Heroes Proved

by Oliver North

  James and the DEA agents were on the pair in an instant. While Nieves and his men hastily disarmed the semiconscious shooter, Newman pulled Doan’s limp body off the unconscious Iranian. Seeing bright red blood pouring from the retired Marine sergeant major’s nose and mouth, James knelt, then sat beside him. Cradling Doan’s head in his arms, Newman yelled, “Corpsman up! Corpsman up!”

  “Doc” Smith was there in an instant, carrying his Unit One. As the medic began cutting away Doan’s shirt to get at the entry wounds, he heard James saying softly, “Dear God, not again, not again.”

  SON RIVER RANCH

  FORT SHAW, MT

  SATURDAY, 25 SEPTEMBER 2032

  There were eight of them: Peter and Rachel Newman, James and Sarah Newman, Mack and Angela Caperton, and Marty and Julia Cohen—all seated on the Capertons’ West Porch, savoring the sunset over Twin Peaks on the Continental Divide. As the golden ball slipped below the crests and the temperature dropped, Rachel pulled a light sweater over her shoulders and said quietly, “It really is America the Beautiful.”

  “Yes it is,” Caperton replied. “It gives new meaning to the words ‘Purple mountain majesties’ . . . Hopefully, the last two weeks will serve as a reminder why that poem by Katherine Lee Bates and set to music by choirmaster Samuel Ward is in so many hearts and hymnals.”

  At this Sarah said, “What do you mean, Uncle Mack?”

  “Well, the entire song is actually a prayer for our country. In the days ahead we’re going to need a lot of prayers.”

  Now the admiral spoke: “Give us your sense for how you see things going, Mack.”

  Caperton sighed, nodded, and said, “At least we now have a chance of doing the right things.

  “It’s pretty clear the decision to bring the Speaker of the House to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue on the evening of September 20 was one of the few wise decisions made at the White House in the days after the attack on 9-11-32.

  “President Cassidy seems to be off to a pretty good start under the most adverse circumstances. He immediately canceled all his predecessor’s secret Capture/Kill orders and Emergency Action Directives. Though it looks like nearly a million dead from the September 20 attack, power failures, riots, and pillaging on the East Coast, he’s not imposed martial law. The flood of National Guardsmen, law officers, food, water, and medical supplies from unaffected states in the West and South seems to be returning a semblance of law and order. But if electricity can’t be restored in the Northeast between now and winter, things are likely to get a lot worse for tens of millions of Americans before they get better.”

  “Mack, there are so many Americans hurting right now. Is that what the Iranians wanted to accomplish with the attack on Houston and their nuclear missile over Lake Ontario? Is it all about killing Americans and making us suffer?” Julia asked.

  “That’s the primary motive for what the Iranians did. Their apocalyptic vision is pure evil. They may have been hoping for a nuclear counterstrike,” the senator replied. “At the very least the Ayatollahs were carrying out their threat to punish us for supporting a Sunni Caliph and for what we did to them back in 2025. Retribution is a big deal in Tehran. Looking back, we should have paid attention when they said they could stop the president from getting reelected.”

  “But why kidnap Marty?”

  “Iran is running out of oil, and they know it. Their ‘fall-back,’ if we didn’t annihilate them for attacking us, was to learn the secret to building commercially viable fuel cells and sell them. That’s why they had their Quds Force assets in Canada kill Dr. Long and try to kill Dr. Templeton.”

  “How big is the Iranian intelligence network Mack?” asked Rachel.

  “Well, based on the numbers involved in the attack on Houston and corroborating information we’re getting from the two Iranians and the Mexican drug lord James delivered to Texas, the IRGC operational arm is very extensive here in the U.S., in every European country and throughout the western hemisphere. That’s why this ‘drone-killing’ program has been counterproductive. A ‘take no prisoners’ policy kills some terrorists—but dead terrorists don’t talk and we get no new human intelligence. . . .”

  “Was the White House chief of staff who killed himself one of them?”

  “Apparently not. It seems he was very close to the Caliph—in many ways. But he was also a committed ‘jihadi,’ loyal to a foreign leader.”

  “What’s going to happen to the other White House conspirators who are still at large?” Sarah asked.

  “Well, Turner is in custody and singing to prosecutors in hopes of a plea deal. Walsh and Keker are on the run—but they will probably get caught and eventually tried. Given what we now know about what was going on at the White House, it’s providential we were spared a very messy impeachment trial.”

  “There’s no doubt about that,” Peter added. “But the question remains where we go from here.”

  “True,” said Mack. “I think Cassidy’s decision to temporarily move the seat of government to Dallas was wise. Even though we lost our best sources about what was happening at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, it’s pretty clear our new president has cleaned out the rat’s nest from the previous criminal cabal in the White House and the top levels of the administration.”

  “What do you mean, ‘lost’ our best sources?” James asked.

  “Well, your mom’s friend Frances James quit the Secret Service in Chicago that morning and surrendered her badge and gun to her supervisor before Air Force One took off. And I lost my best source when the plane went down. He was the one I turned to when I needed to confirm information I received from others. He didn’t always know everything the president was doing to break the law, because she and her coterie of liars and traitors tried to keep him ‘out of the loop.’ But he was a great help and we met regularly in his office on the Senate side of the Capitol.”

  “So who was it?”

  Caperton arched his eyebrows and said, “The vice president.”

  There was a moment of stunned silence before James asked, “So why do you have any confidence Cassidy will do any better? He’s a ‘Progressive’ just like his predecessor.”

  Caperton nodded and said, “True. But so far—and I know it’s only a few days—he’s doing a lot of the right things the right way. He’s nominated a new cabinet. I know some of his nominees to be men and women of integrity and real-world experience who love America and believe in free enterprise. I know two of those he wants to bring in are “Believers”—they wear the sign of the fish and they are supporters of restoring the First and Second Amendments. Perhaps best of all, he has asked our old roommate, Dr. Cohen, to become our next Secretary of Energy.”

  At this Julia smiled and said, “He may not want Marty once he finds out that the fuel cell Marty and his colleagues were working on doesn’t work.”

  “Is that true about the fuel cell?” Peter asked.

  Cohen nodded and said, “Yeah. That’s why I was in Houston for the big energy conference on September eleventh. The cesium rare earth ‘hydrogen-oxygen separation device’ Steven Templeton, Davis Long, and I were working on is far too expensive to be economically viable. I was there to make the announcement—and urge our best course of action would be to press ahead with conversion of abundant, inexpensive, domestic natural gas into methanol as a motor fuel—and of course build nuclear reactors for electrical power.”

  “Who else knew that’s what you were going to say?”

  “Only Drs. Templeton and Long. Thankfully, Steven is recovering. I talked to him this morning and he’s agreed we will have a joint press conference to announce our findings after things quiet down.”

  Peter shook his head and said, “Maybe you should make that announcement before the presidential election.” Then, turning to Caperton, he asked, “Mack, are you going to run? We’ve heard from a lot of people out here the last few days who want you to.”

  The senator shrugged and said, “I may not have to decide right away. This morning, bef
ore we went to the funeral, President Cassidy called for Congress to convene in Dallas and vote on postponing the election. He also announced he will not be a candidate. I think it was a smart move. If the election is postponed, I will encourage Texas governor Charles to run.”

  “Have you decided how you are going to vote?” asked Rachel.

  “Not yet, though it’s pretty clear to me that Article One of the Constitution gives Congress the responsibility for setting the time and manner for holding federal elections. Article Two specifies Congress may determine the date for choosing presidential electors—meaning the Electoral College. From my reading of the Constitution it seems as though Congress has the authority to postpone elections to the House, Senate, and presidency because of a national emergency. We are surely in the midst of a national emergency that is likely to continue into next year. But I want to hear the debate.”

  They were all quiet for a while as the shadows lengthened and the glow in the western sky turned gold, then orange, and finally deep purple. With night descending around them, Sarah said, “We better go retrieve our boys before they drive Beth and Sam crazy over at their house. We’re so grateful to you, Mack, for what you and Angela have done for us.”

  As they all stood, Angela replied, “I’m glad we could. You all mean so much to us. The funeral service today was a reminder of how blessed we are as family, as friends, and as Americans. Funerals are hard for us ever since we lost John. But somehow our nation still manages to produce heroes like our son and your husband. They are the reason why the third stanza of ‘America the Beautiful’ is so powerful:

  O beautiful for heroes proved

  In liberating strife,

  Who more than self their country loved

  And mercy more than life.

  “Even though it made me cry, it was important to sing that hymn at Dan Doan’s funeral service this morning. He was one of those heroes.”

  * * * *

  As Rachel and Sarah left to find the young Newman boys and the others filed into the house, James turned to Mack and said, “What did you do with those two lists I gave you back at Pawleys Island? I need to make some revisions.”

  Caperton smiled and said, “I lost them somewhere in the turmoil of the last few days. But you’re right, they weren’t very accurate.”

  “So what do you recommend?”

  “I suggest you get down on your knees next to your wife tonight and every night you are with her. Thank God for all your blessings. Ask her how you can pray for her—and tell her how you would like her to pray for you. You have both been through an awful lot these past few years—particularly since the Houston attacks. Dan Doan’s heroic last act saved Marty Cohen’s life—and very likely yours. All that has to affect you and Sarah as well. Your wife is a remarkable woman. I know of only one other American mother who had to flee when bad people came to kill her and her children because of her husband. She and her husband and their children kept it all together because they started over. It’s time for you and your family to do so as well.”

  “Start over?”

  “Yes. Start over. That’s what all of us must do now. But we’re God-fearing Americans. That’s what we do.”

  Glossary

  ACV. Armored Combat Vehicle

  AFRICOM. U.S. Africa Command

  AG. Attorney General

  AHW. Advanced Hypersonic Weapons

  Anark. From ANARK, acronym for “Anti-American Religious Kooks”—a pejorative phrase devised by political progressives to describe Christians who put duty to God ahead of fealty to government. The term first appeared in U.S. public discourse in the early 2020s. During the 2028 presidential election campaign, I’M AN ANARK—GOD-FAMILY-COUNTRY bumper stickers, buttons, and yard signs were displayed by Christian conservative and Free-Congress candidates and their supporters. After the election, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security declared Anarks to be a “potentially violent, militant, extremist movement with global connections.” In 2030, the Anark movement, estimated to include 12–18 million Americans and up to 30 million worldwide, was declared a “global conspiracy” by the United Nations and largely driven underground.

  ANMCC. Alternate National Military Command Center. Also known as “Site R,” it is located beneath Raven Rock Mountain Complex in Pennsylvania, about six miles from the Presidential Retreat at Camp David. The ANMCC serves as a redundant U.S. military command center in the event communications are lost with the NMCC at the Pentagon. See NMCC.

  APU. Auxiliary Power Unit

  ATF. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives

  BDA. Bomb Damage Assessment

  BOLO. “Be on the lookout,” notification issued by INTERPOL

  Bravo Zulu. Phonetic alphabet for letters “B” and “Z.” In the U.S. Naval Service (Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard) the signal “BZ” means “well done.”

  Cair Paravel. Name of Newman family beach house in South Carolina. Cair Paravel is a mythical place in the Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis.

  Caliph. Title given to a successor or representative of Muhammad with temporal and spiritual authority to govern all Muslims

  Caliphate. The lands and people governed by the Caliph under Sharia law. By 2032 the “Modern Caliphate,” created by United Nations resolution, included all the “Lands of the Prophet” south of the Mediterranean Sea, the entire Saudi Arabian peninsula, Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, the east coast of Africa south to Kenya, and Indonesia. The United Nations also mandated that Muslims living in the British Isles, Western Europe, the Balkan states, Ukraine, Russia, Africa, and the Philippines were to be considered “citizens of the Caliphate” and subject to Sharia law as determined by the Caliph.

  Cas-Evac. Casualty Evacuation

  CENTCOM. U.S. Central Command

  CIA. Central Intelligence Agency

  CONUS. Continental United States

  COS. Chief of Staff

  CP. Command Post

  CSG. Centurion Solutions Group. A privately held U.S. corporation headed by Peter Newman.

  DEA. Drug Enforcement Administration

  DEA FAST. DEA Foreign-Deployed Advisory and Support Team; a task-organized direct-action unit of 4–15 Special Agents, trained and equipped for special operations, dispatched from Quantico, Virginia, to carry out sensitive, high-risk counternarcotics missions.

  DFW. Dallas–Fort Worth International Airport

  DHS. Department of Homeland Security

  DIA. Defense Intelligence Agency; military intelligence-gathering and covert-action arm of the U.S. Armed Forces and the Department of Defense

  DISA. Defense Information Systems Agency

  DNI. Director of National Intelligence

  DOD. Department of Defense

  DOJ. Department of Justice

  DOS. Department of State

  DPS. Texas Department of Public Safety

  DRS. Device Recognition Signal

  DZ (Delta Zulu). Drop zone

  EAM. Emergency Action Message to Nuclear Forces

  E&E. Escape and Evasion

  E-Cell. A sophisticated micro-circuit electronic timing device used in electronic watches and by terrorists to arm or detonate explosive devices

  EEOB. Eisenhower Executive Office Building inside the White House complex

  ELINT. Electronic Intelligence

  EMAC. Electromagnetic Analysis Computer

  EMP. Electromagnetic Pulse

  EMS. Electromagnetic Spectrum

  EOC. Emergency Operations Center

  EPIRB. Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacon

  ESG. Expeditionary Strike Group; a task-organized U.S. naval force with an embarked Marine air-ground combat unit

  EU. European Union

  EWO. Emergency War Order issued by the President of the United States to execute a nuclear strike

  FAA. Federal Aviation Administration

  Fatwa. A legal pronouncement of Islamic law issued by a Muslim cleric

  FBI. F
ederal Bureau of Investigation

  FBO. Fixed Base Operation for noncommercial aircraft

  FCC. Federal Communications Commission

  FCT. Fuel cell Technology

  FEMA. Federal Emergency Management Agency

  FISA. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

  Fitna. Islamic civil war, or literally “a test of faith in times of trial.” Also translated to mean schism, secession, upheaval, and anarchy. It refers to times of trial for Islam, as in the Christian Tribulation. The First Islamic Civil War from 646 to 661 AD was a time of struggle for control of the Caliphate. The Second Fitna, or Civil War, was 683–685 AD.

  FLIR. Forward-Looking Infrared imaging system

  FOC. Fiber-optic circuit

  Frag-O. Fragmentary Operations Order issued by a field commander in the execution of a mission. The order contains a brief description of the friendly and enemy situation, the mission, a concept of how the operation will be conducted, the tasks to be accomplished, and essential logistics and communications information.

  Free-Cong. Abbreviation of “Freedom Congress”—an independent political movement in the United States. The first “Free-Cong” candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate appeared on ballots during the 2024 elections. In 2032, ninety-six members of the House and nineteen senators are declared “Free-Congs” in Congress. Progressives and members of the media often refer to them as “Freakongs.”

  GEX. Global Exchange Currency Units, the new global currency mandated by the United Nations. Singular = gec; plural = gex; symbol = ¤

  GPS. Global Positioning System

  HESCO Barrier. Barrier used by the U.S. military formed by filling a wire mesh container lined with fabric with sand and gravel

  HEU. Highly Enriched Uranium

  HHS. Department of Health and Human Services

  HIPAA. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. One of several laws enacted to protect medical and health information of the American people.