The Main Inquiry by Brian Deis (free novel 24 .TXT) 📕

He responded with a usual smile and unsettling words. “Yep, I was just told to have you in the radio room at 21:30 hours for a KY8 call with some of the powers from the puzzle palace. They have an assignment for you and they sounded really serious about it.” I assured him I would be there and wondered who else had been selected. “Just you, Main, and they wanted to be sure of that.”

“Do you have any other information on the subject of the phone call? “I wondered, but he said he didn’t. I was ordered to just be there to get an assignment from someone for something. The Pentagon (named Puzzle Palace) had many support activities that needed to be watched, and this was likely one of them. Most of these items are not highly classified, but this call was on the secured phone called the KY8. That meant it was not routine.

“Nothing to do but attend the meeting and go from there,” I said with some confusion in my voice.

“Roger that,” said the SWO. “There’s always something going on that will add time to your day."

I then discussed the ET (electronics tech) issue with him, as he was also the operations officer. He had the entire electronics department in his organization. He had no problem with helping on the black boxes, and he said he would have someone with the chief in less than an hour.

“I was thinking the other day, you and I go back about as far as anyone I am working with” he said “and we are still friends in spite of getting to know each other pretty well!”

“I never thought of it quite that way” I admitted, “but I guess you are right. We have spent a lot of time together over the years. What made you think of the good old days?”

“Not sure, maybe because I had a new guy to train up here and it put me in mind of all the watches we did together.”

“Yep, I have never had such long conversations about unimportant things.” I noted.

I began my career as a surface officer instead of a pilot, because I could not meet the vision requirements to get into jet school. I had lots of prior experience because I flew jets as a corporate pilot while going to college at Georgia Tech. I learned to love to fly from my father at age 14. At 16, the FAA issued single engine licenses, and I made sure to get mine near my birthday. I continued to fly, and soon got an instrument rating. I worked to afford continued hours and before I went to college I was multi-engine qualified. Flying was my main motivation to work. I was most alive when I was in the air. It didn’t seem to matter if it was a glider or a multi engine jet, the time in the air was the best. The market, at that time, was such that the Navy recruiting effort produced sufficient pilots with perfect vision to satisfy the need for carrier pilots. Since the recruiters could fill the jobs with high entrance standards, the Navy was better off. I knew that the times were changing as the war in Viet Nam stepped up. The Navy would have to lower the vision requirements to keep a pilot in each seat. My choices were limited with the Airforce because they never had to lower the standards.

I decided to wait for the chance to get in an F-4 Phantom, and that meant being in the fleet and learning the life of ships. My hope was that the supply of pilots would change, and the requirement for perfect vision would soon be modified. My qualifications were good enough that as soon as the standards changed, I got my chance to fly.

The bad start to the watch seemed to appease Murphy’s law and the rest of the flight operations went off without a problem. Since the Air Boss was only on the bridge while flight ops are in play, I was free to return to my responsibilities. The bridge watch people were always there, and they had several more hours to be under the pressure of command of the carrier.

Chapter 3

A Call from ONI

I found the radio room just before the appointed time. The ship offered the services of the Marine Corps to escort people to their destination because of the size of the vessel. The passageways were numbered and lettered much like street names. The challenge was that all the passageways looked very much alike. If you ventured away from the familiar areas without an escort, then you ran a high chance of becoming disoriented. You would end up calling for an escort to come and set things straight. It was faster, and less embarrassing, to use the guide if the destination was in an unfamiliar part of the ship. Having been on the ship for nearly a month, I used a Corporal named Fergisson, who was from West Virginia. He was what you would want all our Marines to be like. I once asked if he liked his job (wondering how anyone could), and his genuine response was that it was, “The best damn job on the ship, if you like hep’in people, and want to do it every day!” He had been doing this job on this ship for three years. He thought that the ship’s business could not get done if people could not find each other. It struck me that he might just have the secret to life….

The ship was designed with areas defined by the job being done. That meant there were many local areas where you could work, live, eat and shop, all in a concentrated place. This organization minimized the miles one would have to travel during a day. Also, with more than 50 of these professional areas, you could find any service or activity you wanted at any time of the day. One might have to travel quite some distance to find a meal at 1 am, but it was there every hour of every day.

The radio room was really a series of rooms that began with a conference room, used for any radio-related business. The rooms became progressively more technical, and more highly classified, until they ended with rooms full of equipment for radio and teletype. If you had business in the radio area, you would end up selecting the proper room to meet with the people you needed to see. For survivability, these rooms were spread all over the ship to the extent that you would need a Marine to find the right one. I understood that a ship of this size, and world influence, needed spectacular communications always available. One could pick up the correct phone and call directly to the war room in the basement of the White House from anywhere on the planet. With the number of ships steaming in formation, there was a need for multiple radio frequencies to accomplish the daily business of the fleet.

I sat in the room and waited for the meeting to begin. After a time, the KY-8 secure phone lit up and I answered it with my name and rank. The voices on the other end introduced themselves in turn, from the most senior down. me:

“ Commander, I am the Assistant Director and the Deputy for the Asian Theater is also on the line. We have encountered a situation that we want to make you aware of.”

“ I will be glad to help in any way I can. You guys do a great job for us and we owe you a lot, Sir”

“Thanks, Commander,” He said ”we need to make you aware of a strange problem we found in one of the two planes you sent to Miramar for some upgrades.”

“I know those planes well, Sir” I confirmed “What problem did they have with our birds?”

“This is Deputy Director Simms, commander. They installed the upgrades to the Nav system and took them out for testing and alignment of the new gear. One of the planes had a motor out emergency and they lost the plane.”

“Shit, Sir, that is not what I wanted to hear. Did the plane commander and the RIO get out OK?” I asked

“They did, but the plane was lost in the mountains and it is a real mess. After quite an evaluation of the situation, we have come to understand that the fuel filter was jelled up and that prevented the motor from getting gas.”

“Now that is interesting,” I said “I have never heard of that in my years flying these things. What else have you learned about the filters?

“This is the director, we are looking into the production facility and should have that wrapped up in a couple of days. They will have to help us understand what went wrong with the filters. That is why we are calling you, commander. You should get in gear on the filters as soon as we figure out how to tell the bad ones from the good.

“Well, director,” I said, “We sure need to know what’s wrong with the filters and how will we go about inspecting them.” That was the question of the day and the reason for the call. The filters all looked OK, but after they have been in service for one to three hours, the inside of the canisters turned to a gel-like substance that clogged up the flow of fuel.

The director said, “Now remember that, out of thousands of filters shipped by Mobil, we really only have one that shows the defect.”

“Yes Sir” I said. In my years with the organization, I learned that information is the ultimate power and I just did not want to trust the information about our earlier plane failure to them without knowing more about what was going on in Washington.

Director” I asked “can you take me through how you selected me for this assignment and not my Boss?”

“Sure, that is a fair question.” He admitted, “You have years of experience as a shipboard officer as well as being second in command of the wing. Your boss is tied up with some work he is not at liberty to discuss and recommended you without hesitation. He realizes this will take some of your time and assured us you will be able to handle the demands of the problem.”

“I will do my best” I said,

” I realize you were unaware of this problem and it will take some time to get set up for finding the answer. We wanted a senior officer for the job and we have discussed this with the ship’s CO and the XO. They are fine with the plan and you are to give them regular briefings including your CO.

“Will do” I said and we set a date and time for the next conversation. They gave me the numbers of the head of Quality Control at the Mobile plant that makes the filters.

I was convinced that they had done the work to get at the true cause of the loss of a plane. Their account of the failure of one motor was a familiar one and I immediately felt my skin temperature rise and a wave of concern made my stomach jump. This problem was real and sounded like the second occurrence in the last week. I had reason to think it was two planes lost and it gave me the willies to think that it could happen to one of us over the jungle in enemy territory. If it happened, the pilot would get the choice that we all fear - eject into the hands of the enemy or take the plane down.

I assured the director that we would not only check the filters, but we would move any obstruction, to be sure the planes were safe to fly. He said he appreciated that and