Dog Robber (Part I) - 143

[First of a two part series] An EP3 recon plane ID'd a Chinese cruiser carrying nuclear material while they were doing surveillance over the sea of Taiwan. The EP3 was then forced to seek humanitarian landing at Fuzhou airbase, after MIG pilot Lt. Kwan Li rammed it with his plane, during his routine harassment of the surveillance plane, and was supposedly killed. Chinese General Shin-wa Chen said he would only negotiate with retired Adm Tom Boone who he knew personally, so the SACNAV (who had tried to court-martial Boone) had to swallow his pride and have Harm (H) go talk to Boone and request that he come back into service in the SECNAVs office with a 2 star rank. ("Dog Robber": Military term for an aide who can get things done, usually "off the record and under the radar") H & Boone flew to the USS Thomas Jefferson where Capt Hubbard would let him take a COD into China. They were escorted to the border by Lt's Carl Barrett and Crawford. H had to interview the crew surreptitiously to avoid being eavesdropped on. The pilot claimed he had "no choice" but to land after being struck by the MIG - or "all would have been killed" when they ditched. Boone, angrily, said "that's why they call it war." The pilot told H that they only had 24 min before landing - not enough to remove all the secret codes. The 2nd officer told H that she felt sorry, in a way, for the "dead" Chinese pilot because he "seemed like a good guy." He had always "waved" while he had been harassing them previously, and one time even held up a sign with his Email address. H had her write the address "Beagleboy34@chinanet.net." Boone and H saw that Chinese technicians were removing the security consoles from the plane and Boone had to be forced away from protecting the plane at Chinese gunpoint. H asked Bud (B), in code to check the email id with Webb and found that Chen-wa was lying- Li was still alive, had landed his plane in Manchuria and had emailed his girlfriend to let her know he was ok.

They then faced down Chen-wa with a recon photo of the undamaged plane on a runway. Chen-wa had previously said that they needed to "talk about an apology" but Boone had countered with "we'll be happy to accept any one you will give." Chen-wa chided Boone that he "should know sometimes it's better to apologize" and Boone said "you're in the right country for it- the Chinese have more words for 'sorry' than the Eskimo's have for 'snow.'" Now, with the photo, they threatened Chen-wa that he was "at odds with the civilian leadership of your country." So, Chen-wa released the crew so Boone & H flew them out in the COD; but, the plane would be "sent back piece by piece when we are through with it." The COD was being escorted back to the carrier by Lt's Barrett and Crawford. Upset about leaving the surveillance plane to the Chinese, Barrett sent Crawford away and, defying orders, flew into china, buzzed the grounded aircraft to give warning, then blew it up on the tarmac. --(story to be continued)--

Mac (M) prosecuted, and B & Turner (T) defended, two Annapolis midshipmen who were arrested for dueling with their sabers. They were the 5th generation grandsons of civil war ship captains Franklin Buchanan (confederate) and Morris (union). They had been arguing over their grandparents battles and decided to resolve it on the "field of honor." T described it as an "embarrassment to both them and the Academy and dishonor to the memories of their grandfathers." M charged them with attempted murder and wouldn't settle for anything except their resignation from the Academy for doing something so completely stupid. T assured her that he had done something just as stupid and M asked "did it involve H?" T said that "fortunately the statue of limitations has run out on it." M said she "might feel differently if either of them showed a shred of remorse or realized that what they did was wrong." M finally relented after they finally did show some remorse on the stand.

T helped H fix his Vet claiming that he had a "light touch" and H "pressed to damn hard." Gunny requested a transfer back to the Force Recon unit at camp Lejune who needed a company gunny. Chegwidden wished he could go with him and said "be safe Victor."