Episode 97

Condor 49 (VP-4)

100 NM Northeast of Woody Island

“Ping Pong! Wake up!” Karsen was fuzzy from the blow to the head he had received when the P-8 crashed. He could taste blood in his mouth, but he didn’t seem to have any broken bones. Travers was hanging limply from her restraints and blood was trickling down her face.

One of the petty officers came forward. “Get out of here, the plane is taking on water!”

“Help me with her.”

“She’s gone man, get the fuck out of here before it’s too late!”

“No, she’s alive!”

“Fuck that, I’m outta here. This kite is sinking.”

Karsen reached over and grabbed the petty officer by the front of his flight suit. “You will help me get the captain free or God help me, I will kill you myself.”

Whatever the petty officer saw in Karsen’s eyes, he chose not to challenge the order further. Working together, they quickly got Travers out of her seat and began the arduous process of pulling her down the passageway to the side door. Like a commercial aircraft, the door was equipped with an emergency slide which was also a raft. Karsen pulled the handle to open the door and the emergency slide opened with a loud hiss of compressed air.

“Get her in there.”

“Sir, she’s dead. Let’s go.”

“She’s not dead, just help me. She fought this bitch all the way down to the water and saved us all. No way we leave her.”

Water was starting to invade the interior of the airplane as they got Travers into the slide. Karsen was careful to ensure that Travers was on her back and her face was uncovered.

“Make sure everyone gets out.”

“EVERYONE OUT! OUT! OUT!”

Most of the crew were mobile, a credit to the strength of the P-8 and the quality of the seats they had been strapped into. A few had head injuries like Travers and one had somehow broken their wrist. Within five minutes the entire crew was out of the plane and into a collection of six life rafts. Travers was the most seriously wounded of the group.

“Get the rafts tied together!!”

“Pull the emergency kit, get some shark repellent out!”

As the plane slid under the water, Karsen reached over to check on Travers. She was still unconscious, but she was breathing. Karsen breathed a deep sigh of relief. “Anyone a rated medic?” Silence. Unsure what to do, Karsen decided that just leaving her on her back was the safest course of action. Hopefully, she was just knocked out and would recover.

“Lieutenant! Over there!” Karsen wasn’t sure who had spoken, but after he straightened up, he could see the cause of alarm. On the horizon was a ship.

“That’s a frigate. Not one of ours.”

“Oh, shit.”

Karsen didn’t know what to do. What would Ping Pong do? She wouldn’t give up, that’s for damn sure. “Pipe down. Keep your heads down. Maybe they don’t see us. Who has the rescue radio?”

“Me, sir.”

“Get on the horn, report our position.”

“Aye, sir.”

Kersen could hear the rating muttering into the radio. It was unlikely that anyone was close enough to help, but it was all they had.

Over the next twenty minutes, it became obvious that the Chinese frigate had sighted them. The ship had turned and was significantly closer than it was when they had first sighted it. “They see us. I think we’re fucked.”

“What’s the word from command?”

“They say ‘hang tight, asset notified'”

“Asset notified? What the hell does that mean?”

Two minutes later, they had their answer.

“Torpedo! I think someone just torped that boat!”

“What the fuck?”

“I think it’s one of ours!! Holy shit! They blew the fuck outta that frigate!”

Everyone was talking at once. Kersen could hardly hear himself think. “Quiet! QUIET! JONES! Report in, let them know the frigate is down hard.”

“Aye, sir.”

“Periscope!! Periscope there!”

As everyone turned to look, a slender periscope surfaced and did a full 360-degree scan. Shortly afterward, a mass of bubbles came to the surface, followed by the most beautiful thing Kersen had ever seen; a sleek black shape emerged from the water.

“Motherfucker! Look at that big bitch!”

“It’s one of ours.”

“Is an Ohio class. I served on one my first cruise.”

“ROW godammit! Get over there!”

Between the air crew’s frantic rowing with whatever was close to hand and the submarine crew breaking out a rubber dinghy, they were able to pull the collection of rafts up to the submarine relatively quickly.

A grizzled Master Chief peered down into the motley collection. “You all right down there?”

“We need a medic. Most of us are fine but the captain here is unconscious.”

“Corpsman!! Chief Cox, front and center.” The submarine crew used a rope boarding ladder to help the aircrew onto the submarine and assisted with the still unconscious Captain Travers. “Move it! We’re a sitting duck here on the surface!”

After a remarkedly short period of time on the surface, the submarine returned to the safety of the deep water.