They're holding something back, and I want to know what it is.'
'We had a couple of TARPS aircraft up last night, Admiral,' Tombstone said. TARPS ? the Tactical Air Reconnaissance Pod System ? was a streamlined package flown on the belly of certain specially equipped Tomcats, containing a CAI KS-87-B frame camera, a Fairchild KA-99 panoramic camera, and a Honeywell AAD-5 infrared scanner. It gave excellent and highly detailed photographs of the terrain below, by day or night. 'It looks like the bombing strikes have been hurting them pretty bad.'
'No argument there. We've been getting the same story through satellites and high-altitude reconnaissance flights. The word from the Pentagon this morning was that we've been putting six out of ten of our targets out of action on the first pass, and we've already started doubling up on most of the targets that are left. Most of their major SAM sites have been knocked out, and their communications network is in a shambles. That the impression your aircrews have been bringing back?'
'Yes, sir. At this point, the biggest problem our planes face is from mobile triple-A, shoulder-launched weapons, even small-arms fire. Some of our planes have been landing with 7.62mm holes in their wings.'
Tarrant glanced at Brandt, then back to Tombstone. 'Gentlemen, about five hours ago the Pentagon got the final nod from the President. There was some question about how deeply the United States should get itself involved in Russia's internal conflict, but the word now is that White Storm is a go. The President has publicly declared full American support for UN Resolutions 982 and 984, and we are prepared to back them up with direct military intervention on the ground. We are going in to disarm the Russians, gentlemen. One way or another. CAG, you can pass that on to your people in your morning briefing.'
Tombstone's heart was pounding in his chest. 'Aye, aye, sir.'
'Air Force attacks will be continuing as well, of course, so it's likely to get a little crowded over the beach.'
'Are any strategic bombing runs planned, Admiral?' Brandt wanted to know.
'No, Captain. B-52s, B-1Bs, and B-2s deployed out of CONUS would all carry the risk of making the Russians think we're escalating a strictly regional conflict into global war… or that we might be trying to sneak in a preemptive nuclear strike.
'But anything else goes. Last night, the ships of II MEF shifted eastward to position themselves for the amphibious operation. That will begin at 1000 hours. Both Jefferson and the Ike will be joining the amphib force later today. Throughout that time, CAG, I want every aircraft you can muster in the air, hitting the Russians everywhere you find them, keeping them off balance. White Storm won't have a chance if Krasilnikov's people can catch their breath and concentrate their forces.'
'The next phase of the air op calls for interdiction of the rail lines and roads connecting the Kola bases with the south, Admiral,' Tombstone said.
'We'll be paying special attention to Kandalaksha, at the head of the White Sea, because that appears to be the hub of the local command structure.'
'Excellent. I know if anyone can carry it off, Tombstone, it's you and your people.'
'Thank you, Admiral. I'll pass that along to them.'
But as they continued discussing the day's operations, Tombstone felt the depression, the pressure, the spiritual tiredness that had been weighing him down for the past several days, returning. If the Russians had reserves, if they were holding something, anything, back, it would be revealed today when the Marines began storming ashore.
And Tombstone would be here, in Jefferson's Air Ops, while his people were dying.
Never in his life had he wanted more to disobey a direct order.
CHAPTER 24
During the night, II MEF had deployed for its landings. Covered by the Eisenhower carrier group, the Marine amphibious force had taken up a position some fifteen miles northeast of the land mass called Poluostrov Rybachiy, a near-island thirty-five miles long connected to the mainland by a slender isthmus at the head of a narrow bay called the Motovskiy Zaliv.
Within the U.S. Marine Corps, the Marine Expeditionary Force is the largest modern deployable force, consisting of a Marine division, an aircraft wing, and an MEF Service Support Group, a total of 48,000 Marines and 2,600 naval personnel. II MEF, assembled off the Murman coast under the command of Marine Lieutenant General Ronald K. Simpson, included two LHAs, Saipan and Nassau; two LPDs, Austin and Trenton; two LPH helo carriers, Inchon and Iwo Jima; the LST Westmoreland County; the LKA cargo ship Charleston; and an escort of two Perry- class frigates, two destroyers, and the nuclear-powered guided-missile cruiser Virginia.
The Marines' first beachhead was a stretch of low-lying dunes and tundra along the headland west of the Kola Inlet. In this part of the Murman Coast, the northern tree line ran east-to-west some twenty-five miles south of the beach. North of that line, the terrain was tundra, a region of frozen subsoil with only low-growing vegetation, dwarf shrubs, and stunted birches. Cover was scant, and tactical advantage went to the side with superior mobility. In a lightning operation, CH-53E Super Stallions approached behind an aerial blitz of Marine Harriers and Intruders, touching down long enough to disgorge their loads of fifty-five troops apiece. Close on the Super Stallions' heels were the air-cushion landing craft, or LCACs, troop-and-equipment-carrying hovercraft capable of traveling twenty nautical miles at forty knots, crossing sea, surf, or the flat, often swampy ground behind the beaches with equal ease.
Following the LCACs, rising from the water like snarling, prehistoric monsters, were the Marines' AAVP7s, boxy, full-tracked armored vehicles descended from the amtracks of WWII. Each carrying twenty-one men and a crew of three, they were capable of swimming through ten-foot surf on twin water jets or surging across the land at up to forty miles per hour. The Marines wasted no time on the beach, using their speed and maneuverability to push past or over the coastal defenses and to get into the enemy's rear.
Resistance was sporadic, though in isolated spots it was fierce. Most of the defenders were KGB Border Guards and Internal Ministry MVD troops, indifferently trained and disoriented by the savagery of the aerial attacks.
Fifteen minutes after the Marines began hitting their beaches and LZs, those units were beginning to surrender in droves.
Some beach positions, however, were held by Naval Infantry, members of the 63rd Guards Kirkenneskaya Naval Infantry Regiment, with its main base in Pechenga. These troops, the Russian equivalent of U.S. Marines, put up a stiff fight, refusing to surrender and clinging to their positions with an almost fanatic tenacity.
As the fight for the beaches continued, however, additional Marines were being ferried far behind the coastline, angling in from the northwest toward naval and air bases scattered along the west banks of the Kola Inlet. Local radar sites were either in ruins or in hiding, and Marine Harriers off the Saipan and Nassau flew close- support missions that cleared corridors from the sea to the inland LZs. By late morning, Marines were fighting a hundred separate battles, from Port Vladimir to Sayda Guba.
Meanwhile, the attack aircraft of the carrier battle force, protected by Navy Tomcats, were picking up the tempo in their relentless hammering of the Kola bases.
Coyote glanced from one side of his canopy to the other, noting that the other aircraft in his flight were in position. The sky was clear, empty save for a few scattered wisps of cirrus at high altitudes. Ahead and below, skimming the barren land at three hundred feet, were three A-6 Intruders and an EA-6 Prowler, a strike force with the call sign White Lightning One.
Coyote and Cat were following at one thousand feet, in tight formation with three other Viper Squadron
