"Admiral on deck!"
The men at the Air Ops consoles did not stand, but Tombstone and the other officers watching the operation stood as Admiral Tarrant, flanked by his chief of staff and Captain Brandt, strode in.
"Good morning, CAG," Tarrant said. "They told me I could find you down here."
"You didn't need to come hunting for me, Admiral. I could've come up to the fresh air and sunshine."
Tarrant grinned as he glanced around the Ops compartment, red-lit and claustrophobic. "It is something like a cave down here. I can understand you wanting to get out for a change."
Tombstone suspected he was driving at something. "Sir?"
"I'm disallowing your request, CAG. I need you here, directing your wing. Things are going to get damn complicated this morning when the Marines hit the beaches, and I don't want you off over Russia somewhere. Clear?"
Tombstone's hands flexed briefly at his sides. He knew better than to argue this one. "Clear, sir."
"What kind of casualties have you been running?"
"Remarkably light so far, Admiral. We lost one Tomcat and four Intruders yesterday. We lost another A-6 during recovery."
"What, a crash on the deck?"
"Not quite, sir. Lieutenant Commander Payne had a hydraulics failure after completing his run. He took a hit from triple-A over Vladimir, and his gear failed when he hit the deck. We ditched the aircraft to keep the deck clear, but Payne and his B/N got out okay."
Tarrant nodded. "Eisenhower reported similar losses. Light.
Suspiciously SO."
"Maybe the Russians are too far extended in the south," Captain Brandt suggested.
"That's what everybody back in Washington keeps telling me," Tarrant said, "but I don't quite dare believe it. They're holding something back, and I want to know what it is."
"We had a couple of TARPS aircraft up last night, Admiral," Tombstone said. TARPS ― the Tactical Air Reconnaissance Pod System ― was a streamlined package flown on the belly of certain specially equipped Tomcats, containing a CAI KS-87-B frame camera, a Fairchild KA-99 panoramic camera, and a Honeywell AAD-5 infrared scanner. It gave excellent and highly detailed photographs of the terrain below, by day or night. "It looks like the bombing strikes have been hurting them pretty bad."
"No argument there. We've been getting the same story through satellites and high-altitude reconnaissance flights. The word from the Pentagon this morning was that we've been putting six out of ten of our targets out of action on the first pass, and we've already started doubling up on most of the targets that are left. Most of their major SAM sites have been knocked out, and their communications network is in a shambles. That the impression your aircrews have been bringing back?"
"Yes, sir. At this point, the biggest problem our planes face is from mobile triple-A, shoulder-launched weapons, even small-arms fire. Some of our planes have been landing with 7.62mm holes in their wings."
Tarrant glanced at Brandt, then back to Tombstone. "Gentlemen, about five hours ago the Pentagon got the final nod from the President. There was some question about how deeply the United States should get itself involved in Russia's internal conflict, but the word now is that White Storm is a go. The President has publicly declared full American support for UN Resolutions 982 and 984, and we are prepared to back them up with direct military intervention on the ground. We are going in to disarm the Russians, gentlemen. One way or another. CAG, you can pass that on to your people in your morning briefing."
Tombstone's heart was pounding in his chest. "Aye, aye, sir."
"Air Force attacks will be continuing as well, of course, so it's likely to get a little crowded over the beach."
"Are any strategic bombing runs planned, Admiral?" Brandt wanted to know.
"No, Captain. B-52s, B-1Bs, and B-2s deployed out of CONUS would all carry the risk of making the Russians think we're escalating a strictly regional conflict into global war… or that we might be trying to sneak in a preemptive nuclear strike.
"But anything else goes. Last night, the ships of II MEF shifted eastward to position themselves for the amphibious operation. That will begin at 1000 hours. Both Jefferson and the Ike will be joining the amphib force later today. Throughout that time, CAG, I want every aircraft you can muster in the air, hitting the Russians everywhere you find them, keeping them off balance. White Storm won't have a chance if Krasilnikov's people can catch their breath and concentrate their forces."
"The next phase of the air op calls for interdiction of the rail lines and roads connecting the Kola bases with the south, Admiral," Tombstone said.
"We'll be paying special attention to Kandalaksha, at the head of the White Sea, because that appears to be the hub of the local command structure."
"Excellent. I know if anyone can carry it off, Tombstone, it's you and your people."
"Thank you, Admiral. I'll pass that along to them."
But as they continued discussing the day's operations, Tombstone felt the depression, the pressure, the spiritual tiredness that had been weighing him down for the past several days, returning. If the Russians had reserves, if they were holding something, anything, back, it would be revealed today when the Marines began storming ashore.
And Tombstone would be here, in Jefferson's Air Ops, while his people were dying.
Never in his life had he wanted more to disobey a direct order.
CHAPTER 24
During the night, II MEF had deployed for its landings. Covered by the Eisenhower carrier group, the Marine amphibious force had taken up a position some fifteen miles northeast of the land mass called Poluostrov Rybachiy, a near-island thirty-five miles long connected to the mainland by a slender isthmus at the head of a narrow bay called the Motovskiy Zaliv.
Within the U.S. Marine Corps, the Marine Expeditionary Force is the largest modern deployable force, consisting of a Marine division, an aircraft wing, and an MEF Service Support Group, a total of 48,000 Marines and 2,600 naval personnel. II MEF, assembled off the Murman coast under the command of Marine Lieutenant General Ronald K. Simpson, included two LHAs, Saipan and Nassau; two LPDs, Austin and Trenton; two LPH helo carriers, Inchon and Iwo Jima; the LST Westmoreland County; the LKA cargo ship Charleston; and an escort of two Perry-class frigates, two destroyers, and the nuclear-powered guided-missile cruiser Virginia.
The Marines' first beachhead was a stretch of low-lying dunes and tundra along the headland west of the Kola Inlet. In this part of the Murman Coast, the northern tree line ran east-to-west some twenty-five miles south of the beach. North of that line, the terrain was tundra, a region of frozen subsoil with only low-growing vegetation, dwarf shrubs, and stunted birches. Cover was scant, and tactical advantage went to the side with superior mobility. In a lightning operation, CH-53E Super Stallions approached behind an aerial blitz of Marine Harriers and Intruders, touching down long enough to disgorge their loads of fifty-five troops apiece. Close on the Super Stallions' heels were the air-cushion landing craft, or LCACs, troop-and-equipment-carrying hovercraft capable of traveling twenty nautical miles at forty knots, crossing sea, surf, or the flat, often swampy ground behind the beaches with equal ease.
Following the LCACs, rising from the water like snarling, prehistoric monsters, were the Marines' AAVP7s, boxy, full-tracked armored vehicles descended from the amtracks of WWII. Each carrying twenty-one men and a crew of three, they were capable of swimming through ten-foot surf on twin water jets or surging across the land at up to forty miles per hour. The Marines wasted no time on the beach, using their speed and maneuverability to push past or over the coastal defenses and to get into the enemy's rear.