unit, and radio call signs and frequencies. Radio speakers and hand mikes as well as tactical telephones were placed on tables throughout the TOC so that the appropriate staff officer could look at his map or update a board while talking on the phone or listening to the radio. To a casual observer, the TOC was sheer bedlam.
The confined area was filled with people coming and going, three different briefings were going on at the same time, phones were ringing. To the operations and intelligence personnel of 2nd Brigade, it was home.
Matthews sat before the intelligence map and posted information that had been received during the night but had not been posted during the move north. Though the situation was threatening, it was looking better than it had looked two days earlier. The two divisions moving toward them had been slowed down considerably. A combination of ground attacks by forces cut off but still fighting, raids carried out by the 17th Airborne along the Soviets' line of march and attacks by the Air Force had had the effect of slowing the Soviets and buying time for the 2nd Brigade to deploy.
Matthews' current projections showed that it would be four to five days before the Soviets could mount a deliberate breakthrough attack against the brigade. By then, they would be as ready as they ever would.
The deployment of the 2nd Brigade bothered Matthews. The tank and mechanized battalions, reorganized into combined-arms task forces, had been placed across the main avenues of approach to the south. The 3rd Battalion of the 4th Armor sat on the road and blocked it. The 1st of the 29th Infantry was covering a secondary avenue to its east. These units, placed in close proximity, could support each other in a pinch depending on where the Soviets made their main effort. But the use of a light infantry battalion attached to the brigade gave her concern. A valley west of the brigade's main sector ran south from Harvand, past Hajjiabad to Tarom. The infantry battalion was assigned the responsibility of covering this approach. Because the road network was so bad there, the 12th Division G-2 felt that the Soviets would not risk sending heavy forces south through Harvand. If that did happen, the infantry battalion was, in their opinion, capable of stopping the enemy in the restricted terrain there. Failing that, the battalion could delay the enemy long enough for the armored or mech task forces to shift over and reinforce the air assault battalion. When Matthews volunteered that no infantry unit had yet been able to delay, let alone stop, a Soviet mounted attack, she was politely told to confine her attention to Soviet operations.
While she had some support for her position, no one changed the plan as it stood. For better or worse, the die for the 2nd Brigade's first battle was cast. After thirty eight days of waiting and twelve thousand miles of travel, they were at the front.
Chapter 12
Russians, in the knowledge of inexhaustible supplies of manpower, are accustomed to accepting gigantic fatalities with comparative calm.
The town suddenly became clearly visible in the distance as the two F15s flew over a low ridge. Martain tilted the plane slightly to the right and began to accelerate. 'Aliabad dead ahead. Air defense status?'
The wizzo scanned his instruments. There was no indication of Soviet target-acquisition radar signals. 'All clear. Go for it.'
'It' in this case was a fuel dump that had been located in the vicinity of Aliabad by an early-morning air reconnaissance. The Soviets were still setting it up and had not had enough time to complete its camouflage before the sun was up. One fuel bladder, completely full, and a partial view of second fuel bladder being camouflaged, plus a five-thousand-gallon fuel tanker, caught the eye of a photo-image interpreter aboard the carrier U.S.S. Hornet. Knowing that fuel dumps were high-priority targets, he passed the photos and his analysis immediately to his supervisor, a staff intelligence officer. The officer confirmed the analysis and forwarded the information and the photos via facsimile to the intelligence section of CENT COM aboard the U.S.S. Berkshire. There the information was again reviewed, this time against photos of the same area the day before.
Once it was verified that the target was new and was in fact a fuel dump, the information was passed on to a targeting officer.
The targeting officer reviewed the target profile and analysis along with those of other targets, assigned a priority to the fuel dump and placed it on the consolidated target list. Its place came immediately after nuclear capable Soviet units and headquarters of divisions or higher units.
Once the target list was completed, assets available to hit those targets were assigned. The targeting process is difficult in that not all targets are marked for destruction and there are never enough assets available to hit all targets. Some, such as 'command-and-control nodes,' or headquarters, can have high-tech intelligence assets focused on them in order to gain more information.
The same command-and-control node could also be neutralized with electronic jammers that would impair its ability to command subordinate elements. If the target is sufficiently stationary, special operations forces could be deployed to strike it. In the case of the fuel dump at Aliabad, a squadron of F-15Es was assigned the task of taking it out immediately.
Once the target list was approved, orders were cut and sent out to the appropriate headquarters. All information concerning the targets went along. The operations officer of the unit assigned to each target developed the unit's plan of attack, or, if time permitted and it was necessary, additional recon of the target was requested before the final plan was developed. The wing operations officer reviewing the intelligence data on the fuel dump decided against additional recon. He had sufficient data to work with.
An air attack involved several different players and was planned in phases.
These phases normally included the flight to the target by the attack aircraft, suppression of enemy air- defense elements, called SEA DE (pronounced 'seed'), by special aircraft, the actual attack on the target, and the return. If the primary target could not be hit or did not require all the ordnance being carried, a strike against a secondary target was also planned.
Travel to and from the target had to be carefully planned by the operations officer of the assigned unit, since the attacking planes would be flying not only over enemy air-defense units but also over friendly forces armed with air-defense weapons. To ensure against errors by nervous soldiers believing in the philosophy of 'Shoot them down and sort them out on the ground,' temporary air corridors to be used by the attackers would be set up. Army air- defense elements would receive the word about where these air corridors were and when they would be open. The rules are quite simple when it comes to air corridors: Any plane in an air corridor when it is open cannot be engaged by friendly forces unless the aircraft is definitely identified as hostile. If friendly aircraft stray from established air corridors or miss the established times, they are fair game to ground antiaircraft fire.
Dealing with enemy air defenses can be done by hitting the air-defense units or their radars, by jamming the airdefense radars or by simply avoiding them. Specialized aircraft and units, called 'Wild Wessels,' do nothing but suppress enemy air defense in support of attack missions. They precede the attackers and clear a corridor through enemy air defenses so that the attackers can reach the target and get back. Air-superiority fighters are also assigned to provide high cover against enemy fighters on patrol or intentionally dispatched to bounce the attackers.
An attack such as the one on the fuel dump requires split-second timing and a great deal of coordination. All services practice such operations in peace and rapidly get very good at it once war commences.
Martain was not pleased when he drew the mission to hit the fuel dump.
As the squadron's premier fighter pilot, With eight kills to his credit, he felt he belonged with the 217 aircraft providing cover, not playing mud mover. The squadron commander, however, was adamant that everyone do his time in the ground-attack role. 'After all,' the squadron commander said, 'if the government wanted you to be a fighter pilot they would have given you a big watch and a cheap airplane.'
Martain and his wingman would be the first of four aircraft that would hit the fuel dump. If Omaha Flight succeeded in taking out the fuel dump on its pass, the remaining two planes would hit an unidentified headquarters located a little farther north. The rest of the squadron was assigned the task of providing high cover to the attacking aircraft. For the mission, both Omaha 01 and 02 were carrying over sixteen thousand pounds of bombs, mostly
