[chico20854]

May 18, 1998

Nothing in canon for the day. Unofficially,

President Munson is "extremely frustrated" when his phone calls are nearly drowned out by a high-pitch squealing on the line, making communications with his far-flung subordinatesd nearly impossible.

The commander of the 347th Strategic Missile Squadron orders the initiation of an effort to harden the dispersal sites of the 21 Hard Mobile Launchers his squadron possessed.

The defenders of Erbach an der Donau pivot their dwindling reserves to the town's northeast approaches as their Soviet opponents advancing from Ulm send a dismounted detachment northwest to encircle the town. The commitment of reserves to that flank causes the burden of turning back the day's daily frontal assault by the 62nd Tank Division to shift to the Luftwaffe, which commits some of its scarce close air support aircraft to the skies overhead. A pair of Alphajets overfly the treeline that the Soviets have attacked from repeatedly, each dropping two BLU-23B napalm bombs, enveloping them in flames and disrupting the Soviet armored formation. As they turn for another pass with their onboard 27mm cannon they are bracketed by fire from the Soviet division's anti-aircraft guns (the mobilization-only division never received surface-to-air missiles). One of the light bombers is downed by a 57mm hit, while the other heads back to base trailed by a thin line of smoke.

A Swedish naval Super Puma helicopter overflies the captured B-888 and disembarks several intelligence and signals officers on the partially flooded Kilo-class sub's hull. They head below immediately, headed for the sub's radio compartment.

Dutch authorities launch a rescue and salvage operation to retrieve as much of the grain cargo aboard the mined freighter Randfontien which is aground off The Hague.

Nhaziern Khazi and a small group of friends and cousins strike out on their own, one of hundreds of marauder bands wandering the no-mans-land of central Iran.

CIA officer David Hudson spends the day at sea as the small fishing boat he is a passenger on transits the mouth of the Gulf of Riga past the destroyed remains of Soviet Naval coastal defense radars, observation towers and gun and missile batteries.