just the most opportune moments. No, despite the loss of immediate
profits, it was worth complying with these requests.
As though he had any choice.
He stepped outside of the pilot house to the aft weather deck and
shouted down at his men. A Cuban military officer accompanied each one
of them and carefully supervised the operation.
It should be more difficult than this, he thought, watching the
massively muscled sailors wrestle a mine out of its wooden crate and
onto the deck. From there it was a short heft, two grunts, and a groan
to heave it off the back of the ship. He watched the first one throw
up a gout of seawater, drenching the men near the fantail.
“Five hundred meters, then another.” The officer’s voice was curt.
Rivera nodded, smiled pleasantly. “Coffee?” he asked politely,
gesturing toward the large thermos sitting next to the chart table.
“My wife made it this morning. Very strong.”
The officer seemed to unbend slightly, and a flick of annoyance was
replaced by a more neutral expression.
“Thank you. It would be appreciated.”
As he poured two mugs, one for each of them, Rivera thought that
getting along with people was not so difficult after all. They were
the same almost anywhere you went.
And after a cold, damp morning on the water, anyone would welcome a hot
cup of coffee, especially the dark and bitter brew his wife made.
“Five minutes,” the officer said. “Perhaps if you perform this mission
satisfactorily, we will give you others in the future.
Ones that are much more lucrative. I have an uncle . . .”
Rivera sighed as the officer launched into a tale of the excellent
cigars produced by his uncle that could not be marketed in the United
States. An enterprising man, one who was willing to take a few risks,
one who knew the waterswell, there were always possibilities. The
master smiled, nodded, and began counting his profits. Smuggling
cigars and other illegal cargo into the United States was much more
profitable than laying mines this close to an aircraft carrier.
1300 Local (+5 GMT) USS Jefferson Lieutenant Commander Charles Dunway,
company operations officer on board Jefferson and senior surface
warfare officer on board the ship, glanced nervously over at the
glassed-in bridge way on the starboard side of the ship. The captain
and the XO, along with the most senior aviation officer on the ship,
were gathered there discussing the intricacies of underway
replenishment. Aside from flight operations, it was perhaps the most
dangerous evolution the ship engaged in. Making the approach on the
oiler, easing up on her from behind seen parallel, exactly matching
course and speed with the smaller ship with only 180 feet separating
the two vessels was never a routine operation.
At least not to the surface ship sailors. He snorted in disgust. The
aviators, though that was a different matter.
Aviation captains followed two career paths in their quest to
accumulate stars on their collars. After a tour as a squadron
commanding officer, they shifted their focus to being assigned as
either the commanding officer of an aircraft carrier or as carrier air
wing commander, both senior captain billets. Of the two, command of an
aircraft carrier was the preferred track to the stars. But that meant
completing the Navy’s grueling Nuclear Power School, as well as
prototype reactor training in Idaho. Along the way, the aviator was
expected to become at least minimally proficient in ship handling, and
that meant taking the conn of an aircraft carrier during underway
replenishment.
For surface sailors, conning the ship through an underway replenishment
operation meant careful coaching from their own commanding officer and
close scrutiny every moment the ship was tied up alongside the oiler.
The evolution was intricately orchestrated, and the surface warrior’s
tendency to sweat the details was profoundly in evidence.
Not so with aviators. They figured that if they’d managed to live that
long during formation flights at Mach 1, they damned well sure could
coach an aircraft carrier through an underway replenishment op at
fifteen knots.
No memorizing the standard commands, turning radiuses, and knots per
turn of the shaft. No, not for them. All of the important details