by Steven Linde
The two civilians nodded, and the taller man spoke again. “How do we know you’re really Navy?”
“Oh I don’t know, the submarine sitting in the bay right there.” Lieutenant Ackerman pointing to it. “Who are you?” the Lieutenant asked.
Somehow the group of civilian’s had actually missed seeing the submarine sitting in the bay, no more than a hundred yards off shore. The two men were thunderstruck, especially seeing the boat’s guns trained on them. “Longshore men, Merchant Marines, and regular everyday people trying to survive,” replied the man.
“I only count twelve of you?” Peterson said.
“We send out daily patrols around the port to see what’s going on. We don’t have the guns to arm everyone so we go without. If we find a threat we do our best to get back and report to the group what we found. We do have the means to defend ourselves if the group is attacked,” the other man said.
“What threats have you encountered?” asked the Lieutenant.
“Gangs mostly, there’s a huge Latino gang that controls most of LA and Orange County. There’re thousands of them. I don’t think your submarine there will be able to stop them.”
“No doubt we won’t but an aircraft carrier, a battleship and several thousand pissed off Marines will,” Lieutenant Ackerman said.
This caught the two men by surprise. “You’re lying!” the tall man said.
“No sir it’s the truth, in fact there is a much larger United States Army force numbering in the hundred thousand up North. There’s also the United States Air Force supporting them now in combat operations back east,” the Lieutenant responded.
Both men didn’t know what to think about it. What they were told they were staring at the two Sailors and the submarines, back and forth. “Is there any way we can meet with your leadership?” Lieutenant Ackerman asked.
“Well I don’t know we would have to take the message back and ask.”
“Sounds fair to me,” said Lieutenant Ackerman. “Why don’t you do that and we can meet them here at 9 am tomorrow.”
“I don’t know if they’ll go for it.”
“Ok, if y’all aren’t here in the morning we will move on.”
The two men nodded and walked back to their group, and they spoke to each other for a few moments, looking back at the Lieutenant and Peterson then out at the submarines. They stood there talking for about ten minutes before leaving. The Sailors watched all of it, wondering what the hell was going on. The two Sailors moved back to the group. “What do you think Lieutenant?” asked CPO Tacker.
“I think we need to head back to the boat, my recommendation to the CO will be that we head out to deeper water and submerge for the night. I don’t think it’s a good idea we hang out this close to shore, they could be up to something.”
“Do you think they would really try to board us?” asked the Chief.
“I think that, when people get desperate they do things they normally wouldn’t,” responded the Lieutenant. “Let’s head back to the boat.”
They pulled back to the dock where the zodiacs were docked. They were careful moving cautiously knowing that the odds were good they were being watched. They loaded up and motored back to the boat where Commander Washington was waiting for them. He immediately spoke to Lieutenant Ackerman; he noted that he had seen via the binoculars, the meeting between the men and himself. The Lieutenant gave him a quick rundown of what was said, and the meeting tomorrow morning. He also told him his concerns, and that he thought it would be prudent to pull out to deeper water. Commander Washington agreed and ordered them to secure the guns they were getting underway. They would stay on the surface, then once out in deeper water they would submerge, but prior to that they would send a message to the Hornet letting them know the new developments.
The Hornet asked if they needed any help. Commander Washington responded not at this time. Of course the Lieutenant and Commander were correct, there were people watching them move out of the bay into deeper water then submerge. Not everyone that was watching was happy to see the United States Navy. Those people didn’t know it yet but there was a whole world of hurt coming their way.
The crew of the USS Pampanito passed the night without incident they were at periscope level, not that it helped as dark as it was outside. When the event happened, those that survived found it quite amazing how dark it really got without all of the light pollution generated by cities and towns. As the sun began to rise there was enough light out that the watch could take a look around to see if anyone had decided to follow them out and search for them. As far as they could tell there was no one around. Commander Washington ordered the weapons teams up and to be ready. He was ordering the ship to the surface and he wanted the crews on the guns immediately.
The boat began making its way back towards the docks, but a different position then it was in yesterday. Commander Washington didn’t want to anchor in the same place, he was worried about an ambush. He also told the Lieutenant to find an alternate landing site for his team, as it was entirely possible that if he went back to the same location they could be waiting for him. Their weapons and the zodiac could be prized trophies, and the Commander didn’t want to take that chance. Lieutenant Ackerman agreed with his CO, not that he had a real choice anyway. Orders were orders.
The boat anchored several hundred yards off their previous position from yesterday. The Lieutenant and his team found an alternate landing site, a different set of docks about five hundred yards south of where they came ashore yesterday. There was also an additional zodiac that was on the other side of the sub loading up with a different team, the Lieutenant’s backup. They were sure they were being watched, and the plan was that when they pulled away from the sub all eyes would be on them. Once they were away, the zodiac on the other side of the sub would pull away and head to an entirely different landing a few hundred yards further south, but they wouldn’t land until the Lieutenants team had already disembarked. Once that happened, the second team would land and hustle up to as close as possible to the first team without being seen. That was the plan anyway.
The Lieutenant and his team with CPO Tacker landed successfully with no problems. This time the landing party carried a SAW with them, as well as additional ammunition. They expected the worse this time around as they expected someone to show up, good or bad guys. They moved in a single file formation with weapons at the ready, and once near the Harbor Patrol HQ building they took up defensive positions again. CPO Tacker contacted the boat and let Commander Washington know their current status. The second team had also landed and was making their way to the Harbor Patrol HQ, and so far they hadn’t seen a soul either. There were lots of places to hide, so many they could have been ambushed and shot at by a sniper from any dozen places.
Second team contacted first team and told them they were in place. It was now 0900, and it was a no-show so far. The Lieutenant would give them five more minutes to show up, they were civilians after all. The clock was ticking and two more minutes had passed. A shot rang out, hitting near CPO Tacker, then another shot hit Seaman Rothchild in the shoulder. They had a Corpsman with them, and he and another Sailor pulled Rothchild into the Harbor Patrol HQ’s. Lieutenant Ackerman radioed second team and the boat and told them they were under attack. He didn’t get a chance to see where the shots were fired from, and they had one man down. Second team Commander Lieutenant J.G. Stark responded that he had eyes on the shooter about two hundred yards north of their position, second floor of the coral colored building.
Lieutenant Stark asked Commander Washington if he could possibly fire on the building using the four-inch deck gun. The Commander responded with an affirmative, they also had eyes on shooter. Lieutenant Start answered back that he and his men were going to work their way around to the back of that building to attempt to cut off anyone entering or exiting the building. There was the sound of thunder followed by a large explosion, the ground shook at the shell fired from the boat hit the building and exploded, t
aking down a good part of the building. Out of the buildings exit came four armed men. Lieutenant Stark called out for them to freeze and drop their weapons, and the men turned and immediately fired on the Sailors, not hitting anything. The Sailors returned fire, killing all four men, then they moved cautiously to them, searched the bodies, and took the weapons. They didn’t find anything that would help identify the men, but one of the Sailors that had been on the party yesterday confirmed that these were not any of the men they saw.
Commander Washington ordered the two zodiacs back to the boat. He was going to let the Marines deal with the port, they were six hours away.
Chapter Fifteen
The USS Hornet and the ships accompanying her were six hours out of the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Reports from the USS Pampanito were not encouraging, as they had run into trouble on the second day and ended up pulling back to the boat with one wounded man. It’s not that the Sailors on the boat couldn’t handle the situation, from the report they did very well and acted accordingly. The problem was personnel: the boat had seventy enlisted and ten officers, every one of them were needed to operate the boat. Losing a crew member wasn’t easy to replace, it’s not if they had others waiting to take his place. At this time there was only one submarine in the United States Navy that was operational that they knew of, and the USS Pampanito was it. The Navy was working on a mockup to help train new Sailors. It wasn’t done yet and they needed the USS Pampanito in port to train new members, and she was currently underway.
Admiral Walcom’s orders were for them to pull back to deeper waters and wait for them. Once they were able to, Force Recon would insert several teams around the port to gather intelligence to help determine next steps. Commander Washington felt sorry for the poor bastards that confronted Marine Force Recon, because if they thought his Sailors were tough Force Recon was ten times as bad and would show no mercy. Generally they were more likely to shoot first and ask questions later. They didn’t fool around and were mean as hell. Commander Washington relayed the various insertion sites that the Marines might use. These recommendations were made from the scouting the boat had done around the bay.
The information was passed back to the Hornet and then passed on to the Marines. Admiral Walcom issued movement orders to Force Recon, they needed to be ready to move right after sunset. Then they had the rest of the night to do their thing. The Admiral issued rules for engagement: if it shoots at you, kill it. The rules of engagement weren’t anything new, many of the Marines had been operating with US Army Special Operations and they had the same rules of engagement. Society had changed so much in the United States, they didn’t know who they could trust, and they operated under the assumption that everyone was trying to kill them unto proven otherwise. It was a tough lesson they had learned.
The USS Hornet, USS Iowa, and its accompanying ships made an imposing picture, now sitting less than a half mile off the Port of Los Angeles. Watchers in the Ports were startled by the ships; it appeared to them there was nothing out there but Ocean, and then one minute later all those ships were there. The militias within the Port didn’t know what to think. it was a surprise that the ships were there at all in their experience over the last year very few things actually worked how could all those ships work. Seeing the aircraft carrier was laughable, there were no planes capable of flying. Thirty minutes prior to sunset they were proven wrong when several aircraft took off from the large ship. The militia members noticed they were all prop driven airplanes, no jets, but they had yet to make the link to how they could still be used.
After two or three fly-overs the planes returned to the ship. It was getting dark by then. They also didn’t know it was a diversion and the Navy wanted them to center on the aircraft and not the Marines leaving the ship in zodiacs. By dark, the Marines hand made their way to their insertion points, securing their zodiacs and concealing the boats so no one would find them.
The Marines moved into the port methodically. Their order was not to engage but to collect information. The Marines were heavily armed and knew their craft, and they were all happy to get back into the fight because for many it was their first time seeing action since Iraq or Afghanistan they were now finally making a difference.
There were six Force Recon teams that had infiltrated the port, one at each end and the others in various locations in the middle. They would maintain radio contact, and if the shit hit the fan they could call in the big guns of the Iowa to help them out. That would certainly be a wake-up call for the port militias because the Iowa could do some serious damage. One of the pieces of gear the Marines carried was night vision equipment. US Army Special Forces – 19th SF Group had horded hundreds of sets of them away and stored them in an underground facility protected from EMP effects. Because of that foresight by US Army Special Operations, the Marines now owned the night and they could go anywhere they wanted.
The teams would operate through the night, then right before sunrise would retreat back to the ships. The two teams at either end of the port would scout their AO then move inward about a quarter of a mile. They didn’t want to get too far from their extraction points. Each team was given an alphanumeric designation, which signaled to command their area of responsibility. Alpha-One was the team at the furthest northern end of the Port of Los Angeles. Bravo-Two was the team at the southwestern end on the border between the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach, and all other teams were located in the middle. There was approximately a quarter of a mile separation between each team, with some overlap.
All of the teams had reported that they had successfully landed. After that they were required to make contact back to Tripoli, the Marine base ship, every thirty minutes. Alpha-One was being led by Staff Sergeant Eric Able, Assistant Team Leader Stanley Dixon, and like the other teams there was also the RTO (Communications), assistant RTO (Communications), Slack man, and Point man for a total of six men on each team. Each man on the team was trained on various weapons systems, including demolition, underwater operations, HALO, HAHO, and other specialties. Ideally they would have loved to have gone in with larger teams; six was the minimum number, but they could easily expand up to twelve. There weren’t enough of them in the Corps right now, and training was extensive and long. The current members were already Force Recon active duty on leave in the areas that were eventually retaken by the Army. Some of them had recently left the Marine Corps and when the event hit they decided that they would re-enlist.
There was a new Force Recon training area set up on Camp Parks, but it was slow going to find qualified applicants, and then once they found them it was another to make it through the training. There were only a handful of men that would make each training cycle, and so far there had only been two. They were hoping that if Pendleton was still intact they would be moving home, but first they needed to get there and odds are there was going to be a long hard fight to do that.
The other teams in the port were Alpha-Two, Alpha-Three, Bravo-One and Bravo-Three. Six teams are all they had. Bravo-Two’s Team Leader was Staff Sergeant Alfonso Smallwood, the assistant Team Leader was Sergeant Bill Bradley along with the other four men. The two teams Alpha-One and Bravo-Two the two teams at the furthest edges of the port were pushing in and clearing buildings. Neither team had seen any civilians or militia members so far, but it didn’t mean they weren’t there, as they could feel eyes on them. The other four teams were doing the same; Bravo-One was clearing buildings near where the Sailors from the USS Pampanito had been attacked.
Bravo-One’s Team Leader was Staff Sergeant Juan Ramirez, the assistant Team Leader was Staff Sergeant Jason Xavier. Bravo-One searched over the ruins of the building that was shelled by the Pampanito. They cleared three more buildings without incident in what looked like a large opening between the buildings. They saw a large fire burning in the middle of it and they could hear some light chatter. The team moved silently, keeping to the side of each building, and stayed in the shadows. They moved to a position w
here they could clearly see the goings-on around the fire.
They spied close to a hundred men and women around or near the fire, all of them armed with light weapons. Near the fire they could see three men and a woman hanging from what looked like a crude gallows, clearly dead. SSG Ramirez passed the word to be on the lookout for sentries because odds were they were up high with a clear line of sight of all avenues of approach. The team assumed that this was the group that had attacked the Sailors and injured one of them. The assumption was made only because of their proximity to where the incident happened. The team moved to locate the sentries because if they could capture one, they would get some information and perhaps solve who attacked the Sailors. Regardless, this was large enough group that would have to be dealt with by a much larger Marine force.
It wasn’t hard to find one of the sentries. They bagged and gagged him and took him to one of the buildings they had cleared. SSG Ramirez and Lance Corporal Taylor interrogated the guard while the four others pulled security. The guard was terrified and found it difficult to believe that he was being held by Marines. The Sailors that had come ashore a day or so ago told El Jefe that Marines were coming along with an aircraft carrier and other ships. They didn’t believe it, they thought the Sailors were lying to save their own skins. .
The SSG and Lance Corporal asked several questions. The guard responded in Spanish, which they were sure was his way of being cute, until SSG Rameriz responded back in Spanish. Lance Corporal Taylor backhanded the guard knocking him down. SSG Rameriz picked him up and sat him back down and asked him the questions again, but the guard refused to answer. This time Lance Corporal Taylor laid into the guard, hitting him as hard as he could. The guard sprung out of the chair from being hit so hard and bounce off the ground with blood spurting out of his nose. The Lance Corporal walked over and kicked him hard in the side, but SSG Ramirez ordered him to stand-down. SSG Ramirez walked over and dragged the guard back to the chair, slamming him into it.
