Dave regretted his words the instant they left his mouth since Eric’s son was an avid peace activist.
If Eric Danis noticed, he didn’t let it show. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.” Hmm. What’s the best way to hit Dave with this? A no brainer, just give it to him straight up. “Dave, have I got a deal for you.”
“Shoot. I got my hand over my butt.”
“How would you like to be activated for temporary assignment?”
“A stupid-ass old diesel guy like me? What could I do for the war effort? Do I get paid? Better not let the newsies get hold of this. I can just see the headlines now. Navy retiree, already getting paid too much for doing nothing, gets paid more for doing less.”
Eric laughed. “This thing hasn’t hurt your sense of humor one bit. Seriously, Dave, I need you to set up an emergency submarine base.”
Not quite believing what he heard, Dave asked, “Set up a what?”
Although a patient man, Eric could get his back up on occasion. “Damn it! Hear me out.”
Sensing his friend’s stress, Dave said, “Okay.”
Eric went on, “We’ve got boats at sea with no place to bring them home. All of our deep-water ports are unusable. We need something workable. Flimsy is good as long as it works. You’re the best person up there to do this.”
“Why do you say that, Eric?”
“Two reasons. You know the Washington coast like the back of your hand and what’s needed to pull off a refit.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Eric. Got any specifics?”
“There are none. Find us a spot and then look around to see what you can lay your hands on to make it suitable for submarine refits.”
“That’s one hell of a job, buddy. It took eight years and three billion dollars for the base at Bangor.”
“That’s because you weren’t running the job, Dave.”
“I’d have cut it to four billion and twelve years.” Dave paused then asked, “You’re serious? You want to fire up an old fogy like me?”
“Look at it this way, Dave. We didn’t pay you any attention when we owned your soul; so now we figure you owe us. That’s one of the beauties of this country. We’re the land of the second chance.”
“Do I get a raise?”
“You’ll be damn lucky to see another retirement check in the next ten years.”
“In that case, I’ll take the job.”
Dave Zane realized the powerful vote of confidence he had just gotten from a man he held in great esteem. Old salts avoid maudlin so he said nothing. Dave gleaned as many details as he could from his old friend and after an exchange of pleasantries they hung up.
Eric drew a pair of black and bitters from the coffeepot behind his desk and summoned Dutch Meyer.
Dutch came into the office, took the coffee and seated himself in response to Danis’s hand gesture. “Afternoon, Commodore.”
Eric said, “Afternoon, Dutch. Thanks for coming by. Got a couple of things on my mind and need your help.”
The stoic Dutch replied, “That’s why they keep me on the payroll, Commodore.”
“I’m worried about our aviators. We gotta find them something to get their teeth into. They’ve had their asses kicked and want to get even. Failure of the carrier battle group strategy does not reflect on these kids. From what I see, they’re damn good. I get the feeling we give them nothing but make-work and I think they deserve better. I want you to dissolve the hard-ass attitude by some of our submarine staffers. You know who they are.”
“No problem, sir. You’re right. It’s been bugging me too. I can fix that.”
“Work fast. You only got a day to do it. There’s something else I need you to do.”
Dutch squirmed uneasily. “Something else, Commodore?”
“Yeah, Dutch. How’s the old Chevy running?”
The old Chevy … what the hell? Danis wants to buy my car? Dutch answered, “Not all that bad, I guess.”
“Good. I want you to start driving north and gather up everything you can find to help set up a temporary submarine base.”
Sitting back in his chair, Dutch thought, Whew! Then he said, “A temporary submarine base, Commodore? Where? When?”
“On the Washington coast as soon as Dave Zane gets off his sorry ass and finds us one.”
“When did he get the assignment, sir?”
“About fifteen minutes ago.”
“I see what you mean, Commodore. Those retired guys do take their own sweet time. When do you want me to start?”
Looking at his watch Danis replied, “Right now, Dutch. We gotta get a base for our boats because they can’t stay out there forever.” He passed the mustang a letter with a stack of duplicates. “This authorizes you to requisition anything we need, including the means to get it up there.”
Dutch asked, “Where’s up there, Commodore?”
“I don’t know, Dutch. Here’s Zane’s phone number. Call him once a day and keep the pressure on. Dump whatever you find at the Coast Guard Station in Astoria, Oregon till Zane finds us a better place.”
“This okay with the Coasties?”
“It will be by the time you get going.”
“With all due respect, Commodore, how am I supposed to do this? Gather all the stuff, I mean.”
“If I knew, I’d do it myself and wouldn’t need you.”
He glared at his boss for a second then Dutch said, “Aye, aye, sir,” and turned to walk off, shaking his head in disbelief.
As Dutch left, the commodore said, “And, Dutch, don’t forget to straighten out the staff problem before you go.”
The two looked at each other and exchanged a grin.
“I won’t forget, sir.”
Vasiliy Baknov sat in the huge auditorium at the Vladivostok Naval Base among several hundred Soviet Pacific Submarine Flotilla officers. On a stage in the front, the briefer awed his audience with descriptions of overwhelming combat successes against the American Navy.
A large, backlighted world chart reached to both ends of the stage. Small red circles indicated locations of nuclear weapons strikes by both warring nations. The United States directed her nuclear strikes mainly against Soviet military air facilities.
The briefer stressed, “It is clear the main concern of the Americans is the defense of NATO; therefore, they hit our air bases harder than expected. This diminishes the speed of our thrust into Western Europe but will not stop it.”
The speaker paused to let this settle in and then swept a light beam shaped like an arrow along and over the leading edge of the Soviet advance. “This line shows our current positions. The right flank is anchored in Belgium. To the south, our forces have entered France and Italy where widespread collapse of Allied forces is reported. Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Finland and the two Germanys belong to us now. Only neutral Sweden impedes our drive through to the Atlantic.”
Again, he paused then said while smiling, “Negotiations with the reluctant warrior proceed quickly and our tanks will soon roll over Swedish soil and into Norway.”
Laughter erupted from the audience. Next, the pointer moved along the west coast of the United States. Red circles covered all the major ports. “Our strategy is to contain the enemy in his North American continent.”
The white arrow pointed from south to north over the American east coast where red circles covered all the seaports. “We must prevent American supplies from reaching their NATO allies. Destruction of these ports has reduced the flow of war materials to a trickle and our Northern fleet submarines in the Atlantic are fast shutting that off.”
The briefer turned to face his audience. “And now, for the vaunted American Maritime Strategy.”