Land Of Flatwater: Chip, Meet World Part 2
Colfax County Airstrip -- near Leigh, Nebraska -- 9:30am Central Standard Time Monday March 26, 1984.
"It's time," Bob said. "Doctor, you'll be on Marjorie with my Cadet Lieuts Scott and Tiffany. Your assistant Nurse Trofholz will ride with the Tina-Justin team on Wendolyn.."
Chip stood by his father. Saying last goodbyes.
"I guess are other new cadet got cold feet. Everybody lets board and head out.."
Chip looked his father in eye. "See you in a week, son."
"Yes, sir," Chip said.
Ed tried to stay official. He couldn't.
He grabbed his son. "I love you, son. And I am very proud of you."
Tears welled up in Chip's eyes again. He tried hard to blink them back. He didn't want Cadet Captain Tina to see him crying.
Chip broke away from his father and walked toward the open door of the plane. Eye still red. Tears drying.
Chip entered the plane, and was met with a harsh voice.."Glad one of the plebes could make it. Cadet Rochelle your seat is there. You can wipe your tears and grow up while you are at it."
Chip wanted to fire back, but he held himself. He's sitting in front of the radio set on the plane.
Chip felt a hand on his shoulder. "Hi, I'm Cyndi," Nurse Trofholz said in a soft voice. "What's your name."
"Cadet Chip Rochelle, ma'am," he said.
Cyndi smiled and rolled her eyes, "Please don't call me ma'am..Cyndi is fine. I'm not that old.
"Okay, Cyndi," Chip said. Still sad.
"I miss my mom and dad and we haven't left yet," Chip muttered.
"I understand," Nurse Trofholz said. "I miss my husband."
"Is he dead?" Chip asked somberly. The question is a common one since February 21, 1984.
"I pray he isn't" Cyndi answered. "He's in the Air National Guard 173rd Squadron."
Chip perked up. "They shot down the Russians trying to bomb North Platte. I hope he's still alive."
He looked back at his dad standing on the tarmac. The soft spring wind blowing on the hazy morning.
Two more cars drove up on the tarmac. Beechcraft Bob walked up to one of the cars. Another group of boxes were handed to him.
"Sorry for cutting it close," Dana said. "But the wife just finished this batch."
The boxes contained Potassium Iodide pills, and Dana's wife made extra...She also made Bob's favorite.
"How the hell did scrounge up enough material to make a carrot cake?" Bob smiled.
"That's my Mags for you," Dana said. "Best thing I ever did was marrying her."
"I also found this straggler by the side of the road with a flat.."
The car behind him was a pickup truck. Walt Prestridge at the wheel...and Jill in passenger seat.
"Sorry we're late sir," Walt said. "The spare was flat, too. Dana came out and rescued us."
"Glad you made it we were worried we'd be more shorthanded than we were."
Jill stepped out the truck with Walt.
"Auxiliary Cadet Prestridge reporting as ordered, sir," She said in her cute voice."
Bob handed her a new uniform. "You are no longer Auxiliary Cadet Prestridge now," he said sternly. "Welcome to the Civil Air Patrol, Cadet! Report to Wendolyn...You're late cadet!"
Bob pointed toward the door, and he pulled out his walkie talkie
"Captain, your stray cadet just made it...and we have carrot cake."
"Hey Dirt Track, what brings you here!" Ed said.
"Delivering some last minute cargo, you?
"Bringing my son here. He's going on this mission."
"You sending your little boy out into hell?" Dana said.
"He wanted to go," Ed said. "You know, I'm glad though. He feels that if he sees it all, the fear will go away. Hell, I don't know when the boy has had a good night's sleep since hell we got back from the Orange Bowl."
"Ed, whacha doin' after you see your son off?"
"Head back to the farm."
"Don't head back just yet," Dana said. "Actually, call Rick and tell him bring some of the CDU boys with him. I need to talk to all of you...Walt Prestridge is coming, too."
"What going on?" Ed was puzzled in his reply.
"Some concerns that people have about the NCF and how it'll affect us."
Jill's elfin frame headed up the stairs as Beechcraft Bob helped her place it in the luggage hold. She approached the door...just as Chip's head turned toward it...
Her hair was different. It was short and spiky, almost boyish...It was still red. The sunlight making it brighter. She was slimmer, like every kid was post-attack, it shows even in a bulky NBC suit...but it didn't matter to Chip.
She looked at him. Dorky headset aside, he was still cute. He was still Chip..
"Excuse me, Cadet! Cadet Captain Tina said. "Do you need a written invitation to get on the plane."
"Uh..no," Jill said meekly. Jill stepped on the plane.
"You'll assist Cadet Rochelle..." Tina snapped. "And remember you two that is not a toy.."
"Yes Cadet Captain Meany," Chip retorted.
"EXCUSE ME?"
"Yes Cadet Captain," Chip said as he was stiffling a growing giggle.
Even Jason in the co-pilot seat snickered a little.
"I wish Denny was here," Chip thought. "Maybe Tina wouldn't be so mean."
Jill strapped in right next Chip. No words just smiles.
"I always get a seat by you on the plane," Chip laughed.
Beechcraft Bob strapped into his pilot seat and calmly spoke into his radio.
CAP Marjorie to CAP Wendolyn -- come in...
CAP Wendolyn Roger...
I want to thank you all for coming on this mission, and a special welcome to Cadet Prestridge and Cadet Rochelle. Welcome to the Colfax County Civil Air Patrol. You are both are part of our county and our family.
All hands. We have a mission. We will carry it out with professionalism and honor. The things we've trained for. We will do. Your age doesn't matter now. You young people are the future and the future is now.
And lastly but not least...Heavenly Father bless this two plane and all the people on them. And extend your loving arms around who these planes are named. Each is named after a special woman in my life.
And keep all those we leave behind here in Colfax County safe. In the Lord's name we pray...amen.
Both pilots started the engines. The two enhanced Beechcraft Bonanzas began to taxi. Hardened, strengthened and ruggedized, Bob had been working on these special planes for years. And now they'd get a trial by fire.
Marjorie turned towards the main runaway. Bob set her up facing west...towards Kearney...
He took the throttle in hand. It felt smooth and easy, just like Marjorie's hand. The power flowed to the single engine. The plane bolted down the runway and Bob led the control yoke back....Into the skies into the unknown..
20 seconds later, Cadet Captain Tina followed. She was dry-mouthed and nervous. But it didn't show in the takeoff...She pulled the yoke back and within seconds, her plane was airborne.....As she took the Bonanza into a climb Chip and Jill were hand in hand.
Cyndi Trofholz noticed with a smile and a worried tear. "Reminds me of Todd and I," she thought.
Ronald Reagan Airfield/FEMA National Reconstruction Headquarters -- Columbia, Washington. -- same time
All forces...calling GOLF-OSCAR...This is Columbia...Echo-Tango-One-Four. Calling GOLF-OSCAR I say again...GOLF-OSCAR...Echo-Tango-One-Four...
The gathering order had been sent out a week ago and send then, planes had worked their way back to the former Walla Walla, Washington now renamed Columbia.
The airfield and lined up with aircraft, mainly cargo carrier and stray fighters. Rows of F-4 Phantoms, A-7s, Harriers, F-16s mixed with KC-135s, C-130s and a lot of smaller crafts, including a horde of surviving T-38s, which crews were frantically weaponizing.
The emergency federal government was trying to handle multiple immediate threats. There was a corpse crisis,a leadership crisis, because the acting President missing because of the actions of a rouge group in California....and the debriefing a surviving Strategic Air Command NEACP Staff.
"Soviets have built a base in Canada?!" The acting Secretary of Defense yelled. "You're fucking kidding me!"
"I wish I were," CINC-SAC said. "But when we were in CFB Cold Lake, we followed the battles. The Royal Canadian Air Force have been clashing with some Soviet Air Power for at least the last two weeks. The last transmissions we got heard the Minnesota Air Guard elements were in the fight, too.
The acting SecDef was even more stressed as were the assorted generals, admirals and aides in the room.
CINC-SAC Bennie Davis and U.S. Navy Captain Glenn Harper are in seats on the other side of the SecDef's emergency committee. You could see it was the first Senate Committee meeting of the post-attack era. The press was there, or more accurately the press representative of the emergency govenrment.
"You are both originally stationed at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska. What have you heard from that area? Are there any viable government units, anything survivable."
"Captain Harper would know more about that," CINC-SAC said. "He monitored more of the FEMA situation.
Captain Harper answered, "There is reason to believe that could be a viable government at least in Nebraska. Their Governor has made two addresses since the attacks."
"According to all the data," a FEMA official said. "Those communications were pre-recorded."
Captain Harper played some of his cards to the vest, but he also wanted this national government to get the hint.
"Maybe so," Captain Harper said. "But I do know that the state of Nebraska had undertaken extensive emergency preparations. It wouldn't be a huge stretch to think that a state government survived."
"What makes you so sure?" One of the generals asked.
"Mainly the makeup of the man in charge. The Governor of Nebraska is former U.S. Navy. I served in the SEALs with him in Vietnam. This man knows how to organize and, if necessary, knows how to fight."
The session went on for three hours. Just like in the days before the war, people who think they know often looked their noses down on those who actually did....All except for one..
"Excuse me, Captain Harper.." A striking woman in a professional blue dress said. "I need to speak with you."
Harper, in his Navy full dress uniform, turned toward the woman. "Yes, ma'am" He said.
"My name is Cheryl Brewster, threat assessment analyst...CIA."
"CIA?" Captain Harper. "We still have that?"
"Yes we do, I need to speak to you, so does my superior."
Second Lieutenant Robert Gates, United States Air Force. Wichita, Kansas. Director of Central Intelligence
Harper entered a building at the other end of the sprawling airfield. It looked more like another hangar than an office. Inside were relics of an era seemingly wiped away. A lot of people at radio sets. Other analyzing satellite photos. And maps...a lot of maps.
Harper was led to a spacious office. Inside was much like the outside. Maps aligned the walls, and a man was studying a lot of information.
The man looked earnest and scholarly. Such was in line with his history. The man was a history major in college, and grew in the CIA as an analyst on the Soviet Union, among other specialties. If there was one thing the Director of Central Intelligence knew in earnest, it was the concept of knowing thine enemy.
"Captain," the DCI said. "Please sit down."
Harper sat down tentatively. The military man, like many military people ,were wary of anything CIA. Gates sensed this.
"Don't be nervous, skipper," Gates said. "I'm as much Air Force as I am CIA, and my first job was in SAC. I speak your language. Here I need to learn a lot from you.
"I don't know that much, sir," Harper said.
"I find that hard to believe that a man known as 'Slide Rule' is a know-nothing," said the DCI. "I doubt a leader such as Bob Kerrey would trust a know-nothing."
Harper was a little taken aback as the DCI continued. "Yes, I know Lieutenant Kerrey, and what happened on Fourteen March, Nineteen Sixty-Nine. Medal of Honor well deserved."
"I know about you too, Captain. You are great friend of the Governor, so much so that you risked your career to send him data through back channels."
"If this is what this is about," Captain Harper said, "You can put me in irons and send me to the stockade now. I am entitled to my day in court under the articles of the Uniform Code of Military Justice."
"Calm down, Captain," the DCI said. "I don't want to arrest you. I'm glad you did what you did. Because helping Kerrey, really helps us...and we need your and the Governor's help."
"According to the committee I just got out of the Lieutenant doesn't exist anymore."
Gates smiled. "Most of the committee is behind the curve, Captain. Right now they are trying to piece together whats going on while trying to deal with what is in front of their face. We have enough issues trying to get the states surrounding us back on board., and getting a good handle on what military capability we have left...And General Davis and you have really piled on the plate."
"They asked what we knew and we told them,"
"About the Soviets? Gates said. "Hell, we should've seen that coming. Especially with the information we are getting about the USSR."
"What info?"
"They have the same issues we do. We don't know who is in charge and we have a lot of defense assets scattered, internal problems, and we're still at war...and they have more fronts than we do."
"Why are the telling me this,"
"Because you come recommended," Gates said. "I had a little chat with CINC-SAC and Admiral Jonas not long after you all got here. General Davis wasn't surprised and what we found out."
Again Captain Harper swallowed hard. He knew he broke a lot of regs to help his friend. What would happen now with a nation at war?
"They respect your smarts and your loyalty," the DCI said. "I'm counting on both, because we have a problem and you can help."
"What's the problem?" Harper asked.
"Do you know of a man named Tyler Tyles?"
"Haven't heard of him."
"Tyles," Gates began. "Was first known as U.S. Army Lieutenant Tyler Tyles. He was chopper pilot, and he was Army Intelligence. Supposed he was killed in action in 1971. Turned out he wasn't dead. He surfaced in 1973 in Thailand. It seemed he went into business full time as an arms dealer. While in Vietnam it was confirmed he had business dealing with the South Vietnamese Government and with the Viet Cong. The money and contacts he built in turn created his business."
"From 1973 to 1979, he grew from a little tadpole into a killer whale. When got him in 1979, he was one of biggest arms dealers in the world. We brought him back to the U.S., We tried him...and he got away on a technicality. Since 1979, we had an agent on his ass....Code named "OPENING".
"Quite a story. LeCarre couldn't write better," Harper wisecracked. "Why sweat this. He's probably dead now."
"He's not dead," Gates said. "We have a man on the ground who knows he isn't."
"So what? What can he deal?" Harper said.
"It's what he's already sold that scares me," Gates said. "That's why I need you to open a channel with Governor Kerrey...a conduit. We need to show the emergency government here that we have a viable continuity there, from there we can take action if need be"
"Action for what?"
"To find and stop this man before he threatens the fragile recovery we are trying to continue."
"You'll need to spell this out for me CIA," Harper said. "What are you afraid of?"
Gates had to tell it all. "Captain, after 1979, Tyles dealt domestically, mainly to organized hate groups..Klan, White Aryans...those kooks..Among the things he dealt....were guns, rockets, RPGs.....and agrobacterial weapons, weaponized smallpoz, weaponized anthrax.
"How the hell did he get that?" Captain Harper asked. "I thought we destroyed all that stuff years ago."
Gates smiled. "We said we destroyed it...But every government keeps a stash...It just turned out that one of the keepers of the stash fancies wearing white sheets and burning crosses. Tyles purchased the goods...and the man."
"We have a radius where this man is...Idaho.. We will find him and kill him. OPENING was sent to Nebraska two years ago, when we had a confirmation on Tyles. He was working with a white power group. The data you sent Governor Kerrey confirmed our earlier reports. Tyles is in Nebraska, and OPENING will kill him, But we help on the ground to find him...that is why we need you to open a door for us to eliminate a threat that could strangle our reborn nation in the womb."
to be continued.
