torpedoes slung under an external weapons station on the port side. First
deployed to the Fleet in 1991, it was the replacement airframe for the SH-3
LAMPS Mark III helicopter. ASW experts bragged about its impressive passive
and active tracking capabilities. Submariners from every nation hated it for
the same reasons. The Ocean Hawk was the pit bull of ASW helicopters. “Going
down to one hundred feet,” the AW announced.
“What’s the surface layer?” the other enlisted technician asked.
“Sixty feet today. That ought to put us well below it,” the first AW
answered.
“We’ll see. There’s nothing I like about this contact at all, not a
thing. Surface-to-air missiles on a submarine! God! It’s unnatural, and
unsportsmanlike!”
“You better get something here,” the pilot announced, his hands and feet
moving in coordination to keep the helo hovering. “We’re too near to the
twelve-mile limit to go in any further.”
“You watch the surface, sir. Any sign of her coming shallow, you’re
going to want to be skedaddling out of here.” With a max speed of 150 knots,
the SH-60F needed a good lead on any SAM the sub would fire to survive.
“Speak of the devil, Sir, probable periscope, bearing 285, range three
thousand yards!”
“That’s it, boys!” the pilot snapped. “We’re getting the hell out of
here! Reel that sucker in!”
The winch sang, heaving the sonar transducer out of the water. As soon
as it was clear of the sea, the pilot kicked it in the ass.
“Hunter 710, she’s all yours!” the pilot said.
“Thanks a lot. We’ll sneak in a little closer, see if we can get a VID
from outside of missile range,” Rabies answered. “Want to stick around in
case we drive her back under?”
“Roger, we’ll be around–just outside of the SAM envelope.”
1431 local (Zulu -7)
Hunter 701
“Can’t say that I blame them,” Rabies said. “Now let’s see if we can get
a visual.”
He circled the datum the helo had passed to him, watching the black
stovepipe sticking up. A small wake, a feather, curled behind it, showing the
direction of travel.
“Surfacing!” the copilot said. Slowly, a black sail emerged from the
sea, water streaming off its sides. “Oh, shit,” he said after a second.
“It’s not possible.”
The AW craned his head around, looked through the cockpit windscreen, and
whistled. “Sure as hell is, boss,” he said softly.
“A Kilo submarine fired on Hunter 701,” the TACCO said slowly. “And
that-”
“Is definitely not a Kilo. It’s a Han-class diesel boat, one of China’s
own production models. We’ve been chasing the wrong boat,” Rabies said.
1900 local (Zulu -7)
Admiral’s Cabin
USS Jefferson
Tombstone studied the young pilot sitting across from him. Of all the
mistakes of the day, this was the most painful to deal with. Amidst the
confusion of the sub-launched missile from the Kilo, the Han submarine, the
Flanker incursions, and the ghost contacts, they’d lost an airman. While the
tactical errors would be debriefed endlessly, no amount of analysis could
change the result for Airman Alvarez.
He’d already talked to the squadron CO about Bird Dog, and he had a
fairly good idea of what the pilot was like. Now that all the aircraft were
back on deck, and the pilot had been debriefed by both the Safety Officer and
the JAG Officer, it was Tombstone’s turn to try to determine exactly what had
happened.
Not so different from any of us at that age. First cruise, still psyched
about flying Tomcats. By now, it’s feeling normal to strap on a jet after
breakfast and launch screaming into the wind, but that hasn’t cut through the
sheer excitement of it all. He knows about fear, just a little, from trying
to get back onboard at night, but he hasn’t faced the reality of it yet. Not
how bad the fear can really get.
He thought back to his own earlier days on the carrier. With far more
experience than this pilot had, Tombstone himself had had to face the fear
that was a daily part of their lives. Two bad passes at the carrier, at night
in foul weather, and Lieutenant Commander Magruder, hotshot F-14 pilot, had
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121