Chapter 15

The next three days were torture to me. It was not that I was concerned with differing opinion; it was just that the more people that knew what we were doing the more risks we took and the more opinions we would get. This was not a democracy you know.

How the Hell did they get 123 people to attend a video conference. That’s what I want to know. This time after some departmental and group introductions we were given the floor. Michelle provided a brief overview of the objectives and identified the four scenarios we had created. I saw Pete in the crowd. He was shaking his head.

Each of us were introduced. Inga discussed the weapons aspect first. Jim the restrictions we placed on the design and configuration of the ships. Ian discussed the use of what kind and why we would use helicopters. Marcel the budget, timeframes, potential targets and social/political reactions expected.

Sheila, bless her heart was by now, one of us having announced she and Marcel were to soon be a couple. I assume that meant married. I forgot to ask if they needed a toaster or the coffee maker.

Sheila restated the intended role for J SOC, our need for air cover, first strike capability and the on-station support from existing fleets. She further reviewed our intended use and compatibility with existing French, British and American attack personnel as well as using Aegis for Command and control of our forces.

I followed up.

“I see Pete sitting in so I will assume you all know we made many assumptions, do not have enough money for more than one response series and have used one year as the duration we can maintain our forces. After that, we pack up the ‘kit’ take our ball and go home with our tails between our legs, that is if we still have a tail.”

“Jean Paul, Admiral Smith here!”

“Yes Sir, please go ahead.”

“Why were we not ‘read in’ to this party from the start?”

I looked at Marcel.

“Need to know Sir, and some of the team were a part. Even then, the OPFOR had and may still have infiltrated the main group. We limited the real work to the six of us you see now, plus a limited size group we report to.”

“So why call us in now?”

“If I may Admiral? There are several reasons. Before we even formed, there were moles within the 40 people who started this. Those same 40 were presented substantially the same plan we have today, with some refinement to be certain. There is nothing that we need to keep secret any longer. You liaison here, reviewed things and when we still had un-resolved issues, convinced us more eyes on the problem was a good thing. Since your targets are, in effect our future targets also, we saw no real issues. We will only benefit to maintain tracking and gain more insight of the OPFOR from you, which to our goals, is a good thing to have early on.”

There were several nodding heads. Even Pete was indicating he agreed with a ‘thumbs up’.

From the looks Marcel and Sheila gave me I think I knew the names of any children they would have too.

We spent the all that day and the next morning reviewing what we had done, considered and our reasons for choosing what we did. A lunch break, for us anyway was called. Sheila said they were going to make an analysis and decide if they were going to tell us things they had not told us earlier.

‘Oh the webs we weave, when we plan to deceive!’

Near four hours past then the conference was on. This time the venue was a might smaller. Six of us and six of them.