For the people ... (Soldier Up Book 4)

by Steven Linde

  Sergeant First Class Romeo Harris had been in the West Virginia National Guard for fifteen years, he had been a member of 2nd Battalion, C Company, 19th Special Forces Group for most of that time. He was a light weapons sergeant and loved his job, in civilian life he was a building contractor which he had been doing for almost twenty five years. He liked his civilian job quite a bit, but always found his job with the 19th far more rewarding. Over the past few years he had deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan many times with his team. He found that he was spending more and more time on active duty then his own business. Fortunately, for him, his wife loved running the business side of things far more than he did, his brother was a partner and helped with the day-in-day-out operations. When he was there he was large and in-charge but the wars had taken him away a lot.

  Now SFC Harris had been sent by his commander, Colonel Nathan Rolex, to Fort Bragg for two reasons. The first was to link up with the Special Operations Center on Bragg, second was that there as a real military threat heading towards Washington D.C. that he had been made aware of. It’d been a long drive from Kenova, West Virginia, they had an M-35 with them loaded with fuel. They had gone through all of it three times so far, however they had a manual pump that the guys back in group had devised. It worked great, but was slow and time consuming not that they had any place to be right away. They had been driving for several days they knew they weren’t far from Bragg, thirty minutes at the most, then seeing a Humvee out of the blue startled them. It’d been a very long time since they had seen another military vehicle. Their trip, surprisingly enough, have been fairly uneventful, now though, in front of them was a Humvee, SFC Harris presumed it was from Fort Bragg but how did they know they were coming?

  Sergeant Major Valliant and SFC Harris stood there only feet apart from each other, sizing one another up. Sergeant Major Valliant made the first move, “I’m Sergeant Major Valliant, 82nd Airborne out of Fort Bragg.”

  SFC Harris breathed a sigh of relief; they sent someone out to meet them, “Sergeant First Class Harris, 19th Special Forces Group out of West Virginia.”

  The two men reached over and shook hands.

  “What brings you down our way?” asked Sergeant Major Valliant.

  “Well you know the weather this time of year is so much nicer at Bragg than Kenova.” Replied SFC Harris.

  “Is that so? Any problems on your way down?” said the Sergeant Major.

  “No, not really….mostly quiet but we did our best to steer clear of any major cities.”

  Sergeant Major Valliant was trying his best to size-up Sergeant First Class Harris, “Alright let’s cut the small talk, why are you here?”

  SFC Harris chuckled, he was only trying to play the Sergeant Majors game, “I need to get to JFK Center. That’s all I’m willing to say at this time.”

  About this time three Humvees from the 82nd crested a small hill to the rear of SFC Harris convoy. It was troubling to SFC Harris because these Humvees had TOW mounted missile systems on them that were very capable of taking out the Bradley’s. There was also the sound of additional vehicles coming up from the direction Sergeant Major Valliant had come. A few minutes later, four more Humvee’s with machine gun turrets, manned, came around the same turn the Sergeant Major had.

  “Friends of yours?” asked SFC Harris.

  General Cook had dispatched two platoons from Alpha Company to find the wayward Sergeant Major and bring him back.

  “I imagine the General got impatient and sent them to bring me back.” Said Sergeant Major Valliant.

  “General?” said a surprised SFC Harris.

  “Yeah, Brigadier General Cook is leading the cluster out to the transportation museum. Maybe you should follow us there and talk to him.”

  “Why the transportation museum?” Now SFC Harris was puzzled by all of this, a Brigadier General and a Transportation museum, he wondered what was next.

  “Trains!” said Sergeant Major Valliant. “Trains!”

  Ok, SFC Harris had asked what else and now he found out, was the Sergeant Major serious about trains. “None of the trains we’ve encountered in West Virginia and along the way run so why the interest?” asked SFC Harris.

  “Steam.” Said the Sergeant Major.

  “I’m not following.” Said SFC Harris.

  “Steam Locomotives Sergeant. The kind that are in museums that presumably still run, that’s why we’re out here.”

  Well, that answered part of SFC Harris’s question, they had no idea he was coming it was only by chance they ran into each other.

  “I think we’d like to follow you out to that museum if you don’t mind.” Said SFC Harris. “That General Cook is there too?”

  “We’ll be happy to have you Sergeant. Do you see that building and hanger type thing about a half mile to your right?” asked Sergeant Major Valliant.

  “Yeah.”

  “That’s it, that’s the museum. Let’s get going I’m starving and they should have some chow ready.”

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  It was like General Cook knew they were on their way to the museum he was standing there waiting as they all pulled up. To SFC Harris’s surprise there really was a single star there waiting by the name of Cook, he looked to be a Soldiers-Soldier. He wore parachutist’s wings, air assault, pathfinder, Special Forces qualification tab, Ranger qualification tab and aviation wings to boot. SFC Harris wondered what his role at Bragg was; he assumed he was with the 82nd since he was with the Sergeant Major. SFC Harris ordered his troops to dismount their vehicles and stretch their legs. The Sergeant Major ordered, except for his driver, everyone to return to their platoons.

  Sergeant Major Valliant made the introductions SFC Harris meet General Cook, “It’s a pleasure to meet a fellow snake eater sir.” Said SFC Harris.

  General Cook smiled at the snake eater reference given to Army Special Forces aka Green Berets, “The pleasure is mine, Sergeant, what can we do for the 19th Special Forces Group?” asked General Cook.

  “Sir may I ask your position as Bragg?” said SFC Harris.

  General Cook was surprised by the question normally when a General Officer asks an Enlisted person a question he gets an answer not a question from said enlisted person. General Cook reasoned that he was a Special Forces NCO so he shouldn’t really be surprised.

  “I’m the adjutant to the post commander, General Portson, why do you ask? Replied General Cook.

  “Sir may I speak with you privately?” asked SFC Harris.

  “Anything you can say to me you can say in front of the Sergeant Major.” Said General Cook.

  SFC Harris looked between to the two men, “Yes sir.” Said SFC Harris. “Are you familiar with Camp Edwards?”

  Sergeant Major Valliant was nodding his head yes and General Cook was nodding his head no, “It’s a Massachusetts National Guard Training area one of the largest on the east coast I believe.” Said Sergeant Major Valliant. “It’s now called Joint Base Cod I think.”

  “It’s named Joint Base Cape Cod.” SFC Harris corrected him. “The rest of your information is correct Sergeant Major. There are also units from the Air National Guard, Army Reserve, Coast Guard, and maybe some Marine Corps, but I don’t know that one for sure.”

  “You came all the way down here to discuss Camp Edwards with us?” asked a puzzled General Cook.

  “Please let me finish sir, you’ll quickly understand.” Answered SFC Harris. “Camp Edwards post commander is a man name Colonel J.D. Magnus. He’s a first Gulf War veteran, no real combat experience he’s from Quartermaster Corp; anyway, the night when we lost everything…”

  “We call it the ‘event.” Said General Cook.

  SFC Harris looked at the General for a moment, “All right, the night of the event Camp Edwards was brimming with units from all over the East Coast either out on their annual training or leaving for the field annual training. We estimate there were close to three thousand-five hundred Soldiers and Airman on base at that time.”


  Both General Cook and Sergeant Major Valliant were listening intently to SFC Harris’s story.

  “Colonel Magnus is a real piece of work.” Said SFC Harris. “He apparently built a network of liked minded Officer’s and NCO’s that held his own personal beliefs of where the country should be headed. None of these people have any political party affiliation. Their only real beliefs are less government, less intrusion more freedom. When it comes to abortions for instance, you’d find just as many pro-choice and anti-abortion people in the ranks, it’s a non-issue for them.”

  “What’s the point of the network Sergeant? Can you please get to your point ….” Said General Cook.

  “Please sir bear with me for a bit more.” Replied SFC Harris.

  “Continue.” Said the General.

  SFC Harris thought for a moment, “The network for the most part was harmless as far we can tell prior to the event. However, after the event Colonel Magnus and his staff realized the magnitude of what the event really was, some sort of EMP attack or solar flare. Colonel Magnus realized this would be an ideal time to take the government back and install a new one. The new one that he would install would be in line, as far as he believes, with what the original founders wanted.”

  “Cut to the chase please Sergeant.” Asked an exasperated General Cook.

  “Yes sir.” Said SFC Harris. “A few months after the event Colonel Magnus and his followers decided to march on Washington D.C. using all of the military force they had on hand, he’s heading to Washington D.C.”

  “How sure are you of this?” asked General Cook.

  “Sir we’ve had three A-Teams shadowing him over the past few months. He’s near Allentown, New York now. He’s consolidating his network bringing in those Army, Marine, Navy, Air Force forces that are loyal to him. He’s been able to add an additional thousand men and women to his force, they had armor, artillery, aviation, you name it he has it.”

  “Why didn’t you go to Washington with this?” asked General Cook.

  “We have sent an additional team to Washington D.C. they left when we did I don’t know their status. We believe that by the time he hits D.C. in the next month or so his ranks will have swollen to over five thousand easily. We don’t believe that Washington has the military force to repel him. We think you do.” Said SFC Harris.

  “Shit.” Was General Cook’s only response.

  “Sir.” Said Sergeant Major Valliant. “We need to get Harris back to General Portson so he can brief him. I’ll take him back to Bragg if you can handle things here.”

  “Sounds like a plan Sergeant Major you do that. Sergeant Harris you mentioned you’re A Teams were shadowing them. Pennsylvania and Massachusetts are still a fair piece from West Virginia how are you getting them out there and back?” asked General Cook.

  “Small prop driven aircraft sir, they were unaffected by the event. Each team has an aviation Sergeant now that is qualified to fly them. They are inserted at night by the aircraft; each team is briefed on local airports and aircraft that should be available to them to extract themselves. So far, sir it’s worked like a charm, I’ve been on several of the missions myself.”

  “Damn, we didn’t think of that?” General Cook said to himself. “Make sure you tell General Portson that please. Alright Sergeant Major you two head out and I’ll see if we have any trains that we can use here, sounds like we’re going to need them soon, very soon.

  “Roger that sir.” Responded Sergeant Major Valliant.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  The search had been on for a week and a half they were having problems finding a shortwave radio that still used the old tube technology. They had put out word to the various agencies, the White House had communications with but it was a small group and it hadn’t yielding any results. The other tactic was to divide the city up into quadrants and basically drive up and down each street looking for shortwave antennae’s and once they found one then investigate, again no results up to this point. This was also somewhat controversial as it required fuel to do all of the driving looking for the radios. People within his own administration had their doubts about wasting the valuable fuel, which was a finite resource at this time. They had also expanded their search to include replacement tubes for the set they had, yet again, they weren’t finding what they’re looking for.

  As the search continued for the radio Jake was leading the effort now to get the two passenger trains ready for service. There had been some reports sent back from the field that the huge armored locomotive had made it to Quantico with no problems and was now steaming its way south to Fort Bragg North Carolina. If everything went fine the end goal was Parris Island Marine Corps base in South Carolina, quite a distance from Washington D.C. but for now Fort Bragg would have to suffice. The two trains had been moved to Union Station where the men from the Smithsonian could train other people to operate and maintain them. They were also stocking up on wood and coal and making sure there were sufficient water stations around the city. This also provided work for civilians that were in the various camps, new business opportunities if they were so inclined.

  The military had its hands full for now trying to be everything to everybody and there weren’t enough Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen around to do the jobs now. Congress, what there was of it, was working with President Washington and had come up with a temporary plan to put people back to work, it wasn’t much, but it was something. The train yards surrounding Washington D.C. were filled with coal the East Coast was beginning its winter stockpile when the event happened. Over the past several months people had taken a lot of it to keep themselves warm during the winter months. This was also evident around the city where people had taken to chopping down the many trees around the city. There were places that had hundreds of trees surrounding a community that were now gone. Wood and coal were essential fuel for steam locomotives; they were going to need a lot of each if they wanted to run the trains, not to mention at each destination they may have to restock fuel meaning wood, coal and water. It was a logistical nightmare potentially but the Army was used to these types of scenarios and they would work it out. The jobs created were to gather all of these items, bring them to union station and to keep bringing them.

  Once they ran out of room at the station they would start to distribute it out to the other train stations in the surrounding communities until they were full. Once that was done, they would continue to push the trains out to new communities, secure them, then stock water, wood and or coal at those stations. This in turn would increase a work force that would grow over time, one of the big questions was what to pay them with, what was valuable enough that people would work for? Currently there was a barter system within the camps, farmers and ranchers would bring in crops, livestock even butchered meats and trade them for other items or work to be done. The President had been working with various agencies within Treasury to work this issue, one thing was made clear was people would not take paper money they viewed it as worthless especially since anyone could walk into any bank these days and take all they wanted.

  The only logical choice was to use coins at least for the time being but how do you convince people to take them and that answer was it had to be based off of the actual value of the coin. This had to be measured in soft metals such as gold and silver and to varying degree’s copper. They could use the old coins that were still in circulation, however they really have very little value, their silver content was very low and truth-be-told they weren’t worth the twenty-five cents they were supposed to represent but what else did they have? Treasury wasn’t able to start minting new coins anytime soon that would suffice and create additional value in new coins. Treasury finally decided, with the approval of the President, that Treasury would start immediately to forge new coins that represented the actual value of the coin. The Treasury then had to set what an ounce of silver, gold, and copper were really worth in the new economy. At the same time the Army was dispatched to collect all of the old coins from b
anks, stores and any other source they could find except for people, if you had them you could keep them. Once, the new coins were available which would be in a couple of weeks, as they would be only distributed in Washington D.C. and the surrounding communities the old coins would be worthless, such as they were now.

  The old coins would be melted down and using specific smelter processes separate the silver, gold and copper from the coin then reform the new coins accordingly. It took a couple of weeks for the first coins to be minted and pushed out to the public who wondered what the hell they were for. Since, there was no radio or televisions to speak of flyers were handed out throughout the respective camps in the Washington DC area. They simply stated the value of the each coin which was backed up by the actual metal content and the government guaranteed them. They also went onto state that government employees would be paid with these coins and any payments to the government must be done with the coins, not that there were a lot of things people were buying from the government but that was changing too. In order to get people to use the new money the government was going to open their own stores to sell off much of the items they had collected from the stores right after the event. They would be able to under-sell some of the civilian stores that were gouging people and in so doing draw more people into using the new money. They could also sell their crops and livestock to these government stores at a set price and in turn receive that payment in the new money. It got off to a rocky start but eventually it took and people started using the new coins, people in general hate change, eventually they adapt and everything works itself out, at least in this case it did.

  Finally, when the two passenger trains left union station, one headed for Bethesda and the other headed for Alexandria was a bright sunny day for President Washington, things were starting to look a bit better every day if this worked they would be able to move and find out what was going on with the rest country. It had taken almost a year to get this far and they certainly had come a long way at least that’s how he felt. As President Washington stood there on the platform at union station watching the two trains depart Jake stepped up, “Sir we’ve got two radios that work.”