Peterson nodded his head. “Oh, I can do that, all right. If you talked to Ricks, you know we were at it from both the losing side to eventually the winning side. Even now, some of the guys I work with can’t believe what we did,” he said with determination. “Of course, what I say won’t mean much if a bunch of flag officers poo-poo it. But I’ll give you what I’ve got. From what I have heard, you have seen some of the same kind of action yourself, so I’ll leave you to fight with the rest of the elephants. Us pygmies will just keep from getting crunched underfoot,” he said with a grin.
“I’ll try to keep them from making jelly out of you. Thanks for joining the team.”
The two men talked a few minutes before they had to leave for the meeting. The conference room was just down the hall. The men were the last to enter and everyone stood as they came in except for two of the admirals, who remained seated. It quickly reminded Hammond that technically, he was still a three star, while these two men were four stars. After asking the people to be seated, Hammond led off.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I am Roger Hammond, acting Vice Chief of Naval Operations. Thank you all for coming today. Some of you began this process under the late Admiral Styles, today we are picking up that effort. It has been bumped up a little and now has the support of the Department of Defense, so it’s not just a Navy project anymore. I also asked to expand on the people taking part in this effort,” he began. “We have a monumental task before us. Some of the decisions will be easy, while others will require intense effort. As I see it, we have four goals,” he began
Lieutenant Jeffers turned on the computer projector and the outline appeared in front of them.
“First, we need to determine the top three threats facing the United States at the present time. Second, we need to determine the largest threat and how they threaten us. Third, where are we most vulnerable or to put it better, how would you see them attacking us, and fourth, how do we meet the challenge. Specifically, if we are attacked, what do we do about it? You will notice that we have officers from the allied services here with us. Since the United States does not operate in a vacuum, we have to take into consideration how our allies will respond as well.
“That is the basic outline, but as you can imagine, the deeper we go into this, the more detailed it will get. I will say this, if any of you feel you cannot stick with this until it is complete, please let me know now. Once we start, we all will have a part and we all will have homework to do. I will ask that if you do leave, you assign someone else to take your place. I’m not kidding on the importance of this project.
“Now, as to how I want to conduct these meetings, they will mainly be brainstorming sessions. Everyone has an equal say,” he said while glancing at Peterson. He noticed Peterson grin back. During the meetings, we will look at specific aspects of the mission and everyone will need to go back afterwards and find out what information we need to eventually come to a consensus. Once we have everything finalized, we will go over it all in front of the Joint Chiefs. If they have any other comments, it will be incorporated into the final.”
Hammond looked around the room. “Each of you is a resident expert in their area of warfare expertise. There is no denying that. Each of you has an equal say. If you have a doubt, sing out and bring it up to all of us. We can’t get this done if there are lingering doubts. This must be our best effort. Now are there any questions?” he asked finally.
Admiral Lockwood spoke up. “Roger, why involve such a large number of non-flag officers? When we first met with Styles, we assumed this would be something that would last a few meetings then a report submitted,” he said in an accusing tone.
“That may be, but I got the distinct impression from the CNO that he wanted something a little more substantial. Evidently the Secretary of Defense agreed, so it got bumped up to a higher priority with a few more provisions. I invited the rest of these senior officers because they have much more recent combat experience and can give us a better insight on what happens at the ground level.”
“Don’t you think we know that,” Lockwood said sternly. “I have a lot more experience than these guys.”
Hammond looked at him and laid his hands on the table. “Admiral, you are an aviator. What aircraft did you fly?”
Lockwood grinned. “I trained on the F-4 Phantom. Then I transitioned to F-14s,” he said with a smirk.
“And both are aircraft no longer in our inventory. The aviators we have today are dealing with systems and aircraft we never dreamed of. Although I know you have vast experiences, they are not necessarily modern experiences. We need that input, not just the outdated ideas of people who have been flying desks instead of aircraft for the last ten years,” Hammond said calmly.
Lockwood got a stricken look on his face. No one had ever doubted his abilities, yet Hammond had cut right to the core. He was right. It had been ten years since he had flown in an aircraft except as a passenger. What made it worse, Hammond had calmly cut him down in front of all the others. He silently began looking for a way to get a little revenge. Looking back at Hammond, he said, “So I take it none of the other flag officers have the experience either.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” said a female voice from the back of the room. Everyone turned to see Lieutenant General Claire Richardson sitting back in her chair. “I personally recognize several people in the room who were with me when we had our little walk up the Korean peninsula. It looks like a well thought out team to me,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone.
“I agree,” said Rear Admiral Chris Hustvedt, sitting beside her. Every naval officer in the room remembered how Hustvedt had won the battle of the Sea of Japan just six years before.
“It’s not that I doubt anyone’s abilities. You have an amazing record and I really do need your input into all this. But I also need the experiences of everyone in the room, not just one or two. Once this is done, we will have a blueprint for fighting a modern war. Something like this hasn’t been done of this scale since the Second World War. I need all of you,” Hammond reiterated. “Any other questions?”
The room was silent. Everyone recognized leadership and it was standing at the front of the room.
“Very well, then, let’s start at the beginning. What do you think are the top three threats to the United States,” Hammond began.
“Russia,” said Admiral Best put forward. “With all the activity she has been in for the last year, I would expect something between six months and a year from now. There may be others, but Russia worries me most,” he said, warming up to the task. Several of the people in the room nodded.
“China might be the next one in line,” said Richardson. “She is still rattling her saber in some of the outlying areas and we have gotten word that she is putting pressure on some of the neighboring countries to get some things done. I wouldn’t put her in the same ballpark as Russia, but with over a billion people, I would be worried. I know we worried about that in Korea.”
“Okay, that’s two to consider, are there others?” asked Hammond.
“What about the Middle East? It has quieted down some, but they are still killing each other over there by the dozens,” said a Marine lieutenant colonel.
“Yea, they never seem to go away,” said Best with a grin. There was a chuckle in the room. “We finally got out of there but the conflict seems to always keep going. The threat there is to the oil supplies,” he said. Again there was nodding around the room.
A British captain spoke up. “Actually, I believe those are the real threats to any of us. Venezuela used to be somewhat of a threat, however it appears that issue has been handily dealt with,” he said with a grin. “In any case, aside from minor skirmishes with the damned Somali pirates, the rest of the world appears to be holding its own. If it were left to me, I would agree that the number one threat is Russia, then China and the Middle East. At least I can’t think of any other major threats,” he said. “India is a big question mark, but, fortunately, she has her own troubles and is not bothering anyone at present.”