“Oh… and, Mr. President?” General Curtis said. “CINCSAC is recommending, and I agree, for Major General Richard Stone to be the STRATFOR commander — he’s an ex-SAC division commander and was the former base commander at Clark. He knows the Philippines like the back of his hand. General Stone will make his recommendations to Pacific Air Forces and Pacific Command on the type of response necessary and they make recommendations to you. Once approval is granted from you through Pacific Command, the STRATFOR will form the Air Battle Force.”
The President paused for a few moments, then nodded his head. “All right, General — I have my doubts, but let’s do it. Send in the two carrier groups only, put the Marines on standby, and send out the STRATFOR to Guam to help check things out. We’ll wait on whether to send your Air Battle Force until we find out what in hell the Chinese are up to. Got all that?”
“Yes, sir, I understand,” Curtis replied, and quickly added, “There are a few more items—”
President Lloyd Taylor had had enough, but he said, “Yes, General, make it quick…
“CINCPAC has requested an increased ‘safe zone’ around his fleet assets in the region…”
“Sink —
“Sorry, sir… Admiral Stoval. Commander in Chief, Pacific Forces. He’ll be in overall charge of operations in the South China Sea; he is asking permission to order the fleet that is sent down there to engage unidentified or hostile vessels or aircraft out to a range of two hundred miles instead of the usual one hundred miles.”
“Why does he need that?” President Taylor grumbled.
“Sir, if it was a Fei Lung-9 missile that was launched from a Chinese ship, the missile has a range in excess of one hundred miles and is supersonic, which makes the task of shooting it down very difficult. With a nuclear warhead, the kill radius of the missile is that much greater. The commanders in the area will want to keep all unidentified aircraft as far away as possible from their ships and to provide air cover for the reconnaissance planes,” Curtis said. “They all operate no closer than two hundred miles from Philippine waters…”
“Air cover? I said
“This would be for the STRATFOR reconnaissance jets, sir,” Curtis explained. “Those jets — the AW ACS, the EC- 135, and the RC-135 are unarmed recon planes. We have to provide air cover for them if they’re operating so close to the Chinese forces…”
“I thought you said this would be a
“Sir, for safety’s sake, each STRATFOR aircraft should have a minimum of eight fighters with it at all times…”
“Eight fighters!” the President exploded. “And how many aircraft will you send from the STRATFOR?”
“Four, sir,” Curtis replied.
“You want
“Our aircraft need that kind of protection…”
“Do it with
Curtis paused for a moment, then said, “I’ll confer with General Falmouth…”
“Yes, yes, fine,” the President said, waving his hand as if dismissing a bothersome insect. “Do what you want, just make sure you cover those planes with
“Of course, sir.”
“And, Curtis?” the President added, pointing his index finger at the General. “If this thing blows up in our face… if this puts my ass in a sling? Guess what?
And with that, Curtis was dismissed. Other aides and staffers were already being buzzed into the Situation Room before Curtis reached the door. Curtis’ aide, Colonel Andrew Wyatt, met the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the corridor next to the Marines guard desk. He fell in beside Curtis as they headed for the elevator.
“Well, how’d it go?”
“Don’t ask,” Curtis said as Wyatt punched the elevator call button.
“That bad?” Wyatt asked.
Curtis said nothing. Instead he was too busy thinking about what was going on halfway around the world…
Admiral Yin Po L’un awoke to find himself lying on a very soft bed under clean white sheets. Through blurred eyes, he saw several nurses — Filipino nurses, he soon realized — surrounding his bed. One of them, after realizing that he was awake, ran off out of sight.
