It was only eight in the morning yet the mercury was nudging one hundred degrees on the sun-socked Parvan soil, of eastern Afghanistan. Lieutenant Kelly Cassidy sat in a cockpit at the controls of her aircraft, which was neatly parked in the keyhole entrance slightly off the end of the ten thousand foot runway at Bagram airfield. It was Kelly's turn to play 'the waiting game', a polite colloquial term given to rapid deployment stand-by duties. Her Fairchild Republic Thunderbolt II was loaded to the teeth with an array of weaponry, fuelled to capacity, ready for action, and waiting.

Kelly had just started her third hour of boredom and was starting to become aware of stiffness in her rear end. Were it not for the luxury of a beach umbrella erected above her head and a tattered Mills and Boon romance novel she was reading for the seventh time, she would almost certainly have dozed off into her favourite hallucination involving, dust free, bluegrass fields near Paris, Kentucky and hot tubs full to the rim with beautiful bubbles and sweet smelling perfumes.

On the ground beside the aircraft fuselage in the shade of the wing lay Master Sergeant Josie Alderman her green tee shirt tied to help simulate sun baking on a Florida beach. Josie was reading one of the two Man magazines she had traded with a grunt the night before, for six small chocolate bars and twenty-three cigarettes. Josie was a little embarrassed to be reading a Man magazine but she was desperate for something new in her life, and she told herself she was reading the magazine for the articles not the pictures but she kept turning the magazine sideways every now and then, like the guys who say the same thing do.

Both Ladies lifted their heads as the unmistakable sound of a C141B Startlifter lumbered along the taxiway towards them. It was the 8am 'ticket home.' Every morning one of these monsters climbed into the sky and disappeared in the direction of Germany en route to the States. Everyone at Bagram stopped to watch it take-off. Kerry and Josie stared at the plane as it approached, turned in front of them, roared and started to disappear away from them towards home. The moment the main wheels left the ground both ladies mumbled "lucky buggers" to themself and their eyes remained fixed on the plane as it slowly shrank into the dusty grey-blue Afghan sky.

No sooner had each lady returned to the pages of their book when the planes radio shattered the calm,

"Warthog EL207 this is Bagram tower; your services have been requested by Airborne Command prepare for takeoff and await further instruction."

Kelly immediately pressed her radio response button saying, "This is Warthog EL207 will comply, out".

By the time Kelly finished speaking Josie had jumped to her feet, climbed the access ladder, folded and thrown the beach umbrella and the novel to the tarmac a considerable distance behind her and was leaning over into the cockpit removing a series of red tagged pins attach to the safety harness, designed to render much of the aircrafts numerous switches and controls unusable while stationary on the ground, as each pin was removed Josie held it up for an instant allowing Kelly's eyes to acknowledge before the pin was placed into the small locker beside and behind Kelly's head. Meanwhile Kelly was busy talking to herself while working a series of switches and paddling at flight controls. Dials and gauges started lighting-up while various parts of the aircraft commence to rattle, buzz, whirl or click. With an expanding whistle the engines commenced to breath as they rapidly journeyed towards life, a rumble, some shaking, a roar and the squeak of brakes completed the metamorphism of silent metal into a living breathing 'war bird'.

Josie removed the last of the pins from the ACES II ejection seat above Kelly's head and stowed it in the locker. She raised her thumb saying, "Go get them Killer, and look after my aircraft."

Kelly acknowledged with a raised thumb and a twinkle from her left eye. By the time Kelly returned to her controls Josie was on the ground, had stowed the access ladder, closed the ladder locker and started to run around the aircraft removing more red tags, small covers and the wheel chocks. In no more than ten seconds Josie was standing forward of the left wing, her thumb again raised above her head, watching.

Kelly again raised her thumb and the aircraft immediately started to role forward, parts of the wing began to grow and the canopy commenced to close. Without moving her lips Josie uttered, "Please! Come back safely, Mam."

Kelly spoke into the radio, "Bagram Control this is Warthog EL207 we are ready and standing by, awaiting your instruction."

The radio responded, "EL207, you are clear for takeoff on runway three seven, barrier down. Climb to ten thousand feet and await instruction from Airborne Command; Good Hunting."

Kelly turned onto the runway locked the nose wheel and moved the condition levers fully forward, the two General Electric TF-34 turbofans screamed and rumbled while seven thousand two hundred horsepower focused on pushing Kelly forward at a rapidly increasing speed. Kelly spoke into the radio, "Rolling", followed a short time later by, "Committed". Josie stared at Kelly as they were consumed by distance. After what seemed like ages Kelly raised the nose and started skyward, as the wheels retracted Josie blew a kiss and called out loudly, "God Speed Mam, Come back safely; love you."

Kelly throttled back to seventy five percent as she climbed through seven thousand feet and steadied her rate of climb to save fuel, as she reached nine thousand feet the radio came to life, "Warthog EL207 this is Widow Maker on-board Sentry, please respond."

A smile come to Kelly's face to hear the voice and unmistakable call sign of Wendy Maiden, her room mate at Officer School, the class of Ninety Six. Kelly spoke to the radio, "Widow Maker this is Killer Chick flying EL207 at your service. What can we do for you this morning?"

Wendy's voice responded, "Hey there, Killer; how are they hanging? We have a situation to your east requiring your expertise. You will be in a loitering role. We have a group of our gents delayed at their pick up zone by an unserviceable Chinook. Your presence has been requested in a precautionary capacity as they exposed their position prior to the chopper delay. I am arming your displays now. You will notice your journey and destination proximity to the Pakistan border so we urge you to take all precaution in this regard."

Kelly again spoke into her radio, "Will comply, Nice to hear you are still sleeping with clean sheets Widow, I'll be in touch as I approach the destination, in seventy minutes; Killer, out."

The radio started up again, "Negative Killer we require you on site in fifty minutes, don't worry about the fuel tab we will take care of it. We have our Extender here and it will be at your disposal; Widow out."

"Will comply; fifty minutes it is; Killer, out," Kelly replied.

Kelly immediately throttled up to ninety percent and while continuing her climb, banked right to align herself on a bearing of thirty-seven degrees matching the navigational heading now showing on her heads-up display.

Kelly climbed to eighteen thousand feet before levelling out, her route would weave a little to avoid over-flying populated areas, as was the custom. She flew to the north east, tracking between Karak and Eslshafi, to the north of Atiti and Welo, the south of Shahran where she commences to track further northeast, into Badakhahan State, skirting the border of Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province. The rugged Hindu Kush Mountains started climbing higher in front of the plane; the higher ridges and peeks were now capped with snow and only a few thousand feet below. After passing Deh Gol, Kelly headed further eastward, along the Wakhan Corridor, where she could clearly see Turkistan to the north as well as Pakistan to the south, she passed south of Kand Khan and again headed further eastward to track south of Deh Gholaman, where she allowed her thoughts to drift for a second wondering if Marco Polo thought this place looked like hell when he passed through here all those years before. "At least I don't have to walk and I will not be taking four years," she thought.

Kelly was now almost cutting straight across the high ridges and steep sided valleys, giving quite a sensation of speed as the land kept dropping away suddenly only to rapidly rise up again in what seems like only a few yards. The country below was the usual hot or freezing, dusty, rugged brown offering, totally devoid of vegetation save for an attempt at a green strip in the valley floor near the winding stream that always occupied these valleys. Kelly shook her head contemplating why anyone would choose to live here and used the remaining flight minutes to carry out diagnostics on her weapons and flight systems. Everything appeared to be working fine, a rarity, "Must be my lucky day," she thought. With her position due south of Sarhadd, Kelly banked sharply right to travel south following a narrow, steep valley that headed to Barowgbil in Pakistan she could see the road below winding along the western wall of the inhospitable valley.

Kelly throttled back to only thirty percent and adjusted her controls to keep the nose from rising, allowed a considerable reduction in speed and the commencement of a rather rapid descent while appearing to be in level flight. She was about to speak into the radio when it came to life, like magic, "Killer this is Widow you have made good time; your hosts are thirty five miles in front of you and will be four degrees left of your current heading, they are in a defensive position on a small outcrop just above the valley floor at seven thousand eight hundred feet. Their friendly status should be appearing on your displays. I'm patching you into direct contact with Greenhead on channel eighty-seven; you are to maintain a listening watch on this channel at all times. You should take precautions for the possibility of surface to air missile attack at low altitudes in this area; out"

Kelly acknowledged the message, set her infrared flare, and electronic chaff, countermeasure systems to an active state, opened up the direct communication channel to the troops on the ground and commenced to speak, "Greenhead this is Killer Chick on-board Warthog, please respond."

After a short delay the radio came back to life, "Killer Chick this is Greenhead; what can we do for the lady with the painted fingernails sitting in air-conditioned comfort, still smelling all pretty from this mornings bath?"

Kelly rolled her eyes and immediately replied, "Greenhead or was that Dickhead. I've had my morning absolutely screwed up coming out here to hold your hand. It's rather obvious you have time to spare down there. If anyone starts to cause you concern I would be happy to offer my assistance. Would you acknowledge when you have a visual on me. I'm currently descending on your position from the north approximately seven miles out, over."

The radio started up as Greenhead replied, "That's an affirmative Killer Chick we have you in sight. Come down so we can get a good look at your legs."

Kelly again rolled her eyes; throttling back still further, she slowed such that she needed to deploy her flaps and slots to maintain altitude. She was now only some three hundred feet above and one and a half miles short of Greenheads reported position. As the lift increased she throttled up to sixty percent to maintain level flight, at the low airspeed. The landing gear warning alarm sounded which Kelly ignored other than to mentally acknowledge she was travelling as slow as she possibly could. Kelly spoke into the radio, "Well Howdy-Do Greenhead I have a visual on your position; wave so I can tell Mum all about the new man in my life, and now that we know each other intimately you can drop the formality and call me Killer."

Kelly noticed one of the soldiers stand up, take his hat off and wave it over his head; clearly she had found Greenhead. However she also noticed on her GPS display the friendly fire lock was actually some three hundred and fifty feet from where she observed their physical position, Kelly immediately opened communications with the AWACS to inform Widow of the problem.

"Widow this is Killer. I have a visual on Greenhead, their plotted position is displaying incorrectly on my systems. May we calibrate? Over."

Wendy responded, "That is an affirmative Killer proceed; on your mark"

Kelly throttled up while retracting her flaps and slots and watched as her airspeed rapidly increased to three hundred and forty knots she banked sharply turning around to make another pass over the troops on the ground. Opening her voice channel she said,

"Greenhead we have a little administrative work to do up here; I will be making a low parse over your position, at speed. Please instruct your people to remain low and I would appreciate it if they didn't shoot or throw anything in the air."

Greenhead while somewhat puzzled, acknowledged in time to see the Warthog flying straight at him, as it became uncomfortably close it flipped, becoming inverted and continued diving further downward until within a few feet of the ground. Greenhead hit the deck screaming a few quickly chosen expletives. He was sure the plane was about to crash and hoped it might make it over the top of his troops before exploding into pieces. As Kelly passed over his position she called into the radio "Mark" and watched as her instruments immediately updated, displaying the correct location of the troops. Kelly returned herself to an upright position and proceeded to slow down and climb away from the ground to a position out of harms way. Kelly beamed as she called Greenhead,

"Hey Greenhead I didn't really get to look at your face, you seemed rather busy, but your butt looked fine to me. Hope the dirt tasted OK."  

After a short delay, Greenhead replied with a hint of agitation on his lips, "Jesus woman, err. Killer I hope that worked for you because from down here we missed the funny part,"

And after another brief delay, "But I'll give it to you Killer you sure do know how to drive that thing. I take it this is not your first time this side of the barbed-wire; if you don't mind we will pass on the instant re-plays."

Kelly again spoke down the voice channel, "Greenhead doesn't appear to be much excitement down here. I think I'll put on the sunglasses and take the fifty-dollar tour to check out the sights. If things get warm down there, feel free to buzz me; our aim is to please. I'll be around; Killer out."

Kelly climbed out of the valley into the clear above the mountains where she could see for miles in every direction and started to take in the area for likely positions that might cause grief to the guys on the ground. There were a few huts high up in the valley; they had the potential to make a rather efficient observation post if anyone hostile was there with radio equipment, a phone or something to communicate firing instructions. However this would be unlikely to happen, as Kelly knew the AWACS was detecting, listening to and locating all electronic communication coming from the area. Anything hostile and they would target the position for an instant make over. The road up the valley into Pakistan was the obvious source of an intense attack. Anywhere on the surrounding hills would make for a good strike and run attack although the lack of cover would make a repeat performance unlikely as the AWACS would automatically target any hostile fire source and Kelly knew she would be onto the location before they were able to leave the area.

….

part 2 - http://www.greatwriting.co.uk/content/view/3896/77/