299 Days: The 17th Irregulars

by Glen Tate

  Finally, the guests arrived. Ted and Sap had on full kit. They each had an M16A4 with an M203 grenade launcher. They had plenty of grenades on their kit. Sap had a very sophisticated radio with a computer keyboard on it. They were wearing uniforms that said “Free Wash. State Guard” on the name strip that had formerly said “U.S. Army.” They looked very professional. Grant was sure this would impress Rich and Dan. Ted and Sap wanted them to know that they were real military operatives and they had ample supplies of the good military-grade hardware. They weren’t bubba guards. The grenade launchers successfully made that impression.

  More important than the military trinkets, Ted and Sap were politically well prepared. Ted walked right up to Rich and Dan and shook their hands. Sap did, too.

  When Ted shook Dan’s hand, he said, “Master Sergeant Morgan. Nice to meet you. I understand your Air Force Security Forces background has been pretty helpful out here. I heard that the cop who came out here was terrified of your dogs at the gate. Good.” Dan did not expect Ted to know his background. He was pleasantly surprised that they had done their homework.

  “You must be Rich,” Ted said, as he turned to Rich and shook his hand. “Very nice job out here organizing things. I have heard great things about you and appreciate you taking the time to meet with us.”

  Yes, Ted was sucking up. But, just as he’d been trained, he was showing respect to the leaders of the local fighters and he was showing them that Special Forces needed them.

  Ted introduced Sap. When he shook Rich’s hand, Sap said, “Former Sheriff’s Deputy and current Oath Keeper, if our intelligence is correct.” Rich nodded. He was a bit impressed.

  Sap had double and triple checked that their intelligence on Rich was correct. He wanted Rich to know that they had intelligence on things like this and that their intel was correct. By mentioning Oath Keepers, he was subtly reminding Rich that even a stranger like Sap knew that Rich was an Oath Keeper, so lots of Loyalists probably did, too. Sap was reminding Rich that Rich had chosen sides long ago and the Loyalists knew which side Rich was on. “No way to sit this one out” was the message Sap was conveying.

  These Special Forces guys were “smarter than the average bear,” as Yogi Bear used to say. Back at Boston Harbor earlier that day, Ted and Sap had spent over an hour learning all they could about Rich and Dan and planning out how to persuade them. Political planning was as much, or more, of their job as military planning.

  Rich and Dan were already impressed with the two of them. Rich and Dan had talked on the way over that maybe the Team had just agreed with an old shooting buddy, like Ted to go do some heroic, and stupid, military stuff. Dan had even suggested to Rich that maybe the Team was “playing Army” and was about to get everyone in Pierce Point killed as a result.

  Rich and Dan were no longer having those thoughts after meeting Ted and Sap. Maybe the Patriots actually had functioning Special Forces units and Pierce Point would be one of them. It didn’t seem so crazy, anymore.

  Rich and Dan kept telling themselves that, while Ted and Sap were impressive, this didn’t mean the Patriots had a chance of winning. Rich and Dan wanted to know more about exactly how the Patriots thought they could win.

  It’s hard to wrap your head around the idea that anyone can beat the U.S. military. Well, it was now the Former USA, the “FUSA” as everyone called it. For their entire lives, Rich and Dan had thought, rightly so, that the U.S. military was invincible, so the big question was whether Rich and Dan were being asked to fight the U.S. military or the FUSA military. There was a big difference; a life-and-death difference.

  Ted pulled a document out of his kit. “Lt. Col. Hammond, commander of the Free Washington Special Operations Command, sends this,” he said, handing the letter to Rich.

  Rich and Dan read it. It was on the letterhead of the “Free Washington State Guard” and looked very official. In the letter, Lt. Col. Hammond said that he was very hopeful that Pierce Point would help in the fight to finish off the corrupt and failed government. The letter recited some of Rich’s and Dan’s background, especially their Oath Keeper background. Both Rich and Dan realized that if a letter like this got in the hands of the Loyalists, they would be executed. Exactly. That was one of the reasons Lt. Col. Hammond put it in the letter. “You’ve already picked sides gentlemen” was once again the message.

  In the letter, Lt. Col. Hammond promised Pierce Point training by Special Forces personnel like Ted and Sap, weapons, food for the fighters, communications equipment, medical supplies, and intelligence.

  The letter ended: “We promise you a future. The status quo is not sustainable. You know it. We need a long-term solution. That means the people who did this to us need to go. Pierce Point has been blessed with certain amazing attributes. It is time to use them for a worthy cause: getting America back. Your children and grandchildren, and people for a hundred years, will look back at what choice you made.”

  Rich and Dan were impressed. They were getting the royal treatment, but two guys with cool gear and a nice letter on official-looking letterhead was not something that you bet your life on. Rich and Dan needed answers to some hard questions.

  “Thank you,” Rich said to Ted after he was done reading the letter. “Thank Lt. Col. Hammond for the time he put into this. But we have a few questions.”

  “Certainly,” Ted said. He knew what the questions would be.

  Chapter 181

  “It’s ‘Go’ Time, Gentlemen”

  (July 8)

  The first question was the biggest one.

  “How do we protect Pierce Point from being attacked by air, artillery, mortars, etc.?” Dan asked.

  Sap smiled because he had a good answer. “The Loyalists pretty much don’t have any,” he said.

  “What do you mean?” Dan asked, a little indignant. “The U.S. military has plenty of that.”

  “True,” Ted said. “But the FUSA military doesn’t.” Ted then described, at length, how most military units had either defected to the Patriots or had been ordered to sit out the fight by their Patriot-leaning commanders. After the explanation, Ted handed Dan a thumb drive.

  “After we leave, put this in your computer,” Ted said. “It’s a series of videos showing commanders of various units who have come over to our side. They describe how their units are either fighting for us or won’t be fighting for the Loyalists. There are dozens of videos of troops describing how everyone in their units went AWOL. You’ll love the submarine guy who said that only three of his shipmates were left. Hard to spark off sea-launched cruise missiles or nukes with only three guys.”

  Sap said, “There are too many videos for us to be making this up. They have their equipment in the background. The sub guy? How could we have ‘borrowed’ his sub for that video if this wasn’t legit? You’ll see when you watch it.”

  Ted could see that Dan was not entirely persuaded. “Dan,” Ted asked, “what does it take to launch a mortar attack on a place like Pierce Point?”

  “Mortars,” Dan said, “A crew, logistics to get the mortars within striking range, and safe passage to get close enough to strike,” Dan said.

  “Right,” Ted said. “The Loyalists have very few mortars. With all the AWOLs, they have very few crews. Virtually no units left entirely intact. They might cobble together new units from the stragglers left behind, like the three submarine guys. It’s hard to round up a handful here, a handful there, and make up a functioning military unit when it comes to using gear like mortars. It takes training to use them. You can’t assemble a pick-up team of random guys and instantly turn them into a mortar crew.”

  “Logistics,” Sap added, “are the weakest link in the FUSA’s chain. How do they get the mortars here? They have to have fuel and trucks. Let’s say they do. It takes them forever to get from Ft. Lewis to here. You would have plenty of warning that a column of military vehicles was coming. We have people everywhere who tell us everything.”

  “Safe passage,” Ted said, “is a hug
e problem for a FUSA mortar crew. This cobbled-together mortar crew would get shot coming down the road, and if it came close to Pierce Point,” Ted said with a wink to Dan, “I’m guessing you might have a well-trained sniper before they got to the gate.” Dan had to smile at that. Chip must have told Ted about Sniper Mike. These guys did their homework, and that was reassuring.

  Sap continued where Ted left off. “The gangs would want to have those mortars. So, assuming all the other stuff—trained crew, logistics—could happen, the mortar crew needs to have a heavy escort, which means using a bunch more units, which are hard to come by now. Oh, and it means using more fuel for the escorts, which is also scarce now.”

  Bobby raised his hand. “What about tanks?”

  “Same thing as mortars,” Ted said, “but worse, for the Loyalists. All the supply and logistical problems from a few hundred pounds of mortar are multiplied several fold for a few tons of tank. They burn ungodly amounts of fuel, and they’re too heavy to just drive down most civilian roads. The main road from Frederickson might hold up – maybe. But, the road into Pierce Point? No way. And that bridge at the gate I’ve heard about? There is no way that holds a tank.”

  “But, a tank doesn’t need a road,” Bobby said. “It could just go on roadless, rough terrain.”

  “True,” Ted said, “but, the terrain around here means that the only way to get anywhere is often right where the road is, like the road from Frederickson to here. It hugs the shore, and therefore is the only way in and out, which means that road needs to be used. This then means the Loyalists would need to repair the road the tank chewed up. They need that road for other things like moving trucks of troops or semis of food.”

  “Bridges,” Sap said. “Most of the civilian bridges from Olympia to here cannot hold a tank. There is no way to drive one, even if you are OK with destroying the road in the process. No way.”

  Bobby had seen tanks used in Iraq on TV and assumed they must have been good at urban fighting or they wouldn’t have been used there. Besides, he wanted to see if he knew more about the military than two Green Berets. The result was predictable.

  “Well, if tanks suck so bad at urban warfare,” Bobby said, “why are they used? Like in Iraq.”

  “Because of combat engineers,” Ted said. “In a fight like Iraq, the Army had combat engineers to either make a bridge capable of handling tanks or they could repair civilian bridges damaged by tanks. The Loyalists have no combat engineers. Sure, maybe a couple of units, but they can’t go around repairing all the bridges and roads necessary to move tanks now.”

  “Besides,” Sap continued. “There are almost no tanks at Ft. Lewis and the Washington National Guard’s tanks are all in Yakima at the firing range there, courtesy of a Patriot officer who is ‘sitting it out.’ Even if the Loyalists had tanks all fueled up in Olympia and the bridges weren’t a problem, there is still the enormous problem of the crews. Most of the regular Army is AWOL. The National Guard? Forget it. They can’t put together any tank crews and don’t have any tanks handy. No combat engineers. No fuel. No go.”

  “OK,” Rich said, “but you have to admit that if the Washington National Guard or a regular Army unit wants to pound Pierce Point, they could do it. Maybe not with tanks, but with lots of other stuff that kills us dead. I mean, you admit that, right?”

  “Yes,” Sap said. “But that assumes there is only one Pierce Point for them to concentrate on.”

  “What do you mean?” Grant said, wondering what the point was. This idea of more than one Pierce Point was news to him.

  “The Limas,” Sap said, “could rally and mount up to come here if this was the only place they had to worry about. But there are lots of Pierce Points they have to worry about. Lots,” Sap said with a big smile.

  “Like how many?” Dan asked.

  “Sorry, Dan, can’t say,” Ted replied.

  “OK,” Dan said, “Ballpark it.”

  Ted thought. He seemed to be counting up things in his head. He paused. “Well, let me put it this way. There were 120 guys in our old unit, right Sap?”

  Sap nodded.

  “Almost 100 of them are with us now, so if it takes two of us to work with a group of local fighters…do the math. Let me put it this way: all my former colleagues are busy right now.”

  Fifty Pierce Points? Wow. That made quite a difference. The Limas couldn’t destroy fifty of them. Maybe one here and one there, but not all fifty.

  “Plus, we have significant regular forces,” Ted said. “We have whole aviation units that came over. We have more helicopters than they do. Now, I admit, fuel and parts are a problem for our birds—but it’s a problem for theirs, too.”

  “Have you heard any helicopters flying since the Collapse?” Sap asked. “Nope. With all these ‘relief efforts’ of the National Guard and FEMA, you’d expect lots of helos, right? But you haven’t heard any. A lack of fuel and parts will do that.”

  “The FUSA forces were so amazingly dependent on technology,” Ted said. “If just ten or fifteen percent of the technicians are gone, it is virtually impossible for all the guidance systems, communications, and just-in-time supply systems to work. Way more than ten or fifteen percent of them are AWOL. The AWOL rate in some units is over ninety percent.”

  Rich asked, “So, neither side has all the whiz-bang gadgetry of laser guided bombs and things like that?”

  “It’s worse than that,” Sap said. “Not just laser guided bombs. Even the lower tech things have been hobbled for both sides. Take artillery, for example. That’s a threat you mentioned, Dan. All the supply problems we’ve mentioned apply to artillery. Artillery shells are being stolen and used for IEDs. They’re worth a fortune to Patriots, gangs, paras, you name it. But even if an artillery unit has shells, they need intel to know where to shoot them and they need communications. Just about all the intel people are gone. In fact, most of them came over to us and we have incredible knowledge about the Limas and civilian Loyalists, but I’ll stick with the artillery example for now.”

  Sap went on, “The comms systems aren’t maintained, so it’s very hard to tell an artillery crew where to go. You can’t really text artillery coordinates. Speaking of the coordinates, the computers the artillery pieces use need to be maintained and they aren’t right now. Not just anyone knows how to use the system even if it’s working. It’s a mess.”

  “Exactly,” Ted said. “So, while we don’t have many operational artillery or aviation units—the threats you mentioned Dan—neither do the Limas,” Ted said. “And that’s worse for them. They’re the ones who don’t have the support of the population. They’re the ones who are supposedly in control. They need to pound rebels to show everyone who is boss. When they can’t do that, people notice and realize the old government really isn’t in control of anything, except the gangs. We don’t need to pound the Limas. We just need to survive and wait for them to collapse further, and then we waltz in and pick up the pieces. We feed the civilians and restore government services,” Ted said looking right at Grant.

  It was silent for a while.

  “This is a lot to take in,” Dan finally said. “Don’t be offended, but when people come to me and say ‘Let’s take on the U.S. military,’ I am a little skeptical.”

  “The FUSA military,” Ted politely corrected him. “Take on the FUSA military—that’s what we’re proposing.” He paused. “There is no more United States of America.”

  It was silent in the room again. Everyone there had experienced that thought in one way or another. But to have a soldier—a Green Beret—say “there is no more United States of America” was earth shattering. The statement kept echoing in their heads.

  Ted and Sap went on to describe how the Southern states, including the Mountain West, had either formally seceded or just quit cooperating with the federal government. Denver was a Loyalist holdout. Most of the Loyalists from the surrounding states flocked there. In the Northeast, Midwest, south Florida, and West Coast, the Feds controlled the ci
ties and suburbs. The rural areas were on their own. Gangs and paras were running wild. Not Mad Max end-of-the-world wild, just doing what they wanted. State Guards were springing up everywhere, replacing state National Guards. It was a collapse. A slow, quietly crashing, partial collapse. “Sap mentioned that we have great intel,” Ted said. He looked at Sap and said, “Go ahead and tell these guys about Cracker Corral.”

  Sap described how Patriot intelligence learned of the Loyalist plan to cut rural areas off from utilities and how the Utility Treaty solved that problem. That example showed Rich and Dan not only that the Patriots had good intelligence, but also how weak the Loyalists were and how military units just sitting out the fight had an enormous impact. It wasn’t a dramatic civil war with two opposing armies. It was chaos and weakness.

  “And the side that is better organized and motivated will win,” Ted said. “And that’s us. Look at this area,” he said motioning over in the direction of Frederickson. “There’s us and then you’ve got Winters’ corrupt little gangs and those pathetic Blue Ribbon Boys. Are you kidding me? But it shows that this isn’t a fight of laser guided bombs versus laser guided bombs. It’s these,” Ted said pointing to his rifle. “Low-tech, baby.”

  Then Ted pointed to everyone in the room, “And, more importantly, it’s people. Who is more motivated? You guys who want your country back and your families to be safe, or Winters who wants a cut of the gas sales? Which side is going to crumble? Which side is going to see this through to the end?”

  “I know which side will win,” Sap said. “It won’t even be close. Why do you think I’m here? I could have gone AWOL and gone back to Wisconsin. I knew all this was happening months before it did. But I know the Patriots will win and I’m going to be a part of it.”

  Sap pointed at Rich and Dan and said, “You guys are Oath Keepers. Time to keep that oath. It’s ‘go’ time, gentlemen.”