by Steven Linde
They were also told that they would be limited on personal possessions they would be able to bring with them, which wasn’t really a problem. Most if not all of the people in the camp had arrived there from other places and had minimal possessions. It was not a mandatory move to the camps outside of Oceana, they could leave on their own and go where they wanted, and they couldn’t stay in the camp. At 1915 the fires would start and if you weren’t gone by then there was a good chance you would be killed by the fires. The people in the camp were told emphatically that there was no stopping the destruction of the camp and it would proceed at the stated time, no excuses and no turning back.
At 1900 trucks were pulling away from the camp filled with civilians and what meager belongings they still had. Every civilian that was deemed healthy by the Navy medical staff had opted to move to Oceana NAS. Truth-be-told if they had known of the existence of the camps around the base they would have gone there to begin with. After a quick search of the camp by Navy personnel they began burning the tents. They weren’t too concerned about the fire spreading outside of the camp as the camp was located near an industrial area that have been abandoned months ago. If there were people around they would or should have plenty of time to get out of the area before the fire spread if that were to happen.
The Navy packed up and pulled back the field hospital to Oceana and left the area entirely hoping that they had contained the outbreak. Commander Hall knew only time would tell if they had caught the outbreak on time. Thankfully none of the military personnel had been affected by it and the military as a whole is a very tight organization requiring people to work very closely day and night.
Chapter Thirty-Four
The Marines and SEALs had successfully cleared the Aviation Museum, which allowed Captain O’Hara, Commander McDonald and the engineers in. The women that were found on the premise were being relocated to Oceana NAS for processing and relocation. Corporal Higgins was being sent back to Oceana by Captain Luxon with his wife and child. Captain Luxon was a firm believer in taking care of the family first, if his Marines knew their families were safe and taken care of they were far more likely to take the risks the job required.
Not only was the inside of the museum rich with aircraft, there were also surrounding hangers with Army, Navy, World War One, Cottbus which filled with German Luftwaffe aircraft and fighter factory where they rebuilt and maintained the aircraft. The literature they found stated that all aircraft on the museum grounds was functional and capable of flying so the brochures said. Unfortunately, none of the people that had restored the aircraft were around. The women were questioned about it prior to leaving and they told Captain O’Hara that they had seen older men around the hangers at one time or another but they kept their distance. However, they hadn’t seen anyone around in a couple of months. This was both intriguing to the Captain and unfortunate, they had found the human resources office, but all of the employee records were on the computers. There were several filing cabinets with a quite a bit of documentation in them, but he didn’t really have the type of people needed right now to work through them. He was sure having a combat Marine or SEAL going through the documents was not the best match.
He asked Commander McDonald to send a team back to Oceana to gather up some of the admin types and bring them back; he told the Commander he wanted them out here within the hour. Commander McDonald answered with an, “Aye, aye sir.” and went on his way.
While Commander McDonald was on a new temporary mission, Captain O’Hara could hear several of the aircraft engines in and about the museum, inside and out, being cranked over. About half started right up with no problems, the other half either refused to crank over at all and the others attempted to start, back fired and the battery went dead. The solution to the battery problem was to remove some of the good ones from the aircraft that started and use them to jump start the other planes. The others the engineers checked out to see if they could find anything mechanically wrong with them only after trying to jump start them. Two they found were out of fuel and once they found some and topped them off they fired right up. The others, about five World War Two aircraft, wouldn’t start at all. The engineers didn’t know why, it wasn’t that they were bad engineers or mechanics, they had never worked any of these types of aircraft, which is most cases were forty years older them most of them.
Yet what they did have was thirty-seven aircraft that did fire up and were ready to take flight. There was a small runway at the museum; the next step was to get the aircraft to Oceana and taken care of there. He still needed people that understood the mechanics of the aircraft and none had yet to materialize out of thin air. He also only had three or four pilots that understood how to fly the aircraft. These were different aircraft that didn’t have any modern avionics and would require real skill to fly them, there was no computer to do anything for them, it was all them. This was a different mindset for the pilot. Right now he had two pilots that felt they had a handle on how to fly some of the aircraft, mostly the smaller World War Two fighters. There were several B-25s, Catalina’s, a couple of Skyraiders, and a couple of German Luftwaffe Junkers. These planes were going to require more training to fly than the current Navy pilots had not to mention a crew to fly them.
The Marines had set up GP medium tents outside the museum near the parking lot; Captain O’Hara told Captain Luxon they were probably going to be there for two to three days and to get comfortable. He also told him he would like a security perimeter set up, which was a no-brainer to Captain Luxon, the security perimeter would have been set up regardless of what Captain O’Hara wanted. As far as Captain Luxon was concerned, they were still in Indian Country and he would take all necessary actions to protect his Marines as well as the Navy personnel in the area. In the event civilians needed help and protection they would also participate in that exercise on a need basis once they were determined to be friendly.
While the Marines were busy Captain O’Hara sent word back to Oceana headquarters and to the squadron commanders regarding what he had found. He was requesting any pilots that had any experience flying the vintage aircraft he had included in his list of planes they had found. There were no shortage of pilots wanting to volunteer to fly them; however Captain O’Hara and Commander McDonald weren’t going to take any chances with any pilots that weren’t familiar with the aircraft now. The call out for mechanics turned up three Sailors that claimed to have experienced with these types of aircraft. Captain O’Hara wondered why the three Sailors hadn’t turned up in the earlier search. The first one to come forward was Master Chief Roy Sweeny; he had thirty-two years in Naval Aviation and was two months away from mandatory retirement. Master Chief Sweeny loved the older World War One and Two aircraft and had been very instrumental in working with the Aviation Museum restoring the old planes. He was a certified pilot on all of them to include all of the bombers and participated in the air shows.
The second Sailor was Petty Officer Amanda Bell, she was thirty-two years old, and she was considered the old woman of aviation by her compatriots. She had worked on her family farm, maintaining her father’s bi-planes that he used for crop dusting since she was old enough to hold a wrench. She joined the Navy when the family farm went under when she was in her mid-twenties, she realized she had nowhere else to go, she had talked to Army and Navy recruiters. She figured the Navy wasn’t going to be as bad as the Army. Petty Officer Bell had also found her way to the aviation museum and knew Master Chief Sweeny. He had taught her all about the World War Two aircraft and how to fix and maintain them; she was also certified to fly any of the aircraft.
The third person out of their trio was Petty Officer Second Class Troy Wood; he was twenty-five years old. He was a geek in high school and a loner, when he got to his squadron at Oceana he found himself, as usual, an outcast. He found a flyer at the Navy Exchanges Travel office one day for a day trip out to the Aviation Museum. Petty Officer Wood had always been fascinated by World War Two anything so off he went. Onc
e he was there and took the tour he knew he had found a new home, he found himself out there as often as he possibly could. This wasn’t lost on the museum’s staff, Petty Officer Wood was introduced to the Master Chief and Petty Officer Bell, and they all became fast friends with the basis of that friendship around the old aircraft. Both Master Chief Sweeny and Petty Officer Bell were more than happy to teach Petty Officer Wood everything he would need to know on how to restore, fix and maintain the aircraft, they found he was a sponge and a quick learner. He had also become a certified pilot on all of the aircraft.
The three arrived at the museum and reported directly to Captain O’Hara and Commander McDonald. Commander McDonald quizzed each of them regarding their claims and abilities on the aircraft while Captain O’Hara observed.
“Why didn’t you come forward earlier when we were looking for mechanics to come with us when the first call when out?” Asked Captain O’Hara.
“Sir our commanders never told us, we were in the dark.” replied the Master Chief. It was something that Captain O’Hara suspected; many times commanders didn’t like to volunteer their best people afraid they may lose them. Captain O’Hara ordered his staff to cut TDY orders for the three attaching them to him indefinitely. Not only did he have three mechanics, but also three pilots that could fly any of the aircraft. He asked them if they could train the pilots in the squadrons and mechanics, Master Chief Sweeny looked at him like he was crazy, “Shit sir I trained these two monkeys I can train anyone!” The jaws dropped on Petty Officers Bell and Wood, they gave the Master Chief and harsh stare for a moment then they all started to laugh. Captain O’Hara and Commander McDonald were lost on the humor it must be an inside joke they figured.
Three hours later at 1800 a Skyraider circled the airfield on Oceans NAS then came in for a landing pulling up to one of the terminals. Base security was on full alert, with weapons up and readily pointed at the aircraft as it taxied its way to the terminal. It was difficult for base security to secure the entire area because people hadn’t seen a flying aircraft in almost a year and now here was one that was older than all of them. As the aircraft’s door slowly opened, security and others around the plane were nervous not knowing what was going to pop out of it. Then stepping out of it comes Commander McDonald waving and wearing a silly grin, knowing that he had caused such a commotion. Base Security lowered their weapons and there was a round of applause by many of the onlookers that recognized the Commander.
Amongst the crowd of onlookers were three of the squadron commanders, Captain Josh Ward of Globemasters, Captain Oscar Collins of VFA-87 and Captain Rory Roberts of VFA-213. Captain O’Hara followed Commander McDonald out of the aircraft, both men headed towards the terminal to try and get a ride back to their base headquarters. As they approached the entrance to the terminal they were stopped by the three squadron commanders.
“What have you got there?” asked Captain Ward.
“Do you want it?” asked Commander McDonald.
Captain Ward and the other officers weren’t sure if Commander McDonald was sincere in his offer, they looked at Captain O’Hara. “Well?” said Captain O’Hara.
“You’re serious?” asked Captain Ward. “That old bucket of bolts is older than me! You can’t be serious, seriously!”
Master Chief Sweeny had piloted the aircraft to Oceana had made his way down the stairs and was now standing right behind Captain Ward, “I’ll have you know sir there’s nothing wrong with that aircraft! I was part of the team that restored it and she’s as good as the day she came off the line.” said an agitated Master Chief.
“I’ll take it!” said Captain Roberts quickly.
Everyone looked at him.
“No, Captain Roberts this is a bomber and should go to Captain Ward if he can get his head out of his ass. Besides, you’re getting a handful of the fighters.”
Captain Ward wasn’t used to anyone saying he had his head up his ass not that he could do anything about it. “You sure of it Master Chief?” asked Captain Ward.
“I just said I was.” replied Master Chief Sweeny gruffly. The Captains were very unlikely going to ever challenge a Master Chief especially this one. Master Chief Sweeny’s preceded him as a no nonsense NCO that didn’t take shit from anyone, considering he was supposed to be retired several months ago.
Captain Ward looked at each man, “Looks like we’re back in business than!” he said smiling.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Colonel Magnus stood outside the APC that he had been riding in studying the terrain around Allentown New York. It had been a little over a year now since the event and things had been moving along splendidly for the Colonel. By the end of the first three months after the event Colonel Magnus found that he had well over three thousand Soldiers and Airman on Camp Edwards most of them not doing a damn thing but eating up resources. The only real control he had over most of the units on post that had come in for training was that they were on his post. That being the case as long as they remained on his post he had command, but once outside the fence they were no longer his, they belonged to their parent command.
Unfortunately, after the event most of not all of the units that were training on post had lost contact with their parent commands. That’s when the unit leaders turned to Colonel Magnus for leadership and he provided it. After the event hit Colonel Magnus ordered all units on post to hold in place, get a headcount, inventory all supplies to include food, water and fuel. He then ordered them to send all that information back to his headquarters. Once they had the information at HQ it was compiled with what they had on post as part of his command. They then realized that with the number of service members on post measured against what they had for food, water and fuel they had five months’ worth available to them before they ran out.
He and his staff rationalized that they only way they could push past that five months was to raid the stores that surrounded the post in the various towns, of course this is exactly what Captain Webb had already told them. They also came to the conclusion they needed to do this soon they reasoned that civilians will begin looting within the week as their own supplies ran out, again the same thing Captain Webb had told them earlier. Each officer in the room under Colonel Magnus’s command had been inundated by the Colonel with these types of doomsday scenarios. Studies that had been done by the federal government over a period of years regarding this very scenario showed that the average family had three days of food and water. That being the case the Colonel and his staff knew they needed to move before the end of the week to secure what they needed.
Fortunately, the Colonel had been forming relationships with the commanders from the various units that trained on Camp Edwards for many years. They were all like-minded in the feeling that the country had been heading in the wrong direction and were no longer concerned with the constitution. It wasn’t a surprise to any of the commanders that were on post at the time of the event and subsequently after the event Colonel Magnus called a meeting for all commanders and senior NCO’s. The meeting was to discuss what they believed had happened, discuss resources available to them, current SITREP and next steps. It had only been four days since the event occurred and service members on post were restless for information. The meeting was scheduled for 0900 at the posts movie theater. Colonel Magnus and his staff knew that a good part of their message to the various unit commanders was not going to be well received, as far as he was concerned they could be part of the solution or part of the problem. If the later they could pack their bags and leave today while leaving behind their weapons and equipment.
By 0900 the theater was standing room only, there wasn’t much light even with all of the doors open. In addition to that, there was no public address system, so it was going to be hard to hear anything at the back of the theater where most of the junior officers had been pushed back too. The theater was called to attention at 0905 when Colonel Magnus entered and stepped up and onto the stage. “As you were. Take your seats.” Colonel Magn
us barked loudly. Colonel Magnus had a deep, throaty voice and could he heard from distances. As it turned out no one in the theater was going to have any problem hearing him.
“I’d like to thank all of you for attending today.” Said Colonel Magnus.
Throughout the theater you heard of muffled, “Hooah.” By the audience.
For the next hour Colonel Magnus had Captain Webb explain to the crowd the concept of EMP, which included an EMP attack or a Solar Flare, both had been in the news quite a bit only days prior to the event. As he explained EMP it was deathly quiet over the audience, everyone listened intently. As the magnitude set over the service members they all realized that life was never going to be the same. Many of the service members had traveled hundreds of miles to be there which meant their respective families were hundreds of miles away. At the end of the briefing, Colonel Magnus opened the floor for questions. Hands went up all over the theater, Colonel Magnus realized it was going long morning and this was only the briefing on EMP, there was more to come.
Colonel Magnus expressed that he wasn’t going to call everyone that had a question; he told the crowd he was going to take ten questions after that he was moving onto the second part of today’s briefing which he stated he believed would answer most of the questions in the audience. As Colonel Magnus called on a service member he had them come up near the stage to ask the question. Once the question was asked Colonel Magnus repeated it to the audience and then had Captain Webb answer. The first few questions were about families how what they were to do about them, Colonel Magnus explained that it would be discussed on the follow on segment of the briefing. Several other questions were asked by astute officers that were able to put two-and-two together and realized that there was no way they were going to survive here indefinitely without proper resources, again Colonel Magnus told the audience he would be addressing that issue in the next segment. The service members stopped asking questions altogether as they felt Colonel Magnus was apparently going to address them in the follow on segment of the briefing. With no more questions, Colonel Magnus ordered everyone to take a fifteen minute break, they would start again at 1200 sharp. As the Officers and NCOs exited the theater Colonel Magnus recognized a lot of grumbling, he knew it was going to get a lot worse before the end of the day.