“To all other citizens of Mindanao: Do not report for work. Do not surrender your weapons to anyone under any circumstances; keep them hidden. Report movements of Chinese or New People’s Army troops, or anyone you suspect of aiding or informing to the Chinese or NPA, to a militia member known to you. My militiamen will attempt to contact all residents of Davao, Samal, Panabo, Santo Tomas, and other towns on the Davao Gulf and take your women and children out of any known battle areas.
“If your town is under attack or is threatened, move toward the coast as quickly as you can. Do not move toward Davao, as you might move into the middle of a battle area, trapped between opposing forces. Avoid Chinese or NPA troops; travel on secondary or back roads, at night if possible. If you can travel by boat, do so only at night, stay hidden near the coastline, and avoid all large coastal towns. Do not assist any Chinese or federal government representatives or military personnel. If you are forced to assist them, do so to save your own life, but escape when it is safe to do so and resist to the best of your ability. Provide aid and comfort to any of my militia members known to you.
“Above all, pray for the strength and courage we will need to resist the Chinese invaders. As long as I live, I will do everything in my powers to remove the foreign invaders from our homeland. May God give me, and you, my loyal brothers and sisters, the strength to continue fighting until our country is once again free.
“This transmission will be recorded and repeated several times daily. Do not give up the fight. Allah akbar. God is great. Good luck.” The opening sign reappeared, along with the national anthem, and then Samar began to repeat the message, this time in Tagalog, the native language of the Philippines.
“What do you mean, it’s down?” Brad Elliott asked. He kicked off the sheets, and his one good foot was hitting the floor milliseconds later as he readjusted the phone.
“Sorry, General, but that’s what it looks like,” Jon Masters said over the phone. “Carter-Seven didn’t download its last sensor pass over Mindanao. We’re checking on it right now, but I think our ground equipment is malfunctioning. I can’t poll the satellites.”
“I’ll be right there.”
Five minutes later, Major General Stone and Lieutenant General Elliott were racing for the command post. They found half of the back panels off the control consoles, the large-screen high-definition computer monitor was blank, and technicians scrambling everywhere. In the midst of it all was Jon Masters, wearing cut-off jeans and a flowered Hawaiian shirt, with his ever-present squeeze bottle of Pepsi in hand.
“Doctor Masters, what’s happening…?”
“We’re finishing our checks, Brad,” Masters replied. “It’s no problem. We’ll have the birds back on-line in no time.”
“You mean we lost both of them…?”
“It’s only temporary…”
“Can you launch another one?” Stone asked. “Do you have a backup?”
Masters wore an uncomfortably pained expression. “Ahhh… I might have a problem there, Dick,” Masters said. “I have the launch aircraft here, but I didn’t bring a spare booster or payload. They’re all back in Arkansas.”
“Big deal. Fly back to Arkansas and launch another one,” Stone snapped. “The EB-52s from HAWC will be here in less than fourteen hours, and the First Air Battle Wing will be here in less than eighteen…”
“You see, I got a problem back home,” Masters said. “My board of directors voted not to approve any more launches until our other contractual obligations are—”
“Doctor Masters, you have a contract with the United States Fucking Government!” Stone exploded. “I don’t want excuses, I want your butt back on that plane of yours so we can get another satellite up there. Now you either get me one or I’ll fry your ass.”
“That’s not necessary, General,” Masters said, totally unperturbed. “I can have the satellite back up shortly. Not one NIRTSat has ever failed, and this will not be the first, I promise you. Now let me get back to work.” He did not wait for a reply, but turned and left Stone with a drop-dead apoplectic look on his face.
Brigadier General Thomas Harbaugh, commander of the Strategic Air Command’s Third Air Division, the headquarters responsible for all SAC’s air operations in the Pacific, and the senior member of the Strategic Air Command’s STRATFOR team for Pacific operations, had joined Stone in the command post. To Harbaugh, Stone said, “Tom, we just lost the NIRTSat system. Masters doesn’t know when it’ll be back up. I need some current intel of Mindanao, and I need it now.”
“I can call DIA and Space Command and get a KH-11 or LACROSSE satellite overflight,” Harbaugh said, “and you should get the photos by the time your birds start arriving here.”
“Hop on it,” Stone said. “But I want to discuss aircraft overflights as well. Unless we get Masters’ system on-line again, getting satellite imagery from Washington out here is too long for a naval battle. Besides, I want a few probes of the Chinese defenses. Let’s go over the Air Battle Force plans for ‘ferret’ flights; I want several packages put together to hand to General Jarrel when his birds start arriving.”
The officers in charge of each weapon squadron of the First Air Battle Wing were assembled in the Strategic Warfare Center briefing auditorium; the room was secured, the building closed down, and the doors guarded as the meeting began.
“Orders are as follows, ladies and gentlemen,” General Jarrel began. “By order of the President, all elements of the First Air Battle Wing have been directed to deploy immediately to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, and prepare for air operations under the direction of Pacific Air Forces and Pacific Command. Commander, First Air Battle Wing, will be myself, who will report to Major General Richard Stone, Chief, Strategic Forces deployed, Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, immediately upon arrival. Major General Stone becomes the overall Joint Task Force Commander effective immediately. First Air Battle Wing commander is dual-hatted as Joint Task Force Air Commander. The orders outline a few Marine Corps air units involved in the operation, along with naval air operations commanders. Rear Admiral Conner Walheim becomes Joint Naval Forces Commander. Joint Task Force Ground Forces Commander is Army Brigadier General Joseph Towle.” Jarrel folded the message form and stuck it in a flight-suit pocket. “No other details were given in the message, but that’s all we need to get going.
“I have distributed copies of the list of today’s nonflying crews and airframes; it composes about half of the force located here at Ellsworth, including eight B-52s, four B-1s, ten KC-135s, two KC-10s, all twelve of our F-4Ds and Fs, ten F-15s, and six C-141s. That’s about all Andersen can handle at one time anyway.
“Crew rest is hereby waived for these crew members. They will pick up pre-planned mission packages, brief, and prepare for departure within six hours.” There was a rustle of surprise throughout the audience — they had planned and discussed a rapid deployment of a large number of aircraft such as this, but it had never been done before. “The bombers, KC-135 tankers, and some of the cargo aircraft will deploy nonstop to Andersen; the fighters and KC-10s will get crew rest at Hickam before proceeding.
“All bomber aircraft will be fully loaded in ferry configuration; you have the list of stores they will carry. Deploying to Guam with weapons on board is always tricky because of the high fuel load needed for divert reserves, but we’ll have lots of tankers to support us, so we will load the bombers to get as close to max landing weight as possible with normal IFR fuel reserves…”