Turning back to face his air boss, General Cotton asked, “How are we doing with taking out the Russian SAMs?”
The British Air Marshal who was in charge of NATO’s air power cleared his throat before responding, “We lost 47 aircraft during the rescue operation, and most of the aircraft losses were due to Russian SAMs. These SA-21s are brutal; they are mauling our attempts to take them out. We are trying a couple of new tactics. For one, we’ve dedicated a lot more surveillance of the suspected sites. As we identify their positions, we are starting to use a lot more standoff cruise missile strikes against them. These strikes are forcing them to have to use a lot more of their missiles to try and intercept the cruise missiles, which is going to start having a supply and demand effect on them. We also aren’t risking aircraft when we do these types of attacks.”
“When it comes to wild weasel missiles, we are strictly limiting those now to direct air support missions. When we have a large air mission going, that’s when we have the weasels go in. We are working with a variety of Special Forces units to help us track down and then neutralize these sites. The SF teams are either calling in a cruise missile strike or just taking out the sites themselves; they’ve had some success disabling the radar systems with their .50 caliber sniper rifles.
The air marshal sighed briefly before continuing, “It’s hard going right now General, but by God, we’ll get those SAMs thinned out.”
General Cotton nodded. He knew it was going to be a tough road ahead gaining air superiority from the Russians. The US (and NATO in general) had woefully underestimated the capability of the SA-21. The US believed its electronic warfare capabilities would be enough to spoof the Russian SAMs, but within the first few hours of the war, they quickly learned how inadequate those defenses were-they were paying for it now.
Cotton tapped his knuckles on the desk as he thought of how to respond to the leaders around him. “I’m going to be straight with everyone,” he began. “I’m under a lot of pressure from Washington to hit the Russians and hit them hard. Aside from General Fenzol’s force busting their way out of Kiev, the Russians have been hitting us non-stop. The President wants us to start hitting back.”
He stood, looking each person in the eye as he tried to motivate them to action. “We have over 100,000 troops marshaled and ready. We are going to go ahead and move forward with Operation Thunder and try to push the Russians back to the Dnieper River. We’ve been planning this for a few weeks; now it’s time to execute.”
Counter-Attack
It had been a rough couple of weeks for the men of Alpha Troop. Their troop had been separated from the rest of their regiment during the retreat from the Kiev line, and nearly the entire regiment remained trapped in the city. Their unit had tried to hold off a much larger Russian force to keep the lines of retreat open, but they were unsuccessful in preventing the Russians from fully encircling the NATO Forces. Since their long retreat, they had been consolidated with the 35th Armored Regiment, a sister unit in their Brigade Combat Team.
When they heard their old unit had busted out of Kiev, they had thought they might fold back in with them. However, the leadership had determined that this group was too badly mauled and would not be combat effective for some time. They were going to be moved to Germany to regroup and reequip, which meant Sergeant Duke’s ragtag unit was going to stay put with the 35th.
Lieutenant Colonel Tim Webb’s 35th Armored Regiment had not seen any combat yet, but was itching for a fight. They gladly welcomed Sergeant Dukes’ ten tanks; his tankers had seen the Elephant, and had fought the vaunted T-14 Armatas and survived. His officers and NCOs had been picking their brains on a near daily basis for details on how the T-14s fought and how the Russian armor units attacked, trying to gain as much information from them as possible. They had proven to be a wealth of information.
LTC Webb walked over to Sergeant First Class Joe Dukes, who was just hopping out of his tank near the ammunition point to top off their stores before the coming battle. Webb signaled for him to join him and his Command Sergeant Major (CSM).
Sergeant First Class Joe Dukes (or “JD” as his friends called him), saw his new battalion commander wave for him to come over. “The Sergeant Major is with him too-I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing,” he thought.
JD tapped his gunner on the shoulder. “Hey, I need you to get the tank topped off with fuel and ammunition while I go talk to the Battalion CG for a minute.”
The gunner just nodded and said, “Good luck.” He was too exhausted to say much else.
JD walked up to the officers without saluting since they were not far from the front lines and separatist militia units had been sniping at NATO soldiers on and off for the past week. “Sir, how can I be of assistance?” he asked innocently enough.
Smiling for the first time in days, LTC Webb replied, “Sergeant Dukes, I’ve talked with several of the NCOs and soldiers in your troop, and I’ve also talked with a few of the other units that have worked with your unit since the start of the war. A British Captain from the 20th Armored Infantry Brigade said your troop was responsible for most of their unit being able to escape from Kiev. He told me that without your troop, most of their brigade would have been trapped in the city.”
JD was surprised by what he was hearing. From his perspective, he was just doing his job-trying to keep his men alive and help as many others as he could during the retreat. He saw his CSM was smiling from ear to ear as the colonel kept talking.
LTC Webb continued, “We’ve received nothing but glowing praise for your gallantry and ability to lead while under heavy enemy fire. I wanted to be the first to let you know the Division Commander is awarding you the Distinguished Service Cross and a Purple Heart for that gash on the side of your head.”
He held up a hand before JD could reply, adding, “I know you are going to say you were just doing your job, but I want to tell you something, Sergeant. You went far and above your job. You helped save several thousand soldiers from being trapped in Kiev, and blunted a Russian motorized division from completely encircling our forces. The Command Sergeant Major, the British Captain and I have all written a letter to the SACEUR to have your medal upgraded to the Medal of Honor. I’m not sure when or if that will happen, but we’ll let you know if it gets upgraded. You can bet there are a lot of people pushing for it.”
“Um… I don’t even know what to say, Sir,” JD said humbly. “It wasn’t just me out there… I would like my men to be recognized as well. They all earned it, and it was a team effort. I couldn’t have done it without them.”
The CSM jumped in at this point. “Everyone in your troop is being awarded Bronze Stars with V Devices for Valor. You can choose eight soldiers to receive the Silver Star-and don’t worry, Captain Lillith, your Troop Commander, is being awarded the Silver Star posthumously as well.”
They could see JD was a little bewildered at the news they had just shared with him, but wanted to assure him he had done a great job, and more importantly, let him know that his troop’s actions were becoming a rallying cry for the rest of the division.
The Colonel had one other piece of good news to add. “I’ve also received permission from the Division Commander to give you an official battlefield promotion to 1st Lieutenant. You are going to take over as the Alpha Troop Commander, effective immediately,” Webb said with a genuine smile on his face.