Phew, sorry for the delay in this next part, it was a bit longer than expected, but I hope you enjoy the mayhem. Thanks once again to CurtisLemay who's really been helpful in putting this together.
*************************************************************************************************************************************
World War III: 1988
Chapter 3: Blood on the Rio Grande
“My fellow Americans, as of 8PM this evening Eastern Standard Time, Air, naval and ground forces of the United States are engaged in combat with the military and paramilitary forces of the socialist regime of Mexico. This unfortunate turn of events was necessitated by the brutal acts of terrorists against our own citizens, operating with impunity from within the territory of Mexico, by permission of it’s leader, Juan Phillipe Merono…”
--Excerpt from televised speech by President Ronald Reagan, January 12 1987, Day 1 of the American Intervention in Mexico.
The holiday season in the United States proved to be a rather less than pleasant one with the situation in Mexico. With his own cabinet now in control of Mexico, one of the first orders Merono gave to Mexican law enforcement was to “cease all cooperative activities with the American DEA, and to excise their immediate departure from the territory of Mexico effective immediately”. This course of action was, naturally, not at all well received by the Reagan administration who were quick to condemn the action. Merono, again, rebuffed Reagan’s condemnation, stating that “the people of Mexico would look to their own in dealing with the Narco cartels”. As Reagan huddled with his advisors and the Pentagon Joint Chiefs to discuss options, the governors of the neighboring states of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California began issuing orders to their state law enforcement as well as the State Guards to “do all within their power to assist the U.S. Border Patrol in ensuring the U.S.-Mexican border is properly secure”, and to clamp down on “illegal crossings and trafficking of contraband substances”. Tensions immediately began to spike along the U.S.-Mexican border in December as law enforcement on both sides became increasingly acrimonious with each other, leading to several incidents where officers on both sides would argue with their cross-border counterparts, and even a few instances where “warning shots” were fired. Problems soon began to build with an increased number of Mexican illegal border crossings along with increased trafficking of narcotics. It was however only a preview of worse things to come.
In Moscow, discussion of the recent events in Mexico among the Politburo soon turned to whether or not the Soviet Union should in fact provide any sort of military aid to the new Socialist Mexican government. However, this was immediately shot down by both Gromyko and Chebrikov, who both insisted if they were to do this, “we would give those Yankee cowboys the perfect excuse to invade the Warsaw Pact by the New Year.” Gromyko then held a joint telephone conference with Castro and Khaddafi, in which the Soviet Premier strongly advised the Cuban and Libyan leaders that while providing any military assistance to Mexico was his own prerogative, they were by no means whatsoever to provide Mexico with any new Soviet hardware. After the “Red October coup of ‘86” the Soviets had sent a considerable amount of military equipment and advisers to Cuba and Libya to upgrade their ADA and aircraft capabilities, as well as additional new armored vehicles and hardware to upgrade their ground forces. Only secondhand older Soviet hardware was to be permitted to be sold or allocated to the Mexicans. Castro and Khaddafi both said they would “take it under advisement” and ended the call.
As Castro and Khaddafi, and even Ortega had promised, “aid” had begun to ship and flow into Mexico. Merono was well aware of the American’s military superiority and had requested military aid from his new friends. From Cuba, several thousand military “advisors” soon flew in, accompanied with several cargo planes and vessels loaded with SA-2, SA-3, and SA-5 SAM batteries and radars, along with S-60 and M-1939 AAA guns and search radars. One squadron of Cuban “volunteer” pilots equipped with MIG-21 and MIG-23 fighter aircraft also flew in. Several hundred Sandinista “volunteers” also entered Mexico to train alongside the Mexican Army, while Khaddafi as promised flew in a thousand of his “Pan-African” mercenaries and dozens of multi-national terrorists (a collection of PLO, Red Brigade, Red Army Faction, Action Direct, and others) accompanied by several hundred Libyan army advisors/trainers, along with a considerable shipment of small arms and crew-served heavy weapons. Needless to say, none of this was missed by the CIA and DIA, who were giving daily reports of the movements to the White House and Pentagon, which sounded alarm bells. Soon, “stand-to” orders were given to the U.S. Army III Corps and XVIII Corps, as well as the U.S. II Marine Expeditionary Force. Several U.S. Navy carrier groups were soon given standby orders as well. At the U.N. Headquarters in New York City, U.S. Secretary of State George Schultz confronted the newly appointed Mexican ambassador, a supporter and friend of Merono, about the reports of Cubans, Libyans, Nicaraguans, and others now entering and operating within Mexico along with considerable military hardware. Schultz was loudly and rudely rebuffed by the Mexican diplomat and her staff, adding that Mexican government had no more to say to the Americans. However, Merono as it turned out had troubles of his own.
While Merono was grateful for the military aid, he was unaware that both Castro and Khaddafi were planning to use Mexico as a springboard territory to funnel terrorists into the United States. However a more immediate concern for him were several of the Narco cartels that were currently operating, some with near impunity in Mexico. Ironically, with the forced departure of the DEA from Mexico, this began to worsen the situation in Northern Mexico and the Baja peninsula as drugrunners terrorized several cities and towns with bombings and assassinations of anyone who tried to defy the rule of the cartels. At Merono’s assistance, Castro was able to speak with several of the cartels who had done business with Castro in the past (Cuba was well-known as a refueling point for many narcotics aircraft flying into the U.S.), and was able to convince some of them to scale back their ruthless operations against locals in exchange for Mexican Federales to turn a blind eye to their operations. With the deal in place, several of the cartels scaled back their more violent operations against Mexican locales, while the Mexican authorities allowed the cartel's drug shipments to pass through without hindrance. The cartels that honored the deal eventually, unofficially threw their support behind the new Merono administration, with some even going so far as to send men to fill the ranks of several new "People's Victory Battalion" civilian militias that were being created to both bolster the nation in case of attack, and unofficially to create a counterbalance to the Mexican Army. Not all the cartels were onboard with this agreement, however. A few remained openly defiant and continued to operate on their own terms, one cartel in particular that was rapidly gaining notoriety was Los Machetos Rojos, aka “The Red Machetes”. This particular cartel had gained a particular reputation for grisly public dismemberment of those it saw as a threat or simply “in the way” of their business. When activities by the Red Machete cartel increased, Merono insisted that Castro and Khaddafi help him deal with the situation. Khaddafi in particular at first resisted, anxious to start his own plans of funneling his operatives into the United States. However, he relented at Castro’s insistence and ordered his men and women to focus most of their attention on the rogue Mexican cartels, particularly the Red Machetes first. An escalation of bombings and assassinations within Mexico continued as further violence escalated. However, on December 22, 1986, events finally took on a life of their own.
The Red Machete cartel was aggressively attempting to expand it’s share of the cocaine market flowing into the U.S., and took several bold steps to pursue this expansion. Several large shipments of cocaine were scheduled to cross the U.S.-Mexican border, with one shipment in particular worth several million secretly stowed in false compartments aboard a semi-trailer truck that was scheduled to haul artificial Christmas trees to San Antonio, Texas. However, the Red Machetes for all their ruthlessness, had a few leaks inside their organization. This particular shipment became known via an informant to Castro, who passed the information along to Khaddafi’s men, who arranged to have the truck intercepted. Unbeknownst to both organizations, however, the DEA also had a clandestine network of informants still in place in Mexico (with rumors the CIA used said network to gather information inside Mexico, and later arranged for several informants to escape arrest.) and received a tip about the shipment as well, and relayed the information to U.S. Border Patrol agents and U.S. Customs personnel.
On December 22, the truck in question left it’s origin north of Monterrey heading for the border. A van full of Libyan army “specialists” in civilian clothing and heavily armed were waiting to intercept the rig in question. However, not all the information supplied by the informant turned out to be accurate. At the last minute, the truck and it’s illicit contents had been arranged to begin it’s journey from another location well over several dozen miles away further north from the planned ambush point. The Libyans scrambled to find the semi-rig in question…only to find it getting closer to the Laredo Border Crossing checkpoint. The Libyan van gave chase…only to find themselves hemmed in traffic approaching the border crossing.
At the Laredo Border Crossing checkpoint, tensions had been mounting in previous days between various pro-U.S. “patriot groups” and pro-Mexican “socialist groups” on both sides of the border who were now holding daily demonstrations on both sides. Tensions ran high as law enforcement had been doubled up at the crossing. Several Panhard armored vehicles from the Mexican military had been deployed along the Mexican side of the border, along with a number of visibly armed Cuban military personnel. On the American side, the Texas State Guard as well as elements of the Texas National Guard had both been deployed with armed Humvees and M113 armored personnel carriers. Protesters shouted and hurled epithets at each other from across the border with bullhorns as police attempted to keep the protests under control. Dan Rather from CBS was onsite with a television news crew documenting the recent tensions.
As the cocaine-laden semi-trailer rig inched to the border, Border Patrol agents and U.S. Customs personnel acted on the tip provided to them by the DEA and surrounded the truck immediately. Unknown to them however, the van full of armed Libyan agents was trailing right behind. As U.S. agents surrounded the trailer rig with guns drawn, it is believed from witness accounts that several of the U.S. agents noticed the occupants of the van right behind the rig as looking visibly agitated and turned to face them, with intent to see if they may be Narco-related enforcers or infiltrators. One or two of the occupants inside the van panicked, and fired an AKM directly through the windshield of the van, killing one Border Patrol agent instantly. U.S. agents reacted and fired their M16 rifles at the van whose occupants spilled out firing their AKM rifles wildly. It very quickly became a firefight with multiple casualties as well as dozens of wounded civilians, but soon became far worse.
At the protests that were occurring nearby not far from the border control station, the Cubans who were on the Mexican side heard the firefight and appeared to panic. It is theorized that the Cubans assumed the Americans were attacking the Mexicans and began opening fire across the border with their weapons, instantly killed several protesters. But what the Cubans had also done was situate several DSHK heavy machine guns and SPG-9 recoilless rifles in camouflaged positions overnight, with overlapping fire arcs for the weapons. The heavy weapon emplacements blazed a torrent of fire from their positions with horrific effect, brutally killing and dismembering a number of civilians and law enforcement personnel and State Guards. The Texas National Guard quickly responded with .50 cal machine gun and 40mm auto grenade launcher fire from several Humvees and M113’s, killing the heavy weapon crews…only to then take fire from the Mexican Army’s Panhard vehicles which resulted in several dead and wounded National Guardsmen. The situation became so dire, several AH-1 Cobra gunships that had been placed on standby at a nearby FARP (Forward Arming and Refueling Point) for “emergency use if necessary” were called in and destroyed the remaining Mexican Army vehicles with TOW missiles, and raked the Mexican and Cuban personnel still on the scene with 20mm autocannon fire. Dan Rather and his camera crew survived, filming the entire battle with utter horror and disbelief, to the point Dan Rather visibly retched on camera when he saw several dismembered bodies of civilians. “My god, ladies and gentlemen…I…I have no words to describe this. My god…”
The response, politically, was immediate. An ashen-faced Reagan had watched the carnage unfold from the Oval Office along with several of his cabinet and political aides. Within hours as horrified newsrooms and world leaders reacted to the bloodshed, Reagan immediately aired a speech from the White House, demanding that Merono “turn over all terrorists and other personages involved in the massacre at our border, and remove all Cuban, Libyan and other foreign military personnel from Mexico effective immediately.” He gave Merono 24 hours to respond, or face “the heaviest of reprisals.”
In Mexico, Juan Phillipe Merono was apoplectic at what had just taken place. This was not the outcome he had wanted at all. As he begged and screamed at his advisors for advice and options, Merono’s wife Isabelle, along with Khaddafi and Castro pointedly told the Mexican presidente that Reagan was bluffing, that they would continue to support the Mexican regime, and that surely the Soviets would not tolerate the Americans going to war with the newest and most prominent member of the fraternal socialist world order? A reluctant Merono agreed, and in a televised speech from the presidential palace in Mexico City, Merono expressed his personal remorse for the bloodshed and destruction on the border…before changing his tone to one of defiance and declaring that Mexico would never surrender it’s sovereignty. Within minutes of viewing the speech, President Reagan gave the order to begin the deployment of assets for Operation GREEN FOX.
Within a week, multiple elements of the U.S. Army’s III Corps, including the 1st Cavalry Division “First Team”and 2nd Armored Division “Hell on Wheels”, had assembled on the U.S.-Mexican border, while multiple elements of XVIII Corps including a task force from 5th Infantry Division had been airlifted to “staging areas”. The U.S. II Marine Expeditionary Force sortied out alongside three U.S. Navy carrier battlegroups, the Nimitz, Independence, and Kitty Hawk, accompanied by two battleships, the USS Iowa and USS New Jersey. Worldwide, the world reaction was mixed as various Western leaders urged the Reagan administration to be cautious and pursue a more diplomatic solution, while the OAS condemned the "Monroe Doctrine tactics" that were being employed. Other socialist-allied countries condemned the mobilization of U.S. military forces, led by the Soviets, with Gromyko giving a speech at the UN condemning the “rush to action by the American cowboy imperialists, wrought by their own provocations". However, the Soviets soon received some potentially bad news.
KGB elements who had been monitoring the situation in Mexico made a shocking discovery. In several warehouses in the dockside area of Veracruz were several battalions worth of factory-fresh Soviet-made armored vehicles and heavy weapons. Among them were T-72’s, BMP-2’s, BTR-80’s, ZSU-23-4 Shilkas, and plenty of ammunition and spare parts for all of them. The KGB agents were confused and baffled at why such modern fresh Soviet equipment was being delivered and stored in Mexico when the Soviets had been explicit that it would not be aiding the Mexicans. When the report was delivered to the Politburo, Gromyko immediately demanded a phone conference with Castro and Khaddafi and pointedly asked them if they knew anything about these shipments. When Castro and Khaddafi admitted they were in fact Soviet-supplied hardware that was meant to modernize their forces, but had been passed on to equip the Mexican’s at their behest, Gromyko flew into a rage and proceeded to scream at the two leaders for over 30 minutes. While Khaddafi offered a surprisedly more polite response, Castro was more belligerent, suggesting that the Soviet Premier should “grow some cajones”. Several more verbal exchanges were made before Gromyko terminated the phone conference and demanded Chebrikov deal with the situation, immediately. Within hours, Team 1206 of Spetzgruppa “V”, aka Spetsnaz Vympel, disembarked from Cuba for Mexico. However, fate would provide not one, but two cruel twists for Spetsnaz when they arrived.
As the day finally turned to nightfall along the U.S.-Mexican border on January 12, 1986, the U.S. military initiated Operation Green Fox, with the opening shots commenced by the U.S. Air Force and Navy. Various attack aircraft including F-111’s, F-16’s and A-6’s loaded with Paveway laser-guided bombs and other ordnance, and escorted by various fighter aircraft flew at low level into Mexico and dropped their payloads on several of the Cuban ADA radar sites along with airfields, army depots, government ministries and comm hubs. As the bombings initiated, attack helicopters and artillery of the U.S. Army’s III Corps including it’s new-model AH-64A Apache gunships and M270 MLRS (Multiple Launch Rocket System) rained fire on the Mexican Army’s forward positions with deadly effect. The barrage lasted through the night, demoralizing much of the Mexican Army that had been deployed north to face III Corps. As the night turned to day, smoke and fire billowed from the wreckage of several Mexican Army, Cuban and Libyan positions, while many of the “Pan-African” mercenaries that were supposed to be assisting the Libyans had already scattered. Soon, multiple A-10 ground attack aircraft swooped low over the Mexican positions and unleashed more chaos, utilizing their 30mm cannons along with Rockeye cluster munitions and Maverick air-to-surface missiles. The Mexicans were badly outnumbered and outgunned, with the best tanks they had, AMX-13’s, which were no match for the M1’s and M1A1 Abrams tanks of the Americans who often engaged and destroyed them before the Mexicans could even get their own weapons within range. Soon, III Corps was pushing south and driving the Mexicans back, within several days they had already reached the outskirts of Monterrey. But III Corps was only part of the sledgehammer the U.S. military had unleashed.
As the Soviet’s Spetsnaz Team 1206 Vympel infiltrated the dockside warehouse area of Veracruz, the other half of the vise aimed at Mexico came down. The U.S. Marines II MEF came ashore the beaches at Veracruz, supported by a devastating offshore bombardment from the USS Iowa and USS New Jersey battleships. Two Cuban Foxtrot diesel subs that attempted to close in with the battleships were spotted by USN ASW frigates and destroyers screening the battleships and promptly sunk. The Marines encountered stiff resistance by the Mexicans and Cubans and suffered casualties, but soon the Marines established a beachhead which was quickly reinforced by several brigades of XVIII Corps including a task force from 5th Infantry Division. Meanwhile, Soviet Vympel Team 1206 managed to work frantically, locating the warehouses where the Soviet equipment was stored and by utilizing a few appropriated trucks, began placing wired barrels stuffed with Semtex explosive throughout the warehouses. As the U.S. Marines started fighting their way into the warehouse district, the Spetsnaz team managed to complete placement of the explosives and routed them all to a detonator….and then disaster struck. A stray 25mm autocannon shell from a U.S. Marine LAV-25 vehicle severed the detonation wires. Faced with only one of two possibilities, a Spetsnaz member was “volunteered” to go in and manually detonate the explosives. He almost succeeded, until he found himself caught with his back turned by a U.S. Marine fireteam. A CNN camera crew led by Peter Arnett that had come ashore with the Marines caught the image of a cuffed “unidentified Caucasian” in full combat gear with no identifiable markings being roughly marched to a LAV-25, before the vehicle was hit by an RPG-16 rocket from the Spetnaz team who attempted a rescue of their comrade. They were soon driven off by Marine reinforcements, taking several losses while Peter Arnett and his camera crew found themselves taking cover rather ungracefully in a mud puddle.
Another press camera crew, this one led by Bob Simon of CBS, entered one of the warehouses and soon broadcast to the world images of rows of brand-new Soviet AFV’s and heavy weapons waiting to be fueled and deployed. As the images beamed around the world, Gromyko, Chebrikov, Castro and Khaddafi soon began trading accusations when it was apparent the entire operation had become a wash. Reagan meanwhile was beside himself after seeing the images, demanding a full report of what was being uncovered in Veracruz. Some White House aides commented years later that the POTUS was about to call the Joint Chiefs and demand further options in regards to what had been found, before a quick arrival of the chiefs of the CIA and NSA with reports of the military hardware’s true origins were made clear to Reagan.
Brutal house-to-house fighting in Veracruz lasted for another several weeks as many die-hard loyal elements of the Mexican Army and “People’s Victory Battalions”, essentially pressed civilian militias armed by Merono, and Cuban holdouts battled the U.S. Army and Marines with horrific casualties on both sides. In the north, the U.S. III Corps surrounded and cut off the city of Monterrey and also found itself in bloody urban combat with various holdouts in the city that also took several weeks to clear. In the south of Mexico, U.S. Army Special Operations forces, the “Green Berets” parachuted into the Yucatan and began raiding Nicaraguan outposts and convoys in southern Mexico in coordination with local Indian tribes that opposed the Socialists. One notable event was when Special Forces in conjunction with U.S. Army Special Operations Force Detachment Delta, aka “Delta Force” managed to raid a Mexican army base that was also being used to house a Cuban detachment, along with a jail holding several Mexican Army officers that had been arrested for their opposition to Merono’s regime. The operation was a success with multiple army officers freed and flown out with the Deltas via CH-53's while an AC-130U "Spectre" gunship provided cover. One other passenger that flew out with the Deltas was the Cuban Commander's mistress who was still in her evening dress. Special Forces, for their part rode off with the Cuban commander’s prized vehicle, a 1956 Chevy Bel Air, and it is rumored several contraband cases of Cuban rum and cigars.
By the time the U.S. Marines broke out of Veracruz and the U.S. Army secured Monterrey, the end appeared inevitable. On February 18, Juan Phillipe Merono gave a final order to all remaining Mexican military, police and militia forces to stand down and surrender, before he retired to his bedroom in the Mexican Presidential Palace and committed suicide. His aides found him with his head lying on his desk, dead from a self-inflicted .357 magnum gunshot wound to the head. A note was found on the desk, written by him in which he expressed remorse for how he felt he had failed the Mexican people. “I promised my people a new beginning…instead I gave them hell.” He also denounced his “friends” Castro, Khaddafi and to a lesser extent Noriega for how he felt they had used him to create a war with the United States. He also professed his love once more for his wife Isabelle Diaz, who soon disappeared after his suicide. Despite various rumors and an intense search by the U.S. military and various intelligence services, Isabelle Diaz was never found and she remains missing to this day. However, the Americans were not done just yet…
With the revelation that the Libyans were involved in the border incident and even more Libyan advisers and mercs were encountered in Mexico, Reagan ordered a new retaliatory strike against Libya, as a follow-up to the previous airstrikes on Libya in April of 1986. Three U.S Navy carrier battlegroups, the Coral Sea, Forrestal, and John F. Kennedy sailed into the Gulf of Sidra, while the U.S. Air Force deployed one of it’s most secretive, often rumored assets to date: The F-117A stealth attack aircraft. Two squadrons of the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing, the 415th “Nightstalkers” and the 416th “Ghost Riders” secretly deployed to secured airfields in Egypt by the permission of Hosni Mubarak, who was promised increased military aid and support in return for loaning several of the Egyptian airfields. On February 4, two weeks before Merono’s suicide, the U.S. Air Force and Navy launched Operation El Dorado Canyon II, beginning with the F117A’s of the 37th Tactical Wing launching a series of bombing raids into Libya, with the 415th striking key radar installations, comm hubs and a palace belonging to the Khaddafi family, while the 416th struck a number of training camps in the Libya desert belonging to various terrorist groups. There were also unconfirmed reports of several “near misses” with bombs near the Cuban embassy in Tripoli. The US Navy carrier battlegroups then launched a number of strike packages consisting of A-6E bombers escorted by F-18 and F14 fighter aircraft that bombed several army bases, airfields and several docked naval vessels, inflicting heavy damage. The final coup de grace was a volley of Tomahawk TLAM missiles launched from several U.S. Navy Spruance-class destroyers that also struck the same targets to ensure additional destruction.
All in all, the affair had been a disaster for the Soviets and their allies, and it had also become a personal one. It was later learned that a nephew of Castro’s family, Calixto Castro, had been an officer on one of the Cuban Foxtrot submarines that had been sunk by the U.S. Navy. Also, in Libya it was later discovered Khaddafi’s fourth son, Mutassim Khaddafi who was 13 at the time was killed when the U.S. Air Force had struck one of Khaddafi’s palaces. Khaddafi’s second wife, Safia Farkash was also injured in the bombing and taken to a hospital. Needless to say, the animosity shared by Cuba and Libya toward the United States and especially the Reagan administration reached new heights. It was something that would not readily dissipate with further implications down the line. Meanwhile, the Soviets fumed at the embarrassment in Veracruz with the failure of the Vympel unit to destroy the Soviet military stockpile and it’s discovery by the Western Press. As the weapons were hauled away to the United States for analysis and storage, a hapless U.S. businessman who had been attempting to open a shoe sale in Poland was arrested by the KGB for “suspicion of inciting anti-socialist sentiments” and was detained until he was swapped for the captured Vympel commando in a prisoner exchange.
For the Soviets however, the writing to them was on the wall: They believed war with the West was inevitable, or so it was discussed in closed door meetings of the Politburo. Later in March, Gromyko announced a focused increase on weapons modernization and procurement across all branches of the Soviet armed forces, while exhorting it’s Warsaw Pact neighbors and Third World allies to do the same. Several new previous unidentified weapon systems were seen for the first time at the Soviet’s May Day parade including several new armored vehicles and helicopters that shocked the West. The same month Gromyko made his announcement, President Reagan announced one of the largest defense increases in history, seeking further accelerated modernization of weapon systems as well as procurement of several experimental ones, and adding another U.S. Army infantry brigade, the buildup of another reserve U.S. Marine MEU, a renewed focus on building a “600 ship navy” and further U.S. Air Force attack squadrons. Further calls for increased military spending followed in countries across the globe as it became evident what was coming. It was summed up in a somber note on the CIA’s annual report of the world situation to Reagan shortly after events had concluded in Mexico and Libya: “We estimate 70-75 percent chance probability we will be in a full state of war with the Soviet Union and her allies in the next three to five years.”
Fate however, is known to often be finicky. A war would indeed come to the entire world, but there were other incidents that would occur first. And the flames of conflict would eventually ignite sooner than some expected, in a part of the world where the First World War had erupted...
“When all hell broke loose in Mexico, I was still a midshipman barely out of the Academy training to earn my wings. I had a friend who’d gone before me into the U.S. Coast Guard who was stationed in Florida, he swore it was the Mariel Boatlift Part 2 with all the Cubans desperately trying to flee the island, they were convinced we were gonna bomb their island next into oblivion. Didn’t quite happen of course, at least not then. Still, even with the festivities in Mexico over, I think everyone from the top brass down to the black shoes knew this was barely the preliminaries. Everyone felt it…there was a bigger storm on the horizon.”
-Captain Harmon Rabb, USN, former F-14 Tomcat pilot.
*******************************************************************************************************************************