2024

by H. Berkeley Rourke

  The next satellite image we saw was a missile launch from Iran. And a second launch from Iraq? Where in the hell did they get any missiles? It came from the western part of Iraq that had long been under the control of the Sunni insurgents, the ISIS groups. Then a third launch came from Northern Lebanon. The Iron Dome system installed years earlier by Israel shot down the Lebanese launch practically before it was off the ground. The launch from Iraq was handled by a missile frigate in the Sixth Fleet at relatively low altitude. There was a secondary explosion of that missile that was spectacular to see on the satellite photos.

  The third launch, or the first really in that series had come from Iran. It could only be ballistic. A number of Patriot batteries fired at it while it was incoming over first Iraq and then part of Jordan. Jordan even fired at it not knowing if it was meant for Jordan or Israel. The Iron Dome system in Israel flooded the sky with shots at the Irani missile as it fired its own ballistic missile at Teheran.

  It was clear when the Irani missile was finally hit that it had a huge warhead on board or maybe nuclear. Crews were sent to the areas of the debris field that was created from the secondary explosions on that missile. They found radioactive material all over the debris field just as the Israeli missile slammed into the government buildings of the Teheran government.

  Israel launched its entire Air Force at that moment in a defensive maneuver, and many of its planes were armed with air to ground missiles. And many of those missiles contained nuclear warheads. The planes that held the nukes stayed at sea, well away from the coastal defenses of the Lebanese Hezbollah militias and the elements of the Syrian military that still occupied parts of Lebanon. The Syrians, thinking they could take advantage of the situation, attacked the Golan Heights installations of the Israelis. As usual the Israelis used air power and better tanks than the Syrians possessed to beat back those attacks, take the offensive themselves and drive the Syrian forces back to Damascus.

  While the Syrians were attacking Northern Israel the Sunnis in Iraq decided to do the same thing. They tried to go through Jordan. Jordan's forces held long enough to ask the U.S. Fleet for needed air power to stop the attack. It was stopped and pushed back into Iraq with the Sunnis suffering yet another Highway of Death. The Iranians used the attack of the Sunnis to bring most of their Republican Guard units into Iraq. They numbered over one hundred thousand. When the Sunnis limped back toward Tikrit the Shia Irani forces attacked with heavy artillery, tanks and air power and decimated the Sunni forces. Kalil's ploys were at an end and the best he and his cronies could do at that juncture was escape into Syria. The Iranians, allied at that point with the Shia of Iraq.

  The Syrians welcomed their fellow Sunni fighters and stopped the attacks of the Irani forces at the Syrian border roughly. While all this was going on a missile weapons platform was reconstructed in Israel that had Iran's markings all over it. And two of the three warheads that had not exploded out of the seven on the platform, were found to be nuclear. Israel started diplomatic measures against Iran right away. It also launched an air raid that leveled the entire complex from which the Iranian missiles had been launched at Israel. Seeing all this happening I kept thinking to myself that sooner or later sane and calmer heads are going to prevail. But I was so very wrong about that.

  My folks lived in Omaha for a long time. It is the nerve center of the Strategic Air Command, or the missile and bomber command of the U.S. Air Force. I don't know why but I told them to get out of Omaha that day, the day of the first explosion in Donetsk. They took me at my word. They were both retired and had developed a piece of property in the mountains near Missoula, Montana. That is where they went.

  The day of the missile attack on Israel I sent my wife and children to Butte, Montana where they were picked up by my folks after a three part flight out of Philadelphia. I was nearly too late. But mom and dad, and my kids and my wife, were safe in the mountains of Montana. Then I decided it was time for a vacation myself, and I took off by car from Washington, D.C. Gas prices steadily went higher every day. It was the same for food. Had I waited one more day, I would never have made it through Nebraska.

  The Iranians in Iraq began to rain down missiles containing regular high explosive warheads on Israel as soon as they had control of virtually the entire country of Iraq. As that happened I sent my wife and kids away. Russia began to put long diatribes on television against the United States and continued to blame the U.S. for the Ebola outbreak and the explosion of a nuclear weapon in Donetsk. They promised retaliation. They delivered one piece of that retaliation by sinking two missile cruisers and damaging a nuclear aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean Sea.

  The attack came from at least two dozen air fired SSN-22-Sunburn missiles. The frigates and cruisers were able, along with the aircraft carrier to shoot down all but three with various defensive systems. The three missiles hit the two cruisers. One other missile was destroyed by a defensive gun so close to the carrier that its detonation damaged the superstructure of the carrier. There was a predictable outcry from around the U.S. and a lot of very loud and courageous talk from white haired old men who would not fight if war started, who had never fought but would be perfectly willing to send some other person's child off to war. War was already started according to them. My guess is that their sons and daughters, for the most part, would never know anything about war.

  The military power structure was openly critical of President Clinton when she did not respond to this attack within 24 hours with at least as severe a bombing of Russian assets. Much of that time she was on the phone with Putin. Secretary of State Warren was everywhere on television. Pleading for sanity and willingness to look past this affront. But none of that made any difference.

  The aircraft carrier was still launching planes even though damaged. And the frigates and destroyers that protected the carrier from subs and aerial attacks still had cruise missiles at their disposal as well as defensive missiles. And they used them in immediate response to the Russian attack without reference to the attempts at diplomacy. Their attack was on the Russian fleet in the Black Sea, most of which was docked at Sevastopol. And the attack was devastatingly effective. Nearly the entire Russian fleet of ships that sailed on top of the water were sunk in one blow. The tunnels in Sevastopol housing the remaining Russian submarine fleet were also closed by this attack from the Sixth Fleet ships. Aerial warfare between the American carrier based planes and Russian land based planes began at the same time the fleet responded to the Russian missile attack. Everything diplomatic went awry. Putin slammed the phone in the ear of the president and screamed in Russian at her that she would not live to regret this attack on his country. The rest of the response was predictable as well and triggered nuclear war all over the planet. Russia launched first thinking it would be able to destroy the few remaining Minutemen missiles that the U.S. had in silos in Montana and the Dakotas. Russia's initial strike was at those silos as well as at Thunder Mountain and Omaha along with Washington, D.C. The anti-missile system that the U.S. had begun to develop under President Reagan and continued to perfect from that point on in time worked very well. One Russian missile was launched at Washington, D.C. It failed to come close to the United States after being partially destroyed by an anti-missile strike.

  The numbers of ICBMs that the Russians launched were an extreme surprise to the military leaders of the U.S. Several Russian missiles struck Omaha despite heavy anti-missile successes. Several Russian missiles struck the areas of the silos in Montana and the Dakotas but were unsuccessful in destroying the Minuteman sites which had answered with a launch less than ten minutes after the first missile came off Russian soil. Satellite observation of the Russian launch made the defense of the U.S. much more effective. The Russians did not launch EMP strikes at satellites as they were afraid of killing their own eyes in the sky as well as those of the U.S.

  Pakistan, seeing this occurring on its satellites, launched against New Delhi and other targets in India. India launche
d against Pakistan. Russia launched more missiles southward toward Israel. Israel struck back. Iran tried to launch again but failed when stealth bombers from Israel destroyed its launch facilities. Israel launched or sent low flying aircraft carrying nuclear weapons against Iran, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.

  All over the Mediterranean standard weaponry flew in every direction. Russia hit Germany, France and England as well as the United States. France and England struck back seeing the launches against their countries. Millions upon millions of tonnage of explosive power was unleashed all over the world in what seemed to many as the start of Armageddon. But it was not the end. Instead, it was the beginning.

  BOOK I

  THE TREK,

  WAR BEGINS AT HOME

  In war, attack is the secret of defense;

  defense is the planning of an attack.

  Great results can be achieved with small forces.

  Sun Tzu, The Art of War

  Chapter 1

  Heading West

  It was not that I was foretelling any of the events that occurred, the god-awful devastation that took place that caused me to leave Washington. It's just that I wanted to take off and see my folks, my kids and my wife again before… before… oh hell it was so evident that it was coming to us all in D.C. I got out when I could. And my kids and my wife and my parents all were sent to a safe place because I had the sense to tell them to get out while the getting was good. Many of us did. Some, the unlucky ones, didn't or didn't get out themselves. It was the second round of missiles, bombers, submarine launched destruction that seemed to destroy our whole damn world. By then I was with my family.

  As I crossed the Mississippi River into Nebraska and cruised west of Omaha to near the border of Nebraska, Colorado and Wyoming I saw the blooms of the missiles that hit Omaha. I was lucky at that point. I had been able to fill up with gas twice after seeing the hits. I knew what they were but there was still electric power to the towns where I stopped in Wyoming. And people apparently either were not aware yet of the blasts in Omaha or didn't know what to do about them yet. I was seeing a lot of uniforms by then, a lot of camouflage, a lot of army equipment. I took the southern route across Wyoming on I-80 because I thought maybe Montana and the Dakotas might have gotten hit the same time as Omaha. That turned out to be a good deduction as I would find out later.

  My assumption from seeing the uniforms was that the military units of the National Guard and Reserve units had been called up and were mobilizing to protect the people from themselves. It seemed evident that martial law was on the way. I hoped to make it past Idaho Falls before running into roadblocks. In that again I was lucky. About half way out of Idaho Falls and Dillon, Montana, where again I had gotten gas and a little food, as I headed toward Missoula on I-15 I got stopped in a long line of cars and trucks.

  The wait was long. Almost all the cars that were in front of me, or so it seemed to me, turned around and headed back toward the south right away after coming to the actual roadblock. When I was about three cars away I could see there was a roadside rest stop next to the highway into which a few cars were being diverted before being allowed to proceed north. The rest of the cars were being told to turn around. I was still in Idaho but just barely.

  The roadblock was being operated jointly by the Idaho State Police and the army as far as I could tell. I only saw regular patrol officers of the Idaho State Police but there were a couple of U.S Army trucks there that had machine guns mounted on them as well as searchlights. The machine guns had cartridge belts fed into them that I could see from the roadblock. When I was two cars from the stop a policeman came by my car and said to me “Where are you headed?”

  I replied “Missoula.”

  He said, “Pull into the roadside rest when you get to the entrance. You will be given instructions and information there.” I followed his directions when I got into the rest stop area, where there were not a lot of cars, and where most of the people were walking toward one of the buildings in the center. It looked like a set of bathrooms but it had a kiosk in the center with maps and information boards. That was in between two buildings which turned out to be the restrooms. As I stopped at the direction of another patrol officer he pointed me into a parking slot and walked to my car as I got out and stood up. He said to me “Assume the position.”

  I had no idea what he meant. I made a gesture with my hands meaning what? He said “Turn around, put your hands on top of the car, lean forward and back up with your feet until you can feel tension in the back of your legs.” I followed his instructions very carefully. He had a hand on a pistol the entire time. When I was in position he searched me, cuffed me and stood me beside my car. He took my keys, turned the engine of for a moment, searched the interior of my car, got out and searched the trunk after opening it and turning the engine off, then came back to me and un-handcuffed me.

  As he took the cuffs off me I asked “What's going on? I don't mean to be a smart ass, but why all this?”

  “We have had some militia boys try to come through here carrying a lot of weapons,” he said, “so we are being a little careful. Some of them thought they would establish a different authority than the government. So we are making sure no one else gets a chance to try and do that, at least not in this area. Okay, go to the center of the buildings and listen to what they are saying there. What is your final destination?”

  “Just on the other side of Missoula in the area of Frenchtown.”

  “Yeah. I know that area pretty well. I have done some deer hunting up there. Okay. You seem to have enough gas to get there easily. But you might get some here from the Rangers if you need it. You won't find any more gas available as you head up there at all. You will be allowed to go to Missoula, but you are likely to be stopped by roving patrols. On the other side of Missoula somewhere up by Kellog, Idaho there will be another roadblock you will have to go through if you go that far. You should not try to do that. We will be sending the information on your car to that roadblock and if you get there, after what you have told me here you will be turned around. Go ahead now and listen to the instructions they are giving up there.”

  As I walked to the area between the bathrooms I saw a man and a woman talking quietly with a group of twenty or thirty others. They had not started the group session yet. As I stepped up behind the rest they began. The man said “Hi folks. My name is Ray Wheaton. My friend here is Mona James. We both work for the State of Idaho as park rangers. We have been asked to tell you what is going on as it has been given to us by the patrol and the army.” The woman just waved a little kind of friendly hello gesture and said nothing.

  Ray continued saying “It is true that the United States has been attacked by Russia. It is also true that many other countries are involved in an exchange of nuclear weapons and regular war-like actions. In fact Montana was hit in several places to the east and north of Butte. Likewise a lot of places in North and South Dakota have been hit as well. Had you told the officer at the roadblock that you were headed east or toward Yellowstone, or toward the Dakotas, you would have been told to go home and turned around. Since you are headed west and no strikes have come to the west coast yet we are going to let you go on as far as you can. There are some problems you will have to be aware of though.”

  There was some milling around, some coughing, some gasps during the first part of Ray's comments. I was not surprised by his announcement about the nuclear strikes. I had seen the blooms above Omaha. But I had been lucky enough to have enough distance between Omaha and my car that the EMP results of the blasts did not kill my car. And I was not surprised to know that eastern Montana and the Dakotas had been hit as well. After all the few Minuteman Missiles we had left had been in hardened silos in those places.

  Ray continued. He said, “You folks that are headed toward Missoula will be directed immediately onto the appropriate road as you leave Dillon, Montana. You will be able to stay on I-15 that far. But please do not try and go off the highway between here and there.
Militias have taken control of a number of communities in Idaho and Montana. We think Dillon might be one of those. We are not even sure that our normal law enforcement or even our laws still exist in some places in Idaho and Montana. So as you drive north and especially after you begin to go through the mountains into Missoula be very careful. If you see a car stopped do not, I repeat, do not stop to see if you can help unless it is a patrol car and only then if you can see two officers. All our police cruisers will travel with two officers from now on, everywhere in Montana, Idaho, everywhere on the west coast and eastward as far as there is an eastward. And we just don't know about that other than Omaha. It is gone.”

  Someone in the crowd asked, “What do you mean Omaha is gone?”

  “Exactly what I said. Omaha does not exist any longer. Up to three and maybe more missile strikes hit that area with high yield weapons. It has been obliterated. Okay. If any of you need gasoline we are authorized to let you fill your tanks from our stores here. Once that is gone though you will not find any gasoline available anywhere again. Did you understand what I just said?”

  Everyone nodded and shuffled off toward their cars. Some of them had children along with them. Some of the children and the women were crying. I heard one of them say to her husband, “Oh God, my sister, her family, oh God, Gene, they must all be gone.” She burst out in sobs then. One of the men walked over to the officer who had searched me and said, “I had a pistol in my car that you took from me. Can I have it back? We might need it for our protection.”

  “No. We are trying to disarm everyone with guns. We don't want any more weapons to fall into the hands of the militias than they already have. If you are stopped by a militia group and you try to fight them you will be killed along with everyone in your family save maybe your oldest daughter. If you have nothing they need, no guns or ammunition perhaps they will not bother you. No one will be allowed to have guns once we get them all collected unless there is a necessity for an armed force to be gathered together from the survivors amongst you. And that decision is way over my pay grade.”