Raven One - [3]

TLAM — Tomahawk Land Attack Missile; long range cruise missile launched from surface ships and submarines

TOPGUN — Navy Fighter Weapons School, Fallon, NV

Trap — arrested landing

VAQ — Fixed Wing Electronic Attack squadron

VAW — Fixed Wing Early Warning squadron

VFA — Fixed Wing Fighter Attack squadron

Viking — popular name for S-3B Sea Surveillance aircraft, also known as the Hoover

VMFA — Fixed Wing Marine Corps Fighter Attack squadron

VS — Fixed Wing Sea Control squadron (formerly Air-Antisubmarine squadron)

Winchester — out of ordnance

Wire — A 1.25” diameter steel cable stretched across carrier landing area to arrest tailhook aircraft, also known as “the cable” or “cross deck pendant.”

XO — Executive Officer

CVW-4 “ Tomahawk ” call letters AH “ Alpha Hotel ”

VFA-91 — Spartans — (side number 100) — “Spartan” — FA-18F — RR 8

VMFA-262 — Moonshadows — (side number 200) — “Red River” — FA-18C — RR 6

VFA-47 — Buccaneers — (side number 300) — “Cutlass” — FA-18C — RR 3

VFA-64 — Ravens — (side number 400) — “Raven” — FA-18C — RR 7

VAQ-146 — Sea Owls — (side number 500) — “Rickshaw” — EA-6B — RR 1

VAW-111 — Knight Riders — (side number 600) — “Knight” — E-2C — RR 2

VS-36 — Bloodhounds — (side number 700) — “Redeye” — S-3B — RR 5

HS-12 — Golden Angels — (side number 610) — “Switchblade” — SH-60F — RR 4

Strike-Fighter Squadron SIX FOUR (VFA-64) Officers

CDR Steve Lassiter — Commanding Officer — Cajun

CDR Bill Patrick — Executive Officer — Saint

LCDR Jim Wilson — Operations Officer — Flip

LCDR Mike Hopper — Maintenance Officer — Weed

LCDR Walt Morningstar — Administrative Officer — Clam

LCDR Ted Randall — Maint. Material Control Officer — Ted

LT Sam Cutter — Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor — Blade

LT Mike Van Booven — Safety Officer/LSO — Dutch

LT Kristin Teel — Training Officer — Olive

LT Zach Offenhausen — Quality Assurance Officer/LSO — Smoke

LT Nicholas Nguyen — AV/ARM Division Officer — Little Nicky

LT Ramer Howard — Airframe Division Officer — Prince

LT Tony Larocca — Line Division Officer — Guido

LT Melanie Hinton — Personnel Officer — Psycho

LTJG Josh Fagan — Schedules Officer — Nttty

LTJG Bob Jasper — NATOPS Officer/LSO — Sponge Bob

ENS Anita Jackson — Material Control Officer — Anita

CWO4 Gene Humphries — Ordnance Officer — Gunner

“Most of us, most of the time, live in blissful ignorance of what a small elite, heroic group of Americans are doing for us night and day. As we speak, all over the globe, American Sailors and Submariners and Aviators are doing something very dangerous. People say, ‘Well, it can’t be too dangerous because there are no wrecks.’ But the reason we don’t have more accidents is that these are superb professionals; the fact that they master the dangers does not mean the dangers aren’t real.

Right now, somewhere around the world, young men are landing aircraft on the pitching decks of aircraft carriers — at night! You can’t pay people to do that; they do it out of love of country, of adventure, of the challenge. We all benefit from it, and the very fact that we don’t have to think about it tells you how superbly they’re doing their job — living on the edge of danger so the rest of us need not think about, let alone experience, danger.”

George Will commenting after the loss of the

Space Shuttle Challenger, January, 1986

Map

PROLOGUE

The deck gun fired again, sending another ninety-six pound naval artillery round thundering into the night. For an instant, the muzzle flash from the big gun stripped away the concealing darkness, revealing the low angular profile of a U.S. Navy destroyer.

Part I

Lord, guard and guide the men who fly

Through the great spaces in the sky,

Be with them always in the air,

In dark’ning storm and sunlight fair.

Oh hear us when we lift our prayer,

For those in peril in the air.

Navy Hymn Alternate Verse

CHAPTER 1

The formation wheeled right, steadied on a heading of 165, and accelerated into the cold darkness. With Mosul just off to the left, the pilot selected the target bullseye on his navigation display.

Penetrating Iraqi airspace, the four FA-18 Hornets led a package of aircraft going downtown on night one. The pilot shifted the position of his back and legs in a vain attempt to relieve the strain of being strapped into his seat for the last two hours. He had at least another two hours ahead.

Three miles below was “friendly” Kurd territory, but from this height it seemed dark and foreboding. He checked fuel, checked his position off the lead, and scanned the horizon for threats. His eyes, though, always came back to the mesmerizing confusion of moving lights on the far horizon: the lights of Baghdad.

“Ninety-nine Buckshot, armstrong.” The voice of the strike leader was calm.

The pilot raised the MASTER ARM switch to ARM. Pulling the trigger now would send off a radar-guided missile to find and kill its assigned target. The radar cursor bounced back and forth across the display like a metronome, but the display showed nothing ahead, nothing yet for the pilot or his wingmen to kill. Where are you? Come on up! Come up, you dickheads, and fight!