The general's fighting words brought a broad smile to the captain's face. "Yes, Comrade General. I will do so immediately." Without waiting for the general to return his salute, the captain ran back to the command post, literally bursting in and shouting the long-awaited word that the attack would continue.
The arrival of General Boldin at Nafissi's headquarters and the conversations between Boldin and Nafissi that followed resulted in a change in the relationship between their respective forces. Nafissi, pleased with the sudden turn of events, found new opportunities. The attack by the Egyptian Republican Brigade had been a failure, nothing more than a ride in the desert. Lead elements of the 24th Tank Corps were in Musaid, Egypt, by 0900 hours and were preparing to attack Solium, also in Egypt. Recon elements of the 8th Cuban Division had followed the withdrawal of the Republican Brigade to Sidi Omar and Bir Sheferzen, both in Egypt. With the coastal road severed, the bulk of three Egyptian divisions were encircled with their backs against the sea.
By any measure a great victory had been achieved. Though there were rumblings in the United Nations, Europe, and the United States about the reported use of chemical weapons, only the United States had done anything. Everyone else was waiting for independent verification of the reports. Even the allies of the United States, NATO in particular, were attempting to distance themselves from the action taken and proposed by the United States. One by one the countries of Europe were denying use of their facilities or air space to American forces en route to or operating in Egypt. Even the evacuation of American dependents was affected temporarily when one European government refused to allow military aircraft carrying the dependents to land and the dependents to transfer to civilian charter flights. With such tenuous support for Egypt and its ally, Nafissi felt he could press a little harder, a little farther.
While Boldin was there, Nafissi extracted several agreements from the new Soviet commander. One of them was for control of aircraft flown by Soviet and East German pilots. Nafissi wanted to use them, along with Libyan aircraft, to interdict the flow of Egyptian reinforcements into the Western desert. Boldin agreed to this readily, not knowing the scale of the operation or where Nafissi wanted to conduct the attacks. The second agreement was that Soviet and Cuban forces would contain and eliminate the encircled 1st Army while a Libyan corps of three divisions advanced into Egypt to Mersa Matruh. Again, Nafissi didn't tell Boldin that it was his intent to go further if the air raids he had planned were successful. Mersa Matruh was only an intermediate objective.
In fact, though Boldin left believing he understood his role, he knew only half the plan — the half Nafissi wanted him to know. Boldin concentrated only on the destruction of the 1st Egyptian Army and the restoration of the original border. Nafissi, however, was playing for higher stakes. His gaze was fixed on Cairo and a jihad that would topple the Egyptian government. The defeat of the 1st Army was the first step. Next, Nafissi needed to demonstrate to the people of Egypt that their government could not defend them. The third and final part would be the sweeping advance of Revolutionary Guard units out of the Western Desert, flying the green banner. Their irresistible advance would bring true believers to the forefront and the Egyptian government down — as Mohammed had done over a thousand years before.
"All right — one more time, guys. This time, let's see if we can make it to the door without tripping." Cerro's remarks brought a few nervous chuckles from the thirty soldiers sitting in the red nylon jump seat of the C-130 transport. They had been practicing procedures for making a combat jump, procedures that in less than seven hours they would use for real. Though all had jump training, and fully half of them had made combat jumps in Iran, none were current. The fact was, most of those who had jumped in Iran were in the 11th Airborne Division because it was air assault, not a jump-rated airborne unit.
As difficult as the jump would be — at night, with no backup and little prep time — the actual jump was the least of Cerro's concerns. He knew they would all make it, most of them uninjured. What they did on the ground was a different matter. As First Sergeant Duncan kept reminding Cerro, a collection of thirty soldiers does not a platoon make. The real challenge facing Cerro at that moment was creating an effective organization, with a chain of command and some basic drills that would allow this collection of soldiers to function as a unit. Cerro had therefore spent most of the morning getting to know the men he would lead that night and running some dismounted squad drills along the edge of the runway.
Fortunately their mission, the securing of a refuel point, was simple. Only mission-essential tasks were worked on in the little time they had. Cerro started with squad and platoon defensive operations. When they reached a level of competency in those drills, he ran a few squad attack drills, in case there was the need to conduct a counterattack. Finally, at noon, he ran everyone through some parachute refresher training.
Morale of the soldiers was surprisingly good. Most were glad to be doing something besides sitting in an assembly area waiting for God knew what to happen. One sergeant E-5 even commented to Cerro that his selection to go on the mission was a real stroke of luck: he was behind on some car payments and the jump pay they were promised would help out. Cerro wondered if the young sergeant even considered the possibility that he might not live long enough to make those payments, let alone drive the car.
Ready for the last drill, Cerro went through the jump commands. He watched their procedures. The copilot of the plane, ready for the simulated jump, hit the green light on Cerro's cue. Cerro went out the door, followed by the soldiers shuffling behind him. As they reached the door, each man exited onto bales of rags under the watchful eye of Duncan.
When Cerro had rolled to one side of the rag pile to clear the way for the man behind him, he noticed a lieutenant colonel standing next to Duncan, watching them. Standing up, Cerro took off his parachute and gear, set them down in a neat pile, and walked over to Duncan and the lieutenant colonel.
As he approached, he recognized the colonel as the one who had been in charge of the live fire demonstration on 7 December. Cerro also realized, for the first time, that the children the lady at the embassy had given him must be the colonel's. Coming up to Duncan, Cerro saluted Dixon. "Good afternoon, sir. What can we do for you, sir?"
"I was out here to see that everything was in order and on hand. Your first sergeant has already gone over your training for the day and your schedule from now till lift-off."
Cerro wondered if the colonel was in charge or just visiting as an excuse to get out of some office. "Is there anything in particular that the colonel wishes to see?"
Dixon shook his head no, telling Cerro to carry on with his training. Cerro responded that the practice exit, their third for the day, was the last training event they had planned. The rest of the time before takeoff was going to be used loading their gear, eating, getting some sleep, and making precombat inspections. Dixon noted his approval.
"In that case, Captain, I'll be leaving you to go about your business. No doubt the last thing you need is a Corps staff officer hanging around. Just give a yell if there's anything you need." Dixon was about to leave when Cerro stopped him.
"There is one thing, sir. It doesn't concern the jump. We're ready for that. It's in reference to your children."