“What do you mean, sir?” asked a young sailor, who looked to be barely 19-years old.
“Thank you for asking. The jet coming in tonight has tremendous stealth capability, so you may not see him on radar that easily. Or at all, frankly. I encourage you to keep your eyes open, and report anything that may seem unusual, or non-standard. They may not talk on the radio, so it will be difficult to communicate. Their avionics may not be compatible with this ship, nor any other U.S. ships in the area. For landing, they may land the first time, or go around many times. We aren’t even sure they have night vision goggles… just be ready for anything, okay?” Mark said, attempting to keep the young and talented crew informed and calm. “We may be here, the three of us, or we may be up on the deck, or up on the bridge. Your CO and XO will know how to get a hold of us,” Mark let a moment or two go by. “Any questions?” Mark looked back at Muddy. “Oh, last thing. Anything you see or say tonight, you may never repeat. Ever. For your lifetimes. Ever. This mission tonight is crucial to our national security as a nation. We need your help, folks. Thank you.” Mark was complete, and hoped to himself they bought in to the idea of how serious this was.
“Okay Lincoln Team, back to your stations. Thanks for the support,” Muddy announced.
Robert walked over to Emily and gave her nod, while looking at the digital map. “See these ships here? One of them will be a destroyer or cruiser with a powerful radar, and at least an aircraft or two up and airborne that can visually ID something for us,” Robert said to Emily.
“Hmm. You think coming out of Okinawa, like on a 220 heading outbound?” as Emily took her right hand and followed out from the last island in the Japanese island chain.
Robert nodded yes, “exactly.” He looked down at the radar screens to see if anything was on there, but it was clear. “Muddy. Before we go up and talk to the flight deck team. Can we ask this ship here, what is it here… the, ah, the USS Gettysburg, to launch a helicopter flight out to visually search? See if they spot the Devil Dragon?” asked Robert.
“Sure. We have contact with them. They have an AN/SPS-49 Air Search Radar that may help. Want me to call over there?” Muddy offered.
“Would be terrific… thanks.” Robert said.
Muddy walked over to the Officer of the Deck for the CDC. “Get me Gettysburg skipper on the phone.”
“Yes, sir,” answered a young Lieutenant. He picked up the phone, talked in hush tones, and within a minute, had his guy on the phone. “Sir, Gettysburg Commanding Officer on hold.”
“Rocko, Muddy Waters here over on Lincoln,” Muddy said. “Listen, I don’t have time to bullshit. Need you to radar sweep an aircraft we are looking for. Not a friendly, but this isn’t a warning order, so don’t get all freaked out. She’s high, coming over Okinawa, and coming our way, and we just want to track her, with no action requested. No, no, stay quiet for a minute and let me finish. Okay, she’ll be on the 220 radial out of Kadena, and landing on us. Unknown altitude… a fast mover. Maybe launch a bird or two for a visual… good?” he continued to explain. “Yup, yup, just have your CDC contact ours with anything you got. Thanks, man.” Muddy gave the phone back to the Lieutenant, and turned to Robert. “Done.”
The XO led the way from the CDC, through a maze of passageways on the ship. Some were gray, others white, and most had an area you had to step over or you would trip. There were hundreds of folks in the halls, all working and walking and keeping busy. They passed one of many gyms, a dining hall, a rec room, and the Ship’s Store. They walked down hallways, made turns, climbed ladders, and went down more hallways. One room was even painted black. Everyone was friendly, and most greeted the CO and XO with “sir” and “Good evening”.
They arrived on the normally busy flight deck, to a crowd of clean shaven teenage sailors with baby-looking faces. They were all wearing a variety of colored shirts, as depicted earlier from the chart shown aboard the C-2. They were greasy from cable and aircraft grease, but happy and definitely dedicated.
The XO stopped into a small office surrounded by windows on the flight deck, full of officers and sailors doing work related to positioning of aircraft on the flight deck. The sign on the door said Flight Deck Control, FDC, and the sailors were huddled around a large table-top model of the ship, called a Ouija Board. There were also miniature toy models of each aircraft that were replicas of the carrier’s flight deck, a scale of 1/16 inch to one foot.
“Check this out! A game board!” Emily said, gaining smiles from all the men in the room.
The flat wooden board was about six feet long and two and a half feet wide, and if something could fit on the game board, it could fit on the ship’s flight deck. The flight deck was a dangerous place, with massive aircraft in continuous motion, hot jet exhaust, dirty steel cables, rotating helicopters and steam catapults, all while moving 15 or 20 knots into the wind at sea. Day and night.
“Chief, come on over here. XO, you, too. I want to launch an E-2, couple Hornets for tankers, plus two more for Combat Air Patrol. Add an H-60 Seahawk for starboard delta pattern SAR. Get them on the flight schedule and launch as soon as you can. PACOM told us to expect anything, and if there are chasers out of China who are pissed off we stole their child, they are gonna be P.O pissed. Questions?” Muddy said, pointing his finger to make a point. “Okay, Chief, get the guys around for a talk.”
“FLIGHT DECK CREW. FLIGHT DECK CREW. REPORT TO THE FDC. ON THE DOUBLE,” was heard over the loudspeakers.
A moment later, the crowd gathered around the base of the island.
“GET OVER HERE. PAY ATTENTION,” the crusty and experienced Chief Petty Officer of the Ship said to the flight deck sailors, standing around and waiting for the meeting to start. “We are going to flight quarters soon. Launching only four Hornets, an E-2, and a SAR SH-60. We are expecting something very unusual to land though. NO CAMERAS. NO CELL PHONES. So pay attention to this gentlemen. GOT IT?”
“YES, CHIEF,” they all said in unison.
“Thanks, Chief. Ladies and Gentleman, I’m Mark Savona, and I am from the Defense Intelligence Agency. The DIA. I’m here with two teammates, Emily and Robert.” At that moment the catcalls and whistling started after they started staring at Emily.
“Hello boys!” Emily yelled, giving them a smile and a wave. They were all paying attention now.
“SHUT IT!” the Chief told them.
Mark continued. “We are here on a special mission, and so are you. We need your help. Sometime soon, a very unique aircraft will be landing on the Lincoln. None of us have seen it before. It’s a Chinese aircraft with a friendly crew. Again, the pilots are friendlies. For you tonight, you can expect no tailhook, which is why you helped work the barricade. So, again, no tailhook. Also, expect non-standard comms, so those men and women working with the… the Landing Signal Team, it will be a bit different. Be ready for anything. Part two of this plan is the welding team. Those guys over there,” as Mark nods, “they are DIA welders. After the Chinese jet lands, they are going to cut off the wing with their welding torches as fast as they can. Your role will be to get the wings, and then the fuselage, on the airplane elevator as fast and as safely as you can. Park her in the hangar deck.” Mark let a long pause go. “Are there any questions?”