Part three
Major William Nelson, call sign "Lemons", was at 8,000 feet moving at just under 1,000 knots and roughly 5 miles west of Skira island when his REO, 2nd Lt George West, call sign "ducky" called out incoming bogies.
Lemons wingman, "Grits", interrupted the radio silence a fraction of a second later.
"Lemons, we're picking up bogies now. Looks like eight fighters moving directly at us in two packs of four."
"Do we have time to make it to the target?" replied Lemons?
"Negative, they'll be within range in about a minute." barked Grits.
"Roger we'll take evasive maneuvers. Stay on my right as we climb."
Lemons gave direction to the other 2 fighters in the 4 fighter mission.
"Pup, we're going high, take low. Try to get inland towards the objective but don't go too far south or east or you'll have more to worry about than these fighters."
"Roger Lemons."
Lemons, Grits, Pup and Ducky were part of the 242nd Marine Fighter Attack Squadron. They were flying in three - 4 aircraft groups making sorties around Skira island in support of Marine Recon patrols in the area. The major invasion force was scheduled to make the amphibious landings within the next 48 hours. For now, they just had to worry about a half dozen different groups of recon marines wreaking havoc around the island. The planes took off from the USS George Washington a few hours ago and had been moving north west across the pacific towards their objective.
For now, the squadron had received orders to take out a bridge leading to northern parts of the island. The Chinese forces were moving north along the main highway but had to pass over a rather large bridge in the central valley in order to make it north. There were several high priority targets including several multinational oil refineries in the north that the US joint task force was responsible for protecting. It appeared that the Chinese knew this bridge was important and were guarding it with air support.
Lemons made his way to 16,000 feet. He could see one of the four plane groups making its way towards them on the radar. The other group was clearly moving south towards Pup and his wing man's F18s.
"Lemons, the bogies are in range now." I have visual and am firing Sidewinders." as he finished talking, both sides of the plane lit up as the two sidewinders launched towards the oncoming aircraft.
Lemons brought the F18 down towards 12,000 feet to avoid detection but it was clearly too late. The Radar Warning Receiver announced incoming missiles. Ducky immediately deployed countermeasures as Lemons dove passed 10,000 feet.
Seconds later the first towed decoy exploded. The Warning Receiver wasn't letting up and it was clear more missiles were on their way. Surely enough, a second explosion was felt just above them. The second towed deco had been hit. Both men clenched their teeth tightly as the explosion rocked the cockpit. The warning system fell silent and Lemons evened out the F18 at about 7,000 feet.
"Ducky what's our status" cried Lemons.
"we're ok. All 4 birds are still up. It looks like we still have 5 bogies though. Two of which are behind us now and closing in.....
"Roger. I'll try to get back around so we can take another shot." With that Lemons dropped the flight stick forward and the plane made a radical turn back towards the oncoming bogies.
"Firing!" cried out ducky and two more sidewinders made their way from the jet. Lemons saw both planes now pretty closely and it was clear they were J10s - advanced Chinese fighter planes. The enemy fighters let loose another slew of missiles but this time they weren't coming close to them.
Glancing up from his control panel, Ducky cried out, "I think Pup and Seadog are down!" There was no response from them on the radio. "It looks like the remaining J10s are bugging out. I think we hit one more but I don't see Pup's plane anywhere."
Grits piped in over the radio, "Lemons, I think we lost Pup and SeaDog. I called in Search and Rescue for them."
"Roger that, our orders are to proceed to target." Lemons tried to reach Pup's Wingman Chester. "Chester this is Lemons what's your status?"
"Lemons, we took some debris to the side and we are out of sidewinders." I'm flying ok but we can't keep up much speed. We've fallen behind you guys."
"Roger, Chester. Head back to the George Washington now. We'll deliver the payload ourselves. Those were J9s. You won't last through another dogfight." replied Lemons.
"Roger Lemons, we're heading out. Good Luck!"
"Thanks Chester, stay safe and get that bird back in one piece." Lemons switched over to talk to Grits. "OK, pull down to 3,000 feet and let's make our way towards this bridge."
"Roger Lemons. Let's do this!" replied Grits...
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