that on to your people in your morning briefing.”
Tombstone’s heart was pounding in his chest. “Aye, aye, sir.”
“Air Force attacks will be continuing as well, of course, so it’s likely
to get a little crowded over the beach.”
“Are any strategic bombing runs planned, Admiral?” Brandt wanted to
know.
“No, Captain. B-52s, B-1Bs, and B-2s deployed out of CONUS would all
carry the risk of making the Russians think we’re escalating a strictly
regional conflict into global war … or that we might be trying to
sneak in a preemptive nuclear strike.
“But anything else goes. Last night, the ships of II MEF shifted
eastward to position themselves for the amphibious operation. That will
begin at 1000 hours. Both Jefferson and the Ike will be joining the
amphib force later today. Throughout that time, CAG, I want every
aircraft you can muster in the air, hitting the Russians everywhere you
find them, keeping them off balance. White Storm won’t have a chance if
Krasilnikov’s people can catch their breath and concentrate their
forces.”
“The next phase of the air op calls for interdiction of the rail lines
and roads connecting the Kola bases with the south, Admiral,” Tombstone
said.
“We’ll be paying special attention to Kandalaksha, at the head of the
White Sea, because that appears to be the hub of the local command
structure.”
“Excellent. I know if anyone can carry it off, Tombstone, it’s you and
your people.”
“Thank you, Admiral. I’ll pass that along to them.”
But as they continued discussing the day’s operations, Tombstone felt
the depression, the pressure, the spiritual tiredness that had been
weighing him down for the past several days, returning. If the Russians
had reserves, if they were holding something, anything, back, it would
be revealed today when the Marines began storming ashore.
And Tombstone would be here, in Jefferson’s Air Ops, while his people
were dying.
Never in his life had he wanted more to disobey a direct order.
CHAPTER 24
Tuesday, 17 March
1000 hours (Zulu +2)
Off the Kola Peninsula
The U.S. Marines were coming ashore.
During the night, II MEF had deployed for its landings. Covered by the
Eisenhower carrier group, the Marine amphibious force had taken up a
position some fifteen miles northeast of the land mass called Poluostrov
Rybachiy, a near-island thirty-five miles long connected to the mainland
by a slender isthmus at the head of a narrow bay called the Motovskiy
Zaliv.
Within the U.S. Marine Corps, the Marine Expeditionary Force is the
largest modern deployable force, consisting of a Marine division, an
aircraft wing, and an MEF Service Support Group, a total of 48,000
Marines and 2,600 naval personnel. II MEF, assembled off the Murman
coast under the command of Marine Lieutenant General Ronald K. Simpson,
included two LHAs, Saipan and Nassau; two LPDs, Austin and Trenton; two
LPH helo carriers, Inchon and Iwo Jima; the LST Westmoreland County; the
LKA cargo ship Charleston; and an escort of two Perry-class frigates,
two destroyers, and the nuclear-powered guided-missile cruiser Virginia.
The Marines’ first beachhead was a stretch of low-lying dunes and tundra
along the headland west of the Kola Inlet. In this part of the Murman
Coast, the northern tree line ran east-to-west some twenty-five miles
south of the beach. North of that line, the terrain was tundra, a
region of frozen subsoil with only low-growing vegetation, dwarf shrubs,
and stunted birches. Cover was scant, and tactical advantage went to
the side with superior mobility. In a lightning operation, CH-53E Super
Stallions approached behind an aerial blitz of Marine Harriers and
Intruders, touching down long enough to disgorge their loads of
fifty-five troops apiece. Close on the Super Stallions’ heels were the
air-cushion landing craft, or LCACs, troop-and-equipment-carrying
hovercraft capable of traveling twenty nautical miles at forty knots,
crossing sea, surf, or the flat, often swampy ground behind the beaches
with equal ease.
Following the LCACs, rising from the water like snarling, prehistoric
monsters, were the Marines’ AAVP7s, boxy, full-tracked armored vehicles
descended from the amtracks of WWII. Each carrying twenty-one men and a
crew of three, they were capable of swimming through ten-foot surf on
twin water jets or surging across the land at up to forty miles per