I must apologize for my long absence, sim time has been far and few between lately.

The Coasties contacted us a few days ago and gave us a SitRep on some cargo ships they’ve been tracking for some time. It is believed they are hauling chemical and/or biological weapons. Obviously this is a threat that must be neutralized. Our mission is to provide a CAP while ship-borne boarding parties attempt to take the ships. If they fail we will be notified to destroy the threat for good.



Weapons consist of the standard CAP loadout plus Walleyes for the section and CAP plus HARPOONs and HARMS for the division.





It is a beautiful Navy day… Gray and stormy.



It doesn’t take long to find the cargo ships on the radar scope. We set up CAP and wait for the word.





I get impatient after 20 minutes of orbiting without any acknowledgement of our presence so I push the flight under the overcast for a quick look. I locate the cargo ships, but there is no sign of the boarding parties yet.



Back above the overcast we circle like buzzards, waiting, waiting….



Finally fuel concerns prompt us to RTB. Before leaving I query AWACS (and JSTAR) for any orders from the commanders. Everyone is silent, no orders yet. I advise AWACS of our fuel situation and head home. We never saw the boarding parties, but we never received a
kill order, I am worried that we missed something but I am unwilling to take action without an order from further up the chain.



Despite the weather, and the high seas, I still manage a decent trap.





My lack of action has severe consequences. I was relieved of all professional responsibility by my superiors. Apparently they feel I followed the appropriate course of action given the circumstances. Nevertheless, the personal guilt I feel is much harder to alleviate.