“Mr. President, the Chinese attack on the 7th Fleet hurt us, but it was expected and anticipated,” Castle began. “We survived the initial shock and awe they tried to lay on our fleet, and now we are hitting them back hard. Per our previous discussions, when the Chinese declared war and attacked our battlegroups, I ordered the new commander at PACOM to initiate Operation Trident. As our briefers began to describe, our Navy has hammered the Chinese navy and air force facilities that posed the greatest immediate threat to our forces. This was quickly followed by action from our Air Force.”
He paused only long enough to take a breath before continuing, “Our B-2s are just now taking off from Japan, and will begin to carry out a series of deep strikes within China, going after their critical rail, bridge, and tunnel networks. We are going to make the logistical challenge of moving men and material around their expansive country a bit more difficult for them. The carriers Nimitz, Theodore Roosevelt, and John C. Stennis will arrive in the Sea of Japan tomorrow. We’ve also relocated the cruise missile SSGNs Florida and Georgia from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Those additional cruise missile submarines will arrive at Yokosuka Naval Base around the same time the Ohio and Michigan return back to rearm. While the loss of the Reagan and the crippling damage to the Vinson hurt us, it could have been worse. In my opinion, the Chinese wasted the element of surprise when they attacked the 7th Fleet. Had they waited until the entire Pacific Fleet had sailed into the Yellow Sea or near the Straits of Taiwan, they could have sunk all of our carriers. As it is, they revealed to us the capabilities of their anti-ship weapons; now that we know what they can do, we are developing strategies and plans to deal with this threat.”
Jim paused for a second as he turned to look at someone off camera, then returned his gaze to the camera and leaned in closer. “I have ordered our cyber-warfare groups to immediately begin to go after the Chinese logistics capability. We are scrambling their barcode and computer systems, so when a unit sends a message requesting more ammunition, they will instead receive toilet paper or some other useless supply that won’t help them. These may sound like little nuisances, but I assure you, as our cyber guys infiltrate their electronic logistics system, it’s going to wreak havoc on their ability to keep their army groups running at full speed. We are also going after their satellites, just as the Russians went after ours. In addition to that, as we identify where their cyber groups are operating out of, we are having the Navy and Force launch cruise missiles at those facilities. This is going to have a huge impact on their cyber groups if they know we are actively targeting each site individually,” Castle said with a devilish grin. He really liked being able to go directly after the enemy hackers.
“As to the ground war, we had to withdraw the US and ROK Marines from landing near Pyongyang once it appeared that war was inevitable with China. We needed to protect the amphibious assault ships and the support ships needed to sustain a ground invasion. Now that China is moving ground forces into the DPRK, I recommend that we have the Marines redeploy along this area here,” he said, pointing on the map to the city of Hamhung on the Sea of Japan. “This was the second largest city in the country, and the only top four city in the DPRK that we did not nuke. It is, in all likelihood, the alternative headquarters for the government, if anyone survived the first day of the war.”
“This will give us a beachhead from which to land additional forces behind the North Korean frontlines, and hopefully allow us to cut them off. It will also give us exceptional defensive positions along these ridges here, when the Chinese forces do eventually reach ours.”
The President thought over what his SecDef had explained, feeling a bit more hopeful. “OK Jim, you’ve convinced me of the merits of the landing. Do it,” he responded. “Let’s also make sure the Air Force hammers the living daylights out of the Chinese forces entering Korea. Hopefully we can butter them up really well before they even reach our soldiers.”
The Secretary of State broke into the conversation again. “Mr. President, while I understand we do not have conventional forces we can deploy to Taiwan to help them, perhaps we can send them some Special Forces, or maybe one of our Ohio class submarines can deliver a barrage of cruise missiles at the Chinese ports near Taiwan, like they just did in the Yellow Sea.”
Gates sat back in his chair for a second, thinking about that, when Admiral Meyer interjected, “Mr. President, while I would like to send Special Forces to Taiwan, the limited number of units we have in the Pacific need to stay focused on Korea and any potential incursions we may make into China directly. Once our two cruise missile SSGNs have rearmed in Japan, we could redirect them to head down to Taiwan and hit the Chinese navy, but we also have to remember, the Chinese have their three carriers down there as well. There will also be an increased presence of enemy submarines in the area. I don’t want to risk losing any of the cruise missile submarines. We are going to be relying on them a lot more going forward with the loss of two of our carriers,” the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs replied, hoping to kill the idea before it could take root.
“Perhaps we can have the B-2s try and provide some sort of direct support?” the President inquired. “Maybe they can hit a troop transport or part of the rail or port facilities in the area,” he offered.
Castle jumped back in, “That we can do. I’ll place a call to PACOM and have him send a B-2 strike that way. It’s about as much support as we can offer Taiwan for the moment, until we have additional soldiers and ships.”
“How are we doing in that department, Jim?” asked the President, hoping the rebuilding of the army was at least moving along.
“The first batch of 150,000 recruits has just arrived in training. We have a new batch of 150,000 trainees starting each week. Roughly three quarters of these recruits are going directly into the infantry, so their training is roughly three months. Normally, the training would have taken four months, but we need those replacement soldiers at the various frontlines ASAP. The remaining 37,500 trainees from each cycle will be receiving a myriad of additional training in communications, medical, aviation and other critical jobs, so their training time is going to be closer to four to six additional months. We are working with the technical training schools to shorten it down as much as possible while not diminishing the required training.”
Castle sighed. “It’s going to take some time, Mr. President, but the first batch of 112,000 infantry soldiers will start to arrive at the frontlines in December. Approximately 112,000 additional soldiers will continue to arrive each subsequent week, until all five million draftees have been trained,” he concluded.
The President’s senior advisor, who had just flown in to Ft. Hood that morning, asked, “How long is each draftee’s service agreement again?” This was a detail that had not been finalized, despite previous debate.
Castle bristled a bit at the question, but answered it anyways. “The term of the draft is for the duration of the war. We will look to do a large-scale demobilization once the war has concluded, just as the US did following the end of World War II. We learned a lot from the Vietnam draft, and the Pentagon has determined that giving a set date to the draftees is not an effective way of building the sustained army that will be needed to win this war. Plus, we would have to continually draft people each week to replace the ones that finished their term.”