Kevin Miller - Raven One

Rubbing his hands together in an effort to control himself, Wilson began. “I would tend to accept what you’ve just told me better if you put a ‘sir’ on the end of that, Lieutenant, and I resent being lumped in as ‘you guys.’”

“Yes, sir,” she replied, her eyes downcast.

He’s going to rip her spine out , Smoke thought to himself, his heart pounding.

“And I would add that, yes, I do know what it is like to be judged by appearance, and I do know the resentment that can bring. And I know that I must outperform white officers in every aspect of my job.”

“Yes, sir, I’m sorry.”

“What separates us, Lieutenant Hinton, is that instead of feeling sorry for myself, because I cannot control the color of my skin or what people may think any more than you can control your sex, I channel any resentment I may have into building qualifications and learning more about the airplane and displaying the best officer-like behavior I can for my people. And I’ve found, over the years, that that behavior leads to success for any officer — no matter the skin color, whether male or female. Yes, I must work a bit harder. But I can hack it, and I take great satisfaction in that. And I’ve been richly rewarded by the great meritocracy of naval aviation.”

Psycho, eyes still downcast, answered, “I have to outperform 90 percent of the pilots in the air wing to be taken seriously.”

“At this point I’d say a 100 percent! You aren’t going to win this, Psycho,” Wilson replied. Again on the verge of losing his temper, he let his words hang for effect. “In the air and with your ground job, you can outperform all the aviators in the Navy, but if you don’t stop the valley girl act in the wardroom — and if you don’t stop treating this whole cruise as a high school musical — you won’t be taken seriously, ever. You are a beautiful woman, a talented aviator, and you, as you say, have half the players in the air wing after you. From what I see, any other woman on this ship, any of them, would love to be you for a day. But the difference is most all of them would eliminate 90 percent of the unwanted attention up front by carrying themselves as adults . But here you are expecting me to deal with this for you when you are closer to 30 than 20, face combat tomorrow, and are pregnant with child. Time to grow up!” Wilson saw Psycho’s lip quiver.

“Where’s your roommate?” Wilson asked, referring to Olive.

“Down in CVIC, strike planning,” Psycho replied, eyes still down. She was barely able to keep her composure.

“That’s right, where the three of us should be right now, instead of dealing with this . What I need, and what the skipper needs, is for you, both of you, to be on your game because, for the next 72 hours, we need every ounce of ability from everyone in the squadron.” Motioning to Psycho he added, “You represent a significant portion of the combat power of this squadron. Are you ready to go? Can you compartmentalize?”

Springing to her feet she responded, “Yes, sir!”

“Don’t bullshit me, Psycho! A few minutes ago you were whining to me about your lot in life!”

“Yes, sir, whatever you need me to do. I can do it. I can, sir.” Their eyes locked, and Wilson knew she meant it. He turned to Smoke.

“And you?”

“ Yessir ,” Smoke answered, jaw set.

Holding Smoke’s gaze, Wilson nodded his understanding, and turned back to Psycho. “Okay. After the 1230 AOM, you and I will have a private meeting with the CO. You will tell him the situation, including who the father is. I don’t know what the Skipper’s gonna do, but I’ll recommend we fly you because we’ll need everyone tomorrow night. If you can convince him that you can compartmentalize this and not cause harm to yourself or others in formation, that would be good. After that, it’s his call. Copy?”

“Yes, sir,” she replied. “I’m ready.”

“All right. Let’s get back down there and help.”

The Raven officers took their seats while Cajun stood resolute at the front of the ready room, leaning against the white board tracks with arms folded. The mood of the room was pensive, with all eyes on their commanding officer in anticipation of his message. The 1MC sounded a single Ding signifying 1230. Wilson turned in his seat and surveyed the silent room behind him, sensing the eyes shift on him.

“Everyone’s here, sir,” Sponge Bob said from his duty desk perch.

Wilson turned back to the front, nodded to his CO, and said in a hushed voice, “Skipper,” the signal for Cajun to begin. All hands knew that Cajun would be the only one to speak at this AOM.

“If you’ve watched CNN and Sky News, checked the SINS screen, or been topside and seen the huge wake behind us, you know we’re heading west in a hurry. And you don’t have to be a pilot who spent the morning in CVIC to know why. Iran attacked one of our small boys last night, killing our sailors. This is an act of war. National Command Authority tasked NAVCENT with a response, and we are now planning to carry out that tasking sometime tomorrow, probably after sundown. We should arrive at our station late this afternoon, and we’re gonna fly maintenance test hops and get some air wing guys in night qual. Our SUCAP alert posture begins later this afternoon, and the ordies are loading the jets now.

“We’ll be facing the Iranians, who have a modern air force and navy, with sophisticated weapons and a formidable integrated air defense system. They have a history of innovation, and they want to surprise us and hurt us, as they did last night, and with Prince last month. Remember, he was unarmed and incapacitated when they shot him down with no warning. They should not be underestimated, and we have a tough job to suppress their defenses and hit the assigned targets. However, they aren’t 10 feet tall, and if anyone should be afraid about any upcoming action, it should be them , afraid of what this strike group, and you guys in particular, can do to them. We will prevail, but we have to be smart. Pilots, until further notice, your schedule consists of flying, eating, sleeping, and planning. No mindless video games or movies, no division paperwork, no spending hours in the gym. Part of flying consists of briefing and debriefing, and standing watches in CATCC or Pri-Fly.”

Cajun pointed to the duty officer, Sponge, and said, “Or this duty here… Want to make sure you frickin’ sea lawyers don’t use my words to get out of it.” The comment elicited smirks from the JOs and served to ease some tension.

He continued:

“Ground pounders, we need you guys to run the squadron. If routine paperwork can wait for the department heads or me and the XO to review once this is finished, then let it. Or, if you can handle it at the Assistant Admin or Maintenance Material Control Officer level, then do it. Now, if you deem that there’s something I or the XO or the department heads must deal with immediately, bring it to our attention. Whatever call you make will be the right one; I’ll support you. Don’t worry about how much sleep I get.

“Now Weed here, he’s a different story. I worry about how much sleep he gets.” The room snickered, and Wilson heard his roommate chuckle at the needling from the CO. Cajun returned to business.

“We are four months into this deployment. We’re experienced operating in this part of the world, we’ve been in combat in two theaters, we’re looking good around the ship, and the jets are flying great. We are on the step…. We are ready for this. If we just follow the basics of solid preflight planning, comm discipline, section integrity, combat checklists and flying smart tactics with our superior weapons and sensors, we’ll do fine. Plan for contingencies. Take a good look at your wingmen’s aim points, and be ready to flex if you have to. Know the geography. If you are hit and can still fly, get feet wet. If you can’t do that, get away from populated areas. If your wingman punches out, mark the position, sing out immediately, identify an on-scene commander and call away the CSAR. Your priorities for ejection are over water followed by any country but Iran, and if you can find a deserted area you may be able to evade before we pick you up. That’s what I mean by knowing the geography. Have a plan up front, such as ‘Safety is 10 miles east, or west, or whatever.’”