Skies of Hope

“Skies of Hope”
By Cody Hasselbring



    The commander told us there was an emergency, of course we didn’t know what, we were all sitting in the debriefing room waiting to hear about our assignment, but all he said was:
    “There is a current state of emergency, wait in the debriefing room for further orders”
    The Checkmate squadron was stationed in Luke Air Force Base, Phoenix AZ and was the most successful squadron in the United States Air Force since the year 2015 when the war ended, though successful it may be, it had some odd characters in it. The squadron leader, simply called Silent, was one of those guys scarred by losing his buddy in wartime, he never said a word (obviously) but that didn’t mean he was weak. Completely opposite from him was Diesel, the complete motor mouth of the squad, he used the mic more than he used his plane is what any other member of the squad would tell you. Edge was the only female of the group, she faced some discrimination from other squadrons but this one welcomed her like a sister, known to be extremely shy and frail, her flying did not portray that, she in fact had the most kills of the group. And then, there was me, simply going by the name Kid that Diesel had given me, I was the only one that would carry a bible in my survival kit under my ejection seat, I had the least kills of the group and only just recently joined the U.S.A.F, and they felt this squad could spice me up a bit, and I felt so out of place working alongside these seasoned veterans, yet not one time have I caught the others talking negatively about my flying.
    The base commander walked into the dimly lit briefing room and I could’ve sworn I saw a tear on his cheek, there’s got to be something horribly wrong I thought, turns out, I was right.
    “Ladies and gentlemen, I have some grave news, 9/11 has repeated it’s self”
    “WHAT!?!?” screamed Diesel.
    “It appears as though the dispute between the United States and Iran has not yet subsided, they have just sent suicide bombers into the Statue of Liberty on re-opening day, when it was most busy, civilian casualties are at an estimate of 114. The president has just now declared a state of war between the United States, and Iran.” Stated the commander calmly.
    State of war, those words dug deeper through my heart than a knife.
    “So what does this mean for us?” Edge asked
    “this means, you are being moved to our closest base to Iran, and you will maintain air superiority for the ground forces as they move in, I expect you all to give your best flying into this mission” at this he glanced at me.
    “You will be given further details at the base”
    Then, silent spoke for the first time since his buddy died, his words were:
    “May GOD be with us.”


    The desert sun was scorching the base, and there were many complaints from Diesel about no Air Conditioning system during the last few weeks. I was in our tent, silent and I that is, writing about my experiences (which I planned to publish into a book when I got back into the states) when the air raid siren sounded.
    “Enemy UAV’s inbound, scramble the jets!”
    I said a quick prayer before hurriedly getting in my flight suit and bee-lining to the hangars.
    All the other fighters had already taken off I had noticed, and I hesitated before following them.
    “C’mon’ Kid gun it!”
    I threw the throttle all the way up and flew into formation.

   
    I’ve always remembered from earlier days that dog fighting “regular” pilots was torture, but I’ve never flown against an ace until that time, and I never wanted to.
    “Those aren’t UAV’s, their armed fighters!”
    “Hey, I know these guys, they’re the Silver Hammers, I thought they were shot down in the last war” Said Diesel.
    “All but one, the leader must have recruited some fresh meat” proclaimed Edge.
    “Well, let’s see if we can’t take this guy out once and for all!” Diesel sounded a bit overconfident.
    As I was starting at the front of my opponent’s F-15 it felt as though I was looking death it’s self in the eyes.


    I had always heard old war stories of the Silver Hammers from our base commander, they fought with no honor, they would shoot a plane even if the only thing left was a cockpit, and now, I was flying straight at them. Apparently the Silver Hammers were the best fighter squadron of their time during the last war, outmatched only by the Checkmates, Diesel could tell me many stories of his dog fighting experience with them, and how he lost a squad mate to their guns. The Squad mate’s name was Howler, he was Silent’s buddy, they knew each other since they were born, even signed up together, Diesel told me that before Howler was killed by the Silver Hammer’s squad leader, Silent was one happy go-lucky guy, who talked almost as much as he did.
    “Silent, you all right?” queried Edge
    There was no response, but one could sense Silent’s aura of anger generating all around them.
    The enemy was about 5 miles away from us, nervousness gripped me like God’s hand its self.
    “Tally ho”
    I had no time to be afraid, all my senses were numb, and the only thing I could think of is getting around the back of my challenger.
    “Kid lookout!” shouted Diesel
    I looked behind me, and there he was, Howler’s killer, the squad leader of the Silver Hammers.
    The ringing of the radar lock warning seemed more eerie than a ghost.
    “I’m not losing anyone else to you!”
    Faster than the blink of an eye silent got around behind my attacker, and fired
    To this day I have never seen a brighter firework, one that must have lit up Silent’s face with a smile, a smile of revenge.
    This feeling did not last long however, because I heard glass shattering, and a bullet puncture my back, and out of pure instinct I reached for the ejection lever and pulled.
    “Kid! Kid! Kid, are you all right?” I could only hear Diesel’s voice saying, As consciousness slipped away from me, but I still had time to see Silent’s plane heading for the ground, and nothing coming out of the canopy.

    I woke up on the hot sand, a searing pain in my back; the sky was completely vacant of anything but the sun. Apparently my ejection seat hit the ground hard, because its contents were scattered all over. I had taken off my flight suit and was using it as a bandage for my bullet wound; I was still wondering who had shot me. Silent, not a second went by without me thinking of him, the man who had saved my life. A few miles away there was a column of smoke reaching into the sky, I have never bothered to go and see the remains of a brave man. Needing some settling down to my worry, I opened my bible to Hebrews 11:1 a verse that reads:
    “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
    The happiness in my heart did not last long, because I felt the barrel of a gun touch the back of my head.
   
    “Get on the ground and put your hands behind your back” A gruff voice demanded.
    “Sorry, standard procedure” he said as he was cuffing my hands. When the unknown man was finished I turned around and found myself face-to-face with a U.S Navy SEAL.
    “The helicopters on its way, stay here, I’ll put your stuff in your bag, seeing as you’re kind of…well…unable” he said as he pocketed his weapon.
    I sat there on the desert sand for a while wondering how this SEAL knew where to find me, Diesel probably told him. Diesel, how were he and edge getting along after Silent’s death? Were they themselves still alive?
    “Hey! There it is!”
    A large cloud of dust enveloped the area, but I could still make out a hilo making a wartime landing about 20 yards away.
    “C’mon’ kiddo, I got your stuff, let’s go!” shouted the seal over the racket of the helicopter.
    A helping hand picked me up into the Blackhawk, the hand of Diesel, Edge standing beside him.
    “Congrats on making flight lead Kid, you’ve been promoted by the head honcho himself” Said Diesel, smiling.
    I didn’t even break a smile to this news; I turned to my rescuer, the SEAL
    “How did you find me?” I inquired.
    “Wasn’t that hard, just followed the huge column of smoke, your jet got pretty trashed, found you just a few miles away from it” he told me.
    “That wasn’t my plane” I corrected.
    “Huh?”
    “it was my flight lead’s” I told the SEAL.
    “Where is he?” the man asked
    “Hopefully, with GOD” I said.
    The man had a blank look on his face, knowing he had just made a mistake, but the blank look didn’t last long, because an RPG flew past the cockpit.
    “Watch out we’re under fire!” shouted the pilot
    Out of pure anger to the country that shot and killed a good friend of mine, I grabbed my rescuer’s gun, opened the side door, and found our attackers.
    “What do you think your doing!?” Diesel screamed.
    My response was 5 rounds fired at our attackers, each of them fell to the ground.

    March 17, 2025, 3 weeks after Silent’s death.
    The squadron hadn’t been issued into combat yet ever since the day I was fished out from enemy territory. We have, however, had the ace of hearts painted on all our F-22s’, which was what Silent had painted on his. Edge had taken up spending most of her free-time drawing in a notebook, mostly pictures of birds and landscapes. Same old Diesel still talked his mouth to death, but not as many jokes. Since I had been promoted, I spent much of my time doing paperwork, I severely missed flying.
    The base commander burst through the door with exciting news.
    “We’ve found the base the Silver Hammers are stationed at, and also” he added “an unidentified UAV dropped something near the base for you Kid.” At this he gave me a worrying look, and handed me a pre-opened box. Inside was a piece of scrap metal that had a heart on it, a piece from Silent’s plane, also inside was a note that read:

                                  You’re next.

    “We’re going up” I told the base commander.
    “You can’t” he said firmly.
    “We’re going up” I repeated, and gave him a look that made him white in the face.

    Aerospace E9G, 1000 nautical miles from the Silver Hammer’s airbase.
    “Kid, are you sure we should be going up without any backup? I mean, we don’t even know what’s at this place other than the Silver Hammers” Diesel asked.
    “That’s all the information we need” I responded.
    “3 bogeys inbound, bearing 2 8 0 to your position Checkmates, Permission to engage denied until fired upon” The AWACS radioed.
    I saw the ever-so familiar F-15’s coming toward us for a neutral pass, hate boiled up inside me.
    “Silent, if you can hear us up there, please watch over us” I said to the heavens.
    Before I knew it, the squadron leader was around behind Edge, in a perfect firing position; Edge was trying to shake him off but couldn’t loose him. The sound of gunfire echoed around the land, but it didn’t come from a Silver Hammer.
    “Kid, I said permission to engage denied! Cease Fire!” the AWACS thundered.
    “Shut it! I’m not losing any more pilots to their guns!”
    The squadron leader’s plane was trailing smoke, its flaps and ailerons disabled, and I had a perfect shot lined up.
    To this day I’m still not sure why I let that jet fly away to fight another day with its squad mates.