The Bear and the Dragon - Tom Clancy [140]
He figured he knew how to set up a naval exercise, one of those grand training evolutions in which half of 7th Fleet would administratively attack and destroy the other half, followed by the simulated forced-entry landing of a Marine battalion. Navy fighters would tangle with Air Force ones, and after it was all over, computer records would show whod won and whod lost, and bets of various sorts would be paid off in various bars—and thered be some hard feelings, because fitness reports (and with them, careers) could ride on outcomes of simulated engagements.
Of all his services, Mancuso figured his submarine force was in the best shape, which made sense, since his previous job had been COMSUBPAC, and hed ruthlessly whipped his boats into shape. And, besides, the little shooting war theyd engaged in two years before had given everyone the proper sense of mission, to the point that the crews of the boomers whod laid on a submarine ambush worthy of Charlie Lockwoods best day still swaggered around when on the beach. The boomers remained in service as auxiliary fast-attacks because Mancuso had made his case to the CNO, who was his friend, Dave Seaton, and Seaton had made his case to Congress to get some additional funding, and Congress was nice and tame, what with two recent conflicts to show them that people in uniform did have more purposes than opening and closing doors for the peoples elected representatives. Besides, the Ohio-class boats were just too expensive to throw away, and they were mainly off doing valuable oceanographic missions in the North Pacific, which appealed to the tree- (actually fish- and dolphin- in this case) huggers, who had far too much political power in the eyes of this white-suited warrior.
With every new day came his official morning briefing, usually run by Brigadier General Mike Lahr, his J-2 Intelligence Officer. This was particularly good news. On the morning of 7 December, 1941, the United States had learned the advantage of providing senior area commanders with the intelligence they might need, and so this CINCPAC, unlike Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, got to hear a lot.
"Morning, Mike," Mancuso said in greeting, while a chief stewards mate set up morning coffee.
"Good morning, sir," the one-star replied.
"Whats new in the Pacific?"
"Well, top of the news this morning, the Russians have appointed a new guy to head their Far Eastern Military District. His name is Gennady Bondarenko. His last job was J-3 operations officer for the Russian army. His backgrounds pretty interesting. He started off in signals, not a combat arm, but he distinguished himself in Afghanistan toward the end of that adventure on their part. Hes got the Order of the Red Banner and hes a Hero of the Soviet Union—got both of those as a colonel. He moved rapidly up from there. Good political connections. Hes worked closely with a guy named Golovko—hes a former KGB officer whos still in the spook business and is personally known to the President—ours, that is. Golovko is essentially the operational XO for the Russian President Grushavoy—like a chief minister or something. Grushavoy listens to him on a lot of issues, and hes a pipeline into the White House on matters of mutual interest."
"Great. So the Russians have Jack Ryans ear via this guy. What sort of mensch is he?" CINCPAC asked.
"Very smart and very capable, our friends at Langley say. Anyway, back to Bondarenko. The book on the guy says hes also very smart and also very capable, a contender for further advancement. Brains and personal bravery can be career-enhancing in their military, just like ours."
"What sort of shape is his new command in?"
"Not very good at all, sir. We see eight division-sized formations, six motor-rifle divisions, one tank, and one artillery division. All appear to be under strength on our overheads, and they dont spend much time in the field. Bondarenko will change that, if he goes according to the form card."
"Think so?"
"As their J-3, he agitated for higher training standards—and hes a bit of an intellectual. He