The White House, a three-story building with an attic and a spire, sits south of Pennsylvania Avenue, directly opposite Lafayette Square. In movies, however, it is often inaccurately depicted near the Washington Monument. For instance, in Olympus Has Fallen, there's a scene where the AC-130 gunship—now obliterated by two F-22 Raptors—sweeps the Washington Monument with its Gatling guns, the White House conveniently positioned on the same axis.
In reality, the White House's front lawn and fountain separate it from Pennsylvania Avenue, which runs parallel to the building from west to east. The four garbage trucks intended to block the White House's entrances were meant to crash through the iron fences, not stop in their tracks. However, Bob's sniper fire ensured that none of the trucks reached their targets.
The armed men inside the garbage trucks, who had planned to disembark and launch their assault after the trucks broke through, found themselves in a dire situation. The failed breach left them exposed and disoriented.
Chaos erupted outside the White House. Secret Service agents, pre-warned by Banning, quickly escorted President Benjamin Arthur back inside to establish a defensive perimeter. The South Korean Prime Minister's delegation, however, became the epicenter of confusion.
Unaware of what was happening, the delegation members were stunned when, moments after hearing distant explosions, their Prime Minister was suddenly taken hostage by his translator, who had pulled out a gun. Meanwhile, Secret Service agents rushed toward the President, leaving the South Korean diplomats abandoned and bewildered.
This hesitation proved costly.
As the militants, realizing their original plan was compromised, spilled out of the garbage trucks and opened fire with automatic weapons, the unprotected delegation members bore the brunt of the attack. Sandwiched between the warring sides, their casualties began to mount rapidly.
Kim Yonkang, the leader of the assault, dragged the South Korean Prime Minister into the armored limousine they had just exited. Simultaneously, reporters gathered outside the White House surged forward, frantically contacting their newsrooms to broadcast the attack live.
Meanwhile, Castle, still at the Andrews Air Force Base control tower, chatted over the radio with the F-22 pilots who had taken down the AC-130 gunship. Thanks to their decisive action and a stroke of good fortune, the wreckage had landed harmlessly in the Reflecting Pool in front of the Washington Monument, sparing the city from further devastation. Observing this via his drone hovering over the site, Castle was thoroughly impressed with the pilots.
Both Castle and the brigadier general who had assumed control of Andrews Air Force Base monitored the ongoing chaos outside the White House through live feeds. The general, eager to contribute further, considered deploying additional aircraft for an airstrike against the militants. However, the base lacked suitable planes for precision ground attacks. High-speed F-22s were ill-suited for such tasks, unlike the slower, heavily armed AC-130.
Even the F-15 "Strike Eagle," dubbed the "bomb truck," posed risks. Its powerful ground-attack weapons could inflict collateral damage, potentially harming the President or White House personnel. Reluctantly, the general abandoned the idea, lamenting his inability to provide more support.
Unbeknownst to him, his earlier decision to detain Colonel Clark, the Roxette organization's mole, and deploy F-22s to intercept the AC-130 would later earn him significant recognition. When President Benjamin initiated a crackdown on the Roxette organization, the Air Force faced minimal scrutiny, thanks in part to the general's actions. This earned him a promotion within five months—a tale for another time.
Back at the White House, Kim Yonkang was unraveling. How had the meticulously planned attack been exposed from the outset? If Benjamin had known about the plot, why wait until Kim's infiltration of the South Korean delegation to counterattack? The visibly unprepared White House guards suggested otherwise.
Furthermore, the AC-130 gunship, which should have been providing suppressive fire, never arrived. The explosions Kim heard earlier were undoubtedly from its destruction. The realization hit him hard: their operation had been completely compromised.
As a trained operative of Korean descent with extensive Japanese training, Kim deduced that internal betrayal was the likely culprit. Benjamin's seemingly uncoordinated response masked a well-orchestrated defense, a hallmark of internal sabotage.
But these revelations offered no solace to Kim. His forces were pinned down outside the White House, their assault faltering. With his escape route blocked by the chaos, Kim hoped his militants would breach the defenses and open a path for him to flee.
Unfortunately, the situation worsened. As Kim silenced the South Korean Prime Minister's panicked babbling with his pistol, Humvees and armored vehicles belonging to the National Guard began arriving from both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.
The sight of reinforcements extinguished Kim's last hope of escaping unscathed.
Simultaneously, the Pentagon's Strategic Command Center was in disarray. The audacity of the attack stunned U.S. officials.
The Vice President, Speaker of the House, and other designated survivors were evacuated to secure locations. The Vice President was brought to the Pentagon's Strategic Command Center, where contingency plans were being enacted. Although President Benjamin was unharmed, his survival was uncertain, given the limited Secret Service protection available to him.
In the midst of the chaos, Andrews Air Force Base emerged as a rare success story. The brigadier general, initially assigned to escort Castle, had uncovered and detained a Roxette operative at the base. Furthermore, his swift decision to deploy F-22s to intercept the rogue AC-130 mitigated the Air Force's liability, shifting the burden onto intelligence agencies like Homeland Security and the FBI.
As the battle raged on the White House lawn, one thing was clear: the attackers had underestimated their enemy. Their bold attempt to strike at the heart of American power was unraveling, leaving them trapped in a deadly quagmire of their own making.
(End of Chapter)
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