Eyes of the Hammer (The Green Berets) (16 page)

Marzan answered from memory. "Strike will occur at 0430 and our exfil will be at 0538."

Macksey considered that. "What do you think the chances are of the Colombian forces getting to the target area in that time frame?"

Marzan paused for a second as he thought out his answer. It had been a question the team had spent a lot of time on. "Sir, I think the chances of that are slim. First, they have to know something happened. Our target is pretty isolated, and if we destroy all personnel on the site, that eliminates a possible source of alert.

"Second, even if someone escapes it is unlikely that they will alert the military. There is the possibility some civilian might report the firing, but in Colombia the people have learned to keep their mouths shut about violent acts."

Macksey was satisfied. "All right. If you need to move up that exfil go ahead and do it, but I accept your reasoning for your present time schedule."

Marzan nodded. "Sir, that completes the intelligence portion. I have here our escape and evasion plan, which has been sealed and should be opened only in case of failure of this detachment to make contact with the AWACS or upon receipt of our escape and evasion code word."

Marzan walked over and handed it to General Pike. It was traditional that the escape and evasion (E & E) plan went to the commander taking the briefback, who personally kept it secure until such time as it might be needed. In this case, they gave it to Pike, because he would be the man responsible for the plan's implementation.

The E & E plan was the team's last hope to exfiltrate in case of the failure of exfiltration on the primary or alternate landing zones, and as much time was put into making that plan as the actual operational plan to hit the target. The entire team had been briefed on the plan and had memorized its contents.

Riley watched as Powers rumbled his way up to the front of the room and centered the tip of the pointer on Virginia on the large-scale map.

"Sir, for infiltration we will depart Fort Belvoir army airfield tomorrow at 1400. We will follow this flight route." Powers traced a route traversing the southeastern United States, looping across the Gulf of Mexico to the west of Cuba, and then skimming the coast of Colombia.

"We will fly approximately ten kilometers off the coast of Colombia. The flight route has already been posted as a training mission with air traffic control in Cartagena. Since the aircraft never crosses over Colombian land, we feel it should not raise any suspicions during the brief slowdown the aircraft will have to do for our jump."

Powers paused as General Linders turned to the chairman. "I've had a 130 out of Panama fly that route the last two nights in order to get them used to it. There's been no problem with either one or any indication that the Colombians are suspicious. The AWACS will do enough scrambling of local radar to allow the gunship to remain over the target long enough to do the hit." Macksey acknowledged the information and turned his attention back to Powers.

"Our high-altitude release point is presently pinpointed at this location, fifteen kilometers from our drop zone at an azimuth of 290 degrees. Five minutes from the infil point I will begin giving the jump commands.

"At 2130 we will reach the release point. The team will exit the aircraft in the order depicted here. As jumpmaster, I will lead the jump and Mister Riley will bring up the rear. We will be jumping off the ramp at thirty thousand feet.

"We will assemble in the air, stacked with a hundred-meter vertical interval. I will be the primary navigator, with Sergeant Marzan and Chief Riley backing me up. The azimuth to the DZ will be 110 degrees from the infiltration point and I have several significant terrain features I will be able to see as we descend and get over land that will guide me into the DZ."

Powers paused and Macksey filled the space with a question. "Will you have internal communications on the jump?"

"Yes, sir. We will be wearing built-in helmet radios. The transmitter and receiver are both built into the padding of the helmet."

The air force general was interested. "How does that transmit your voice?"

Powers just cared that it worked. He didn't know how. He gestured for Marzan to supply the information.

Marzan popped to his feat. "The sound is received via an acoustic transducer inside the helmet padding. The antenna is spiraled around the material of the helmet itself. We will be transmitting on low-band VHF with power setting on low."

Powers explained the reason for the equipment. "We can't use boom mikes, because the turbulence on exiting and the opening shock of the canopy could cause you to eat the mike." Riley smiled to himself. Powers always liked the simple answer.

"Mister Riley has responsibility for keeping track of everyone on the way down, since he's the only one who will be able to see all the jumpers. We will land on the DZ one at a time.

"Once all are on the ground, we will move to the target to put surveillance on it. It is approximately 3.4 kilometers on a magnetic azimuth of fifty-four degrees to our observation point. We will have to cross one danger area along the route, the coastal highway running down from Cartagena. We will use our team SOP for linear danger areas to cross that obstacle."

Powers moved over to the mock-up lying on the floor. Holder had put it together using cardboard, strings, and other handy items; it wasn't the most sophisticated representation, but it did the job. Powers pointed at the northwestern end of the simulated dirt runway. "We want to put our observation point here. If we cannot observe the target sufficiently from there, we are prepared to send a recon team of myself and Sergeant Miller around the northern end of the airstrip to get a closer look. The observation point we have chosen will allow us to designate the target yet still have a good enough standoff that we won't be hit by friendly fire."

Riley hoped the air force general wouldn't react to that. Powers had developed a strong distrust of air force aiming capabilities when his A-camp in Vietnam had once been the recipient of some errant air force bombs.

Powers walked back to the podium. "As Mister Riley said, we will radio the results of our recon to the AWACS and then designate the target and verify destruction. Once we have verified destruction, or if the mission is aborted, we will move to our exfiltration pickup zone, which is 1.3 kilometers from the observation site on an azimuth of 312 degrees magnetic. We will be exfiltrated by one lift of an MH-60B helicopter. The exfil—"

Macksey's voice cut in. "What happens if someone gets separated on infiltration? Hold it—don't answer." Macksey turned to the team and pointed at Partusi. "You answer."

Partusi jumped to his feet and assumed the position of attention, staring straight ahead. "If separated during the jump I will still try to make it to the primary drop zone on my own. I have the same checkpoints memorized as Master Sergeant Powers. I will then link up with the team at the DZ. Standard operating procedure for our team is to wait thirty minutes at the DZ if all are not accounted for initially.

"If I cannot make it to the DZ, due to equipment malfunction or weather or whatever, I will try to land as close as possible to the DZ and make it there on foot inside that thirty-minute window. Failing that, our secondary linkup rally point is at the observation point at the target. I will try to link up with the team there up until 0430.

"If I cannot make it to the observation point by that time, my third option is to make the exfiltration pickup zone by 0538. Failing that, my final option is to go into escape and evasion mode as listed out in the E & E packet General Pike has, the contents of which are classified until opened."

Riley could tell that Macksey was impressed with Partusi's answer. Riley and Powers had always insisted that every briefback be given in the simplest terms possible and memorized by all. Each team member had to understand what was going on. One person failing to know a critical part could spell disaster.

Macksey probably didn't realize that the briefback was for the team's benefit also. Every member of the team had to be able to get up and give any portion of the briefback from memory. They'd rehearsed for this briefback by randomly choosing people to give the different portions. Riley knew that if Pike had been the one taking this briefback, he probably would not have allowed the area expert to give his part, but would have randomly chosen people. It was hard to cover all the intricacies of such an operation in a briefing. According to popular movies all it took to accomplish a mission like this was big muscles and a lot of fancy weapons. In reality, it was the detailed planning that determined the success of any difficult mission. The Eyes One team had to outthink the enemy and every mission's constant companion: Murphy's Law. Powers liked to joke that Murphy was Riley's Irish cousin and that Powers was tired of his team leader bringing his relations along on missions. Over the years both had experienced so many strange things happening on operations, that they tried to anticipate the worst and war-game as many variations of the mission as possible.

The basic plan Powers had just briefed had taken only a couple of hours to put together. It was all the variations and contingencies that had led to the late-night discussions. And after all that, Riley knew something totally unexpected would most likely happen. Then it was the initiative and training of the team members that would make the difference.

Much of the plan was SOP, or standard operating procedure, for the team. The linear danger area crossing Powers had referred to was one of those SOPs. The team's SOP book was almost one hundred twenty pages long and explained damn near any situation they could get into. Everything in the book was in simple detail, with drawings for many of the possible scenarios and reactions to them. For example, each man would pack his rucksack in a standard way so any team member could find needed equipment in another's ruck; another SOP detailed how to break contact with enemy forces coming from any direction. It had taken the men over a year to write their SOP, and after every training exercise it was reevaluated and updated based on lessons learned.

Macksey was obviously satisfied with the answer he had received from Partusi. "All right, go on with the briefing."

Powers put the pointer down on the podium. "That completes my portion, sir. I'll be followed by the medic, Sergeant First Class Partusi."

Partusi briefed the potential medical problems and how the team was prepared to deal with them. He was then followed by Marzan, who was to cover the communications aspect of the mission.

"As already mentioned, sir, our internal communications during the drop and operation will be the helmets. They have an effective range of two kilometers on low power setting. Our external communications will be via satellite communications back to the AWACS. We will make our initial entry report, called an Angler report, upon arriving at the observation point.

"We will radio either confirmation or lack thereof of the target as soon as possible but no later than 0400. We will be able to talk to the gunship and exfiltration helicopter by relay through the satellite and then through the AWACS. All external communications on the SATCOM will be scrambled using Vinson devices.

"It is highly unlikely that any of our SATCOM transmissions will be intercepted, since they are directed transmissions and the antenna is pointing up. However, in the very unlikely event they are intercepted, the scrambling will ensure that they will be unintelligible. I have all codes and frequencies needed. We will refer to all team members and locations by their code names in transmissions.

"All team members are trained in the use of the PSC-3 SATCOM radio and the radio helmets. I will be carrying the primary PSC-3 radio and Chief Riley will be carrying a backup. In the unlikely event both radios fail, we have a visual system coordinated with both the gunship and exfil aircraft. For the gunship, if we have no radio commo, we will signal that the target is legitimate by throwing infrared chem lights onto the airstrip at exactly 0415. We will then designate the target at 0425 with the laser. For the helicopter, we will mark the PZ with an infrared strobe for a two-minute window on either side of 0538. If there are no questions, this concludes my portion of the briefback."

Riley now stood up. "Sir, this concludes the briefback for Eyes One, pending your questions."

"I think I've heard enough," said Macksey. "Very impressive, Mister Riley, Sergeant Powers." He turned to General Linders, who simply nodded. Then Macksey addressed Pike: "You going to have the other team brief now?"

"Yes, sir," answered Pike.

Macksey rubbed his chin. "Isn't that a security violation? What if someone from the first team is compromised on the mission? They could give up the information on the second."

Pike looked uncomfortable. "That's true, sir. Unfortunately, we received both targets before we had split up the team, so both teams knew the targets from the start. They've also been exchanging expertise and information during the planning."

Macksey shook his head. "That was a mistake. In the future I want no contact between teams going on different missions."

"Yes, sir." Pike seemed uncertain how far he should go. Riley had no hesitation about jumping in with both feet, however. "Sir, with all due respect, if my team is compromised or even one man is compromised on this mission, it seems unlikely to us that the second mission would still be a go, since the entire security on this thing would be breached."