The broken hull loomed up, red bilge paint clear in the midday sun. Ignoring where his lead was, Bai wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to kill more trespassers and didn’t trust the Shao Xiao to do it. He eased back on the stick, and the solution ran out to the hull. As it transited up the waterline under the lifeboat, Bai mashed down on the pickle and felt the bombs come off as his jet quivered twice. He snatched his jet up and then snapped inverted to see his handiwork.
Moments after the bombs entered the ship, an explosion ripped out the hull and superstructure above it, sending debris flying into the air. At the same time, he saw his lead’s jet burst into flame as it overflew the ship, on fire the length of its wingspan as it slow rolled ahead. The leader’s two bombs blew out the hull aft of where Bai had laid his weapons. A second later, the flaming J-11 pancaked into the sea beyond the stricken vessel, sending up a plume of spray and a flaming swath of debris almost a mile long.
“Flight leader shot down!” Bai cried, and the two trailing J-11 pilots looked up in alarm. This sinking merchant ship has defenses? Bai wasted no time and selected his gun while performing an oblique reattack. Keeping his eyes on the orange lifeboat — where crewmen would congregate — he pulled the jet down, selected idle, and positioned his gun pipper. Flaming 30mm rounds flew out of the gun muzzle, and Bai watched impact flashes hit all about the lifeboat before he pulled off. Tall stacks of containers fell over and into the sea as OCL Courage continued its roll. Bai then transmitted, “Defenses destroyed! It is safe to attack!”
Bai held overhead, fascinated to see the ship roll on its side surrounded by floating containers, burning slicks, and churned up sea. He watched the two wingmen as they came in and released their bombs on the exposed keel, a great red wall of glistening steel plate. One set of bombs entered amidships and resulted in an explosion that broke OCL Courage in half. Bai joined on them once they came off, and the seven Chinese pilots orbited over the scenes. As they watched, the halves sank and left an ugly, brown slick covered with floating debris. On the way back to Blood Moon, Bai pumped his fist in triumph while more than one of his wingmen considered that Bai’s flight leaders had been lost on both of the combat missions Bai had flown on.
CHAPTER 44
Wilson felt the pressure that pushed down on him and the chain of command from Washington. He had to deliver — even with Weed damaged goods, Mother a wild-card, Hancock’s ability to launch aircraft cut in half, and his aircrew having to get smart on EMCON, signal flags, and Morse code light signals. Despite all that, he had to focus on what was important now.
The Chinese were sinking merchants in the South China Sea with impunity, and there was pressure on INDOPACOM and 7th fleet to prevent further attacks as world markets were thrown into turmoil and riots broke out in numerous Western cities. In-between Hancock and the Philippine archipelago were hundreds of miles of open sea, dotted by fishermen and merchants of all nationalities trying to feed their populations and strengthen their economies. Many were Chinese, a proven threat that had to be eliminated as Hancock and the other carriers moved into position to bring tactical air power to bear. Many among them were not Chinese, as Weed had learned at Maug Island. These unassuming fishing boats and coastal merchants posed a problem that had to be rolled back. This task would take time as the Americans had to identify, track and possibly attack each contact they encountered on this immense battle space.
Blower had Hanna steaming everywhere at full speed, sometimes flank, and multiple Sierras scouted ahead with fingers on their triggers, ready for the slightest provocation. Cape St. George and Earl Gallaher kept up with their charge, but both had to be refueled and often at these speeds. Moving meant survival, and, even if the Chinese could detect them, the latency of the tracks degraded their ability to target. However, each mile closer to the First Island Chain increased the chances of successful engagement for PRC forces that lay in wait.
Wilson addressed the ready rooms on TV and met with his COs emphasizing the absolute need to get it right and eliminate errant weapons. Weed was by his side at the meeting, humiliated but owning it. Changing gears, Wilson then turned to the EA-18G skipper.
“Gumby, we need you to hack a path for us to a position off Samar. I want Hunter/Killer divisions to include one Growler to sanitize ahead of our track, to ID and then destroy PRC vessels we encounter. Olive, I want your Snipers to try one of our AADMs; test it as part of Gumby’s plan. This is probably going to be two days as the ship transits at a high speed, day and night, and we need 24-hour Hummer and helo ops with an alert surface CAP of fighters to deal with anything we come across. You helo guys will have responsibility for close-in sanitization and, if required, engagements. Don’t have to tell you that a submarine inside the screen will ruin everyone’s day — but I’ll say it anyway, and we must have a solid ASW search and destroy posture. Gumby, I want you to be the belly-button that coordinates all this over the next two days, and I need an answer in five minutes… but I’ll give you three hours.”
Gumby smiled. “Thanks, CAG.”
“Don’t mention it,” Wilson deadpanned, and then added. “Guys, get your geeky lieutenants to talk to Gumby’s geeky lieutenants and come up with an 81 percent good plan now. Oh, yes, HAVE REEL. Want it on all the jets to the maximum practicable. We move and duck punches as we track them and deliver knockout blows.
Wilson wasn’t finished.
“And guys, once we get there, be ready for 24-hour ops and long-range strikes into the South China Sea. This is going to be high-end, War-at-Sea ship killing and installation interdiction. We might split day/night with John Adams, but it is going to be a challenge with no SATCOM, so we might go with geographic responsibilities. That’s being worked by the admiral. Weed — want you to come up with a roll-back strategy for the SCS. Need to brief the admiral on this tomorrow; top-level stuff to include what John Adams, Solomon Islands and Les Aspin can bring to the fight. Questions?”
“No, sir,” Weed answered.
“Great. This is an offensive thrust to puncture and knock down the great wall of sand. Gumby, see you in three hours. Now, go do that voodoo that you do so well.”
The COs smiled, and the meeting broke up. All filed out of Wilson’s stateroom — all except Weed.
“Thanks, Flip.”
Wilson smiled. “I just dumped a ton of work on you and you thank me? Don’t mention it. You are my top strike lead, and I’m depending on you.”
“I fucked up yesterday, and everyone from you to Cactus Clark has to clean up after me.”
Wilson raised his hand for Weed to stop. “We have to fight a war now. This is the real thing, and we’re going to lose more of our kids. Trying to keep everyone loose, but I cannot live without your tactical ability. Need you to make sure we don’t do stupid stuff.”