From The Ashes: America Reborn

by William W. Johnstone

  —RESPECT IS EARNED BY ACTIONS AND BY DEEDS, NOT BY BIRTHRIGHT.

  —THERE ARE ONLY TWO TYPES OF PEOPLE ON EARTH, DECENT AND INDECENT. THOSE WHO ARE DECENT WILL FLOURISH, THOSE WHO ARE NOT WILL PERISH.

  —NO LAWS LAID DOWN BY A BODY OF GOVERNMENT CAN MAKE ONE PERSON LIKE ANOTHER.

  • A FREE AND JUST SOCIETY MUST BE PROTECTED AT ALL COSTS EVEN IF IT MEANS SHEDDING THE BLOOD OF ITS CITIZENS. THE WILLINGNESS OF CITIZENS TO LAY DOWN THEIR LIVES FOR THE BELIEF IN FREEDOM IS A CORNERSTONE OF TRUE DEMOCRACY; WITHOUT THAT WILLINGNESS THE STRUCTURE OF SOCIETY WILL SURELY CRUMBLE AND FALL INTO THE ASHES OF HISTORY.

  THEREFORE:

  —ALONG WITH THE INALIENABLE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS, AND THE INALIENABLE RIGHT TO PERSONAL PROTECTION, A STRONG, SKILLED, AND WELL-EQUIPPED MILITARY IS ESSENTIAL TO MAINTAINING A FREE SOCIETY.

  —A STRONG MILITARY ELIMINATES THE NEED FOR “ALLIES,” ALLOWING THE SOCIETY TO FOCUS ON THE NEEDS OF ITS CITIZENS.

  —THE BUSINESS OF CITIZENS IS NOT THE BUSINESS OF THE WORLD UNLESS THE RIGHTS OF CITIZENS ARE INFRINGED UPON BY OUTSIDE FORCES.

  —THE DUTY OF THOSE WHO LIVE IN A FREE SOCIETY IS CLEAR, PERSONAL FREEDOM IS NOT NEGOTIABLE.

  IN CONCLUSION:

  WE WHO SUPPORT THE TRI-STATE PHILOSOPHY AND LIVE BY ITS CODE AND ITS LAWS PLEDGE TO DEFEND IT BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY. WE PLEDGE TO WORK FAIRLY AND JUSTLY TO BUILD AND MAINTAIN A SOCIETY IN WHICH ALL CITIZENS ARE TRULY FREE AND ARE ABLE TO PURSUE PRODUCTIVE LIVES WITHOUT FEAR AND WITHOUT INTERVENTION.

  APPENDIX

  WEAPONS, ARMAMENT, LAND

  VEHICLES, AND MILITARY

  AIRCRAFT APPEARING IN THE

  ASHES SERIES

  During his long journey around a shattered world after the nuclear holocaust, Ben Raines made it a point to collect and use a wide variety of weaponry and equipment at every opportunity. Following are a sampling of the weapons favored by Ben and his Rebels.

  WEAPONS

  • Thompson Submachine Gun

  (“Chicago Piano” taken from sheriff’s office in Morrison, Louisiana, about ten miles from his Louisiana Delta home. The Thompson would become Ben’s right arm and his signature weapon.)

  • .45 semiautomatic pistol army-issue

  • .22 automatic rifles and handguns

  • .22 Caliber rifles and autoloading pistols

  • .22 Magnum revolver (9-shot)

  • .38 caliber Smith & Wesson Police Special

  • .410 shotgun

  • .44 Magnum pistol

  • .50 Caliber machine gun

  • .50 caliber and 7.62 machine guns

  • .50 caliber sniper rifles

  • .60 caliber machine gun

  • .7 mm bolt-action rifle and scope

  • .9 mm Browning automatic pistol

  • .9 mm Ingram submachine gun

  • 5.56 Mini machine guns

  • 7 mm Magnum

  • 7.62 Caliber machine gun

  • 9 mm submachine gun

  • 12-gauge shotgun

  • Ak47 automatic rifle

  • BAR assault weapons

  • CAR 15 machine gun

  • Colt Woodsman automatic

  • Hughes M242 Bushmaster 25 mm chain gun

  • M-10 machine pistol

  • M-11s

  • M-14 assault rifle (Thunder Lizard)

  • M-15s

  • M16 automatic rifle

  • M-60 machine gun

  • M203 grenade launcher

  • Mini-14s

  • Remington 870 sawed-off shotgun

  • Remington model 1100 S.W.A.T. shotgun

  • Savage .270 shotgun

  • Twenty-round, drum-fed machine shotguns

  • Uzi machine guns

  • Weatherby 30.06 rifle

  • Winchester 30.06 repeating rifle

  • XM-21 rifles

  ARMAMENT

  • Grenades (white phosphorous, frag, and smoke)

  • .40 mm high-explosive cartridges

  • Claymore C-4 antipersonnel/tank mines

  • C-4 detonators

  • Antipersonnel mines, high explosives, incendiary devices, and beehive rounds

  • Shillelagh missiles

  • 81 mm mortars

  • LAW (Single-use antitank weapon with 66 mm rocket (replacement for the bazooka.)

  • gas grenades

  • 66 mm rocket launcher

  • 81 mm mortars; 81 mm mortar rounds

  • Bouncing Bettys

  • Foo-gas bombs

  • napalm

  • tear gas

  • poison gas

  • HEP (high-explosive plastic) and WP (aka Willie Peter) rounds

  • 12.7 mm antiaircraft guns

  • 90 mm cannon

  • 105 mm cannon

  • antitank HEAT missiles

  • TOW/Dragon missiles and launchers

  • 40 mm Bofors cannon

  LAND VEHICLES

  • M60A1 tanks

  • M48A3 main battle tank

  • M60A2 tanks with 152 mm machine guns

  • M109A1 155 mm self-propelled howitzers

  • M-42 Dusters armed with 40 mm cannons and .50 caliber machine guns

  • Cummins VTA-903s

  • Jeeps

  • 3/4-ton trucks (unarmed)

  • M113s with 20 mm Gatling guns

  • APCS (armored personnel carriers)

  • Cargo carriers

  • 81 mm mortar carriers

  • 50-ton main battle tanks armed with 105 mm, .50 caliber machine

  • 52-ton main battle tanks

  • 22-ton small battle tanks

  • 55-ton Abrams tanks equipped with 105 mm gun

  • 81 mm mortars

  • 105 mm Howitzers

  • 90 mm cannon

  • 155 SPs armed with artillery shells (napalm, WP)

  • Patton, Sheridan, and Walker Bulldog tanks

  • LAV-25 Piranhas with 7.62 machine guns and M257 smoke-grenade launchers

  • Hummers (high-mobility, multipurpose, wheeled vehicles) with 5 caliber machine guns

  • Transport trucks armed with 40 mm machine guns (aka Big Thumpers)

  • IFVs armed with 25 mm cannon

  SHELLS AND OTHER MUNITIONS MILITARY AIRCRAFT

  • PUFF (twin-engine assault planes) AC47s each with 20 mm Vulcan cannons, 6 barrel Gatling guns, 4 pairs of 7.62s

  • Apache (assault helicopters) with twin-mounted 40 mm cannon and M60 machine guns

  • Hind M24 D&E gunships (Russian attack helicopters)

  • Hueys (troop and battle choppers)

  • B-17 bombers

  • B-25 bombers

  • B-52 bombers

  • P-40s (Flying Tigers) (fighter planes)

  • P-51s with 6 machine guns (fighter planes)

  BOOBY TRAPS, GUERRILLA OFFENSIVE TACTICS, AND PRIMITIVE WEAPONS

  • swing traps

  • punji pits

  • bows and arrows

  • wooden clubs, billy clubs

  • long-bladed bowie knives

  • booby traps

  • general purpose and handmade knives

  • axes

  • Molotov cocktails

  • dynamite

  All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 1998 by William W. Johnstone

  Cover design by Open Road Integrated Media

  ISBN 978-1-4976-3015-4

  This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, I
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