by Ryan King
Chapter 14 – Race Against Time
David, his platoon, and all their gear were crammed into three pick-up trucks, going north at a crazy pace. He prayed a deer or something didn’t jump into their path because his men would certainly all die. They were hanging on for dear life in those open vehicle beds.
They had gotten Joshua’s message. Billy and his team were nearly dead on their feet by the time they reached Captain Jason Green at the southern portion of the park. Luckily, Harold decided after the electricity had gone out to run a single TA312 wire from north to south allowing them to communicate, at least on a rudimentary level.
Captain Green reasoned he could not cover both the Lake Barkley and the Kentucky Lake approaches, and still have men left to cover the southern border. He recommended that he detach what troops he could to focus on the Lake Barkley approach while troops from the central region cover the Kentucky Lake side against any possible attack on that side.
Nathan decided to take a different approach. He was skeptical of the ability of troops on the shore to impede a large armada of ships passing, due to the width of the lake which was nearly a quarter of a mile in most places. Nathan would be happy if Captain Green could only slow the armada and give them time.
As far as guarding against an approach on the other lake, Nathan decided against it completely. They had too few troops to place them everywhere an enemy might attack. Since he reasonably believed the dam was their target, Nathan directed Captain Luke Carter to detach what troops he could to go reinforce the dam. The remainder of Carter’s troops, were to protect the headquarters and civilians in case the enemy decided to raid into the park south of the dam.
So, David and his platoon volunteered to go north and Captain Carter accepted without another word. David admitted to himself that he was still a little raw over Joshua getting to lead the recon instead of him. It was possible Carter had allowed him to lead this mission to make up for the one he lost.
When they arrived, David directed his men to unload while he went to seek out Captain Jim Meeks. He found the large man in the thick of frantic activity, and reported to him. David was glad to see Jim and thought the feeling was mutual.
“Where do you want us?” asked David.
“I’ve been thinking about that,” said Jim. “We don’t have enough soldiers to cover every approach, and there are several possibilities, due to the way this whole thing is built. Both lakes come together at the dam and the locks at the top of the land between them. I’m going to take a risk and leave the water side approach thinly guarded since it will be hard for them to climb the dam walls. We’ve let some water out in order to make it even more difficult for them to get over. If they want to take the dam, they have to land troops and approach from land. My guys can cover the approach from the west and the top of the park, can you cover the east side approach over the locks?”
“I can, but we could probably do more,” said David.
“I’m not doing you any favors, you’ll have plenty to do,” said Jim. “You’re going to have those WTR boys on you first. I’d rather give you more help, but I can’t until I know they’re not coming up both lakes. Just hold them off for a while, and I’ll try to get you some help.”
David nodded and ran off to gather his men taking them east along the road atop the dam towards the locks. After seeing their position, he had to admit that he really had no idea what he was talking about earlier with Jim Meeks. The area his men were covering was rather large. Their main threat was a landing on the east side to roll up their flank. He decided to put his heavy weapons there and focus his efforts initially on building a strong defense where the locks met the land.
He looked out across the lake and was struck by how beautiful it was. The sun was on the still water and ducks flew in the distance. His father had spent most of his youth and weekends up here fishing with his own father or hanging out with friends once he was older. David thought that image seemed pretty nice and he had a moment of resentment towards his father for the ability to have had such wonderful carefree times.
David’s thoughts were shattered by yelling and scrambling from the dam area. Within a few minutes, one of Jim’s runners came up out of breath, started to give David a salute, stopped halfway, and then went ahead and finished it. He seemed not quite certain what to do. David returned the salute and would have given the boy a hard tongue lashing as he had seen Captain Carter do, but doubted he had time for it.
“Sir, Captain Meeks directed I report to you that we just received word from Captain Green in the south,” said the boy out of breath. “The Tennessee ships passed by their position and they could do nothing to stop them although they got a lot of good shots off. The distance was just too great. Central Region is going to try to slow them some more when they pass under the big bridge at Route 68, but they likely won’t stop them either. Says he wants you to know that time is limited, and whatever you need to do, do it quick..”
“Thank you private,” said David. “Tell Captain Meeks that we will be ready and also request that you be assigned as the runner between us so I might keep him regularly informed of our situation.”
“Yes, sir,” said the private, who saluted and then ran off at a lope.
David sighed and wished his father was there to see him. He might be proud of me, thought David wishfully.
He went to prepare his men as best he could.
