LT Roland and Chief Sergiavich worked closely with Bill Fagan and Warran Jacobs to plan the insertions, missions and extractions of the teams. The detailed work occupied most of the last two days. Turnstill relayed the little information he knew about the harbor.
The four presented the plan to Hunter as they gathered around the wardroom table, liberally strewn with charts.
“We need to do two insertions and extractions,” LT Roland began. “The first will be tonight to put Boats and a squad of ten ashore to do initial recon. They will be looking for landing sites, defenses and locations for the hostages. We estimate that the recon will take two nights. Recovery will be on the third night. The next insertion will be the complete platoon on the night before the ARG arrives. The mission will be to prepare the beach and helo landing zones. We will also be disrupting the defenses, take out the radars, and establishing a cordon around the hostages for their protection.
Jacobs continued the presentation. “With those radar sites operating, we will not be able to do a surface launch of the teams. They would detect us as soon as SAN FRANCISCO broke the surface and we would lose the element of surprise. With the radar on top of the mountain, they should be able to search out to about a hundred miles."
Hunter walked over to look at the charts. "It's too far to even use the RHIBs to get to shore."
Jacobs nodded. "We agree. That leaves a lockout submerged as the only option. We know it is a high-risk operation and has only been successfully done once before, by SAN FRANCISCO as a proof of concept. As we see it, though, there is no other alternative.”
Fagan took over, “The first squad will use the inflatable boats stored in the after escape trunk. We’ll give them a ride to close in-shore with a snag and tow. Using SAN FRANCISCO to tow them will save several hours of transit time and allow us to do the lock out after dark and still get them ashore before first light. The men should still be rested when they get ashore."
Roland said, “They’ll hide their boats and scuba gear. They'll need them for recovery the same way on the third night. Once ashore, they will maintain comms with their PRC134 low-power Satcom transceivers."
Hunter took a sip of coffee. "Have we done a comms check? I don't want to count how many times that comms have screwed up an operation"
Jacobs answered, "We have checked to make sure that the radio room here on SAN FRANCISCO and the squad has synched up on both frequencies and crypto. The squad will initiate a comms check every four hours and will send any reports as they can. SAN FRANCISCO will be continuously monitoring that circuit.”
Roland continued. “The second insert will also be a lock-out but with the entire platoon. We will use the RHIBs that are in the supply shapes stored in the torpedo room. The RHIBs are capable of thirty knots so we can get ashore much quicker. That will allow SAN FRANCISCO to stand off, out of the way of the ARG.”
A RHIB was a Rigid Hulled Inflatable Boat. This design had long ago replaced the floppy “Zodiac” boats for most SEAL operations. With one exception. Because the rigid hull of the RHIBs could not be loaded onboard or unloaded from a sub, the “combat rubber raiding craft” of World War II fame lived on. When the deficiency became evident, Roland and Hunter had worked together to developed a design for a RHIB that would work for these operations. The hull was hinged so that it folded and then fit into a torpedo like cylinder called a “shape.” It could be shot out a torpedo tube and float to the surface. Once on the surface, a few latches were sprung and the RHIB was ready to go.
“Any more questions or suggestions?” LT Roland concluded.
Hunter pored over the charts for a few minutes. “I think that we had better do the lock-out here,” he said, pointing to a spot about twenty miles out from the island. “That way, if we accidentally broach it might not be detected from the surface clutter. It makes the tow longer. Does that present any problems?” he asked.
“No, sir. The time line works so that the squad will have plenty of time to get ashore and hidden before first light. With the depth of water we have, the XO tells me that you can tow into about a thousand yards from shore. That significantly reduces the time to paddle ashore,” Roland responded.
“The one thing that we really could use is an intel update,” Bill Fagan added. “We haven’t seen anything in a week. The latest satellite imagery would make the SEALs’ job a lot easier.”
Sweat poured off Hunter's body. It formed a rapidly enlarging pool on the steel deck below him. Just another minute and he would have it. His heart was thumping so loudly that he felt sure that the watch-standers could hear it even over the gasping of his breath. Don’t slack off now. Just thirty more seconds. Keep hammering.
Finally, the timer started ringing. “Not bad, for an old man,” Roland said from behind him.
Hunter stepped off the Versa-Climber and grabbed the towel hanging from a convenient valve hand wheel. The two were on a small platform in the after part of the engine-room. In the cramped space of a nuclear submarine, this was the only place that Hunter had found to fit in this piece of exercise equipment. The Versa-Climber was suspended off the deck by rubberized mounts designed
