Joint Air Base Battle Mountain was not spared. Every aircraft at the once-bustling base was in “hangar queen” status — available only for spare parts — reassigned to other bases, or mothballed. Most planes placed in “flyable storage” were not even properly mothballed, but just hoisted up on jacks and shrink-wrapped in place to protect them against sun and sandstorms. Construction at the base was halted, seemingly with nails half pounded, concrete footers half poured, and streets abruptly turning into dirt roads or littered with construction equipment that appeared to be just dropped or turned off and abandoned. There seemed to be no one on the base at all except for security patrols, and most of the visible ones were unmanned robotic vehicles responding to security breaches discovered by remote electronic sensors.
Patrick and Brad drove past the partially completed headquarters building of the Space Defense Force. They had passed just a handful of persons and vehicles since entering the base. “Man, this place looks… freakin’ lonely, Dad,” Brad said. “Aren’t they ever going to finish those buildings?”
“There’s no money in the budget right now,” Patrick said. He nodded toward several trailers set up nearby. “Those will do for now.” If the Space Defense Force survived the economic downturn, he silently added. President Phoenix was a big supporter, but like every other government program, it had been cut by at least 50 percent.
“Battle Mountain’s town flower: the trailer,” Brad said, reciting the oft-repeated joke.
The flight line was built up much more than the rest of the base because of all the flying activity before the 2012 crash, but now it appeared just as vacant as the rest of the base. Each large hangar had just one or two planes parked there — the rest were either in the hangars being cannibalized or on the south parking ramp encased in shrink-wrap. The most active flying units on the base were the RQ-4 Global Hawk reconnaissance planes, which had transferred here from Beale Air Force Base in Marysville, California; and the three surviving Air Force E-4B National Airborne Operations Center airborne command post planes, which along with the Navy’s Mercury sea-launched ballistic-missile airborne command posts resumed around-the-clock operations after the American Holocaust.
Patrick drove to the older western side of the flight line, parked in front of a large cube-shaped hangar, and he and Brad retrieved their gear and headed inside. The hangar was shared with several nonmilitary organizations, everyone from the Lander County Sheriff’s Department to the Nevada Department of Wildlife, so there was an assortment of fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft parked inside. They found two men at a large table inside the hangar, looking over topographic charts. One was wearing an Air Force — style green Nomex flight suit, similar to Patrick’s; the other was wearing a camouflaged battle-dress utility uniform with an orange vest over the jacket. They looked up when Patrick and Brad came over to them.
“The McLanahans: first to arrive, as usual,” the man in the flight suit, Civil Air Patrol Lieutenant Colonel Rob Spara, said. Spara was a retired Army Kiowa Scout helicopter pilot and commanded an Army helicopter training squadron before retiring; he held a variety of helicopter-related jobs now, doing everything from flying skiers to fresh powder on mountaintops, to air ambulance, to maintenance and repair. He shook hands with Patrick, then handed him a clipboard with a sign-in roster. “You’re the first pilot to arrive, sir.” Even though rank in the squadron was rarely observed, everyone called Patrick “General” or “sir.” “Feel like flying the 182 today?”
“Absolutely,” Patrick said immediately. He completed the sign-in, then had Brad sign in.
“Good,” the other man, CAP Captain David Bellville, said. Bellville was the vice commander of the squadron and the commander of cadets, a ten-year veteran of the Civil Air Patrol, a twenty-two-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force, and a physician’s assistant. “I’ll be your flight release officer. I’ll enter you into the ICU and give your crew a face-to-face when you’re done preflighting.” The ICU, or incident commander utility, was the computerized data-input system for the Civil Air Patrol, which did away with a lot of the paperwork required by the Air Force.
“I’d like to fly as scanner, sir,” Brad said.
“You know you’re not old enough, Brad,” Spara said.
“But I finished all the training, and—”
“And you know how I feel about father and son flying together: if there was an accident, it would be an even greater tragedy,” Spara interrupted.
“Then can I be on the DF on the ground team, sir?”
Spara had turned back to his incident planning and looked a little peeved at the question. “The initial mass briefing will be in thirty minutes, Brad.”
“I can start inspecting the L-Per.” Spara looked as if he hadn’t heard him. “I’m here early, and I did navigation on the last exercise. I can—”
“Brad, we’re trying to work here,” Spara said. He paused, then nodded. “We’ll put you on DF. Go start preflighting it. Briefing in thirty.” He gave Patrick a short glance, and Patrick nodded and followed Brad to the equipment room.
As Brad unlocked the door, Patrick said, “I know you’re anxious, big guy, but you shouldn’t badger the squadron commander like that. He’ll give out everyone’s assignment in the mass briefing. He doesn’t have time to address each individual in the unit.”
“He gave out your assignment,” Brad said.
“I think that was a courtesy, Brad,” Patrick said. “I didn’t ask him if I could fly as mission pilot.”
“Courtesy because you’re a retired general?”
“Probably.” Patrick detected a slightly angry expression. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“Spill it.” Still silent. “You still don’t like that I joined the Civil Air Patrol, do you?” Patrick asked. Brad glared at him. “I told you, I didn’t do it just to keep an eye on you.”
“Then why?”
“Because I’m a flier, and I was Air Force, and when we got sent to Battle Mountain and you transferred to this squadron from the Henderson squadron, I thought it would be fun, and it is. Plus, I give back to the community by volunteering.”
“It was my hobby, not yours.”
“So I can’t have the same hobby as you?”
“It’s not just that you’re a general, it’s because you’re a flier,” Brad said. “The CO looks down his nose at cadets and ground ops.”
“That’s not true,” Patrick said. “He’s a pilot, but he’s also retired Army — he’s been supporting ground troops his whole career. But that’s not what’s eating you either, is it?” Silence. “Wish I wasn’t part of Civil Air Patrol? Get used to it — I’m not going to quit unless work really picks up, which seems unlikely for a while.” Still silent. Patrick scowled, then asked directly, “What’s eating you, Brad?”
Brad looked up, then around, then took a deep breath and said, “Nothing.”
“C’mon, Brad, what’s up?”
“It’s nothing, Dad,” Brad said. He retrieved the L-Per direction-finding device and turned. “I gotta go.”
“Okay,” Patrick said dejectedly. It wasn’t the first time they’d tried to have this conversation, he thought, and it ended the same way every time.
Brad finished checking the direction-finding device, then brought it and his equipment over near the four-wheel-drive van to get ready for inspection and boarding. More squadron members had arrived, and he had time to visit with his friends and watch the local news for any information while they waited for the mass briefing. There weren’t that many members yet in the hangar — folks who lived in Battle Mountain usually escaped on weekends, to Elko, Jackpot, Reno, Lake Tahoe, Salt Lake City, or to remote desert campsites scattered throughout the area. If they were available, more would show up later for follow-on or backup missions.