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Wednesday, November 27th, 1991 | 07:00 hrs [UTC+2]
Eastern Mediterannean Sea | 18 nautical miles from Gaza
31° 35' 48" N, 34° 2' 25" E
What had been discussed only yesterday as simply a pair of aircraft overflying the Old Walled City of Gaza had turned into a sizeable package by the time it got down to the Andrew Beckwith in EASTMED. The package had ballooned from a pair of F-14B Tomcats flying the TARPS run to sixteen total aircraft committed to the mission, not including the E-2C Hawkeye that would be flying on station within range of Gaza protecting the carrier battle group. The Hawkeye would also be directing the mission since it had grown in complexity. Aside from the two Tomcats flying the run, there would be two additional F-14Bs flying combat air patrol around the region, two F-18C Hornets equipped for SEAD, four F-18C Hornets equipped for armed reconnaissance, two HH-60H Sea Hawks for combat search-and-rescue, and then two F-14Bs and two F-18Cs on Alert Five with air-to-air and air-to-ground ordnance as a quick reaction force.
The mission template was still relatively the same. The TARPS-equipped F-14s would fly into Gazan airspace, overfly the Old Walled City, and exit. If the Gazans engaged the aircraft with surface-to-air missiles, the F-18s would zoom in and destroy the sites whether they launched or not. If the Gazans launched Mirages, the F-14s would zoom in and shoot them down. If a plane were shot down, the HH-60s would attempt to go in and rescue the airmen while under the protection of the entire package. If the worst should happen and Layartebian aircraft need reinforcements, the four Alert Five aircraft would launch and make for the Gazans coastline at high speed. They were roughly 125 nautical miles away, which meant they would be there in around fifteen minutes from launch. The Hornets were on the catapults with the Tomcats waiting just behind the jet blast deflectors.
The entire package had launched in waves and flown to a holding point roughly eighteen nautical miles off of the coastline of Gaza, which was where the aircraft presently held. Early warning radars from Gaza pinged their RWRs with every sweep of the skies but the radars were just searching for that was what they were, search radars. Fire control radars, such as those for SAM and AAA sites were quiet as was activity around Gaza International Airport, where the Mirage IIIs were based. Even communications around Gaza were quiet, as noted by passing satellites overhead that were linked directly to the command center aboard the Andrew Beckwith.
The E-2C Hawkeye flying today was aircraft number 203 and so its callsign was BOSS 203 while the F-14s flying Tarps were 501 and 512. They took on the callsign designator of SCOOTER. The other assorted aircraft all had their own callsigns too, a designator followed by the aircraft number. So when the mission clock officially began, the air control officer or ACO aboard BOSS 203 called out over the radio, "SCOOTER 501, you are cleared for mission." The flight leader acknowledged and from there, the Tomcats flying the TARPS run dropped to 4,000 feet, and the pilots began to fly towards their designated target. HUD symbology told them the precise route to fly to maximize photo quality. They had little more to do than to simply fly to the symbology on their HUD while the RIO did all of the photographic work.
While they did, everyone with access to the radio frequency waited with bated breath. If the pilots or the RIOs reported anything untoward, the rest of the strike package would zoom in and do what they'd been armed to do. Feelings were mixed. Some of the pilots wanted to release their ordnance and destroy hostile targets while others wanted to return to the carrier and nothing more, not necessarily because they were afraid but rather because they were more cautious about the risks of combat. The CAG and the higher officers of the battlegroup wanted nothing more than a smooth and uneventful run. They didn't want to explain why naval aircraft bombed targets in Gaza or worse, why another airman - or more - was missing and presumed captured. It was bad enough that Powers was a POW, the navy didn't want to lose any more of its pilots.
Coming over the coastline, the two Tomcats kept in a loose formation. The weather was clear, and why wouldn't it be, given where they were. Gaza was small enough that they could easily see their target before they came over the coastline. Turning to keep the target within the flight path, the Tomcat pilots hit their afterburners as they came overhead of the Old Walled City, not because they needed a boost of speed but rather to let their fellow aviator know that they were there. The roar of the Tomcats coming overhead was so deafening that anyone not awake would be and Powers was certain to hear them, even if he were buried underground in a bunker. He wasn't and he certainly heard the Tomcats, pumping his fist subtly as he lay on a cot in his prison cell.
Communications lit up around Gaza as the Tomcats came overhead and the fighters continued their flight path to the southwest, flying past one of the country's water treatment plant and its southern radar site before crossing over Khan Yunis to overfly an army camp and another water treatment plant to the south. The turned along the border and came up just on the Sinai side, passing a militia camp and the airport before turning back to the north. This time, they flew the length of Gaza, once again hitting their afterburners as they passed the Old Walled City. The rest of their flight, they captured virtually every major military target with their cameras before finally passing over the northern border, where they turned back for the Mediterranean Sea.
They'd made a lot of noise but their RWRs stayed quiet. If they were being targeted by man-portable systems, they didn't know it. Given their flight altitude, they'd normally have dropped flares as a precautionary measure but that was strictly forbidden for fear that it would endanger civilians on the ground. Any of the smaller, point defense systems never so much as activated their radars though any infrared sensors would have easily tracked the Tomcats without giving away that they were operating.
Finally crossing back over the coastline, the Tomcats made one more pass but without their TARPS gear functioning. They were just off of the coastline and they came down the length in full afterburner, shaking the entire coastline of Gaza before turning to the west and rendezvousing with their strike package that was now beginning to change their waypoints for the carrier. They'd all recover shortly thereafter, one after the other, with only the E-2 and the two F-14Bs flying CAP remaining airborne to protect the group from enemy fighters.
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