by Steven Linde
Colonel Parker and Bennett anticipated the move because they would have nowhere else to go except back onto the beach. Colonel Parker directed his men toward the beach four miles north of where the Abrams and Bradley’s were located. They would keep to the high ground and move south along the cliff tops. It was now 0400 the sun would be coming up in a few hours and once that happened they would have air support. The Marines had night vision equipment and the Mexicans didn’t, so the Marines owned the night. Marine scouts on foot reported back by radio that they had sighted a large group of Mexican Soldiers about a mile and a half north of where they attacked them. The scouts received orders not to engage, only to observe and report reinforcement, which were a mile away and moving towards their location.
The next report by the Marine scouts was that at two miles north of the engagement the Mexicans were making their way back up the cliff sides using various paths. They estimated that the Mexican force was still large, about fifteen-hundred or more.
Chapter Thirty-Three
General Garcia was notified by his aides that American armor had broken their lines and was on their way here. The General was livid and demanded on how this could happen. If he could have he would have his senior officers shot and killed for failure to carry out their duty. Regardless of what he did now, it didn’t matter, he needed to slow down the Marine advance. He started ordering units into the fray that didn’t exist, but his Officers and NCO’s acted like they did and made it look like they were busy ordering these units to converge and destroy the Marines’ armor.
The LAV’s were wreaking havoc throughout the Mexican lines where they had overrun several of the artillery batteries, destroying the guns. They were closing in on the General’s CP, it was in eyesight of the Marines and they wondered why he hadn’t left yet. The Marines had stopped at an over watch position before continuing on, and they noticed a Humvee leaving the Generals CP, heading directly for them. The First Lieutenant in charge of the LAV platoon contacted Colonel Parker asking for instructions. The Colonel thought it was an interesting development, he told them not to fire on it for the time being. To keep an eye on it and let him know if anything changes.
It was ten minutes later and the Humvee had stopped two-hundred yards from them; the Lieutenant contacted the Colonel again, letting him know they were down the road now stopped. Two men stepped out of the Humvee, one of them holding a white flag. The Lieutenant reported this and was told to go see what they wanted. The Lieutenant told SSG Higgins to cover his ass as he exited the vehicle and slowly strolled over to the two Mexican Soldiers. The two Soldiers were unarmed and approached the American officer slowly so not to spook him, primarily because there was a half dozen 25mm guns trained on them.
“Alright hold up right there if you don’t mind,” said Lieutenant Dangler.
The two men nodded and stopped. The white flag was still being held up. “What can I do for you?” asked the Lieutenant.
“We’d like to surrender?” said one of the Soldiers. “The General has gone bat shit crazy!”
The man spoke fluent English with no hint of a Spanish accent. The Lieutenant certainly wasn’t expecting a response like that, “Who are you?” asked Lieutenant Dangler.
“I’m Major Espina and this is First Sergeant Losa.”
“Are you the only ones surrendering?”
“No, we were sent up by Colonel Zavala, he’s the General’s Executive Officer. He would like to surrender the entire command. But! That doesn’t include Colonel Tekana, he broke off from the General and doing what he wants to now. We believe he can be found around the western end of the line.”
Lieutenant Dangler studied the two men for a moment. “What if I accept your surrender, what’s the next step?”
“We don’t know,” said Major Espina. “Normally the victor sets the rules for surrender.”
“Yeah I guess they do.” said Lieutenant Dangler. “Well….why don’t we head back over to my LAV and we can talk to my Commander.”
Major Espina shrugged. “Sure, why not.”
The three men headed to the Lieutenants LAV and climbed aboard. The two Mexican Soldiers could feel all of the Marines eyes on them and there was no doubt they would kill them in a heartbeat. The Lieutenant climbed in and fired up his radio and contacted Colonel Parker. The Colonel came onto the net and the situation was explained to him. The Colonel asked to speak with Major Espina; Lieutenant Dangler handed a mic to the Major, and introductions were made. He Colonel asked what was the state of the General’s mind. Major Espina told Colonel Parker the truth that he was ordering phantom units they didn’t even have around the battlefield, and that the command staff was going along with it only because he might try to order them killed.
“Major Espina will your Soldiers surrender, will they lay down their weapons?” asked Colonel Parker.
“Yes sir, they will, at least one ones under our command.” replied Major Espina.
“Here’s terms for surrender: one – all Soldiers under the General’s command lay down their arms immediately; two – all Soldiers return to the Generals CP within six hours after the surrender; three – the General is removed and placed under arrest for crimes against Mexico, of course he will receive medical care first. Once you have met all of those conditions we will work on having all of you repatriated back to Mexico assuming they want you back.”
This stunned Major Pina. “You’ll return everyone? Even the General?”
“Absolutely we don’t want you. However, what your government does with you is another matter.” said Colonel Parker.
“Yes of course, I imagine they may not be happy,” said the First Sergeant.
“We agree to your terms Colonel. Why don’t you collect our Humvee and we take a ride to our CP the First Sergeant, and I will ride on top on the front of the vehicle to make sure no one fires on you.”
“Sounds good Major, would you please put the Lieutenant back on?” The Major handed the mic back to the Lieutenant.
Lieutenant Dangler had been listening to the entire conversation. “Yes sir?”
“Lieutenant you got all of that?” asked Colonel Parker.
“Yes sir, I did.”
“Please proceed as the Major requested, but keep your eyes open and if anything looks fishy you open up and clean their clocks.”
“Aye Aye sir, will do.”
“When you get in, immediately take the General into custody, he’s going to be one pissed off son-of-a-bitch! Lock him up some place and get him out of there. We are about twenty minutes behind you I’ll see if we can pick it up a bit.”
“Aye Aye sir, we’ll be waiting.”
“Roger that, out.”
The Lieutenant sent two men to retrieve the Humvee which he placed in the lead the command LAV followed right behind with Major Espina and the First Sergeant riding on top of the vehicle.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Fort Lewis Washington had two of the most esteemed units on it co-located on the same post. The 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) and the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment both combat units. The key difference between the 19th SF Group at Camp Parks and the 1st SF Group at Fort Lewis is that the 1st was and active SF Group. The 1st Special Forces Group was as equipped and prepared for an EMP event as well as was the 75th Ranger Regiment. If any post in the entire United States had a chance of surviving such an event, it should have been Fort Lewis.
Colonel Clayton had returned to work after taking several weeks off after the death of Mel. He was ordered to take the time off by General Watkins. General Watkins told him if he returned to work before a certain date he alluded to a very painful death. Colonel Clayton took it as it was meant and knew it was for his own good, and he was happy that the General made him take the time off. His family had time to adjust to their loss and Colonel Clayton had time to find someone he trusted to help take care of the kids while he was at work and or deployed.
When he got back to work he got to thinking about Fort Lewis
again and didn’t understand why they hadn’t reached out to anyone because as far as he knew they had the capability. He contacted General Watkins and asked his opinion regarding Fort Lewis. General Watkins told him yes he thought it odd as well but didn’t have time to deal with it right now. The operation in the Midwest had wrapped up and they were trying to get Civilian Affairs set up and bring in Civilian Security Forces. There was also the operation in the South he was monitoring and working with the Navy, Marines, and Air Force. He had also authorized the 184th Infantry Regiment to be used in the Southern California operation, even though they had only been back two weeks. He told Colonel Clayton he was on his own he had the all of the assets he needed available to him, good luck, and he appreciate it though if he kept him in the loop. Colonel Clayton thanked the General for his opinion and appreciated his trust in his ability to carry out this mission.
Fort Lewis was also home to the 7th Infantry Division, 555th Engineering Brigade, 62nd Medical Brigade, 2nd 3rd 4th Brigades of the 2nd Infantry Division, as well as a dozen more units. Joined to the Fort was McChord Air Force Base with all of its units: 62nd Airlift Wing, and 22nd Special Tactics Squadron, to name a few. As far as Colonel Clayton knew, most of the Air Force personnel were now looking for a new job, unless of course they were able to find and fix much older aircraft. If they were able to do that, why haven’t they heard from them?
Colonel Paul Eaton the Commander of the 1st Special Forces Group was a personal friend they had gone through the Q-course together, as well as other schools and served together in 3rd and 5th Special Forces Groups over the years. Paul was a very capable commander. He wouldn’t have sat around with a thumb up his ass after the event. He, like John, would have been busy getting his command in-shape for what he knew was coming. He would have accessed their underground storage facilities to access all of the equipment that would have been protected from the EMP event. The same would have held true for 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment. They had a similar underground facility.
Colonel Clayton had several approaches open to him. He could drop an A-team into the area, which was pretty much the norm these days, or he could drop leaflets over the post for them to be on a certain radio frequency at a certain time of day, and lastly he could send a plane with an A-team and land on McChord and see how it goes from there. His concern was sending out combat troops to a combat arms base might cause trouble. If he sent a plane with leaflets they could safely, at least he hoped. Drop them and be out of the AO before they could respond on the ground.
There was also the fact that the Soldiers were now returning from combat missions in the Midwest. It was unusual that they sent the 184th Infantry Regiment to San Diego with a week turnaround between large operations. They did it because the Marines were stretched thin and needed the help, and they had no other Airborne Regiment to send although they were working on it. They were reconstituting the 82nd and 101st Airborne but it was going to take time.
The simplest and safest plan of action was the leaflet option, which he decided was going to be his first approach. He ordered a couple thousand leaflets made up, then contacted command at Oakland to find out if he could get an airplane and crew willing to fly up there and drop the leaflets over main post and over McChord. He explained that’s all he wanted them to do. He wanted them to leave Oakland the day after tomorrow and fly up there in the morning.
By 0800 the following morning, the aircraft was in the air heading towards Lewis-McChord, granted this was a far more passive method than what they’ve used in the past. If it worked, great. If not, he would have to return tried and true methods of engaging a potential new base. The leaflets were very basic, as they briefly discussed who they were, the commanders and locations and where to be on the radio frequency system by 1400 that afternoon to get more information. Lastly, it read by order of Lieutenant General Watkin, USA (United States Army).
By 1300 the aircraft had returned to Oakland reporting nothing eventful. They did drop the leaflets over main post and noted there was activity on the ground when they dropped them. They also noted some activity on the ground when they overflew McChord, but thankfully no one shot at them. They made the two drops and headed home now. Colonel Clayton just needed to wait until 1400 and see what happens. He would head over to the comm center at 1345 to make sure he was there in plenty of time, in case some yahoo up North couldn’t tell time.
At 1400 Colonel Clayton was sitting at the shortwave radio hoping and praying that this was going to pay off, but 1400 came and went with no contact. He was confused, the pilots said they saw activity on the ground; could it be possible that the post had been compromised or overrun? It would explain why there had been no contact with them. He decided to wait around a few more minutes, say give it until quarter after, that’s generally the way it worked with meetings. If they didn’t show up in fifteen minutes the meeting was cancelled.
Colonel Clayton sat there watching the clock, and one of the comm center Soldiers showed up with a cup of coffee for him which he dearly needed. It was 1415 and he decided to leave. He was thinking about next steps.
“4-9er Papa lima bravo this is 8-9er echo tango romeo over,” was heard over the radio. That was their call sign, he had no idea who was on the other end.
Specialist Bern responded. “8-9er echo tango romeo this is 4-9er lima bravo over.”
“4-9er papa lima bravo please authenticate over.”
Specialist Bern responded with the correct authentication. “8-9er tango romeo authentication is blackbird I say again blackbird, over.”
“4-9er papa lima bravo roger wait one over.”
A few moments later came. “4-9er papa lima bravo please put on the that squirrel bait Clayton, over.”
Colonel Clayton hadn’t spoken to his friend in almost two years, but he recognized his voice immediately. “8-9er echo tango, this is Clayton please inform Eaton that his mom was great last night she really puts out, over.”
Laughing could be heard on the far end. “Damn John, it’s great to hear a friendly voice,” said Colonel Paul Eaton Commander of the 1st SF Group.
“It’s great to hear from you too, Paul. What the hell is going on up there?”
For the next hour, Colonel Paul Eaton recounted the fiasco that is now Washington State. The Commander of I Corps Lieutenant General Robert Cummings died of a massive heart attack two weeks after the event. Leaving his second in Command Major General Daniel Fry in charge, MG Fry was not a strong leader by any means, he quickly surrendered the fort to the local governments which were primarily tree huggers that didn’t know the first thing about the Military and did their best to disband Fort Lewis and McChord. General Cummings tried to force Colonel Eaton and Lieutenant Colonel Brandon Hodson, the Commander of the Ranger Battalion, to open their underground storage facilities.
The General felt obligated to turn over all of the military assets to the civilian government in Washington. Both men refused, stating that he was not in their chain-of-command, and in fact Colonel Eaton had to fish out the shortwave radio he was on from there.
Colonel Eaton explained the that he and some of the other commanders got together two weeks ago and decided that they would close off access to the civilians on the parts of the post, as they were responsible for leaving I Corps area open to them. “Listen John what we really need up here is someone that outranks that bastard and can reel him in, you got that down there?”
“I can raise you one Lieutenant General and one full Admiral, will that work?” said Colonel Clayton.
“A four star? Hell yeah that’ll work. Can you get them here?”
“Yeah we can get there no problem,” said Colonel Clayton.
Chapter Thirty-Five
One of the benefits, if that’s what you want to call it, was that when the Mexican Army entered the United States and pushed its way north they took on all of the gangs and other nefarious groups. The Mexican Army cleared out everything that they thought was going to give them trouble, regardless
of race or ethnicity. As the Paratroopers and Marines made their way north from the border, they had a fairly easy going, and any incidents that happened were a case of mistaken identity. There was a small underground movement by civilians to execute guerilla type attacks against the Mexican Army.
Once it was clear that it was the United States Military, the attacks stopped and people came out of hiding to welcome them. The two groups, Paratrooper and Marines, made it up to the Barrio Logan and set up a small camp at the park located there. They were joined by the fresh Paratroopers that had come in the night before, and it had been decided that since they were making such good time the new Paratroopers wouldn’t be dropped. They would road march from North Island, Coronado, and then up and over the Coronado San Diego Bay Bridge, which would dump out right at the Barrio.
As morning rolled in, scouting aircraft from North Island was scouting north and east of the bridge. This would give commanders a better idea of where the Paratroopers and Marines were needed. They were hopeful that the Mexican Army had cleared the way for them as they proceeded north and east to secure the rest of San Diego. There was scuttlebutt that part of the Mexican Army had surrendered early this morning, but it was the smaller force. The larger force had made its way onto Camp Pendleton and was actively engaged now.
As far as the 184th was concerned, they were hopeful that by the time they got up there, sixty some miles away, it was all over. They were tired after months of combat in the Midwest and then a week’s turnaround, and then sent back into combat. Movement orders came down, and the Marines would move east following the I-94 for five miles and take the nearest exit, then proceed by foot until told otherwise. The paratroopers were told to continue north in I-5 exiting at the I-5 and I-8 interchange near Rosecrans, then continue north on primary roads until told to stop. Everyone knew it was going to be a long hike.