299 Days: The 17th Irregulars 2d-6

by Glen Tate

  In the letter, Lt. Col. Hammond promised Pierce Point training by Special Forces personnel like Ted and Sap, weapons, food for the fighters, communications equipment, medical supplies, and intelligence.

  The letter ended: “We promise you a future. The status quo is not sustainable. You know it. We need a long-term solution. That means the people who did this to us need to go. Pierce Point has been blessed with certain amazing attributes. It is time to use them for a worthy cause: getting America back. Your children and grandchildren, and people for a hundred years, will look back at what choice you made.”

  Rich and Dan were impressed. They were getting the royal treatment, but two guys with cool gear and a nice letter on official-looking letterhead was not something that you bet your life on. Rich and Dan needed answers to some hard questions.

  “Thank you,” Rich said to Ted after he was done reading the letter. “Thank Lt. Col. Hammond for the time he put into this. But we have a few questions.”

  “Certainly,” Ted said. He knew what the questions would be.

  Chapter 181

  “It’s ‘Go’ Time, Gentlemen”

  (July 8)

  The first question was the biggest one.

  “How do we protect Pierce Point from being attacked by air, artillery, mortars, etc.?” Dan asked.

  Sap smiled because he had a good answer. “The Loyalists pretty much don’t have any,” he said.

  “What do you mean?” Dan asked, a little indignant. “The U.S. military has plenty of that.”

  “True,” Ted said. “But the FUSA military doesn’t.” Ted then described, at length, how most military units had either defected to the Patriots or had been ordered to sit out the fight by their Patriot-leaning commanders. After the explanation, Ted handed Dan a thumb drive.

  “After we leave, put this in your computer,” Ted said. “It’s a series of videos showing commanders of various units who have come over to our side. They describe how their units are either fighting for us or won’t be fighting for the Loyalists. There are dozens of videos of troops describing how everyone in their units went AWOL. You’ll love the submarine guy who said that only three of his shipmates were left. Hard to spark off sea-launched cruise missiles or nukes with only three guys.”

  Sap said, “There are too many videos for us to be making this up. They have their equipment in the background. The sub guy? How could we have ‘borrowed’ his sub for that video if this wasn’t legit? You’ll see when you watch it.”

  Ted could see that Dan was not entirely persuaded. “Dan,” Ted asked, “what does it take to launch a mortar attack on a place like Pierce Point?”

  “Mortars,” Dan said, “A crew, logistics to get the mortars within striking range, and safe passage to get close enough to strike,” Dan said.

  “Right,” Ted said. “The Loyalists have very few mortars. With all the AWOLs, they have very few crews. Virtually no units left entirely intact. They might cobble together new units from the stragglers left behind, like the three submarine guys. It’s hard to round up a handful here, a handful there, and make up a functioning military unit when it comes to using gear like mortars. It takes training to use them. You can’t assemble a pick-up team of random guys and instantly turn them into a mortar crew.”

  “Logistics,” Sap added, “are the weakest link in the FUSA’s chain. How do they get the mortars here? They have to have fuel and trucks. Let’s say they do. It takes them forever to get from Ft. Lewis to here. You would have plenty of warning that a column of military vehicles was coming. We have people everywhere who tell us everything.”

  “Safe passage,” Ted said, “is a huge problem for a FUSA mortar crew. This cobbled-together mortar crew would get shot coming down the road, and if it came close to Pierce Point,” Ted said with a wink to Dan, “I’m guessing you might have a well-trained sniper before they got to the gate.” Dan had to smile at that. Chip must have told Ted about Sniper Mike. These guys did their homework, and that was reassuring.

  Sap continued where Ted left off. “The gangs would want to have those mortars. So, assuming all the other stuff—trained crew, logistics—could happen, the mortar crew needs to have a heavy escort, which means using a bunch more units, which are hard to come by now. Oh, and it means using more fuel for the escorts, which is also scarce now.”

  Bobby raised his hand. “What about tanks?”

  “Same thing as mortars,” Ted said, “but worse, for the Loyalists. All the supply and logistical problems from a few hundred pounds of mortar are multiplied several fold for a few tons of tank. They burn ungodly amounts of fuel, and they’re too heavy to just drive down most civilian roads. The main road from Frederickson might hold up — maybe. But, the road into Pierce Point? No way. And that bridge at the gate I’ve heard about? There is no way that holds a tank.”

  “But, a tank doesn’t need a road,” Bobby said. “It could just go on roadless, rough terrain.”

  “True,” Ted said, “but, the terrain around here means that the only way to get anywhere is often right where the road is, like the road from Frederickson to here. It hugs the shore, and therefore is the only way in and out, which means that road needs to be used. This then means the Loyalists would need to repair the road the tank chewed up. They need that road for other things like moving trucks of troops or semis of food.”

  “Bridges,” Sap said. “Most of the civilian bridges from Olympia to here cannot hold a tank. There is no way to drive one, even if you are OK with destroying the road in the process. No way.”

  Bobby had seen tanks used in Iraq on TV and assumed they must have been good at urban fighting or they wouldn’t have been used there. Besides, he wanted to see if he knew more about the military than two Green Berets. The result was predictable.

  “Well, if tanks suck so bad at urban warfare,” Bobby said, “why are they used? Like in Iraq.”

  “Because of combat engineers,” Ted said. “In a fight like Iraq, the Army had combat engineers to either make a bridge capable of handling tanks or they could repair civilian bridges damaged by tanks. The Loyalists have no combat engineers. Sure, maybe a couple of units, but they can’t go around repairing all the bridges and roads necessary to move tanks now.”

  “Besides,” Sap continued. “There are almost no tanks at Ft. Lewis and the Washington National Guard’s tanks are all in Yakima at the firing range there, courtesy of a Patriot officer who is ‘sitting it out.’ Even if the Loyalists had tanks all fueled up in Olympia and the bridges weren’t a problem, there is still the enormous problem of the crews. Most of the regular Army is AWOL. The National Guard? Forget it. They can’t put together any tank crews and don’t have any tanks handy. No combat engineers. No fuel. No go.”

  “OK,” Rich said, “but you have to admit that if the Washington National Guard or a regular Army unit wants to pound Pierce Point, they could do it. Maybe not with tanks, but with lots of other stuff that kills us dead. I mean, you admit that, right?”

  “Yes,” Sap said. “But that assumes there is only one Pierce Point for them to concentrate on.”

  “What do you mean?” Grant said, wondering what the point was. This idea of more than one Pierce Point was news to him.

  “The Limas,” Sap said, “could rally and mount up to come here if this was the only place they had to worry about. But there are lots of Pierce Points they have to worry about. Lots,” Sap said with a big smile.

  “Like how many?” Dan asked.

  “Sorry, Dan, can’t say,” Ted replied.

  “OK,” Dan said, “Ballpark it.”

  Ted thought. He seemed to be counting up things in his head. He paused. “Well, let me put it this way. There were 120 guys in our old unit, right Sap?”

  Sap nodded.

  “Almost 100 of them are with us now, so if it takes two of us to work with a group of local fighters…do the math. Let me put it this way: all my former colleagues are busy right now.”

  Fifty Pierce Points? Wow. That made quite a
difference. The Limas couldn’t destroy fifty of them. Maybe one here and one there, but not all fifty.

  “Plus, we have significant regular forces,” Ted said. “We have whole aviation units that came over. We have more helicopters than they do. Now, I admit, fuel and parts are a problem for our birds—but it’s a problem for theirs, too.”

  “Have you heard any helicopters flying since the Collapse?” Sap asked. “Nope. With all these ‘relief efforts’ of the National Guard and FEMA, you’d expect lots of helos, right? But you haven’t heard any. A lack of fuel and parts will do that.”

  “The FUSA forces were so amazingly dependent on technology,” Ted said. “If just ten or fifteen percent of the technicians are gone, it is virtually impossible for all the guidance systems, communications, and just-in-time supply systems to work. Way more than ten or fifteen percent of them are AWOL. The AWOL rate in some units is over ninety percent.”

  Rich asked, “So, neither side has all the whiz-bang gadgetry of laser guided bombs and things like that?”

  “It’s worse than that,” Sap said. “Not just laser guided bombs. Even the lower tech things have been hobbled for both sides. Take artillery, for example. That’s a threat you mentioned, Dan. All the supply problems we’ve mentioned apply to artillery. Artillery shells are being stolen and used for IEDs. They’re worth a fortune to Patriots, gangs, paras, you name it. But even if an artillery unit has shells, they need intel to know where to shoot them and they need communications. Just about all the intel people are gone. In fact, most of them came over to us and we have incredible knowledge about the Limas and civilian Loyalists, but I’ll stick with the artillery example for now.”

  Sap went on, “The comms systems aren’t maintained, so it’s very hard to tell an artillery crew where to go. You can’t really text artillery coordinates. Speaking of the coordinates, the computers the artillery pieces use need to be maintained and they aren’t right now. Not just anyone knows how to use the system even if it’s working. It’s a mess.”

  “Exactly,” Ted said. “So, while we don’t have many operational artillery or aviation units—the threats you mentioned Dan—neither do the Limas,” Ted said. “And that’s worse for them. They’re the ones who don’t have the support of the population. They’re the ones who are supposedly in control. They need to pound rebels to show everyone who is boss. When they can’t do that, people notice and realize the old government really isn’t in control of anything, except the gangs. We don’t need to pound the Limas. We just need to survive and wait for them to collapse further, and then we waltz in and pick up the pieces. We feed the civilians and restore government services,” Ted said looking right at Grant.

  It was silent for a while.

  “This is a lot to take in,” Dan finally said. “Don’t be offended, but when people come to me and say ‘Let’s take on the U.S. military,’ I am a little skeptical.”

  “The FUSA military,” Ted politely corrected him. “Take on the FUSA military—that’s what we’re proposing.” He paused. “There is no more United States of America.”

  It was silent in the room again. Everyone there had experienced that thought in one way or another. But to have a soldier—a Green Beret—say “there is no more United States of America” was earth shattering. The statement kept echoing in their heads.

  Ted and Sap went on to describe how the Southern states, including the Mountain West, had either formally seceded or just quit cooperating with the federal government. Denver was a Loyalist holdout. Most of the Loyalists from the surrounding states flocked there. In the Northeast, Midwest, south Florida, and West Coast, the Feds controlled the cities and suburbs. The rural areas were on their own. Gangs and paras were running wild. Not Mad Max end-of-the-world wild, just doing what they wanted. State Guards were springing up everywhere, replacing state National Guards. It was a collapse. A slow, quietly crashing, partial collapse. “Sap mentioned that we have great intel,” Ted said. He looked at Sap and said, “Go ahead and tell these guys about Cracker Corral.”

  Sap described how Patriot intelligence learned of the Loyalist plan to cut rural areas off from utilities and how the Utility Treaty solved that problem. That example showed Rich and Dan not only that the Patriots had good intelligence, but also how weak the Loyalists were and how military units just sitting out the fight had an enormous impact. It wasn’t a dramatic civil war with two opposing armies. It was chaos and weakness.

  “And the side that is better organized and motivated will win,” Ted said. “And that’s us. Look at this area,” he said motioning over in the direction of Frederickson. “There’s us and then you’ve got Winters’ corrupt little gangs and those pathetic Blue Ribbon Boys. Are you kidding me? But it shows that this isn’t a fight of laser guided bombs versus laser guided bombs. It’s these,” Ted said pointing to his rifle. “Low-tech, baby.”

  Then Ted pointed to everyone in the room, “And, more importantly, it’s people. Who is more motivated? You guys who want your country back and your families to be safe, or Winters who wants a cut of the gas sales? Which side is going to crumble? Which side is going to see this through to the end?”

  “I know which side will win,” Sap said. “It won’t even be close. Why do you think I’m here? I could have gone AWOL and gone back to Wisconsin. I knew all this was happening months before it did. But I know the Patriots will win and I’m going to be a part of it.”

  Sap pointed at Rich and Dan and said, “You guys are Oath Keepers. Time to keep that oath. It’s ‘go’ time, gentlemen.”

  Chapter 182

  Local Control

  (July 8)

  Rich and Dan had come into this meeting with low expectations of the Patriot forces, but they hadn’t known the pathetic condition of the Loyalists. The news Ted and Sap had, especially the Utility Treaty, was powerful. It got Rich and Dan to start thinking it was possible to take on the FUSA.

  In particular, Rich and Dan started to realize that they were better off with professionals, like Ted and Sap, than just holding out on their own. They had always thought of Pierce Point as the whole world. In their minds, there wasn’t much outside of the gate, but now they realized they were just a little village in a bigger region of western Washington State. They needed the whole region to be stabilized and restored before their little village could get back to normal, let alone thrive. For things to get better, the whole region needed to get better. Maybe the whole state and country, but that may never happen. However, the few counties around them needed to be functioning or Pierce Point would never make it. Even people who only cared about their own little communities quickly realized that they needed stability outside of their communities.

  Now that Rich and Dan were starting to understand the low-tech nature of this situation, having a Special Forces unit out at Pierce Point was an asset, not a liability. They now thought they were lucky to have pros, like Ted and Sap, who could help them. There wasn’t a high-tech and all-powerful enemy that would crush them for having a Special Forces unit out there. They were fortunate to be part of the Patriot supply system, to get grenade launchers like Ted and Sap had, for example. By being in the Patriots system, Pierce Point could have a team of trained and well-equipped fighters, not amateurs like the Blue Ribbon Boys on the other side. Much like the Team was a gift for them, Rich and Dan were starting to think of Ted and Sap as a gift, as well.

  Dan looked over at Grant who was slowly nodding like he was reading Dan’s mind. He realized that Dan was officially willing to consider letting Ted and Sap come out to Pierce Point and train, and Rich was, too. But they still had some items left to hammer out.

  “OK, if we were to let you come out here,” Rich said, “we have some questions.”

  Ted and Sap knew they had persuaded them on the big picture and now it was down to details. “Sure, ask away,” Ted said.

  “We don’t want our guards and constables, like the Team, to be poached,” Rich said. Dan was nodding.

  “We need to
continue to protect ourselves from external and internal threats,” Dan added.

  “Of course,” Sap said. “And speaking purely selfishly, we want Pierce Point to be very secure. We’ll be here, too.” He smiled.

  “We won’t poach anyone,” Ted said. “We will bring in fighters. Many will be former military.”

  “Whoa,” Dan said. “How many former military?” he asked. He was afraid that a big gang of well-trained military were coming in and could easily take over Pierce Point.

  Ted knew why Dan was concerned; they dealt with this in Special Forces training and planning. Local leaders were often afraid of letting in a strong outside unit, but the truth was on Ted’s side. He wouldn’t be bringing in too many seasoned troops because he didn’t have too many of them.

  Ted answered Dan: “I dunno. Maybe a quarter of the unit will be military. We would like a 100-man irregular unit out here, so that’s maybe twenty five. Probably fifty, at the most. They won’t all be infantry types. We have lots and lots of non-combat military joining us. Navy and Air Force technicians, that kind of thing. They no longer have any technology to work on, so we can use them as irregulars. While they’re technically military guys, most of them never had any combat training so, in many ways, they start off with less training than you guys, but we train them like we train locals wanting to join us.”

  That was semi reassuring to Dan. “Who is in command of the unit?” Dan asked.

  “One of you guys,” Ted said. This, too, was a topic Special Forces often dealt with when recruiting local fighters. Local leaders wanted to know that they were still in control of their people, which was perfectly understandable.

  Ted continued, “Whoever the unit elects. He will get a commission as an officer in the Free Washington State Guard. Sap and I, as NCOs, are under your person’s command.”

  Grant knew exactly what Dan’s concern was and had a solution.