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

by Steven Linde

  The Admiral reminded both the Captain and Commander to work closely with the Air Force there were only going to be so many slots available, not to send the entire fleet because people didn’t have anything to do. He stated that he will be working with Navy personnel management to rotate personnel between what ships they have now, what ships they will have in the future and air-stations. In addition, Treasure Island and other areas around the San Francisco Bay area would be re-opening under the Navy’s control and those new bases will need to be manned. Admiral Meyer asked Commander McDonald if he was finished with his portion of the briefing, Commander McDonald answered in the affirmative.

  “Now moving onto new business.” Said Admiral Meyer. “Captain O’Hara I want you to put together a team and head over to the USS Wisconsin in Norfolk. I want the Wisconsin recommissioned as soon as possible.”

  “Excuse me Admiral.” Said Captain O’Hara. “Are you referring to the USS Wisconsin Museum?”

  “Yes Captain I am.” Responded the Admiral. “The USS Hornet, USS Iowa and others were restored and recommissioned under the supervision of the Army. I’m damned sure we can do the job just as well and damn-it we’re the Navy so it should be a hell of a lot easier for us. Is that clear Captain?”

  “Aye, aye sir, is there a timeline for this?” asked Captain O’Hara.

  “Let me put it to you like this Captain. That ship is the current Naval Defense Strategy for the entire East Coast at the moment. As far as I know now we have nothing floating in the water on the entire East Coast that we can use to defend the country.”

  “I hadn’t thought of it that way sir, so that timeline would be now.” Said Captain O’Hara. At that moment Commander McDonald leaned over and spoke to Captain O’Hara quietly. “Seriously?” was Captain O’Hara’s response to Commander McDonald. Commander McDonald simply nodded yes.

  “Admiral I was told a moment ago that the USS Wisconsin is sea worthy now.” Said Captain O’Hara.

  “How do you know that Captain?” asked the Admiral.

  “Sir Commander McDonald told me a moment ago that his father works on the Wisconsin. His father has told him repeatedly that the Wisconsin is ready to go back into to battle on any day of the week.”

  “Alright then, get your team together; it can be civilians such as the Commanders father. From what I understand that’s exactly what happened with the Hornet and Iowa. Let Commander McDonald and the squadron commanders run with the aviation museum, your highest priority Captain right now is getting that ship ready.”

  “Aye, aye sir.”

  There was a few minutes of silence on the radio net, General Charkin came on, “Captain Luxon are you present?”

  “Aye sir.” Stated Captain Luxon.

  “Let’s hear it Captain.” Said the General.

  Captain Luxon by and large being the youngest and least experienced officer in the room and on the net was nervous. He began his briefing like Captain O’Hara on the night of the event and what he and his company were doing. From there he proceeded to discuss the days, weeks and months following the event and what transpired. He explained to the General that most of the Marines in the area were not combat Marines. At that moment General Charkin barked into the microphone startling Captain Luxon, “ALL MARINES are combat Marines Captain!”

  “Yes sir I understand that, let me rephrase they weren’t infantry and I had no authority to change anything I only had my command.”

  “Understood Captain please continue.” Replied the General.

  “I reached out to the Marine aviation commands on Oceana and I was pretty much told to get lost they had their own issues. I was speaking to Major’s, Lieutenant Colonels and Colonels and getting nowhere. My men and I were being overwhelmed with tasking’s, they told me that we’re the infantry and the security of the area was ours.” Captain Luxon was rambling.

  At that moment Captain O’Hara tapped Captain Luxon on the shoulder signaling for him to pass the microphone to him. “General this is Captain O’Hara.”

  “Yes Captain what can I do for you?” stated the General flatly seeming a little peeved at the interruption by Captain O’Hara.

  “Sir I also went to Marine Commanders on base and had the same issues as Captain Luxon did. Even though I outranked most of not all of them I was told to get lost, I was told the Marines don’t take their orders from the Navy. My own people were not qualified to handle what was going on around the base. We were being attacked on all fronts by civilian’s months after the event. We lost a lot of Sailors that weren’t qualified to take the fight to them. The only bright spot to all of this was Captain Luxon and his men taking it upon themselves to go after the bad guys and he was successful. He and his Marines were able to clean out and secure the areas around the base which made it a safe zone for civilians. The civilians recognized this and set up various camps around Oceana and that in turn caused other security problems while at the same time we had the bad guys attacking civilians outside of the safe zone. Captain Luxon and his men were stretched thin. That’s when I approached Captain Luxon with a plan to train up qualified Sailors and prior service personnel to help with the security details. Captain Luxon took some convincing primarily because he’d have to pull at least one platoon from their security patrols to train people. Reluctantly he gave in and it’s been a marvelous success. We couldn’t have done it without the Marines.”

  Again silence for a moment on the radio net, “Thank you Captain O’Hara for filling in some of the gaps for me.” Said a contrite General Charkin, right now he was feeling a bit disappointed and proud at the same time. He felt that the Marine commanders, regardless if they were aviation, quartermaster, it didn’t matter to him they were combat Marines first and should have joined Captain Luxon. At the same time he was very proud that Captain Luxon stepped up and took over all responsibility for the external security of the base, like a Marine should he exercise personal initiative and took the fight to where it needed to be. While at the same time working with the Navy to resolve an important issue and taking further action in working with Captain O’Hara to build qualified security forces.

  “Captain Luxon I’m proud of you son you’ve done an outstanding job it would seem you have the Navy in the palm of your hand.” Said General Charkin.

  There was some laughter at that on both coasts, “Captain Luxon please continue your mission with Captain O’Hara. Within the next month I will be pulling you and your company back for some serious R&R. I will be moving a Marine Battalion over the next month from Pendleton to your location it would help Captain O’Hara if we had a place to put them.” Said General Charkin.

  “Aye sir.” Responded Captain Luxon.

  Captain O’Hara spoke again, “General we have room for them no problem. If you could send an advance team, we can work out the logistics.”

  “Roger that Captain O’Hara.” Replied General Charkin. “Captain O’Hara would you please pass to all Marine Commanders at Oceana and Quantico if you can that at 1500 tomorrow there will be a mandatory meeting for all Marine officers O-4 and above as well as senior NCO’s E-7 and above at the theater on Oceana.”

  “Aye sir, of course but to what end?” asked Captain O’Hara.

  “Please clear a runway, Captain in the next fifteen minutes I’m hoping on a B-29 and coming down. I’m going to have a word with my Marines and it’s not going to be pretty. Captain Luxon you’re promoted to Major you’re not required to make this meeting, please continue on with the mission at hand.”

  “Wait, what?” said Captain O’Hara. “A B-29 are you serious?”

  “As serious as a heart attack Captain.” Said General Charkin.

  “Aye, aye sir we’ll be ready.” Said Captain O’Hara.

  Chapter Forty-Six

  General Toso, General Portson, Sergeant Major McMillian – CSM assigned to Special Operations Center, SFC Harris meet at General Portson’s conference room at 1900 that evening. SFC Harris spent the three hours prior to the meeting scribbling out
notes and talking points for his briefing. He knew that part of the briefing was going to piss off General Toso and surprise the hell out of General Portson. SFC Harris reasoned it didn’t really matter he belonged to the West Virginia National Guard and that was his chain-of-command, he belonged to the State and not the Federal Government. Last time he checked only the President as commander-in-chief and or congress had the ability to federalize the National Guard. That being the case he didn’t really care if he pissed off General Toso, although CSM McMillian was a personal longtime friend they had had served together in Special Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was hoping his friend would understand and really if he didn’t he was going back to West Virginia after the meeting anyway.

  General Portson opened the meeting by introducing Sergeant First Class Harris from the West Virginia National Guard, 19th Special Forces Group. That he and several of his men under order from the Detachment Commander traveled from Kenova. The 19th SF Commander in West Virginia believed that there was an eminent threat to Washington D.C. and sent SFC Harris here to get us all involved. General Portson didn’t want to get to deep into it; he turned the meeting over to Sergeant Harris.

  “I’d like to thank you all for attending the meeting.” Said SFC Harris. “It’s good to see you again Sergeant Major McMillian and it’s a pleasure to meet you General Toso.” SFC Harris made eye contact with everyone in the room as he was speaking.

  General Toso interrupted, “Sergeant Harris why don’t we get right into the problem, what can we do for you?”

  “Yes sir. General Toso are you familiar with an Army National Guard Officer out of Camp Edwards in Massachusetts, a Colonel Magnus?” asked SFC Harris.

  “Why yes I am, he a good friend of mine. Why do you ask?” said Genera Toso.

  This is where it was going to get a bit uncomfortable for SFC Harris, “Sir what is your present relationship with Colonel Magnus?”

  “I’m sorry Sergeant I don’t see how that’s any of your business.” Said General Toso flatly.

  “Sergeant Harris what are you getting at?” asked General Portson.

  “General Portson please bear with me I’m getting to it?” asked SFC Harris.

  General Portson outranked General Toso, although the two Generals belonged to two different commands the Special Operations Center was on his post and he had final say, at least as far as he was concerned. “I’ll give you a little leeway here Sergeant but get to you point now would you please.” Stated General Portson.

  “Yes sir.” Said SFC Harris. “General Toso are you familiar with Operation Condor?” asked SFC Harris.

  General Toso was caught off guard by the question; he shifted a little in his seat, which didn’t go unnoticed by General Portson and Sergeant Major McMillian.

  “I’ve never heard of it.” Replied General Toso.

  It struck General Portson that General Toso didn’t want to know why. SFC Harris shuffled through some papers he had with him, he pulled out several pieces of paper and handed a copy of them to General Portson, General Toso and the Sergeant Major. “General Toso are you sure you’ve never heard of Operation Condor?”

  “Where did you get these?” asked General Portson.

  “As I’ve explained to you sir that once we became aware of Colonel Magnus and his activities we’ve had A-Teams shadowing his forces. In addition, we’ve staged several diversionary attacks and were able to access his headquarters to gather intelligence such as these documents.” Said SFC Harris.

  General Portson didn’t like the idea of not being told by SFC Harris what he was really up to and he had a problem with him attacking another General Officer, “Why didn’t you make me aware of these documents and your intentions when we first met?” asked General Portson.

  “With all due respect General I don’t know where your loyalties are I couldn’t take the chance that if I told you beforehand you would notify General Toso and he could take action against me.” Stated SFC Harris who was taking a hard stance.

  General Portson thought about it a moment and even though he didn’t like SFC Harris’s tactics he couldn’t argue with his logic, he would have done the same thing. “I understand your position and I don’t disagree with it.” Said General Portson.

  SFC Harris reached into his left pants leg cargo pocket and pulled out another letter and handed it over to General Portson. General Portson took the letter, read it, re-read it again. “I thought you told me that you had decided against Washington?” asked General Portson.

  “Yes sir I decided against it, I was very vocal about anyone going to D.C. but the detachment commander overruled my decision and sent a liaison team by Cessna to Washington to meet with the President. Those orders are directly from him.”

  “I see.” Said General Portson. “Who else has seen these?” asked General Portson.

  “Sergeant Major McMillian has a copy, the Provost Marshall has a copy, the commander of the 18th Airborne Corps has a copy, and now you sir.” SFC Harris turned to General Toso and asked again, “Sir what do you know of Operation Condor?”

  General Toso shoulders slumped and he sunk back into his chair, “I know what Operation Condor is.” He simply stated.

  SFC Harris continued, “What is your part in it sir?”

  Colonel Toso sighed and took a deep breath, “I was not to commit any Special Operations

  Forces against Colonel Magnus as they marched south on Washington. I was also to do my best to discourage any use of forces being sent north, from Bragg, to take on Colonel Magnus as they marched on Washington.”

  “Thank you General Toso.” Said SFC Harris.

  General Portson was at a loss, he didn’t know what to think, essentially once of his closest friends had committed treason against the country, he couldn’t believe it. He sat there quietly thinking. SFC Harris got up, walked over to the door and opened it, standing there were several MP’s and four Green Berets, “Please place General Toso under arrest and escort him to the stockade.” Said SFC Harris. “Do not stop any place other than the stockade for any reason. If anyone tries to stop you push through, don’t stop for any reason. Is that clear?”

  All of the men answered in unison, “Yes Sergeant.”

  General Toso stood up, pulled down his ACU shirt, one of the MP’s walked up behind him, “Please place your hands behind your back sir.”

  General Toso did as he was asked, the MP handcuffed the General. With an MP on either side of him, each gripping an arm, he was led out of the conference room, with two Green Berets in front and two in the rear. They escorted General Toso out of the building and loaded him into a Humvee, then left for the stockade. As they exited the room Major General Keith Moon entered, he was Colonel Toso’s executive officer. There was no indication by any of the documents captured from Colonel Magnus that General Portson or General Moon was involved. The Presidents orders had also appointed General Moon the new commander of Special Operations.

  Everyone in the room sat quietly for a moment then General Portson spoke, “Well Sergeant Harris is there anything else?”

  “Yes sir.” Replied Sergeant Harris.

  For some reason General Portson knew he wasn’t ready to hear it but waived him on anyway, “Sir we still have to deal with Colonel Magnus and Fort Bragg right now is the largest military force in the area that is remotely close to Washington.”

  “I don’t see how we can help. We’re too far away?” said General Portson, then he thought a bit more about it, “We do have the trains we can use to get some troops up there.”

  SFC Harris was staring at General Moon, “General Moon Special Operations has the capacity to help don’t they?”

  General Moon knew that SFC Harris was well aware of what each Special Forces component throughout the United States had. “Yes we do.” Said General Moon.

  “I’m sorry.” Said General Portson. “How is that?”

  “We have acres of well stocked underground facilities that were EMP certified, in other words, they were cre
ated in the event we had an EMP attack.” Replied Colonel Moon.

  General Portson’s eyes widened, then anger started to show on his face, “You mean on my post something I knew nothing about?”

  “Yes, they were built and stocked well before you became post commander. We were and still are under Presidential orders not to disclose them to anyone.” Said General Moon.

  “What’s in these underground facilities that can help us?”

  “At last I checked about a hundred black hawk helicopters, forty Apaches Attack helicopters, Armor, well….you name it.”

  “Food and fuel?”

  “Yes and lots of it.”

  General Portson sank back in his seat, it was a lot to take in.

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Colonel Magnus and his forces had cut off all avenues of approach and egress from Fort Indiantown Gap. “Do you think they’ll put up a fight?” asked Lieutenant Colonel Sylvester Warren, 1st Battalion, 181st Infantry Regiment.

  Colonel Magnus was looking through his binoculars toward the front gate which had been blockaded. He scanned to the left and right of the gate and he could clearly make out tank traps, what he thought were minefields and other assorted defenses. His commanders around the area had reported the same things. “Well yeah Sly.” Said Colonel Magnus sarcastically. “Take a look for yourself and you tell me what you see.” Colonel Magnus handed the binoculars to Colonel Warren. Colonel Warren took the binoculars, raised them to his eyes and scanned the area in the same manner Colonel Magnus did, “They’re dug in. Yup, they’re gonna fight.” Said Colonel Warren. It was as simple as that and Colonel Warren handed the binoculars back to Colonel Magnus.

  “Put out the word, meeting today at 1600 Officers only company commanders on up at the TOC.” Said Colonel Magnus.