For the first time since boarding the C-17 that morning, Dan was eating. It wasn’t really his idea, but rather one of his NCOs, Staff Sergeant Peña, Traveller’s (Alexander’s M1 Abrams) gunner. Examining his tired officer, Sergeant Peña said, “Sir, you have to eat something.”
“Yah, yah, I’ll get to it. I’d like the ACE (Armored Combat Earthmover) to dig one more position…”
“Sir, they can dig without you. You need to eat. Now, sir.” Sergeant Peña was persistent.
Dan knew when he was defeated, “Yes, sergeant! What’s for chow?”
“Room temperature MREs, sir,” relieved that he talked his officer into conducting personal body maintenance, the sergeant smiled.
Dan let out a sigh as he ripped open the tough light brown plastic bag. It was marked as a “vegetarian” meal. The men often joked that the “namby-pamby” vegetarian meals were unfit for warriors, but Dan was secretly glad for the variety. MREs had too much meat and fat in them. At home, Dan was used to pasta several times a week — too much meat made him feel sluggish. “Sergeant Peña, what’s the word on Colonel Giannini?”
“Sir, last I heard the Taiwanese took him off to a local hospital. His copilot went with him.”
That squared with Dan’s recollection too. He was starved for information. A war was swirling around him — he could hear it in the skies above him, but he really knew very little about the situation. He and his 82 men were in Taipei along with eight Air Force crewmen. They had one operational tank, an ACE, four scout Humvees, four MP Humvees, and a medical track. None of the three surviving C-17s had an operational radio. He knew that Taiwan had suffered both chemical and nuclear attack. One of his men bummed a couple of city maps from a Taiwanese security officer, so at least Dan and his men knew where they were in relation to the rest of the city. They also knew which way the enemy would come from (assuming they didn’t jump out of the sky right on top of them).
Dan thought about his last assumption—where the enemy will come from. Did they have an enemy? Was his nation at war with the People’s Republic of China? If they weren’t at war, what were the implications of his actions? Dan recalled Taiwan’s increasingly independence-minded rhetoric. He knew that the U.S. was somewhat committed to Taiwan’s defense — especially if the PRC attacked a Taiwan seeking the status quo fiction of “one China, two systems.” Taiwan was moving away from that policy—and rightly so, Dan thought, if they wait any longer, China will be too strong to resist. Dan stopped himself realizing it was all a moot point. China had already moved to head off a full Taiwanese declaration of independence — any other thoughts were now academic, it was war, and he was in the middle of it. All of this once again begged the question, what should he do?
Dan was taking another bite of his vegetarian crackers and cheese on the turret of his M1 tank—pretty good stuff, nicely spiced—when two young Taiwanese men with a TV camera and a small communications relay unit walked up to him followed by one of his NCOs.
“Sir, these men claim to be reporters with a local affiliate of CNN News.”
In spite of his misgivings, Dan smiled for the reporters (he was a courtroom attorney, after all), “Oh?”
“Yes sir. I figured since I saw them talking to the airport security troops they couldn’t be all bad.”
“Good assumption sergeant. Thank you,” Alexander nodded at his NCO and turned to the reporters, “How may I help you gentlemen today?” As he was talking, he reluctantly put his MRE down on the turret. He stood up, got dizzy for a second, and hopped off the tank (normally about a five foot jump, made only a foot-and-a-half due to the three-and-a-half foot hole the ACE dug for the tank in the grass strip between the two runways).
The man carrying the relay unit knelt to place the box carefully on the ground, then spoke. “Sir, my name is Wong Kwok Pui. I go by Edward when I’m on TV for English speaking audiences,” he said this a bit expectantly, as if he thought Dan would recognize him. His English was near flawless.
“My name is Lieutenant Colonel Dan Alexander, California Army National Guard.”
“Welcome to Taiwan. I wish it were under other circumstances. Mind if I interview you for CNN?” By this time the cameraman had set up a tripod, placed his videocam on it, then broke the communications unit out of its box.
“Sure. Mind if I ask, how can you get a signal out? Isn’t your equipment damaged?” Dan was curiously hopeful.
“Well, this camera and commo box were in storage in the basement of the television studio. I don’t know what happened. There’s no electricity anywhere in Taipei. Our backup generator works, but the studio’s electronics don’t work. With this setup we can get a direct signal out to the low Earth orbit satellites that CNN leases time on. If they want to, we can go live from the scene. Pretty neat, huh?” Edward grinned broadly. It was obvious he went to school in the U.S.
“Well, let’s do it, what do you want to say?” Dan figured this was the only way he had a chance of showing America — and his wife and children too — that he was alive.
Dan absent-mindedly grabbed for the bottom of his BDU blouse to straighten it, only realizing after a few fruitless pulls that he was still wearing his bulky green chemical protective over-garment. So much for looking the poster boy soldier. Dan heard the three by five foot American flag snapping in the easterly breeze from midway up one of the tank’s whip antennas. Dan and his men put the flag on the tank reasoning that the Chinese might think twice about shooting at an American tank if, in fact, they hadn’t intended to make war on the Americans. The flag would now serve as a nice backdrop for the TV interview. The task force operations sergeant major’s Humvee was parked next to the tank. Strapped to the back of the Humvee, facing the camera crew, was Task Force Grizzly’s unofficial guidon: a long yellow surfboard with the tank and crossed saber emblem of the U.S. Army Armor Corps. Emblazoned around the Armor Corps emblem was the slogan, “TF Grizzly — Charlie Don’t Surf.”
Dan heard the TV reporter begin his lead in, “This is Edward Wong with CNN reporting from Taipei, Taiwan. A few hours ago China attacked Taiwan in a sudden and crushing attack. We have very little information from areas outside the capital, but here’s what we do know: early this morning at eight o’clock, China sortied hundreds of jet fighters across the Taiwan Strait, as Taiwanese fighters moved to intercept the air attack, China detonated two nuclear missiles over Taiwan. This nuclear attack disrupted power and communications over much of Taiwan. Several civilian aircraft were also destroyed or crippled. Joining me here right now is Colonel Dan Alexander of the United States Army. Colonel Alexander, can you tell me, why are you in Taiwan right now?”
Dan was suddenly nervous, “Well, the four aircraft my soldiers and I were on were attacked by the Chinese. We were forced to land here at Taipei.” By the time he finished the sentence, Dan was much more at ease—No different than the courtroom.
“So the People’s Republic of China attacked the U.S. military?” Edward Wong was inwardly smiling, this colonel was giving him and his people an excellent propaganda boost.
“Yes. I don’t know whether it was by design or not, but the net effect of it was that we probably lost two aircraft, a C-17 and a KC-135. In addition, one person died on board the aircraft I was riding on due to a massive electrical surge caused by the nuclear detonation.”