had erupted between Greece and Turkey and after Germany’s decision to pull out
of the alliance and stand alone. The Labor government in Britain had cut back
involvement in European affairs as they had cut the British defense budget,
and the United States, with liberal Democrats controlling both the Congress
and the Executive Branch for the first time in decades, had been just as eager
to retreat into a new isolationism. The tireless pursuit of the “peace
dividend” had led to closings of most of the major military bases in Europe
and massive cuts in personnel and hardware.
America had hesitated when the first tanks rolled across the border.
President Connally had been reluctant to make a unilateral commitment of
forces, preferring to seek United Nations support for a solution, be it
diplomatic or military, to the aggression in Scandinavia. Now, a week into
the fighting, he had finally issued the orders to act.
Tarrant tapped the printout absently with the fingers of one hand. The
gesture Connally had ordered could easily turn out to be too little, too late.
Norway had not been able to put up the stiff resistance everyone had expected
the nation to provide in the event of an invasion. Though both sides had been
mobilized before the Soviet President’s visit to Oslo, the Norwegians had
received orders to begin a general stand-down in the wake of the breakthroughs
at the conference table. The crippling blow to their government had created
massive confusion which the Russians, who had remained on full alert
throughout, were quick to exploit. Their advance into Norway had used the
kind of Air-Land battle techniques demonstrated before by the U.S. in
Operation Desert Storm, encircling, cutting off pockets of resistance, using
airborne and airmobile capabilities to the fullest. Amphibious operations
along the vulnerable coastline had been another key factor in the rapid
Russian advance.
It looked now like Norway might fall before American intervention could
do anything to save the country … and CBG-14 was sailing into the middle of
that inferno.
He glanced at the clock again. It was almost time for him to put in his
appearance at Flag Plot and set his staff in motion to translate Washington’s
orders into action. But first, he told himself as he reached for the switch
on his computer terminal, he would finish the letter to his wife so it would
be ready for the next COD flight.
Admiral Douglas F. Tarrant was all too aware that it might be the last
letter he ever sent her.
2356 hours Zulu (2156 hours Zone)
Flight deck, U.S.S. Thomas Jefferson
The North Atlantic
Commander Willis E. Grant held on to his cap with one hand and hurried
across the deck toward the huddled row of airplanes parked on the flight deck.
In the eerie glow of work-lights they presented a nightmare appearance, with
wings twisted and folded in bizarre shapes to allow them to take up the least
possible space. Intruders with wings folded upward at mid-span to meet above
the center of the fuselage, S-3 Viking sub-hunters with tails twisted to one
side and slender wings laid flat against the top of the aircraft, the weird
shape of a Hawkeye with wings tucked close in alongside its body and the huge
rotating radar dome on top casting strange shadows, all of them looked like
prehistoric beasts lurking in the shadows, waiting to strike. Around them the
steady work of a carrier at sea went on. Grant dodged a pair of green-shirted
maintenance men and narrowly avoided being run down by one of the “mules” that
were used to tow planes from place to place on the deck and were driven by a
blue-shirted crewman. Then he saw the newly arrived Tomcat, already tucked
neatly into a row of other aircraft, with the familiar tall, spare figure of
Tombstone Magruder visible near the front of the plane.
Magruder had his helmet under one arm and was bending over to examine the
jet’s front landing gear assembly. Grant had seen the hard landing he’d made,
and knew what that could do to the wheels. It was typical of Magruder to be
concerned for his plane after he was down, a familiar echo of many shared