“Sir, on the ship’s website it lists the Captain as Captain Ronald Thompson. Is Captain Thompson one of the survivors and still in command?”
Uncomfortable with the question, the SECDEF pursed his lips, wishing that it had not been asked.
“We are… gathering this information, and informing families as soon as we get it.”
“A follow-up: Is it safe to say, then, that the Cape Esperance is under the command of the Executive Officer, Lieutenant Commander Michael Eddins?”
“It is not safe to say that, and, frankly, I wish you wouldn’t say any more until we process all the information and inform the families.”
And so it went, the media asking and shouting questions the Department of Defense did not yet have answers to and, in some cases, would not want to share if they did. When the networks cut to the studios, the hosts and pundits kibitzed and speculated on the why and how. There were examples of sober assessment by military experts on some networks:
Think of the South China Sea as equivalent to the United States land mass east of the Mississippi River. Each year over seventy-thousand containerships, each one carrying thousands of containers move through it, representing over five trillion dollars worth of annual trade. It is in the interest of the United States and the international community to keep this trade flowing and ensure that no one country can control access through this vital sea bordered by six nations.
On another network, this:
So here’s the United States once again, sticking our nose where it doesn’t belong, in the South — China! — Sea, for crying out loud, already a powder keg and now we have who knows how many dead sailors from working-class families who were just trying to get money for college because we still don’t have free college here like every other developed nation. How would we like it if the Chinese sent their gunships into the Gulf of Mexico and established bases in Mexico and Cuba? We’d cry foul, and I don’t see the difference here!
And another, this:
We must finally realize that it is no longer 1945, or even 1991, and that as America’s power wanes, it cannot be everywhere, and Washington must pick and choose carefully where to engage. The South China Sea is a core interest of China, and we see their island reclamation project as a manifestation of their influence and more importantly a bulwark against those who would control the Sea. Most of the trade that flows through the sea is Chinese, and keeping it open is an economic imperative for them. It is only natural for China to take measures to strengthen their military posture in the area and ensure, for itself, that trade is not inhibited by an outside power. We behave in this rational manner, and the world economy depends on a smooth flow of trade. It is in China’s interest that it flows, and while freedom-of-navigation is a good rule, today’s South China Sea may be an exception to the rule.
Between the blame-America hysteria of the left and the saber-rattling neo-conservative pundits on the right, Americans, many of whom did not have a grasp of the significance of 1945 or 1991 and the seismic changes those years brought to the international landscape, formed their opinions almost as fast as the media brought them the incomplete and often flawed information, and usually less than 24 hours after any incident. Into this inviting battle space, world capitals not friendly to the United States, led by Beijing, fired their salvos to shape world opinion:
America must realize it does not have a requirement to enforce freedom of the seas everywhere on the planet, that there are other world powers that have an interest in unencumbered free trade and are capable of ensuring the flow of trade — in their own home waters! We propose the United States defend the eastern half of the Pacific Ocean, and the Atlantic Ocean, and that China — an Asian nation — take responsibility for maintaining free trade on the sea lanes adjacent to China and which terminate in Chinese ports, an economic fact which is of interest to all in the global commons.
If America cannot rid itself of its addiction to controlling the high seas — which are not its own — and if it pushes the rightful owners too far, it will unleash forces in response which will not only disrupt world trade but break American bones in another foreign conflict it cannot win. Make no mistake; the military calculus in East Asia has changed, and no talk of “pivots” can prevent forces already in place to act if threatened.
American politicians sympathetic to this message were in front of Capitol Hill cameras to shape their message first.
For the life of me, I do not know why the Pentagon sends battleships into the home waters of a country of well over a billion people; a country whose economy has eclipsed ours, whose military can defeat ours, and who holds trillions of our debt. It is the Pentagon that ends up endangering and, it would appear, killing American kids in a misguided effort at something called freedom of the seas.
As more information on the scope of the incident and the scale of lives lost on the American cruiser was presented, politicians on the other side weighed in:
The decks of our ships are sovereign US territory and they have a right to sail in international waters anytime. China cannot draw an arbitrary “dashed line” and claim an entire body of water as “theirs” any more than India can claim entire the Indian Ocean as theirs. The United States has an interest in free trade, freedom-of-navigation, maintaining established maritime norms and supporting friends in this and other regional hot spots as a balance against countries that would restrict access and bully smaller countries. And when we find out how our ship was attacked, and by whom, we are free to respond in a time and place of our choosing.
Later that afternoon as sabers rattled and talk heated up on both sides of the Pacific, reporters and their cameras informed their viewers of increased activity on the waterfront of North Island across from the gleaming skyscrapers of San Diego, and from outside a dusty outpost set in the middle of the San Joaquin Valley farmland almost none of them had ever heard of… Naval Air Station Lemoore, California.
CHAPTER 5
Isabel Manning knew her life would never be the same.
During the twelve hours since she and Seaman Williams had ventured out of Central Control, Isabel had encountered death in every passageway, room, ladder well, and head she had examined for signs of life. Here and there, in poorly ventilated spaces or in deep shelter, they had found some survivors, most of them unaffected because of their physical locations. An amazed Williams found two Quartermasters alive who had been topside on the signal bridge the whole time. A Yeoman taking a smoke break on the fantail also survived, somehow shielded from the deadly agent.
Most of the dead, however, were found inside the ship, and all on the bridge and in Combat had succumbed to the mysterious agent. They were curled up on the deck or slumped over consoles, fluid draining from their mouths and nostrils. Many in berthing died in their racks; several had Emergency Escape Breathing Devices in their hands, the orange containers evidence of dying sailors who had tried to claw them open in a frantic rush to take one last breath. Some sailors hung onto life, wheezing and retching, while other survivors administered to them the best they could. All the medical personnel were dead.
Isabel and the others had taken no food or water since the attack for fear of contamination. As the senior survivor, she took station on the bridge behind the helm as she singlehandedly steered Cape Esperance north at 15 knots on a dark sea. Hours ago a vessel had joined on their port side, maintaining about 2,000 yards as it escorted them north, shining lights on them and not helping. Isabel did not know what the vessel was but suspected Chinese.