Night of the Hawk, page 26
part #4 of Patrick McLanahan Series
“The Pentagon disagrees,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Wilbur Curtis chimed in. “The presence of the Byelorussian attack helicopters over Lithuanian airspace, and the movements of Byelorussian troops—operating under the Commonwealth flag, but composed almost entirely of Byelorussian troops—is very worrisome. They’re not large troop movements, at least not right now, but—”
Secretary of State Danahall shook his head. “General, there is a treaty in effect between the Commonwealth and Lithuania that allows the presence of Commonwealth-flag troops in Lithuania.”
“I know that, Dennis,” Curtis said. “But there have been repeated’ violations of the treaty, documented by reports from the Lithuania- Self-Defense Force to the United Nations, and the pattern is disturbing.”:
“What are you getting at, Wilbur?” asked the President.
General Curtis spread his hands and said, “I think there’s a good possibility that Byelorussia, or secretly the Commonwealth, might try to make a grab for Lithuania.”
“Shit,” the President muttered. “Are you sure?”
“No, I’m not, sir,” Curtis admitted. “But some observations Ken Mitchell briefed us on have me real worried.”
The President turned to Director of Central Intelligence Mitchell, who nodded, saying, “General Curtis’s theory has been borne out by a contact we have in Moscow, someone outside the Commonwealth but with strong connections. The contact is a former KGB bureau chief, a man named Boris Dvornikov. He is as wired as anyone from the old KGB can be. The possibility of a land grab was broached…”
“Why Byelorussia? I don’t get it,” the President said.
“There doesn’t necessarily have to be a connection, sir,” observed Curtis.
“But there is a very strong one,” Mitchell said. “Historically, Byelorussia—what they call Belarus, which is closer to its historical name—was once united with Lithuania. Belarus was even the official language of the court of Lithuania for centuries. Together, Lithuania and Belarus were at one time one of the most powerful nations in Europe.
“You see, Belarus is landlocked and dependent on other countries—Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland—for imports and exports. Belarus has always been dominated by Russia, and now they’re dominated by a Commonwealth that caters more to Russia and the Ukraine, even though Minsk is the capital of the new Commonwealth. Plus, they have a huge military machine sitting around doing nothing—except whatever the Commonwealth orders them to do.”
The President anxiously drummed his fingers on the table. “So this attack by Byelorussian attack helicopters was the prelude to a full-scale invasion?”
“I don’t know, sir,” Mitchell replied. “The Commonwealth is investigating the incident—they haven’t said whether those chopper pilots were acting on orders of the Commonwealth or of Byelorussia. The problem is, they’re the same—Voshchanka. He is the military commander of all Commonwealth forces in the area, and he is also commander of the Home Corps of the Byelorussian Army, based at Smorgon Army Air Base northwest of Minsk. Initial indications I’ve received from our bureau in Minsk say that Voshchanka is to be relieved of duty, so we should know more very soon.”
“What about Voshchanka?” the President asked irritably. “Every time there’s a problem in the region, he’s at the heart of it. Is he another Saddam Hussein in the making?”
“Good analogy, Mr. President,” Curtis said. “He’s probably the most Powerful man in the country next to President Svetlov. He’s been responsible for the rapid buildup of the Byelorussian military since independence—and that makes him very popular in his country. He commands a total of about one hundred and fifty thousand troops and might hold the key to Byelorussia’s nuclear arsenal as well.”
“Nuclear arsenal?” The President sighed. “I thought that reporter was just baiting me. He really does have nuclear weapons? Those reports are true? Didn’t they withdraw them?”
“We don’t think so, sir,” CIA chief Mitchell said. “The intercontinental birds, the SS-25 road-mobile and SS-24 rail-mobile missiles that were garrisoned at Brest were removed—that was verified—but no one could account for the nearly three hundred SS-21 Scarab missiles scattered throughout the Red Army units in Byelorussia. They were supposed to be removed as well, but we believe there are some units still in place.”
“How do you know? Can you see them with satellites?” the President asked, waving his hand as if satellites were in the room.
“Sometimes… especially when the Byelorussians forget to check our overflight schedule. More often, they move the missiles when one of our satellites goes overhead,” Mitchell said. “The SS-21 is a little smaller than the SS-1 SCUD missile, which it replaced in the Soviet Union, and it’s road-mobile. Very easy to conceal. Fortunately they have to move them a lot for training and to align them on pre-surveyed launch points, so as long as we keep the launch points under watch we can spot ‘em. Voshchanka probably has about forty or fifty at Smorgon, of which perhaps half are serviceable.”
The President was thunderstruck. “I can’t believe it,” he said. “We’ve known about this and we haven’t done anything to take those fucking weapons away from them? What are we doing, just sitting around all the time with our thumbs up our asses?”
“The SS-21 is not a threat to anyone except other Commonwealth countries or the Byelorussians themselves, sir,” Mitchell said patiently. “And I’m sure the Commonwealth knows of the missiles’ existence in Byelorussia. They simply choose not to acknowledge it.”
“Well, they’re a threat to us now, aren’t they?” the President grumbled. “If the Byelorussians decide that our forces in Lithuania are a threat, they can lob a few into Vilnius pretty easily, couldn’t they?”
Mitchell looked surprised at that question. “I think that’s pretty unlikely, sir,” he said. “It would not be a factor in a large-scale war.”
“But in a small conflict, especially what this is shaping up to be,” the f President said, “it could be devastating. I need a plan of action on how we’ll deal with those things. If Byelorussia shows any signs of trying to,, move against Lithuania, I want to be assured that those things will be neutralized. Is that clear?”
“I’ll have a plan drawn up for presentation by tomorrow morning, sir,” Curtis said, relieved that the President moved a lot faster than his wishy washy predecessor.
“Good. Let’s get back to the problem at hand—the Americans in Lithuania,” the President said. “We’ve determined they’re not in any immediate danger, and they’re not being held against their will, at least not right this minute. Am I right?” A nod from Mitchell, Curtis, Russell, and the others. “All right. If they’re not released or escorted safely to a neutral border, what else do we do? Wilbur?”
“An airlift is still the best way,” General Curtis replied. “If we can get permission to land a few airliners at Vilnius International, and if we can get assurances the planes can land safely, we can get everybody out in one day. If no commercial carrier wants to do it because of liability problems, we can contract with one of the air carriers under the Civil Reserve Air Fleet. The government would then assume the liability.
“Next choice is a military airlift,” Curtis continued. “General Lockhart of our European Command has already briefed me on his proposal. Air Mobility Command can give him six C-130 transports from Rhein-Main Air Base near Frankfurt immediately. What he needs, though, are C-17 Jupiter transports—they don’t require as much ground support and have better passenger and cargo capacity than the C-130. They also don’t require the long runways and special handling of the C-141 Starlifters or C-5 Galaxys. With three C-17s and two crews per plane, Lockhart says he can pull all the Americans out of Lithuania in one day. I’d prefer the commercial carriers because the Commonwealth soldiers probably won’t get as spooked by the sight of a civil jetliner flying overhead. But we can get him the C-17s from McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey within twenty-four hours.”
The short, squat, wide-bodied C-17 Jupiter transport plane, a smaller version of the C-5 Galaxy transport, was some of the best money the American taxpayers ever spent, and one of the best airplanes American industry ever developed. The Jupiter had so much power and was so well constructed that, literally, anything that fit inside it could be taken, and it could take off or land on any surface-sand, snow, dirt, broken pavement, unimproved runways—that could support its nearly half-a-million-pound gross weight. Every theater commander wanted to use them because they gave the commanders almost unheard-of speed and mobility. Theater commanders called the aircraft “Mighty Mouse” because the deceptively small-looking plane could transport an entire two-hundred-person flying squadron, with all its equipment and personnel, anywhere around the world in a matter of hours—even to places that didn’t have runways or airports. It made the commanders look very good whenever they were tasked with a difficult assignment.
“Can you cut the C-17s loose from whatever they’re scheduled to do to have them available for an evacuation?” the President asked.
“Yes, sir.”
“Then do it. Get six of them so we have spares handy, and make sure double crews are available. When we get the word to go, I want the Americans pulled out in less than one day.”
“You got it, sir,” Curtis said, wishing he could light up a cigar, but knowing the President hated smoking.
“And what if they close down the airport?” pressed the President.
“In essence, the airport is already closed down—by orders of General Voshchanka,” Curtis said. “If negotiations fail to reopen it so we can evacuate our people, we look at forcible entry into the country to get them out.”
The President shook his head, wishing he could escape all this. Instead, he listened to Curtis go on.
“We have four military operations to examine sir: an embassy reinforcement operation, an NEO, or non-combatant-evacuation operation, a security operation to open the airport for our aircraft, and possibly an emergency foreign intervention and defense operation.
“But there is one other event driving our recommendations for military action—the REDTAIL HAWK extraction mission.”
“Oh, Christ. I forgot all about that, dammit,” the President muttered. He remembered now that his National Security Advisor, George Russell, and General Curtis had briefed him on it shortly after Russell had approved the mission. He believed in giving people latitude, especially people like Russell, but now he wondered if this thing wasn’t going to come back to haunt them. “When do they go in?” He looked at his watch, made a mental calculation. “Tomorrow night, right?”
“Yes, sir,” Curtis replied. “Conditions are very good for the extraction despite the increased alert status in the country. A pretty good spring storm that’s brewing should ground all Soviet aircraft and reduce radar scanning range to minimum—the Special Forces teams on the grounds will take out the transmission towers and transformers to the Soviet air-defense bases. Won’t shut ‘em down completely, but they’ll disrupt things enough to let our troops slip in. We’ve got the Delta Force Silver team moving toward the research center, ready to do the same thing at the facility. The Special Forces units will be right behind them, soften up the area defenses for the assault team. The SEAL teams are taking out the radar sites along the coast.”
The President’s skepticism was growing. “I really think this one should be canceled, Wilbur, given the—”
“On the contrary, sir, not only should REDTAIL HAWK proceed, but it should be expanded to include the embassy-reinforcement mission,’ Curtis said.
“What are you driving at?” the President asked. “You want to use t terrible incident at Denerokin to help a covert spy mission? So we have two operations going at once? Jesus, the region’s already explosive enough. You’d better rethink this one, Wilbur.”
“The main objective is to move in swiftly and reinforce and secure embassy,” Curtis continued. “We have an advantage right now because we are in contact with the embassy and they know the whereabouts ninety percent of the Americans in Lithuania. It’s important to main that advantage.”
“And at the same time, the plan to rescue Lieutenant Luger from the Fisikous Institute continues—except under the guise of the embassy reinforcement,” National Security Advisor Russell said. “Sir, your main problem with REDTAIL HAWK from the beginning was the use of American troops in a non-hostile environment. Well, things have changed. Now we can cover our use of special-operations troops under the embassy-reinforcement operation.”
The President was silent, feeling increasingly as if things were going to spin out of control. “Let’s keep with the problem at hand, gentlemen, which is the Americans in Lithuania. Wilbur, continue with your briefing. Who do we have in place to spearhead this thing . . ?” He paused, glancing at his Secretary of State, then added diplomatically, “… if we decide to go
in.”
“The main spearhead force involved is still the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, and they’ve been given the warning order to stand by-they only need the execution message, sent when you sign the executive order, to go into action,” Curtis said. “That’s about sixteen hundred Marines, four hundred Navy personnel, and six ships, including the Marines’ newest amphibious-assault carrier, the Wasp. Two more MEUs, the 20th and 16th, would deploy from the U.S. East Coast upon receipt of a warning order. The recommendation from General Kundert of the Marine Corps is the same as before: we should issue the warning order for the entire Second Marine Expeditionary Brigade and put them on standby alert for deployment to their staging bases in Germany and Norway. This is because this Byelorussian general, Voshchanka, is warning us not to land U.S. military forces in the area.”
“And no one should tell us what to do when the safety of our citizens abroad is concerned,” Secretary of Defense Thomas Preston said. “This is not an internal affair or a civil war, Mr. President. This is an act of aggression against a neighboring country. This is Afghanistan all over again. This is another Kuwait.”
Danahall looked at the National Security Advisor, George Russell. “The situation is close to defusing itself, George, and you know it,” Danahall said. “If you send in troops, we destabilize the entire scenario. Now, we agreed it was best to announce only the U.N. draft resolution.”
“And I agreed,” Russell said. “And you agreed that we go ahead with alerting the 26th MEU. But we can’t move nearly two thousand men and six warships without it going public. We need to start getting the American people behind us.”
“The President hasn’t made a commitment to starting a shooting war in Lithuania,” Danahall said. “We shouldn’t—”
Curtis interrupted, “And remember, there’s REDTAIL HAWK.”
The President turned to Curtis and Russell. “This may affect the status of your REDTAIL HAWK out there, gentlemen. I may have no choice but to cancel the mission.”
“Lieutenant Luger is in danger, Mr. President,” Curtis said firmly. “That much we know from the CIA and ISA contacts that have reported back to us. We have a team moving in, ready to snatch him. The mission has been executed—”
“You can cancel it at any time, General,” Danahall said. “Don’t try to make it seem as if the execution order is irreversible at this stage.”
“That was not my intention, Dennis,” Curtis said. “But timing is critical, and Lieutenant Luger is undoubtedly running out of time. We have to move.”
“The Commonwealth, Byelorussian, and Black Beret armies are obviously alerted,” Danahall said. “The extraction team won’t risk going in now.”
“On the contrary, Dennis, they’ve got the latest information on the attack and the latest info on the Byelorussian troops moving within Lithuania, and they’re ready to go,” Curtis said. “They’ve got the best intelligence data we’ve got, and they say it’s a go.”
“They’ll get mowed down for sure.”
“I and General Kundert disagree,” Curtis said confidently. “The Marine Corps classifies the REDTAIL HAWK rescue mission as a high-risk but high-percentage operation. Until the Byelorussian forces move into Lithuania in greater numbers, their assessment still stands.” He turned to the President, deciding to plead his case directly to the man once again. “Mr. President, you can’t mean to abandon Lieutenant Luger, risk losing that brave airman, simply on the hope that if we do nothing then every-fl thing will be all right …?”
“I think we should give the REDTAIL HAWK mission a try, Mr. President,” Russell interjected. “Our boys won’t get a better opportunity. They can complete their mission to retrieve Luger and then land in the embassy compound in Vilnius to make it look like they’re reinforcing the Marines in the embassy—which they will do, of course.”
“That won’t stand up to scrutiny,” Danahall insisted. “It takes time to move a Marine special-operations force into position to run an operation like this. Certainly the Russians can figure out our timetable. They’ know we didn’t go in to support the embassy.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Russell decided. “Lithuania is a sovereign country, and relations with us are good. We can go in anytime.”
“This situation is special,” Danahall said. “Lithuania may be an independent but they’re still under Commonwealth influence. Any action take could be perceived by the Commonwealth as an act of aggression.”
“Enough, enough,” the President said. He fell silent for a moment, then said, “Look, I want the embassy protected—that’s job number one. But use that mission as a jumping-off point to continue REDTAIL HAWK. Get your man Luger out if you can, but the embassy reinforcement comes first. If your special ops guys get caught in the Fisikous Research Center, understand that I’ll call it an unfortunate error on their part—they got lost, confused, made a mistake, got themselves killed. I’ll take the heat, but I’m going to dump it right back on your Marines and your special ops troops.”
“Yes, sir,” Curtis acknowledged, silently breathing a sigh of relief.
