Such orders were typical enough for a U.S. carrier task force, charging the battle group with the protection of American lives and property. Similar orders had taken Jefferson into Sattahip Bay two months earlier during an attempted coup in Thailand. There were thousands of American citizens in both Pakistan and India, everything from diplomats and their staffs to businessmen to guru-chasing remnants of the ’60s at Goa and Kovalum, the “heepies” as native Indians called them. Jefferson’s presence in international waters was a warning to both
governments that the United States could consider military options in order to protect U.S. citizens.
The special orders received four days earlier had diverted Jefferson and the five other vessels of CBG-14 to an imaginary circle on the Indian Ocean three hundred miles south of Karachi, and about one hundred miles southwest of India’s broad, fan-shaped Kathiawar Peninsula. Jefferson would reach that spot, informally labeled “Turban Station,” in another twenty hours. After that . . . well, then things would be up to the Indians and the Pakistanis, and to the new CO of Carrier Battle Group 14.
Fitzgerald made a face as he replaced his sunglasses. He still cfidn’t know what to make of Rear Admiral Charles Lee Vaughn.
On the forward deck, the Hornet was revving its engines to fall afterburner, sending waves of heat shimmering above the ifeck. The white-jacketed Safety Officer was making his final check, signaling the Catapult Officer with an upraised hand.
“Amber light,” the voice of Pri-Fly said over the speaker Behind Fitzgerald’s head. “Stand by. Stand by.”
Admiral Vaughn seemed competent enough, but Fitzgerald had a suspicion that it was his political connections more than his seamanship that had brought him to the Jefferson. At the very thought of politics, Fitzgerald’s stomach knotted. It was impossible to look at Vaughn and not remember the man he’d replaced.
Admiral Thomas J. Magruder had been the carrier group’s commanding officer throughout the roughest deployment Fitzgerald could remember . . . and his memory included three tours off the coast of Vietnam. Nothing he’d seen then or since matched what the Jefferson had experienced in this one Single tour.
In eight months, CBG-14 had twice seen combat. In September Jefferson had been deployed in support of a combined Navy-Marine operation to rescue the crew of the Chimera, a Navy intelligence ship captured on the high seas by the North Koreans. Three months later, Jefferson’s battle group had been deployed to the Gulf of Thailand to support the Bangkok government during a coup attempt. ‘ Immediately after the Thailand crisis Admiral Magruder had
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Keith Dougtass
ARMAGEDDON MODE
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been hurriedly summoned to Washington, and Vaughn had come aboard to replace him.
There was a hint of scandal in that summons, and the threat of a Senate inquest. The operation in Thailand had not violated the War Powers Resolution—U.S. participation had been limited to two Marine actions ashore, air support, and two alpha strikes off the Jefferson—but it had a number of Congressmen operating in full Administration-bashing mode. Since it had come hard on the heels of Jefferson’s intervention in North Korea, some of the President’s sharpest critics were accusing him of being trigger-happy, an accusation that had trickled down to the man in charge on the scene as well. Admiral Magruder had enjoyed a distinguished and rewarding career, but if Washington needed a scapegoat he would be elected. His advice to the White House had led directly to the Presidential order to send in die Marines and the air strikes.
Admiral Vaughn had been tapped in his Pentagon office to fly to the Far East before the last of the rebels had been rounded up, arriving only a few days after the formal awards ceremony in Bangkok. He remembered Magruder* s face during the full-dress muster on Jefferson^ flight deck that muggy afternoon while the battle group was still anchored in Sattahip Bay. The man had looked drawn, worn, possibly a little subdued as his replacement stepped off the Sea Knight helo in his crisp and spotless dress whites. Only then had Fitzgerald realized how old Admiral Magruder looked, old and . . . beaten.
Fitzgerald had known then that Magruder was being sacrificed in the name of Washington politics.