The President was heading to California to make some speeches and raise money for the war. O’Bannon decided that funds would be raised just like the old days, by selling bonds. A big gathering of celebrities and dignitaries would kick it off in San Francisco. While there, the President would make a few smaller stops in the area before heading to Los Angeles and San Diego. The back of the airplane, as usual, held the media contingent. This was one event that would be publicized. It had actually been suggested by media executives to help with the drive and divert attention from other things. It amazed the President how much the executives had become a media team for the war effort. They set up their own guidelines and rules — all blessed by the President — and were taking an active part in information deception to keep some information going out while denying an enemy anything vital. So far it worked well.
Jim Butler stuck his head through the curtain leading into his world. “You settled in, sir?”
O’Bannon laughed. “As settled as I can get. I could barely get behind this thing,” he said. The friendship and respect between both men had grown immeasurably since EMP Day. It made the work much more bearable.
“I have everyone settled down and fed. We should get there in about three hours,” he said. Then he handed over a piece of paper. “This just came in.”
The President read the message:
FLASH
//TOP SECRET//
FM: US EMBASSY, REPUBLIC OF PHILIPPINES
TO: POTUS
INFO: SECSTATE
SECDEF
CIA WASHINGTON DC
DIA WASHINGTON DC
SUBJ: SINKING
1. AT APPROX 0700 EDT SS ROYAL TRADER SUNK BY SUBMARINE POSITION 35N 130E. 25 DEAD, FIVE SURVIVED. ALL CARGO LOST.
2. ATTACK COINCIDES WITH BOMBING CAMPAIGN AGAINST PUSAN AND ATTACK ON TRANSPORT AIRCRAFT FROM JAPAN.
3. INDICATES ALL OUT SEA/AIR CAMPAIGN TO TAKE SOUTH.
4. ADDITIONAL SUPPLIES AND EQUIPMENT TO LEAVE SUBIC BAY BY 1200 EDT.
5. REQ ESCORT IF FEASIBLE. WILL ADVISE UPON DEPARTURE.
6. DUNCAN SENDS.
BT
The President threw the paper on the desk. “We knew this might happen,” he said to Butler.
“Yes, sir, but we can’t say we aren’t prepared for this one. Shall I relay the order?”
“Commence unrestricted submarine warfare against the North Koreans,” he said sadly. “If it floats, sink it. And tell them to make sure the submarine that sank that ship never gets home.”
Butler left the space and went to the communications office, which had an encrypted link to the Pentagon. The equipment they were using was British in origin. No matter what, it was the message that was important. Once done, he walked to the forward cabin and picked up the CNO on the way back to the President’s office. After a quick knock he and the CNO entered. “Done,” he said.
“Have a seat both of you,” the President said with a tired voice. Admiral Johnson had his coat off and took a seat along the outer wall. Butler took one of the benches on the opposite wall. “You got the word, I take it,” the President said.
“Yes, sir,” Johnson replied. “The Chief of Staff told me. We both thought you might like to know what I planned.”
The President grinned. “Yes, Admiral, Jim told me you had something up your sleeve, but he wouldn’t tell me what it was.”
“He is getting pretty devious for a mere captain,” Johnson joked. The three men had been working together for a while and developed a rapport that was very invigorating to say the least. Butler chuckled and the President sat back and grinned. “Actually, Captain Butler and Captain Hammond and I talked about this at length about a week ago. I saw no use in waiting around, so I have forward deployed eight of our Los Angeles and Seawolf class submarines around the coasts of Korea. Four are off each coast with two covering the very bottom end. The last one arrived just this morning and took up station. They were ordered not to take any action unless attacked. Their orders are to gather information on North Korean shipping and naval operations and be ready to go to work on a moment’s notice,” he said. “With the alert code that is going out they will commence operations. Since you ordered unrestricted submarine warfare, those ships will begin aggressively sinking anything with a North Korean flag on it. Their first priority will be those submarines, sir. So I doubt that guy will ever see daylight again,” he said seriously.
Unrestricted submarine warfare was something never done lightly. It was a cold and often cruel way to hurt an enemy — cutting off supplies and often starving and restricting the population as well. It was a very serious move. “I have also given strict orders that they must be certain of all surface targets. I don’t want some cruise ship blown up by mistake,” he said.
President O’Bannon nodded. Mistakes had been made before and they just seemed to make things worse for the one who did it. He liked the fact that these men were careful enough to take that into consideration. “That’s a good call. Will eight subs be enough?”
“More than enough Mister President,” Johnson said. “Today’s submarines with good crews can cover ten times the area of a World War II boat. I wouldn’t be surprised if these skippers don’t already have a track on three quarters of the ships between Guam and Hong Kong. But other nations need to know what we are about to do. That way they can steer clear.”
“Done,” Butler said, joining the conversation. “Our envoy spoke to the Japanese Prime Minister last night our time. Things should already be rolling their end. Unfortunately with the communications problems, those men will have to figure a lot of this out on their own. We just have to trust them.”
“Well, if they OK the use of the bases, we can at least put some more assets over there to protect incoming transports. I understand they shot up two air cargo planes bringing in supplies,” Johnson said.
“Yes,” the President said. “Unfortunately we are not quite ready to move much equipment. Any word on the ships and planes?”
“Those guys at Davis-Monthan are busting their bum to get aircraft spooled up. There are already two squadrons of F-4s and A-6s online. One of F-14s. I understand the B-52s are coming in pretty fast too. The head guy called up everyone up to the age of 70 to get these things online. The 4s and 14s are already in training. The 6s start day after tomorrow. As for ships, they are actually going faster than we expected. That guy Reardon is a slave driver, but he is sharing what’s going on and how to get things done quicker with every shipyard. I should have the first of the recommissionings sometime next week over in Pearl. They are getting all the old LSTs back online along with the Missouri. In all there will be 14 destroyers, four DDGs, six frigates, seven cruisers, and all the battleships. One good thing. We contracted with Germany to provide us with new comm gear for the ships. They are sending us what they use, including their encryption stuff. That way I can get comms on all our ships in short order. The Italians and Taiwanese are sending over chips and circuits so we can repair our computerized equipment in most of the ships. I cancelled the recommissioning of the Saratoga and Constellation. I will be able to get our mainline carriers back online using the older aircraft. I have also instituted some shipalts to make sure these ships will not go down on us if we are EMP’d again. They will all be able to keep running and make it back to port, even if it takes a lot more people to do it,” he said. The list he had was impressive.