Clash of Dragons the War For Taiwan by Christopher McGarry

Author:Christopher McGarry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: thriller, adventure, japan, kindle, war, china, epub, marines, taiwan, ccp
Publisher: Christopher McGarry

Chapter 22

On the East China Sea

Standing on the deck of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhauer, all Richard Dale saw was an unending blue sea. As far as he was concerned, there was no better place to be than right here. The high seas of the world had been his domain for the past three decades.

Balding. Indented crow’s feet around his eyes. A rather rotund man. What Dale lacked in physical prowess, he more than made up for with a sheer ability to command a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

Far below him, flight crews moved about their territory like worker bees. It had been on the deck of a similar carrier that Dale as a young naval officer fresh out of Annapolis had learned the ropes involved with safely assisting fighter aircraft and helicopters to land on the carrier’s massive deck. As a junior officer of the deck, Dale worked alongside the main officer of the deck and oversaw the boatswain’s mate of the watch, as well as the lead quartermasters and signalmen.

For an entire year, the navy captain had been confined to a desk in some nondescript office inside naval command in Washington. No pun intended, he felt like a fish out of water and absolutely hated the position. You could take the officer out of the aircraft carrier, but you couldn’t take the aircraft carrier out of the officer.

The tactful, mild-mannered naval officer oversaw approximately 6,000 personnel. To those who worked with him, Dale was a military officer who exuded professionalism and always kept tabs on everything that was going on around him. The skies over the aircraft carrier screamed with the sounds of EA-18G Growlers and F/A-18E/F Super Hornets continually landing and taking off. Each time a fighter jet flew in low in preparation to land, Dale silently prayed that the pilot would set down gracefully on the deck. He’d seen too many accidents during his tenure involving mishaps. Pilots slamming into the back of carriers and having themselves and their $10 million pieces of equipment blown to bits. Fighter jets performing half-assed landings that resulted in serious injuries to the deck crew or damage to parts of the carrier. Earlier in the day, a Growler whose wing was ablaze crash-landed on the deck. Luckily, while the jet required major maintenance, the pilot had been left relatively unscathed from the dog fight against PLA Air Force aircraft. Others had not been so lucky. The current tally of casualties included four naval pilots.

Dale figured he would retire from military life within the next five years or so. Being commander of an aircraft carrier was impressive enough. But being commander of an aircraft carrier during World War III was something his descendants would speak proudly of.

The evening was setting in. The carrier’s precarious position just off the eastern coast of Taiwan had been made worse by the rough seas that plagued east and southeast Asia during this time of the year. Monsoons and tsunamis were a constant threat and caused more grief for the deck crews.

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