2024

by H. Berkeley Rourke

  From our place we sledded out some sixty bodies to Charley's place. There was a large truck waiting there to take them to the Missoula burying ground that was getting heavily populated. The four of us then turned with about twenty of our trainees from town toward Alberton to go and help our buddies.

  When we got close enough to the Alberton battleground to see what was happening it was clear our guys had held and were pounding a force that was at the airport in Alberton. We decided to pound them badly. We began dropping sixty and eighty-one millimeter mortars on their evident positions. It was not long before we once again saw a white flag. Allan and I were designated to get close enough to talk. We took an angle through the forest that put us about three hundred yards away and called them on the radio on their principal frequency.

  The radio crackled and a voice came on saying “This is General Wayne Halloran. I am in command of the forces you see arrayed before you in Alberton as well as those occupying Arlee by now. Are you prepared to discuss the terms of your surrender to me at this point in time?”

  It was about as arrogant a piece of military bullshit as I had ever seen. I said to him in return, “General Halloran, the only area your force in Arlee is occupying is the graveyard that is getting full in Missoula. Here are our terms for surrender, which would be your unconditional surrender of all your forces, General.” From a second radio we had on our own net I ordered ten mortar shells to be dropped on top of them. Our boys were getting quite accurate with those things. We saw several bodies fly into the air and after the smoke and fire cleared or was put out the radio came on again. “Do you mean to suggest to me that our force in Arlee has been eliminated?”

  “To a man,” I replied. “Would you like another demonstration of our terms for your immediate surrender of all your troops and equipment, General?”

  “Where would you like those of us who remain to gather?”

  “Just outside the main area of the airport there is an area that is fully lighted with large lamps. Do you know where it is, General?” “Yes, yes I know where it is.”

  “You will march your men in good order and appropriate ranks to that spot, General. There will be a large truck waiting there for you. Into that truck you will deposit every rifle, missile, mortar, pistol and all ammunition for the same. No man in your unit will keep even so much as a K-bar. Do you understand quite clearly, General?”

  “Yes, I understand.”

  “You have ten minutes to start your march, sir. On the exact moment of the eleventh minute you will be attacked again. Is that clear?”

  “May we keep our clothing, our uniforms?”

  “When you arrive and have deposited all your arms and ammunition in the truck that will be provided you will strip your uniforms and drop them on the ground. When they have been cleared away and burned you will be provided with some civilian clothing that will enable you to survive long enough to get back to Couer d' Alene if you wish to go there. If you choose you may walk toward the Oregon border instead. But that will be after we have had a little conversation, sir. Is that all clear to you?”

  “Yes, yes it is quite clear.”

  “Here is a little something to think about while you are completing the requirements we have just given you, sir.” At that point one of our snipers in the tree line near us took the General's helmet off with a thirty caliber round. He didn't hit the General, just the helmet the General wore. I said to him at that point, “You are not a soldier, sir. You are a civilian. You will not put that helmet back on your head again. If you do the next round will go between your eyes. Get with it Mr. Halloran.”

  Halloran gathered what was left of his force in the area that we had designated within the allotted time and they were damned fast about getting their weapons loaded in our truck and their clothes off them and in a pile. Once that was done we had some of our people go down, move them to a hangar facility where they would be given civilian clothing and sent on their way on foot. There were slightly less than one hundred of them that we dressed. Halloran was brought in this process to a private office where Allan and I awaited.

  “Sit down Mr. Halloran,” Allan told him. “We have some questions for you. And you will answer our questions Mr. Halloran. If you do not you will simply be executed. Is that clear enough?”

  “Yes. What do you want to know?”

  “First of all, how many troops did you commit to the attacks along these roads through Arlee and Alberton, sir?”

  “Just under one thousand actually. We had a total of four Bradley fighting units and/or another form of armored vehicle that we committed to Arlee along with several armored Humvees.”

  “We want to take the opportunity here to thank you for the armored Humvees Mr. Halloran. We captured all save for one. It simply had too much damage to be useful. But our motor pool people are cannibalizing it as we speak so we will have spare parts for those we are now using. Another thing we need to thank you for is the usage of your mortars. Both the mortar companies you sent down here booked it when they started dying. We have all of that gear now as well.” . “So we noticed when you were raining mortar shells on us a little while ago. How do I refer to you, sir? Are you the commander of the defenders of this area? Who the hell are you people anyway? You have knocked out the finest units we have trained in the past years. Are you some kind of charlatans or what?”

  “You may call me Allan, Mr. Halloran. That will be sufficient information about me. You have no need to know anything else. But thanks so much for the compliments on the outcome of this little three day war. But now Mr. Halloran I would like to know if you plan on going back to Couer d' Alene or heading south?”

  “I will have to head south,” he said. Then he added “If ever I saw the leader of the NSI again he would have me shot. He does not brook failure. His name is Cecil Fordner. He is an ex-CPA who had been involved in the militia for a long time. When the nuclear war came he had a plan. He murdered all his rival leaders and took over the entire encampment within forty-eight hours. I would not be surprised if he is coming here to Alberton tonight, in fact. He often visits the”war" zones to see how his troops are doing."

  “So how many of you do we have to kill before this stops?”

  “How many of us have you killed already?”

  “Look guy you say you came down here with a thousand troops and less than a hundred are going home. Do the math for yourself.”

  “Where the hell did you get all those claymore mines?”

  “That my friend is none of your business. But we need to know if your 'leader' is going to send more troops down here and if so with what equipment and in what numbers?” “Of this you maybe be sure Mr. Allan,” Halloran replied, “there are many more troops available to him. And he is most likely going to keep sending them this direction. He has a strategy. His strategy necessitates that he control his eastern flank. You are his eastern flank. Therefore you must be under his control. If you are not he will continue to attack until you are. It's that simple.”

  “What kinds of equipment does this guy have other than the Bradley's we have already destroyed? Does he have any heavy tanks?”

  “Not that I am aware of. But remember he is working toward the west as well as the east. His push, when we started here was to solidify this flank and then attack and take Spokane. Once he had Spokane and this flank was not exposed he could go south to Boise. So you are in the cutting edge of his plans. So far he has committed over one thousand troops down here. I think he has another two or maybe three thousand in his command. There are more Bradley fighting vehicles and there are more heavily armored and armed Humvees. Since you have eliminated the forces on the Arlee side I would guess a heavier push will come that way until the boys from this side make it back to his lines. That would be about thirty miles west of Alberton. When that will happen I cannot tell you.”

  “Okay Halloran. Walk. Take off. Go south, go west, go whatever direction you wish but do not ever show your face in this area again. If you do you
will find an early grave.” Halloran left, headed toward Missoula. He would be escorted through town when he got there. He had about thirty men with him. The rest of them headed east. We gathered all their weapons and ammunition, including what was left of the mortars.

  We took the two badly damaged Bradley fighting vehicles onto a flat bed truck and hauled them back to Missoula where they would be parted out or maybe an attempt to repair one of them might take place. We already had a lot of parts for the Bradley and weapons to mount on any we could make serviceable. Actually if we could find a way to use the thirty-seven millimeter guns they mounted it would give us some additional stronger firepower. The guys in Missoula would be working twenty-four hours a day to try and achieve that purpose.

  Dad, Dan, Jim and I headed back to our “fortress.” We would not be able to stay long. There were preparations to be made. But we needed to rest, recharge our batteries with some good home cooking and make contact with some people other than those we were killing or who were trying to kill us. The battles of the “militia” wars had been fought for nearly a year. The warfare was beginning to take a toll on our minds.

  We got home to find the kids playing outside for a change. We had been able to cannibalize some radar from one of the Bradley fighting vehicles that gave us a little warning about planes or helicopters in the area. The women had become very proficient in its operation. Dan and Jim played with the kids for a time to give dad and I time to reconnect with our wives for a moment. Neither of them were married though both had been at one time or another in their careers as Marine Corps Recon fighters. We hoped to be able to convince them to stay in the area when the fighting was over. There were a lot of single women there now and not many eligible men. But there were no guarantees for any of us that life would continue at that point. We had to anticipate, deal with the learning power of the enemy and set new kinds of traps.

  Chapter 12

  Assault, Run, Assault, Run, It Becomes a Way of Life

  Dad always was thinking of new ways to create traps for the NSI. He came up with a really interesting idea that we decided to follow up on. Just outside the woods, not more than a hundred yards or so away from a forest so dense it was difficult to see into its body in daylight, we dug some trenches about fifteen feet wide and about fifteen feet deep. These were not for personnel particularly but would be if they were stupid enough to get into them. And in the bottom we set punji stakes of course but also anti-tank mines and anti-personnel mines as well. The mines could be exploded remotely or by contact.

  It took us the better part of two days to complete the trenches and to put lattice works over them that would hold enough flora and forest trash to make them look like they were the same as the rest of the ground around them. We placed these trenches about two hundred yards away from the on/off ramps for Arlee. Our thoughts were that the NSI people might avoid the road completely this time and crash through the forest. So we set some claymores to get their attention at the edge of the forest. We wanted those devices to drive them further into the forest and line them up with the trenches.

  We expected them to lead with their armor this time. And they did, coming right through the forest as we had hoped, right straight at the traps. We had placed some IED's along side the road as well. We caught some of their troops in the open areas on the edge of the forest, popped some claymores at them that drove them deeper into the forest and onward they came. It was hard to tell how many they were this time because most were in the forest. Those we saw on the road were in pick-ups with fifties mounted on their tops, firing indiscriminately in every direction. They actually fired within ten feet of the four of us at one point. We watched them with high powered spotter scopes and glasses. Dan and Jim were once again our snipers. We equipped them both with fifty caliber rifles and regular Remington 700's this time so they could shoot at a little longer distance.

  As the pick-up trucks began to come toward the town, down the highway, four Bradley fighting vehicles broke through the trees almost simultaneously. Dan and Jim had been playing with the trucks, killing their gunners and then shooting the drivers. Two of the pick-ups lay on their sides, on fire. Around them were scattered a number of injured and dead. None of them would fight that day. The rest of the trucks, and we could hear more, stayed out of sight further behind those that had been destroyed already.

  The Bradley fighting vehicles fired their thirty-seven millimeter cannon into the town for a few minutes, looked things over and being on what appeared to be flat ground that could be covered quickly they kicked off toward us at a high rate of speed with a large body of troops following. The four pieces of armor hit the ditch at the same time and went in fast and head first. It looked to me as though when they went in they likely stuck their noses in a downward trajectory into the bottom of the ditch or maybe the wall opposite of their entry points. Maybe fifty troops spilled in after them. We fired off the anti-tank mines we had placed in the ditch as well as some claymores that had been in the wall of the ditch. Nothing came out. Not many men came out. Those that did we shot with our sniper rifles.

  There were fires burning below quite evidently and we began to hear ammunition cook off. We had placed some charges into the slope they buried into. We let them off and buried the Bradley fighting vehicles under an avalanche of dirt. That must have really pissed off the main body of the assault force which came roaring down the road firing in every direction.

  Jim and Dan killed several of the drivers with their fifty caliber rifles. That caused a couple of wrecks that left many laying around again. We started mopping them up one at a time. We meant to leave them with no troops left to fight one way or another. We figured that if we killed enough of those bastards that the rest would either desert their dictatorial leader or would refuse to fight us again.

  But the main body this time was a large body of troops. There were probably at least three to four hundred of them. Later we heard that another five hundred tried to attack Allan and his forces on the other side near Alberton. So they had thrown another one thousand lives to the wolves with no results again. As the large body of the troops broke out of the woods and came down the roads we ate them up with automatic weapons fire from fifty caliber machine guns, light automatic weapons and SAW's. There were no more than fifty of them still firing at us when they began to run back toward the west. I don't think any of them ever saw us or figured out where we were located so they could try to drop mortars or artillery on us. But they did shell the town of Arlee after this battle was over. They shelled it for an hour or more and then it grew quiet again. I think they were waiting to see what we would do.

  We did nothing. We watched, we waited, we stayed under cover of the forest, in our prepared positions that overlooked the Arlee valley. After an hour or so of shelling they apparently decided to send out some patrols. There were three patrols that we saw. I don't think there were any others. Each of the patrols had five men in them and they looked to be better at moving in the forest than any we had seen before that day.

  We let them go into town. There was nothing there to benefit them save for some buildings that they might want to try and use to house troops or equipment. Apparently they decided we had gone. They did not come into the forest on the south side of town where we waited. Hell I don't think they had a clue where we were. But one of the patrols did make an apparent attempt to flank us. We left Dan and Jim to deal with any potential from the ten that were now in town and went to the area closer to the highway where once again we had layered defenses.

  It was getting near to dark when the five that had gone south along the west side of the road came out of the forest and started to cross the road. We took them in order as they cleared cover, last to first. They laid down and we policed their weapons and ammunition and went back to where Dan and Jim were having some fun, or at least it sounded as though they were having fun. When we approached their position we saw three more coming in a pincer type movement through the woods. They were less carefu
l than their cohorts and paid a silently mortal price for their efforts. We took their weapons, went on back to where Dan and Jim were doing the same from a group of bodies just outside the tree line.

  As I came out of the trees I said “Weren't you concerned about the other three?”

  Dan smiled at me and said “Nah, we heard you coming. We knew you would take care of them. How many are there all totaled,” he asked.

  "I count fifteen more here but there is a mess in that ditch and beyond in the trees across the valley. I guess we will have to leave that until tomorrow though. But let's get these out of here into a house we can burn with them in it. Dad and I went back and got the others in the forest and out by the road, put them on a sled and took them with their brethren to a house that was pretty much useless. We burned it and a lot of loose lumber near it with the bodies inside, watched it for a moment after starting the fire and then went home for the night. No more of them came that night. But the next day they changed their tactics again.