Doug Beason
Assault on Alpha Base
To Captain Jerry Allison, USAF Academy Class of 1976—friend and fighter pilot extraordinaire: his untimely death at REDFLAG was our nation’s loss.
Acknowledgments
To: Dr. Clifford E. Rhoades, Jr., for the idea for this novel; Kevin J. Anderson, Michael Berch, Esq., Alan R. Gould, Colonel “Moose” Millard, Major Dave Harris, and the 1550th Combat Crew Training Wing for their detailed help and suggestions; my agent, Richard Curtis; to my editor, Eric Tobias, for his patience and insight in making this book what it is; to Cindy, my wife, for her editing; and again to Kevin J. Anderson, for pushing me to rewrite this novel for e-book publication.
Language of the Air Force
AAFES — Army Air Force Exchange Service (see BX)
ACC — Air Combat Command
AGL — Above Ground Level
AMC — Air Mobility Command
APC — Armored Personnel Carrier
APU — Auxiliary Power Unit
BASE OPS — Base Operations
BDU — Battle Dress Uniform (camouflaged fatigues)
BG — Brigadier General
BX — Base eXchange
CINCSTRAT — Comander IN Chief, Strategic Command
CMSGT — Chief Master Sergeant
COMM — communications
CP — Command Post
DTRA — Defense Threat Reduction Agency
DoD — Department of Defense
DO — Director of Operations (Operations Officer)
Dooley — a freshman at the USAF Academy (translated as “slave” from Greek)
DSN — Defense Switch Network
ECM — Electronic Counter Measures
ETA — Estimated Time of Arrival
FAC — Forward Air Controller
Firstie — a senior, or First Classman at the USAF Academy
Full Bull — Colonel
GUARD — Emergency radio frequency
Hole in the Ground — Snack bar on Wendover AFB
IFF — Identification Friend or Foe
IG — Inspector General
INF — Intermediate Nuclear Forces
IR — Infrared
IRST — Infrared Search and Track
JP-4 — high-grade jet fuel
MPC — Military Personnel Command
NCOIC — Non-Commissioned Officer In Charge
NEST — Nuclear Emergency Search Team
NTS — Nevada Test Site Nonrated — a support officer, a nonflyer
NOTAM — NOtes To AirMen
NSA — National Security Agency
O’Club — Officer’s Club
OD — Officer of the Day
OER — Officer Efficiency Report
OI — Operating Instructions
OJT — On the Job Training
ORI — Operational Readiness Inspection
PALS — Permissive Action Links (Anti-Nuclear Theft Devices)
PME — Professional Military Education
POST Stinger — anti-aircraft missile using Passive Optical Sensing Technology
POW — Prisoner of War
RAIDS — Radar Airborne Intrusion Detection System
Rated — a pilot or navigator, a flyer
ROTC — Reserve Officer Training Corps
RON — Remain Over Night
SAP — Security air police
Sky Cop — a SAP
Sixpack — a six passenger truck
SOP — Standard Operating Procedure
STRATCOM — Strategic Command
TDY — Temporary DutY
Touri — slang for tourist
VFR — Visual Flight Rules
USAFA — United States Air Force Academy
Quote
On the strength of one link in the cable
Dependeth the might of the chain:
Who knows when thou mayest be tested?
So live that thou bearest the strain.
Prologue
Dusk, and 102 degrees in the shade.
As the sun set behind craggy mountains, the clouds ignited in a candy cotton pink. Inside of an hour the dry desert air would plummet thirty degrees. A chill would set in, washing across the crater, driving cold-blooded reptiles to their lairs.
A set of four razor-wire fences, spaced twenty yards apart, ran behind the Ford Bronco. Airman First Class George Britnell sat in the truck, just inside the fourth fence. Separated by meticulously cleared sand, the fences symbolized all that Britnell hated about the Air Force: strict, confining, and mindless. Every fifty feet on the fences blue-bordered white signs screamed in red lettering:
WARNING! This installation is
OFF LIMITS
to all personnel!
Use of deadly force authorized
by order of the Installation Commander
The warning was repeated in Spanish.
Britnell drew in a lungful of smoke. Another minute and daylight would be gone. The infrared detectors embedded along the fence would then be able to detect even the innocuous glow from his cigarette.
The day shift was almost too easy. If he wanted to screw off, it was a simple matter of driving out here to the opposite side of Alpha Base, away from the gates and people. No one was stupid enough to approach the complex during the day. With the signs and warnings, you would have to be blind to come near. Even the animals had a sixth sense about the inside fence. You didn’t have to read to tell that the faint hum and smell of ozone yammered 120,000 volts of electricity.
Airman First Class Lucius Clayborn, Britnell’s partner, threw a glance at Britnell. “You about done, man?”
Britnell took a final hit. He stepped from the Bronco and ground the cigarette with his heel. “Yeah.” He pulled himself up and slammed the door.
The truck lurched off and found pavement. They headed around the meteor crater that held Alpha Base, following the fences.
Britnell unrolled his window. The smell of sage washed in, mixing with the sparse juniper and pinon pine covering the backside of the crater.
Below the crater’s lip concrete bunkers dotted the depression. Twenty feet wide and twelve feet high, the bunkers were set into the side of the half-mile-deep cavity. Searchlights squatted on top of each bunker, their glass covered by levered metal shutters. Yellow warning signs adorned the bunkers. The red international symbol for radioactive material was stenciled on each sign.
Row after row, clustered in groups of three and four, the bunkers covered the five-mile-diameter basin. Britnell had once counted over three hundred bunkers before stopping.
Wendover AFB was to the east; Britnell could make out the shimmer of runway lights on the main base.