Warriors

one parachute.

Ten minutes later seven F-20s landed at Black Base. Lawrence scrambled out of his fighter and ran down the parking line, noting that Black Seven was missing. The exec grabbed his second flight leader. 'Where's your section lead?'

The young Saudi rolled his eyes. 'He didn't rejoin. Eight called him down about twelve miles northwest. Didn't you hear the call?'

'No.' Lawrence was skeptical; he prided himself on knowing what happened in every phase of a fight. Turning to the missing pilot's wingman, he asked, 'What happened, Ahmed?'

'An Eagle hit him with a Sidewinder. He ejected, sir. I believe he is all right.' Lieutenant Ahmed Salim was visibly shaken.

Lawrence pulled off his helmet. Turning to the line chief, he said, 'Call the helo guys. Ahmed, you go with him. Give them the coordinates. And tell 'em there's at least two Israeli drivers out there somewhere.'

The mechanic said, 'We'll refuel and rearm immediately, but you should know that Six has damage. Looks like twenty-millimeter hits in the tail.'

Lawrence nodded curtly, swearing under his breath. He rounded up his pilots and got a preliminary report: two kills, one loss, and one damaged. He cast an icy gaze at his pilots. 'We'll debrief this in detail later. But we could have done better.' Then he strode off to send an initial report to John Bennett.

Bahrain, 0850 Hours

The communications officer handed the message to the leader of Tiger Force a half-hour later. Bennett read it twice, then folded it and put it in his pocket. He resolved to move his interim headquarters to Orange or Black Base as soon as communications could be established and secured. The airfield construction program, including the primary base at Ha'il, had been started none too soon.

The message read:

Two Black flts engaged two RF4, eight Fl5 at 0740 hrs. Hostile mission: recce our fields. One RF4 escaped, presumed photos Orange Base. Our claims: one F15 conf, one RF4 conf. No prob, one dmgd. Our losses: one F20 shot down, pilot OK, one dmgd. Poor radio discipline. Will do better next time. Devil.

Black Base 1830 Hours

That evening Ed Lawrence conducted a thorough, critical debrief. He was unsparing of everyone, including himself.

'I should have seen that 15 before he was in range and gunning,' he began. 'Probably he was getting out of Dodge at the speed of heat, saw us close aboard, and tried for a quick setup. Fortunately, Badir saw him just in time, and what began most likely as a quick tracking pass turned into a snapshot.' Lawrence postulated that the lone Eagle had been trying to catch the RF-4 which Badir shot down. ''The Israelis are real pros; they wouldn't leave a recce bird dangling like that if there hadn't been a mix-up.'

Then the Tiger Force exec dealt with other aspects of the combat. 'You guys can't take anything for granted, especially when fighting pilots the caliber of the Israelis. You have to think all the time. The only things a fighter pilot has going for him are his hot hands and his cool head. The minute you stop thinking, you're dead.' He speared Black Two with a stare. 'Badir, you were in a level turn with that F-15. You were holding your own temporarily, but eventually he'd gain on you. The 15 has a large wing·area and its fuselage is a lifting body. We can't fight that way and expect to come home. You guys are trained to use your vertical performance, so use it properly.'

Then Lawrence stressed his favorite subject-radio discipline.

He was clearly disappointed. 'There was too god-' He caught himself, refraining from swearing. 'Too much chatter up there. We've trained this outfit to fight zip-lip from start-up to shutdown, but that went right out the window the minute the BBs started flying. I know it's hard to shut up in a fight. But some body's life will depend on it someday-maybe yours.'

Lawrence consulted his notepad, though it was hardly necessary. He had flown in so many multi bogey hassles as both a participant and instructor that he could predict the problems of almost any combat with uncanny accuracy. He turned to his second flight leader, Lieutenant Ahmed Salim. 'Ahmed, you guys apparently upset the RF-4's first pass at this base. While you tangled with his escort he had to reposition and make another run, which I think is the reason we caught him egressing. But you lost one bird and brought another back with holes in it. What happened?'

Salim had experienced a bad scare that morning. Two F-15s had separated him from his wingman midway through the fight and neatly scissored him when he tried to evade in a hard descending turn. His second section had broken up the Israelis' offensive scissors but the section leader had been bagged in the process.

The Saudi squirmed in his seat. 'Their second flight was split by sections. When we engaged the lead pair, the second got an angles advantage on us. We didn't see them in time.'

Lawrence knew the mistakes would be absorbed and were unlikely to be repeated. 'Okay. I'm trying to whistle up some F-15s from Riyadh tomorrow for dissimilar ACM. We're likely to tangle with Eagles again and I want to be ready.'

Dissimilar air combat maneuvering was mock combat against a different type of fighter than what one flew oneself. Since both Israel and Arabia flew Eagles, dissimilar ACM was possible.

'If the Israelis come at us again, they'll bring F-16s as well,' Lawrence said. 'I think that little hummer is going to be our main opposition, so we'll hassle among ourselves as well. With the F-2 °C's improved leading-edge droops we can match the 16 better than we could before. But you guys remember: You win or lose the fight up here'-he tapped his head-'as much as here,' and he tugged the seat of his pants.

Washington D.C. 4 September

Secretary of State Thurmon Wilson arrived at the White House on time for his two o'clock meeting with the president. The Marine guards saluted and opened the door as the Connecticut-born diplomat briskly walked up the steps and disappeared inside. He was alone, which was rare at meetings with the chief executive.

Wilson had requested a private session with Walter Arnold ever since the White House chief of staff had passed along the president's plea to 'do something' in the Middle East. The secretary admitted to himself, if not to anyone else, that he could do precious little to influence events in that broiling arena. United Nations efforts, the third-party Saudi contacts, even military maneuvers, all had failed to alter the hard-line Arab attitude. As for the Israelis-Well, Wilson said to himself, they go their own way. As always.

Arnold greeted Wilson warmly and showed him to a comfortable chair in front of the president's Oval Office desk. They got right down to business.

'Thurmon, you know how concerned I am about the situation between the Israelis and the Arabs. We have serious political and economic matters at stake, and we're being lobbied like never before from both sides. On top of that, the mood among the public in this country is clear. Americans just won't support our getting involved in a big way when our direct interests aren't threatened.'

The president spread his hands in a gesture of futility. 'If we keep supporting Israel, the Arabs and their oil cartel are likely to take it out on us. But if we moderate our support of Tel Aviv, the Jewish lobby here will raise holy hell. And not only that, we'll run serious risk of alienating other allies in the region-especially the Saudis. A lot of Arab governments already wonder how much they can trust us to keep our word.' Arnold stopped abruptly. He thought of the way Congress had cut off aid to South Vietnam-how the ARVN had run out of ammunition that spring of 1975. And there had been the vacillating support of the Nicaraguan Contras before they too lost American aid. Senator Walter Arnold had voted to suspend military shipments in both instances.

'Mr. President, I'm afraid I don't have anything to cheer you up,' Wilson replied. 'I didn't phone just to issue a status report. I wanted to tell you of new evidence we've developed through neutral sources in Damascus.'

Arnold was visibly upset. He did not need more bad news.

'Who's neutral in that country anymore?'

'Well, this comes via the French Embassy. And we're checking with the Swiss in Tehran. But it appears the Muslim states are finally getting it all together. You recall the Syrian ambassador at large who's been conducting his own shuttle diplomacy over the past year or so? Well, he seems to be producing results. Syria, Iran, Iraq, and Libya, plus Egypt to a lesser extent, are presenting a united diplomatic front. We don't know about the Saudis yet-they're