Soldiers and Marines Saga, page 36
And it’s no wonder they’re coming so fast: Pug Murphy has the Marines shoving their men on to the planes as fast as they can load them, and the army isn’t far behind. The men double time off the planes and then they’re quickly sorted out and trucked to their kasernes and waiting equipment behind police escorts with whooping sirens.
The planes are almost as quickly loaded with dependents and, if there is still room, anyone standing around with a U.S. or Canadian passport. Lists aren’t being kept. The arriving dependents and refugees will be sorted out at the Marines’ Paris Island Air Station and the various other fields where they land to change crews and load more Marines and army troops. It’s chaos and the German airports are packed. But it’s organized chaos.
Dorothy and the kids are already in the States. Dave Shelton got them and the Detachment’s other dependents, including the German wives and children, on an early Airlift Command flight returning to Andrews, and then on to Des Moines, Iowa and the Congress Hotel. They’ll stay there until they can find other housing. Senator Shelly is there and has arranged for the use of the hotel and the stationing of heavily armed state troopers at every entrance.
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Where things are not going at all well is with the American Navy. The subs are fine and every available boat is at sea. The attack boats are actively tailing Russian subs and will attempt to sink them as soon as they get the signal that the war has begun. With a little luck, the artillery deception plan will work and our subs and planes will find out the war has started before the Russian subs and planes find out.
The problem is with the carriers and their escorts in the carrier task forces. The NATO naval commander, Admiral Peavy of the United Kingdom, and Dick Spelling and I have repeatedly requested that all American carriers, including those in the Pacific and Atlantic Fleets, be repositioned so they can dash towards Germany when the war starts and fly off their planes to replace the air force planes we are sure to lose.
America’s navy pilots and the crewmen who service their planes are good at what they do, actually excellent is probably a more accurate description. But the American Navy’s senior admirals are something else. Peavy is right. Somewhere over the years the Navy brass seem to have lost sight of the war-fighting purpose of their carriers.
It’s almost as if the Navy’s senior leadership is more concerned about losing their carriers than they are about America losing the war. And they don’t want to release their carriers’ planes and pilots for use in the coming war as that would make the carriers appear useless.
Finally I gave up and called the President after Dick Spelling and I were once again stonewalled by the Chief of Naval Operations.
“Mr. President, we have a problem that can only be solved by you as Commander in Chief.” Then I laid out the problem and described Admiral Peavy’s conclusions—the United States Navy appears to be holding both its carriers and their planes and pilots out of harm’s way for fear they will damaged in the fighting.
“We need you to order the American Navy to produce those planes and pilots, Mr. President. Without their support our soldiers and Marines will almost certainly suffer tens of thousands of unnecessary casualties. That’s for damn sure. Indeed, the carriers’ planes and pilots may well make the difference between winning and losing the war.” And that’s true too.
Then, mindful that the Navy might try to similarly stonewall the President, I chose my words carefully and explained that NATO’s naval command is held by the British—who have a long tradition of court-martialing admirals who avoid sending their ships into battle. I regretfully alerted the President that as soon as the war starts I believe Admiral Peavy intends to file formal “cowardice, treason, and gross dereliction of duty” charges against the Commander of the Pacific Fleet and the Chief of Naval Operations.
Two hours later I received word that all the carriers and planes of the Pacific and Mediterranean Fleets are being redeployed to support NATO in the coming war. Isn’t that a surprise.
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The other major part of the United States’ naval establishment, the Marines, are proving once again why they have such a splendid reputation. The Commandant, Pug Murphy, arrived yesterday and seems to be in total agreement with General Klausen as to how and when the Marine brigades are to be deployed.
But there’s more. Much more. To my amazement the Marines have summoned every former Marine to active duty, literally every single one. It really is true, it seems, that once a Marine, always a Marine.
American TV and social media is running a heavy schedule of public service ads featuring the Commandant calling on everyone who ever served as a Marine to report for duty no matter what his age or physical condition, just bring a 90 day supply of whatever medicines you need.
“We need you now and we’ll find something for you to do. Semper Fi.”
With a great deal of satisfaction this morning, the Commandant and I watched as German television enthusiastically reported America’s roads, airports, and bus terminals are jammed with ex-Marines trying to reach San Diego and Parris Island. And when I called Dorothy in a rare free moment she told me the television and social media networks are devoting hours to the possibility of war and are full of stories and interviews about the efforts of former Marines to report for duty.
“Yes Sir, me’n Tom couldn’t get a plane out of Fargo so we took turns driving straight through. We picked up old Charlie here last night standing by his broke-down car up by Sacramento.”
All ex-officers are being given warrants and all ex-Marines are being ranked as buck sergeants. The volunteer returnees are identifiable because they pin the Marine Corps insignia next to their warrant officer bars or under their stripes.
Over time, some of the returnees, particularly those who are able bodied and volunteer for Europe and overseas duty, will be pulled into the regular Marine structure and advanced to ranks that correspond with their assignments. The rest will stay stateside and handle all the mundane but vitally important chores such as answering phones, handling dependent issues, and serving food.
And it’s working. The papers are full of pictures of elderly generals with warrant officer bars serving chow and handing out uniforms, elderly sergeants guarding the gates of the Marine bases and shouting at the recruits who are flooding in, and disabled Marines in their wheel chairs answering phones.
The Commandant’s goal is to get every active duty and reserve Marine to Germany except the Marine band. And the former Marines who are sufficiently able-bodied, if they volunteer, will be shipped over as well. They’ll move into the brigades as replacements are needed or to fill the ranks as additional new Marine units are formed.
“I expected a lot,” I admitted to the Commandant a couple of days later, “but your recall of all former Marines went far beyond my greatest hopes. Of course, I’ll approve any new units you can form.”
That was my response when the Commandant asked permission to go beyond the original plan and set up a fully organized new Marine division based on the Marine division now in Korea. Korean Airlines and others have begun flying in every unit commander and senior staffer in Korea right down to the squad leaders. They’ll be a fully organized instant cadre for the former Marines who volunteer to serve overseas. That’s a great idea. We should have thought of it.
The number twos of the Korean Marines will move up and replace those who form the cadre for the new division in Germany. The units in Korea, if Spelling and the South Koreans think it necessary, will be refilled with some of the able bodied ex-Marines who have volunteered for overseas duty.
The new Marine division will initially be based in a kaserne near the Munich airport. Even better, as soon as possible the Commandant intends to expand the new division into an entire corps by adding additional battalions and brigades as men and equipment become available. Maybe this time the cadres will be the number twos from Korea and the number threes will move up.
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The Korean air force and the Korean, Singapore, and Taiwanese Airlines are flying in Pug’s Marine cadres from Korea along with at least half of their original units’ radios and missiles and most of their helicopters and crews.
Klausen liked the idea of having an additional Marine division; he immediately sent a team led by a hard-charging German brigadier to Munich to requisition civilian trucks and food for the Marines and act as their liaison. Their missiles, radios, and ammunition are being flown in by the Koreans, their tanks and assault helicopters, complete with crews in some cases, by the Israelis.
The North Koreans were being uniquely silent for a change. Perhaps because, with the President’s approval, I let it be known to their ambassador to West Germany that any move by them against South Korea and I am going to immediately use some of the Navy’s new sub-launched cruise missiles and go after every one of their political leaders and all their generals—and cover North Korea with nukes if the Russians use gas or other weapons of mass destruction.
We’ve got a plan ready to go for that too. It won’t take much because we keep a couple of boomers off North Korea all the time.
The word from NSA and the South Korean Intelligence Agency is that the North Koreans believed me and were sending out messages left and right that they will stay out of the fight. They sure as hell better because I mean it about finishing them off if weapons of mass destruction are used.
Later we learned from a high level defector and other sources that the real pressure on North Korea to stay out of the war came from the Chinese. They want us to win so that Russia is weakened and they can become the dominant communist country—and take back the Chinese lands along the Russian border.
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The South Koreans are running a continuous cargo shuttle into Munich with their own civilian and military cargo planes to carry the equipment and munitions the President requested. It includes fully armed helicopters from the Korean armed forces complete in some cases with volunteer Korean crews, spares, and ammunition. The South Koreans are also using their own inventories to replace the radios and other equipment and supplies the Germany-bound Marines are taking with them.
My dear friend, and now lieutenant general, Kim Tae il, is running the support operation. He sent me a message.
“Hello Guns, what more you need?”
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Equally welcome is the news that the Marine amphibious force anchored off of Reykjavik, Iceland is finally being allowed to disembark. Its four ships are loaded with nineteen hundred Marines and their equipment and weapons, including six attack helicopters, six Harrier Jump Jets, six troop carrying helicopters, and about forty assault vehicles, light tanks, and light armored fighting vehicles. The ships proceeded at flank speed from their permanent station in the Mediterranean—and then sat offshore for three days because the government of Iceland would not give them permission to unload.
The Iceland government, quite incredibly since it’s a member of NATO, refused to raise the limit on the total number of American servicemen and dependents it will allow on the island. We finally got around that by evacuating all the dependents and much of the air force support staff and replacing them with Marines—the number of Americans on Iceland soil remains the same, but we reduced the tail and greatly increased the teeth. Just in time as it turned out.
The job of the Marines in the Iceland task force is to prevent the Russians from occupying Iceland, and particularly the Reykjavik airfield, a busy refueling stop for American and Canadian military planes transiting to Germany. It would be a serious blow if the Russians take Iceland—it would force our transiting aircraft to take the much longer southerly route through the Azores and significantly reduce our air cargo carrying capacity.
Even worse than losing Reykjavik for refueling, is the reality that the loss of Iceland would give the Russians an airfield from which to launch attacks on Norway and Germany and on the ships now loading supplies and heavy equipment for NATO at ports all along the east coast.
Chapter Three
Marines and soldiers continue to pour into Germany and our troops, including the German reservists and the men detailed to the special “Forest Fortress” operation, are in the field and increasingly ready to fight. The Russians seem to be inexorably heading towards launching an invasion in the immediate future. It appears to be only a matter of days or even hours before they hit us.
So far, knock on wood things appear to be going our way in just about everything except stopping the war. Poland informed the furious Russians that the threat from the West the Russia’s intelligence agencies have uncovered is so great Poland’s troops and air force will, most regrettably, be forced to remain in Poland so they can concentrate on defending its borders against the impending West German invasion.
Privately, the Polish government has been constantly assuring the British and West Germans that not one Polish soldier or plane will cross the border if there is a war. The British ambassador, however, reported that the Poles will be forced to allow the Russians to use their rail lines and airbases, but will only put up a token resistance if the facilities are attacked. That’s good because they sure as hell will be attacked if the Russians try to use them, which they almost certainly will.
In return, the President immediately sent a message to the Polish government, through the British ambassador, and then directly by personally calling the Polish president, to the effect that the United States understands why Poland will have to be seen as trying to stop NATO attacks on the Polish facilities being used by the Russians. The President spoke with the congressional leadership of both parties before he called and they collectively promised to help the Poles repair any damage as soon as the war is over.
The Polish infrastructure is like that of the Russians and the rest of the Warsaw Pact countries—pretty much obsolete and run-down as a result of government and party bureaucrats trying to run everything and make all the decisions. So the Poles are probably hoping to score a lot of modern new facilities after the war. If it works for the Congress and the Commander in Chief it sure as hell works for me
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One of the Detachment’s special operations where things are going particularly well involves the reasonable-sounding orders my old Sandhurst drinking buddy in British Intelligence helped us place in the Russian military communications system as legitimate-sounding messages in support of the early firing by the Russian artillery.
NSA reports the Brits have gotten at least some of the orders, and maybe even all of them, through the system to the Russian unit commanders. I know because I had the American deputy to the Belgian chief of NATO intelligence, who isn’t in on the secret, query NSA for the latest Russian thoughts and communications about retaliating in the event of NATO provocations.
A report from NSA came back to the effect that the commanders of a number of Russian artillery units have been honored for their high readiness evaluations by having their batteries designated as retaliation units “which requires special skills and accuracy.” The battery commanders have been informed that in the event of the “expected” NATO provocations they will receive orders to fire carefully targeted retaliatory barrages at coordinates that will be provided. This is the one special operation I somehow overlooked and forgot to mention to the President and the Security Council.
The Russian artillery commanders have already been notified of their battery’s designation as a retaliation battery. Tomorrow morning each of them will receive the coordinates of his retaliation targets and be ordered to come to full readiness. What they don’t know is that when the NATO air force is ready to go, each of them is going to receive a flash message ordering his batteries to fire their entire supply of shells at coordinates for carefully selected empty terrain in the Federal Republic. Hopefully they will burn out a lot of artillery barrels and waste a lot of ammunition and identify their location for counter-battery fire—in addition to giving us an excuse to start the war early.
Somewhat similarly, the Warsaw Pact unit commanders and their political officers have, quite properly, received orders to enforce rigid fire discipline on their troops. This afternoon, citing the results of previous research published in Russian military journals and the absolutely certain dominance of Russian-made planes over the battlefield, they will receive orders specifying that only captains and above may fire hand-held anti-aircraft missiles and that political officers are to immediately apply “extreme discipline” to anyone who shoots down a Russian-made plane.
A similar order was just sent to all the Russian and East German units reminding them that ammunition must not to be wasted on civilian vehicles such as motorcycles and pickup trucks. NATO, so the order noted, only uses military trucks and not killing civilians is important to the successful implementation of socialism following the inevitable victory that will occur if a war is forced upon the Warsaw Pact. And, of course, if rigorously enforced it will also reduce casualties among our motorcycle-equipped skirmishers and messengers who will be driving civilian cars.
They are all understandable and reasonable orders. I ought to know, I wrote them. An old Sandhurst friend in British Intelligence made the “arrangements” to get them into the Russian army’s communication system.
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A big partially completed chicken factory in the center of the “Forest Fortress” is now surrounded by elderly West German reservists and volunteers armed with old World War II rifles and equipment and lots and lots of mines. They are the 132nd Rifle Division and quite a few of them don’t even have uniforms, just armbands and old rifles and anti-tank grenades.
Only the division commander and his deputy know the tin roofs of the “off limits” chicken rearing sheds are sheltering German Leopard tanks and their Milch Cow support vehicles instead of empty chicken cages. They arrived on tank carriers last night.
