The Wargamer

July 11, 1986

Cruising off the coast of Libya

Personal Log of Squadron Commander Dan “Cherub” Verssen

Spirits in the pilot’s lounge are at rock bottom following yesterday’s disastrous mission. There has been no news about Dino and Lightning. The SAR helo crews are still out looking for them, but I think they went down too close to the shore and might have been captured. Also, I just saw Lightning. He won’t be flying anytime soon. Spider probably could fly if he had to, but I’d rather not push it.

Here’s what the squadron looks like following yesterday’s mission:

The CAG (Commander Air Group) has taken our squadron off the day’s strike roster to give use some time to get it together again. As I write this, I can hear the catapults launching the other squadrons for the day’s strikes. I hope they have better luck then we did.

Our squadron will be on CAP (Combat Air Patrol) over the carrier today. If the Libyans get brave and decide to send an air strike against our task force, we’ll be here to stop them. Once the strike squadrons clear the flight deck, we’ll get a few of our planes in the air orbiting the task force, and the others will wait on deck, ready for an immediate launch.

I was sitting in the cockpit by the forward catapults, when the call came through from the CAG. “Cherub, we’ve got a strike group inbound. Launch when ready. I’ll provide more details when you’re in the air.”

I couldn’t believe it! The Libyans were actually going for it. From the sound of the CAG’s voice, he would have preferred to have a different squadron on CAP right now. Can’t say I blame him.

We’re loaded up with full weapons. Each of us carries a mix of 8 Sparrows and Sidewinders. I have some of the guys who aren’t quite up to speed on air combat skills carrying mostly Sidewinders. They’ll need to get in closer, but they have a better chance of scoring a kill.

Details on the Libyan strike are starting to come through.

Looks like a large group of Su-24s with bandit escorts.

The stress level for all of us has just gone up a notch at seeing such a large force headed for the task force. Su-24s carry a heavy payload of bombs and air-to-surface weapons. If they get past us, the task force will pay for it dearly.

I’ve decided to hit them from 3 sides at once. This is to get my Sidewinder guys in range of their bandits as quickly as possible. The Libya’s have some MiG-25s that are capable of long-range missile fire. I don’t want my guys having to fly through waves of their missiles before getting to shoot back.

Wedge and Bullseye carry 4 Sparrows each. I hope they can bracket the strike force and nail any threats early on. I’ve also grouped some of the less skilled pilots with the more skilled. The less skilled pilots will also perform suppression fire as needed.

Here’s what we see when close to missile range. Not bad, they only have one MiG-25, so their longrange threat is minimal. Those MiG-23s might be a problem though. Our guys will be trading shortrange missile shots with them as we try and take down the Su-24s.