The colonel explained. 'We now have to face both Satans. The Soviets continue to advance and, no doubt, will go as far south as possible. They want the oil and the ports on the Persian Gulf. The Great Satan wants to stop them.' The colonel stopped for a moment. He had the mullah's complete attention. 'Eventually, they will meet in battle. When they do, there will be much confusion. Then, and only then, will be the right time to set off the device. In the heat of the moment and the confusion of battle, no one will be able to tell who, for sure, fired the device. Both, knowing that we do not have such a thing, will believe the other did it. As is their policy, they will retaliate in kind. In this way, with only a single device, we can serve Allah, His name be praised, and destroy not only the forces of the two Satans in our country but, Allah willing, their homelands too.'
The colonel sat back in his chair and watched as the mullah thought over the argument just put forth. The colonel had used all the right words and had given the mullah something more than he could have hoped for-a means to strike at both of the godless infidels. In return, the colonel had, he hoped, bought a little more time for sanity to win out.
It was a desperate game the colonel was playing. But the stakes were high. Horribly high.
The mullah looked at him. 'Your plan has merit. I will present it to the Council. In the meantime, remove everything you need for the device from Tehran to a safe place where you can continue your work. Destroy all evidence of your work and keep us informed of your progress and when you will be ready.'
Without waiting for a response, the mullah stood up and left the room.
Both the physicist and the colonel sat there in silence for a moment, staring at each other, wondering what their next move would be and where the unfolding insanity would eventually end.
Chapter 6
Ever forward, but slowly.
The crews of the two F-15E Strike Eagles were impatient to go. While the ground crew made last-minute checks around the aircraft, they sat in their cockpits and watched the comings and goings of military transports and of civilian airliners pressed into military service. The sun was hardly up and already the place was a zoo. At one end of the runway, Army equipment taken off C-141 and huge C-5A transports was being marshaled. Next to that area was a supply dump where forklifts shuttled back and forth, moving crates from the runway to a temporary open-air storage site. Along the edge of the runway discarded packing materials and tie-downs were strewn about. For the past five days a steady stream of transports and airliners had been bringing in the rest of the 17th Airborne Division and its support equipment. Despite almost frenzied efforts on the part of the Military Airlift Command, called MAC for short, it would be another five days before the entire division was on the ground and the 12th Infantry Division could begin deployment.
Across from the F-15s a flight of Army UH-60 Blackhawk utility helicopters was winding up, preparing for the day's mission. The F-15s were to provide cover for the flight of Blackhawks, whose mission was to pick up a battalion of the 517th Airborne, one company at a time, and move it to a crossroad town by the name of Tarom, seventy kilometers north of Bandar Abbas. The Army was expanding the airhead by leapfrogging units to the north, east and west along the major avenues of approach leading to the Strait of Hormuz. The Marines, operating out of the port of Chah Bahar, were doing likewise. Both forces ran the danger of overextending and isolating themselves rather than isolating the people they were bypassing.
Risks, however, had to be taken. So long as the Soviets were still over five hundred miles to the north and Iranian resistance was disjointed, the risks appeared to be acceptable.
Finally cleared for takeoff, Major Ed Martain, nicknamed 'Thunderballs,' rolled his F-15 out onto the runway and taxied down to one end. The second aircraft followed Martain's. For a moment, all traffic was held up for them. As they went past the huge transports that were scattered about, Martain's weapons-system operator, or wizzo, commented that it reminded him of driving on the New Jersey Turnpike. Upon reaching the end of the runway, the two F- 15s turned, got themselves set and began to increase power. When they were ready, the pilots released the brakes, allowing the two aircraft to thunder down the runway. Both Martain and the other pilot, by unspoken agreement, kicked in their after burners and lifted off faster than necessary. They wanted to clearly demonstrate to all the trash haulers (their term for transport pilots) who the kings of the roost were.
Once the planes were off the ground, the wizzos changed over to the radio frequency of the E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System, or AWACS.
Martain contacted the AWACS controller, using his call sign for the day, Omaha 01. The controller gave him an update on the situation in the area of operations. With everything in order, the F-15s climbed to an altitude of 40,000 feet. Martain's wingman, Omaha 02, took up aposition two miles to Martain's left, a little behind and at 42,000 feet. When they were set, the two aircraft proceeded north of Tarom, where they took up station, flying in an oval patrol pattern. In this way they placed themselves between the most likely threat, the Soviets, and the air assault operation that was going into Tarom, while the E-3 Sentry, operating over the Persian Gulf, scanned the entire. area of operations with its powerful radar, watching for threats from any direction.
Radar, first used in World War II, is a double-edged sword. Radar emits an electronic beam capable of searching and tracking, like a flashlight's beam. And, like a flashlight's beam, it can, itself, be detected by an enemy and used to locate its source. Unfortunately for the transmitter of the beam, it can be detected at a greater distance than it can detect targets. Furthermore, each type of radar has its own peculiar signature, so that a radar beam transmitted by an E-3 Sentry and intercepted by an enemy can be identified as originating from a Sentry. For this reason the F-15s were running with their radars off. Although Soviet radar would be able to see the F- 15s, the type of aircraft would not be known until the F- 15s turned on their own radars or were within visual range of Soviet fighters.
Before that happened, the Sentry would see the Soviets coming and alert the F-15s. An airborne controller on the Sentry would track the Soviets, estimate their destination and intentions, and relay the information to the F15s. This information would include a plotted course that would allow the F-15s to intercept the Soviets from a position of advantage. Soviet controllers, working from the other side, would be doing the same for their pilots.
Omaha 01 and 02 had been on station for better than forty minutes when the controller on the Sentry alerted them that two 'boggles'-enemy planes-were flying southeast on a course that would take them over Bandar Abbas. As the control relayed information on the targets, the commander on the Sentry decided to commit Omaha 01 and 02 to intercept the boggies. Though Martain's two planes were primarily ground-attack aircraft, there was little use for them in that role and a pressing need for fighters. This suited Martain just fine. He had never liked the idea of becoming a mud mover and relished the idea of playing Steve Canyon, even if it was only for a day. While the pair of aircraft were still over two hundred miles away, the controller began to vector, or direct, Omaha 01 and 02 along an intercept course.
While one controller worked the intercept, others aboard the Sentry were looking for telltale signs of additional Soviet activity. The electronic-warfare operator checked for any signs of interference, jamming or electronic deception, called 'spoofing.' Other controllers watched their assigned sectors in an effort to find more boggies. The commander of the Sentry contacted headquarters at Bandar Abbas and informed them of the situation. He then instructed the controller working Omaha's intercept to remind Omaha 01 of the rules of engagement: he was not to fire unless fired upon. As yet, there had been no shooting incidents between U.S. and Soviet forces. This was shaping up to be the first confrontation between the two superpowers in Iran.
While the two sets of blips-one representing Omaha Flight and the other the boggies-converged on each other on the controller's radar screen, the commander of the Sentry watched the Soviets intently. He tried to detect any deviation that might indicate that they were being controlled by a Soviet AWACS or ground-control station and were aware of the F-15s' presence. At the one-hundred-mile point, there were no indications of that as the two sets of blips continued to close. The Soviets were coming in fast and dumb. The controller continued to relay information to Omaha 01 and study the two converging plots.
At the fifty-mile mark the F- 15s had maneuvered into a position to the left of the Soviets' flight path. This put
