Aboard
Naval tradition required waking the Captain whenever there was a significant event affecting the ship. The order over the Very Low Frequency broadcast was a simple code group of a few letters, but it meant 'Come to periscope depth to receive a downlink of targeting data.' That counted as a significant event, all right. Nobody in the communications section had ever seen that one, even in an exercise. It was a new capability to provide targeting data for the dozen BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles that slumbered in vertical launch tubes just behind the boat's bow section. Now, it only required a dish antenna smaller than a dinner plate poking above the waves for a few minutes, precisely aimed at a spot in the sky. From there, information could be downloaded from the Theater Mission Planning System, which provided near-real-time targeting information.
Once the download was received and confirmed,
Agana Harbor, Guam, September 17th, 2008
The perfumed tropical breeze carried the scent of diesel exhaust across the bay as the four big ships raised anchor and steamed out into the Pacific. You would not call them beautiful. The great boxy hulls were piled high with containers and festooned with heavy cranes. A helicopter landing pad and an awkwardly angled folding ramp were tacked onto the stern, seemingly as an afterthought. You expect ships to be named after famous admirals or powerful politicians, but these vessels carried the names of enlisted men and junior officers who had fallen in nameless rice paddies and obscure fire bases, some four decades ago:
They were no greyhounds of the sea, making 17 kt/31 kph toward their rendezvous with Marines who would fly halfway across the world to link up with the weapons, vehicles, supplies, and equipment they carried. With flat black hulls and white paint topside, they were pretty ugly ships, all things considered. But in the eyes of a logistician, the ships of Maritime Prepositioning Squadron Three (MPSRON 3) were more beautiful than any China Clipper that ever rounded Cape Horn under a full spread of canvas. Just two days behind the ships of MPSRON 3 were the ships of a similar U.S. Army unit, carrying equipment for a mountain brigade. If the U.S. could secure a lodgement ashore in Brunei, there would be a division's worth of force to back it up.
Final Confirmation Briefing, USS Bon
Colonel Taskins plugged in her laptop and began to run though the various phases of Tropic Fury. The keys were speed and surprise. With a lot of help from the Air Force in the Philippines and on Guam and a lavish expenditure of BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles, they would blind the Malaysian forces, making them unable to sense or defend against the approach of PHIBRON 11. The risks were many. The amphibious force would approach the coast of occupied Brunei with only a handful of escorts: two Aegis guided-missile cruisers and destroyers, a single
Colonel Taskins continued her briefing for the assembled crowd in the officers' mess. 'Folks, we're going to have to work fast, and neat. Our biggest problems are with the oil facilities on the western side of the country. This is what the Malaysians want to keep, and what we must insure that they do not destroy. North Borneo is an extremely fragile ecosystem, so a mass of burning oil wells will not do. This is why I've committed so much of the force to securing the fields. Nevertheless, we must also clear the cargo terminal in the harbor at BSB, so that follow-on forces can relieve us. Finally, we must relieve our squad at the American Embassy in BSB. General Bear tells me that he wants the gunny and his detachment taken care of, and we will do this. Is that understood?'
A chorus of nods told her that it was.
'All right then,' she continued, 'let's get the job done, take care of each other, be Marines, and go home safe. God bless you all.'
That was all they needed to hear.
Over Kota Kinabalu, Sabah (North Borneo), 0130 Hours, September 20th, 2008
Kota Kinabalu, the primary Malaysian air base in North Borneo, was taken seriously by Tropic Fury planners. Home base for two fighter squadrons and a gaggle of maritime patrol aircraft, it had to be neutralized. Since all of the submarine-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles were committed against targets on the Malay Peninsula, this one would have to be done by aircraft. The U.S. Air Force drew the assignment.
All day and most of the night, the 366th had sparred with the Malaysians, darting in and out with fighters from Cubi Point, supported by airborne tankers. It had driven the defenders at Kota Kinabalu to exhaustion, and by 0300 local time, they were near collapse. Tropic Fury's Joint Forces Air Component Commander (JFACC), the Air Force brigadier general commanding the 366th, had planned his operations to produce this result. Make them crazy, spar with them a while, and then hit them when they're too tired to notice. Now the fakes were over, and the Sunday punch was on the way. Two F-16Cs from the 389th FS equipped with targeting pods and HARM missiles dashed in to launch their weapons at the air-traffic-control and SAM radars on the field. The two F/A-18s that lifted off were rapidly dispatched by AIM-120 AMRAAMs from a pair of escorting Eagles, and that was it. Within seconds, Kota Kinabalu was blind and helpless. Now came the heavy iron.
Six B-1B Lancers of the 34th Bombardment Squadron had flown non-stop from Anderson AFB on Guam, carrying the ordnance that would shut down Kota Kinabalu for good. The first four came in from the north, very low over the China Sea at just over Mach 1, throwing up huge twin rooster tails of spray. At 10 nm/18.3 km from the coast, all four pulled up into zoom climbs. At the apex of the maneuver, each aircraft released twenty-four JDAMS guided bombs with hardened 2,000- 1b/909.1-kg warheads. Within seconds, every aircraft shelter, runway, taxiway,
