Acorn Squadron Chronicles: Earning Their Wings

By Jeff Cassell

The US government has been secretly experimenting with genetic modifications in animals to create a super weapon: a spy incapable of detection who can gather intel in any location. Altered to be able to understand human languages and communicate via computer devices with their human counterparts, the experiments involving highly-intelligent Eura

• Language: English
• Publisher: Relevant Publishers LLC
• Release date: Mar 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9781953263117

Book preview

ASC_1_Cover_copy.jpg

Acorn Squadron Chronicles

EARNING THEIR WINGS

by

Jeff Cassell

SUTTON, ALASKA

© 2023 Jeff Cassell: story

© 2023 Relevant Publishers LLC: cover design and interior images

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents contained within are either products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. If any long-standing institutions, agencies, public offices or events are mentioned, the characters involved are wholly imaginary. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is merely coincidental.

Relevant Publishers LLC

P.O. Box 505

Sutton, AK 99674

www.relevantpublishers.com

Cataloging-In-Publication Data

Names: Cassell, Jeff, author.

Title: Acorn Squadron Chronicles, Earning Their Wings/ written by Jeff Cassell

Description: Sutton, Alaska : Relevant Publishers, LLC, [2023] | Interest age level: 010-013 |

Summary: When the US government experiments with genetic modifications in animals, they create a special breed of highly intelligent squirrels capable of communicating with humans. When the Pentagon gets word of this potential, the Air Force initiates Project Oaktree. In the tradition of Navajo Code Talkers, these recruits are trained to fly small aircraft for low altitude drone flight operations in the Middle East over hostile territory with the intention of gathering and sharing intel.

Identifiers: LCCN: 2023930183 | ISBN 9781953263100 (paperback) | ISBN 9781953263117 (ebook)

Printed in the United States of America

DEDICATION

To my wife, children, grandchildren,

and US military personnel past, present and future.

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 1

The wandering unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) incident of June 22 had some high-level people talking. The multi-million-dollar, RSARC type QR-13 drone was flying twenty miles north of Bagram when it suddenly disappeared from radar. Apparently, the drone slammed into a mountainside about one hundred feet away from a US Marine patrol. It was beginning to look like heads were going to roll over the failure. The reason for the drone’s crash was ‘unresolved technical issues with the guidance system.’ The powers-that-be decided it would be a good idea to look into the contractor’s program.

This accident hadn’t been the first event of its type. Earlier, a similar drone from the same squadron lost control. It had been flying at a considerably higher altitude when it disappeared from radar. Presumably, the drone ran out of fuel and crashed in an undetermined location.

A flurry of emails notified contacts in the Department of Defense (DoD). Appropriate material contractors were informed of the meeting. Over the next twenty-four hours, representatives gathered at the Pentagon. A nasty finger-pointing session took place. No one wanted the blame for a highly classified drone flying into the side of a mountain.

After a few hours of discussion, several items were found to be contributing factors of the crash. First, there was a software design glitch. The engineers at the drone’s manufacturer, BuzzBird Inc., had been working to correct the problem for the past three months.

Finally, the US military awarded a drone guidance system contract to a remote-control toy company in China. The reason was their low bid. In retrospect, this probably wasn’t the best idea. Historically, a selling point for business negotiations was the lowest contract bidder. Now, it became something no one wanted to talk about.

The drone program was too important at the moment to just scrap. The intel that the fleet of drones had proven capable of gathering was impressive. It minimized risks to soldiers and saved lives.

At noon, all the empty donut boxes and white foam coffee cups were cleared away, and the meeting continued. For lunch, local deli sandwiches were served along with bottled water.

Edward Levoy was a creative, twenty-five-year-old designer at BuzzBird. He munched on his Reuben sandwich then thoughtfully said, Too bad we can’t use trained rats to fly the drones during the control blackouts, as he snickered.

Several people laughed at his absurd idea. A number of jokes circulated around the table about USAF pilots with tails. Perhaps they could be enticed with an attractive retirement of cheese for life.

Air Force Major Renee Purnell sat back with her tuna on whole wheat. As liaison for the Government Accountability Office (GAO), she frowned. Major Purnell had an Amazonian appearance. Standing six feet tall without heels, she had captained her university’s undefeated women’s judo team. Whenever she spoke, the men in the room gave their full attention.

Gentlemen, I know of a program a CIA outsourcer has been working with that might be of interest to you. She arched an eyebrow.

The room grew silent.

She continued, What if you had access to a laboratory-modified species of small animal? One so intelligent they are already learning how to become special operatives?

The others at the table looked at her with a mix of disbelief, fascination, and eagerness to hear more. General Alex Prague leaned forward with his hands clasped.

Please, Major, do continue!

Purnell explained the top-secret program. It was designed to produce a new type of field agent that could be used abroad or in the US. These hybrid agents can listen, observe, and report on actions in full view of the subject in question without anyone being the wiser. More importantly, they can do so while remaining impossible to detect with conventional bug-finding equipment.

These animal agents are fluent in English and currently adept enough to communicate with their human counterparts using a keyboard. They have the basic knowledge needed to both transmit and recover digital data. She paused, And, I think they could also be trained to operate small aircraft.

You could have heard a pin drop in the conference room. For ten seconds the room was totally silent. Then, a combination of derisive laughter and ridicule sounded around the table. However, a lone voice of reason rose above the group.

What kind of animal are we talking about here, Renee? General Prague asked.

Purnell scowled at the doubters for a second. She sat up straighter in her chair. Eurasian red squirrels, General. One of them from the original program spent several weeks aboard the International Space Station. It served as an assistant safety officer, she added quickly. Purnell tried to head-off any snide comment being readied by Levoy. He sat back with a look of disappointment. ...And another procured pertinent intel about visitors to the old Soviet Embassy in Berlin!

The general considered these fascinating facts for a moment. Then he nodded at the young officer to his left. Lieutenant, get with Major Purnell after we adjourn. Contact this program about the squirrels. It may be exactly what we need!

It was less than six months since that highly classified and extremely unusual meeting at the Pentagon. The usual slow pace of the military was moving at an impressive rate. Everyone worked hard to save the vital drone program, and Major Purnell’s idea was put into action.

On a clear morning in late March, the success of Project Oaktree quietly arrived. In an empty little patch of practice airspace on the northeast side of Creech Air Base in Nevada, tiny pilots had taken to the skies.

Cadet Flight Training Instructor Captain Abigail Manx stood on the desert floor. She rocked back on the heels of her boots. Her hands were clasped casually behind her back. A wireless communications headset sat over her cap. She held a shoe-box-sized remote control suspended from her neck by a black nylon-webbed strap.

Abbi, as she liked to be called by friends, was one of the first female, F-16 combat pilots. She’d completed an undisclosed number of hot missions in Iraq. Then she was reassigned to Eielson in Alaska. A great place to cool off after being in the desert, she quipped. Later Captain Manx was chosen to join the flight instructor’s cadre at the sixteenth WPS at Nellis.

Her security clearance had been upgraded to Top Secret solely for this current mission. Captain Manx was assigned to oversee the basic flight training of a highly classified group of new pilots. Ironically, their very existence was formally denied by DoD.

Captain Manx was looking up at a single-engine, propeller-driven training airplane flying two hundred feet above her. The silver and blue model plane had a six-foot wingspan. Currently, it was completing football-field sized orbits around the officer’s position. The plane was listed as a utility practice drone in the base material inventory. It was an authentic-looking Beechcraft T-34 Mentor scale replica. The intent of this model was to familiarize newcomers to the drone program. Basic remote-control aircraft theory and application were taught. But this modified little airplane was being used for a very different purpose.

The woman spoke calmly into the mic on her headset, Okay, Charlie One, I want you to execute three slow, horizontal figure eights. Enter from the south and use due north as your baseline. On my mark. Copy? Over.

Charlie One copy, three figure eights from the south, using due north as baseline. On your mark. Over. He called into his headset.

Technical Sergeant Mike Vellor, a Vermont native with a calm disposition, stood in the open doorway of a black Humvee. A specialized equipment trailer was hooked to the back. He smiled and shook his head of sandy blonde hair. Even though he’d been with the program since its inception, he was still amazed at what he saw. In the front seat, a male Eurasian red squirrel named Cadet Three sat typing on a keyboard. He wore a miniature Air Force flight suit. Cadet Three was the comm guy, short for communications guy. He was responsible for accurately inputting