Admiral Meyers took a deep breath. “We need additional computer programmers and cyber-warfare experts. Drone operators and other technical fields. We also need more combat arms soldiers. Because of the training length of some of these professions, I believe we need to move forward with drafting an additional six million.” A collective gasp was let out.
The President realized that his mouth had been hanging open in shock and quickly snapped his jaw back in place. “Admiral, the press and Congress have been eating me alive over the last draft. Have you seen what they’ve been saying about the casualties we sustained during this last battle in Korea? They’re calling it the ‘Gates Massacre’ because I hadn’t ordered enough soldiers to Korea. If I ask for another draft of six million more young people, they’re going to try and impeach me. I’m not even sure I could get Congress to authorize an increase,” the President said incredulously.
“If I may, Mr. President,” the SecDef said, finally coming to the aid of Admiral Meyers, “it takes time to train and equip an army. There’s going to be a bit of a lull in the fighting for a few months. This is a good time to increase the size of the military again and ensure we have the soldiers we need to win this time next year. If you want, I’ll convey that to Congress, and I’ll be your pit bull in the public eye to get this done.”
Gates looked back and forth between Castle and Meyers for a few moments, calculating out what other options he might have. “OK. If you can sell it to Congress, I’ll go along,” he finally conceded.
Pacific Strategy
Captain Jeff Richards, the captain of the USS Carl Vinson supercarrier, walked into the briefing room. He was surprised to see so many other carrier captains present, including the Secretary of the Navy, George Leahy, and to everyone’s complete shock, the President and the Secretary of Defense. There had been no mention of the SecDef or the President being at this meeting when it was hastily put together less than twenty-four hours ago. Richards had thought he was going to attend a strategy session — he had no idea the Commander-in-Chief would be here. It was extremely risky having the President visit Japan, considering the US naval base at Sasebo was well within the range of Chinese ballistic missiles, bombers, and aircraft.
“This must be a heck of a meeting if the President himself is attending with the Secretary of the Navy,” Richards thought as he walked over to the placard that had his name on it. He was seated almost directly across from the President, a true honor that was not lost on him.
Gates raised his hand, indicating that he wanted everyone to settle down. The chattering between the senior officers quickly subsided as they turned to look at their Commander-in-Chief.
The President surveyed the room, looking his captains in the eye and making a mental note of their names, faces and the carriers they commanded. His eyes then settled on Jeff. “Captain Richards,” he began, “I wanted to personally thank you for your actions during the opening day of the Korean War and the surprise attack by the Chinese. You handled yourself incredibly well, and the country owes you and your men a great debt. I wanted to personally inform you that you and the captain of the Reagan—rest his soul — will be awarded the Navy Cross.” This announcement drew a short round of applause.
Holding his hand up, the President continued, “Before you say anything else, the men and women of your ship and the Reagan are also going to be recognized for your heroic acts as well. America needs heroes right now. They need to know that we’re going to win this war, and right now, you guys are those heroes for the Navy.”
Richards didn’t know what to say. His face turned red. “I appreciate the honor, Mr. President, and I know my men will as well.”
Turning to face the rest of the ship captains, the President continued on. “This is a tough time we find ourselves in. But we will rise to the occasion and defeat our enemies. We didn’t want or seek out this war, but by God, we’re going to win and make sure a war like this never happens again.” Gates paused as he looked up at the ceiling for a second before returning his gaze to the military men and women who would be pivotal in defeating the Chinese.
“With the loss of the Reagan, the extensive damage the Vinson sustained, and the new Chinese plans for continued expansion fully revealed, it’s become imperative that we move our Atlantic Fleet carrier strike groups to the Pacific. It took us a month, but as you can see, we have the captains of the Eisenhower, Lincoln, and Ford carriers from the Atlantic with us. These three additional carriers, in addition to the Stennis, Nimitz, and Roosevelt, give us a total of six carriers in the Pacific for the first time. While I would like to have moved our remaining two carriers from the Atlantic, the SecDef and the Secretary here,” he said, nodding toward his colleagues, “convinced me that it would be best to leave them there to support our European operations.”
“Most of you aren’t aware of what I’m about to reveal to you, so this stays within this room,” the President asserted. “The CIA was able to snatch a high-value Chinese government official who, through interrogation, revealed to us the Chinese end state. Their goal is to secure large swaths of the Pacific islands and arm them with anti-ship and surface-to-air missiles, making them nearly impossible to recapture without sustaining heavy losses. This will allow their ground forces to capture and hold the Philippines and Malaysia. This cannot be allowed to happen. With that said, I’m going to turn this meeting over to Secretary of Defense Jim Castle and let him explain to you our strategy for the Pacific.” He gestured for Castle to stand and begin his presentation.
The SecDef looked over the captains and admirals in the room with his stern gaze, seemingly piercing into their very souls. “Our first objective is to finish securing the Russian Far East. We need to neutralize that threat to our forces and Japan immediately. We cannot allow the Russians to carry out any sort of spoiler operations against our supply convoys or our oil infrastructure in Alaska. We also need to get our forces ready for the coming offensive against the Chinese mainland. However, we also cannot allow the Chinese to capture the Philippines or Malaysia. It’s bad enough that they conquered Taiwan; we cannot allow them to capture and fortify the rest of the South China Sea,” he said in his gruff and gravelly voice. When Castle spoke, he spoke with authority, conviction, and a sense of determination, and everyone knew that when he said something, the President fully backed him.
“In addition to the Atlantic carriers, I’ve spoken with Secretary of the Navy Joseph Leahy, and we’re going to move forward with the reactivation of the carriers Kitty Hawk and Enterprise from the reserve fleet. It’s going to be closer to summer before they’ll be operationally ready, but I’m confident the army of contractors and naval support personnel will do their best. We’ll keep them in the Atlantic for the time being and transfer our other two carriers there now to the Pacific, bringing the number of carriers we’ll have to work with to eight — more than enough to do the job when we add in the Japanese flattops,” Gates said to the surprised looks of those in the meeting.
Secretary Leahy chimed at this point, “In addition to the Kitty Hawk and Enterprise, we will now have all three of the Zumwalt DDGs in the Pacific. I’ve also spoken with the folks at Newport News, and the John F. Kennedy will be ready to sail by the end of summer, two years ahead of schedule,” he said, eliciting more smiles from the captains.