by Steven Linde
There was a coup going on within the Mexican Military in Northern Baja California who wasn’t concerned as much with the citizenry as they were with the overall destiny of Mexico. They believed that whatever was happening was temporary and the federal government in Mexico City would fix it all. If they were successful in reclaiming California and the Southwest, they would be hailed as heroes.
Their only opposition was the US Military in San Diego, and they had no intelligence at this time to tell them if they were active or had deserted their positions. The Mexican Army felt they could handle the US Navy, but they were very concerned with the Marines way up in Oceanside. If the US Marine Corps had pulled it together and were able to remain a cohesive fighting force, they knew it could prove disastrous for them. They also knew that the US Navy SEALs in Coronado would have to be dealt with and destroyed somehow. The Mexicans believed they had the overwhelming numbers to take and destroy them all.
It was true, on paper, the Mexican Military in northern Baja had a far superior force numerically then did the entire US Military in San Diego. The US Military although, less in numbers, had far greater firepower available to them than the Mexicans did. However, the Mexicans were oblivious to this and continued with their invasion plans.
The Mexican Army had lost all contact with their headquarters in Mexicali. They had a total of thirty thousand men under their control right now due to the drug wars. Only about a quarter of them were actually combat troops, in that it included Army and Naval Marines. They estimated the US Military in San Diego had fifteen thousand, and they believed that most of them were deployed in Afghanistan and other hot spots throughout the world when the event hit. The Marines were over seventy miles away, and by the time they arrived it would be too late. They would have lost control of southern San Diego.
The Navy was in the same predicament as the Air Force: most of their ships weren’t viable any longer. They were heavily computerized, as were most things these days. Many of the Sailors would be moved over to the Marines and be used as combat troops there. The Navy was looking at smaller attack boats to cross the border via the ocean to drop off troops further up the coast. They knew that the American Navy was much more dependent on modern equipment than they were. They felt they would be able to overcome anything the US Navy could throw at them.
The mastermind behind the coup was General Maximillian Garcia, and he was as anti-American as they came. He was a product of the Mexican Army, and one of the few that had never attended any American training in the US that had been offered to the Mexican Army, Navy, and Air Force. Since he hadn’t ever worked with or attended any American military schools, he was ignorant to the awesome power of the US Military.
General Garcia moved forward with his plans, which included ousting many of the American-trained officers. As far as he was concerned, these officers had been tainted and were not truly Mexican Military officers. These were the officers that warned him not to move forward with the invasion, but he could not be deterred.
They also reminded the General that the American troops they were going against had combat experience. The General countered that many of his own had experience fighting the cartels. They tried to explain to the General fighting the cartels was nothing like fighting a war. It didn’t matter, the General had made up his mind, and these men were dismissed or disappeared altogether.
Chapter Seven
General Charkin and Admiral Meyer did their best to talk on a daily basis, but it wasn’t always possible, Camp Pendleton was roughly seventy miles north of South San Diego where Coronado and 32nd Street were. During the last briefing it was noted to both Commanders that attacks against civilians and 32nd Street had picked up quite a bit over the past several weeks. They seemed to be coordinated attacks against the base, and it was also noted that the attackers were Hispanic or Mexican.
Many of the attacks against the civilians were also being carried out by large groups of Hispanics or Mexicans. The General Charkin asked what the difference between the two groups was, at least what they considered the difference. The analyst stated that Hispanics were generally considered from the local American-Mexican community and could very well be US Citizens, and the other groups’ Mexicans were from Mexico, mostly from Tijuana and its surrounding communities.
Admiral Meyer asked what was meant by coordinated attacks against 32nd Street. The analyst responded by stating that in their estimation, if the general citizenry were to attack the base, they would attack recklessly and with no thought to any type of tactics. They also believed that they would only attack with small arms such as pistols, hunting rifles, and AR-15’s. The attackers were organized and carried military grade weapons, and they knew this because after each attack patrols were sent out to search for bodies and collect weapons. The dead men wore older body armor, and much of it looked like the stuff the US Government had donated to the Mexican Military, or the Mexican Military had purchased. The mention of the Mexican Military, who were supposed to be US allies, got everyone’s attention.
“To what purpose?” asked the Admiral.
“I’m sorry sir, I don’t understand your question,” responded the Navy Intelligence Analyst.
“To what purpose would the Mexican Military see in attacking 32nd Street?” the Admiral clarified the question.
“We don’t know; the analysis is purely speculative.”
“But you believe it, don’t you?” said Admiral Meyer.
The analyst was getting nervous; she didn’t know where the Admiral was going with this. “Yes sir, we do. Most of the hardware we have found is military grade, and we have found Mexican military ID’s on most of the dead. The tactics they used in attacking the base were military in nature.”
The Admiral and General looked at each other. The General spoke, “We aren’t disagreeing with you, but we just don’t know why the Mexican military would be attacking us. We would think they have enough problems in their own country. We have a ton in ours, and they far worse off than we are.”
“Yes sir, we know and frankly we haven’t had the time to look into it.”
“Alright.” the Admiral said. “You’ve got seventy-two hours to get us some answers. Is it the Mexican Military or not, and if so, why?”
The Navy Analysts nodded, came to attention, saluted, dropped their salutes and exited the conference room. They knew they had their work cut out for them. The following briefing was conducted by Lieutenant Commander J.G. Wentworth regarding the USS Midway and the recovery of useable aircraft.
Commander Wentworth stood and made his presentation regarding the Midway, and surprising enough, four other ships they had found in mothball were in good shape. More good news to follow was that they were working on restoring the USS Dolphin and B-39, a Soviet-era Submarine that was part of the San Diego Maritime museum, as well as PCF-816 Swift Boat. He went on to say that the USS Midway had two trial runs out to sea so far, and they went very well. They offloaded the aircraft that they couldn’t use, and kept the ones they thought they could. They also canvassed the San Diego Aerospace museum too and came up with another dozen aircraft they were hoping to get airborne. Those aircrafts had also been moved to the Midway. In total, they had thirty fighter aircraft that were serviceable and flying.
They also found another half-dozen or so aircraft they believe could be used at the Miramar air station. They would be worked on up there until they were flight-ready.
“Are your expectations realistic?” asked Rear Admiral Stevenson, Admiral Meyer’s Chief of Staff.
“Absolutely Admiral. We currently have pilots undergoing training now with the aircraft we have available, and we are even landing aircraft on the carrier. The old Soviet Submarine is operational now, as well as the PCF-816. We have three other support ships that we got out of mothball that are, for the most part, operational and can be put to sea while they are being worked on.”
“And the Dolphin?” asked Admiral Stevenson.
“The Dolphin is going to need
more work. Perhaps two months until she is underway. What would be awesome is to have the USS Iowa up in Los Angeles.” said Commander Wentworth.
“It’s not there,” said Chief Petty Officer Polinsky.
All eyes turned to the Chief. “How do you know that, Chief?” asked Admiral Meyer.
“Sir, my family and I were up there site-seeing right before the event. Signs were out where the Iowa should have been docked saying that she was up in San Francisco for work until late 2015,” responded the Chief Petty Officer.
“Well there you go, Commander. Unless you can find your way up to Frisco, get her out of dry-dock, and sail her back, you’re out of luck,” said Admiral Stevenson. Commander Wentworth looked crestfallen. He was really hoping for a battleship.
“Commander, when can we get a tour?” asked Admiral Meyers.
Commander Wentworth looked at him in surprise. “Anytime sir. They’re your command, so any time.”
Admiral Meyer smiled at the Commander. “I realize I could have anytime, son. I wanted to wait until you were ready and had time to set up your dog-and-pony show.”
“Yes sir, I appreciate it. Anytime now would be great. Please give us twenty-four hours’ notice, if you would.”
“You’ve got it, Commander. I’m giving you that notice now. Let’s make it forty-eight, though. Two days from today at 1000 aboard the Midway.”
“Roger, sir. We’ll be ready.”
Chapter Eight
Admiral Walcom had been following the reports regarding the ongoing operation out east. Everything that he was reading about it wasn’t good, as they were taking heavy losses. The ISL was doing a lot better than the military planners had thought. As much as he wanted to help, he had other orders to follow. He was to get underway as soon as possible with all of the ships in his battle group and head south.
He placed the group on a twenty-four hour alert, at the end of which everyone should be ready to depart. The Army and Marines had been successful in clearing much of California below Monterrey, and east well into Nevada, with the help of the Nevada National Guard and Marine Corps Reserves. It was time to unite the rest of California, but there was still the mystery of why they had heard nothing from San Diego.
The banks of San Francisco Bay were lined with people seeing the ships pulling out. It was an amazing site to see. It had been almost a year since the event and recovery had been difficult at best. There was some normalcy returning to the average citizen’s life, aided by the availability of resources in the area. To see the USS Hornet, USS Iowa, and the accompanying ships sailing out of the harbor gave people more hope than ever.
Two out of the four ships that had been rescued from the graveyard were being used as Marine transports. Of course the Hornet and the Iowa had their own contingents of Marines, but not nearly enough to conduct onshore operations against an enemy. They had also been able to salvage two dozen old landing craft. In addition, they had been able to modify one of the older transport ships to be able to offload the AAV’s and LAV’s. The biggest surprise was that they had six LCU’s that would be able to land M1A1/M1A2’s and Bradley’s too. They would have to make several trips to get everything off the ships, but they had practiced and practiced offloading the big vehicles at sea onto the LCU’s.
The USS Pampanito had left very early in the morning under the cover of darkness and was scouting ahead. The sub had a shortwave radio onboard with an external antennae so they wouldn’t have to totally surface to transmit and receive, but they would have to rise to at least periscope level. They didn’t expect any other ships, as no one had spotted anything in the ocean since the event. Just because no one reported seeing anything didn’t mean nothing was there.
The Pampanito would keep close to the coast and wouldn’t submerge at this time. They would keep to about a quarter mile from the shore. As far as they knew there was no threat to them at this time. The Hornet was two hours behind them with patrol aircraft up, and they had radio contact with the Hornet so they felt safe. The Hornet had a maximum cruising speed of 33 knots and the Iowa had a maximum of 29 knots. The other ships had cruising speeds in between those two. Admiral Walcom decided it would be a slow cruise down the coast at 10 knots which should bring them to Los Angeles in a day and a half, if they decide not to stop.
The USS Pampanito pulled into Monterey Bay around noon to the surprise of the people who lived around it, t had been a year since they had seen any Navy vessel. There were three men standing in the conning tower: Commander Washington, his XO Lieutenant Jenner, and Petty Officer Second Class Mendell.
The Navy’s post-graduate school was located in Monterey and run by Rear Admiral Rainland. After the event, Monterrey wasn’t in terrible shape, as they had some problems but were able to work them out. Of course there were medical, food, water and fuel issues, and like other places a lot of people died. They had a nuisance of riots and gang violence, but nothing like how it was elsewhere. Their problem was people from outside the community that wanted what they had. They were constantly under attack from outside forces. The community had set up defensive perimeter around Monterrey, which was effective at first and gave the citizens a sense of safety. As the months wore on, the perimeter began to shrink; they were taking casualties and were unable to replace the people they were losing.
Admiral Rainland was one of the people killed when the Navy’s school was breached. He took a bullet to the head and died instantaneously defending campus. The school was eventually overrun, and many of the senior leadership of the school were killed. Eventually, they were able to push them out but not before they were able to do considerable looting to the campus.
One early morning, the sky over the town filled with airplanes and then parachutes. There were hundreds upon hundreds of parachutes that filled the sky that morning. People were stunned. It was the men and women of the 184th Infantry Regiment (Airborne) being dropped off by the United States Air Force. As the paratroopers started to hit the ground, the people in the community didn’t know whether or not to start shooting at them, run and hide, or welcome them. When the paratroopers came down near people, they popped up yelling “US ARMY! US ARMY!” hoping to quell any fears, and not get shot themselves.
Colonel Jamison was one of the first ones on the ground. Once on the ground he identified himself to the citizens he met and asked to speak with the person or people that were in charge. He needed to speak to them now because soon there will be close to two thousand paratroopers on the ground wondering why they were here.
The Colonel was quickly taken to the Major and Police Chief, and the two men couldn’t believe it. The entire community was close to collapsing. The two men explained that they could use serious help at the barricades around town. That was the first order the Colonel gave out: secure the perimeter and kill anyone attacking. If they retreated he wanted them followed and terminated. The violence of the order shocked the Mayor and Police Chief, and the Colonel saw the look on their faces. He responded by telling them that they had been doing this for some time now, and knew how to deal with the outsiders attacking them.
He also explained that he had a time-table to keep, and he wasn’t going to let anyone upset that. The two men didn’t know what to think of that, but realized they didn’t have much of a say in what the Army was going to do. Colonel Jamison told them he would be back in two hours to brief them on the operation and other important information. He asked that all of the players within the community be present, as he didn’t want to have to repeat himself. As he was discussing this, several loud explosions could be heard in the distant. The Mayor and Police Chief damn near jumped out of their skins hearing the explosions. The Chief asked the Colonel if that was his men. The Colonel told him matter-of-factly that it was the Air Force bombing outlying enemy positions.
The Mayor followed up and wanted to know how they knew about them. The Colonel told him that there had been US Army Special Forces teams in the area for weeks. They had mapped out the aggressors and they were bei
ng taken care of as they spoke. He told them he would talk more about it in two hours when they all met again. He told them he needed to get back out with his men and make sure everything was progressing as planned.
Over the next several hours, rifle and machine gun fire could be heard throughout the town. The civilians who had been guarding the barricades were asked to return to their homes. They were told things were about to get real nasty really quickly, and it would be better if they were out of the way. There were more loud explosions around the city, aircraft could be seen all over the skies. It was odd to watch an aerial assault from an era gone-by, almost like they had taken a step backwards in time to relive Nazi-Germany’s bombing of London. During the fighting, the Colonel met again with the Mayor, Police Chief, City Council, and about a hundred others.
They met at one of the school’s auditoriums. The Mayor stood on the stage that overlooked the people sitting in the seats below. He introduced Colonel Jamison as an Officer of the United States Army. The Colonel thanked him and told him that he was the Officer in charge of the task force that was currently involved in kicking the insurgents out of the area. He said he was leading a task force from the US Army’s 184th Infantry Regiment (Airborne). In addition, he also had a couple of platoons of Marines with him who had secured the airport and port.
Half the room erupted and many yelled all sorts of questions at the Colonel while others raised hands. The Colonel looked around the room and told them they would have to wait until his briefing was over. He went on to tell them that he was sure the briefing would answer most questions. He started the briefing with what happened with Camp Parks and how it had evolved over the past year. After that, he went onto talk about the operation throughout the Bay Area, Sacramento and the rest of Northern California. From there he explained that they had been moving steadily down the coast and had also sent two Special Forces teams into the area a couple of weeks ago. They collected intelligence from around the area and made recommendations on what needed to be taken out first.