by Steven Linde
Both men met roughly equally distant between the Humvees and the fallen trees, each man reached into their own respective pocket and pulled out their military credentials and handed it over. Each many quickly studied the credentials and handed them back, “Satisfied Lieutenant?” asked the Colonel.
“Yes sir.” said Lieutenant Danielson.
“Good now take me to Oceana’s commander I have orders from the President.”
It was like a bolt of lightning that had struck Lieutenant Danielson, “The President of the United States sir?”
“Is there another one?” said the Colonel.
Chapter Forty-Three
It was a brutal winter so far for Colonel Magnus and his troops. They were hunkering down in Allentown, New York for now it seemed there was blizzard after blizzard. They were buried in four feet of snow, morale was low, and they were still searching for more cold weather gear to distribute among all of the Soldiers under his command. There was plenty at Camp Edwards, however the roads were iced over and even the track vehicles had problems maneuvering assuming you could even get them started. Food and water were also low, one of the several reasons for low morale.
Colonel Magnus was using the images of Valley Forge telling his troops this was the ‘New’ Valley Forge. That they were going to return the country back to its roots and it was Gods will, no matter what it took they would preserver. Many of the service members, especially the junior officers, thought it was all-well-and-fine, but it wasn’t going to feed or cloth everyone. Some felt that the Colonel was sitting in his ivory tower and was losing touch with the average Joe. Regardless, the people that thought this kept the thoughts to themselves. They were afraid to voice their concerns, they knew that if they did there was a very good chance they would be killed.
The Colonel declared Marshall Law in Allentown, his first orders were for the Soldiers to search all of the abandoned homes and take everything they needed. As the crisis wore on and he could see how it was affecting the troops he ordered the Soldiers to step-up their searches. Which meant taking items away from the civilians that were occupying homes; in most cases these were the homes the civilians had been living in prior to the event. Of course, this type of marauding by the Soldiers led to unintended consequences such as murdering civilians that refused to surrender, it also led to rapes and beatings. The Officers and NCO’s looked the other way, they knew they needed these things to survive themselves, they rationalized it was all for the greater good. As for the murders and rapes they also justified those, the civilians shouldn’t have interfered with the Soldiers executing their duties and woman should be more than happy to give of themselves to the Soldiers that were here to help them.
Needless to say the civilian community in Allentown hated Colonel Magnus and his men, they were being held hostage by the Colonel as he required community service from all civilians. Community service in this case meant housing or building barracks for the Soldiers and sometimes in sub-zero temperatures, while with very little to drink and eat. They were required to clean up after the Soldiers, shovel streets and sidewalks, which prior to the event made sense. Yet, the only one with vehicles was Colonel Magnus’s Army his rational was it needed to be done in the event they were attacked. The civilians wondered who he was expecting an attack from.
As the winter months dragged on civilians were dying from starvation, as far as the Colonel was concerned, it was their duty to the country to die. All medical supplies within Allentown and the surrounding communities had been confiscated by Colonel Magnus for the primary use by the Army. Hundreds of people had died from lack of medical care which included frost bite and freezing to death. Colonel Magnus extended his searches out to surrounding communities looking for more food, fuel and warm clothing. He also used the time in his new Valley Forge to recruit, technically drafted, men and women into his Army. Regardless of how cold it was they all went through basic training and then advance in training which for most of them, especially the men, was advanced infantry and artillery. The women were sent to medical, signal, quartermaster, or food service.
The men that weren’t sent off to combat arms and proved to be somewhat mechanically inclined were sent off to transportation to repair vehicles, artillery mechanics, diesel mechanics, generator mechanics (which was in high need) as well as other specialties, in many cases to work alongside the women. There was a lot of on-the-job training as there were no real formal military schools for any of the MOS’s. If they failed to perform they were moved from specialty-to-specialty until they found something they could do. For those that failed at everything, some did it on purpose and others would never be able to adapt to military life, they were sent into the fields to work as a laborer. Working as a laborer was a death sentence, they were the last ones to get any of the food and they were lucky to have any shelter, they slept on floors or the ground and were given two blankets each.
During the winter months Colonel Magnus was able to build his Army from three thousand to almost four thousand five hundred men and women. Colonel Magnus and his staff were feeling secure with their mission and were anxious to restart their campaign south. The next objective was Fort Indiantown Gap in Pennsylvania it’s the National Guard Training area and was over two hundred ninety-four miles away. Colonel Magnus new men and women there that he knew would be loyal to his cause, assuming they were there and still alive. Winter was giving way to spring and the roads were clear, but wet, there weren’t enough vehicles to move everyone that was one of the remedies he hoped to solve at Fort Indiantown Gap. It was going to be a long, slow march, almost three hundred miles on foot by mostly everyone.
They wouldn’t be able to carry enough food, water and fuel to get them the entire way. Like Sherman through Georgia they would take what they needed as they moved south. Unlike Sherman through Georgia they would be able to use the freeways to move which should hasten their march. They could even camp on the freeways, siphon fuel out of vehicles they found along the way and pump fuel out of gas stations off the freeways. It’s how they had been moving from Camp Edwards prior to winter setting in but at that time they had enough vehicles to move everyone. Their numbers swelled over the winter months by an additional thousand Soldiers. In addition, as they moved they would continue to collect additional Soldiers for their cause, OJT as they marched.
Colonel Magnus wasn’t concerned with anyone attacking them the force he was leading stretched for two miles. He had sent out scouts in various directions and it wasn’t unusual for them to be attacked and even killed. The scouts were a coveted job, it got them away from the main formation and they had vehicles. The only time they walked is when they left their Humvees to check things out, explore stores or homes. They were also able to collect valuable items for themselves, which Colonel Magnus and his staff looked the other way on. If a scout was killed, their loot if he or she were single, was divided up with the other scouts, if he or she were married it all went to the family. Some families did accompany Colonel Magnus’s Army, they were camp followers and it was up to them to keep up. Colonel Magnus although forbid camp followers the order was never enforced and he sent Soldiers to help them now and then.
There were even children some very young, it was a very difficult existence for them. The Army when on the move never slowed for them, the Army never gave them food or water and transportation was up to them. Many walked behind the Army pulling or carrying on their backs everything they owned. They were notified ahead of time when the Army was preparing to stop for the night which allowed them to get set up and get off the freeway to hunt for food, water and fuel before the Soldiers got to it. The camp followers were mostly unarmed and weren’t able to challenge local civilians for anything, this wasn’t true of the Soldiers. When they moved into an area and after setting up camp, they went on the hunt for provisions. When they couldn’t find any readily available, they took them from the civilian camps or neighborhoods they found. Occasionally, some of the civilian camps or neighborhoods were well
armed, it didn’t matter because the Soldiers had the ability to bring in more firepower and level and area or overwhelm them by sheer numbers.
As Colonel Magnus Army moved south they became more and more brutal to the local populations. Word was spreading ahead of the Colonels Army and there were more attacks on the scouts. As well as the civilians taking action and moving out burning homes and buildings as the Colonels Army moved into an area. This was also sending quite a few refugees south and west to escape the Colonel. None of this was lost on the Colonel and his staff however they felt that the civilians that were destroying property and not supporting his Army were traitors. If any of the Soldiers found a civilian or civilians destroying property so they couldn’t use it, they were killed, no capture, no trial, only killed, it was treason after all, as far as the Colonel was concerned.
Chapter Forty-Four
The B-29 Super Fortress landed at Davidson Army Airfield at Fort Belvoir, Virginia located about fifteen miles from Washington D.C.; waiting for the aircraft was President Washington. On board the flight was Admiral Meyer the senior officer on the West Coast, General Watkins his executive officer and senior Army Officer on the West Coast, General Charkin the senior Marine Officer on the West Coast, General Shelton the senior Air Force officer on the West Coast and Colonel John Clayton who was considered the architect of the West Coast recovery effort.
With President Washington was Jake Watkins his Chief of Staff and was also the first cousin to General Watkins, and General Wallace the Joint Chief of Staff for all of the services. The Army band from Fort Meyer was playing, there were other military figures present as well as Congress men and woman and Senators. This was a big deal in Washington D.C. it was the first large aircraft to fly into the area in over a year, well any aircraft to be honest. The men exited the aircraft with more pomp-and-ceremony then most of them had ever seen in their lives it made them a little uncomfortable. As they reached the end of the stairs President Washington was there to meet them and shake their hands, “Its damn good to see you men.” said the President. “And woman.”
The B-29 flying into Fort Belvoir wasn’t lost on the civilians in the area they saw the aircraft circling the airfield and approach on landing, it was an amazing site. Many of the young children in the area wanted to know what it was, they had never seen an airplane before at least not that they remembered.
After the men shook hands with the President they continued to walk down a red carpet shaking more hands with people they didn’t know. They were escorted into several Humvees that were heavily armed and left for the Pentagon. It was a quiet twelve mile ride for everyone; it was the day that the Union had been reunited if only in name. They entered the underground parking lot, which had been secured by the 3rd Infantry Regiment, they weren’t expecting any attack, but everyone saw the B-29 coming into Fort Belvoir it was easy to figure out it was quite the event. Anyone or group with bad intentions would be able to figure out it would be a hell of a target to take out.
They exited the vehicles and headed towards the Joint Chief of Staff’s conference room, once here Colonel Clayton began to set up to give his presentation, the same one he had given a dozen times for far. The conference room was standing room only, President Washington had ordered that anyone, within reason, was welcomed at the presentation, but there would only be seating for the President, Vice President, Speaker of the House and Senate, the Joint Chiefs and what cabinet members there were. If there was any seating left after that it was open to first come first serve or you could stand but there was only so much standing room. It took Colonel Clayton ten minutes to set up his presentation which included a power-point presentation. Colonel Clayton had notified the Pentagon that he would need some power for at least one hour, if they didn’t have it he could bring his own generator and fuel. The Pentagon notified him, they had some power and it shouldn’t be any problem.
The presentation started off with Camp Parks and early issues that they encountered and how they solved them. Colonel Clayton gave much of the success of Camp Parks to his late wife Melissa, who passed away from Cancer earlier in the year. She was responsible for the reinvigoration of the Camp’s military family and civilian outreach programs that were wildly successful. She shared recent pictures of Camp Parks and the South Bay to demonstrate how things had gone from disaster days and weeks after the event to the present day. Everyone in the room except for the officers from the West Coast was truly in awe of what had been accomplished. It also showed a lack of leadership in the Washington D.C. area from the President, Congress and the military leadership.
Colonel Clayton then moved into combat operations in and around the South Bay and San Francisco to eliminate the gangs and militias in the area as well as capturing the oil refineries, something else the local leadership failed to act on. At the end of this part of the presentation General Sheraton took over to talk about Air Force activities to include the refurbishing of the old aircraft at Davis-Monthan and Aeronautical museums. She explained what bases they had, what was the current status of aircraft on each base as well as munitions. Once again, the leadership in Washington was in awe of what they had been able to accomplish in a year, one of those accomplishments being parked over at Davidson Airfield.
After General Shelton finished General Watkins took over to discuss Army activities on the West Coast which included Oregon, Washington State, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico. He followed up with the action against the Islamic States of America in the mid-west highlighting the fact that are many more of these types of groups all over the country and growing every day. This caused quite a stir in the room, “General Watkins.” said President Washington. “How sure are you that more of these groups exist?”
“Sir we’ve sent A-Teams into Montana, Texas, Oklahoma, Idaho and each one of those states are large militias with two thousand or more members. They have been observed setting up their own governments and brutally treating the civilian communities that don’t want to be a part of them. In addition, we still have large gang problems in Nevada mostly Las Vegas and Reno, Portland Oregon to mention a couple.” responded General Watkins.
President Washington nodded, he understood and General Watkins continued discussing what Army posts were available, number of Soldiers, vehicles, Armor – which surprised many in the room especially since they had been moving much of it by rail, and Artillery. The General wrapped his part of the briefing and passed the next portion onto Admiral Meyer and General Charkin. General Charkin was first up and discussed the current status of the Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton. He acknowledged that much of what had been done for the Marines was done up north at Camp Parks while under the supervision of Colonel Clayton and then General Watkins. He reviewed the Marine Corps actions while under attack by the Mexican Army and the Los Angeles Militias. He spoke about number of Marines under his command, vehicles, armor, artillery and munitions. He briefly spoke about how the Marines were also deploying on some of the ships that had come down from San Francisco and were now patrolling the entire West Coast.
General Charkin didn’t spend as much time on his briefing because he knew that Admiral Meyer was going to cover quite a bit of it. Once the General had completed it, handed it off to Admiral Meyer, “I’d like to thank everyone for having us here and we’re very happy to be here as well.” said Admiral Meyer. “I think what has been glossed over here is it’s very unlikely that General Charkin and I wouldn’t be here without the Actions of Colonel Clayton and General Watkins. Although they had some Navy help up north if it wasn’t for their foresight in seeing the USS Hornet, USS Iowa and the other ships that were in mothball we wouldn’t have much of a Navy now.” Admiral Meyer looked around the room, “If you didn’t know I only took command a month ago from General Watkins after the siege of Southern California was over. I’m positive that I haven’t been brought up to speed yet on everything but I will speak to what I know.”
From there Admiral Meyer delved into the overall status of military forces in
Southern California, to include Navy and Marine. He spoke to the rebuilding of Camp Pendleton, North Island NAS as well as 32nd Street and the Amphibious Base. There were several questions directed to the Admiral by the Secretary of the Navy regarding the SEALs in Coronado, the Admirals response was that all SEAL teams were intact. They had taken heavy losses during the war with Mexico and like everyone else they were doing their best to rebuild with limited resources. Admiral Meyer pointed out that if it wasn’t for General Watkins and Colonel Clayton they wouldn’t even have the resources that they have now to rebuild.
It was beginning to become evident to President Washington that most of the West Coast recovery was due to General Watkins and mostly this Special Forces Colonel Clayton. The President turned his attention back to Admiral Meyer who was now speaking about the USS Hornet and its restoration effort and how they are now in the process of restoring the USS Midway in San Diego. He then spoke of the USS Iowa currently the only active Battleship in the entire US Navy and he’d appreciate it if they could find another one, they knew how to restore them. He spoke about how important the USS Pampanito was and also it was the only submarine they currently had, again they were looking for more. Admiral Meyer stated that unfortunately at this time the areas on the East Coast that had such ships were areas not yet secure, not to mention that they also needed to secure oil refineries and oil tankers, at least what remained of them after the past winter.
There was a collective sigh heard in the room by the D.C. leadership, these were issues that they hadn’t even considered yet, one of those reasons was simply because they didn’t have the military forces to do the job. However, the eight hundred pound gorilla in the room was another fact, Colonel Clayton had started with even fewer service members under his command and built and Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps, it was very evident now that there was a serious lack of leadership all around in Washington D.C.; the President didn’t think it was all up to the military to come up with all of the solutions to solve their problems.