Eyes of the Hammer (The Green Berets) by Bob Mayer

adjacent to your south fence to assist us. Utilizing his van, the diversion force arrived at the..."
    Riley proceeded to factually relate the events of the target hit. He'd done many briefings like this before. He could see that his audience was listening carefully. They usually did. Commanders' ears tended to perk up when anything regarding nuclear weapons was discussed. In all truthfulness Riley had to admit that the Plattsburgh Air Police had done a pretty decent job and had a good setup. Unfortunately, they had to realize that decent and good didn't cut it when you could get a nuke stolen. Riley finished his narration of events with both raiding parties being stopped.
    "You may have noticed some difference in our account of events and the air police's account. Most of that is due to the excitement and the darkness. However, it is important to note that your guards were not aware we were inside the storage facility until we were departing. We were not driven off. Rather, we were leaving of our own volition, having completed what we set out to do. That team's mission was to draw in your reaction force. It succeeded in doing that.
    "We did have some trouble with a couple of the National Guardsmen playing the game with the MILES equipment. Two of them were hit and their indicators went off as we departed the storage facility. Both failed to 'play dead or wounded' until I forced them to. I apologize for that. However, we were fortunate to have these men give up their free time to participate in the exercise.
    "None of the attacking personnel at the flight line were hit. Those people stayed long enough at the aircraft to simulate the amount of time they would have needed to remove one of the nuclear warheads there. We—"
    "Excuse me." An air force lieutenant colonel in a flight suit raised his hand. "I hate to burst your bubble, mister, but I believe that would have been much more difficult than you think. I'm the squadron commander for those aircraft that were on the flight line. I had my head crew chief brief me this morning on how long it would take to safely remove one of those bombs. It was quite a bit longer than the amount of time you spent there. Almost twice as long."
    Riley nodded. "Sir, the key word there is safely. I believe your crew chief was giving you data regarding how his crews remove the warheads without damaging the aircraft. The method we would have used, had we done so, would have involved some damage to the aircraft."
    The squadron commander wasn't going to give up so easily. "I know you probably don't understand all the technicalities, but you just can't mess around with one of those warheads. You go indiscriminately cutting some of the umbilicals to the aircraft and you could damage the warhead also. There are certain safety devices installed to prevent such a removal."
    God, how I love pilots, Riley thought. Able to fly above it all and never get their hands dirty. Know everything there is to know, too. This guy probably watches Top Gun every night, he thought sourly. He patiently replied, "Yes, sir. I understand that. However—"
    "Mister Riley does understand the technicalities." Colonel Pike's soft voice interrupted the proceedings. Pike swiveled in his seat to look at the lower ranking air force officer. "You didn't receive the briefing on his background, and the team's. Every member of this team has gone through the navy's nuclear weapon surety program—the same program from which all of your pilots received their knowledge about nuclear weapons.
    "This team has been doing this for over a year now, traveling around the world testing security at installations that have nuclear weapons. I don't believe the Department of Defense would choose incompetents to do such a sensitive mission, do you? So I believe we can assume that they are qualified and do know what they're talking about. Wouldn't you agree?"
    The squadron commander fidgeted uncomfortably. "Yes, sir."
    Pike turned to the base commander,