His debriefing at STAVKA that morning had been a rude shock. Only slowly had he realized that some saw his report as a threat to them and their position, while others saw it as "the whimperings of a man unfit for a position of great responsibility." When he was told personally by a Marshal of the Soviet Union to answer only yes or no to all questions of the Politburo, Sulvina knew he was on trial for telling the "wrong" truth.
For two hours Sulvina sat in a chair in the center of a room. Before him sat the eleven Politburo members who ran the Soviet Union. They alone determined national policy. They alone decided how the Soviet Union would achieve its national goals, goals which they established.
Each member had before him a copy of the report. Each member, with the exception of the Foreign Minister, asked Sulvina questions, most of which skirted the real issues at hand. Diligently, Sulvina answered their questions with either yes or a no. The questioning was punctuated by discussions, sometimes heated, between the members as some of the senior members became annoyed at the cat-and-mouse game.
Finally, the Foreign Minister dropped the report, folded his hands before him and said, "We have all read the report, Comrade Colonel. We have all asked you many questions. I want you now, Comrade Colonel, to tell me in your own words what happened."
The General Secretary, visibly upset, leaned forward and glared at the Foreign Minister, but could not get his attention. Failing that, the General Secretary turned to face Sulvina.
Sweat ran down Sulvina's face. His eyes turned to the Minister of Defense.
The Minister of Defense returned the stare. Looking back to the Foreign Minister, Sulvina replied, "Comrade, the report before you is my own words. It is what I believe to be the truth." Sulvina did not look again at the Minister of Defense.
The Foreign Minister said after a moment, "Yes, of course. Now, Comrade Colonel, what must we, the Politburo, do to prevent another disaster such as this from happening?"
Sulvirta was taken aback by the term "disaster." Without realizing it, he went into the attack. "Comrade, there was no disaster. The actions of the commander of the 28th Combined Arms Army prevented a disaster. We merely withdrew so that we could regroup, resupply and reestablish conditions that favored the resumption of the offensive and the seizure of the Strait of Hormuz. A setback, yes. A disaster, no."
For a long time, there was silence in the room. Then the Foreign Minister asked the question again, in a harsher tone this time. "What must we do to prevent another disaster, Comrade Colonel?"
Sulvina considered the question before continuing. For a moment he wavered in his convictions. Then he decided that if there was nothing he could do to save himself, perhaps he could do something to help those who would soon have to face the same situation he had faced.
"First, Comrade, we must employ chemical weapons. The Americans have little in the way of retaliatory capability. Even if they assume a fully protective posture, which they will, the heat casualties from wearing the protective clothing will be just as devastating to their efficiency as would losses to the chemical agents employed. Our troops, better trained, equipped and used to working in a chemical environment, will have a great advantage. Next, we must mass all combat power in Iran. If insufficient forces are available in the country, they must come from the reserves if necessary. Finally, we must strike at the source of American supplies. The war zone at sea must include the entire Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean, the Red Sea and the Atlantic. It does us no good to wait until they reach Iran to kill them."
Again there was a long silence. This time the Foreign minister smiled when he broke it. "You must understand, Comrade Colonel, there are certain political realities that come into play at the strategic level. We cannot use chemical weapons. We know the Americans' limitations in that area, but if we did use such weapons the entire world would condemn us. Even those who support us now in the United Nations would be reluctant to continue that support. Nor can we afford to spread the conflict without endangering our interests in other areas. To do so could push America's reluctant allies into the conflict. And you know as well as I that the economy cannot sustain a large-scale mobilization. So, given those realities, what can we do?"
The General Secretary, agitated by the discussion, nonetheless allowed the Foreign Minister to continue his game. The colonel, after all, was expendable. Perhaps, if the Foreign Minister played out his fool's hand, he would discredit himself and give the General Secretary sufficient cause to replace him.
Sulvina knew he was a lost man. Nothing he said mattered anymore.
There was no going back. He had, by doing what he believed correct, dug his own grave. He straightened up in his chair, looked each member in the eye and spoke. "Then we must stop the war. If, Comrades, we are going to fight this war, we must fight it with every means available. If we want to win, the nation must be mobilized behind the effort. Otherwise, Comrades, we are asking our men to die for nothing. I cannot go back and order our soldiers to go forward and die in the name of the State if the State is unwilling to provide the means for victory."
Colonel Sulvina jumped into his grave with both feet and a clear conscience.
Between bouts of pain and short periods of restless sleep, Randy Capell pondered his current state and his future.
Lying on his stomach with most of his body encased in bandages, Capell could do nothing on his own. That he had lived, he had been told, was nothing short of a miracle The battalion aid station, overwhelmed by incoming casualties, had classified him as being beyond help. He had second- and third-degree burns over half of his body, multiple fragment wounds, several broken bones and a severe loss of blood. A medic gave him morphine and set him aside while those who could be saved were worked on. Eventually the physician's assistant did work on him, stabilized his condition and had him evacuated.
In the two weeks he spent at Bandar Abbas, Capell began the slow and painful process of recovery. While there he sent several notes to Amanda Matthews. A b medic had to write them for him. In return, he received two letters. The medic had to read them for him. As Amanda was quite graphic in describing her love for him, this proved embarrassing to Capell. His only regret was that he had not seen her before he was shipped out. Ca pell kept consoling himself with the thought that they would have plenty of time together after the war was over.
Besides, he was not sure he wanted her to see him as he was. That might have been hard for Amanda to accept and could have put an end to their relationship. By leaving, he would have time to recover and get back into shape. There were only two things that mattered to him now: Amanda Matthews and getting back into shape so that he could pursue his career. Capell pondered which was the more important of the two.
The launching of several cruise missiles from a sub marine set off alarms on escort ships throughout the area.
By the time the missiles broke surface, fire-control computers were already feeding data to the Seasparrow point defense-missile launchers.
On cue from the computer, air-defense officers began to launch the Seasparrows. While Soviet missiles flew toward their marks in the darkness, American missiles raced toward the Soviet missiles in an effort to head them off. Great balls of fire blossomed in the distance every time one of the defensive missiles found its target and destroyed it.
Not all Soviet missiles were felled by the Seasparrows. American radar continued tracking the surviving cruise missiles and preparing the close-in defense systems. The phalanx gun systems, set to automatic mode, picked up their targets and tracked them. The 20mm. mimgun, controlled by a computer, fired a stream of projectiles into the night in a last-ditch effort to bring down the remaining cruise missiles. As with the Seasparrows, each success was marked with the violent explosion of a Soviet missile.