The Rangers Are Coming

by Phil Walker

  Arcadia was totally confused, “Maybe you’d better tell me exactly what kind of an outcome you want.”

  “Imagine how you could change things by applying 2025 technology to 1770.”

  “To what end?” said Arcadia. She was past the shock of having a glowing light speaking to them and was now concentrating on the concepts with her full mind.

  “Here’s the plan in a nutshell,” said the voice. “I drop you off in 1770 with a few hundred good men with very special training, and modern equipment. George Washington defeats the British in one year, not eight, then proceeds to throw the British out of Canada, the Spanish out of Mexico and the Russians out of Alaska and you have a country to build that runs from the Arctic Circle to the Isthmus of Panama.

  “You help the founding fathers draft a constitution that is practically the same as you have today with no amendments but the Bill of Rights, Term Limits, and Balanced Budgets included. You make sure there’s a true separation of church and state, but you insure that the country is hard-wired with a reverence and worship of God.”

  “You snip slavery in the bud from the beginning, thereby avoiding the slaughter of the Civil War. You treat the Native Americans with respect and generosity, avoiding acculturating an entire people.”

  “You use the educational system you’ve built in the present day from the beginning, and you, bit by bit, release advanced technology to a country that will be the wonder of the world. That way you will stay about a hundred years ahead of everyone else.”

  “Now here is the key point. You follow George Washington’s advice to avoid foreign entanglements religiously. America is neutral, no matter what. The rest of the world can beat itself to pieces if it wants to, but they can never attack the biggest, smartest, deadliest country in the world, particularly a country who shares its wealth freely with everyone.”

  “By the time we get to modern times, meaning today, the bombs will have never gone off, and America’s evangelism will be gently guiding the world to a true Christian ethic.”

  “Simple,” said Arcadia with doubt and disbelief in her voice.

  “When you’re finished with the job, I’ll remove the dam and let the new future flow on. The old past will simply disappear.”

  “I think I can see a bunch of problems with all this,” said Arcadia.

  “You are special, Arcadia,” said the gentle voice. “You weren’t born until your time had come and you have all the skills you need to do this task. Besides, I’m with you, and won’t let any harm come to you. Come on, Kid, who’s ever gotten to do such an exciting job?”

  Neither Sampson nor Arcadia ever knew how long the conversation lasted. She did know that she and Sampson asked dozens of questions and wouldn’t stop until the outline of the entire plan, all 275 years of it, were clear in her mind. She was particularly interested in how she was going to make the breakthrough with the very Founding Fathers she’d studied. They were among the most remarkable group of men to appear in one place and at the same time in history.

  The voice counseled the principal players, Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, Adams, and Hamilton should be brought into the conspiracy from the beginning, starting with telling them the truth about their future and proving it to them with a very comprehensive video, and some graphic demonstrations of what kinds of equipment and men they would bring to the party. He also said that Arcadia would score a lot more points if she fixed Washington’s teeth and cured Franklin’s gout.

  Eventually the voice and the glowing orb disappeared, leaving Arcadia and Sampson sitting alone in the Emerald Cathedral.

  “What just happened?” asked Sampson with a shaky voice.

  “Instructions, I think,” said Arcadia. “Is there any doubt in your mind we just received a divine mission?”

  “None whatsoever,” said Sampson. “If the Lord is in control of everything, why not time as well? Are you up to the task, Arcadia?”

  “I think so, are you?”

  “It looks to me that all I have to do is provide you with the manpower and materials you need,” said Sampson. “That’s easy enough. All we need is to build you a base of operations. Given the present environment, I doubt anyone will question what we’re doing. I’m also sure that we can’t announce what just happened.”

  “True enough,” said Arcadia. “We’ll build the base, recruit the people we need and move them in. When the time shift occurs, I can brief everyone on the mission. It won’t be like they can do anything about it. Besides, I think everyone will be excited to get started in the process of changing the world”

  Everyone was still in the tech center, working on establishing communications and a command and control structure. “There’s nothing more you can do here tonight, Arcadia,” said Sampson. “Why don’t you go home and get some sleep.”

  Arcadia admitted she was tired, so she said goodnight to all and headed back to the bungalow. The rest of the family was still awake, watching the news. Arcadia decided that this was no time to relate any of the momentous events that had occurred in the Emerald Cathedral, so she just hugged her mom and dad, and her brothers and said she was very tired and was going to bed. She was surprised to that she fell asleep so quickly, and slept soundly the rest of the night.

  4

  The sun was shining through her window when Arcadia awoke the next morning. She glanced at her clock and saw that it was past eight. Quickly she got up and jumped into the shower. She brushed her teeth, combed her hair, sprinkled on a very modest bit of make-up, and dressed in jeans and a light Park sweatshirt. When she was ready, her mother made her a quick breakfast and she left, headed for the tech center.

  As she came in, she found it was still a beehive of activity. Walt Sampson was on the phone, he looked haggard and had probably worked all night, but waved at her as she came in. He hung up the phone and motioned for Arcadia to join him privately outside.

  When they were alone, Sampson said, “It’s really remarkable. It looks like we’ve been given a chance for a Do-Over and the tool to pull it off is you. What’s your plan?” he asked.

  “I got really caught up in all the modern technology introductions and missed the more important first consideration,” said Arcadia. “As our vision reminded us, we’ll have plenty of time to phase in an educational system that allows for the development of advanced knowledge, know-how, equipment, tools, and expertise. However, we have to win the war and establish a government of the United States, before we do anything else. In order to do that, we can’t wait for American Colonists to develop the means. Therefore, we need to build a military base near Washington’s home at Mt. Vernon. We’ll bring in the equipment, vehicles, weapons, supplies, and trainers to outfit a military force big enough to defeat the British Army in short order. I’ll have to read up on it some, but my first estimate is that we can do this with a reinforced brigade, about 4,000 men. Our core of personnel will be a company of the best soldiers we have. Add to that a support staff of doctors, political scientists, teachers, top research men, medical people, and some naval vessels, from this time, it will add up to three or four hundred people to the become the core of the American Colonial Army.”

  “Where are you going to get the men,” asked Sampson?

  “From throughout all 13 colonies,” said Arcadia. “We want the force to feel they are an American Army, without all the problems of being from any of the particular colonies. Unity and cooperation will be important parts of our training.”

  “So how is this going to work?”

  “We’ll build our facility outside of Washington, away from the radiation danger. When everything is ready, the entire camp will be transported to 1770. That’s when I make contact with George Washington at Mt. Vernon, gain his support, and get him to bring in the other Colonial leaders we’ll need…Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, Adams, and Hamilton, assuming I can get support from the main leaders by just telling them the entire plan. My idea is to do this at our new facility, which I’m calling Fort Indep
endence.”

  “You do know that Hamilton was killed in a duel with Aaron Burr in 1801,” said Sampson.

  “Not in our new world,” said Arcadia, “he’s far too important of a leader to not have. He’ll be one of the early Presidents.”

  “You know, honey,” said Sampson. “Women weren’t exactly at the top of the political heap in the 18th and 19th century. How do you intend to convince all these great men to follow your lead?”

  “It won’t be easy,” said Arcadia, “However, I’m pretty good. Plus, I’ll hold all the cards in finance, firepower, and technology.”

  “Where do we go from here?” asked Sampson.

  “I know we’ve taken a huge hit as a country, what’s left?” asked Arcadia.

  “A surprising amount,” said the President. “The vast majority of our military is intact along with a great deal of our infrastructure. We’re organizing all the remaining officials of government who were not killed to get our Federal structure running again. We’ve cordoned off the contaminated areas of the country and have all our medical people treating the injured and those who have suffered radiation poisoning. We put our total losses at about 150 million people. However, we haven’t detected any other active threats, either inside the country or among other nations. Apparently, they all believe we’ll collapse on our own without any help from them. My threat of retaliation seems to be taken seriously. I think we’ve bought ourselves some time to rebuild and to implement the mission you’ve been given. I must say that you’ve taken on quite a job. Nevertheless, tell me what you need first.”

  “Just off the top of my head, I need to know the closest we can built a military headquarters safely to Mt. Vernon, Virginia. We need a cordoned off area with tall fences that is five miles square. The location needs to have a fresh water supply that is not contaminated and with a stream or waterfall where we can install generators to produce a lot of electricity. These things we need right away.

  “Next we need to recruit some specialists. We need people who can actually build a power plant from the ground up. We need people who can design and build a plant to produce steel. We need communications and computer experts who can actually design and tell us what we need to build a communication system. Micro-communications is the best. These people don’t need to do the actual work, but be able to tell us how to build them and to be able to teach others to do the work. This work is a little longer range. I hope to have this group in place in about six months.”

  “The opening bell for the ‘Do-Over’ is 1770. That means we have to have a completely trained, operational, and fully equipped reinforced brigade of soldiers ready to do battle in five years. All I want you to do is supply the equipment, supplies, uniforms and a special list of weapons I’ll give you. Then we need drill instructors to train our troops. All of the rank and file soldiers will be recruited colonists. The instructors will then become the cadre of officers to lead the men.”

  Next, we need money, lots of money. I assume the mint in San Francisco is still in operation. Have your people design new silver quarters that have an eagle on one side and the word ‘Liberty’. On the other side, put the words ‘In God We Trust’ and a stamp of the original Betsy Ross flag. We’re going to use this money to pay our troops. They will get a quarter a day, and eight dollars a month. One of the biggest problems with revolutionary soldiers was that they never got paid regularly. This will solve that problem.”

  “Another big gripe the soldiers had was the stuff they needed to live day by day. We’ll provide the food, the uniforms, the weapons, and quarters both at the Fort and in the field. Get your military men working on that”.

  “We need to have backing for the money we issue, so we need a gold reserve. Eventually Alexander Hamilton will establish a Federal Banking system. However, until he does, I want to store 500 million dollars in gold at our headquarters at Fort Independence. Security for that is up to you.”

  “The United States will be much larger than it is today. We’ll be taking control of the entire North American continent, and Central America all the way to the Isthmus of Panama. This means several things. First, we have to take out the British Army in a hurry. Our new weapons and battle tactics should make short work of that job, bloody as it will be. About all we have to conquer to win, Canada is Quebec. They failed in 1775 to do it, but we won’t.”

  “Central America is a whole different problem. We have to beat the Spanish to do that. Our ground forces can take and hold the land, but we need a little Navy to keep the British, French, and Spanish from sending reinforcements. What we need are about four nuclear powered destroyers, a nuclear submarine, and at least one nuclear powered cargo ship. We’ll deploy along the Atlantic and the Caribbean and blow away every military ship they send. We’ll let all the commercial traffic sail right in and bring us the raw materials we’re going to need initially and in the future. The American colonies have lots of goods to trade and I expect everyone will make a lot of money.”

  “The first ten years will be the hardest. We have to beat the major European powers and make sure they know we can’t be defeated militarily, but are wide open for trade and immigration.”

  “We also need to avoid the eight years of the Articles of Confederation. My plan is to get our Constitution ratified while the Army is wiping out the Red Coats. By 1778, we need to have a national election that installs George Washington as the Father of His Country.”

  The President was feverishly taking notes while Arcadia spoke. When she paused Sampson looked up. She smiled, “That ought to be enough for you today. When you’re finished doing all of this, come back. There’s more, lots more. There’s nothing at stake here. Just saving the lives of 150 million Americans, revising history to make sure it can’t happen again, and creating a better world according to the standards of the Lord for the past, the present, and the future.”

  Within a few days, President Sampson was back to report that all the many projects were set in motion. “I’ve put the San Francisco mint to designing our new silver quarters. They’ll be able to start producing them in about a month. You didn’t say how many you needed, so I ordered 20 million coins struck.”

  “That will probably not be enough,” said Arcadia. “Better plan on about 50 million.”

  “I had the Air Force fly a plane around Washington. The city itself is completely gone. The blast area seems to be about five miles. The plane was equipped with instruments to measure airborne radiation. The prevailing winds near Washington are mostly east and north. I think we can build Fort Independence about five miles from Mt. Vernon. The Army is pretty good at putting up buildings that are permanent, but easy to construct. They estimate the entire complex can be completed in six months. I will have plans for you next week. I told them about the uniforms and they want to know how you want the soldiers equipped. Have you given any thought to that?”

  “I’ve been studying that very subject,” said Arcadia. The average height for Americans in 1750 was 5 foot 8 inches, so order the uniforms around that average. In addition, we need green camouflage uniforms and brown boots. We’ll also need Kevlar body armament, and helmets. The basic weapon will be the AR-16. We need M-60 machine guns for each squad and LAW rocket launchers. Every soldier will have six grenades, a first aid kit, water bottle, 200 rounds of ammunition, and will carry packs for dry socks, clothes, and personal items. I want Seal Teams and Special Forces for my basic trainers, and no less than 20 men who are black belts in martial arts.”

  “What about the heavy stuff,” asked the President?

  “I think we can get by with a single battery of six 105 mm, artillery pieces. They’re easy to move and have an effective range of about 7 miles. We want to make sure that in addition to the normal high explosive rounds, they have the controlled fragmentation anti-personnel rounds. We’ll start with Bradley Fighting Vehicles as our principal armor. They’ll be powerful enough to handle anything they run into and they are smaller and easy to move on narrow roads and acr
oss open territory. Add about two dozen Humvees, along with 20 deuce and a half’s.”

  “We also need overwhelming air support. I would say about 20 Black Hawks, a dozen or so heavy Huey’s, about 20 big Chinooks, each equipped with front mounted mini-guns and rocket launchers, 10 four-man observation helicopters, at least a hundred drones, of all sizes. I also want at least one 787 jetliner in mothballs, a few single engine planes, and one, big C-130. We won’t need those right away, but we need a model or two to reverse engineer when the time comes.

  The President shook his head, “It sounds so strange to hear a 22 year old woman rattling off the personnel and armaments for a military unit. However, I don’t doubt or question anything you say, Arcadia. I know you’ve been working 20 hours a day in planning the full scope of this whole operation.”

  Arcadia shrugged, “It’s true I didn’t know any of these things a week ago. The trick is to keep the technology low enough not to overwhelm the capacity to learn and operate all this equipment by young men who think a single shot musket is state of the art. However, they must do the heavy lifting on their own. They have to feel they’re the reasons they’ve won their freedom, no matter what kind of weapons they have.”

  “Well, you’re doing a great job and we’re proud of you.”

  “It’s like playing three dimensional chess simultaneously on six different boards,” groaned Arcadia.

  “I have a suggestion for you,” said the President. “We’ve got our communications system back up and running for the most part. I’m able to speak to the nation whenever it seems necessary. I’ve confined all my messages to repairing the damage and directing relief efforts for the unaffected parts of country. What I have not done is to tell them anything about the bigger mission. I wonder if you think it would be helpful to hear some of that from you.”

  “Absolutely not,” said Arcadia. “What can you possibly say? We certainly can’t tell them a divine mission is underway and that everything is going to hunky-dory. Frankly, I’ve no idea how this is going to work. It’s possible that everyone’s memories will be readjusted to the new realities.