The Rag

by Michael Connelly

  Ray was now member of the general’s staff assigned to assist in the training of personnel for the special operations teams. Donnelly quickly learned that he was highly intelligent and motivated. He also had two soldiers that had helped him and his team escape that were former Louisiana National Guard intelligence officers. Ray was asked to have his men monitor the members of the S-2’s section to try to determine if there were leaks. Ray and his team started watching the movements of Justin Smith and the senior members of his intelligence staff.

  The urgency of their investigation was increased by the fact that two recon patrols sent to the Fort Hood area had also failed to return. A week later, Ray Thibodeaux reported some disturbing information to the general: his S-2, Justin Smith, had a storage shed in Canton that had a radio antenna connected to it. His team had also found that Smith had been to the shed within hours after the recon patrols had been dispatched to the Fort Hood area.

  While Donnelly was considering this revelation, Corey Davidson came to his headquarters to convey some critical information received from Jordan Billings. Jordan had conveyed to Corey that he had been part of a high-level briefing that stated that intelligence from a source inside the East Texas militia had provided details of a planned attack on Fort Hood. As a result of this information, the federal government had moved a full brigade of Iranian infantry, as well as two armored battalions to a position within a mile south of Fort Hood.

  A carefully crafted trap had been laid for the destruction of the East Texas militia units when they attacked Fort Hood, but it would not be successful. All the communications by Justin Smith were being monitored, and after General Donnelly made his startling announcement to his staff that the attack on Fort Hood was being aborted, Ray and his team were able to determine that this information had been sent to the federal command. They had followed Smith to the storage shed facility and monitored his radio broadcast that was in a simple code that the fully recovered Tim Johnson, and Jerry Calhoun had easily broken.

  Once they confirmed that Smith had told his superiors about the change in plans announced by Donnelly, they did not arrest him but allowed him to continue to serve in his position on the general staff. Then were listening in several days later when he got on the radio again and informed the feds that, in fact, two battalions of militia and some supporting armor had moved out of Canton heading south toward a reserve center just north of Houston. Then, once again, they waited until Corey Davidson brought news to Donnelly from Jordan Billings that the feds had taken the bait. The Iranian infantry brigade and armored units had moved away from their positions near Fort Hood and were headed farther south toward the reserve center.

  The staff was called to another meeting, and the general apologized for the ruse and explained the situation that had caused him to get them to change plans. He also informed them that Justin Smith was in custody. Not all the staff members had been kept in the dark, and the commander of the force that had been dispatched from Canton was also aware that there might be an immediate change in orders. When he received the new orders, the column made an abrupt turn to the west and headed back toward the original target at Fort Hood.

  The whole situation had been stunning to the staff, and they could not believe that they had been betrayed by one of their own. Justin Smith was not talking yet, but his interrogations would continue, and they would not always be conducted in a politically correct manner. In the meantime, the staff returned to the most important matter at hand: the impending attack on Fort Hood. Because of the existence of the large Iranian force, extra precautions had to be taken. Even though the enemy force had moved to the south, it was only about a hundred miles away and could be back at Fort Hood within a few hours once it received word of the militia assault.

  In order to prevent the Iranians from being able to reinforce the fort and/or interfere with the withdrawal of the captured equipment back to Canton, Donnelly dispatched a company of special operations units consisting of four A teams of twelve men each and a heavy weapons infantry platoon in support equipped with 81mm mortars, machine guns, and antitank weapons. It was a heavy commitment but necessary to support this critical mission.

  For Donnelly, it was an even heavier personal commitment since his son Jamie had completed his training and was assigned to the A team commanded by Captain Robert Cannon. Jamie had been given a choice: he could accompany Ray Thibodeaux and his team as they guarded the 9/11 flag that would lead the attack on Fort Hood, or he could join an A team. It was a tough choice for Jamie because he was close to Ray and the men who had escaped from New Orleans together and to the flag that he had found and rescued. On the other hand, he felt obligated to fulfill the new job he was trained to do, and even more obligated to be in this fight with his brother Matt who was a combat engineer major assigned to support the special forces teams and set booby traps and IEDs to destroy or at least damage the Iranian armor.

  In their younger days, Jamie had been very close to both of his brothers. They had all been Boy Scouts together and shared good times hunting and fishing with their father. That had ended when Jamie had decided to follow the path of the progressives who wanted to remake America. That separated him from the values of his family, and he was afraid they would never forgive him. However, not only has his father welcomed Jamie back into the family, but so had Matthew. They had become close again, but unfortunately, that had not yet happened with Jamie’s brother John. This was not the fault of either of the brothers because when Jamie had reconnected with his father and brother Matthew, he found out that John, who was an Apache helicopter pilot, was off on some kind of special assignment for their father.

  Chapter XXXII

  The attack on Fort Hood started an hour before dawn on a cold December morning. Jordan Billings had received word from his friend Corey that his message about the Iranian withdrawal from the Fort Hood area had been received by General Donnelly. Corey had also informed Jordan when the attack would take place, and while it would be primarily on the poorly guarded west gate, there would be a diversionary attack on the east gate that was designed to draw the federal forces into positions to defend the east side of the fort.

  Jordan was also told that if possible, he should do anything he could to get the diversion to work for as long as possible. Jordan knew exactly what he needed to do. When word came into the headquarters that there was an attack occurring at the east gate, Major Sommers ordered two platoons to reinforce the eastern perimeter while maintaining the rest of the force around the perimeter surrounding the armor, artillery, and antiaircraft units.

  As the orders were executed so everyone in the command center left to lead their units except for Major Sommers, Lindsay Gordon, the command first sergeant, and Jordan who immediately pulled out his 9mm side arm and shot and killed both Sommers and his first sergeant. Now he was in command, and his orders to the rest of the federal force to move to the east gate were assumed to come from the commander. The killing of Sommers and the first sergeant had not been easy because they had both considered Jordan as friends, but both were rabid progressives who were totally committed to destroying the East Texas militia and end the resistance movement against the federal government. They were traitors to their own country, so Jordan did what he had to do.

  He had ordered all the federal force to repel the attack at the east gate with the exception of one platoon to continue guarding the tanks and artillery. He suspected that leaving anything less than that might cause suspicion among the federal company commanders. By the time the majority of the federal troops had moved toward the east gate, which was over four miles from their current position, a special operations team attached to the main militia unit silently took out the federal guards near the western gate. The team once again used their knives, so no shots were fired, and the rest of the federal force did not get alerted to the attack through the west gate.

  That allowed the Strykers and armored Humvees to quickly move down the str
eet to the motor pool where the tanks and artillery were housed. They deployed around the perimeter and opened fire on the federal troops that were in prepared defensive positions consisting of redoubts made of sandbags. These could provide limited protection for the federal troops from machine gun and small arms fire but not from the grenade launchers that several of the Strykers were equipped with. They blew apart the redoubts, and that allowed the infantry that they were carrying to disembark and wipe out the remaining poorly trained federal troops that were no match for the highly trained militia.

  All the tanks and artillery had quickly been captured, and several squads had been sent out to take over the antiaircraft batteries. This proved to be an easy task because while the crews had manned their guns, they were not prepared to defend them against infantry; and when they realized that they were being approached by militia, they abandoned their guns and took off running.

  While this action was taking place, the rest of the federal troops thought they were in the process of routing the militia attack on the east gate. In reality, the militia troops were staging a controlled retreat, and the federal commanders realized that this might be the case when they heard heavy gunfire and explosions to their rear near the location of the critical equipment and vehicles they had been guarding. The senior federal commander decided to leave two platoons to hold the east gate and took his remaining men back to the west. They didn’t get far before they ran into a full battalion of militia infantry that had moved forward after the capture of the federal armor and artillery.

  The federal troops were also hit by the Strykers, armored Humvees, and special operations team that came in or their left flank. The feds tried to retreat in the face of the devastating attack but were blocked by the militia force moving in from the east gate. It had been reinforced by a reserve platoon and a Stryker. The feds were being cut to pieces, so they did something they knew was probably futile: they threw down their weapons and surrendered. The federal soldiers had all been made aware that the militia rarely took prisoners. However, much to their relief, their surrender was accepted, and they were soon being prepared to march back to Canton with the militia units that had captured them.

  Events had recently occurred that had caused General Donnelly and his staff to rethink their approach to federal prisoners. During several raids conducted by militia combat patrols, federal troops had been captured who begged for their lives, claiming that they were not loyal to the federal government but had been forced to serve in the federal units because their families were being held hostage. In some cases, the men claimed that their families would be denied food and water if the men did not join the federal forces; but in other cases, they were simply told that their families would be executed outright.

  After careful and thorough questioning, it was determined that many of these men appeared to be telling the truth. They were not traitors but in some cases were patriots who had put into an untenable position because they had been unable to escape from the federal occupied territories. Donnelly knew that his troops were uncomfortable with summarily executing fellow Americans unless they were truly traitors, and he agreed with their concerns. So it was decided that henceforth federal troops who surrendered and were Americans would be transported to the Van Zandt County prison in Canton where they would be questioned. If the interrogators believed they were being forced to fight for the federal government, they would be segregated and treated well. Other captives who were thought to be actual traitors would be tried and summarily executed if found guilty of treason.

  The next question was what to do with the prisoners who had been forced to fight for the enemy. If they were released to go back to their families, they would just be forced to return to the fight as part of the federal forces. If they were not released, then the feds would have no reason to continue to provide for their families. That was a serious problem, and a solution had not been immediately determined.

  Chapter XXXIII

  The answer to what to do with prisoners would become more pronounced when the federal forces who had surrendered at Fort Hood were brought to Canton. However, that was not a sure thing when the militia started moving out of the Fort Hood area with not only the prisoners but the tanks, artillery, and antiaircraft guns that had been captured. The attack on the fort had been very successful, but problems were developing to the south that might keep the entire operation from succeeding.

  After the special operations unit had taken out the guards along the road from the west gate, their next task was to hit the communications center for the fort and knock it out before an alert about the attack could be sent to the Iranian force to the south. They believed they had destroyed the communications center before it could send any message but had no way of knowing that there was a separate civilian-operated ham radio not far from the base that notified the Iranians of the attack.

  Colonel Norman Blake had been elevated to commander of the special operations company that was assigned to contain the Iranian force. The previous company commander had been diagnosed with cancer, and because of Blake’s excellent record, he was the logical choice to take command. Four Blackhawks had taken his special operations company and supporting infantry platoon to a landing zone about five miles from the location of the Iranian camp. From the LZ, the team moved cautiously toward an intersection of two Texas state highways a mile north of the enemy encampment. One highway ran north to south and the other east to west.

  If the Iranian commander was alerted to the militia attack on Fort Hood, he could quickly move a column north and arrive at Fort Hood within a few hours. While this might be too late to stop the attack, it would put his armor and troops into a position to hunt down the retreating militia. Blake knew he didn’t have enough men and weapons to destroy the Iranian force, so all he could hope to do was do as much damage as possible and slow down its advance.

  Blake’s unit had landed the night before the attack on Fort Hood so he could have some of his team conduct a careful reconnaissance of the enemy camp. It was a large site that straddled the north-to-south highway, and the tanks and infantry transport vehicles were parked near the highway so they would have quick and easy access to the road. However, it was clear from the way that the vehicles were positioned that they expected to have to head south to stop the expected attack on the reserve center.

  This gave Blake an idea. He knew of the approximate time of the Fort Hood assault, so he decided to give the Iranian commander what he was expecting an attack on the reserve center that was just a few miles south of the Iranian command. It was also on the highway and covered six acres. There were several warehouses that housed the large stash of ammunition that the feds believed was the ultimate target for the East Texas militia.

  East Texas militia special operations commanders were given wide latitude to adapt their tactics as they saw fit, so the colonel did something that commanders were usually reluctant to do. He split his force. He sent one of his special operations A teams and a squad of infantry with a machine gun and two mortars to launch a diversionary assault on the reserve center. It was to take place an hour before the scheduled attack at Ford Hood, and it was successful. As Blake watched through binoculars, the Iranian infantry brigade and its supporting armor sprang to life. The tanks were all mounted by their crews and moved out with the infantry in support. They were moving south toward the reserve center.

  The A team that Blake had sent to launch the fake attempt to take the reserve center included Jamie Donnelly who was now a corporal and a weapons specialist. The team had gotten as close as possible to the reserve center, which was surrounded by thick piney woods and had opened fire on a guard post with its machine gun and small arms while the mortars had fired several dozen high-explosive rounds into the compound. They kept up their fire for several minutes until Jamie spotted a federal unit moving out of the center in a clear attempt to flank the special operations team.

  The “A” team was in dange
r of being cut off from its planned escape route that would take it back to the rest of Colonel Blake’s force. Jamie was with three other men of the team under the direct command of Sergeant Willie Jones, who was a heavyset black soldier who had been an army ranger before resigning in order to join the militia. Jones made an immediate decision: he sent one of the members of the team to alert their commander, Lieutenant Robert Cannon, to the danger on the flank. Jones had already decided what needed to be done, he and Jamie and the other team member would attack the flanking enemy unit to cover the retreat of the rest of the team.

  Jamie was well aware that this was probably a mission that would not end well, but he did not hesitate because it was his job. When Sergeant Jones ordered Jamie and the other soldier, Private Phillip Goldberg, forward, they immediately complied. Fortunately, despite the fact that it was a moonless night, all A team members had night-vision equipment on their weapons so they could see the enemy movements while not being easily seen themselves. It took just few minutes to get into position, and they opened fire on the flanking enemy soldiers. They took down four of them with their opening volley, but there were at least twenty men in the attacking group, and Jones and his men were taking heavy fire. They were spread out about fifteen yards from one another with Jones in the middle, Jamie on his right, and Goldberg on his left. They were in a thick patch of woods, so Jamie could see Jones through his scope but not Goldberg.