“We have two weeks to defend our country. We believe the attack will be there in New York. I want every Air Force base commander that gets a radio to go to their closest Army, Marine and Naval bases and get an inventory list of fighting equipment that is operational now. I’m looking for trucks—any trucks—to drag howitzers up to New York. I’m looking for anything that can blow a high-explosive or armor-piercing shell through ship’s armor. I want 50,000 troops readied to move into New York in the next two weeks. Are you taking notes, Patterson?”
“Yes sir, I have you on speaker phone and two men writing your orders down,” the major replied.
“I want your five bulldozers to move across to La Guardia Airport and clean that runway, then get them into Teterboro and Newark. I want aircraft to be able to go in there within 24 to 36 hours. Get those Charlie engineers to turn on the lights and get heat into the terminals, or at least get one generator, or even truck engines generating power in all four airports.
“Patterson, I suggest you fuel up the only long-range aircraft we have left, the second HC-130 tanker, get two sets of flying crew aboard and at least 24 operational satellite phones, as well as half a dozen of the Chinese engineers who speak English, and a varied selection of spare electrical parts. Not enough to deplete reserves needed on the East Coast, but important parts to repair electrical components for getting heat and power into the bases, or hopefully getting some of our aircraft flying. Send the HC-130 out with somebody you can trust and start distributing the equipment. Leave one engineer, spare parts, and a phone with the commander at Hill, then give Vandenberg one engineer, parts, and three phones—two phones are for their neighbor bases. Deliver two phones to Travis, then fuel up and head over to Hawaii and deliver an engineer, spare parts, and one phone. Get that baby full of fuel there and head over to Anderson in Guam to deliver a few parts and one phone. Refuel and head to Yakota Air Force Base in Japan to deliver the same. Then, get two phones, one engineer, and parts into Kunshan in South Korea, one engineer and parts into Baghdad, and the same into Turkey. Fuel up and fly to Ramstein and then the Azores, leave a phone at each, and tell the pilots to get back to McGuire ASAP.”
“The number I’m giving you now is a number that can help them find their locations during daylight hours only. The codeword is ‘Carlos Lee.’ Tell the pilots to follow orders from Carlos Lee and they will get a pretty accurate location. Tell them never to answer the phone if the call is from the red number, which I assume will be on all the phones—that is the enemy. Remember, daylight only, so tell them not to get into a bad situation at night. The HC-130 has a 4,500 mile range but remind the pilots to use their fuel wisely. I want another situation report from you in 24 hours, Patterson. You have all Air Force personnel at your beck and call. I will need a copy of all the numbers, once you have set up which phone is going where. If you have any problems, call me on this number, but right now I need some sleep, we are six hours out in the middle of nowhere and I need to get to Misawa. Good luck!” And the general hung up.
Chapter 12
The Hit Squads
Strong Air Force base was up early the next morning, three hours before dawn. It was cold outside. The temperature was 24 degrees out, which was normal for January. Carlos and Lee had taken turns monitoring the cell phones and the feed coming off the satellites.
General Allen was on his way to Japan, an hour from Alaska when the airport woke up. The technical guys had refueled and rearmed the aircraft throughout the night. Carlos’ P-51 was still being worked on and would not fly that day. General Allen called and asked that the food distribution be put off for 48 hours as he needed civilian help communicating with Fort Bragg, Seymour Johnson and Camp Lejeune. He wanted exact numbers of vehicles and available troops and, if necessary, they needed to start walking to New York.
Preston asked Maggie and Staff Sergeant Perry to fly into Pope Field in one of the 172s and find out what the largest Army base in the country could supply as defensive protection. John and Technical Sergeant Matheson were to fly the Cessna 210 into Seymour Johnson, and Pam Wallace and another sergeant were to fly the second 172 into McClutcheon Field—the main Marine airfield in Jacksonville, North Carolina.
Martie had been pretty quiet that night after she arrived home. Preston congratulated her on a good job and she began to get back to normal. Sally had been relieved by a new group of pilots and they had taken off for McGuire as soon as she landed. Sally had been living in her aircraft for five solid days and needed a bath and some sleep.
Lady Dandy was now the main troop transporter, and with the FedEx Cargomaster, was ready to help the ground troops near Heflin, Alabama just after dawn. Preston decided to fly the P-38 this time, its Hispano cannon was able to put a lot more power down on the enemy if need be. Carlos was totally exhausted, unable to fly, and needed sleep. They had tried to control incoming and outgoing communication all night, but had been unable to do so. The satellites were not, and they realized would never be controlled by anybody other than their Chinese controllers. Carlos hoped that they were in the Headquarters building, hopefully about to be destroyed by the AC-130 gunships under the command of General Allen in about 24 hours time.
Preston’s airstrip was busy two hours before dawn. First, Buck and Barbara flying Lady Dandy climbed into the dark sky, then Mike Mallory in the turboprop Cargomaster ten minutes later. The 172s took off an hour after Lady Dandy to arrive at their closer destinations at dawn, and then the 210. Lastly, Martie in her Mustang and finally Preston in his P-38 took off 70 minutes behind Lady Dandy.
Martie and Preston climbed quickly and reached a cruising altitude of 15,000 feet within 15 minutes. At a fast cruise of 370 miles an hour, they covered ground rapidly and arrived over Atlanta as the sun was coming over the horizon.
“Good morning, ground gentlemen. Your flying back-up is ten minutes out. What do you need from us? Over.”
“Good morning, flyboys,” was the reply from the ground troops. “We had a skirmish with some guys wanting to continue east just after midnight, and hit three more of their vehicles coming along the highway. Since then, we have seen nothing. Our guys inspected the three vehicles—they will not move again—and found two of those fancy cell phones you guys so desperately want. There were nine dead or nearly-dead Charlies and I think you should land about two to three miles behind the first road attack you guys did yesterday, form a sweep line along the road, and work your way inwards, towards us. We can do the same and you can coordinate us from the air. I suggest that you guys head west for 20 miles and see if any Charlie are retreating in that direction. Over.”
“Roger that,” replied Preston. “Buck, Mike, do you copy?”
“We copy,” replied Buck. “I suggest one of you check the road and look for 800 yards of open space so that our aircraft can get down, and you circle above the spot while we go in. Over.”
“Okay,” replied Preston. “Martie, follow me and let’s find a suitable landing strip,” and they headed over the battle ground. There were still wisps of black smoke rising here and there since there had been no wind the previous night. The smoke hung in the low-lying areas, making it difficult to see. They found a big enough flat piece of clear road just east of the exit to Heflin on the southern strip of road. The landing area was out of view from the bridge, between the bridge and the first attack and the only piece of straight road around. It would be safe for a landing, and there were only a couple of vehicles on the east-bound side and a rolled-over tractor trailer. The clearing had at least 800 yards of clean asphalt before it started curving slightly, and any pilot with a slowing aircraft could negotiate the slight bend if need be. They would have to fly in from the west to make it work, however.