Episode 6

Silverdale, WA

Captain Thaddius Marklee was just about to order his favorite, a Grande Mocha with extra foam, at the Starbucks across from Silverdale mall when his government-issued phone started to ring.  He was officially on call so he stepped out of line to take the call.  “Hello, Captain Marklee.”

A robotic voice answered.  “This is an alert message.  Report to your duty station at once.  Repeat, report to your duty station at once. Press 1 to confirm receipt of this alert message.”

Oh shit.  This isn’t good.  He dutifully pressed the one key on his phone as he walked out of the building, his immediate caffeine plans forgotten.  As the Captain of the USS Ohio’s “Gold” crew, he and his team were on alert status this week as they prepared to enter a training rotation at Bangor’s simulator facility.  Meanwhile, the shore crew had been stocking the Ohio with consumables and other stores getting ready for her next deployment.

Driving onto the submarine base, he drove across to the top of Triangle Pier and parked in his reserved spot.  Looking down the hill, he could just see the end of his command sticking out of one of the sub barns.  The barns, a holdover from when Ohio was a proper boomer, were used to shield operations from overflying spy satellites.   Not that the operations of Ohio were a mystery to anyone.  Marklee had looked Ohio up on Wikipedia the day he had gotten his orders to take command of the old girl.  What was listed there was pretty darn accurate.  Of course, there were still a few secrets she was hiding, but the basics were well known. 

No longer an SSBN (short for Ship, Submersible, Ballistic, Nuclear) or “Boomer” in Navy parlance, the Ohio and her three sisters were now SSGN’s (Ship, Submersible, Guided, Nuclear) which was a very rare distinction in the US fleet.  In short, she was a missile truck which carried a very large number of conventional cruise missiles.  A very rare bird indeed, one of only four ever commissioned.  Despite her age, she was one of the most potent non-nuclear strike platforms in the US inventory.  Capable of launching 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles from her 22 converted missile tubes, she could put a whole world of hurt on someone with very little chance of being detected beforehand.

After showing his ID to the Marine sentry, Marklee made his way down to the pier and into the barn. What he saw there caused him to pause. All twenty-two of her missile hatches were open.  A large gantry was just installing a container full of Tomahawks into tube number seven.  From the look of things pier side, the Ohio was about to take on a full war load. Considering the fact that a full load consisted of over six hundred million dollars worth of ordnance, she did not carry a full load very often.  In fact, the last time she had been fully loaded out, her mission orders called for her to support the opening day attack on Iraq.

Overseeing this activity with a stern eye was the Ohio’s Gold Crew COB or Chief of the Boat.  As the senior enlisted aboard, it was the COB’s responsibility to ensure that everything ran smoothly onboard.  Loading over one hundred missiles into the Ohio was not something that the COB was about to delegate to anyone.

“COB, did I order a batch of missiles and forget all about it?”

Chief Masters turned and gave his captain a lazy salute that only very senior enlisted could get away with or perform correctly.  “Could be Captain.  These here birds showed up about an hour ago and the weps pukes have a whole shit ton of hurry up on.  XO has a mission packet for ya onboard.  Sir.”

“Carry on COB.”

“Aye, aye, sir.”

Walking down to the wardroom, Marklee found his XO, frowning and reading over a very official looking set of papers.  They had the yellow/orange borders of “Top Secret” which meant that they were operational orders. It was very unusual for the evolution of a nuclear submarine to be interrupted.  Ohio’s sister, the USS Michigan, was already forward deployed to Pearl.  Marklee could not think of many things that would require both the Michigan and the Ohio to be staged out to sea at the same time.  Even during the height of the Iraq war, only one SSGN was stationed in the Pacific at any one time.  Dubbed the “Door Knockers” the Ohio class SSGNs had a very specific mission profile: go in and hit the enemy very hard when they were not expecting it.  If it was just a matter of chucking a couple dozen cruise missiles around, most of the surface combatants could do that.  On the other hand, if the Navy wanted a door kicked in, the Ohio and her sisters were very big boots to do the kicking.  Two Ohio’s were a whole can of whoop ass to open on someone.

“Hey Tommy.  Orders for us?”

Commander Thomas Leyland looked up with a lopsided grin.  “Howdy Skipper.  Didn’t you go out for a Mocha?”

“The needs of the service, Tommy.  The needs of the service.”

“You said it skipper.  Wait until you take a gander at these.”  He slid the documents over to his captain as Marklee took his seat at the wardroom table.

TO:  Commander, USS Ohio

FROM: ComPacSub

You are ordered to sortie within 24 hours or better.  At such time you are to make best possible speed to position Tango and rendezvous with the USS Michigan, USS Seawolf, USS Jimmy Carter and USS Connecticut.  You are to form S-TF Tango as commanding officer. S-TF Tango will receive additional mission briefs as needed.   S-TF Tango is to form mission plans for day zero A2/AD attack on mainland China.  See attached operation “Door Kicker” mission brief. Mission details subject to change after rendezvous at point Tango.  Transit to Tango at all possible speed.  Detection of secondary consideration to speed in this case.  S-TF Tango is to maintain ready status on a plus 24 basis until jump off orders are issued.  Chinese ASW activity is likely in AOE.  ROE alpha is in effect, take whatever actions necessary to protect your command.

God speed and good hunting.

There were a ton of materials attached including a mini-novel on Operation “Door Kicker” but every attack skipper in the Pacific knew the war plan.  This was “Plan A” for World War Three against China.  In effect, the USA would have a loaded pistol pointed at the head of the Chinese with the hammer cocked.

“Jesus Christ Tommy.  What the hell caused this?”

“If you dig down in the pile there, you’ll see a report on the Kidd.  Apparently, the Chinese got frisky and she had to defend herself.  In the process, she took out a Chinese frigate but also soaked up a ballistic to her stern.  She’ll fight another day, but they lost some sailors.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.  Then this happened.”  With a grim expression, he handed his captain an official after action report.

It only took a moment for Marklee to read the summary of the attack on CSG 1.  “Goddammit.”

“Yeah, it’s war.”

Marklee took a moment to compose himself.  This is what they got paid for.  He would damn well do the job.  “If we don’t sortie within six hours, they will see us.  Our next satellite window  after that is forty-eight hours later.”  Not that it was really required but it was traditional to sortie nuclear boats in “satellite windows” when nobody was overhead.  Every boomer captain knew when he had watchers overhead.  While no longer a “boomer” the Ohio and her sisters had started out as nuclear-armed missile subs and still largely operated the same way. 

“Yeah.  I think that’s kinda the point.  ‘Back off or we shoot.’  Well, that’s our job, right?”

“Roger that.”

“OK, you got COB sorted out?”

“Yeah, skipper.  We were mostly stocked already with consumables and we’re taking on a full war load of Tomahawks right now.  We should be locked and loaded in six hours.  The crew is reporting in now.  The recall system says we’re mostly checked in and acknowledged.”

“Yeah, mine worked this time.  Got the robocall.  Let’s get on the horn with the yard dogs.  We’ll want to schedule some tugs and an escort screen.  Pacific Command has a bug up their ass, we don’t want to be late to the party.”  Although only three of the Seawolf class attack boats had actually commissioned before the “peace dividend” at the end of the cold war killed their funding, they were powerful subs and all three of them were listed as part of Submarine Task Force Tango.  If they did decide to attack, there was a ton of firepower just in the five submarines of Tango.  Somebody was going to have a very bad day if push came to shove.  “Tommy, make sure that you set up a series of land attack drills for the tac team.  I think we’ll want to be proficient before we get to our rendezvous.”

There was only one answer to that.  “Aye aye, sir.”