Lt. Barry Griffith, a senior US naval officer in a destroyer was sitting at the operation desk of the missile launching room, located in the under-belly of the vessel. This night, he was the designated officer, in charge. His vessel was sailing on the Mediterranean Sea, for its return to home port in a friendly European country. It was a mildly breezy autumn night with a spectacular super moon bathing the nature with a mystic glow. For the last two months, the destroyer had been on a patrol mission to ensure the security of the smaller European nations. It then sailed through the Bosphorus Strait near Turkey to sail on the Black Sea for a port visit to Haifa in Israel in the Middle-East, a region mired in constant global tension. However, so far this mission was a quiet one with no major engagement incident.
Suddenly, the computer screen linked to the vessel’s radar system flashed two blips. The automated data analysis would indicate that two fighter jets had taken off from the deck of a warship belonging to an enemy nation, from its location in international water. Blips grew in size indicating that the jets were heading directly to Lt. Griffith’s vessel. He put out an all-alert signal with his finger resting on the missile-launching button. However, none of the other auxiliary computers picked up any danger signal to indicate that those two enemy fighters locked his vessel in a combat configuration. Seconds started to feel like years, while he took the decision of not launching any missile to initiate a confrontation. Two jets buzzed overhead, turned around to buzz one more time to return to their mother ship, as if to display some aerial bullying.
Lt. Griffith released a sigh of relief, only to remember of hearing similar occasional bullying from other officers stationed in different destroyers, but always in daytime. “Why in the dark of night, today?” he wondered! He came up to the main deck to get a cup of coffee from the ship’s cafeteria. There he caught a glimpse of breaking news, directly telecast from back home, being mid-afternoon there. It involved a retired three-star army general who served the country to defend it against the same enemy and later was appointed to be the national security advisor of the country for a brief period of time. Now, he was coming out of a federal courthouse after admitting to the criminal act of colluding with the enemy and then lying about it.
Lt. Griffith understood the reason for tonight’s aerial bullying by the enemy, being caught in an international meddling. “But, what if I would have pushed the missile-launch button thus initiating a global war in Europe’s backyard in the dark of the night”, he kept on pondering.
Suddenly, the computer screen linked to the vessel’s radar system flashed two blips. The automated data analysis would indicate that two fighter jets had taken off from the deck of a warship belonging to an enemy nation, from its location in international water. Blips grew in size indicating that the jets were heading directly to Lt. Griffith’s vessel. He put out an all-alert signal with his finger resting on the missile-launching button. However, none of the other auxiliary computers picked up any danger signal to indicate that those two enemy fighters locked his vessel in a combat configuration. Seconds started to feel like years, while he took the decision of not launching any missile to initiate a confrontation. Two jets buzzed overhead, turned around to buzz one more time to return to their mother ship, as if to display some aerial bullying.
Lt. Griffith released a sigh of relief, only to remember of hearing similar occasional bullying from other officers stationed in different destroyers, but always in daytime. “Why in the dark of night, today?” he wondered! He came up to the main deck to get a cup of coffee from the ship’s cafeteria. There he caught a glimpse of breaking news, directly telecast from back home, being mid-afternoon there. It involved a retired three-star army general who served the country to defend it against the same enemy and later was appointed to be the national security advisor of the country for a brief period of time. Now, he was coming out of a federal courthouse after admitting to the criminal act of colluding with the enemy and then lying about it.
Lt. Griffith understood the reason for tonight’s aerial bullying by the enemy, being caught in an international meddling. “But, what if I would have pushed the missile-launch button thus initiating a global war in Europe’s backyard in the dark of the night”, he kept on pondering.
