Battlefield Korea

Retirement Cancelled

Captain Patrick Gilbert had just taken over as the Commodore of the first major NATO supply convoy to leave the US for Europe; they had just finished assembling outside of New York Harbor, and would make the transatlantic journey shortly. Captain Gilbert had been nearing retirement when the situation in Europe turned sour. He was less than eighty days away from retirement when he received a call from the Chief of Naval Operations office, informing him that his retirement had just been rescinded, and he was to take over as Commodore of NATO Convoy Group Alpha. He was to take Command of the USS Churchill; a guided missile destroyer that had just completed a series of repairs at Norfolk to act as the command ship for the convoy.

Upon receiving his orders, he hopped in his Ford F-150 and drove down to the pier where his new ship was docked. He was greeted by the executive officer and the outgoing Captain, a Commander Richard Owens, who was being assigned to a staff position. It was an impromptu change of command as there was a lot to get done and not a lot of time to get it all accomplished. They had fifteen hours to get everything sorted before they needed to be on their way to New York to link up with the convoy. Captain Gilbert would have a total of six guided missile destroyers as part of his squadron to defend the convoy. They really needed about ten to do the job effectively, but the rest of the available ships had already been detailed off to the carriers that were putting to sea. With the loss of one carrier in the Black Sea, the Navy wasn’t taking any chances with the Russian submarines and had beefed up the carrier strike group’s compliment. He would have to make do with what he had.

Captain Gilbert lifted his mug to his mouth and took a long drink of the freshly brewed coffee that the steward had just brought to the bridge. After nearly 30 years in the Navy, Pat had become a bit of a java snob, and had developed the uncanny ability to balance the hot liquid in his cup no matter how rough the water got. Prior to the ship leaving port, he had brought his personal stash (40lbs.) of Calle San Juan Costa Rica coffee beans aboard, telling the stewards this was the only coffee he wanted brought to the bridge when he was on duty. The rest of the officers and enlisted personnel that worked on the bridge began to become fans as well of the sweet-toned Costa Rican java, which had a rich spicy floral note. It sure beat the garbage the Navy issued.

Lieutenant Commander (LCDR) Tiffany Brewster walked out on the bridge wing, and joined the captain as he drank his coffee. In the distance, she could see the coast of Delaware as they moved to where the convoy was forming up. Tiffany had joined the Navy because she wanted to follow in her grandfather’s footsteps, who had been an officer in the Navy during World War II. As a child, she used to listen to him tell her stories of what it was like during the war, riding a destroyer as they provided convoy duty in the Atlantic; his tales of hunting German U-boats had been scary but also exciting.

When she was old enough, she applied and was accepted to the Naval Academy at Annapolis. It had taken years of effort and a lot of career planning, but she had finally made executive officer of the Churchill, a guided missile destroyer. Her goal was to get a command of her own when she was eligible for her next promotion in two years. When she heard the Churchill was going to be commanded by a senior captain, she got excited; this was an opportunity for her to shine and prove she was ready for a command of her own. A senior captain could hopefully, help influence the selection board in her favor when the time came. She did not know a lot about Captain Gilbert, other than the fact that he was months away from retirement when he had been ordered to take command, but he had a solid reputation in the destroyer world as a very capable captain and mentor.

“You think the Russians are going to try and attack the convoy?” she asked the Captain, hoping to get a sense of what he was thinking.

Pat took another sip from his coffee, savoring the flavor as his ship crested another wave before plowing its way down the small trough. He turned and looked at his XO. She was young, but from what he had read from her personnel file and reviews, she was sharp and very capable. “If I were the Russians… I certainly would. The bigger question is, are we ready and capable of being able to stop them if they try?”

She pondered this question for a minute before responding, not sure if this was some sort of test. “I think it’s going to be challenging for us to guard 27 freighters and three Marine Amphibs with six escorts. I know we are supposed to have P-8 Poseidon support for the duration of the trip, but that’s a lot of ocean for us to have to cover.”

Captain Gilbert nodded his head in agreement. She was sharp, and willing to give him an honest assessment, not just want she thought he wanted to hear. “She’ll do,” he thought.

“Good answer, XO,” he replied. “The P-8s will be helpful, but we are going to have to rely on our helicopters and our towed sonar arrays. I’m going to want to have the squadron deploy with two ships always racing in front of the convoy: one listening with the towed array, while the other moves ahead to get in position to do the same. They will pretty much leapfrog each other all the way to Europe, clearing a path for us. The ones on the flanks will have to stay ready to move to where we think we have a possible sub. We’ll have one ship trailing the convoy, and our ship will remain near the center of the convoy with our towed array deployed.”

Gilbert took another sip of his coffee before continuing, “The fastest ship we have in the convoy can only make ten knots. So that will unfortunately be the max speed the convoy can make.”

“How do you want to deploy the helos?” Tiffany asked, wanting to know if the ship’s two helicopters would need to have some sort of special schedule.

“We have twelve ASW helos in our group. We’ll look to keep two of them in the air at all times. That way we can keep two more on standby, and the rest will alternate in three-hour shifts. I spoke with the captains of the Amphibs; they are going to have several of their helicopters readied for ASW work in case we need additional support. Our helicopters are going to be flying a lot — hopefully, we won’t have any maintenance problems on the voyage over,” Pat replied as he looked off at the clear skies in the horizon.

“At least the weather forecast looks good for the next four of five days,” he thought.

“I’ll make sure the air boss knows what kind of schedule to set,” LCDR Brewster responded. Captain Gilbert didn’t say anything, so she asserted, “I’ll be back on the bridge if you need me, Sir.”

She left the captain to be alone with his thoughts. The next couple of weeks were going to be busy, and she figured he probably wanted some time to think before the tempo picked up. Once they got to New York, the convoy would begin to set sail. The other escorts had already arrived, and the three Marine ships were following the Churchill up the East Coast.