“This action leaves them with somewhere around one thousand tanks in their arsenal. These remaining, smaller tanks are geographically much further away. Given the current road conditions, thanks to our bombing, it will take them some time to move up before they can be used in the invasion. Along with the geographical distance being to our advantage, the smaller, more lightly armored tanks also pose a smaller threat.”
The screen went blank, “I am sorry to report that we lost one of our F-22s along with the pilot during this attack. The name of that pilot will be released once we can speak with his family,” he paused for a moment.
“Finally I can report that all of our remaining aircraft are out of Iranian airspace and are either back at their respective air fields, or will be shortly. We have slowed their assault, and so far contained them in their own country. It will be some time before we can get an accurate battle damage assessment, but it does seem as though we met our objectives here.
“They still have approximately 1.5 million members in their armed forces, if you count their reserves. Don’t let the destruction of their tanks lull you into thinking this War will be an easy or quick. They are still a formidable enemy, but for the moment, contained.
“I now turn you over to the President’s Press Secretary, Scott Waits, for your questions and I thank you for your time,” the Chairman and the President left the room quickly, just as the reporters started to shout questions at Mr. Waits.
AP NEWS FLASH: The President announced that conventional conflict with Iran has begun in an effort to contain them within their own borders and presumably prevent their future military attacks. When asked if these attacks were politically motivated the Press Secretary Scott Waits said that it was false, and that these attacks were an opening, and necessary first step to getting Iran to come to the peace negotiation table at the United Nations. The White House insists that the timing was not altered due to the external pressures that members of Congress, Senate and the recently ousted President have attempted to apply. According to the White House the action taken was at the most rapid pace practical.
AP ECONOMIC NEWS FLASH: With the exception of Lockheed Martin, defense sector stocks found new a high following the news of a successful series of bombing runs on Iran. Currently this sector is enjoying double-digit gains for the month. In ongoing coverage of food markets there are milk shortages being experienced all over the country. This is as a result of shipping and logistics problems due to damaged infrastructure from the nuclear attack. Controls are being put on the amount of milk any one family can purchase in a week. This is being done by the FDA and is meant to ensure families with children who need this basic necessity can get it, at least in some limited quantity. Free marketers are saying that no controls should be allowed are meeting this act by the administration with protests. The President’s spokespeople refused to comment on the situation and referred all questions to the FDA.
Chapter Twenty
Captain Banner and his team had been in the back of the transport plane for hours. At least this time their transport plane was one of the newest in the arsenal, unlike their last insertion over Africa. This was one the most challenging part of these types of missions, the waiting. This mission was out of the ordinary in that they were planning on spending less time on the ground than they had already spent in the air.
If that happened, and they really could get in and out of their target area, it would be a good very thing. If all went according to plan then the brief time on the ground would yield some new actionable intelligence information allowing for something larger to take place, but he didn’t know what. If all didn’t go well, then all bets were off on how long before they would see home again, if ever.
In the hours leading up to a jump from an airplane, when heading into harm’s way, he knew that emotions could do many things to a soldier’s mental readiness. Even to experienced Special Operators. Each of his men had their own way of maintaining focus, and it was different for everyone. However, the goal was the same for everyone. Clear your head of all distractions and focus on the mission. Focus was the best way to get home alive, and return to all those things that were causing the mental distractions. Things like friends, family, a favorite football team, or even a girl you just met, perhaps even a nurse would have to be put on the back burner.
This time, the waiting was different from any previous mission for Frank. Since joining the Army he had never had a woman in his life he considered significant in any way. There had been women, he had dates, but none of those challenged him or, at least, none that he felt attached to. He had always considered himself to be single. Even though they had yet to have an actual date, and he had only met Sandy in person once, she already held a special place in his world.
Since meeting they had spoken on the phone often, and traded emails several times each day. He was oddly excited every time the email alert went off on his phone, hoping it was her.
In reality he had only known her a few days, but it felt like much longer. Sometimes he thought their relationship was a bit more like high school students than an adult relationship. He had kept that secret to himself, if the team found out there would be no end to the jokes that came his way.
At first their interactions had been purely professional. The only topic of discussion had been getting the correct help for the hospital. Then tidbits of personal information started coming through in small doses even that first day, even with the first round of emails. It was probably the third phone call within five hours that made him realize something unusual was going on. Then on the third day there was a purely personal phone call that went on until almost one in the morning. Then he had to depart for this mission.
For the first time in his adult life he was forced to admit he was preoccupied with a woman. His mind would routinely wander off while he was doing other things and start thinking of her. He found himself looking for excuses to get her on the phone.
At first he thought it was just an after-effect of the attack. Perhaps he was looking for someone besides his parents and guy friends to share the confusion and rush of raw emotions being felt by everyone in the country.
Last night he kicked out of his brain what he thought had to be over analysis and decided to just go with the flow and see where things went. It was the night of the press conference about bombing of the Iranian military targets when things changed dramatically, and become far more intimate. She had called him with lots of questions about what was going on. She even opened up about how she felt about how the world was changing before their very eyes. They had even talked about how she believed there would be history books written about what they were living through. She shared her very real fear about how the world may be degrading into a World War unlike any other. No corner of the world would be safe if things kept going this way.
He assured her that this wasn’t the case and the whole thing would end quickly. He hoped what he said was true. He wasn’t sure that he actually believed it, but he hoped it at least made her feel better.
She told him that she had missed the news because of work, and didn’t like the way newscasts sliced it up to only give tidbits instead of the whole statements. He was more than happy to fill her in on the public information. He answered as many questions as he could, but there were some that for security reasons he couldn’t give her an answer to. He liked that she was curious about the world around her and wanted to know as much as she could about what was going on. She was an intelligent woman, but didn’t think of herself as such. He found oddly attractive, especially when she got upset at not being able to know more. She liked to know as much as she could. She understood the boundaries, but was still frustrated.