stomp
aw1 RR PAC
03/19/98
There was sporadic static on his radio head phones as he tapped them to try and clear it up.
"Say again MOMO." Smitty yelled into his mike.  "Hold onto yer britches." came the voice of the seasoned and battle hardened pilot.  "Hold onto my wha...." he began to say as MOMO dove their A26 toward their target.  Frantically trying to locate the barf bag in his upper turret, Smitty sees the awesome sight of the entire Cutthroat Mercenary Company willingly follow them down into hell as the sandbagged ack positions open up on them.
The air raid siren had given them plenty of opportunity to evacuate the tower but the base commanding officer was certain that his fighter cover would arrive before the enemy did.  How he wished he had been more cautious as he watched in stupified horror as the lead A26 dove on his tower.
Smitty was sweating as MOMO drove them back to their base.  His ammo load was down to 25 percent of capacity.  He had not actually fired on any enemy fighters but had literally strafed the field.  As they had climbed out and away after several passes he could see nothing but burning buildings and huge craters.  The huge columns of black smoke were like waving banners telling all who could see them that death had visited this place in its worst incarnation.
MOMO was busy giving orders to everyone in Redbeard when Smitty noticed Awulf and Modas coming in from their part of the mission.  Nice formation landing, he thought as he watched them approach the end of the runway.  Then to his horror he saw Modas's left wing drop down touching the ground with a horrendous snap.  For just that moment in time everyone froze as they saw the plane cartwheel down the runway.  The entire craft was engulfed in flame as pieces tore away from the main fuselage until the burning wreck came to a halt half way down the tarmac.  And then it was pandimonium as everyone ran for the wreck hoping against all hope that there was a survivor inside.
Smitty pulled up sharply at the soul wrenching scream of pain that emanated from the inferno.  But it wasn't the scream that brought him to a halt.  It was the huge pair of feathered wings that he saw through the black smoke as they made a mighty stroke downwards blowing the smoke away for just that second.  And then they were gone along with the cries of agony.  Stunned by what he saw he looked over at MOMO who only sadly shook his head.  "Plane up, gents.  We have another field to nail and the enemy will definately be looking for us." ordered MOMO.
Later, as Dice and the rest of Blue climbed up from the carrier deck in their F4U's all he could do was shake his head at the thought of their first launch from the carrier.  Nearly all their planes had simply crashed into the water as soon as they left the carrier deck.  Bad fuel was all he could come up with.  Lucky for them no one was hurt or killed in that fiasco.  I hope this sortie goes much better for us, he quietly thought to himself.

Epilogue:
"....and BlueBeard recorded the highest number of enemy kills this time." Wheel Chock mentioned.
"By the way BlueBeard wing is throughing a party tonight at the officer's club to celebrate Grip's promotion to 2nd Leutenant. Maybe we could turn it into a victory celebration as well?" finished Wheel Chock.  "Hmmm, two enemy carrier fleets decimated along with two enemy bases.  Not bad at all Wheel.  I like it when things go smoothly for us.  How were our casualties this time?" queried Boa.  "They were manageable this time." he said.  "MANAGEABLE!?" yelled Boa rising up out of his chair.  "Sorry, Wheel." Boa apologized sitting back down, " In my opinion a single casualty in our squad is NOT manageable."  "Sorry boss.  That was the wrong word to use.  By the way, we may have a problem on our hands.  Some of our newer pilots saw some pretty bizarre sights today." said Wheel Chock.  Getting up and walking over to the window Boa just stared out at the wave tossed ocean.  "I wish I had the answers" was all Boa said.