John Schettler - 9 Days Falling, Volume I

When the word came in that a tanker was on fire in the Straits of Hormuz, Balad went to red alert at once. The Air Force would be calling on all these services, and then some, in a matter of minutes. The Kingpin tower commander immediately diverted a pair of F-16s to overfly the scene, and a Global Hawk was on the tarmac in ten minutes, ready to take a high resolution look at anything happening in the vicinity of the incident.

Further east, at the main port of Jebel Ali, the light helo carrier Iwo Jima was already slipping her moorings and getting ready to put to sea. Aboard were elements of the 26 thMarine Expeditionary Unit, with ten helicopters of varying types along with a squadron of five AV-8 Harrier type jump jets. The Marines had everything they would need to perform their signature mission—take and hold enemy ground by amphibious assault. And if anything was lacking, or needed by way of replenishment, ASPRON-4 would serve it up on a platter when the leathernecks called.

The Americans were quick to react to the situation. Carrier Strike Group Ronald Reagan was already alerted to the trouble, and the Navy was revving up operations in the Arabian Sea. First and foremost on their minds was the safety of other shipping now using the Straits of Hormuz. If this was a terrorist attack, aimed at shutting down the vital channel, the US Navy was well equipped to respond. The guided-missile cruiser USS Chancellorsville , and destroyer USS Gridley were steaming in the van and ordered to the Straits at once. Additional support was nearby. The USS Ardent , an avenger-class Mine Countermeasure Ship, would accompany the two fighting ships into the narrow waters. Planes and helos from the big carrier provided a thick top cover for the operation.

The situation was quickly confirmed as a deliberate attack. Already major media stations like CNN had picked up Al Jazirrah video feeds of the wounded Princess Royal , which was now breaking news. The question that hung in the air like the darkened pall of thick black smoke over the stricken tanker, was whether or not she was in any danger of sinking, and thus blocking the channel. She was not, but that information was known only to Fairchild & Company personnel at the moment.

The navy acted as though the viability of the shipping channel was under immediate threat. They called Port Fujairah in the UAE for quick tug support when reconnaissance indicated the ship was in no immediate danger of sinking. Intel had a line on a patrol boat that had been picked up by cameras on a container ship following some ways behind Princess Royal when she was attacked.

US Intelligence was quick to put two and two together. They scoured satellite imagery on the Gulf Islands they had been monitoring for some time. Last week’s archive showed seven boats in the harbor on Iranian occupied Abu Musa, the island closest to the point of the attack. Photo specialists at Navy Intel were quick to match the satellite imagery with the video footage obtained from the container ship. They had found their smoking gun.

The information was routed directly to the office of the Vice President, and then on to the White House. The briefing to the President would indicate, with a high reliability, that this was a deliberate, and state sponsored attack on a British registered oil tanker, and no mere incident of simple terrorism, particularly in light of the current geopolitical tensions. Within minutes, US forces in the Persian Gulf were brought to an elevated state of readiness, and the phone was ringing in the quay bunker at ASPRON-4.

As the Fairchild ship was a British registered vessel, HMS Iron Duke, a Type 23 frigate , was immediately ordered to assist other Fairchild operations ongoing in the Med. Britain was covering all her bets, particularly those involving the conveyance of much needed oil supplies as the country prepared to go to a full wartime footing. The Iron Duke was happily en-route to the Eastern Med at the time, sailing to rejoin the US Roosevelt battlegroup. She had participated in “Operation Firestone,” a naval exercise held off the Carolina coast a month ago, sailed home briefly, and then put out to sea again with a new commanding officer, Captain Ian Williams. When word came in that he was to sail immediately for the Bosporus, he was quite surprised.

With all this hubbub in the Persian Gulf why are we being sent up to the Bosporus? Are the Russians planning to sortie with something? Then he received further orders: rendezvous with a small flotilla of oil tankers led by the corporate maritime security ship Argos Fire and provide additional escort through the Black Sea to terminal ports at or near Supsa. He turned to his executive officer still dumbfounded by the message.

“Well here’s a private little nightmare,” he said quietly, with endemic British calm. He handed the message to his XO. Lt. Commander Colin Firth, who read it quietly, one raised eyebrow his only immediate reaction. Then he turned to the Captain, a look of concern on his face.

“We’ll be the only Western shipping in a sea of red in short order, sir. Care to wonder what the Russians will do when we poke our nose into the Black Sea? It’s not hot with us and them just yet, but it will likely be so very soon.”

“Quite so,” said Williams, drawing on the pipe that seemed glued to his right hand, particularly when he was on the bridge. The service frowned on the behavior, but a Captain at sea on his own ship was a bit of a demigod, and no one would presume to even take notice, let alone be bothered by Williams’ addiction to aromatic tobacco. He was a bit of a purist, and smoked only one brand, Gawith & Hoggarth Top Black Cherry, a Kendal style blend made from a 200-year old recipe dating from the days where British purity law dictated that only certain natural ingredients could be used in pipe tobacco. The crew had taken to calling the bridge “Cherry Estates,” and it was always easy to know just where the Captain was on the ship, surrounded as he was by a thin veil of sweet, aromatic smoke.

“Well, we won’t be alone, XO,” Williams put in. “That ship noted in the dispatch there will make for some interesting company.”

“Argos Fire, sir? I can’t say as I’m familiar with it.”

“You’ll think otherwise when you lay eyes on her,” Williams said with a smile. “It’s a Type 45. This Fairchild & Company bought the damn thing lock, stock and barrel some years back and ran her through BAE Systems in Portsmouth for a good overhaul.”

“HMS Dauntless , sir! I remember now. Well that will take the sting off this assignment, unless they’ve made her into a corporate yacht.”

“Oh I’ve heard a bit about this ship, Mister Firth, and it has all the bells and whistles, and good teeth as well.”

Events were now taking on a momentum of their own, and intelligence chatter began to burn up the airways. If the Americans wanted a pretext for another swipe at Iran, the attack on Princess Royal had given it to them. For years there had been talk of a planned attack to impede Iran’s nuclear ambitions, yet nothing ever materialized.

Israel’s request for a thousand more GBU-39 bunker busters had finally been approved and put on the fast track, but the Pentagon would have to move heaven and earth to get them delivered. Russia quickly countered by announcing the sale of their advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missile system, a fearsome deterrent, even for the capable air forces of Israel and the US. All along the US eastern seaboard the Navy was thrumming with activity, and this very same day the Russians decided to send the US yet another message by ordering one of their newest Borei class nuclear ballistic missile subs out for test firing in the North Atlantic. There were too many military assets, on all sides, standing on their toes and looking for a brawl. The attack on Princess Royal had set more in motion than anyone realized at the time, even the company senior executives on board the Argos Fire in the Aegean.