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CHAPTER 21
GULF OF ADEN (SOUTH OF YEMEN)
FRIDAY; 18 MAY
0647 hours (06:47 AM)
TIME ZONE +3 ‘CHARLIE’
Wolfhound Eight-Seven was the call sign for an MH-60R helicopter
working the outer edge of USS Kitty Hawk’s formation. The gull-gray
helo hovered fifty feet above the water, close enough for the edge vortexes
down-drafting from its rotors to whip a swirling mist of salt spray off the
wave tops.
The pilot, Lieutenant Ray Forester, checked his instruments and, when
he was satisfied with the positioning of his aircraft, he turned to his
copilot. “Your show, Ted.”
Ensign Theodore Dillon nodded. Out of habit he scanned the
instrument panel himself, and then said, “Down dome.”
From his console at the rear of the cabin, the Sensor Operator
responded, “Down dome, aye.” He pressed a fingertip to a highlighted
rectangle on the touch-sensitive control screen. The floor of the cabin
vibrated slightly as the high-speed winch built into the underside of the
fuselage began reeling out cable at a rate of sixteen feet per second.
At the end of the cable, the cylindrical sonar transducer slid out of a
formfitting cavity in the bottom of the aircraft and began its rapid descent
toward the ocean. A little over three seconds later, the rubber-coated
sensor plunged into the water, disappearing quickly beneath the waves.
“The dome is wet,” the Sensor Operator said. “How deep do you want
it?”
The copilot looked over his shoulder. “How deep is the sonic layer?”
The Sensor Operator studied his screen. “Just a second, sir. We
haven’t hit it yet.”
His eyes stayed locked on the digital temperature readout relayed back
from the descending sonar transducer. For several seconds, the numbers
on the green phosphorous screen showed only tiny fluctuations, never
varying by more than a tenth of a degree. When the depth readout passed
135