, McLanahan thought: in a flight suit, getting briefed with these other crew dogs. He had, he realized, been isolated at Dreamland far too long. Sure, he was one of the most dedicated and successful aircrew members and weapon-systems project managers in the entire military. But where had that gotten him? Flying a battle- scarred B-52 fully renovated with modem hardware deep into Soviet airspace to knock out Russia’s state-of-the-art armaments? It should have been the most rewarding mission in his career. Instead it had landed him at HAWC, where he’d been ever since. But flying was in his blood. McLanahan knew the score — because of the highly classified nature of his work he’d probably never get beyond 0–6 (Colonel), or if he was lucky, 0–7 (Brigadier-General). But at least they were letting him fly a dream plane. The only problem was he couldn’t tell anyone about it. His cover story was that h^ was “observing” the school for the Pentagon. Still… he was here. And the real excitement was coming…
General Jarrel was well into his talk.
“SAC is being tasked with much more than delivering nuclear weapons — we are being tasked with providing many different elements of support for a wide variety of conflict scenarios,” Jarrel went on, speaking without a script and from his heart as well as from the numerous times he’d given this speech.
