Rogue Forces

Although the KC-135R was primarily an aerial refueling plane, it was frequently used for both hauling cargo and carrying passengers. The cargo was in the forward part of the cavernous interior—in this case, four pallets filled with crates, secured with nylon netting. Behind the pallets were two twelve-person centerline economy-type passenger-seat pallets bolted to the floor, with the occupants facing backward. The ride was noisy, smelly, dark, and uncomfortable, but valuable force-multiplying planes such as this were rarely allowed to fly unless fully loaded.

The crew engineer squeezed around the cargo and approached a napping passenger seated at the end of the first row on the port side. The man had longish and rather tousled hair, several days’ worth of whiskers, and wore rather common street clothes even though anyone traveling in military aircraft had to wear either a uniform or business attire. The engineer stood before the man and lightly touched his shoulder. When the man awoke, the master sergeant motioned to him, and he stood and followed the master sergeant to a space between the pallets. “Sorry to bother you, sir,” the boom operator said after the passenger had removed the yellow soft foam earplugs that everyone wore to protect their hearing from the noise, “but the pilot asked to see if you wanted to sit in the cockpit for the approach and landing.”

“Is that a normal procedure, Master Sergeant?” the passenger, General Besir Ozek, asked. Ozek was commander of the Jandarma Genel Komutanligi, or Turkish national paramilitary forces, a combination of national police force, border patrol, and national guard. As a trained commando as well as commander of the paramilitary unit charged with internal security, Ozek was authorized to wear longer hair and whiskers to better slip in and out of undercover roles and more unobtrusively observe others around him.

“No, sir,” the boom operator replied. “No one is allowed in the cockpit that is not on the flight crew. But…”

“I asked that I not be singled out on this flight, Master Sergeant. I thought that was plain to everyone on the crew,” Ozek said. “I wish to remain as inconspicuous as possible on this trip. That is why I chose to sit in the back with the other passengers.”

“Sorry, sir,” the boom operator said.

Ozek looked around the cargo pallets and noticed several passengers turning around to see what was going on. “Well, I suppose it’s too late now, isn’t it?” he said. “Let’s go.” The boom operator nodded and escorted the general to the cockpit, thankful he didn’t have to explain to the aircraft commander why the general hadn’t accepted his invitation.

It had been many years since Ozek had been inside a KC-135R Stratotanker refueling aircraft, and the cockpit seemed a lot more cramped, noisy, and smelly than he remembered. Ozek was a veteran infantryman, and didn’t care to understand what attracted men to aviation. An airman’s life was subject to forces and laws that no one saw or fully comprehended, and that’s not the way he ever wanted to live. The re-engined KC-135R was a good plane, but the airframe had been around for over fifty years now—this one was relatively young at only forty-five years—and it was starting to show its age.

Yet aviation seemed to be all the rage in the Republic of Turkey these days. His country had just taken possession of dozens of surplus tactical fighters and bombers from the United States: the much-loved F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter-bomber, which was also license-built in Turkey; the A-10 Thunderbolt close air support attack plane, nicknamed the “Warthog” because of its ungainly, utilitarian appearance; the AH-1 Cobra helicopter gunship; and the F-15 Eagle air superiority jet fighter. Turkey was well on its way to becoming a world-class regional military power, thanks to the United States’ desire to relieve itself of battle-tested but aging hardware.

The boom operator handed the general a headset and motioned to the flight instructor’s seat between the two pilots. “I know you didn’t want to be disturbed, General,” the pilot said over the intercom, “but the seat was open and I thought you’d enjoy the view.”

“Of course,” Ozek responded simply, making a note to himself to have the pilot removed from the service when he got back to headquarters; there were plenty of men and women who knew how to follow orders waiting to fly tankers in the Turkish air force. “What is the security status at the airport?”

“Green, sir,” the pilot reported. “Unchanged for more than a month.”