Brown, Dale - Patrick McLanahan 03 by Sky Masters (v1.1)

as he’s
always done. Anything for a headline.”
                “The little bastard’s got balls,
that’s for sure.”
                Major General Stone grunted. “You
can say that again— Teguina loves to stir things up. Now, what do we have out
there keeping an eye on things?”
                Krieg looked at his boss with a look
of pure concern. “In two hours—nothing.”
                “What?”
                “Message from CINCPAC.” CINCPAC was
the acronym for Commander in Chief Pacific Command, the U.S. military organization responsible for all
military activities from the West Coast of the United States to Africa . “He wants no combat aircraft or vessels
near the area until they can get a reading from the Chinese. Strictly hands
off.” “Well, what did we have out
there?” Stone grumbled, irritated at CINCPAC’s order.
                “A couple F-l6s from here checking
it out, maybe a P-3 subchaser diverted to Zamboanga Airport or Bangoy Airport
near Davao—er, sorry, they call it Samar International Airport now—to take some
pictures. Apparently the Chinese feel our presence is threatening. CINCPAC
agreed. No more flights within fifty miles.”
                “A fitting end to a perfectly lousy
day,” Stone said, straightening his uniform and heading toward the reviewing
stand for the ceremony.
                Major General Richard “Rat” Stone
was the commander of the now disbanded Thirteenth Air Force—the principal
American air defense, air support, and logistics support organization in the
Republic of the Philippines . General Stone—whose nickname was short for
“Rat Killer” after a strafing run in his F-4 along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Vietnam had killed dozens of rats with
20-millimeter cannon fire—commanded the twenty different organizations from
five major operating commands at Clark Air Base.
                Principal of all the organizations
on his base was the Third Tactical Fighter Wing, composed of F-l6
fighter-bombers and F-4G “Advanced Wild Weasel” electronic warfare and defense
suppression fighters; and the 6200th Tactical Fighter Training Group, who
operated the various tactical training ranges and fighter weapons schools in
the Philippines and who ran the seven annual “Cope Thunder” combat exercises to
train American and allied pilots from all over the Pacific. The Third Tactical
Fighter Wing, whose planes had the distinctive “PN” letters on the tail plus
either the black “Peugeots” of the Third Tactical Fighter Squadron or the
“Pair-O-Dice” of the Ninetieth Tactical Fighter Squadron, flew air-to-air and
air-to-ground strike missions in support of American interests from Australia to Japan and from India to Hawaii .
                Clark Air Base had also been home to
a very large Military Airlift Command contingent of C-130 Hercules transports,
C-9 Nightingale flying hospitals, C-12 Huron light transport shuttles, and
HH-53 Super Jolly and HH-3 Jolly Green Giant rescue and special-operations
helicopters. The 374th Tactical Airlift Wing shuttled supplies and personnel
all across the South Pacific and would, in wartime, deliver troops and supplies
behind enemy lines. The Ninth Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, the Twentieth
Aeromedical Airlift Squadron, and the Thirty-first Aerospace Rescue and
Recovery Squadron all provided medical airlift support and would fly rescue
missions over land or water to recover downed aircrews—these were the
organizations that first welcomed the American prisoners of war from Vietnam in 1972. Clark also housed the 353rd
Special Operations Wing, whose MC-130E Combat Talon aircrews trained to fly
psychological warfare, covert resupply, and other “black” missions all across
the Pacific.
                The base also supported the other
American and Filipino military installations, including Subic Bay Naval
Station,