by Unknown
After an hour they were almost at the center of town with the Supreme Commander in lead, the First General didn’t like what he was seeing and began to pull back himself while encouraging his Soldiers to move forward. An hour and a half later the Soldiers meet in the center of town but there were no Marines. Then artillery started to bombard them air and ground bursts they were landing every place. It was a trap! The Supreme Commander ordered everyone to retreat but it was too late they were in the open and the town was being leveled, on the fifth or sixth salvo of the intense bombardment Steven Tuma the Supreme Commander took a direct hit by a shell from a 155mm howitzer there was nothing left of him his body disappeared in a red mist.
The Soldiers of the Special Operations Command were being slaughtered those that found themselves exiting the town found Marines had overrun their positions and set up machine gun emplacements. The First General and his personal guard managed to escape the carnage he considered leaving the Caliphate he didn’t want to be seen as a coward but what would they do to his family if they realized he wasn’t among the dead. He decided he would return to the Sultan and explain that he barely escaped to be able to brief him on what had happened and hope that the Sultan would agree with him. What the First General didn’t know that the entire operation was set up by the Sultan who had the Officers feed bad intelligence to lure Tuma into the town. General Harb had sent in teams to scout the Marines positions, most of the teams were captured and killed by the Marines but the ones who had gotten out reported that the Marines had taken up positions overlooking the town, they had artillery batteries on different hill tops that had lines of sight to all avenues of approach in and out of the town. It was the perfect trap and the best way to get rid of the Supreme Commander no one would ever suspect the Sultan and the General of such a thing.
After a proper mourning period the Sultan would appoint General Harb the new Supreme Commander. For now the Marines would be allowed to continue on their way north without any further confrontation from the Army of Allah they would be dealt with another time another place.
Three weeks after the battle where Steven Tuma was killed General Harb was appointed the Supreme Commander at a beautiful Ceremony at the main mosque in Dearborn. After the Ceremony the General was giving thanks to Allah and looking towards the sky, then he saw it, an airplane, a very large airplane heading north east, he thought it looked like an old World War Two B-29 but it couldn’t be, could it?
Chapter Twenty-One
1st Battalion, 24th Marines a reserve infantry battalion in the United States Marine Corps located throughout Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana consisting of approximately 2,000 Marines and Sailors. After the event they had pulled all of their resources and were able to get most of the Battalion together. They were able to get everyone to Lansing which was home to Charlie Company, there plan was to consolidate and move as a group families and all to Camp Grayling. Scuttlebutt had it that the Army and Air Force were setting up shop there and were going to prepare to take back the states from the ISA. If in fact that were the case they wanted to be part of it.
The move out of Lansing towards Grayling was not an easy one they were being pursued by the ISA the entire way. It was a good thing they couldn’t fight but they had the numbers to easily overwhelm them if they stood and fought. They were also fortunate to have pulled in a US Army Artillery Company that was trying to make their way north. The Marines worked hand-in-hand with the Soldiers and were able to make successful hit and run raids against the ISA while their families continued to move north towards Grayling. There was no way they were going to let the ISA around to the rear, then something strange happened they were set up on three different hills with artillery sited on a town below the town had been vacated what they were hoping to do was catch the ISA at a crossroad and hit them then.
Then a few days prior to the ISA arriving they captured a dozen ISA Soldiers who had actually gotten pretty close to their lines but there was something different about these men and how they carried themselves. They were able to confront and kill most of them but a few did get away then the day after that there were some of these same Soldiers doing something in town it looked like they were setting up some sort of traps but it was difficult to see what they were doing, they were there for several hours and left, they never saw them again.
Thirty-two hours later they were able to see a large force of thousands moving towards the town it was the main body of the Army of Allah or at least part of it. The Army surrounded the town and settled in for the night, as the night wore on they heard gunfire and explosions which was odd who were they fighting against the Marines and Army thought. By morning the Army of Allah could be seen separating into two large groups, they were going to assault the town from both ends but for what purpose there was no one home.
The assault was on and the Army of Allah moved into the town, again there was gunfire and explosions, who were they fighting? Then word came down to all US Forces prepare for a heavy artillery engagement along with mortars. The US Command recognized and opportunity when they saw it this would give them the ideal opportunity to stop the pursuit. As the Army of Allah forces met in the center of town the US Army unleashed all of its artillery from the top of the three hills. The Marines fired away with their 81mm mortars the fire was relentless and the town was taking a beating there was nowhere safe in town. The Soldiers down in the town were confused and in chaos there Officers were being killed and quite a few saw the Supreme Commander blown out of his boots and disappear. Men were running every place with no direction and more often than not they ran directly into more artillery or mortar fire. The squads and platoons that were able to keep their head and leadership intact were able to maneuver out of the town but when they got there they found the US Marines had over run the positions they had left behind, they unleashed a horrendous volume of machine gun fire taking out the men that had escaped the artillery bombardment in town. By the time the Marines were done not one man was left a live, as they pulled out they set the town on fire that hadn’t been already on fire do to the artillery.
As soon as that business was done the Soldiers and Marines packed it up and continued to head north its been a long a hundred-fifty miles and they were almost there, forty more miles, the families were close just ten miles out and from what the Marines and Soldiers behind them understood. They had already made contact with forward elements from Camp Grayling and were safe.
Four hours later the combat elements that were trailing, Marines and Army, rolled into Camp Grayling no worse from wear. Major General Gregory and Colonel Flak and the other senior commanders met them as they entered the gate and welcomed them home.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The runway located at the airfield located near Camp Grayling was barely long enough to handle the B-29 landing. If there were any technical problems it was a very real possibility the plane could have overshot the runway and severely damage the aircraft. Luckily that didn’t happen on board were two A-Teams, General Watkins and several other members of his senior staff.
General Gregory, Colonel Flak and their staffs were there to meet the plane it was a moment in time none of them would ever forget. General Watkins exited the aircraft first followed by Colonel March and the others. Command Sergeant Major Glendon, the posts CSM grabbed that A-Teams and escorted them over to a hanger where they would be put up and placed into isolation, no one on post at this time would know they were here.
There was a great deal of excitement on Camp Grayling right now it was hard to miss the B-29 flying over the post and landing at the airfield. Hundreds of gawkers made their way over to see the vintage bird on the runway. Questions abounded, where did it come from? Who was on board? What did they want? It wasn’t just the service members filled with excitement for the civilians on post and Grayling everyone saw that plane.
During the ride over to General Gregory’s HQ he quickly briefed General Watkins on what happened with 1st Battalion, 24th Marines. There commander, Lie
utenant Colonel Isaiah Waters, would meet them at HQ and personally brief them. General Watkins hadn’t really come to Camp Grayling for this, he hadn’t heard much about the Army of Allah or the ISA. His interest was piqued especially because the ISA felt that they had military capabilities to take on a Battalion of Marines and Company of Soldiers. He needed to know more and that was the real reason behind the A-Teams being here they would be dropped near Dearborn to collect intelligence and then make their own way back to Camp Grayling; it’s what they had been doing now for almost a year now in various locations. It was now obvious that the ISA was a threat to US Forces how big a threat was unknown.
At the HQ building they all exited the vehicles, made their way into the building and the large conference room. The building itself was on a generator only for four hours a day to provide electricity and other essentials, when the generators were off they depended on rechargeable battery power. As the Generals entered the room everyone was called to attention, General Watkins responded “Carry-on”. Colonel Flak stood and made the initial presentation and the overall status of Camp Grayling. General Watkins was impressed with how much they had got done considering what Colonel Rodgers had done which was nothing. General Watkins only question was what were the plans for Colonel Rodgers?
General Gregory responded that they were setting up a court martial board of several senior Officers, a JAG Officer, and yes they had them, a JAG Officer had been appointed to represent the Colonel. Colonel Rodgers had met with his attorney several times. The most severe charge was dereliction of duty, failure to discharge the duties of an Officer, conduct unbecoming.
After that Colonel Flak gave the floor to Colonel Waters to brief everyone, most importantly, General Watkins on the ISA. Colonel Waters introduced his XO Major Alec Ruin who was responsible for the rear guard Marines and Army units that took on the ISA and let the supporting service members and all of the families escape north to here. Colonel Waters handed the floor over to Major Ruin who unfolded a map of the greater Lansing which stretched and showed north to Camp Grayling. He begin with the battle of Lansing and their pull out, he estimated the number of Soldiers from the Army of Allah to be close to seventy thousand men. He went onto state that is where they also hooked up with the US Army artillery company that was hammering away at the ISA and very successfully but they didn’t have the numbers, as in Soldiers to keep them out for any great length of time. By the time the Marines hooked up with them they were all in the process of pulling back. The Marines and Army had suffered a handful of casualties and did leave several armored Humvees behind as they were on the verge of being overrun. They were able to destroy most of their equipment at the Marine Reserve Centers as well as the National Guard Armory’s. Yet they didn’t destroy everything as they didn’t have enough explosives but they did their best to disable what they left behind. The Major admitted that the ISA given time and expertise could salvage some of the vehicles they left behind mostly the two and a half ton trucks.
Major Ruin covered their line of tactical redeployment exiting out of Lansing and moving north. He explained their hit and run tactics against the ISA what he believed their tactical abilities to be. He passed on his observations about the Soldiers fighting ability, which he didn’t have a lot of respect for, he also briefed on the types of weapons and weapons systems they were using. With that he stopped, he went on to say that they relied primarily on light weapons and they had some machine guns, they somehow had two or three artillery pieces they pulled with them but they never fired them. Major Ruin said they looked like they were 155mm howitzers and it was possible that they didn’t have any shells to fire them but were hopeful to overrun the artillery unit to acquire some.
He described their pursuit of them as fat, dumb and stupid that in his professional opinion they were not adept to fighting in the field, he did feel that they did a much better job of taking the fight to them in an urban area but once they were out of the city or town they seemed lost.
He went into great detail about what they had observed in the town which was definitely odd and questionable, he wondered out loud if there was some dissention in their chain-of-command. The entire thing looked like a set up and they knew that the US Forces would kill everyone in the town once they were there. Lastly he spoke about the several teams who had actually gotten close to them on the hills and how they seemed like they were professional Soldiers, they were a different animal entirely. Major Ruin wrapped up the briefing stating that he believed that the ISA was a valid threat and expanding but to what extent he didn’t know. He then passed the meeting back to Colonel Waters who briefly reviewed personnel and equipment they brought with them and that his Marines were ready to go as soon as they received the order.
General Watkins sat there for a moment lost in thought, “Business first, have we established the chain-of-command here?”
General Gregory responded, “Sir we all understand and agree that you are the senior Officer present and are the Commander of US Forces, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“It is General thank you. I’m only in Command until civilian leadership on a national level returns or a more senior Officer is found.” stated General Watkins.
Everyone in the room nodded their agreement, General Watkins went on, “I just wanted to make sure we were all on the same page here, I’m going to be issuing orders that may or may not be popular and I need to know you’re on board.”
“Understood General.” responded General Gregory with the other Officers and NCO’s in the room nodding in agreement.
“Ok let’s get down to business then. We have two A-Teams here that are ready to go and can be inserted by using a smaller aircraft, do you have any that can make it to Dearborn and back?” said General Watkins.
General Gregory looked at Colonel Flak who answered, “Yes Sir we have several Cessna’s that can make the trip. It’s not wide knowledge around the base that we have working aircraft we have been keeping it on the down low for now.”
General Watkins nodded, “Please brief the A-Teams on the aircraft ASAP, have them get a plan together and I want a brief back by the teams in 12 hours. Let’s see what the hell the ISA is up too.”
With that the meeting broke up and everyone headed back to their duty stations Colonel Flak headed off to the hanger where the A-Teams were to give them their orders. General Gregory was going to take General Watkins and Colonel March on the nickel tour of Camp Grayling.
Colonel Flak arrived at the hanger where the A-Teams had entered seclusion and were waiting for the word of whether or not they had a mission. Major Ruin accompanied Colonel Flak so he could brief the Soldiers on what his observations were of the ISA. The teams had twelve hours to come up with a plan and then brief the General; it wasn’t the first time they had to do a brief back for him. Major Ruin spent almost two hours with the teams discussing his observations and insights, they asked a lot of questions and even hit on a few things that he hadn’t recognized himself.
When Major Ruin left he was exhausted they had squeezed every bit of information out of him they could. They also wanted to know about terrain, civilians in the area, if he knew anything about Dearborn and what they might expect there. He was very impressed by the Green Berets and felt that if anyone could get the information they needed it would be these men. However, he did feel for them he thought it was crazy that they would drop in at night, stay a certain numbers of days and then find a way to exfiltrate out of the area on their own and make it back to Camp Grayling, when Major Ruin brought it up, there response was it was no big deal it’s what they did.
At 0900 General Watkins arrived at the hanger for the briefing, he entered and took and took a seat in the team room. Each man from each team was required to brief on his area of responsibility for the operation. The brief back took two hours, essentially the highlights were, that they were they would depart on two different Cessna’s at 2300 they would exit the aircraft at opposite ends of the city actually just outside the c
ity in fields about five miles away. They expected to be on the ground no-later-then 0130 the pilots promised them that they would be able to do the night flight by compass and using various landmarks, at night? Regardless they assured them the mission was doable. Once on the ground the teams would seek cover where they could hide, they would then make as assessment of their ability to move throughout the area without being noticed or better yet undetected by the enemy. They would dress in civilian clothes not shave and do their best to fit in.
Their goals while in Dearborn were to collect intel on the ISA headquarters which was believed to be the main mosque in town. To try to determine what happened to the civilians in town who were not Islamic, how were they feeding themselves as well as water, where was it all coming from? What was the current infrastructure like and how were they maintaining it. Obviously collect number of troops, weapon and weapon systems which includes vehicles.
Secondary objectives were as they pulled back and were heading to back to Camp Grayling to study the countryside, what were the people doing, main population centers, what was the average person using as transportation, did they have electricity and if so power sources.
General Watkins along with General Gregory listened intently to the brief back when it was done General Watkins looked at the men, “Alright let’s get the show on the road!”
The men responded, “Yes Sir.”
The teams left and continued to prepare for the mission, the Cessna’s would be pulled into the hangers where they could be loaded and the teams would board the planes. At 2245 the planes were towed out of the hangers to the runway they wanted to keep the noise the planes were going to make to a minimum.