Strike Force Zulu - Chapter 7: 12:00 March 31st

Major Ryan Richter, ANG, looked at the cavernous mouths of the six huge beasts surrounding his facility and wondered what the hell was going on. He did not know of any material, equipment, or personnel transfers that would require the services of six C-5s. He watched the soldiers aboard the aircraft immediately begin to disembark their ground vehicles and shortly afterwards the first helicopters were being disgorged from within the holds of the cargo aircraft.

“Top, are we missing any students or did anyone schedule a training exercise that I don’t know about?” Major Richter asked his First Sergeant, First Sergeant Ford Mustang.

First Sergeant Mustang shook his head in response. “No Sir, not that I am aware of; Or at least none that would be coming in this way. There are a couple of Coasties coming in with their Dolphin later tonight for the instructors’ course. Everyone else is already here and billeted with plans to use our birds for the training.”

Major Richter thought about that briefly, “Have we figured out why a couple of Coasties are coming all the way up here for this training with their bird? I would think they would not need to worry about High Altitude training considering their charter.”

“Again, no Sir. I guess we can ask them this evening when they get in, or tomorrow morning after formation.” Mustang replied.

“Right, well I guess one, or both, of us should meander over there and see what the hell is going on with these troops and talk to whomever is charge of them. Otherwise they will just make a mess of our AO*.” Richter said thoughtfully.

The First Sergeant nodded to the Major. “Yes Sir. I’ll head over now and call you as reinforcements if needed. As you know, that is what us lowly enlisted folks are for. I would expect that someone will likely be knocking on your office door before too long though Sir. You might, respectfully of course, want to get fully into uniform and not just be wearing half of it Sir.”

Richter chuckled at that. “Well, if our guests are not used to how the National Guard does things, particularly our Aviation resources, I guess they will be in for a surprise. But on more rational thought, I suppose you might be correct and it would be better if I were to put my blouse on. Go ahead and see who our guests are and what they might possibly need from us.”

Mustang smiled, “Roger that Sir.” Turning away from the Major he strode towards the newly arrived soldiers whistling a jaunty tune as he went. Mustang knew the Major was a little too ‘Cowboy’ for most line units, that’s one of the reasons he was in the National Guard and not Active Duty.

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The troops were sweating as they worked hard to pull all of the helicopters and their equipment out of the bellies of the C-5s. While all of the troops were from the 160th SOAR, they were from different Battalions. Three of the C-5s started out from Campbell Army Airfield at Fort Campbell, Kentucky with two carrying elements of Alpha and Bravo companies of First Battalion with their AH-6 and MH-6 Little Birds; while the third carried four MH-47 Chinooks from Alpha Company, Second Battalion. Two of the C-5s started their trip from Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Georgia and were carrying most of Charlie Company, Third Battalion and their MH-60 Black Hawks. While the final C-5 had started from Joint Base LewisMcChord, Washington carrying MH-47s from Bravo Company, Fourth Battalion. All of the C-5s had met up after refueling and came in together, which was honestly unusual.

Apparently, the Battalion Commanders had been in a meeting with the Regimental Commander after something had happened at Special Operations Command (SOCOM); which of course, meant a joint Training Exercise (TX) was to be immediately scheduled. Rumor had it that SOCOM had issued a challenge to Air Mobility Command (AMC) saying they could not find their asses with both hands if they were given assistance. Which then led to the misfortune of a TX for everyone below them with bets riding on who would do the best during the training.

Technical Sergeant Jordan Green was acting as Loadmaster for one of the C-5s and he was standing just outside of his aircraft monitoring the offloading procedure for a MH-60L DAP hoping the Army guys would hurry up, safely mind you, and get their equipment off his aircraft so that his crew could get back in the air as quickly as possible, again safely mind you. Transportation assets were always in demand, and the fact six of the USAF’s precious C-5s were stuck on the ground in the mountains of Colorado as opposed to flying a “real” mission somewhere else around the world was beyond stupid in Green’s opinion. But then no one ever asked an E-6 what really mattered. If they did, things might actually get done correctly.*

Looking at the current offloading speed, the current time of day, and the projected weather… There was little to no way they were going to get back into the air before midnight, and maybe not even then assuming the weather reports were correct. Active snow in the mountains do not make good take-off conditions. Green sighed as he caught movement from the corner of his eye. Turning his head he saw an older Army soldier walking over. Damnit, what is his rank? Green always got confused looking at thye Army ranks. By the number of chevrons and rockers, he was obviously a senior enlisted member… but was that a Sergeant First Class, Master Sergeant, a First Sergeant, a Sergeant Major, or a Command Sergeant Major?

“How can I help you Sergeant?” Green asked hopefully while keeping an eye on the unloading process.

“It’s First Sergeant, and you just keep on doing your job as Loadmaster, Technical Sergeant”, Ford said as he looked around trying to spot someone in charge from the Army side of things. “I am just looking for someone with some rank amongst your PAX.”**

“Hey! Watch what you are doing… straighten it out… if you scrape the side…” Green yelled at the Tug driver before turning back to the First Sergeant. “Sorry about that First Sergeant, I believe all the brass are up in the upper decks still. We should have the lower deck empty enough for them to get out easily before too long. But as for full unloading, it will be another few hours.”

Ford nodded and looked over at the helicopter being unloaded. He saw all the weapons mounted on the stub wings and wondered who in the hell these guys were. Normal Black Hawks would normally only have extended fuel tanks on theirs. As he watched, a Warrant Officer came over and asked, “Can I help you First Sergeant?”

Looking at the name tag on the Warrant Officer’s flight suit, Ford answered***, “Yes Sir. I’m First Sergeant Ford with HAATS here and my Major is concerned. We had no idea you guys were coming first off. Second, our facility does not have the training space or barracks to house so many of you. You are here to train, correct Chief Braun?”

Cheif Warrant Officer Braun smiled oddly while saying, “Well, yes we are here for training, just, well to put it bluntly, not with you.” He seemed to think about it for a moment then continued, “Well not likely with you. You see Top, its like this…”