Battlefield Korea

Air Force One Has Landed

After 32 hours in the air and four mid-air refuelings, the President directed the Secret Service to find a safe place to land the aircraft, so they could resupply it and begin to get things back to normal with his regular briefings and staff. When the ICBMs had been launched at Washington, the President suddenly found himself separated from nearly his entire staff. While Air Force One had an exceptional communications array and the ability to hold any level of classified briefings, it could not replace the sidebar or one-on-one meetings and discussions he needed to have with his staff.

The military, along with the Secret Service, determined that it was probably safe to land since the Chinese had not launched any ICBMs at the US following the nuking of Shenyang. It was determined that Air Force One would set down at Ft. Hood, Texas for the time being, until it was safe to return to Washington. The sprawling base could be easily defended and still had a contingent of nearly 12,000 soldiers. Once the aircraft had been refueled and resupplied, it would be moved to the runway and made ready to take off again, should the need to get the President airborne quickly again arise.

The civilian side of the airport had been shut down, and a plethora of additional security had been added to the surrounding area. The Air Force was also flying combat aircraft near the base for added protection. As Air Force One pulled to a halt on the military side of the airfield, a chair truck moved up to the aircraft, so the President could walk down and get back to the business of running the country on the ground.

When the outer door opened, several Secret Service members emerged and began to survey the area around the aircraft. They began to descend the stairway, and the President emerged and followed suit. The Army had sent over several Stryker vehicles to take Gates to the command building, along with a contingent of Special Forces. The armored convoy was also being escorted by several attack helicopters and additional Blackhawk helicopters. No one was going to attack the President on this installation, if the base commander had any say in the matter.

“Mr. President, it is a pleasure to meet you, Sir,” said Lieutenant General John Abrams as he extended a hand in greeting. “If you will please come with me, we can ride together in the Stryker,” he directed. Abrams was the commander of US 1^st Army, the army command responsible for mobilization, readiness, and training, which had now become a critical command as the Army was in the process of increasing in size substantially.

The President reached out and shook the General’s hand, smiling warmly at him. “Thank you, General, for meeting me here and for allowing us to land at your base. I don’t think I could have taken any more hours cooped up in that plane.” Both men smiled and briefly laughed, breaking some of the tension they were both feeling.

The President ducked his head slightly as he climbed inside the back of the Stryker vehicle.

“So, this is what our men and women ride into battle,” he thought to himself.

As he got himself situated in the vehicle, a couple of his Secret Service agents also hopped in, and kept their weapons at the ready. Despite being surrounded by armed soldiers, they trusted no one with a loaded weapon around the President.

“Before we get to the base and I become inundated with briefings and decisions, how are things going on the mobilization front?” the President asked General Abrams. “Are we drafting enough soldiers? Are they going to be ready for what they are going to face?”

General Abrams answered, “It’s going to take some time, Mr. President, to get the soldiers trained. Depending on the number of casualties we take in Asia and Europe, these numbers should be sufficient; however, we need to be ready to double the size of the draft should the situation warrant it. My biggest concern is whether or not our forces will be able to hold the line long enough for the recruits to be trained and for our manufacturers to produce the vehicles and munitions needed to win. We are stretched incredibly thin everywhere right now.”

Gates had been pondering that same conundrum while on the plane. Things were moving so rapidly. “Thank you, General, for the insight. Those are big concerns of mine as well. Just do your best to get our men and women ready to fight.”

After his brief conversation with the General, the President made some small talk with several of the soldiers in the vehicle. He wanted to know what they were thinking and let them know he was just as concerned about them as they were about their families. The soldiers also offered up words of encouragement to the President, and urged him to not forget about the people of Oakland and San Francisco with all that was going on with the war; as it turned out, two of the soldiers in the vehicle were from the Oakland area, and had lost their families during the bombing.

The President really did like to spend time with the enlisted soldiers and junior officers; they tended to be the ones implementing the President’s orders, and often provided invaluable feedback on their effectiveness that senior leaders may not fully understand or appreciate.

As Gates arrived at the command building, he was greeted by the base commander and several other senior military leaders and members of his staff that had flown to the base to be with him. He extended his hand and thanked them for accommodating him. Then the base commander led the President and his small entourage to a secured conference room, which had been outfitted with several trays of sandwiches and plenty of drinks for anyone who wanted to grab a bite to eat.

While several additional members of his staff had flown out to Ft. Hood, the Secretaries of Defense and State remained at the Raven Rock facility for the time being, while most of the congressional leaders were at Mount Weather. The Pentagon would make an assessment in another twenty-four hours as to whether or not they felt it was safe for everyone to return to the capital.

A lot of congressional and senate leaders were not happy about being sequestered at Mount Weather. They desperately wanted to get back to Washington or to their constituents. They also hated the fact that none of them could communicate with the press, who had been explicitly excluded from accompanying them to Mount Weather. The only press that was with any members of the government right now was the White House Press pool, who had just arrived at Ft. Hood. The media was going crazy with conspiracy theories about what was happening or not happening while they had no one from the government to interview.

The sinking of the 7^th Fleet and the war in Korea was keeping the pundits and talking heads speculating on what the President might do next, and how the US would respond to the loss of so many naval ships and sailors. The sooner Gates could get back in front of the cameras to calm the public, the better.

Back in the conference room at Ft. Hood, the President walked past the sandwiches and grabbed a water bottle before making his way to a seat that had a “POTUS” placard in front of it. Seated next to him were his National Security Advisor and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, who had been traveling with him on Air Force One.

“It’s good to see everyone again,” Gates said warmly. After a marathon flight, the President was glad to be back on the ground.

“Before we get going, I want to personally thank Admiral Robinson and his team for the outstanding performance of NORAD and our ballistic missile defense program. I know everyone feels terrible about the missile that got through in Oakland, but gentlemen, please remember, you also saved the lives of countless millions of Americans when you shot down the other 44 missiles. Given what has happened, I would like to petition Congress for an emergency funding bill to triple the size of our ballistic missile defense interceptors. Without such an important system in place, millions more Americans would have perished,” he said, nodding towards the Congressional leaders that were participating via secured video teleconference.

He was pleased to see them smile and nod in agreement. No one was going to stand in the way of providing additional money to the one weapons platform that saved tens of millions of Americans, regardless of party affiliation. Especially because they could see that if the US had had more missile interceptors, the cities of Oakland and San Francisco might have been saved.

“Getting back to business-how in the world did we lose the 7^th Fleet? And what is going on with the ground war in Korea?” he probed, wanting to bring everyone’s focus back to why he had called this meeting in the first place.

A naval captain walked up to the front of the briefing room. He opened with a monologue of what had transpired, almost like a news anchor would recap clips of a breaking story. “Sir, in response to the nuclear attack on Shenyang, the People’s Republic of China officially declared war on the United States, Japan, and South Korea.” The briefer paused for a second to let that part sink in.

He saw the President nod in acknowledgement and continued, “Within an hour of declaring war, the Chinese launched an all-out attack against the US, ROK, and Japanese naval forces in the Yellow Sea. The Supercarrier Carl Vinson was nearly sunk by a Chinese anti-ship ballistic missile. As it was, the carrier will have to undergo extensive repairs once it arrives in port. The Supercarrier Ronald Reagan did sink, along with the USS Blueridge, which was the 7^th Fleet Command and Control ship. Sadly, only the Carl Vinson and five other surface warships survived the missile swarm attack.”

Audible groans and gasps were heard from those in the room as the reality of the loss of so many sailors and ships hit them. In this single naval battle, the Navy had sustained over 20,000 casualties and lost nearly 20 % of its surface ships.

“Despite the loss in surface ships, we had maneuvered a few dozen attack submarines into the area in case the Chinese did decide to enter the war. Our subs, along with several Japanese submarines, managed to sink twelve Chinese Navy submarines, at a loss of only two Japanese subs and one American sub.”

“One of the Ohio class submarines (which we had converted to become a cruise missile platform) fired off its compliment of 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles at many of the Chinese navy surface fleet vessels within a 1,300-mile radius of the battlegroup. They successfully sank 43 patrol boats, corvettes, and destroyers, along with three cruisers. They also hit five Chinese naval facilities, causing significant damage. A second Ohio class submarine fired off their compliment of 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles, disabling eight different Chinese air force airfields, ground radar stations and command and control nodes across the Shandong Province, directly opposite of South Korea.”

Most of the military members in the room nodded and smiled, satisfied with the results of the Navy’s silent service. The submarine force was really coming through for the US in its desperate time of need.

As the naval captain finished briefing the naval situation, he signaled for the Air Force briefer to make his way to the front. A Lieutenant Colonel changed the briefing slides to show the Air Force activity. Like the briefer before her, she also stuck to the facts. “Following the massive cruise missile attack by the Navy, the Air Force sent in two squadrons of B-1 Lancers, which hit a series of additional air defense systems, critical railways, roads, bridges and tunnels throughout the Shandong province. Our goal is to degrade the Chinese military’s ability to carry out any additional strikes against our naval forces, South Korea, or the Japanese home islands.” Her brief continued for another ten minutes before the President asked a question.

“Colonel, my understanding is that the B-2s are still in Japan for another week. Are there specific targets they are going to go after before we have to split the bomber wing up and send half of them back to Europe?” asked Gates.

The colonel clicked through a couple of slides to the one highlighting the B-2s. “The Pacific Commander wants to use the bombers to go after the Chinese transportation and logistics capability. The bombers themselves can carry six 5,000 lbs. Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) and fifteen of the 2,000 lbs. versions, so each bomber can hit a lot of different targets on a single mission. The Admiral wants to focus on going after their rail networks, hitting critical bridges, tunnels, and major switchyards, which will hinder the Chinese military’s ability to move troops, equipment, fuel and munitions across the country,” she concluded.

She gave the President a moment in case he had any additional questions. When he didn’t have anything further, she passed the briefing on to the Secretary of Defense.

The SecDef eagerly jumped into his part of the brief. “While you were in the process of landing, Mr. President, the South Korean and US ground forces officially crossed the DMZ, and are now engaging the remaining North Korean forces. They initially met stiff resistance at the DMZ; however, once they started to break through the frontline soldiers, they started to encounter massive numbers of enemy soldiers surrendering. In many cases, they had dozens of North Korean units approaching our forces with white flags, pleading to surrender.”

“The ground war is roughly four hours old, and so far, we have collected over 39,000 prisoners. This could be a fluke and perhaps we will start to hit more die-hard units, but this is promising, Mr. President,” Secretary Castle said with a look of optimism.

“Finally, some good news,” thought Gates with a smile.

Castle continued, his expression more serious now. “Sir, we have two other major problems that have developed over the last hour. The first being the Chinese ground forces near the North Korean border. Prior to hostilities, the Chinese had deployed roughly 80,000 troops near the border, and those troops have now crossed over and are moving down the peninsula towards our forces. Right now, we are not 100 % sure who is technically in control of the North Korean’s military or government, and the Chinese may be moving their forces into the country to assume control of what remains of their army and country.”

“The second problem we have is that the Chinese just launched a massive missile and artillery attack against Taiwan.”

Audible gasps could be heard from those who had not been brought up to speed on this latest development just yet. Everyone’s worse fears were starting to play out; despite pleas for calm and peace, the war continued to widen.

Secretary of State Johnson jumped into the conversation to add, “Sir, the Taiwanese president has asked us for military assistance, if we are able to provide it.”

Gates couldn’t help but snort before responding. “Does the President of Taiwan understand that China has also declared war on the US, Japan, and South Korea, not to mention that NATO is currently at war with Russia? I am not sure there is any real military support we can give them right now.”

The President was numb as the reality of war with four countries at one time began to settle in. “What in God’s green earth are we supposed to do now?” he thought, unsure of what to do next.

Gates sighed audibly, then took a drink from his bottle of water. “Jim-what is our next move here?” he asked, almost pleading for his Secretary of Defense to give him an answer.

SecDef Castle knew the President would most likely ask him this question. That was one of the traits he admired about Gates; he wasn’t afraid to admit he didn’t know something and ask for advice from those who did.

“Mr. President, the Chinese attack on the 7^th Fleet hurt us, but it was expected and anticipated,” Castle began. “We survived the initial shock and awe they tried to lay on our fleet, and now we are hitting them back hard. Per our previous discussions, when the Chinese declared war and attacked our battlegroups, I ordered the new commander at PACOM to initiate Operation Trident. As our briefers began to describe, our Navy has hammered the Chinese navy and air force facilities that posed the greatest immediate threat to our forces. This was quickly followed by action from our Air Force.”

He paused only long enough to take a breath before continuing, “Our B-2s are just now taking off from Japan, and will begin to carry out a series of deep strikes within China, going after their critical rail, bridge, and tunnel networks. We are going to make the logistical challenge of moving men and material around their expansive country a bit more difficult for them. The carriers Nimitz, Theodore Roosevelt, and John C. Stennis will arrive in the Sea of Japan tomorrow. We’ve also relocated the cruise missile SSGNs Florida and Georgia from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Those additional cruise missile submarines will arrive at Yokosuka Naval Base around the same time the Ohio and Michigan return back to rearm. While the loss of the Reagan and the crippling damage to the Vinson hurt us, it could have been worse. In my opinion, the Chinese wasted the element of surprise when they attacked the 7^th Fleet. Had they waited until the entire Pacific Fleet had sailed into the Yellow Sea or near the Straits of Taiwan, they could have sunk all of our carriers. As it is, they revealed to us the capabilities of their anti-ship weapons; now that we know what they can do, we are developing strategies and plans to deal with this threat.”

Jim paused for a second as he turned to look at someone off camera, then returned his gaze to the camera and leaned in closer. “I have ordered our cyber-warfare groups to immediately begin to go after the Chinese logistics capability. We are scrambling their barcode and computer systems, so when a unit sends a message requesting more ammunition, they will instead receive toilet paper or some other useless supply that won’t help them. These may sound like little nuisances, but I assure you, as our cyber guys infiltrate their electronic logistics system, it’s going to wreak havoc on their ability to keep their army groups running at full speed. We are also going after their satellites, just as the Russians went after ours. In addition to that, as we identify where their cyber groups are operating out of, we are having the Navy and Force launch cruise missiles at those facilities. This is going to have a huge impact on their cyber groups if they know we are actively targeting each site individually,” Castle said with a devilish grin. He really liked being able to go directly after the enemy hackers.

“As to the ground war, we had to withdraw the US and ROK Marines from landing near Pyongyang once it appeared that war was inevitable with China. We needed to protect the amphibious assault ships and the support ships needed to sustain a ground invasion. Now that China is moving ground forces into the DPRK, I recommend that we have the Marines redeploy along this area here,” he said, pointing on the map to the city of Hamhung on the Sea of Japan. “This was the second largest city in the country, and the only top four city in the DPRK that we did not nuke. It is, in all likelihood, the alternative headquarters for the government, if anyone survived the first day of the war.”

“This will give us a beachhead from which to land additional forces behind the North Korean frontlines, and hopefully allow us to cut them off. It will also give us exceptional defensive positions along these ridges here, when the Chinese forces do eventually reach ours.”

The President thought over what his SecDef had explained, feeling a bit more hopeful. “OK Jim, you’ve convinced me of the merits of the landing. Do it,” he responded. “Let’s also make sure the Air Force hammers the living daylights out of the Chinese forces entering Korea. Hopefully we can butter them up really well before they even reach our soldiers.”

The Secretary of State broke into the conversation again. “Mr. President, while I understand we do not have conventional forces we can deploy to Taiwan to help them, perhaps we can send them some Special Forces, or maybe one of our Ohio class submarines can deliver a barrage of cruise missiles at the Chinese ports near Taiwan, like they just did in the Yellow Sea.”

Gates sat back in his chair for a second, thinking about that, when Admiral Meyer interjected, “Mr. President, while I would like to send Special Forces to Taiwan, the limited number of units we have in the Pacific need to stay focused on Korea and any potential incursions we may make into China directly. Once our two cruise missile SSGNs have rearmed in Japan, we could redirect them to head down to Taiwan and hit the Chinese navy, but we also have to remember, the Chinese have their three carriers down there as well. There will also be an increased presence of enemy submarines in the area. I don’t want to risk losing any of the cruise missile submarines. We are going to be relying on them a lot more going forward with the loss of two of our carriers,” the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs replied, hoping to kill the idea before it could take root.

“Perhaps we can have the B-2s try and provide some sort of direct support?” the President inquired. “Maybe they can hit a troop transport or part of the rail or port facilities in the area,” he offered.

Castle jumped back in, “That we can do. I’ll place a call to PACOM and have him send a B-2 strike that way. It’s about as much support as we can offer Taiwan for the moment, until we have additional soldiers and ships.”

“How are we doing in that department, Jim?” asked the President, hoping the rebuilding of the army was at least moving along.

“The first batch of 150,000 recruits has just arrived in training. We have a new batch of 150,000 trainees starting each week. Roughly three quarters of these recruits are going directly into the infantry, so their training is roughly three months. Normally, the training would have taken four months, but we need those replacement soldiers at the various frontlines ASAP. The remaining 37,500 trainees from each cycle will be receiving a myriad of additional training in communications, medical, aviation and other critical jobs, so their training time is going to be closer to four to six additional months. We are working with the technical training schools to shorten it down as much as possible while not diminishing the required training.”

Castle sighed. “It’s going to take some time, Mr. President, but the first batch of 112,000 infantry soldiers will start to arrive at the frontlines in December. Approximately 112,000 additional soldiers will continue to arrive each subsequent week, until all five million draftees have been trained,” he concluded.

The President’s senior advisor, who had just flown in to Ft. Hood that morning, asked, “How long is each draftee’s service agreement again?” This was a detail that had not been finalized, despite previous debate.

Castle bristled a bit at the question, but answered it anyways. “The term of the draft is for the duration of the war. We will look to do a large-scale demobilization once the war has concluded, just as the US did following the end of World War II. We learned a lot from the Vietnam draft, and the Pentagon has determined that giving a set date to the draftees is not an effective way of building the sustained army that will be needed to win this war. Plus, we would have to continually draft people each week to replace the ones that finished their term.”

“This also allows us to keep unit cohesion throughout the war. We won’t have units constantly losing good, experienced soldiers just when they are needed most. The Pentagon and I are in agreement that this will greatly cut down on the number of casualties as well.”

The President nodded his head in approval as did his NSA and the CJC. The rest of the Joint Chiefs also seemed reasonably pleased with the decision. That had been a major disadvantage during the Vietnam war; nearly all the experienced soldiers would rotate home and get out of the military, leaving just inexperienced junior soldiers who suffered a very high casualty rate.