just driven right in. Luckily, they'd caught the tides right, and were able to moor the big Ro-Ros with a minimum of scraped paint and bent plating. The stern ramps dropped, and vehicles poured out. A few hours earlier, the first elements of the III MEF's fly-in brigade from Okinawa had arrived at BSB International Airport. Riding in the same commandeered buses that had been used to block the taxiways and runways just twelve hours earlier, the first elements of the brigade were driven directly to the wharf, where they mounted up their M1A1s, AAAVs, LAVs, and HMMWVs and began to fan out across Brunei.
It normally would take eighteen hours to finish the unloading of the combat vehicles, with another three days to off-load supplies. But now everything had to be done sooner, because the Army's AWR-3 squadron would arrive in sixty hours, and they would need to use the same port facilities. When the Army mountain brigade arrived, plus an additional fly-in brigade from the 82nd Airborne Division, there would be a division-sized task force in Brunei. The concept of the operation was to rapidly build up a force big enough to overmatch anything the Malaysians could throw against the beachhead. So far it had worked.
The biggest current worry was the armored task force holding the oil facilities on the western side of the country. Colonel Taskins knew that Major Hansen's force was stretched thin. If she were the Malaysian brigade commander, that was the place that she would attack. She strode across the pier to speak with Brigadier General Mike Newman, commander of the units off-loading from the ships.
She came to the point quickly. 'Mike, I think that we have a potential problem out in the oil-fields.'
Looking up from his data slate, he replied, 'How so, Colleen?'
'Sir, I believe that Major Hansen's task force is overstretched out at Seria. He needs some reinforcement and support.'
Newman stood up, wiped his brow for a moment, and asked, 'What did you have in mind?'
Her reply was again clear and rapid, 'General, I want to move another company of infantry and the heavy weapons company over to the western side this afternoon. I also want to land the 155mm battery, and get some additional surveillance assets over to them. They can probably stand up to one or two counterattacks, but anything more could cause us real problems over there, sir.'
'We're scheduled to relieve them tomorrow morning with a battalion landing team,' Newman replied. Then he thought for a moment, remembering that this lady had never given him bad advice. 'Maybe you're right.' He turned to his operations officer and asked, 'Harry, what's the situation on the brigade ACE moving down from Cubi Point?'
The Operations Officer referred to his own data slate, and replied, 'Well, sir, we've got the first squadrons of F/A-18Ds and AV-8Bs down and dispersed, as well as some tankers. Two squadrons of MV-22Bs are on the way right now. They should be ready to start flying CAP and support missions before sundown.'
'Tell you what, Colleen. Why don't you send the reinforcements over this afternoon, and I'll chop your whole ACE back to you to support them. Will that do?'
'Yes, sir!' This errand done, she headed back to
South of the Seria Oil Production Facility, Brunei, 1400 Hours, September 21st, 2008
Bill Hansen was grateful for the news he had just received from Colonel Taskins. He was already picking up enemy activity in front of his positions, but in a couple of hours, he would have twice as much force. He was also gaining powerful fire-support assets: 155mm guns, the Harriers and Cobras of the ACE, and a couple of offshore destroyers. This was what he needed to ensure his position would hold until relief arrived in the morning. Even better, his BLT commander was on the way, to take over responsibility for the beachhead.
Headquarters, Malaysian 2nd Brigade, South of Seria, Brunei, 1415 Hours, September 21st, 2008
The two Malaysian brigade commanders had met to plan their defenses when orders to attack arrived from the Prime Minister. Both of the officers were British-trained and had no doubts about their duty. But both had severe doubts about the odds of executing this attack. The 5th Brigade, which had occupied BSB, had suffered scant losses from the Americans, but it had scattered, and most of the day had been required to bring it back together. Now they were expected to retake the oil fields, drive the Marines into the sea, and do it before dark. After the noon prayer, they spread out the maps under their camouflaged command tent and set to work, trying to organize something that might succeed.
The plan was for the 5th Brigade to attack directly north towards the sea, while the fresher 2nd Brigade would swing around to the west, to hit the Americans along the coastal road. Both attacks were coordinated to hit the Marines at 1630 hours, and would continue until the sun went down into the South China Sea. Reconnaissance indicated that they were facing two dozen armored vehicles and about six hundred Marines. All told, their two Brigades had over five thousand men, with almost a hundred light tanks and personnel carriers. The problem was that they could not use their artillery. The orders from Kuala Lumpur were explicit: No artillery could be used
Over Western Brunei, 1500 Hours, September 21st, 2008
The Dark Star UAV had launched several days earlier from NAS Cubi Point, and was less than halfway through its five-day mission. Equipped with a television camera, infrared scanner, and synthetic aperture radar, it had been keeping track of the two Malaysian brigades in the jungle south of Seria. The heavy canopy of foliage in the foothills blocked visual sensors, but the IR and radar picked up useful imagery. On
LFOC, USS
It felt good to be back in the chair of her LFOC station. Colonel Colleen Taskins felt the rush of anticipation at the start of an operation. Game time. Her workstation showed the estimated positions of the two Malaysian brigades (intelligence flagged them as the 2nd and 5th), and she was working to set up supporting fires. Right now, the enemy was under the cover of the jungle. But to attack her Marines, they would have to come out into the open. General Newman had released almost all of her units back to her for the coming operation. In addition, he had made a call back to the JFACC at NAS Cubi Point in the Philippines, who dispatched an E-8C Joint Stars radar- surveillance plane to help her out. The J-Stars bird had a large canoe-shaped radar under its belly that could detect moving vehicles in real time, sending the data directly to a terminal located here in the LFOC. A quick look at the J- Stars display confirmed her suspicions, and she shifted units around Western Brunei like a chess master. There
