The Bear and the Dragon - Tom Clancy [133]
There was no denying the fact that driving armored vehicles across a cornfield was tough on the corn, and while the U.S. Army trailed every tactical formation with a Hummer whose passengers came with a big checkbook to pay for the damage, the Germans were a tidy people, and Yankee dollars didnt always compensate for the suddenly untidy fields. It had been easier when the Red Army had been right on the other side of the fence, threatening death and destruction on West Germany, but Germany was now one sovereign country, and the Russians were now on the far side of Poland, and a lot less threatening than theyd once been. There were a few places where large formations could exercise, but those were as fully booked as the prettiest debutantes dance card at the cotillion, and so the Quarter Horse spent too much time in simulators, too.
"Okay," Diggs said. "The good news is that were going to profit from the new federal budget. We have lots more funds to train with, and we can start using them in twelve days. Colonel Masterman, do you have some ways for us to spend it?"
"Well, General, I think I might come up with something. Can we pretend that its nineteen-eighty-three again?" At the height of the Cold War, Seventh Army had trained to as fine an edge as any army in history, a fact ultimately demonstrated in Iraq rather than in Germany, but with spectacular effect. Nineteen eighty-three had been the year the increased funding had first taken real effect, a fact noted fully by the KGB and GRU intelligence officers, whod thought until that time that the Red Army might have had a chance to defeat NATO. By 1984, even the most optimistic Russian officers fell off that bandwagon for all time. If they could reestablish that training regimen, the assembled officers all knew theyd have a bunch of happy soldiers, because, though training is hard work, it is what the troops had signed up for. A soldier in the field is most often a happy soldier.
"Colonel Masterman, the answer to your question is, Yes. Back to my original question. Hows readiness?"
"Were at about eighty-five percent," 2nd Brigade estimated. "Probably ninety or so for the artillery—"
"Thank you, Colonel, and I agree," the colonel commanding divisional artillery interjected.
"But we all know how easy life is for the cannoncockers," 2nd Brigade added as a barb.
"Aviation?" Diggs asked next.
"Sir, my people are within three weeks of being at a hundred percent. Fortunately, we dont squash anybodys corn when were up practicing. My only complaint is that its too easy for my people to track tanks on the ground if theyre road-bound, and a little more realistic practice wouldnt hurt, but, sir, Ill put my aviators up against anyone in this mans army, especially my Apache drivers." The "snake" drivers enjoyed a diet of raw meat and human babies. The problems theyd had in Yugoslavia a few years earlier had alarmed a lot of people, and the aviation community had cleaned up its act with alacrity.
"Okay, so youre all in pretty good shape, but you wont mind sharpening the edge up a little, eh?" Diggs asked, and got the nods he expected. Hed read up on all his senior officers on the flight across the pond. There was little in the way of dead wood here. The Army had less trouble than the other services in holding on to good people. The airlines didnt try to hire tank commanders away from 1st Armored, though they were always trying to steal fighter and other pilots from the Air Force, and while