“We’ll test some of the spare computers and signal equipment. If they are not damaged, we will be back in business to some degree, in a matter of hours. I can’t guarantee how many hours or what degree of business, but we should be able to restore some of our capabilities. Hopefully, shielding protected about 50% of our capabilities that weren’t in operation. I don’t know what magnetizing effect this has had on some of our motors. I have sent runners throughout the ship to determine that. My people are already testing the backup computers.”
“What of passive detection measures?”
“Admiral, we can, by anomalous means, detect any torpedo launch. By sound wave magnetics, we can pick up any incoming aircraft or missile that is subsonic. If they are supersonic or hypersonic, we can’t detect them in time.”
“Very well, Commander. Let’s get to it. Keep me informed of every development.”
“Aye aye, Admiral.”
To the Commander of the Air Wing, the Admiral said, “On second thought, double your air patrols using drones rather than piloted aircraft if their motors are not frozen as soon as you can control them, but keep our emissions to them at an absolute minimum. What assets are in the air now?”
“We have two F18E Super Hornets airborne, Admiral.”
“Get them down by signal light or other visual signals. Let’s be prepared to counter any attack from submarines or air attack from land-based aircraft. I am going to take a considerable risk, gentlemen. Signal all ships that they are to use visual signals and passive detection means only, even after restoration of all electronic systems. Electronic emissions are to be kept to an absolute minimum, as in none at all other than our drones. I want the enemy to believe we are entirely crippled. Let’s draw out the culprit, be it North Korean or Chinese, and kill him. Only after incoming will we light up the skies with emissions. Be prepared for a maximum launch of strike aircraft on a second’s notice of any attack from any quarter.
“Captain Johnston, as our Medical Officer, prepare a handout sheet on possible signs and symptoms of radiation exposure. Measure the ship for any alpha particles. Get readings from our instruments on beta and gamma radiation so you will know what level of exposure has actually occurred and write your handout accordingly. Post it on all bulletin boards. A personal copy is to go to every sailor who was on deck at the time of the blast. Publish and distribute it in four hours. I don’t want any sailor to think he or she is going to be sterile or impotent as a result of this exposure. Get on it. I don’t want any anxiety attacks that can be avoided.
“All officers not standing watch are to report to their ready rooms for briefing in forty-five minutes. XO, prepare that briefing in thirty minutes. Be accurate, objective, and have a prediction as to how soon we will be fully operational again. Get with the EWO for his approval on accuracy.
“Air Wing Commander, to maintain the façade, launch a Greyhound to the nearest land base, the Republic of the Philippines, where we have an embassy, to inform CINPAC (Commander-in-Chief-Pacific). Request the intelligence officer send it via code of an electronic attack and to warn other carrier battle groups and go up the chain of command.
“I will address the ship over the intercom. Thankfully, someone had the good sense to hardwire this ship and shield many of its electronic suites from non-ionizing radiation. That’s all for now. Let’s get busy, people.”
The yeoman blew his whistle into the intercom. “Now hear this, now hear this. The Admiral will address the ship.”
The Admiral stepped up to the microphone. “Sailors, marines and airmen of the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan, this is the Admiral. The flash of light and sudden gust of strong wind that those of you above deck felt was the result of an electronic attack on this carrier battle group. A nuclear device, tailored for a bust of electromagnetic pulse was detonated directly over us at an altitude of approximately fifty miles. For those of you who were on deck, the Medical Officer will issue information and instructions in a matter of hours. It is extremely unlikely that anyone will suffer any harm whatsoever from radiation. Do not report to sick bay unless you have actual physical symptoms. All of you have received basic training in nuclear, biological and chemical warfare. This attack should come as no surprise.
“The result is that much of our electronic equipment and weapons systems have been seriously, but only temporarily, degraded. I have ordered immediate repairs and a complete blackout of electronic emissions of every kind. When communications are restored, no one is to send any signal, e-mail, or phone call, even from personal cell phones, from this carrier battle group. Our intent is to let the enemy believe that he has completely crippled all of our communications and weapons systems in the hope that he will expose his intentions and himself. When he does, we will engage him and kill him. Until otherwise indicated, consider us at war from this moment on. Be prepared to man your battle stations at a moment’s notice. That is all.”
The Electronic Warfare Officer approached the Admiral in the wardroom, with a grin and salute. “Admiral, our electronic capabilities were fully restored in sixty-three minutes. No overt attack has been detected. We are still standing down on emissions. Is there any change in the orders of emissions blackout?”
“No change in orders, Commander. Well done.”
The hastily called press conference was broadcast on all networks, interrupting all programming. Roger McCall was standing grim-faced before the cameras when he announced that nuclear war had broken out on the Korean Peninsula.
“The only knowledge we have at this time is that there has been a nuclear exchange of atomic weapons. So far, indications are that they are all smaller than those used against Japan in August of 1945. Unfortunately, these nuclear blasts have also crippled our communications satellites, so that there is a dearth of information forthcoming. We have no further details at this time. I cannot take any questions as we have no other information. Thank you.”
McCall pivoted on his heel and abruptly left the room with reporters shouting questions after him. The broadcast was played and replayed every fifteen minutes over all the networks. America wondered what would be the nation’s reaction.
Marge Talbott sent a secure telex to the American ambassador in Japan for information on the Japanese reaction. Later that evening, television reports came in of demonstrations and rallies that approached riots in numerous Japanese cities. The ambassador’s response came in at 23:00 that night. “Japan is transfixed. It doesn’t know what to do. It now realizes that its lack of militarization might, probably will, result in Chinese dominance over Japan. Korea is most likely ruined as any kind of entity, politically, militarily or economically. Japanese observation aircraft flying at high altitudes off the Korean peninsula have recorded numerous small tactical weapons being deployed. Japan is now concerned about their own physical and economic survival. The Chinese ambassador to Japan has said nothing. The only good note is that the Prime Minister has suddenly offered to share its latest anti-submarine technology with us. Apparently, they are much farther ahead than we realized. I have been told that they know where we are, and that they are at least five years ahead of us in research but have not fielded any weapons, only tested them on various platforms. The Diet wouldn’t support their deployment.
“There is a bonus here, Mr. President. The Japanese Prime Minister informed me today that they want to purchase a dozen DDX destroyers and want to build two dozen more in Japan under license. He assures me that there will be no difficulty with the Diet funding the purchase and their building their own under license. Not only that, but he strongly suspects that they will also fund purchase of several dozen new Joint Strike Fighters. He hasn’t discussed that aspect yet with the appropriate leaders in the Diet and his own cabinet, but he personally is all for it.”
Jason Thornton’s smile just increased about one meter: American jobs and rejuvenation of the American shipbuilding industry, American aircraft ruling the skies, and above all, American jobs. Just what the economy needs. For decades, the American shipbuilding industry languished, with most American ships purchased from shipyards overseas. South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Norway, Denmark, and even Poland built ships for the U.S. merchant lines.
“You tell the Prime Minister we will sell him all we can. We will build them as fast as we can. We will pull out all the stops and put workers going on them around the clock. We will work with them on the latest technological information for anti-submarine warfare, anti-mine warfare, undersea unmanned vehicles, and any other damned thing he wants. They smell war coming, and so do I. Have him contact the appropriate companies and write the contracts; tonight, if he wants. Pass this on to Jim Neville. Have him get right on it with his Japanese counterparts. Let’s rebuild our Navy and our anti-submarine capability.”
Curtis Matthews had never been so tired in his life. He thought he would never quit walking. He had seen the mushroom clouds, small ones, on several occasions. He felt the strong machstem winds that they generated. He was hungry. He could not remember when he had last eaten. The nights were getting cooler, but the days were still warm and muggy. He had trudged southwards with the mass of refugees. No one would share food with him. He was drinking water whenever he could find any that looked halfway potable. He was thirsty enough that even ditch water looked good. He knew it was full of urine and feces, and it was all he could do to restrain himself from drinking it as he witnessed hundreds of others drinking it.
Corpses lay all along the route of their march. The young and the old, as in most cases of such severe societal disruption, were the first to collapse. Hunger, dehydration, and now radiation poisoning was adding to their distress. He observed many corpses with no obvious physical wounds. Many others had radiation burns and flash burns from tactical nuclear weapons. Others, he attributed to infections, particularly bacterial meningitis by Neisseria meningitidis. He scratched his head only to notice that a number of scalp hairs came away with his fingertips. He recognized it as a sign of radiation poisoning. The sound of battle was never far away and often continuous for hours, first in one direction, and then another. He surmised that it was mostly small units, patrols, squads, platoons and companies that were skirmishing, but at other times, it was apparent that at least battalion-sized operations were under way. He left the roads and headed south across the countryside, guided only by the sun and stars. Each night, he would find the North Star as he was taught in the Medical Department Basic Course and orient himself due south. It was about all he remembered of the extremely meager field craft they were taught at Camp Bullis. Sometimes, he would just lie down wherever he was and sleep. In some fields, there were still a few vegetables that he would dig out with his hands, wipe the dirt off them and eat them raw on the spot. He had no means to make a fire, no pot to boil anything, no means of washing his food, so he ate it raw.
Sometimes when he found more than one Chinese cabbage, he would put a few in his shirt, at least what was left of his shirt. Chinese cabbage is one of the mainstays of kimchi, the horrendously hotly seasoned national dish of Korea. He had tried fresh summer kimchi, which is the mildest variety, in a Korean restaurant just before the war started, and couldn’t get the fire out of his mouth. The Koreans learned to hide their food from the Japanese by burying it in large earthen crocks. To keep it from spoiling, they would add large quantities of hot peppers and vinegar-like solutions. In time, it became the national dish and referred to as winter kimchi. In summertime, it was made fresh daily. Winter kimchi, however, was fermented with terribly hot peppers. Koreans who ate it reeked of it for days. When the Japanese occupied Korea after the Russo-Japanese War of 1905, they raped the entire peninsula in every respect to the maximum extent they could. Hardly a tree was left standing. School girls of all ages were raped coming and going to school. That gave rise to the national dress for women. They all dressed as if they were in the last trimester of pregnancy to avoid being gang raped.
Curtis Matthews, MD, recognized that he was suffering to some degree of radiation poisoning. He just didn’t know to what extent. Masses of people were now moving in all directions, attempting to get away from areas impacted by nuclear fires. North Koreans had observed him on several occasions, since he was taller and a different shade of skin and an obvious Occidental. More than one threatened to shoot him, and then laughed as he ducked and ran. One did fire several shots at him but missed and hit civilians that were around him. He witnessed human predator-prey reactions around the periphery of the masses, as several gangs of young South Koreans robbed others for whatever food or valuables they could find. On one occasion, the mob reacted to the beating of an elderly Korean. They caught one perpetrator and chased the remaining would-be bandits away, throwing whatever they could find at them. The mob beat, stomped, and kicked the bandit, breaking bones and causing internal injuries until he was unconscious and left him for dead, which he nearly was. The perpetrator did not live through the night.
“Mr. President, we have formulated a plan of operation to take out the Mexican raiders’ base of operations in Chihuahua. The SECDEF told me to give you a call whenever we’re ready. We are ready to present your briefing any time you like. The Service Chiefs suggest we get this operation underway immediately, given the international situation. We don’t want anything to interfere, one with the other.”
“I agree, General Craig. Have Peggy schedule it in as soon as possible. I’ll send your call back into her.”
A few minutes later, Peggy Parsons walked into the Oval Office. “We can have that briefing tomorrow morning, Mr. President, as part of the usual tri-weekly meeting. There should be enough time. General Craig tells me it will take about thirty minutes.”
“Schedule it in, Peggy. I am anxious to get it on the road.”
The next morning at 08:00, General Robert Anderson, Chief of Staff, Army, initiated briefing the President and his Secretaries. “Mr. President, Secretaries, this is the operational plan to launch a surprise raid into Chihuahua, Mexico to capture or kill the Mexicans who have been raiding into our southwestern states. It will utilize two maneuver battalions, one of the 82nd Airborne, one Ranger battalion, and one transportation battalion. There are many political considerations that we have not addressed, but which I will mention as we progress through the briefing for your consideration and decision.
“Both maneuver battalions will be delivered by Hercules C-130Hs out of Fort Bliss, TX. Our cover is that it will be a routine desert training exercise. The officers and noncommissioned officers only will be briefed on the operation twenty-four hours before deployment. They will have a low-level static line jump that is from 500 and 700 feet, in order to achieve complete surprise. The flight plan calls for the aircraft to drop below radar level before crossing the Mexican border. The 2nd battalion, 82nd Airborne, will cover the northern half of the drop, with the 1st Ranger Battalion covering the southern half. They will drop 500 meters into a complete perimeter around the camp. Apache gunships will provide covering fire if it is necessary. Our information is that they have the older variety of Stinger missiles. We don’t want any of our aircraft shot down, so they will have a free fire zone at any possible target that might deploy a shoulder fired anti-aircraft missile.
“The transportation battalion will be accompanied by four Bradley infantry fighting vehicles to provide fire support and security screening. The transportation battalion will also have a company of Military Police attached to arrest those captured and transport them in two- and one-half ton trucks back to the United States. This brings the first political question to mind. Mexico will be howling mad that we raided into their country and, I am sure they will call it “kidnapping” of their citizens. The second political question here is putting them on trial. In what state or federal court will they be tried? The third question is, will the death sentence be invoked? Those are questions we cannot answer, Mr. President.
“We anticipate minimal to moderate resistance, with the possibility of two hundred prisoners. We have initiated building a compound to hold them at Fort Bliss for trial or whatever dispensation.
“The transportation battalion will also collect and transport back to the U.S. all weapons, explosives, personal goods of their American victims, and any information that is found. The transportation battalion will travel as a convoy out into the desert, using the same underwater bridge the raiders use in a remote location to cross the Rio Grande River. They will depart several hours earlier, such that they arrive on site fifteen minutes after the parachute drop. Estimated time from the parachute drop to vacating the site is four hours, with a maximum of six hours, Mr. President. Unless you object, we will destroy the premises.”
