Desert Storm Action Packed Techno Thriller (2/3)

By Jeff Dejent

Desert Storm Iraq War Technothriller (2/3)
Keywords: Fiction, Adventure, War & military, Mystery, Thriller and Suspense, Action Packed, Technothriller

The second book opens with all the men and women under canvas in Saudi Arabia, scant miles away from the hostile border with Iraq. Iraqi fighter planes pose little danger as F-15E Eagles keep these at bay. Neutralizing Scuds, however, proves a great deal more difficult than anticipated by stateside planning teams.

For one thing, it is nearly impossible to fly at 300 knots per hour a few hundred feet above ground and tell the difference between a commercial truck and a Scud missile launcher. U-2 and A-10 pilots improve their tactics from one mission to the next. Yet everyone’s thought is to ask Stanley Craypool for help. Unfortunately- Iraqi intelligence officers have kidnapped Stanley and his girl friend, and taken them to a remote farmhouse for torture and interrogation.

Just as combat operations seem to be moving along in a ‘business as usual’ manner. Roxanne Denise La Fontaine is shot down over enemy territory. Locating the plane and injured pilot is not much of a challenge. But the men realize, from their experiences during the War in Viet Nam. That the enemy is certain to set up a perimeter ambush around Roxanne’s downed A-10. Will Roxanne perish in a withering crossfire between friend and foe? By: Jeff Dejent in association with Dynamic Entry Productions, LLC

Keywords: Fiction, Adventure, War & military, Mystery, Thriller and Suspense, Action Packed, Technothriller

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jeff Dejent
• Release date: Jan 10, 2015
• ISBN: 9781940028088

Jeff Dejent

Jeffrey Dejent grew up and went to school in Milwaukee Wisconsin. He graduated from college in June of 1970. Away from the keyboard Jeff likes to ride bicycles and go jogging. When it snows he dabbles in things like software defined radio and computer hacking. Jeff welcomes comparisons / criticisms of his novels and screenplays against the works of the late greats Stephen J. Cannell, Mister Tom Clancy, and of course Mister James Patterson. He would be happy to ghostwrite for one of the big names in the industry. Problem is, the lines are so long, you have to take a number. If you cannot find anything new by Tom Clancy or James Patterson, you should give Jeff a try. If your favorite television shows include: Criminal Minds, NCIS, and Numbers, you will enjoy Jeff. Jeffrey Dejent, Novelist, Screenwriter, in association with: Dynamic Entry Productions. LLC

Book preview

CHAPTER 5 IN COUNTRY AND UNDER CANVAS

Scene 49 Billy Hollenbeck and Daunte Williams Have a Word With General Danziger

Scene 50 Lieutenant Colonel William Norman Irons Out a Family Problem over the Phone

Scene 51 The 404th CAS Squadron Command Tent, Colonel Curtis Parmelee Presiding

Scene 52 Sometimes A Little Jet Fuel Will Splash On Your Cockpit Glass

Scene 53 Combat Air Patrol through Kill Boxes Four and Five

Scene 54 Roxanne Gets A ‘Dear Jane’ Letter From Lenny

Scene 55 SCUD Hunting In Layers. Major Perkola On Top In A U-2, Captain Lapeer In The Middle In An A-10, And Captain Melvin And First Lieutenant La Fontaine Just Above The Ground In A-10’s

Scene 56 After Action Report And Plans For The Future

Scene 57 First Lieutenant Roxanne La Fontaine Desperately Needs Someone to Talk To

CHAPTER 6 BOTH SIDES FOCUS IN ON STANLEY CRAYPOOL

Scene 58 Why Isn’t Mister Craypool Answering His Phone?

Scene 59 There is Nothing For Us To Do Until After Dark!

Scene 60 Stanley and Elizabeth Receive a Trio of Unexpected Visitors

Scene 61 Stanley Craypool and Elizabeth Maxwell Are Missing!

Scene 62 Orders from Baghdad! Craypool Must Be Out Of The Way!

Scene 63 The Trick Is To Fool Craypool Into Thinking He Will Live!

Scene 64 Retrieving a Phone Record without a Warrant

Scene 65 Hespara and Hazeva Uncover An Interesting Pattern Of Phone Calls

Scene 66 General Abdel Salam Jahrom’s Hands Are Bound

Scene 67 Bill Hespara and Benny Hazeva Reconnoiter the Hide Out

Scene 68 An Automobile Just Drove By!

Scene 69 Bill And Benny Hash Out Their Tactics Behind A Tree

Scene 70 The Gun Battle Reaches A Climax!

Scene 71 Beam Weapons And Patriot Missiles, Stanley Craypool Has His Say!

CHAPTER 7 FIRST LIEUTENANT ROXANNE DENISE LA FONTAINE SHOT DOWN BY ANTI-AIRCRAFT FIRE

Scene 72 Saddam Hussein’s Troops Probe the Kuwait Iraq Border, Beginning at Al Khafji, Saudi Arabia

Scene 73 The A-10 Alert Team Answers The Call To Duty. From The Mess Hall to the Attack Point

Scene 74 Lancer Flights Eight and Six Attack A Detachment Of Republican Guards Out Side Of Ash Shaqaya

Scene 75 Republican Guardsmen Go After a Downed Coalition Fighter Pilot

Scene 76 Captain Lapeer And Captain Melvin Return To The Mission Initiation Point

Scene 77 Master Sergeant Manujan And Staff Sergeant Meshgin Shahr Rush To Find The Hated Downed A-10 Pilot

Scene 78 The Air Force and Marines Assemble A Rescue Team

Scene 79 Roxanne Suffers Aches And Pains At The Crash Site

Scene 80 Master Sergeant Manujan And Staff Sergeant Meshgin Shahr Direct Vehicle Traffic Round The Crash Site

Scene 81 Final Plans To Rescue A Downed A-10 Pilot

Scene 82 The Marine And Army Helicopter Rescue Team Make’s It’s Way To Roxanne’s Crash Site

Scene 83 A First Lieutenant and Sergeants Manujan and Meshgin Shahr Hammer Out an Ambush Plan With General Jahrom

Scene 84 Roxanne La Fontaine Collects Her Thoughts after the Shoot Down-Crash Landing

Scene 85 The Rescue Attempt- First Order Of Business We Neutralize The Ambush Team

Scene 86 Sergeants Manujan and Meshgin Shahr Go For Blood

Scene 87 Private First Class Daunte Williams Goes ‘On Hook’ To Rescue First Lieutenant Roxanne La Fontaine

CHAPTER 5 IN COUNTRY AND UNDER CANVAS

Boots On The Sand, A Chinook Helicopter Touches Down

During Desert Shield (1 April 1992)

"Information presented on Defense Imagery is considered public information and may be distributed or copied. Use of appropriate byline/photo/image credits is requested. … This image or file is a work of a U.S. soldier or employee, (Sergeant Garrison) taken or made during the course of the person’s official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image or file is in the public domain.

Scene 49 Billy Hollenbeck and Daunte Williams Have a Word With General Danziger

Location: Camp Nevada, Just To the South East of Rafha, Saudi Arabia

Highway Thirty runs about fifteen miles inside of and parallel to the border between Saudi Arabia and Iraq. It is a broad, modern thoroughfare that stretches over a good one thousand miles of parched desert. All the way from the city of Irbid, Jordan in the northwest down to the city of Ad Damman, Saudi Arabia in the south east. There are a number of small towns dotting the sandy terrain from Irbid to Ad Damman, these mostly thirty to one hundred miles apart from one another. An American with both feet planted on the tarmac of thirty would be reminded of nothing so much as United States Interstate Highway Forty, especially the section of Highway Forty that wends its way through the states of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.

During the Desert Shield phase of the first war with Iraq the 14th Marine Expeditionary Unit hunkers down in the sand, on the west side of Highway Thirty just outside of the town of Rafha. The amenities at Rafha include a small airport, so while the fixed wing KC-130 Hercules transport airplanes assigned to the unit are parked back at the Prince Sultan Saudi Arabian Air Base. They can be brought forward on a moments’ notice.

The distance from Rafha on up to the Iraqi city of Karballa, due north is about the same as the distance to the Kuwaiti city of Al Jahrah, due west, roughly two hundred and fifty miles. Thus, it is just as likely the men of the 14th will be tasked with a thrust into the armored steel plate underbelly of Iraq as a feint to the east into Kuwait. Most of the men in the 14th assume when the balloon goes up they will head north into Iraq rather than west to Kuwait. As their maps show a minor highway connecting Rafha to Abu Sukhayr and a major highway, Nine, linking Abu Sukhayr with Karballa, Iraq. Even more persuasive, there is a small airport to the south west of Abu Sukhayr. A good spot to land lightly armored rotary and fixed wing Marine Corps aircraft.

Camp Nevada is laid out with trucks, Humvee’s, bulldozers, light tanks, and attack and transport helicopters, in a line just to the south west of Highway Thirty. That way, if the Iraqi’s cross the border and attack, the men of the 14th will have a clear field of fire across the highway and into the desert from the shelter behind their vehicles. Living quarters, read tents of all possible shapes and sizes, spread out behind the vehicles. You might think nineteen hundred marines would add up to nine hundred and fifty two man pup tents. The truth of the matter officers, billet in five to ten man tents, so the number of pup tents sums to a lot less than the calculated upper bound.

Lance Corporal Billy Hollenbeck and Private First Class Daunte Williams stand nervously just outside the entranceway to the officer’s mess tent of the 14th. The huge billowing light brown canvas tent staked in the sand immediately behind the tie down spots of the four AH-1W Super Cobra attack helicopters intrinsic to the unit.

Both Billy and Daunte wish they could put their hands in their pockets to help themselves stiffen up against the challenge of the task at hand. Just now, they struggle to locate the units’ commander, Lieutenant General Daniel Danziger, in the mass of officers seated at the aluminum folding tables under the canvas of the tent.

Over there, one table down from the salad bar. says Billy to Daunte, in a conspiratorial whisper.

He’s looking away from us, Hollenbeck, are you sure? queries the Private First class of the Lance Corporal.

How many guys in there have grey hair, Williams? counters Billy Hollenbeck.

Just then, the tall slender officer who is the subject of the conversation between the two enlisted men at the entrance to the tent stands to his feet. As the officer turns with his tray in his hands Billy and Daunte catch sight of his grim and determined face.

I told you Williams! says Billy to Daunte.

The two young men watch as the Lieutenant General walks to the trash can and sweeps his paper plates, napkins, and coffee cup, into the can with the back of his left hand. Determined and still a little scared, Billy and Daunte climb over the ropes holding the doorway flaps of the tent wide open, that they might have a word with the Viet Nam Veteran who now commands the 14th.

Once over the ropes the two enlisted men see Danziger slide his tray onto a rack and then begin his walk to the door of the tent. As General Danziger passes to the outside of the mess tent he sees two men, a Lance Corporal and a Private First Class, a Caucasian and an African American, click their combat boot heels and deliver a brisk hand salute.

The General halts and returns the salute. When he drops his right hand to the side of his chocolate chip fatigue trousers he says evenly.

Yes, gentlemen?

This is the first time either Billy Hollenbeck or Daunte Williams have even dreamed of talking with a man who has a single five-pointed silver star sewn on each of the shoulders of his fatigue shirt. As might be expected, both young men are nervous and flustered.

It’s about Lieutenant Colonel Norman, General Danziger, Sir. says Lance Corporal Hollenbeck.

Danziger pauses to read the nametags on both the shirts of the two fresh faced enlisted men standing at attention on his left. In a dry even voice, he says.

Let’s have it, Hollenbeck, Williams.

Billy Hollenbeck swallows as his face turns beet red. He replies.

General Danziger, Sir. We don’t want Colonel Norman out with us on patrol, sir.

Before the General can reply Daunte William’s pipes in.

Norman talks about Arabs as if they weren’t human, sir. He calls them rag heads!

The General nods his head slowly with his hands cupped at his sides.

A lot of people think Norman speaks out of turn, Gentlemen.

What if he orders us to shoot prisoners sir? Then what?! adds Billy Hollenbeck in a rising voice- just this side of strident.

Take it to Sergeant Major Del Campo. Del Campo will iron it out with Colonel Norman for you. explains the General in a patient voice to his two eager charges.

Billy and Daunte blink as they stand there in the sand at attention. While both young men feel relieved, the General takes their complaint seriously. Still they feel acutely embarrassed for by passing the junior officers in the chain of command and going all the way to the top. Both young men wonder if they are in for a write up.

Billy decides the safest way out is with a hand salute so he throws his right hand up to his forehead. Daunte follows suit. Both men worry the General will walk away as a sign of his displeasure with their overbold conduct. Luck is with Billy and Daunte this hot afternoon in the desert sands near Rafha, Saudi Arabia. The General returns their salute with about the speed you would expect from an officer who considers their actions legitimate. After the General drops his right hand to his side, he says.

Just do your share out there, Hollenbeck, Williams.

Yes Sir, General Danziger Sir! reply Billy and Daunte, one after the other.

The Lieutenant General has the last word with the two enlisted men.

With the scores you two got on the ASVAB, all you’re gonna need for the Naval Academy is letters of recommendation.

On that, Lieutenant General Daniel Danziger wheels on his heels in the hot desert sand and walks off in the direction of the Command Tent.

Scene 50 Lieutenant Colonel William Norman Irons Out a Family Problem over the Phone

Location: Camp Nevada, Just To the South East of Rafha, Saudi Arabia

By the month of September, 1990, the men of the 14th Marine Expeditionary unit are settling in to and getting accustomed to the ‘amenities’ of their nineteen hundred man tent city, named ‘Camp Nevada’ by the higher ups at the Pentagon. So much so- that when Lieutenant Colonel William, ‘Wild Bill’ Norman, USMC, walks into the command tent at about a quarter past six in the evening, Saudi Arabia time. He feels comfortable and secure, nearly expansive, striding between the tan canvas entrance flaps of the Command Tent in high top combat boots on sand.

Morale is actually quite high in the 14th. When you get right down to it, morale is quite high throughout the entire theater. First off, aside from work accidents, there had been no casualties. Second, patrols are going along smoothly. Intelligence bytes about Iraqi troop, weapon, and material displacements, are not only falling into place, they are making sense.

Third, most of the men are breathing easy with the knowledge if the SCUD missile launchers are anywhere at all. They are parked outside of either, Ar Rutbah, a goodly ways to the northwest of camp Nevada on Iraqi highway 10, else at Al ‘Amarah, nearly as far away to the north east on highway 6. There might not be any truly effective defense against the explosive force of an incoming SCUD. Yet, if you knew where they were, you might see something early enough on a radar-screen to at least have time to- ‘duck and cover’.

Once through the Command Tent flap entrance- with his briefcase in hand, Lieutenant Colonel Bill Norman glances left and right. Here his eyes light upon dozens of aluminum folding tables. Some of these with eight by ten inch card board signs reading: Command Element, Ground Combat Element, Aviation Combat Element, Combat Service Support Element, Billeting, Finance, Communications, and, Hospital.

It does not take a genius to recognize that General Danziger holds forth at the Command Element table, and the four tables surrounding. As there are sheets of plywood on the sand beneath these tables, that executive style full leather chairs with arms can move about on their caster wheels with ease. Moreover, behind the largest command table, near the tent wall, there are three artists’ easels. Each easel holding a sheet of cardboard to which maps of: Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, and, Saudi Arabia, have been affixed with the help of clear tape and thumbtacks.

Bill Norman has not much time to spare. Standing as he is for just a few moments at the bottleneck command tent entrance. There is a line of officers eager to get back to work after dinner in the mess hall is forming up behind and alongside him.

With the men around him starting to look impatient, Bill’s eyes finally come to focus on a long table near the far wall of the square tent. On the top of the table, he can see ten keypad style telephones, five phones facing north, and five facing south.

The phones, obviously set up that the officers of the 14th might make mission related communications to other bases, phone calls to stateside military locations, and, once in a while, that all important call to the wife and the family.

With a grim- ‘let’s get it over with’ -look on his face, Bill begins to march towards the table with the bank of ten open line telephones. Above him, like a spiders’ web, the maintenance crews have strung power cables, read heavy-duty three wire extension cords, connecting a mesh-work of naked light bulbs, and telephone lines, methodically wrapping the current carrying cables in loose spirals around lengths of clothes line. Quite naturally, Bill marches to the far side of the telephone table and takes a seat at the end. This way he can watch comings and goings in and out of the tent, and abort his phone call if the need arises.

Bill drops his canvas briefcase to the table and pulls out a folding chair. Once down in the chair he unzips the bag and retrieves a small notebook and a ballpoint pen. Lieutenant Colonel Norman sighs deeply. Then he bites his lower lip and begins key padding a stateside number. When the line connects, he arches his back at parade rest and says.

Quantico Hospital, please, base operator.

There is a brief pause while the operator connects the phone in Saudi Arabia to the hospital switchboard line in Quantico, Virginia. Then the Colonel explains.

This is Colonel William Norman. I need the hospital laboratory, please.

Yes. This is Colonel Norman in the 14th MEU. I need results on my son. William Norman Junior.

I’m not sure of his social, Ma’am. My last four are Nine, Nine, Four, One.

Norman’s face screws up like a penitent about to receive lashes on the back with a cat of nine tails whip. For a minute or two, he sits like a statue until the laboratory technician retrieves the results. When the female voice returns on the line, he presses down with the ballpoint pen until the point makes deep indentations on the paper in his notepad. For a few moments he scribbles notes next to some remarks he had jotted down many days previous.

Now Bill raises his eyes and stares out the door of the tent. He is quite obviously relieved to see neither hide nor hair of General Danziger. Norman takes a deep breath to steel his senses against the onerous task at hand.

Then he focuses back down on the oral laboratory report just received and queries.

Did I hear the blood group right, laboratory? … Type B, Rh, Negative. … B as in Bravo, R as in Romeo, h as in Hotel, negative?

There is a long moment while Colonel Norman looks down at the sand on the floor in front of his flimsy table. After letting most of the air out of his lungs, he says.

Thank you. … No that’s all I need. I can call Doctor Garnett myself, ma’am. … You too, ma’am.

Bill Norman waits until the line goes dead. Then he takes the telephone handset away from his face, momentarily looks at the mouthpiece, and lowers it to its cradle with a decisive clang. A long pause follows while Colonel Norman struggles with his emotions. At last, he goes into his canvas briefcase for a clean sheet of paper. Bill carefully folds the paper in half while biting his lower lip.

In the far upper left corner of the folded sheet, where people usually put a return address, Colonel Norman scribbles a fictitious name and a fictitious base housing address on the Quantico Marine Corps base. Then he writes the word FATHER in capitol letters at the left upper hand side of the paper, followed by the word MOTHER on the right upper hand side. Last, an inch or so further down on the paper, and in the middle, Bill writes the word SON.

Now Bill underlines the three words with his ballpoint pen. Then, under the word ‘mother’ he prints Blood Type O, Rh Positive. And, under the word ‘son’ he prints Blood Type B, Rh Negative. Last, Bill goes to the dog tags hanging round his neck on a silver metal chain.

The Colonel already knows his blood type, of course, but he wants to make sure. After a glance at his tags, he slides them back under his shirt. Then he writes Blood Type O, Rh Positive, under the word ‘father’.

Will he have to walk over to the hospital tent? Will there be a Flight Surgeon right here in the Command Tent? Norman raises his eyes and looks in the direction of the Hospital table. Here he spies four seated people- two men and two women. Bill notes the two men are in conversation with one another, while one female speaks on the phone, and the other sorts through a pile of medical records. Doing his level best not to attract attention to himself Colonel Norman cranes his head to get a better look at the four staffing the hospital table. Finally, he decides the older man, the fortyish looking guy with silver leaves on his shoulders, is probably a doctor.

Lieutenant Colonel William Norman stands to his feet. He slides his notebook back into his canvas briefcase, and zips it up. Then he begins walking to the hospital table with the folded sheet of paper clutched reluctantly, in his right hand.

At the front of the hospital table Norman waits patiently until both seated men finish their conversation. Glancing down Norman learns from the patches sewn on the chest of his shirt. The seated Lieutenant Colonel is in the Medical Corps, and that his name is Merando. Lieutenant Colonel Norman politely asks.

Do you have time for a question, Doctor Merando?

Lieutenant Colonel Nelson Merando stands and shares a handshake with Lieutenant Colonel William Norman. Merando can see from the nametag sewn on his visitor’s shirt his name is Norman. Norman’s eyes look a little distant, so the Doctor decides against asking him his first name. Smiling, he replies.

Nelson Merando, Colonel Norman. … Take a seat.

After the two men take seats, Bill Norman wastes no time on preliminaries. He explains.

One of my grunts is working his way through a divorce. He asked me to talk to you for him. … To keep something quiet.

As Bill Norman speaks he puts the folded sheet of paper down on the top of the aluminum table that Colonel Merando can read the words he printed on it right side up. Then Norman covers the fictitious name he scribbled in the upper left hand corner with the fingers of his left hand. By intent, Bill times his motions, that the Flight Surgeon will be fooled into thinking the laboratory data on the paper belongs to an enlisted man. Finally, Bill Norman starts to narrate.

The Lance Corporal. Sorry, scratch that. My grunt got blood tests done on his wife and kid.

Colonel Merando is completely taken in by Bill’s