Chapter 83

Wednesday quickly became Monday and then Wednesday again and the fourteenth; seven days left before we had to go the France. I spent more time in my office and Andy’s office looking at maps and plans in those days than I had in weeks - or so it seemed.

Updates were a continuous chore. Tomorrow Marcy, Andy and I were flying to Port Arthur Marine Works to inspect the two fast patrol boats and go on the shakedown run.

I had found out why Black Bear had wanted them. There were ongoing negotiations with five OPEC producers to supply bulk oil terminal security and escort tankers into and out of the Strait of Hormuz. Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, United Arab Emirates and Qatar were the five.

The negotiations started at the height of the pirate attacks on tankers and merchant ships kidnapping the cargo and the crews two years ago. Those attacks were still going on occasionally and because of other world events, were not making the headlines any more.

They had dropped off in the last couple months and that had taken the urgency off the negotiations for a while, but the attacks were on the upswing again. The negotiations were still active until the court award. Charles had asked that the talks be put on hold until the JBG transition was complete and there could be a discussion with the new owners.

Charles Black, Milton Bear, Andy and I talked a couple of hours about the arrangement. Then Andy and I talked some more about it before telling Charles to aggressively pursue the contract talks.

With so much manpower on the payroll and available to work, I didn’t think we should turn down any possibilities without thorough investigations. I knew Marcy would feel the same way and didn’t have to ask.

I had to wonder why those countries did not come to an agreement on their own to patrol the waters and protect their livelihood. They had bought hundreds of billions of dollars of military equipment over the past decade. They also had marvelously massive military parades with all the pomp and circumstance at the drop of a hat.

After some thought it hit me. The officers were cronies, political elite and princes. Being an officer in the military was an ego trip and notch up the ladder. It looked good in all the portraits hung everywhere. Of course there were the prestigious parties and events they all went to.

The marching soldiers were the low end of the social ladder; they weren’t entitled to be called princes or other prestigious names. But they were not going to work in the oil fields; that was nasty, hot, dangerous work so the military was the place for them.

They spent days cleaning equipment, barracks and practicing whatever. Of course they looked good all decked out and lining the routes when important visitors came.

They didn’t want their own sailors and soldiers to do it for fear of failure so they hired it out to foreigners. The same as they hired out ninety percent of everything done in those countries for construction, house building and road building. Practically every household had foreign servants from China, Indonesia, Japan, and a variety of African countries.

There was no one now other than JBG that would do that kind of work. It was going to be expensive for them.

Thursday morning Marcy, Andy and I boarded N297A for Fort Dean then a couple cars to Port Arthur’s ship building and marine services area.

One boat - if you can call an eighty foot ship a boat - was setting high and dry in the dry dock. They wanted us to be able to do a walk around to look at the hull and drives.

The other was tied up at the dock waiting for the shakedown cruise. But first was the walk around sales pitch.

Eighty foot long with a special hull design to maintain a dry deck and stabilized handling at all speeds. The hull was hardened aluminum with titanium reinforcements. Critical areas were surrounded with honeycomb titanium similar to the pilot tub in an A10 warthog, tough - just unbelievably tough. It was painted in an ocean camouflage scheme.

For power they had twin Detroit Diesel MTU 12V-4000 with 2750 horsepower, each driving Arneson Surface Drive-16 articulating propulsion systems drives allowing thrust control for mind boggling tight turns. The combination gave the boat speeds of fifty knots under most conditions and sucked fuel at that speed like a dry dog at a water bucket.

On the forward deck was two independently controlled M230 30MM chain guns. On the stern were two twin mount 12.7 MM machine guns - better known as 50 cal. Mounted over top the cabin on a rack were four tubes for Hellfire missiles. On each side of the missile rack was an eight tube launch system for Hydra 70 rockets. Over top the Hellfire tubes was mounted a radar and a sensor array. This thing could be loaded for bear - a lot of them.

It could travel 1700 miles on a fuel load at ten knots; over that all bets were off. It required a crew of twelve with berths for six. There was a small shower with waste tanks, a fresh water tank and a microwave.