me in.”
“2”
“3”
“4”
Lead released his weapons. The other three members of our formation including me did the same. By the time they were done with their first run three vessels were destroyed. The little PAV fleet kept coming.
We maneuvered around for another strike.
Boatswain’s Mate Ridley Ford
USS Missouri
“What the fuck is that?” I asked Bella. We had been drilling that day when shooting started within sight of the ship.
An explosion flashed in the distance.
“I don’t know. Looks like the Top Gun boys are sorting it out.” Bella told me.
“Think we should prep the guns?” I asked.
“That would be quite a show wouldn’t it? Be sacrilege to waste a shell on ships so small.” Bella said with a smile.
Major Wesley Clinton
B-52 Aircraft Commander
The Ho Chi Minh Trail was a different animal than it had been twenty years before. It was Ho Chi Minh Highway now. They had paved it sometime in the eighties. Two lanes of beautiful black top.
Our mission today was to try and put as many holes in it as possible.
The Vietnamese opened up their country to foreign journalists almost immediately. So there go a bunch of Jane Fondas heading off to Old North Vietnam horny for a big story.
The communists took them to the strike zones. It seemed like the B-52s could not hit anything except orphanages, schools, hospitals and weddings if you can believe that.
I guess those smart bombs weren’t as smart as we thought.
Assholes. Whose side was the press on?
To compound that the only American they had found so far turned out to be a drug dealer the Vietnamese had busted and locked up back in the eighties. The only reason he hadn’t asked for extradition was he had bigger charges waiting for him back in the states.
Well at least he could do his jail time in the good ole US of A.
Lieutenant Colonel Carol Madison
U.S. Air Force Intelligence Officer
The air campaign had gone well. Too well.
Around February, when the airstrikes failed to yield any POWs or any real conversations with the Vietnamese government, the press turned against us. Everyone still ‘supported the troops’ except the nightly news started warning that America would suffer tens of thousands of casualties if we engaged the superior, combat hardened foe of Vietnam. Much of America's media assumed we were about to repeat the "quagmire" of Vietnam.
The military really didn’t notice. We just kept pressing on until someone told us to stop.
The Tomahawk Cruise Missile, a weapon everyone had dismissed, would turn out to be the wonder weapon that set the stage for one of the quickest and most one-sided victories in the history of warfare. History would show that Tomahawks won the war in the opening hour of the first night.
During that first hour, hundreds of Tomahawks were launched, knocking out Vietnam's command and control. Prior to V2, wars concentrated action along the front lines where the two forces faced off. The two forces’ headquarters were in the rear and that was where all the commanding and controlling came from. The winning side was the one that could pierce the defenses and get to the brains of the enemy. The losing side would be the one hearing the battle getting closer to their headquarters until it was overrun by an advancing enemy. Or of course they could surrender.
Tomahawk changed that. Tomahawk had led the start of hostilities and the enemy's headquarters, Vietnam this time, Iraq and Afghanistan later, have been first to experience an attack. All the forward deployed combat troops with all their rifles, planes and armor were by passed as Tomahawks destroyed their Command and Control assets.
Communications between the north and south of the country and all lines going out of Hanoi were first to be targeted. Totalitarian regimes are especially vulnerable to communication
“2”
“3”
“4”
Lead released his weapons. The other three members of our formation including me did the same. By the time they were done with their first run three vessels were destroyed. The little PAV fleet kept coming.
We maneuvered around for another strike.
Boatswain’s Mate Ridley Ford
USS Missouri
“What the fuck is that?” I asked Bella. We had been drilling that day when shooting started within sight of the ship.
An explosion flashed in the distance.
“I don’t know. Looks like the Top Gun boys are sorting it out.” Bella told me.
“Think we should prep the guns?” I asked.
“That would be quite a show wouldn’t it? Be sacrilege to waste a shell on ships so small.” Bella said with a smile.
Major Wesley Clinton
B-52 Aircraft Commander
The Ho Chi Minh Trail was a different animal than it had been twenty years before. It was Ho Chi Minh Highway now. They had paved it sometime in the eighties. Two lanes of beautiful black top.
Our mission today was to try and put as many holes in it as possible.
The Vietnamese opened up their country to foreign journalists almost immediately. So there go a bunch of Jane Fondas heading off to Old North Vietnam horny for a big story.
The communists took them to the strike zones. It seemed like the B-52s could not hit anything except orphanages, schools, hospitals and weddings if you can believe that.
I guess those smart bombs weren’t as smart as we thought.
Assholes. Whose side was the press on?
To compound that the only American they had found so far turned out to be a drug dealer the Vietnamese had busted and locked up back in the eighties. The only reason he hadn’t asked for extradition was he had bigger charges waiting for him back in the states.
Well at least he could do his jail time in the good ole US of A.
Lieutenant Colonel Carol Madison
U.S. Air Force Intelligence Officer
The air campaign had gone well. Too well.
Around February, when the airstrikes failed to yield any POWs or any real conversations with the Vietnamese government, the press turned against us. Everyone still ‘supported the troops’ except the nightly news started warning that America would suffer tens of thousands of casualties if we engaged the superior, combat hardened foe of Vietnam. Much of America's media assumed we were about to repeat the "quagmire" of Vietnam.
The military really didn’t notice. We just kept pressing on until someone told us to stop.
The Tomahawk Cruise Missile, a weapon everyone had dismissed, would turn out to be the wonder weapon that set the stage for one of the quickest and most one-sided victories in the history of warfare. History would show that Tomahawks won the war in the opening hour of the first night.
During that first hour, hundreds of Tomahawks were launched, knocking out Vietnam's command and control. Prior to V2, wars concentrated action along the front lines where the two forces faced off. The two forces’ headquarters were in the rear and that was where all the commanding and controlling came from. The winning side was the one that could pierce the defenses and get to the brains of the enemy. The losing side would be the one hearing the battle getting closer to their headquarters until it was overrun by an advancing enemy. Or of course they could surrender.
Tomahawk changed that. Tomahawk had led the start of hostilities and the enemy's headquarters, Vietnam this time, Iraq and Afghanistan later, have been first to experience an attack. All the forward deployed combat troops with all their rifles, planes and armor were by passed as Tomahawks destroyed their Command and Control assets.
Communications between the north and south of the country and all lines going out of Hanoi were first to be targeted. Totalitarian regimes are especially vulnerable to communication
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