Captain Meg Austin : It was about a week later that we got the unwelcome news...that something bad had gone down in the Pacific. Evidently a flotilla of Chinese Destroyers had encountered the Navy's 7th Fleet. Three US destroyers had been torpedoed, and the Russians had launched a their super-secret nuclear torpedo which had put the George Washington Carrier Battle Group at the bottom of the ocean. This had sparked a retaliatory action: complete, total war with nuclear warheads being readied for launch in a pre-emptive strike against the hearts of Communist China and the Soviet Union.
I knew that my husband was shocked beyond belief because I saw him cross himself and pray. This was the news that we all didn't want to hear. Because it would mean that missiles were in the air.
"Yes, sir...I understand, sir." My husband stated as he talked to the Chief of Naval Operations. "God speed, sir... May we live to regret this. May our God forgive what we have wrought upon his Creation." A fervent wish that we would survive the aftermath to come. As my husband got off the phone, he was pale. Everyone was dead silent as he said solemnly intoning... "We are at war..." There were murmured prayers, crying and from the men, just aghast silence as if they didn't believe what was going on...
"Ladies and Gentlemen, we are restricted to barracks here...the missiles are in the air...May God have mercy on us..."
I couldn't help it, I needed the arms of my husband. I broke ranks...and rushed into his arms. He wouldn't let go and I didn't want him to. If we were to die here...we would die together in each other's arms.
Author's Note: May this be a warning to all hawks...that the road that we are on, the posturing and foolish bravado that we are engaging in, in real life right now, could very well lead to apocalypse.
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