Chapter Three - part seven

   James and Sarah didn't discuss what had been said until they were finally alone at the end of the day. Some of the air crews had arrived and James had been busy all day with getting the squadron settled. They had three days to get themselves in order and then they would be expected to be ready to assume the patrols on their turn in the rotation. James and Sarah were very pleased with their house. It was a four bedroom, though they didn't really need more than three. They unpacked what little they had and started setting things up that night. While they worked they talked about what had been said in the general's office that day. Sarah was concerned. She had expected this to be a low danger, easy going duty. Instead it seemed that they would both be stepping into the fire. True it would be very different kinds of fires for each of them, but they could both still get burned. James had told her that he believed their missions here were tied together. If China was planning a move in Korea, then America had to expand its presence in the area. The only viable option if Korea was unwilling to expand was to expand bases in Japan. His job was to keep Korea in the game and her job was to strengthen resources in Japan.

   The next day during a closed door meeting, James took the opportunity to talk with all of the pilots in the squadron about the 'new' mission parameters. Brig. General Johns was there with him and she spoke first. She carefully explained the new mission they would be tasked with. She had maps of the entire area and the proposed flight plans they would be taking. She had also discussed some of the newest intelligence they had about what was going on inside North and South Korea. She had also made it very clear that this was all to be kept inside the walls of the briefing room. Nobody outside the people flying the missions and the people in charge of planning those missions was to be told about any of this. James had followed her with a short and very direct talk of his own. Stepping up to the podium he spoke very briefly before dismissing the pilots with a very short statement. "Alright, now you know why we are really here. This isn't going to be the simple mission we were expecting. It could very rapidly become a very big mess. I want each of you to keep in mind that we will almost be like a red flag flying out there. I tell you now that alone will make the sleeping dragon, Red China, stir. Our mission is to keep the dragon from advancing, without making it angry." That brought a few chuckles. James didn't smile as he continued. "Laugh while you can folks, but if that dragon decides to fight... the world will be screaming, crying, and maybe dying for a long, long time! Think about that until we begin this mission! And don't ever forget it once we are actually flying around that sleeping dragon, Dismissed!" James had turned and left the room with Brig. General Johns. They were intentionally leaving the pilots to talk among themselves about the dragon they would soon be facing.

   The scheduled patrols rolled around and James began to fly the new extended patrols. The first few went without incident, but after a few days of those, that stopped. North Korea was the first to start objecting that the patrols were encroaching on their territory, which they weren't. Soon China chimed in and began complaining that the planes were getting too close to their naval vessels. James continued to fly as ordered. All of this was minor compared to what was happening inside Korea. The South had insisted that American troops be withdrawn from the DMZ and it was starting to happen. Granted it was slow and under strong American objections, but it was going to eventually be completed. That area soon became a pressure point and James soon found himself involved. More than once he had to encourage North Korean jets to back away from the DMZ. That wasn't easy to do, especially not when the South had complained very strongly about his actions. They said it was because he had entered their airspace in order to make the North back away without permission. While they had an American military presence it seemed that they no longer wanted it to be so visible. James spent more than one long night in meetings trying to soothe ruffled feathers with South Korean and Chinese diplomats.

   After a few weeks things seemed to ease up just a bit, but James was no more fooled than anybody else who was directly involved with the situation. It had suddenly gotten too quiet in the region. The withdrawal of American troops was still going on, but was almost completed. South Korea had relaxed and no longer objected when the 77th did a fly over near the DMZ. North Korea seemed to be willing to let it all go too. Even China was silent, but the dragon was awake and it was moving! The weekly intelligence briefings had now become daily and James didn't like anything about what he was being told. China had actually moved several squadrons of the most advanced fighters they had, the J-33, directly into North Korea. While not capable of the sustained flight times of the F/A-48 and with little stealth capability, they were still a very capable fighter. They were more maneuverable than the F/A-48's and almost as fast as the F/A-48's. In numbers this large they could be a very real threat in the air to an F/A-48. The major advantage now would be in the stealth capability of the F/A-48, but that only worked until the fight actually began. Once engaged and the fighting had started it was very hard to stay hidden regardless of how good a 'ghost' you were.

   As strained and occupied as he was with his new mission and the developing situation where he was, James still made time to keep up with things back home. Things weren't getting better back home either. The changing world seemed to be having a tremendous effect on America. The changes were starting to become much more noticeable. That or James was just paying more attention and noticing things more now. A few years earlier the U.S. government had begun building public housing projects in the major cities across the nation to help house all of the people who were flooding into them in search of jobs and better living conditions. Most of the people in those new 'projects' now survived on government checks and food. The only good thing about them was that many of the able bodied men were working to build more of them. But even that wasn't as good a thing as the news made it out to be. Most of those able bodied men were older men who had lost everything and been forced to move to a project to keep a roof over their families head. However the majority of the men in the projects were young men, just out of school. Many of them had never had a job at all and didn't want to work at a dirty job, like construction. They just sat around and lived on what the government gave them. It was much the same and just as bad with the women in the projects. The older women worked in the small stores and shops that were a part of each project, but the younger women spent their time at the public pools or playgrounds; often with their children. They were often having those children in order to get larger checks from the government.

   There still seemed to be little James could do about changing anything at home. He had decided to concentrate on what he could do where he was instead. God had put James where he was and there was a reason for that. James just had to accept it and let God to use him for whatever purpose He chose. James and Sarah had both been very busy, but they had not forgotten the kids. They had managed to find a private daycare they liked. It was available around the clock in case duty called them away without notice. The woman who ran it was a retired missionary's wife. Sarah's folks had come over with the kids and stayed around for a week or so, just to make sure everything went smoothly. James and Sarah had been glad to get the kids back. The kids seemed to be no worse for all the missed time, but James was convinced they had both more than doubled in size during those few weeks apart. The only problem had happened when they had to leave them at the daycare the first few times, but that passed once they came back to pick them up after only a few hours. Things were slowly settling into a more normal routine for everyone.

   That routine wasn't going to last though. Once all the American troops had been withdrawn from the DMZ things began to escalate again. The Chinese were soon openly having extremely large military exercises all along the northern side of DMZ. In fact their planes often flew over it and occasionally even breached South Korean air space. The regular daily patrols now seemed to be doing very little to discourage any of that. The Chinese seemed to watch and work around the F/A-48's schedules. That was bad enough, but it was what was happening inside South Korea that was really disturbing. A new division was forming in the country. One side was afraid of China. They wanted the U.S. forces to stay and protect them. The second group was afraid of China too, but they wanted the U.S. troops out of South Korea. They blamed the U.S. for the growing Chinese threat. That second group was slowly growing stronger. It wasn't just fear of China that was dividing the people either. It was fear of their future as a whole. Things seemed to be growing harder for most people worldwide. But in the places where there was the added pressure of military threats it was far worse. South Korea wasn't directly involved in any military actions, but military action was a huge and looming threat with China right on their border now. North Korea still had a government, but few people in South Korea really believed that China wasn't actually the government that was in control now. James had finally been asked to turn the daily patrols into around the clock patrols after the Chinese Air Force began flying into South Korean air space almost daily.