“Great work, guys,” applauded the president. “It seems that we are going forward after all, and it was well worth my visit.”
“Thank you, Mr. President. And thanks to all these guys who have worked nonstop since the beginning of this year—three days ago,” applauded General Allen, getting up to stand next to Carlos.
“I know that for most of us, it already feels like a month, but let me conclude this meeting with MY report. So far, thanks to these guys here, we have radio communication with Andrews AFB, Edwards AFB, Hill AFB, and our own Strong Air Force Base right here, pun intended. We will not install our temporary Air Force sign at the front entrance on the main road until our soon-to-arrive visitors have been dealt with. So far, we have four C-130s flying, we have three fully operational F-4s now at Andrews. We will have several more C-130s operational in a day or two, most stationed at Hill in Salt Lake City and Edwards in California. Another HC-130 tanker should be operational in Yuma, and I‘m heading down there tomorrow. As far as more flyable aircraft, two Hueys that have been in museums until now are being made operational at Andrews. A lot of you know that we have over 50 air force bases here in the United States. Several of the bases on what we would call the front line have only the most modern equipment, so I will visit them last. Tomorrow, I’m flying the president back to Washington, and then I will be spending three days continuously visiting bases to find anything I can that is flyable.”
The general looked over at Sally and Jennifer. “Captains Powers and Watkins will be coming north with me tomorrow. We will fly in formation back to Andrews. Once we repel this attack, that I believe will happen tomorrow morning, I can concentrate on getting a big defense force together. Since I know all my bases and museums well, I believe that we could end up with a dozen C-130s, of which three are fuel tankers. I know there are another dozen or so helicopters around. I must find them as well as several other types of aircraft. As Carlos reported, our current aircraft could give us a long arm into Asia to take out the enemy’s headquarters. Now, whether or not all of China is involved, I don’t know. If it is, and their Air Force is operational, the boys and I would not return from such a mission. If only Zedong Electronics is the enemy, and the Chinese Air Force is grounded, then we’ll have a chance to blow their headquarters apart, and the HC-130 tankers can refuel us and get us back to friendly soil. This mission should take about a week.
“Here on U.S. soil, we have the three F-4s as our first line of defense or attack. They can still be refueled in-flight with one of our Vietnam-era HC-130 fuel tankers. Our second line of attack or defense will be the three P-51 Mustangs and the P-38 Lightning. All four of these aircraft can be fitted with 500-pound bombs, and their .50-caliber machine guns are fully operational. The P-38 can carry two 1,000 pounders—she has pylons that we can modify and fit two sidewinder missiles on each wing, and all her cannon and machine guns are operational. Behind the second line, are the three Huey helicopters, which we can arm with four air-to-ground rockets and a 20mm Minigun each, if needed. It is not a lot, but it’s a start.
“I will be meeting with the Army and Navy this week, as well. I believe the best we can expect from the Navy is six operational submarines and four destroyers—all World War II era. The army has a lot more potential with artillery than the Navy. The only Army weapons, apart from the men and their carbines, will be manually controlled artillery pieces, which is still a powerful force to be reckoned with for sea and harbor defense. We believe they have dozens of older trucks, or troop carriers to drag these old howitzers by the dozens to defend against any sea attack. The range of some of these weapons is as good as five miles out to sea, and any Chinese ship’s intricate missile systems could be blocked by hundreds of ingoing artillery rounds from bridges, beaches, and even the tops of buildings. We can lift these howitzers anywhere with the larger lifting helicopters that I must still locate. I saw them in operation less than a year ago, in San Diego, I believe. The Coast Guard will have a couple of old C-130s and, in total, our potential to drop paratroopers at a moment’s notice in a dozen C-130s will be a maximum of 900 troops and I will be preparing for this.
“The last thing I want to get to is what Ms. Wallace mentioned—civilian aid. We have been primed for a year now to send maximum numbers of supplies overseas. Our, now defunct C-17s have been working around the clock to take food supplies and ammunition to the vast numbers of troops over there. Our bases, especially on the east and west coasts are full to overflowing with rations and could potentially keep a large number of our American population alive. We must set up distribution centers at Bragg and Seymour Johnson to deliver quantities of food on a regular basis in this area. We can use all of our aircraft, which aren’t needed for troop movement and firepower in this endeavor.
“Can we help the whole country? No, not for a few months, it’s not possible, but we must help as many people as we can. Survivors from the north will logically head south over the next couple of weeks, and we must help people in rural areas with military supplies which we will also fly in on a regular basis. I’m thinking that we should deliver to an area of the country that is below a specific line across the country, say from Washington D.C. to Salt Lake City and then down to Edwards in California. Under this line there will be a greater chance of survival than further north.
“We cannot go and get the people—they must first migrate south, where we can provide some food and use large buildings for shelter. If the remaining American population can hold out until spring, then I believe the United States of America has a chance of survival. Any questions?”
“What are the chances of our current Air Force going up against the best of the Chinese fighters, if they are flying?” Preston asked.
“Suicide if we attack China, since about 80% of their military is for defense and not offense,” answered the general. “The Chinese have a very small Blue-Water navy. ‘Blue-Water’ navy refers to the ability to travel over any ocean and attack a foreign country. I believe that they only have five to seven ships that can legitimately be called ‘Blue-Water’ capable. Our understanding is that the Chinese military was never expected to cover global action until 2009 when more ambitious programs went into build mode, and as far as we know everything is still in build mode except for their one aircraft carrier purchased from the Ukraine.
“We were told last year that this aircraft carrier was nearly operational. In other words, they have very few aircraft or naval ships that can travel over the Pacific and attack the United States and then fly all the way back again. Actually, no aircraft in the world can do that. All aircraft must either refuel in the air, or refuel on land for their return flights, or land on an aircraft carrier. Our only real defense is non-guided rockets or missiles, and I believe we still have a lot of those that are still operational. I’m hoping that the Army can come up with enough old rockets to fire from batteries on shore to keep the Chinese anti-missile machines busy long enough for us to either drop bombs on them, or sneak up and attack. I will let you know about that tomorrow.”
The general stopped for a moment. There was so much information to present and review that he was worried that the mixed crowd in the room might be on overload.