Pacific Siege

11

Murdock and his platoon settled into quarters on board the big aircraft carrier as it plowed north in moderate seas toward the Tsugaru Strait between the northern Japanese Island of Hokkaido and the big island of Honshu.

The jet had made three stops. Then, at a field near Tokyo, a COD had lifted them off the ground, and put them down on a pitching deck in choppy seas on board the carrier working north along the Japanese coast.

It had been a good ride.

The carrier had been off Sendai steaming south when word came from CINCPAC to reverse directions. The quickest way to North Korea lay through the Tsugaru Strait between Honshu and Hokkaido, rather than going all the way down and around Honshu, and maybe even Kyushu, before turning north six hundred miles to come close to North Korea.

Stroh had sent them a packet of material giving background on the Korean situation, what the North had been doing, and how the U.S. and the South Koreans had responded. It didn’t look good to Murdock. He had never trusted the North Koreans; now it looked like they were about to make good on an oft-threatened drive to unify the peninsula.

Once on board, Murdock and Jaybird worked with their carrier liaison, Lieutenant Commander Boliling, to draw the ammunition, additional weapons, and supplies that they wanted to have on hand for immediate selection in case they were alerted for a definite mission.

They brought in four IBSS, and left them as uninflated as they could be. Jaybird had his lists and requisition forms. He ordered wet suits for each man, extra cammies, a second SATCOM radio as a backup, and a hundred other items that the platoon might need if, or when, it went into action.

Murdock went to the wardroom, found an unused phone tap, and plugged in his laptop computer to send an E-mail to Master Chief Mackenzie back in Coronado.

“Master Chief Mackenzie. Request an E-mail report to Murdocsealussmonroe. Navy. mil. Will check my E-mail daily until we move into action. So far Mahanani is working well with the platoon.” He had no unread mail, so he closed up and went back to his quarters.

The weird time change hit the platoon hard. They had crossed the International Date Line, and automatically they were about a day ahead.

Not a whole day, but enough to ruin their sleep pattern for a day or two.

By the third day nothing new had come over Murdock’s E-mail. They were back on schedule by then, and Murdock got the SEALs to an area they were assigned to on deck for PT and jogging. Murdock never got tired of watching the catapults throw the 74,000-pound Tomcats into the air.

They went from a dead stop to something over 140 miles an hour in five seconds.

The big ship ran into some nasty weather just south of the strait, and had to lay off the tip of Honshu for a day before they entered the narrow Tsugaru Strait.

At 1043, Murdock was summoned to the Communications Center.

Admiral Kenner, commander of the carrier task force, stood to one side looking worried.

“Murdock, you’re on the horn to D. C.” a captain said the moment the SEAL stepped into the room. “Somebody by the name of Stroh.”

Murdock picked up the hand mike. “Murdock here.”

“Good, they finally tracked you down. Things are blowing up over there. Not in Korea. We’ve got a hell of a problem up there in Japan, just north of you a ways. The Monroe and her carrier task force commander have new orders. Now you get yours. Your full platoon is now on standby alert.

“Briefly, some asshole general in the Japanese Ground Self Defense Force has gone ballistic and invaded the Kuril island nearest to Hokkaido. The Kuril Islands were formerly owned by Japan, but were deeded to Russia after World War II as reparations for damage done to Russia by the Japanese war machine. You’re getting a fax with all the background on the area, including the anger between Japan and Russia over the islands.

“Our problem is, Japan doesn’t have any kind of force to go in and take the general back home. We may have to. The Monroe has turned, and is now heading for the island of Kunashir, which this general now holds.

He claims he has captured the small Russian military post on the island, and is holding the whole island for Japanese settlers to move in and reclaim ancient family property that was stolen from them by Russia.

It’s not a pretty picture.”

“How many men does this general have on the island?” Murdock asked.

“No one is sure, but the figure of two hundred has been used, that being the number of Defense Force soldiers missing from posts in the northernmost section of Hokkaido. You’ve nothing to do right now but get ready. I’m told by the admiral that it will take the carrier about ten hours to get there at the best flank speed he can maintain under the current weather conditions. He will have aircraft monitoring the area soon, and reporting back. Right now we’re in negotiations with Japan on exactly what they want us to do, what we want to do, and what will be the best for everyone, including keeping the Russians from doing anything stupid.

“As you might expect, the Russians are screaming at the top of their tremendously loud voices about their homeland being invaded, and they want immediate withdrawal. The only problem with that is, the Japanese military has no control over General Raiden Nishikawa, the rogue warrior now occupying the island of Kunashir.”

“Japan doesn’t want to go in shooting down its own troops, is that part of it?” Murdock asked.

“Precisely. It doesn’t want us to waste the Japanese rebel troops either. It’s looking for some other solution before Russia blasts the small force into DNA with rockets, missiles, and strafing attacks.”

“Roger that, Stroh. We’ll put together three SEAL scenarios, and have something to talk about. It’s the island of Kunashir, about two hundred invaders, local Russian military captured or dead, and Russia furious. What are the Russians doing?”

“At last reports they’re sending a battle group out of Vladivostock, including the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Ataman, NP-400. The name Ataman means ‘ man’ in Russia, usually refers to a Cossack. Our people say its the best-equipped, most powerful carrier they have and with the latest Russian planes in their fleet.”

“How far is it from the island?” Murdock asked.

“We’ve worked that out here, Mr. Stroh,” Admiral Kenner said.

“Vladivostock is roughly six hundred eighty miles from the island. If they can make twenty-three knots, that would mean about thirty hours to get there. Of course, they will have aircraft in the area long before that.”

“So you’ll have the high ground,” Stroh said. “That’s all we know here now, Murdock. We’ll keep you up to date on developments. Our people are faxing you some background on this situation now. It should be there by the time your people can run down to the communications room. Good luck.”

They signed off, and the six men in the room looked at each other.

“We could take out the two hundred men with rockets and missiles, and put a holding force on the island in an hour once we’re there,” Admiral Kenner said. “But that’s not the job they want done. Damned diplomacy again. We’ll never be rid of it.”

“How have the Russians reacted?” Murdock asked.

The admiral frowned. “Our latest report is that they have sent out a flurry of broadcasts aimed at Kunashir Island. They have demanded that the Japanese general pull his troops off the island and give it back to the Russian military. They have warned General Nishikawa that they have a task force heading north from Vladivostock with enough firepower to pulverize every Japanese invader on the island and to thwart any reinforcements that might be on the way from Japan. They are not at all happy, and from the tone of the radio messages we’ve heard, sound just as trigger-happy as all hell.”

“I’m not sure how the SEALs can help,” Murdock said. “Usually we don’t operate against friendlies. That’s evidently what the Japanese government considers this general and his invaders to be. The Russians won’t have any problem with blasting them straight into Hell.”

A captain who Murdock didn’t know spoke up. “We’ll have to consider it friendly territory, and go into a defensive mode against the Russians. That’s going to go over like a fragger with them. We’ll have to put a defensive air cover over the place, then spread out our force off the island where the main town is and the Japanese troops are situated. Sounds damned near impossible.”

Murdock stood. “Gentlemen, I better get with my men and start some advance planning, what we can do and what we can’t. I’ll have some suggestions in four hours.”

A Captain who Murdock figured was the CAG spoke up. “Admiral, weather tells me these strong winds should moderate in an hour. It’s now a little after thirteen hundred. Sunset up here is about seventeen hundred. We’ll have time to get a pair of Tomcats over the site and report back.”

“Do it,” the admiral said.

Murdock left to talk to his men, and try to figure out what they could do to help relieve the situation that had all the elements of an international incident that could pit the U.S. nuclear carrier task force against the Russian group.

The SEALs had been given a large classroom for their operations.

Murdock met them there. Jaybird handed him a big envelope with his name on it.

“Faxes, the messenger told me.”

Murdock told the men the situation. “So that’s the dope. We may have to go in there. If we do, how do we go in, and how do we get this rogue general out of there without shooting half of his command? Work on it. I want to check out these faxes.”

He scanned the six sheets, then figured the men should know about them, and called them around.

“Listen up. This is the situation we’ll be walking into. The Kuril Islands are Russian territory, a string of islands that extends seven hundred and fifty miles from the southern tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula south to the northeastern corner of Hokkaido, the northernmost of the Japanese islands. The chain separates the Pacific Ocean from the Sea of Okhotsk. There are fifty-six islands of any size that cover about six thousand square miles.

“They are part of the Rim of Fire around the Pacific Ocean, and have a hundred volcanoes on them, with thirty-eight still active.

Earthquakes and tidal waves are common.

“The climate is severe, usually long, cold, and snowy winters followed by cool, foggy, and wet summers. Vegetation ranges from tundra in the north to dense forests on the large southern islands. Crab fishing is virtually the only occupation. Some vegetables can be grown on the southern islands.

“The main town is Golovnino on the southernmost island of Kunashir.

“This island chain was part of Japan for centuries. In 1945 the chain was ceded to Russia as reparations for damage done to Russia by the Japanese during World War II. All of the Japanese on the island chain were taken back to Japan, and Russians were brought in to replace them.”

Murdock looked around. “Kind of like if we gave Florida to Cuba because of the Bay of Pigs invasion. The Japanese are ancestor worshipers. Family lines and family graves are of major importance.

Thousands of Japanese lost their family graves when they were forced away from their long-time homes in the Kuril Islands. “As I said, a Japanese general in the Japanese Ground Self Defense Force invaded the closest island, and one of the largest, named Kunashir, with an estimated two hundred men, and now controls the island.

“Russia is really pissed, and is sending a big carrier force north.

Our carrier battle group is steaming up that way, and should beat them to the island by something like ten hours. Aircraft from both sides soon will be buzzing over the island.

Things could get nasty.

“So to repeat my question: If Japan says we need to go in and solve the problem, just what the hell do we do, and how do we do it?”

Jaybird cleared his throat. “Skipper, we’ve been working on it.

Have to be a surprise move at night, and silent in the IBS. We go in with all weapons with silencers and try to nail down this Jap general.

When we get his ass, his people will fold in a minute.”

“Yeah, might work,” Horse Ronson said. “But why not just drop in a few cruise missiles, blow them all to Hell, and then go in with our platoon and mop up. Fucking lot quicker and easier.”

“You’re forgetting what I told you earlier,” Murdock said. “So far the Japanese government does not consider these men as enemies. They don’t want to simply blow them away and let Russia move back in. They don’t want to lose the troops, or kill off a few hundred Russian civilians who are bound to get in the way.”

Doc Ellsworth groaned. “So what do we do, arm wrestle these guys while they’re shooting at us? How in hell can we do that?”

“Hey, if it was easy, they’d let the Marines do it,” Ed Dewitt said. That brought a round of cheers.

“Now, we get down to business,” Murdock said. “We have to go in silently. The IBS sounds the best for that. We’ll need to know exactly where the military HQ is on the island. They’re probably using the one the Russians built. But where is it? Will the Ground Self Defense Force troops have sentries and men on guard? We’ve got to know a lot more before we can do much more detailed planning.”