Chapter 20

They gathered at the flight office to be briefed on the morning mission. Chuck showed them their course on an overhead projector indicating their waypoints. While they made notes on their flight charts, they noted height and speed to target, weather, humidity, and all the necessary information required before a mission. This one would be different from others they had flown; this one entailed firing the seven-barrelled 30mm GAC 8 Avenger Gatling gun.

When he had finished briefing them, Chuck picked up a parcel from the floor. “We had these made for you guys” he said with a smile opening it. He pulled out four lightweight windcheaters in American air force blue. On the back in a large circle was the caricature of Bill’s drawing of the wild boar with a yellow background with Wild Boars in bold red letters above it. He reached into the parcel once more and removed four American air force baseball caps. On each was a badge of the Wild Boar with a number underneath it. Robert’s had a bold 1 beneath the caricature. “Something for you guys to remember us by when you get back home!” Chuck said smiling. “So Wild Boars are you ready to roll?” He asked as they rose from their desks.

They were at a thousand feet above the desert in loose formation with Robert slightly in front as they approached the final waypoint. Robert toggled the radio. “Wild Boar 1 to Wild Boars 2,7 and 8 hold position. Making my attack run now. Wild Boar 1 out.”

He lost altitude as he reduced speed adopting a 30-degree dive. He could see the targets ahead, 3 scrapped trucks. He disengaged the safety as the trucks crept into his sight and depressed the button. There was a moment’s hesitation as the Gatling gun turned up to speed, then a tearing sound filled the cockpit as 30-millimetre canon shells firing at 3900 rounds a minute shredding the trucks. Robert engaged the safety and climbed, he was amazed at the stability of the aircraft when he had fired. He returned to the formation ordering each in turn to make their runs.

Back at base they gathered in the de-briefing room. Chuck had received the results from the Range Marshall who had observed the attacks. “Well” he began, “For your first live fire mission I’m impressed, really impressed! Robbie, Tim and Bill you got a target destroyed score, Tom you got 90% target destroyed. Robbie you fired 680 rounds, Tim, 734, Bill 824 and Tom 646.

“The thing with the Avenger is that it takes a second or two to spin up to speed and the rate of fire is less until it does. That’s where you went wrong Tom, you have to allow for that! But even so it’s a remarkable score. Get some chow as you will be going up again this afternoon to do it all over again. After all it may have been a fluke!” He said with a smile.

Chuck entered the Colonel’s office and nodded when the Colonel indicated the coffee pot in his hand. He sat down in the chair opposite the Colonel’s desk and accepted the coffee mug handed to him. “Thanks Ray.” He murmured. Inside the office with just the two of them they dispensed with the formality of rank, having served together for nearly five years.

The Colonel sat back down behind his desk and took a sip of his coffee before beginning. “So what do you think of them?”

Chuck took a moment to organise his thoughts. “They are natural born aviators the best I’ve ever trained! You tell them to do something and it’s done first time. Frankly I’m amazed how quickly they have adapted to the A10! Most of our boys think it’s a retrograde step going backwards, when they come here. Not these guys! They understand the potential of it and if they do manage to convert them to what they want, then I could see us buying their technology back from them.”

The Colonel nodded, “I’ve been telling the brass that for years. How do you rate them has individuals?” “Their 100% loyal to Robbie! You get the idea that they would follow him into hell.” The Colonel interrupted “But that stunt he pulled over there, sounded like he was suicidal!”

“Yeah I thought so too when I read the papers. But now having met the man I’ve changed my mind. He wasn’t suicidal but rather calculating. He weighed what could be done to save those guys and then did it. If he was suicidal, he would have stayed with the aircraft. He didn’t, but ejected and took his chances.”

“Sounds like a natural heroic son of a bitch.” The Colonel murmured. “He’d argue with that.” Chuck chuckled, “He gets embarrassed talking about it. I read his file. He’s done three tours over there. The last one he volunteered for when he was due for a rest and then he flew over sixty missions. You know how he lost his folks! I think that has a lot to do with it.”

The Colonel nodded again. “Tim his 2nd IC is solid, nearly as good as Robbie in the air. In fact the other two are good as well. I’m surprised they don’t have more senior rank than they do!”

“Well their air force is much smaller than ours, so just to stay in I suppose you have to be good.” The Colonel commentated. “Oh, they’re not nerds, they have a sense of humour, albeit Brit humour, but beneath that façade they are totally professional.” “So, you’d give them an A?” the Colonel said. “More like an A+!” Chuck replied.