Chapter 2

I looked up over the vehicle to see Jimmy waving to me to say that the visitor was okay. Deep down I knew that we should exercise much better security; at the same time I realized that we had such a small site that any incursion would be final. The only way to avoid capture would be to be elsewhere, we three weren't going to fight off shit.

"Lieutenant Nichols, what can I do for you ma'am?"

The LT was our platoon leader, and the main reason that Stretch and I were here. I had given a briefing on jamming and TACJAM at one of her OCS courses. When the battalion discovered that they had three TACJAM systems waiting for them at POMCUS without any trained operators in the unit, she remembered me at good old Ft. Devens. She lobbied the General to request support from TRADOC, and they got three SSG instructors, and three SGT and SP4 students to man the systems. SSG Wolfelt and SP4 Simmons were in the other system on the south side of the division. SSG Brigham and SGT Fields were killed last week by a MIG strafing their site.

"Hello Staff Sergeant, I have some bad news." I tensed up a bit, "Apparently the Soviets decided to cut down some of our technical military advantage by getting rid of the brains behind it. They dropped a MIRV on the Boston area. Everything within 50 miles of the coast is gone. I know they were going after Raytheon and places like that, but they got your family as well. I'm sorry Mick."

I just stood there in shock. My wife and daughter were gone, killed in a war that still made no sense. We had talked about them going to Indiana to stay with my folks, or to North Carolina to be with hers, but there had not been enough time to get everything done before I had to leave, and now there was no need.

Stretch came over and hugged me, her folks had been near DC when it went up, and I had comforted her then in the same manner.

"I do have some good news as well, if you are up to hearing it?"

"Y ... yes ma'am, go ahead. I'll be okay soon. What have you got?"

"Since I am responsible for snatching you folks into this mess, I finally persuaded the Captain to let you run a mission the way you think it should be done. After this last fiasco he was willing to listen. How did you get out of there anyway? I know there wasn't enough warning from us."

"Debra here had a feeling and we took off before you told us to. If you look at the back of the hut you will see just how close it was." I pointed at the piece of missile. "What do you mean let us run it?"

"I mean that you are the experts and it is silly to ignore everything you taught me about jamming doctrine. I'm going to give you a mission with a goal that you should be able to handle. I expect you to coordinate with the other team and do me proud. If you are successful there could be a lot more missions like this. You may change the whole course of the battle, or war."

"Go ahead ma'am, you have our attention." Stretch had straightened up beside me and I could almost feel her focus on the LT.

Lt. Nichols pulled a map out of the HUMV and spread it onto the tailgate of our goat. She looked up then and saw Katrinka sitting on the litter where I had been. "Oh ho, what have we here Staff Sergeant? A little young for you isn't she?"

"Take it easy LT, she was hungry and hurt. We're just helping her out for now. You don't think that I would give her a black eye like that, do you?"

"No Mick, I don't. Sorry about that. Do you think it will be alright to talk in front of her?"

"If she was a spy we'd already be toast. I can't think of anything anyone needs to know about us but our position. She didn't need to stay to give that away."

"Good point, so long as you don't let her leave before the mission is done I won't say anything. The less the CO knows about you guys, the better." She winked at Debra and me. "Okay then, here is what we have for you. There is a counter-battery radar that has been giving us a large amount of trouble. DF has given us the controller's position, but just blowing him away wouldn't stop the radar from calling down arty on what we use against him. What we want you to do is to isolate him without the radar operators knowing it. We want you to interrupt his signals to the artillery batteries and give us a chance to capture him and destroy the radar. You have until 1700 zulu tomorrow to set it up. We are going after him then one way or another. If you have done what you keep telling me you can, it will save a lot of lives."

In other words, step up to the plate or quit complaining. "What's the main call sign?"

"Okhota 56, and here is the entire layout of his net as far as the C's could figure it." The lieutenant sat a notebook down on the map.

"Oh boy, we have been listening to this dip shit for weeks. I've even heard Stretch mimic him. I'll get a plan together and let you know about the time of implementation ma'am. It will probably be a little bit before your jump off time. Do you want me to call you when we start, or just do it?"

"Give me a call Sarge, all you have to do is transmit on my freq, "Boston", and I'll know that the mission is underway."

"Good enough ma'am, hey Jimmy, get over here." I looked up at Katrinka standing in the back of the goat, "could you play guard for us hon? You don't have to do anything but warn us if anyone comes around."

The slight girl nodded her head and affirmed, "Da, I watch." She stepped down and moved over to where Jimmy was coming from.

Lt. Nichols shook my hand and got back into her hummer. I dismissed her from my mind as I took hold of the problem.