The Missiles of August*

PLAN Type 052C (Luyang II class)
U.S Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Manda M. Emery
Source

USS Tang (SSN-805) had picked up the contact on sonar nearly an hour ago. STS1¹ Kurt DeVries was on the console now, one of his new folks had first spotted the anomaly on the waterfall display. DeVries liked the new kid, she was sharp and paid attention, this was a good example of just how good the new kid was.

He had watched the trace for a bit before tapping her on the shoulder, "Nicely done, Sarah, mind if I take over?"

STS3 Sarah MacIver nodded and turned her station over to her LPO². She hovered nearby, eager to learn. She knew that this track, now designated Sierra 46, was important. They had received a message from USPACFLT late the day before, directing them to a certain location with orders to be on the lookout for units of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy, or PLAN. While neither DeVries nor MacIver was privy to that location, they knew something was up by the look on the captain's face.

So she and the rest of the crew were pretty excited. Little did they know that a shooting war was breaking out between the PLAN and two US allies: the Philippines and the Japanese. It all felt like an exercise, but to some sailors not 140 miles away, drowning in the waters of the South China Sea, roughly 35 miles east of the Spratly Islands, it was very real indeed.

"Message traffic from USPACFLT, Mr. President." LCDR Higgins said, handing Nakagawa a clipboard with the message attached.

The President glanced at it, initialed the "Rec'd by" block, then read, it didn't take long.

"So Admiral Friedman ordered this on his own hook?"

"Yes Sir."

Nakagawa nodded and smiled, "Outstanding, message USPACFLT that POTUS concurs. Let him know that he's the man on the ground, I trust his judgement."

Higgins nodded and headed to the comms room.

He noticed Bill Aspinall at the entrance to the room, "You have something for me, Bill?"

"Yes Sir, had a call from 8th and I, the Pentagon has been secured. They've rounded up everyone who was in the building and are holding them in the basement there."

"They have cells?"

"No Sir, they're just storage rooms but they can be locked."

"How many people are we talking about?"

"Several hundred I would think."

"And there was no resistance?"

"No Sir, the security guards on duty accepted the orders of the Marine in charge. About all that was left in the building were administrative and clerical staff, very few uniformed military."

"I see."

The President turned to look for LCDR Higgins, but he hadn't returned. He said to Aspinall, "Are the Joint Chiefs still in the briefing room, or have they returned to their offices?"

"They were still there a minute ago."

"Tell them I need them in here, yesterday."

Lieutenant Commander Chen Yuxuan, commanding destroyer 171, Haikou, was deeply worried. He had ordered his ship to the northwest at flank speed as soon as he saw missiles impacting Haikou's sister ship, destroyer 170, Lanzhou.

Lanzhou had opened fire on a Philippines Navy patrol craft, Jacinto-class according to Haikou's Executive Officer. It was supposed to be a show of force, weapons release had not been authorized by Beijing, but Commander Zhang, a party member with an uncle on the Politburo, was something of a "cowboy" as the Americans might say.

Neither ship had detected another ship in the fog nearby, they were under emission control, EMCON, so that the Filipinos didn't detect their presence. That ship, a Japanese Maya-class destroyer had apparently launched a torpedo at Lanzhou, then immediately opened fire with her forward five inch gun mount.

Chen had ordered a hard turn to starboard, towards another fog bank, and had loosed an anti-ship missile at the Maya, which apparently had hit somewhere aft on the Japanese vessel.

"Comrade Captain, we must contact Beijing, immediately."

Chen turned to look at his political officer, "What do you propose Comrade? Tell them that Zhang opened fire without authorization? Tell them that Commander Zhang is probably dead now, along with most of his crew? What exactly do you propose, Comrade? Enlighten me with your political wisdom."

Commissar Wang looked nervous, "I don't mean immediately, Comrade Captain. But when we are clear of ..."

Wang was interrupted by one of the lookouts screaming, "Incoming missile, dead aft!"

The UGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missile had been fired by one of Japan's latest submarines, the JS Raigei³ (SS-516). They had been running at periscope depth some ten thousand yards from JS Haguro when Haguro was hit by Chinese gun and missile fire. Under her standing orders, an attack on any ship in their small task force by Chinese forces was to be answered. So Raigei had launched a Harpoon at a second Chinese ship retreating into the fog.

"Heavy damage aft. Captain, we've lost our aft missile launchers and our helicopter was on fire, so the crew pushed it over the side. Many casualties."

"Propulsion?" he asked, looking at the Officer of the Deck.

"Helm is responding, engine room reports no issues below."

Captain Chen nodded, "Flank speed, give me everything she has. Zhang, prepare a situation report for Beijing, keep it brief, we'll use a burst transmission to the satellite as soon as we put some distance between us and the Japanese."

"Captain, sonar."

"Go ahead."

"Heavy explosions to the west, Sir. Sounds of a ship breaking up, someone over there is sinking Cap'n."

Commander Willis Jefferson nodded, "Very well. XO, prepare a message for USPACFLT, let 'em know we've got a shooting war going on out here."

"Aye aye, Cap'n."

The President looked at his Joint Chiefs, only one of whom was of the usual rank, four stars, the most junior was an Air Force Major General. But most of the old Joint Chiefs had skipped town, except for the Marine Commandant who had thought to take power for himself. His own Marines had turned on him when a lieutenant colonel had ordered the men to stand down, the Commandant was clearly committing sedition, most of the officers and staff NCOs had concurred in that assessment. They had held a drum head court martial and sentenced the man to death by firing squad, sentence was carried out immediately.

"Gentlemen, I do not want to get into a shooting war with China, but I'm not going to let them push our allies around. Both the Japanese and Filipino governments have requested our help and I believe we should help them. What say you?"

All three men and the one woman, Lieutenant General Amanda Jackson, nodded their heads. 

The new Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Jack Whalen spoke, "Sir, I've ordered Pearl to full alert, Ford and Enterprise are completing their refitting, we're going to defer some upgrades to later, and they should be putting out to sea within three days. Truman put to sea from Yokosuka this morning, Reagan is taking on fuel and weapons right now and should be standing out to sea around midnight."

Lieutenant General Mark Attleboro, acting Commandant, chimed in, "I've alerted the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit⁴ on Guam to prepare for immediate deployment. Just tell us where you want us, Sir."

Major General Allen "Pam" Grier of the Air Force looked up, "I've alerted the 18th Wing on Okinawa to be ready to deploy to Clark in the Philippines. I've also alerted the 25th Wing out of Hawaii to prepare to move to Okinawa to fill in for the 18th and to backstop the 8th and 51st Wings in Korea. In case the Norks get froggy."

The President nodded, "Alright troops, let's make it happen."

Turning to Aspinall he said, "Alert HMX-1 that I need a ride to DC. In the meantime, we need to talk to the leadership in the Philippines and Japan. Probably our other allies in the area as well. I hope you had plenty of sleep last night, Bill. It might be a while before you see your rack again."

Aspinall grinned, "I can sleep after I retire, Boss."

* With a tip of the hat to one of my favorite historians, Barbara W. Tuchman.

¹ Sonar Technician (Submarine) 1st Class.

² Leading Petty Officer, senior member of a team, leads day-to-day operations.

³ The "Thunder Whale" is the fourth boat of the Taigei, Big Whale, class.

⁴ The 31st MEU is currently on Okinawa, plans are in the works to move them to Guam. I assume that will have happened by the time this story occurs.

Hell Breaks Loose

PxHere

It wasn't the typical press crowd one might find in the White House Briefing Room in normal times, but these weren't normal times. Flip-flops, shorts, t-shirts seemed to be the uniform of the day. Only the woman from CNN and the man from the Nippon Television Network were wearing something approaching business attire, the junior reporter from Fox News was wearing jeans and a polo shirt, he seemed to be better at "reading the crowd" than his peers.

President Nakagawa was going over his notes just off stage in the impromptu briefing room his staff had set up in one of the VA Center's outbuildings. Unfortunately, his staff had not chosen wisely as the air conditioning in the small room was struggling to keep pace with the number of people in the room. Most of them were from small news outlets from the surrounding communities. One man, who had introduced himself as a blogger with two thousand followers, had been admitted only after the Speaker of the House had indicated that the guy was a good writer, took no sides, and seemed to dislike all politicians.

The President had quipped, "Well, he hates us all, so he should be unbiased, let him in."

"Mr. President, the reporters out there aren't taking this seriously, shorts and t-shirts, Sir, really?" Bruce Ingalls, one of the President's junior aides, seemed pretty distraught over this.

Nakagawa chuckled, "Have you been in there, Bruce? It's hotter than Mississippi in August. Let 'em be comfortable."

Having said that, the President took off his suit coat and hung it on the back of his chair. Standing up he said, "Let's get this over with.

"What do you mean we can't leave?" Matthew Burleson, ostensible President of the United States, barked at his chief military liaison officer.

"Sir, we contacted HMX-1, their operations staff indicated that they provide transportation for the President and Vice President, not former Cabinet members." The colonel delivering this bad news braced himself for the expected outburst from Burleson, who was touchy at the best of times and now was certainly not that.

Surprisingly, Burleson didn't react at all. He stood up and said, "I'll be in my quarters."

The President's chief of staff, Ted Anderson, came in shortly after Burleson had left, he seemed confused.

"Colonel, where is the President?"

"Apparently he's in West Virginia."

Which drew a sharp look from Anderson, "That isn't funny, Colonel."

"No Sir, it's not funny at all. We could be facing a firing squad in the near future. I'm out, get someone else to do this, it ain't worth the candle."

"Now see here, Colonel ..." Anderson realized he was talking to the door, which had slammed behind the colonel as he left the room.

Anderson began to see that this was not a game at all. He had been coming to brief the President on the killing of the FBI Director. There were also rumors out of the Marine Barracks at 8th and I that the Marines had executed their former Commandant and Vice Admiral Washington after a summary court martial had been held.

Well, he was just a staffer, right? He'd worked for Burleson at the Pentagon and had followed the man here to Raven Rock. He hadn't been the one to make Burleson President, he was just a staffer, he was just following orders, that's all. He should be fine.

Shouldn't he?

President Nakagawa looked relaxed and well-rested, which he was to a certain extent, as he stood at the podium. Checking his notes, he then looked out at the reporters and began to speak.

"First of all, it's like a sauna in here, so I'll try to make this brief. I have a statement and then at the end I'll take any questions you might have. Of course, the more questions you ask, the longer we'll have to tolerate this heat." Nakagawa grinned at the ripple of laughter which went across the room.

"Ladies and gentlemen, in the last few months, weeks really, the country experienced something almost unprecedented in our history. Various agencies within the government decided to take matters into their own hands and force unconstitutional change upon our citizens."

"Federal agents have died, private citizens have died, in both cases actions which caused these deaths can be traced directly to various Federal agencies within Washington DC. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency are both involved, in the FBI the responsibility went all the way to the top. In the CIA there is no evidence of  the involvement of senior staff at that agency, but a few rogue agents operating outside the bounds of their agency's mandate and, more importantly, outside the law governing the responsibilities of the CIA."

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are trying to bring order out of chaos, as recently as yesterday we had three separate claimants to the Presidency, myself included. With the death of the FBI Director, that number has been reduced to two, myself and the former Secretary of Defense, Matthew Burleson. We have documentation which proves that Mr. Burleson was fired as Secretary of Defense shortly before my predecessor's untimely death. So, by law, he has no valid claim to the Presidency."

"However, these times are unusual and unprecedented. Some of you may see my ascension to the Presidency as unlawful, or at best of questionable legality. Therefore, I am asking you, the people of the United States, to make the final determination here."

"Shortly, on your television screens, you will be given instructions on how to vote in what I believe is the first nationwide referendum. Whether or not you, the people, accept me as your President. It's a simple yes or no, folks. If no, then I will step down , if yes, then I will continue as your President until our next regularly scheduled elections."

"You will, however, have the chance to vote in a special election to be held as soon as possible where some of you will have to select new Senators and Representatives to replace those who have left their posts during this national crisis. Details on that will be forthcoming."

"Now, any questions from the folks in the room?"

A number of people began shouting at the President, he pointed to the man from Nippon TV.

"Mr. President, there are reports that you ordered the death of the FBI Director, is that true?"

The room went dead silent, the reporters were on the edges of their seats, wondering which way Nakagawa would answer. The silence was broken when one of the local media people, looking at his phone, gasped, "Holy shit!"

Everyone in the room turned to the young man, wearing jeans and an AC/DC t-shirt. One of the President's security detail moved in that direction but stopped when the President asked, "What is it? Something of interest to all of us?"

The man turned beet red, then stood and said, "According to Reuters, there has been an armed clash between units of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy and forces belonging to the Philippines and Japan near the Spratly Islands."

The President turned to his military aide who had his laptop computer out and was typing furiously. Lieutenant Commander Josh Higgins went pale then turned to the President.

"Our reconnaissance assets over the area report three ships on fire. The Philippine Navy is reporting that one of their Jacinto-class patrol boats has been hit and is sinking." The naval officer paused for a minute, he looked sick to his stomach.

"Sir, the Japanese Ministry of Defense is reporting that one of their Maya class destroyers has engaged and destroyed a Chinese vessel, class unclear at this point. Their own ship, JS Haguro, has herself been damaged, many casualties, the extent of the damage to Haguro is unknown at this time. PLAN forces in the region are withdrawing at this time."

The President looked to his liaison with the State Department, "I want to talk with the Chinese ambassador, we need to know what is going on."

The man from State, Frederick L. Waltham III, swallowed and said, "Mr. President, the Chinese Ambassador left for home three days ago, it's unclear if he was recalled or left on a vacation. With the unrest and the chaos here at home, I believe the Chinese decided to adopt a wait and see, from a distance, attitude."

"I see."

Turning to the crowd, the President announced, "I'm afraid we'll have to pick this up at a later time, thank you for being here, thank you for your understanding."

As he was leaving one last question was shouted at him, "Mr. President, what about the rumor about the FBI Director?"

Nakagawa stopped and spun on his heel, he was clearly angry, "Mr. Sheppard was ordered to cease and desist pushing his illegal claim to this office. He refused, in fact, he told me to 'stick my orders' where the sun don't shine."

"But, Sir, did you have him killed?"

"I ordered him brought in dead or alive, he chose poorly."

There were more shouted questions, but the President ignored them, he might be staring at the start of World War III, he had to try and stop things before they got worse. He turned to LCDR Higgins, "Where are the carriers, Lieutenant Commander Higgins?"

"Truman and Reagan are in Japan, Reagan is preparing to come home. Ford and Enterprise are almost ready to come out of scheduled maintenance and can probably steam in less than ten days."

"We may not have ten days, get people moving, whatever you need from me, let me know."

Higgins merely said, "Aye Aye Sir, I'll get on the horn to the Yard, it's where the Navy is being run from at the moment."

After the sailor had gone, the President arrived at his office, which was a flurry of activity. Walking in, he turned to Bill Aspinall, "Think our SEALs and a couple of platoons of Marines from 8th and I can retake the Pentagon?"

"Right now, Sir, we could probably take it with a squad of DC cops, but I'll get Senior Chief Howard on it ASAP."

"Do it."

Turning to the room at large, he said, "Alright people, what's happening? I need details, what they've got, what we've got, and options to calm this situation down. It's going to be a long night, so let's get down to it."

juvat update: June 30 '24

 Happy 1st of July to all readers. May you have a happy safe Independence Day and may all the rights won in that war and all the subsequent wars remain intact.  As to the largest news item I've seen in quite a while, the camouflage was certainly ripped off the president, wasn't it?

No, Beans, the lower case was deliberately used.  If I offended anyone, well...sorry. However, I've been offended for pretty near four years now.

Ok, end of political commentary.

 

As I reported last week, we'd been over to College Station for an informal family reunion.  We had a blast, but like all good things, this too passed.

 But there are quite a bit of fond memories that weekend created.  That was much needed.

June has been a busy month.  Of the 20 weekdays available, Mrs J or I had Doctor related appointments on 13 of them.  It gets a bit old.  However, this past week, we did get a bit of good news on the health care front.  Mrs J had a "sorta" colonoscopy ordered up by her surgeon.  He wanted to take a look at the colon and see exactly where the cancer had been and whether he'd have enough room to sew it back together after removing the dead cells.  He's fairly confident that he does.  Mrs J was/is not looking forward to a colostomy bag.  

I'm not even going to begin to link to that definition.

But, on the other side of the dynamic duo, I'm scheduled for an EKG this morning as you're reading this and another one tomorrow.  Seems my stress level is causing me to have somewhat irregular pulse rate spikes.  My first medicine, started last month, worked pretty well for about 3 weeks, then gradually stopped working.  The NP prescribed a fairly hefty pill for 4 days to handle things until the EKGs but which sent me to bed in the evenings pretty early. Depending on today/tomorrow's results, they'll figure out a plan of attack.

I gotta admit, that plan of attack scares me, and I used to be fearless.  They're going to shock my heart which will stop it (for a very short period of time, I pray) then restart it and they say that will take care of the Atrial Fibrillation. We'll see.

So, if I'm a little slow replying to comments, well...

 

To get off the woe is me platform, it's been great having Little J home.  LJW is a lot more relaxed.  Miss B has a permanent smile on her face and her learning "stuff" pace has sped up even more than expected.  As I mentioned in earlier posts the reunion will be good for both of them.  Movers are coming tomorrow.  They fly out to London Town on the 8th.

Mrs. J and I will miss them, but we're already planning our visit to London.

While his birthday was a little earlier in June, we celebrated it this past Saturday.  Had a couple of friends over, told embarrassing stories about him (which were reciprocated against the storyteller), and much laughter ensued.

His birthday cake was quite nice, 

Had just a tiny touch of Bourbon in it, quite nice.  Although, it is hard to believe he's 40.

My how fast time flies.

He did get a bit back at me though.

They came up for dinner last night and this was what I saw driving up.  Now, that picture doesn't quite convey the "heart thump" I felt when I first glanced at it.  You may not actually pick it up.  So...

That would be MissB driving....ostensibly.  Yep, that's a couple hundred heart beats I'll never get back.

Yes, Beans, that's Little J's Maroon covered Left shoulder beside the registration sticker.

He was fined one glass of wine for startling his old man.

On a final note, Tony the Hay Guy has changed his operation a bit.  Rancho Juvat now has 3 new residents.

That's Papa Moo on the left, Mama Moo on the right and Baby Moo in the background.

I have no idea what his final plan is, but they seem to be quite content and are mowing the front pasture quite well.

And finally, just a reminder that "Being Cool is not a part time Job!"

Peace out, Y'All!