Chief Crazy Officer here saying better luck next time.

RED STORM RISING [ RACKETEER INFLUENCED AND CORRUPT ORGANIZATIONS US Title 18 ]

Tom Clancy


PRINTING HISTORY

G.P. Putnam's Sons hardcover edition / August 1986

Berkley mass-market edition / August 1987


Page 511


LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, VIRGINIA

The F-15 fighter rolled to a halt just outside the shelter building. The crew chief set the ladder next to the aircraft, and Major Nakamura climbed down, already looking aft at her scorched airplane. She walked over to examine the damage.

"Don't look bad, Major," the sergeant assured her. A fragment from the exploding rocket motor had drilled a hole the size of a beer can right through her left wing, missing a fuel tank by three inches. "I can fix that in a couple of hours."

"You all right?" the Lockheed engineer asked.

"It blew, fifty feet away, and it just blew the hell up. You were wrong, by the way. When they blow, it's pretty spectacular. Pieces all over the damned place. I was lucky I only caught one of them." It had scared the hell out of the pilot, but she'd then had an hour to recover. Now she was just mad.

"Sorry, Major. Wish I could say more than that."

"Just have to try again," Buns said, looking up at the sky through the hole. "When's the next window?"

"Eleven hours, sixteen minutes."

"That's it, then." She walked into the building, then upstairs to the pilots' lounge. There was carpeting on the walls of the building for noise absorption. It also prevented serious injury to the pilots' fists.



- posted by H.V.O.M - Kerry Wayne Burgess 9:43 PM Pacific Time near Seattle Washington State USA Monday 15 July 2013