by Steven Linde
Word came down from the Pentagon, granted it came slowly, that placed the Regiment on alert. There were no movement orders or any other information available to them. Captain Ward, a company commander with 1/3 infantry, thought it was strange, how were they going to move everyone. The entire post was still trying to figure out what vehicles were available. Captain Ward thought, ‘Ok were marching into battle then, where ever that is.’
By noon word had come down by VOP (verbal order of the president) they were to secure all medical facilities in and around Washington D.C., they didn’t have any idea how many there were. Although, 1/3 infantry battalion was largely used for ceremonial duties they were still and infantry unit and constantly trained for it. The orders that came down were that they were to draw weapons but no ammo; they were to place an empty magazine in the weapon to make it look like it was loaded. The Battalion Commander of 1/3 infantry put his staff, what there was of it, to the task finding the nearest medical facilities. They were tasked with securing any medical facility or clinic within four miles of the Fort. Fortunately, most of the enlisted lived on post, however many of the Senior NCO’s lived either in housing or in the civilian community some place. The ones that lived on post housing were able to make it in either by bike, walked, motorcycle (a lot of them were still running), or hitched a ride with one of the few running vehicles. Unfortunately, any running vehicle that was owned by a service member and running was confiscated by the Provost Marshall, Colonel Eckert, he was under orders by the Forts Commander LTG Quicken, to confiscate the vehicles.
Needless to say this was an unpopular decision many of the service members had families living off post that needed that car. Once the car was confiscated a truck was sent out to retrieve the family and bring them on post, a tent city was popping up on post consuming much of the available land on main post. The Provost Marshall kindly pointed out to the members losing their vehicles, “How do you plan on filling them up?” Most of the service members were perplexed by the question and hadn’t really thought about it. Most of them thought they could fill up at the post gas station until the Provost Marshall stated that none of the fuel on post could be used for POV’s that they had no idea when they would get more fuel. The obvious next answer was to get it from a local gas station, the Provost Marshall asked how they planned on pumping it out of the underground container. Some were stubborn enough to state they would figure it out, but the majority saw the futileness of it and turned the car over as long as their families were welcome on post and were taken care of.
After the first two weeks there was a lot of discontent brewing in the tent cities, living in them was less than ideal. Restroom facilities for the families was repugnant, there was no privacy for the families, no medical care, most if not all felt the Army had forgotten all about them. This in-turn affected the service member and their performance on the job. The Army in the past was set up to handle these civilian matters but not right now. After the event hit most of the civilian personnel that handled these matters didn’t show up for work the following Monday, probably because they either couldn’t or had their own families to worry about. The base of knowledge the Army needed was vested in civilians that weren’t there anymore.
The matter had finally made its way to the post commander, but he was at a loss at what do for the time being too. He would let the problem sit a little longer to see if it could resolve itself, which of course it wouldn’t, it made things worse, a lot worse. While the post CO was dealing with this the 1/3 infantry was off post, now called out of the wire, guarding the hospitals and clinics that were within their assigned perimeter. By the time the 1/3 had gotten to some of the clinics they had been looted anything of value was removed to include much of the medicine; insulin was high on the retrieval list. When the 1/3 arrived at a clinic they first cleared it, once cleared, they took an inventory of everything present. They then had two medics staff it and started seeing patients, granted there wasn’t a lot they could do, they were combat medics and they only had so much in their aid bags.
The medics weren’t left there on their own they had at least one squad with them to provide security, or what passed for security, considering the Soldiers didn’t have any ammo but they did have a nice club which they could mount a nice knife on. They were assigned Virginia Hospital Center, which was a large medical facility and only one company out of the battalion was assigned to secure it. What hospital personnel were at the medical facility were surprised to see the Soldiers moving towards them. The Soldiers were on either side of the street, spread out about five feet between each man and carrying rucksacks, load bearing equipment, helmets and weapons. Even more surprising was that they entered the hospital grounds and marched right up to the main entrance where the lead element halted.
Officers and NCO’s barked out orders to the Soldiers to get a perimeter established, the NCO’s worked with the weapons teams to set up light and heavy machine gun emplacements. They set up various blockades on the road, not there were any cars moving, and they felt they needed to be prepared. While this was going Captain Ward entered the hospital with his XO, they stood for a moment looking around while everyone that was in the lobby starred at them. They saw a sign that read ‘Administrative Offices’ with an arrow point to the left. Without saying a word the two men headed in the direction of the offices, people were wondering what the hell was going on and why was the Army here.
Captain Ward and First Lieutenant Gary Pollen moved down the rather wide hallway looking in windows to see if there was anyone inside the offices, they were empty. Finally, at the last office they could see some movement inside, they knocked on the door. A woman with blonde hair, about five-six in height, steel blue eyes, and dressed in scrubs opened the door, “What?” she said exhausted.
Not fully realizing there were two Soldiers standing in front of her dressed in full combat attire, she restated, “oh?”
Captain Ward’s eyebrows went up, staring at the poor woman, “We’re looking for someone that’s in-charge.” Captain Ward said.
The woman was still recovering from seeing the two Soldiers; she stood there staring at them. “Ma’am?” said Lieutenant Pollen.
She shook herself out of it, “Yes, yes in-charge. I guess that would be me. I’m the senior administrator here and have been since we lost power.”
“What’s your name?” asked Captain Ward.
“Carrie DeToya.” She responded. “I’m the nursing supervisor.”
“What no doc’s around?” asked the Lieutenant.
“We have doctors in the hospital but they aren’t tasked with the day-to-day operations for the entire hospital.” Carrie said.
Lieutenant Pollen nodded, “Ma’am.” Captain Ward said. “Speaking of tasks we’ve been tasked with the security of the hospital and to help with whatever we can.”
Carrie looked at the two men a bit skeptical, “Who has the authority to do that?”
“The President of the United States, Marshall Law has been declared. They’re worried that the hospitals will come under attack eventually to get at the medicines, doctors and nurses.”
“Are things that bad?”
“Yes ma’am I’m afraid it is. From what we’re told the power is out every place in the city indefinitely. It also means no running water, all communications are down, and law enforcement is overwhelmed. Not to mention there isn’t much they can do without vehicles.” Captain Ward said.
Carrie sighed, she was afraid things were going to get worse she didn’t know how much though, “In the long term you feel there’s a credible threat to us?” she asked.
“Yes ma’am we do. We’re also responsible for the clinics in the area and we’ve found many of them have already been looted. It’s a matter of time before the hospitals become a target. That being the case ma’am, what can we help you with?” said Captain Ward.
Chapter Ten
Lieutenant Steven Danielson and his team sat in the darkened team room. They were talking amongst
themselves when Commander Tom McKasskill stepped into the room, “Lieutenant the CO is calling a staff meeting in five mikes you need to be there.”
The team didn’t stand to attention when the Commander entered, they were an informal bunch. “Aye sir.” The Lieutenant said. “I’ll be right there.”
“Looks like we’re going to find out what’s going on right Lt?” said Chief.
“Let’s hope.” The Lt replied.
Lieutenant Danielson headed to the head shed for the meeting once he arrived, he noticed that not all of the teams CO’s were present. Some were being represented by the teams XO or senior NCO. As the Lt was studying the room Captain Rory the Special Operations Commander entered the conference room. The room was called to attention, Captain Rory responded, “At Ease, take your seats.”
Captain Rory stood at the head of the large conference table; he looked around the room looking each man in the eyes. These men were considered the best-of-the-best the country had to offer, however he silently wondered if any of them were ready for the nightmare that was coming at them. “Good afternoon gentlemen,” Said Captain Rory. “I’m sure all of you see some of the missing faces and are wondering in general what the hell is going on.” The Captain was looking around the room studying faces. “I’m sure that many of you have noticed the missing faces in the room. Some of the men don’t live close to base and we currently have no status of where and how they are. We aren’t marking them AWOL this isn’t of their doing. Others are TDY and or deployed and have no means of transportation back and we have no contact with any of them. Regardless we play the hand we’re dealt.”
The Captain still standing at the head of the table, what he was going to tell them next was going to change all of their lives for the foreseeable future and possibly the rest of their lives. “Word has come down through various channels, verbally, from the Office of the President and his scientific team. That some sort of EMP event has occurred, each one of you knows what EMP is and the consequences of it.” The Captain was again looking around the room to ascertain reactions from the men under his command; they were a stoic bunch, no reaction at all. “We will move forward with the resources we have at hand, some of the teams will be re-organized because of team members are missing, I’m sorry that’s the way it’s going to be. There is some good news, the special operations community was or is far better prepared than our civilian counterparts, or the regular Navy. We have underground facilities that have been stocked with various pieces of equipment, vehicles, food, water, commo and more. The facility was specifically built in the event there was an EMP attack, everything in the facility should work.”
This news caused a stir in the audience; men began to chatter back and forth with each other. It was hard to believe that a secret such as an underground facility maintained by the special operations community had remained a secret. The Captain went on, “We need to access the situation on post here before we begin to remove anything from the underground facility. You are NOT authorized to talk about the facility to anyone outside of the teams. I can’t stress this enough, if the regular Navy gets wind of it they will demand we hand it over and I’m not doing that. Any questions?”
Six hands went up, the first called was Master Chief Ted Rasmussen, “Yes Master Chief what can I do for you?” asked the Captain.
“Sir we appreciate the update, what are our next moves for the teams I mean?” asked the Master Chief.
“We’ve finished our accountability and status of personnel, vehicles, food, water and weapons. For the most part we’re looking good I haven’t seen what the rest of the base looks like yet and how they stack up. I believe that the senior leadership on base will realign all of the resources either by confiscating all of it or equal out everyone’s share. That’s why, at least for now, it’s imperative we don’t talk about the facility.”
“Roger that sir,” said the Master Chief.
“Lieutenant Danielson what can I do for you?” Captain Rory calling on him.
“Sir we have men that were on base for training when this all went down and have families. They have no idea what’s going on with them what should we be doing to facilitate this?”
Captain Rory was caught off guard by this question he turned to his XO, whispered something in his ear and the XO left. “This is the first I’ve heard of this Lieutenant. All of you listen to me now we have vehicles and fuel I want those families brought in now, is that clear?”
“Sir where will we put them, we’re not set up for families.” Lieutenant Commander Arron Sanders asked.
“I don’t give a flying fuck.” Captain Rory said. “We’ll work out the logistics later on; I’m here to tell you beyond those front gates of the base all hell is getting ready to bust loose. I need all of you focused and ready, I can’t do that if your family is outside the wire. Everyone’s first mission right now is to get those families here ASAP. Anyone going outside the wire will be wearing and have a full combat load, is that clear?”
Each man in the room answered in unison, “Aye, aye sir!” with that the Captain turned and left, the SEALs had their orders.
Chapter Eleven
All of Fort Bragg was on lockdown. All of the gates to enter or exit the Fort had been ordered closed by Forts commanding officer Lieutenant General Stephen Portson. LTG Portson was thin, six-four in height, pepper gray hair and spoke with a Boston accent. He’d been on his thirty-first year in the Army, he was a paratrooper through-and-through, and he loved the Army. Now he was combating a different situation, the potential end of the known civilization. He and his staff had come to the conclusion that it was in fact some sort of EMP event and it wasn’t isolated to Fort Bragg and its surrounding areas.
They had been working tirelessly to determine the entire posts assets and resources; their only problem was they had no control over the special operations areas of Fort Bragg. For now the special operations people didn’t feel the need to share and acknowledge what they had, word was they would take care of themselves for now. The eighteenth and eighty-second airborne division were working together to piece together all of their common resources, these were the two largest entities on post. To sum it up half the older Humvees worked with no problems, those with EMP shielding, especially some of the newer vehicles worked fine. All other military vehicles were dead, so they focused on what civilian vehicles were left on post. They knew they were looking for anything that was nineteen-eighties or older. Many of the vehicles they could use for parts, the same thing with the military vehicles that no longer ran.
Sergeant Major Greg Valliant of the 2nd Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment was busy hammering away at the battalion NCOs to get their collective asses in gear. He knew they were in a crisis situation, hell they all knew they were in a crisis situation. The sad news for all of the airborne Soldiers was there were no flyable aircraft now or for the foreseeable future; they were now by default legs. This was a slanderous term when directed towards a paratrooper. Regardless, there new mission was to secure the perimeter of the post, participate in the running of patrols in and around Fayetteville. Other battalions in the 82nd and 18th had similar missions; some were responsible for securing grocery stores, big box stores such as Walmart and Target. Others were to secure fuel stations, reservoirs, any facility that had value or potential value.
However, their first priority was to get the families that lived off post on post and get them settled so the Soldiers could effectively do their jobs without worrying. While the collecting of the dependents was going on a large tent city was being built to set the families up with. The 82nd had been involved in many humanitarian operations around the world during natural and manmade disasters. They had become proficient at setting up makeshift housing, restroom facilities, bathing facilities and more. There were going to be some exceptions, this time around, no power which mean no light or running water. They didn’t have enough lanterns for everyone that’s one of the reasons they were securing many of the stores throughou
t Fayetteville. When the families were being picked up they were asked to bring what camping gear they had; they were going to need it.
Sergeant Major Valliant was out one day with the pick-up of some of the families using some of the five ton trucks that were still running. They were being escorted by armored Humvees that were very well armed. After the first week of the event the Soldiers picking up the families could hear gunfire in the distance. Each day the gunfire got closer and closer or maybe it was the Soldiers were going out further and further each day. On day seven several shots were fired directly at the Soldiers as they were loading up one of the families. Under the rules of engagement the Soldiers were allowed to return fire if they were fired upon, they lit up the four men that had fired on them, they were dead before they knew it. The bodies of the men were examined by the Soldiers, it was clear they were Blood gang members by the colors they wore and tattoos. Anyway, while driving around and picking up the families CSM Valliant noticed a couple of RV dealerships with travel trailers on the lot.
Once back, he headed to talk to the Brigade Sergeant Major and discuss with him his plan for getting all those RV’s and trailers on post, his belief was they could be used as housing for the families. The Brigade CSM thought the idea brilliant and the two men headed off to convince the Brigade Commander, he thought the idea brilliant too. He ordered all of the RV’s and trailers brought onto post. Also, find out what RV’s and trailers are on post and have their owners come get them and use them for housing and offer them up for others to use. By the end of the second week the trailers and RV’s were being brought in and set up next to the tents. There was quite a ruckus being raised by the families, who was getting the RV’s and trailers, tent living wasn’t popular. They decided to hold a lottery, but had some basic requirements each family had to meet prior to submitting a ticket for either a trailer or RV. The first requirement that it went to lower enlisted families that had babies and toddlers, command wanted the younger children better protected from the elements. Secondly, if they accepted the RV or trailer they had to submit to periodic inspections to ensure they were taking care of the property, this wasn’t really a special consideration; the Army did this all of the time with regular quarters that were assigned to families. Third, they were required to take care of the property, that if it fell into disrepair they could be immediately evicted.
