by Steven Linde
General Cummings EO briefly interrupted the meeting and marched over to the General and whispered something in his ear then turned and left. “Is there something you care to share General?” asked Admiral Meyer.
“Yes sir, the problem has been taken care of.” replied General Cummings.
“Thank you General. Colonel please continue.” said Admiral Meyer.
It took Colonel Clayton another hour to wrap up his presentation, and by then it was 1100. The council members from the two camps that had sent the groups to attack the meeting knew that something had gone wrong. After the presentation most of the council members had questions, which Colonel Clayton did his best to field. At the end of the question and answer period, Admiral Meyer again took his place at the head of the room. “Earlier today we had an incident where three civilian groups entered Fort Lewis illegally. The group was armed and its intention was to attack this meeting and kill the base leadership with the intent of taking over the base. First let me say this, how stupid are you? They’re fifty-thousand Soldiers and Airmen on here. Regardless of whether I Corps would have let it happen I can assure you that the Special Forces Soldiers, Rangers and 7th Infantry Division wouldn’t let it go unchecked, they would have rained down hell onto your camps. What were you thinking?” At this point the Admiral was looking directly at the two camps members that he knew had sent them. The men and women of those two communities stood and attempted to walk out of the conference room. Admiral Meyer ordered the MPs to stop them and show them back to their seats.
The MPs pulled their pistols and pointed them directly at the council members, then told them to sit down. One of the council members refused and was shot in the leg. The sound of the shot was loud and everyone’s ears were ringing. “If you don’t sit down now I’ll ask he MPs to shoot each one of you in the leg and then have them drag you back to your seats,” said Admiral Meyer.
The members quickly made their way back to the seats, and the one wound member was dragged to his seat and placed in it. “You have to get him medical help!” said one of the female council members.
“I don’t have to do shit!” replied Admiral Meyer. “You still don’t seem to understand you’re not in charge.”
The room was quiet, “We have good intelligence that the groups that infiltrated the fort came from these two camps.” Admiral Meyer pointed to the two camps council members that immediately denied any role. “What’s going to happen is that your two camps will be leveled within the next two hours by an artillery barrage. The people in the camp are being notified now if they chose to stay they will be killed. They will also not be allowed to stay in the area, they must leave. The council members here from those two camps are under arrest. Within the next forty-eight hours a court martial will be convened and if you are found guilty you will be executed by firing squad immediately.”
The two camps’ council members erupted and lunged at any of the officers they could get close too. They were cut down by the MPs and were handcuffed, then taken away to the stockade, yelling the entire way that they couldn’t do this they had rights.
“I want you to listen to me ladies and Gentlemen, the laws of the United States and the State of Washington apply here and we will enforce all of them. This is a federal reservation and we are allowed to use deadly force which we will do. We can work together to move forward and we will do everything we to help or you can be part of the problem and we will evict you and send you on your way.”
“Are you saying that if we don’t fall in line you will exile us?” said one of the three camp council members.
“That’s what I’m saying. I’ve declared martial law, which I have the authority to do under Federal and State Law. Folks this is the United States of America still and I will not allow it any other way. Is that clear?” said Admiral Meyer.
The council members all nodded it was clear, but some weren’t happy and that was OK, not everyone was going to be. Admiral Meyer went on with next steps and what he wanted from the current civilian community. There were certain jobs they needed filled immediately, and those people were in their camps. Admiral Meyer assured them that those people that were hired would be fairly compensated for their work. The council members asked what types of jobs, and that’s when Colonel Clayton stepped in.
“Were looking for all sorts of engineers, civil, railroad, mechanical, software, electrical, you name it we need them.” said Colonel Clayton.
At mentioning software engineers the council members all laughed. “Software engineers, why, there’s no more computers!”
Colonel Clayton smiled. “Of course there is we have working computers.”
The civilians eyes widen and hands shot into the air Colonel Clayton selected the first hand that went up. “I’m a software engineer!” said the civilian.
“What’s your name?” asked Colonel Clayton.
“I’m Sam Longton and I’m from camp one. I’m one of the founding members of the council. Prior to the event, I was a software engineer for twelve years.”
“Alright Sam, if you don’t mind would you stay back after the meeting so we can talk, I’ll need for you to speak with Colonel Eaton, he’s the one with the computers.”
“Yes…yes absolutely,” said Sam. He was excited.
“We have the rail line that runs from Monterrey California through to the border between Oregon and Washington. These are steam locomotives using existing tracks, we don’t see building out any new rails. You may not like that we need oil, but it’s a fact until something else comes along. If you want to try to see a positive lining, well we need a lot less then we used too. The rails for a while are going to be primary transport between cities for civilians such as you. Yes we have aircraft that are capable of carrying lots of people, but those are military aircraft that won’t be sued for civilian purposes, at least not right now.”
One woman raised her hand and Colonel Clayton pointed to her. “Do you have any idea about families in other areas?”
“Depending on the area, yes we do. I would say we have a good handle on most of California, except for Southern which, if you give us a few months, we will. We have Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, and some states in the Midwest. Unfortunately, the lists are written on paper for now and there’s hundreds of thousands of names for living and dead that we have been able to find. One of the reason we are looking for software and hardware engineers we want to be able to put it all on a database that’s searchable.”
“How do I get to see the lists?” she asked.
“It’ll take time over the next few weeks. Specialized Civil Affairs people will be coming in from California and going through the communities here and collecting names. When they interview you, they will ask you about your family members and the ones you’re looking for. Once they have that, they will conduct searches. It takes time but we have been very successful at getting lots of families back together.”
The council members were starting to get onboard as they liked a lot of what they were hearing. “I understand that many of you are environmentalists and I think that’s great. One of the rules we will be implementing and we have done on other communities that before you start cutting down trees for wood for whatever purpose we need to use what we have already. That means that many of the people you need to be looking for are laborers, people that you can send out and deconstruct the houses that are being used. I don’t mean tear them down randomly, as they need to be taken apart so everything within it we can reuse. We know that many of these houses have all sorts of bad stuff, and we have hazmat suits. We need to get to that stuff before nature does. Once she gets to it, the wind will catch it and blow it all over the place,” said Colonel Clayton.
They liked to hear that. “We believe there’s more that can be done,” said Tim Leslie, another council member.
“No doubt about that,” said Colonel Clayton. “We need to have a plan and be able to execute that plan with what we have available now. If we don’t have it now, it doesn’t mean
we don’t do it. We wait until we can do it.”
Many of the council members wondered why they didn’t take that approach the first time. That question was asked by several members. Colonel Clayton told them because it’s taken a lot of trial and error to get this far. After the event they had no idea what to do and how to proceed. They made mistakes and odds are they were still going to make more. The bottom line was the civilian and military communities can work together to accomplish the mission. It’s a new world, and we have to blend the old along with it. He told them they weren’t going to get nirvana on Earth, ever. Hopefully, they could find a balance and satisfy most everyone.
They all talked for the next thirty minutes until everyone seemed satisfied, and everyone was dismissed except for Sam. Colonel Eaton took Sam to another room to speak to him and they all disappeared for the next thirty minutes. The men and woman got back on the bus. They had come on that morning and it was now 1500, it had been a long day. They were right, and they had noticed something different on post. The changes could be amazing if they actually followed through.
Chapter Forty-Four
Admiral Meyer asked General’s Watkins, Cummings and the command of the 7th Infantry Division Major General Stephen Horvath to remain behind. Admiral Meyers and General Watkins still had some lingering doubts about General Cummings. To alleviate that, it was decided that General Horvath would be the new Executive Officer of I Corps. If General Cummings looked like he was going to step out-of-line, he would have the authority to step in. General Cummings wasn’t happy about the situation, but he understood and knew it was of his own making. General Cummings and Horvath would be good friends, and already had a good working relationship.
Admiral Meyer dismissed the two Generals, and as they were leaving Colonel Eaton stepped back inside and asked if he could get the Admiral, General Watkins and Colonel Clayton to come with him. They would need to take a short ride to 1st AO, but he assured them it would be worth their time. Everyone was tired and Admiral Meyer at first declined the invitation and said he really needed to get back to Coronado. Colonel Eaton told them their flight out wasn’t until the morning and he assured them if they came with him it would be worth it. The Admiral finally gave in, and they exited the building and climbed into a couple of Humvees and rode over to the 1st SF AO.
Colonel Eaton asked them to bear with him for a bit longer and to please follow him. They followed him for about three quarters of a mile, right the edge of the wood line. There was a small pole which barely stuck out of the ground. It looked like some sort of marker; it would have been easy to walk on by. Colonel Eaton pulled out his dog tags and wiped one against the pole. He stepped back, turned and smiled at the men and told them to watch. There was a rumbling coming from the ground the sound of motors churning, then the ground started to move about a hundred yards to the right. The ground floor dropped then started to slide away, revealing a huge drive way that was at least a hundred yards wide and went down quite a bit. Colonel Eaton walked down the driveway which was as long as it was wide.
At the bottom Colonel Eaton found a touch pad and entered a code, then two large doors slowly pulled back. The men stood there waiting for the heavy doors to open and when they did, Admiral Meyer, General Watkins, and Colonel Clayton’s jaws dropped. Colonel Eaton stood there smiling, “Told you!”
“Do they work?” asked Colonel Clayton.
“There’s an alternate entrance and I’ve had people check the electronics out at least once a week over the last year, they worked but we haven’t started them in a very long time well over a year.” said Colonel Eaton.
In front of the men in the underground facility were twelve Blackhawk helicopters. “When can we find out if they can fly?” asked Admiral Meyer.
At about that time, two Humvees pulled up and three pilots emerged from one vehicle and from the other four helicopter mechanics. “As soon as they can drag one out, we’ll know that’s why they’re here,” said Colonel Eaton.
The pilots and mechanics walked into the underground hangar like they had been doing every day of their lives. General Watkins asked Colonel Eaton if they could have something brought out to eat because they weren’t going to leave until they saw if one of them flew or not. Colonel Eaton told them he had already taken care of it, and the Sergeant Major would be along shortly with something to eat.
For over an hour, the mechanics worked at getting one of the choppers out of the hanger, then up the long drive way and onto even ground. They spread and secured the blades and then checked the mechanics and electronics of the chopper. Two hours later, they gave the thumbs up to the pilots to give it a shot. Two Army pilots climbed into the Blackhawk, secured themselves into the seats, and ran through the pre-flight checks. Within fifteen minutes, they signaled to Colonel Eaton they were ready to try. The engine was trying to turn over which was a good sign, the blades slowly turned, and then the engine coughed once and kicked to life. The helicopter came to life, the pilots took the helicopter up about ten feet and hovered for five minutes, then came back down and secured the engines.
Everyone was all smiles and congratulations, it was a good day to be in the Army. “Alright,” said Admiral Meyer. “We have twelve Blackhawks there, Army Blackhawks, so they stay here.”
“I’m sorry sir,” said Colonel Eaton. “What twelve Blackhawks are you referring too?”
Admiral Meyer thought to himself. “Please explain yourself Colonel I’m too tired for games.”
Colonel Eaton looked at the Admiral, and smiled. He waved his arm signaling for him to look at the nearby fields. “I’m sorry Colonel are you saying there’s more?” said Admiral Meyer.
“Yes sir, we have a total of a hundred and twenty.”
Again, Admiral Meyer, General Watkins and Colonel Clayton were stunned at the realization they now had helicopters. “Sir, I feel we should be able to divide them up evenly between the services. I also happen to know that other bases have more.” said Colonel Eaton.
Admiral Meyer said he needed to take seat for a moment. He walked over to the helicopter, sat down and then started rubbing his temples. General Watkins had largely been silent to this point. “What else you got Colonel?” asked General Watkins.
“Well sir, you’re aware of the underground stores the 19th had at Camp Parks,” said Colonel Eaton, General Watkins nodded he knew. “Well General, we have a lot more, and I mean a lot more, of everything then the 19th did.” General Watkins believed it that was evident by the helicopters Fort Lewis was going to be well off, once Colonel Eaton started to get at the stores and divvy them out. It had been a long trip they were already to go.
Admiral Meyer returned to San Diego to get straightened out, and General Watkins returned to Camp Grayling to make sure things were moving along there. When he left, they were pulling the steam locomotives out of the museums to get them running.
Chapter Forty-Five
Joseph Barrigan was a six-foot four inch, forty-two-year-old, barrel-chested, outspoken brawler out of Portland, Oregon. He was a civilian and had never served a day in the military, and he didn’t believe in the military. He felt if you armed everyone there was no need for law enforcement or the military. He considered himself a patriot and in his mind he felt he knew what was best for the country. He and most of his friends were very upset that there was no federal civilian representation like the President, Senators or Congressmen. At a minimum there should be state governments with a governor and legislatures.
Joseph was sure the country was ready for civilian leadership, but his only problem was that the military that had been running things for over a year now and wasn’t willing to give up its power. Even though they had been saying they would install civilian leadership when the country was ready, they never defined when the country would be ready. It was time for him and his friends to take matters into their own hands. It would be tricky; they would need to make sure that they didn’t make it look like they were threatening the military. If it came across
that they were a threat, the people wouldn’t follow.
If the military believed they were under threat they would react militarily, which meant people were going to die, which meant he was going to die. That would ruin everything Joe and his cohorts had planned. The idea was poison the well slowly so the minions could be manipulated. Joe had a few friends that were joining him in this adventure: there was Mike Chapman, Daren Fisher, and Alex Holmes. The men had known each other since childhood and were very close. Daren had been a City Councilman in Astoria, and said he knew what needed to be done. The question was what position they wanted Joe to run for, state or federal, not that anyone was asking right now.
The first thing they needed to do was create a political party and its platform r. This was the tricky part, because if they put what they really wanted they would be arrested. So like good politicians of the past, they were going to lie. Next, did they want to align themselves with the two party system of the past, the GOP and Democrats? They didn’t think that anyone was going to want to return to those days anytime soon, but they didn’t want to have to pull something out of the air that had no name recognition. They decided to become the New Independent Party of Oregon, and Joe would run for Governor.
Normally they would have to register the party with the Internal Revenue Service and the Oregon Department of Revenue, and then wait for their approval while they investigated them, but neither organization existed anymore. Daren would be Joe’s campaign manager, Mike would be responsible for marketing, and Joe and Alex were responsible for security. They would have to bring in more staff as they progressed assuming; it all went off without a hitch.
They also knew that once Joe announced his candidacy for Governor, there would be more people to jump into it. It was going to be Alex’s job to discourage them, or ensure they disappeared. Joe was going to be Governor, or no one was. The military would have to set up some sort of election commission to oversee the entire process, and it was Darren’s job to run block and do his best to confuse and obfuscate. Next, Mike’s job was to create a superman, a candidate that was so great no one could stand up to him. Once that happened, they would then lie, lie, and lie some more.