Lieutenant Mattie had just walked out of the operations center when the radar truck exploded. She was shoved to the ground by the shockwave from the blast, right before her ears were overpowered by the boom from the mortar. As she laid there on the ground, stunned for a second, she caught her breath and then heard the C-RAM’s 20mm cannon open fire on additional incoming mortars, too late to save her soldiers in the radar vehicle. Several additional explosions could be heard from rounds that were still getting through the C-RAM. She pulled herself up to see soldiers running to different fighting positions and protective bunkers. It was controlled chaos as the base began to respond to the attack.
Colonel Joe Jenkinson had arrived at Pryluky Airbase twenty-four hours ago as part of the advance party for elements of the 82nd Airborne. The Division had started to arrive in country to help reinforce the 2nd Cavalry Regiment and the 173rd Airborne, which had already deployed to the field. Colonel Jenkinson had just walked into the operations center to meet with the base commander, when the air raid sirens began to wail. He looked around and saw the highest-ranking officer in the operations center was an Air Force Major. The base commander must still have been on the way.
“Major Dusty, we have incoming Russian aircraft!” yelled a young female lieutenant as she walked into the operations center. All eyes turned to face her, not sure what to make of what she just said.
Major Dusty was the base’s operations officer; this was his second month in Ukraine, so he had gone through this type of drill many times. He knew the next few minutes were going to be critically important to the survival of the base if this was the main attack they thought might happen. He turned to one of the NCOs from flight operations. “Order the alert fighters to scramble immediately. Flush the rest of the fighters from the base right away, and get our helicopters airborne!” he barked.
As orders were being issued to the various groups throughout the base, the C-RAM system began to engage an unseen target. Then, a loud explosion shook the building. A tense moment went by before another powerful blast shook the building, only this time, they heard shrapnel hitting the outer walls, and debris must have been raining down on the ceiling above them.
“Everyone get your IBA on, we are under attack!” Major Dusty yelled.
Colonel Jenkinson moved quickly to the major, grabbing hold of his arm to get his attention. “Get me a radio to the QRF now!” he said. The major just nodded and pointed to one of the soldiers manning a bank of SINCGAR radios.
The colonel walked over to the soldier. “Hey, I need the radio to the helicopters,” he said.
The soldier nodded, then handed him one of the handsets he had just used. “This one is setup to talk to the Apaches right now,” he responded.
Colonel Jenkinson picked up the radio and let them know to head to a specific area, not far from the base and look for the enemy mortar team. One of the first things Colonel Jenkinson had done when he arrived at the base was to look for where the Russians would most likely set up their mortars or launch attacks. Once the rest of his unit arrived, he had planned on placing several listening posts in those areas to watch them. Unfortunately, the rest of his unit wasn’t going to arrive for a couple more days.
Major Igor Yelson’s men were ready to attack the Americans. They had moved into position less than an hour ago, as soon as they had been given the attack orders. He had had his men split up into several teams. He had two mortar teams that would attack the American air defense systems, while one of his ground teams would pour a ton of heavy machine gun fire at the perimeter, in hopes of drawing the American soldiers out in the open once the cruise missiles would start to hit.
Major Yelson’s main concern was the Apache helicopters that his scouts had identified. They would need to take those choppers out quickly or they would shred his force. To counter the Apaches, he had six of his soldiers ready, equipped with the newest MANPADs available, the SA-25 “Willow.” Yelson knew the American helicopters would come for his mortar teams, so he had the MANPADs positioned just right to take them out.
“It’s time,” Major Yelson announced. “Start hitting the base with the mortars,” he ordered one of his lieutenants.
The lieutenant nodded, lifted a radio to his mouth, and spoke a single word.
In seconds, they heard the first thump, thump, thump, of the mortars being fired. Then, they heard a noise they were not expecting. It sounded like a piece of linen being torn or ripped apart. Then they saw two strings of tracer fire emanating from the base into the sky where their mortars had just fired.
An explosion could be heard as the first couple of mortars hit. There was a pause, and then a secondary blast could be heard as the next group of mortars hit.
“Those blasted Americans,” thought Igor. “They must have set up an anti-mortar-rocket system.”
At least some of the mortars were still getting through though, because they were still hearing additional explosions within the base. Then, the unmistakable sound of chopper blades slapping rhythmically rose above the din. Major Yelson squinted as he looked off in the distance of the runway; he saw an Apache helicopter taking off and start heading in their direction. He also observed a pair of fighters hit their afterburners as they raced down the runway to get airborne.
As the first Apache got closer to their positions, it let loose a slew of anti-personnel rockets at one of his mortar positions. In that instant, he thought to himself, “This is it. My mortar team is doomed.”
Then, Major Yelson saw the first of his MANPADs fire from the tree line towards the helicopter, then a second. The helicopter moved incredibly quickly and somehow evaded the first missile, but was hit by the second one. Igor thought the helicopter would have blown up or crashed, but it resumed its attack on his men. In seconds, it was nearly on top of his second mortar team, when another MANPAD reached out and nailed it. The helicopter began to spew smoke and flames, and quickly turned to head back to the base. It only stayed aloft for a few more minutes before it made a hard-crash landing at the edge of the perimeter.
Just then, the cruise missiles started to hit the NATO base, exploding across the runways and then the rest of the base buildings. Major Yelson smiled, knowing that his unit had done their part; they had helped to eliminate the Patriot missile battery, which was the only real threat to the air raid now destroying the base.
He picked up his radio and ordered, “Disengage. Return back to our rally point. We need to regroup, rearm, and get ready for our next mission.”
Captain Ian Hawk had been getting his Apache ready for a routine flight when the base alarm went off. They received an alert, letting them know of a possible Russian air raid, and telling them to get airborne as quickly as possible.
Captain Hawk closed the window to the cockpit and began to bring the helicopter to full power. In less than a minute, he began to steer out of their revetment towards the taxiway while continuing to gain power. Then, he saw the C-RAM system fire at an unseen target towards the opposite side of the base. A voice came over the radio and told them to head towards a specific grid to see if the mortar team was near there.
Ian applied power to the helicopter and began to fly towards the coordinates he was given. He got the attention of his gunner, at the front of the chopper, “Hey Tom, if you spot that mortar team before I do, engage them with the rockets and take them out. We can’t let them walk those rounds in on the runway.” Captain Hawk was concerned about the pair of F-15s that were beginning to head towards the end of the runway to take off.