Meyerkopf wrapped up his wooden delivery and seemed thankful he could now escape the skeptical eyes of his aviators. “Well, that’s all I’ve got. Ah, Captain, do you have anything?”
Captain Sanders scanned the room behind him until his eyes settled on his Intelligence Officer, Commander Norb Hofmeister. “Hof” was a favorite among the pilots for his quick wit in daily briefings and for knowing his business. He led a team of squadron intel officers — of whom VFA-16’s Ensign Duncan was the newest member — tasked to provide actionable intelligence to the aviators before they had to fly into harm’s way.
“Yes, sir,” Sanders answered as he stood. “Commander Hofmeister has a run-down on the local situation. Hof—”
In his khaki uniform, Hofmeister bounded to the front of the room as a chart was projected behind him. “Admiral, good morning! We are going to remain in the vicinity of Puerto Rico for the next two days requalifying your aviators in day and night carrier landings before we transit west southwest to this position north of the Panama Canal so we can do our reactor and damage control drills unmolested by ship traffic. This is about 750 miles from our current position, and we’ll be flying while en route. With a fifteen-knot speed of advance, we should be there in two days.”
Wilson was confused. The position Hofmeister had pointed to was right in the middle of the Caribbean basin, over 200 miles from the nearest land. His pilots could operate “blue water” and depend on tanker aircraft to keep them fueled if they had difficulty getting aboard. But what was there to do out there? The drills Meyerkopf wanted to do could be done here, near Puerto Rico, just as easily, and the current location would allow his pilots better training opportunities.
“What are we doing now?” Weed muttered next to him. Wilson nodded slightly, hoping Hofmeister, who was on his best behavior with the admiral and the other heavies sitting in front of him, had some good news.
“While the ship is in this vicinity,” said Hof as he pointed again to their destination, “we’ll be engaged in an exercise called Assured Promise, which will involve training with local air forces in Panama and Colombia. Each day and night we’ll have KC-135 and KC-10 tankers to fill you guys up before you bump heads with these guys to exercise their air defense systems.”
The aviators perked up. Yes! Dissimilar Air Combat Training! And “gas” from big wing Air Force tankers. Lots of it, for them to burn! This was turning into a good deal after all, and the cheesy name of this exercise,