“This is going to be great”! I shouted. “No it’s not.” Groaned Bob. Hello my name is Greg I am twelve years old and on a naval transport hovercraft heading to Alameda naval air station near San Francisco in California, oh and also its World War three (WW3) and I am a naval pilot. Now you might be thinking “You’re twelve years old, how are you a pilot?” Well the answer is I can fly a plane, and everyone who can fly a naval plane is now in the naval Air Force. To find out why I am here we have to look a few months back. On February 27, 2156 Russia attacked the United States super battleship  U.S.S Texas in the Pacific Ocean. This was a big surprise, because one, the last time Russia (then part of the Soviet Union) attacked us was way back in the Cold War (the Cold War was really just a threat and only a few shots were fired), and two, the U.S.S. Texas was far far away from Russia when it was attacked by aviation from aircraft carriers. Russia had been trying to take over the world (not that they had tried to take over the world before on a large scale but they have had a number of dictators as their leaders over the years) they had been making small conflicts for about a year and now they were attacking the United States. We were now at war. I like this idea of a World War, especially World war three. I know no one likes being killed, but I like action, unlike my best friend. “Aren’t you excited?!” I asked Bob,he was my best friend who as I mentioned seems to not want to go to war, he might, but I am not so sure, “We get to be pilots on the U.S.S Golden Eagle!” It’s an aircraft carrier!” Yeah yay for the naval battles” Bob said while rolling his eyes. “Come on Bob it is going to be fun,” I said. “No it’s not,” he replied as we pulled up in front of the ship,”

“Oh great we’re here” whined Bob. We walked over to the ship, and it was huge, 945 feet long and it had a beam of about 250 feet and 15 inch thick armor. “Wow” I gasped “This is amazing”, “Yeah sure” said Bob. “I never knew aircraft carriers were so big,” I said. “So it’s huge get over it,” said Bob was moping next to me, “Why did you make me come here?” As we went up the stairs to the deck of the golden eagle. Bob was not looking like he was enjoying the experience. I didn’t blame him, until I found out I was flying like the coolest jet ever, I didn’t want to go either. When we got on the flight deck of the ship we saw our planes.

The plane I was flying was a supersonic bomber jet (a F-14 Hornet to be exact) . I had gotten the plane of my dreams. It was fast, sleek and really epic. Bob’s was a scout plane, he had gotten the plane he wanted too. His scout plane was pretty lame, just like the one I saw in a book about WWll his plane was a jet too just not a very fast one and it wasn’t equipped with the kind of weapons my plane had, but it had a good name, it was called the golden dragon, Bob liked it (it was probably the only thing he liked about the trip). One hour later everyone was on board the ship as well as the supplies,then before I knew it we were on our way. Me and Bob shared a room, and when we got to it it was not as bad as I had expected there was a bunk and computer on a desk and a carpet covering part of the floor. Bob however did not like it, he unpacked slowly and got the bottom bunk. I got the top bunk. There was a window on one side of the room, and pictures of admirals on the other side. When we were done unpacking we went to the deck for a lesson from the captain on what to do in different times of the day and what to do in battle. Our first mission was to sink three possibly four Russian carriers. We had two carrier’s Hornet and the Golden Eagle, with 364 planes plus 12 from the scout planes on the battleships. We soon found out we were up against four enemy carriers. One week after departure we were launching scout planes. The first one took of like it was nothing, so did the second, now it was Bob’s turn, I looked over at battleship Iowa people were watching the take offs of the scout planes, Bob’s plane rolled down the deck of the ship and… went over the side of the u.s.s Golden Eagle!

Then to my relief he came back up, still that was not a great way to start a mission. The rest of the scout planes took off with no problems, then we waited for a report. Sixteen minutes later we got one, four enemy carriers, just like we thought , then I heard a report from Bob “We are under attack!” That could only mean one thing the thing that had been said

Bob and the other scout planes were in a kind of mini battle. I ran to my plane and took off with the other jets. We got to a high altitude soon enough, but it was going to be hard to take down the Russians, they had deadly AA laser guns. When we got to the target area, they put up an iron curtain of anti aircraft lasers. Soon I was hit and had to go back to the carrier but the enemy jets were behind me! I swerved all over and said to Bob in his plane “I need help!!!!!” Bob zoomed over and took down three enemy jets. I said thanks and we went back to the carrier together, no hits were scored on  the enemy but a convoy ship 70 miles away was torpedoed by a stray torpedo bomber that got lost in the smoke of the battle, he and all of the other jets made it back, one scout plane was shot down zero jets were shot down.

Everyone survived, even the crew on the scout plane that was shot down (they were picked up by a PBY seaplane), but we did not score any hits. I was playing cards with Bob and the captain and some of our other friends. I was only there three minutes when an alarm went off. 

The enemy was attacking us! It was only three jets but still, it was a threat , “Shoot them down!” the captain ordered. All three were destroyed. Then the captain ordered “ launch all planes” so we did, but this time Bob went off the deck and did not come up!  They had to pull him and his plane up. I flew the mission without him, hoping he was O.K, But now I had bigger things to deal with.

 We were again at the target area, so we zoomed down, then I was almost shot down, my nuclear bomb missed, but one bomb from another plane hit a battleship and it took out the ship’s main 33 inch caliber gun and destroyed the outer armor layer. I flew back to the ship thinking that Bob was probably O.K. When I got to the hospital room, he was on a bed with cuts all over his body, the doctor said he could fly but needed to rest first. I went up to the deck to play cards with my other friends, I was still waiting to hear about Bob.

 Bob came up 3 minutes before we took off and got in his plane, he made the take off with everyone else but it wasn’t great. When we got to the target zone Bob shot down two other enemy jets one of which was on my tail! I said thanks, and was going to drop my bomb when Bob said “Wait!” You’re not over the target yet!

 So I waited, then he said “FIRE!!!!” And I dropped my bomb, and it hit smack in the middle of one of the enemy carriers and blew up with all the planes on deck, it sank. I sat there amazed, Bob the person who had gone overboard on a takeoff and was the biggest scaredy-cat I had ever met who hated going into battles had just told me how to hit a target and successfully ordered me into hitting my target.

 As we came back to the aircraft carrier all I was thinking about was helping Bob out. Then my chance came, when he got the O.K. to do so he started his landing, he dove but due to his not very impressive landing skills he was at such an angle that he was going to crash into the deak!

 So I did something drastic, I dove underneath him. He was forced to pull out of his dive and made the landing, he was so happy as he climbed out of the cockpit then went to see who had saved him when I landed he then looked at me open mouthed like I was crazy. Then the last plane landed and went into the control room where the captain wanted to see me. I came out of the room a higher rank than when I came in. Bob thanked me like a million times and got me a cake. We had one more chance at sinking the enemy carriers. So we took off. I helped Bob but he did it mostly on his own. When we got to the target I dove down, Bob was next to me showing me how to dodge the AA lasers and hit the carrier.

 I successfully hit my target as well as most of the other pilots and we sank all four carriers. I basically shouted “yay”for the rest of the flight . As we came back to the golden eagle bob asked me for help with the landing but I said “I think you can do it” so he tried to stick the landing, he came down at a reasonable angle but still he would have crashed if he had not “accidentally” got his act together and put his foot on the break and then land. Not just any landing and really really really really really really really really good landing that stopped at the right spot and headed to the hanger deck I came down after him and walked straight over to him and he was smiling from ear to ear. I had never seen him like that. We went into the hangar deck and were going to play cards when…(this story has a happy ending already so if you want just stop reading, remember I warned you) a huge shell hit battleship New Jersey. Now u.s.s Iowa was firing at the enemy. I saw the enemy ship, it was just a destroyer and soon we sank it. Now we turned around to avoid any other contact with the enemy and headed for home. When we got to Alameda dry dock we came off the ship and went to the health testing center to make sure we were not sick. We spent the rest of the day there. Then something crazy happened the president called (reasons why the president would call us at a totally random time 1. Because he is crazy 2. No idea)

Not to make sure we were O.K. Although that would be crazy too, he called to let us know that the admiral would be giving us the, (drumroll please) Medal of Honor for our persistence on the mission, I know that’s crazy as it is, but usually they give out medals after the war, but we were getting them now. When we got to the capital the admiral was already waiting for us, we came up on to the stage and everybody cheered for us. I looked at Bob and said “Are you still upset at me for making you join the navy?” Bob looked at me like I was crazy then said “Not at all, this is awesome”. It was amazing and after they gave us the medals I went back to the ship, we had another mission, a bombing one, Bob ran up the stairs to the ship and I followed. After the war, the admiral asked me to write an incredibly short book about our famous first mission, Bob helped me with it, and you are reading it right now.

About the author:

Elliot Clarke lives in San Francisco. He wants a swimming pool of great white sharks and likes video games. He also does not want to be writing an about the author. He tried to make this story funny. He has no published books.