Going Home (Soldier Up Book 3)

by Steven Linde

  Both General Watkins and Datak sat and watched in amazement as General Shelton ran around her office gathering everything she would need for her trip. They were joined by Colonel Wagen and the three men watched. “Is she always like this?” asked General Watkins directing the question at Colonel Wagen.

  Colonel Wagen chuckled, “Yes sir, she’s always prepared for any contingency.”

  General Watkins thought that it was a good thing because in the coming months she was going to need it. He was sure they had only scratched the surface when it came to putting the country back together.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  It was close to eighty miles from Long Beach to Camp Pendleton, and it was going to be a long walk for most of the Marines. The quickest route was going to be along the coast through Seal Beach, Huntington Beach, Newport, Laguna Beach, Dana Point, and finally San Clemente. The half of the expeditionary force that had gone to the Air Force Base had now turned their original orders had them returning along the coast, head south and link up with the main force. On second thought, the Marine commanders changed that before they became committed and had them head inland instead.

  They wanted the secondary force to cover their flank and ordered them to follow the I-405 south through Hawthorne, Lawndale, Torrance, Carson, Signal Hill, Westminster, Fountain Valley, and Irvine. At that point the 405 would end and merge with I-5. Once there they would move off the primary roads to secondary roads and keep heading south while staying inland covering the flank of the main force. Command was concerned that the HLA may have regrouped and would try to get around the main force, attacking it from the rear.

  The secondary force coming down from El Segundo was heavily laden with vehicles which allowed them to move a lot faster than the main force. There were going to be at best a day behind the main force, which was going to hold up at the I-5 I-405 interchange and wait for the secondary force to catch up. The main force would then continue down the coast roads and the secondary force would keep to the secondary roads east of the main force. This entire plan depended how many combat engagements each force ran into along the way. So far the Marine commanders didn’t think much of what they had run into, it wasn’t anything they couldn’t handle and dispatch quickly.

  The secondary force had most of the LAV’s, Bradley’s and M1’s, and that was some heavy firepower. What resistance they met so far had been able to fight their way through it with little effort, as a 25mm chain gun can do some damage and really scare the hell out of someone, not to mention a round being fired out of a 120mm canon from the M1’s, loud and scary if you’re on the receiving end.

  However, as the Marines moved through the communities most of them found the communities abandoned. There were the occasional gangs that felt the Marines were infringing on their turf, which was a mistake on their part. The Marines weren’t taking prisoners, this was the United States and not gangland. You fired on them you were killed if you had a gun, and if looked like you threatened the civilians you were killed. The Marines continued to drive on south and there was nothing, at least in their minds, that was going to stop them.

  The main force arrived at the interchange as planned, but they hadn’t had any word from the secondary force for some time and didn’t know their location and hadn’t been able to reach them by radio. There was a contingency plan for that scenario, but it required them to wait between eight and twelve hours before sending out elements to find them, and they were a day behind after all. The main force set up its perimeter and sent out patrols into Irvine and the surrounding area. These were hunter/killer patrols and they were out there to seek out the enemy and kill them. These were not like previous patrols that went out into communities to gather intelligence. As far as Marine command was concerned, they were done with that and this was an offensive operation to eliminate any forces that were fighting against the United States.

  The main force had very few encounters along the coast, but they were surprised to run into several fishing villages. It was a strange site to see because it looked as though these people had been thrown back into another time, another era; they were launching boats, row boats, from the beaches with nets. Once they were past the breakers, they raised the sails, sailed, and lowered the nets into the water in a semi-circle. Once that was done, they returned to shore and the entire village pulled the nets in. The Marines watched this in fascination. They reasoned the catches were so good because the fish had been able to successfully reproduce since commercial fishing had pretty much come to a screeching halt after the event.

  The villages shared part of their catch with the Marines as they passed through. The villagers were happy to see the Marine, bringing security with them. The villagers also expressed that there were additional villages further south that were starting to emerge as people returned. In fact, there were several farms not too far away, and the villagers showed the Marines where they were on the maps. As people returned they were finding better ways to survive and had armed themselves to fend off the bad guys. They urged the Marines, instead of going in guns blazing, that they should approach these communities carefully. The people had been through a lot, and they were friendly enough and would be happy to see the Marines, but were going to be a bit leery at first. Marine commanders agreed and sent a squad of Marines to each location in Humvees to make contact with the farmers and ranchers. Just as the villagers said, the farmers and ranchers were heavily armed and turned out against the Marine squads that arrived on their properties. At first the civilians were skeptical that the Marines were really Marines, and they asked to see Military ID’s which the Marines were happy to show them. Some of the farmers and ranchers were veterans themselves and asked a lot of questions to satisfy their trust issues. Once it was all said and done, they accepted the Marines with open arms. The farmers even loaded them up with fresh vegetables. They told them that the Army was sending civil affair forces into the area and they would be working with the civilians to set up civilian security forces to help re-establish some law and order, as well as a local government.

  The farmers and ranchers thought it was a good idea, but they were also an independent bunch and would be careful with how these security forces were developed and deployed. The Marine Officers that had accompanied each squad that made contact assured them that the Civil Affairs Soldiers would take into account the wants and needs of the communities. If any of the civilian security forces or governments tried to step out of line, there was still going to be military oversight until federal and state level governments could be set back up. This was the same message that was being conveyed to the fishing villages too, and everyone decided to take and wait and see attitude, it’s not like they had much of a choice right now anyway.

  They also assured them that, as soon as they were able to secure the area, trains would return. They had them now up North, and they were very successful in transporting goods to the citizens there. They also wanted to let them know that there were several thousand Marines heading their way. They were largely traveling in armored vehicles and warned them that if they fired on them the Marines would return fire. They were only passing through the area and they were sending forward a couple of elements to let the oncoming Marines know the farmers and ranchers were here so there would be no surprises. The civilian were curious to know why the Marines were passing through, but were told they had no need to know that, all they needed to know was that they were not a threat to them unless they acted aggressively towards them.

  One of the older farmers looked hard at the Marine officer. “It has to do with the Mexicans in San Diego, doesn’t it?” This caught the Marines attention.

  “What do you know about that?” asked the Marine Officer, a First Lieutenant.

  “Me and my boys here are from San Diego, we made our way north from there. We saw the Mexican Army, we were lucky to evade them. We took notes though as we made our way up.”

  “What kind of notes?” asked the Lieutenant.

  “Well ….
the number of Soldiers we saw, vehicles, weapons, what we saw them carrying, where their bases were, and who their commander is. Think that’ll help you?”

  The Lieutenant’s eyes damn near popped out of his head. “Yes sir!” The Lieutenant asked the man if he would come with him and bring the notes he had gathered regarding the Mexican Army.

  “I’ll come if my boys can come along.”

  “Certainly they can come; I expect we’ll have you back in a couple of hours.”

  “Y’all gonna feed us while we’re there?” asked one of the boys.

  “Yes sir.” said the Lieutenant. The boys the old man was referring to had to be in their mid-twenties.

  The Marine Lieutenant, his driver, and the three men crammed into his Humvee, and the other Marines in the squad followed the Lieutenant in their vehicles back to the main force and the Colonel’s CP. Back at the Colonel’s CP they all exited the vehicle except for the driver; he took the vehicle back to the makeshift motor pools to top it off. The Colonel seeing the civilians exiting the vehicle quickly exited the CP and headed for the Lieutenant. “Lieutenant!” barked the Colonel entirely unhappy to see the civilians inside his AO. “What’s the meaning of this?”

  The Lieutenant quickly popped to attention and saluted, which in turn got his ass chewed out again by the Colonel. “Lieutenant we don’t salute while in the field!”

  “Yes sir, sorry sir! Sir, these men claim to have information regarding the Mexican Army in San Diego. I believed it was important to bring them back to have them debriefed.”

  “Is that so?” said the Colonel, now eyeing the old man and his two sons. The two sons were a bit intimidated by the Colonel. The old man was a Vietnam veteran, and wasn’t all that impressed by what he saw, he’d done it all before. “Yes Colonel, I believe we have some information that’ll help.”

  “Why do you think it can help?” asked the Colonel.

  “Sir, I’m retired Sergeant First Class Thaddeus Minifield, United States Army, 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment.”

  This caught the Colonel’s attention, as well as the Lieutenants. “Is that so Sergeant? Where did you serve?”

  “Four tours in Nam Colonel from 66 – 69.” replied SFC Minifield.

  The Colonel, knowing the Rangers well after years of working with them, asked several follow up questions and the Sergeant answered them quickly and correctly. The Colonel was impressed. “Thank you Lieutenant, you did the right thing I’ll take it from here. Please return to your unit.”

  “Aye Aye, sir.” the Lieutenant came to attention and was in the process of saluting but caught himself, and instead he did an about face and marched off back to his unit.

  “Can I get you men a cup of coffee?” the Colonel offered.

  “Yes sir, that would be very nice,” said SFC Minifield.

  The Colonel escorted the three men into his CP then ordered one of his privates to get them a cup of coffee and go to the mess and bring them all back something to eat. The Private answered in the affirmative.

  The Colonel showed the men to a seating area where they could talk. “Alright Sergeant, what do you have?”

  SFC Minifield took about a rather large notepad and handed it over to the Colonel. “We’re from San Diego, Tierra Santa area. When the Mexican’s invaded it took them a couple of weeks to make it that far north, they got bogged down trying, unsuccessfully, to overrun 32nd Street and Coronado. When they realized it wasn’t going to happen anytime soon, they pulled out the majority of their forces and pushed north, leaving token forces in place at each location to keep the Navy in check. As they made their way north, my boys and I moved into the hills and canyons around San Diego collecting all of the information you have there. I do believe you’ll find it interesting, it shows their bases as of two months ago, number of troops in those areas, type of troops, vehicles, and weapons systems. By the way, not all of the men are professional Soldiers, many of them if not half are Cartel Soldiers with no proper military training at all from what I could tell, but a bloodthirsty bunch, never-the-less. The officer in charge is a four star, a real one from the Mexican Army by the name of General Maximillian Garcia, a real bastard, and as anti-American as they get.”

  As SFC Minfield was speaking, the Colonel was thumbing through the notes. He was impressed by how complete they were and the information they contained. He could tell that the information contained was done by a person with a military eye. There’s a certain way a Soldier or Marine collects data, they know what to look for and how interpret what they are looking at. SFC Minifield knew exactly what to gather and knew what he was looking at. “This is great stuff Sergeant, thank you I believe it’s going to go a long way in helping defeat the Mexicans,” said the Colonel.

  “Sir, all I ask is that you bring the rain down on them, bring the rain!” said SFC Minifield.

  “I’ll guarantee that, Sergeant.”

  As they were wrapping up the discussion, the Private brought in some nice hot food for everyone. “Why don’t y’all eat while I get this out to the people that can take it apart and find us some targets.”

  SFC Minfield looked a bit puzzled at the remark. “Aren’t we a bit far to hit any targets?”

  “Oh no we have some surprises up our sleeves.” the Colonel said, grinning ear-to-ear.

  The Colonel turned and left the CP before SFC Minifield could ask any more questions. This left him and his boys puzzled and wondering how they were getting home.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Colonel Parker was the Commander of the Marine Expeditionary Force now making its way down the coast from Long Beach to Camp Pendleton. A stroke of luck dumped a retired Army SFC Minifield that was a resident of San Diego and had made his way north. SFC Minifield had collected a lot of information regarding status of Mexican Forces in San Diego, which looked like a gold mine of data. Colonel Parker read through the notes that the Sergeant had collected, and he knew that he needed to get to the people that could do something with it.

  He went to his comms section and had them send it flash to the Hornet: Attention Admiral Walcom. The Hornet was now close enough to Camp Pendleton and San Diego where it can start air operations against the Mexican Army. If the information proved to be correct, they now had a target rich environment and knew where to hit them.

  Admiral Walcom had been called down to the comm center; they had flash traffic his eyes-only ready for him to pick up. The Admiral wondered what the hell this was all about, he didn’t know of anything else going on that would require flash traffic into his comm center. He hurried down to pick up the message and once there found a small binder of messages ready for him to pick up. “What’s all of this?”

  “Sir it came from Colonel Parker in the field. He’s the one that marked it flash and your eye’s only.” replied the Sailor.

  Admiral Walcom nodded and signed for the binder, and as he returned to his office he thumbed through parts of it at one point stopping completely to be sure what he had just read. A broad smile came to his face; it was time to get the Hornet in the game. Once back at his office, he ordered his staff into the conference room for some war planning. The Hornet carried a squadron of Douglas A-1 Skyraiders, an attack bomber aircraft. This was the first time the Hornet deployed these planes for a combat role, and in support of them was a squadron of Grumman F6F Hellcat’s fighter aircraft. The primary purpose of the raid was first to determine how authentic the document was that the Admiral had received from Colonel Parker. They could have certainly sent scout planes to check them out, but the entire staff believed that they wanted to surprise the Mexicans. Regardless, if the bases were there they would bomb them, and if not they would then be allowed to pick targets of opportunity and hopefully be able to determine some future targets.

  After the war planning, the Admiral ordered the carrier turned into the wind and the air bosses scrambled back to their commands to brief the pilots. All essential personnel were preparing to launch aircraft. There was a lot of excitement on b
oard, as the aircraft were being loaded up with munitions and moved to the carrier deck. The carrier was hot for launch; it was going to be a long very long day but a good one at that. They were finally going to bring the war to the Mexicans and rain some pain down on them.

  The Hornet was partially in the wind, now it would take a couple of hours to get her entirely ready to launch aircraft, which was good because it was going to take that long for pilot briefings and load the aircraft. They would get at least one sortie done today, and if things played out the way they had planned there would be additional sorties the following day. As far as they knew the Mexicans had no air defense with them, to the Navy’s advantage.

  At 1300 the Navy launched its first real combat sortie since the Gulf War’s and the first time using many of the aircraft since the eighties or earlier, possibly back to the sixties. If an aircraft was shot down or went down for whatever reasons and the pilot(s) survived, there was no immediate rescue for them. They would have to either escape or evade the enemy until friendly forces arrived.

  It took a bit to get all aircraft in the air, and there was a lot of excitement and a lot of people aboard all of the ships that wanted payback against the Mexicans. Just about everyone onboard had friends or family in the San Diego area that they didn’t know if they were dead or alive, and the rumors flying out of San Diego was that the Mexicans were either killing the gringos or making them slaves.

  The planes heading south didn’t have to worry about being seen by radar that went out with the event. There were certainly primitive radar systems that were used during World War II and Korea that didn’t require modern circuitry, and the Military was working on it. However, for now it wasn’t a huge priority, as they didn’t know of any other country or entity that had aircraft that could attack them. The primary targets were the bases located close to Camp Pendleton, and if they were successful it would give the Marines along those lines some breathing room. As for the Marines, Admiral Walcom ordered a warning be sent to General Charkin at Camp Pendleton.