• • •
A week before the planned Moscow barracks raid, the thirty-member Keane Team and the forty-eight-member Moscow Maquis rendezvoused at a hilltop north of Troy for final coordination and to conduct rehearsals. Since their two units were the intended spearhead for the upcoming raid, rehearsals were critical. They had arranged the rendezvous with two short radio transmissions. The transmissions were under thirty seconds each, consisting of a few four-letter code groups read aloud.
At 4 a.m. the morning after they made their rendezvous, a call on a 500-milliwatt Maxon headset radio came in from the western picket triad. “We have movement. Definitely men on foot. Stand to. Will advise.”
The “stand to arms” order was quietly and rapidly passed around the defensive doughnut. Within a minute, a second call came in, “I can see them clearly through my NVGs. Most are carrying M16s. They’re all wearing Kevlars and digital pattern camos. Definitely looks like Federals, at least a platoon strength unit. With as much noise as they’re making, probably a lot bigger.”
The night watch officer radioed back to the picket, “Execute night-defense plan Alpha.” His platoon sergeant heard the command, and echoed it in whispers to the triads on either side of the command bunker. Each triad in succession passed it down the line in both directions, verbally. The watch officer muttered to himself. “Federals? Man! This is going to get ugly. Why couldn’t it be the French or Italians? The Federals must have DFed us.”
Hearing the radio command, the picket teams from the south and north immediately pulled into the main defensive doughnut, which stretched eighty-five yards along a ridge. The east picket triad stayed in place, as did the one to the west. The west pickets were not spotted as the Federals passed by their well-camouflaged foxhole, which sat under a clump of hawthorn bushes.
Under the Alpha plan, the pickets were not to fire unless fired upon. Their job was to wait until contact with the main doughnut occurred, and then to fire on the attackers from the rear, to produce confusion. The pickets generally called this role a “DIP” (Die in Place). Few expected an isolated triad to ever survive a night raid by a large enemy force.
The Federals continued their advance, directly toward the Keane Team’s doughnut. The radio man at the west picket called out the distance from the doughnut: “500 meters… 450… 400 meters… they’re moving fast… 300 meters.” The watch officer switched frequencies on his Maxon and radioed, “Hit the west strobes, now!” A twelve-year-old girl in one of the western-most foxholes of the main doughnut sounded a warning blast with a boater’s air horn, gave a silent two count, closed her eyes, and pulsed the strobe lights three times, at five-second intervals. The six commercial photography strobe lights were wired to the limbs of trees two-hundred-and-fifty meters forward of the doughnut, and twenty meters apart. They were set up to flash in unison. The first flash caused the image intensifier tubes on the Federals’ starlight scopes and NVGs to shut down. The series of flashes also ruined the approaching Federal troops’ night vision for several minutes. Some stumbled and fell. There were numerous curses and shouts of surprise.
With their recent training, the defenders recognized the air horn signal, and waited with their eyes shut during the three flashes, counting aloud. Then, with well-rehearsed precision, the Keane Team launched a counterattack, while the less practiced Moscow Maquis members held their places. The Keane Team ran down the hill directly at the Federals, in triad formation.
The air horn sounded again. The charging guerrillas knew that this second blast was a ruse to get the Federals to close their eyes for another fifteen seconds. During this time, the six triads of guerrillas continued down the hill directly into the lead Federal platoon, firing with discriminate care. They fired two shots at each soldier, mowing down most of the lead platoon like a hay cutter. The few survivors turned and ran. Overestimating the size of the counterattack, the middle company of Federals also panicked and ran. They ran headlong into the trail formation.
Thinking that these were guerrillas who were counterattacking, the trailing companies fired in long bursts, killing twelve members of the retreating platoons, and wounding fourteen others. The remnants of the retreating company did not stop. They continued past the rear company, shouting inco-herently. Seeing their panicked flight, hearing their shouts of “retreat,” and seeing the muzzle flashes of the approaching guerrillas, the middle company caught bug-out fever, and also bolted. All but a few members of the remaining company on the north-flanking hill, stood fast. They began to concentrate their fire on the guerrillas, stopping the charge. Three of the guerrillas—from two different triads—were killed.
Before they retreated, Matt and Eileen Keane threw tear gas grenades at the Federals’ hillside positions. The wind was favorable, so the grenades had good effect. The triads retreated back up the hill in good order, giving mutually supporting fire, moving by bounds.
Without waiting for the Federals to counterattack, the guerrillas counted heads and got ready to displace. Triads were quickly reorganized to make up for those that had been killed. They quietly helped each other with their packs and headed east, toward their widely scattered prepared hide positions.
As part of the prearranged plan, a triad of teenagers stayed back and set up the trip wires for four Claymore mines. Since they had practiced setting up the wires in the dark several times, it took just a hundred seconds. Less than two minutes after they left, they heard the gratifying sound of three of the four Claymores detonating in rapid succession.
• • •
The Federal attack on the Keane Team/Maquis position did not delay the Moscow raid. It was decided that operational security had not been breached.
Their mistake, they realized, was in using a 5-watt transceiver from a camp location, and being DFed. That mistake would not be repeated. The Keane Team and the Moscow Maquisards made new SOPs that any transmissions over 500-milliwatt strength would only be made after displacing the transmitter at least two kilometers from any encampment.
For their operations, the Keane Team normally wore field expedient ghillie capes patterned after Matt Keane’s. They had been made by cutting up captured Federal vehicular hexagonal or diamond shaped camouflage nets, and adding additional frayed burlap garnish. But since there were several militias involved, it was prearranged that for this raid only, every raider would wear a standard camouflage uniform with a special identifying four-inch wide blue sash around the waist. They were meant to reduce the risk of friendly fire incidents. For OpSec reasons, use of the sashes was kept secret until just before the raid. The sash material was distributed during the final inspections and rehearsals in the hills northeast of Moscow. There were 188 members in the combined raid team.
A twelve-year-old militia “drummer boy” videotaped the raid from a concealed position two hundred yards south of the barracks’ main gate. The Moscow barracks were a pair of dormitories on the old U of I campus. Three buildings near the dormitories had been flattened “for security reasons.” A fifteen-foot high double fence wrapped around the buildings. The wide area between the dorms was used as a motor pool.
The Moscow raid started with a “Trojan horse” ruse, utilizing a BTR-70 wheeled APC that had been captured from the Federals more than a year earlier. The resistance had kept it deep in the Clearwater National Forest, hidden under camouflage nets at the end of a disused logging road. They had kept it ready for a “special project” all this time. Fresh fuel and extra ammo for its 14.5-mm gun had been laboriously carried to it, and special efforts were made to keep its batteries charged. The resistance even dispatched a mechanic to ensure the APC’s road-worthiness.
The APC drove up to the Moscow barracks’ main gate at BMCT (“Before Morning Civil Twilight”). The gate guards dutifully opened the pair of gates and waved it through. As one of the gate guards was logging the APC’s bumper number on his clipboard, he looked up in surprise to see the muzzle of a sawed-off double barrel shotgun. The man holding the shotgun held his forefi
nger to his lips and whistled, “Ssshhhh.” The guard didn’t make a sound. He was visibly shaking.
The four gate guards were quickly herded into the guard shack and bound and gagged. A hidden “panic button” that was presaged by the turned Federal in the Moscow Maquis was disabled with snips from a pair of wire cutters. One of the raiders stayed behind to guard the prisoners. He was holding an M16 with bayonet fixed.
The APC wheeled into the well-lit motor pool. The solitary guard at the motor pool shouted at the APC, “Will you get on your radio and tell those idiots at the front gate that they forgot to close the ga…” He was killed with eight head shots, fired through one of the APC’s gun ports with a silenced Ruger Mark II .22 pistol. After the guard went down, a resistance soldier popped out and jogged to the motors’ shack. He returned carrying a sheet of plywood festooned with keys, each labeled with a vehicle’s bumper number.
He walked up and down the double row of vehicles, occasionally tossing sets of keys wrapped in white handkerchiefs in front of an APC or tank. When he threw the key rack board itself to the ground near the fence, the militia APC disgorged sixteen troopers, all wearing tanker CVC helmets. They ran in pairs to six BTR APCs and two M60 tanks. In less than a minute, they had unlocked the vehicles’ hatches and loosened the locks and chains on their controls. A whistle sounded and they nearly all started up simultaneously. Two of the APCs didn’t start because they had dead batteries.
The horizon was getting noticeably lighter. Upon hearing the captured vehicles starting up, the rest of the raid team went into action. A detonating cord explosion neatly cut gaps in the back fences. A steady rain of LAW rocket and RPGs began to impact both barracks buildings. They were fired from the roof of the nearby five-story library building. At the same time, seven well-experienced snipers began to fire on any targets that presented themselves in or around the dormitories.
The captured APCs and tanks lumbered out of the motor pool and split up. They began a heavy barrage of fire from the 12.7-mm and 14.5-mm guns on the APCs. There was also sporadic fire from the main guns of the M60 tanks.
Both dorms were hosed down liberally. Most of the fire was concentrated at the ends of the buildings, which housed the arms rooms. After a minute of continuous fire, a white parachute flare went up from the “Trojan horse” APC.
A heavily reinforced company of sixty-five resistance fighters, all wearing blue sashes, rushed out of a classroom building across the street and through the open front gates. At the same time, another sixty, also wearing sashes, charged through the breaches in the back fences. The firing from the tanks and APCs stopped. The resistance infantry poured into the barracks, first securing the arms rooms and the C.Q. offices. There was little organized resistance. The Federal soldiers had been completely surprised by the raid. Most were sleeping when the shooting started.
Although most of the Federals kept their loaded small arms at the ends of their bunks, all of their rocket launchers and crew-served weapons were out of reach in the locked arms rooms. The shouting resistance fighters systematically herded the Federals into the cafeterias. Only a few Federals fired at the militia as they cleared the halls. Those that did were quickly cut down. Just three militiamen were killed and five wounded in taking the dorms.
All told, they captured 442 Federal soldiers. The Federals suffered 53 injuries, many of them critical. The militia also captured included the Corps commander and his entire staff. More than 80 Federals were killed in the raid, mostly in the opening “prep” fire. The fighting was over and the fires extinguished by the time the sun crept over the hills in the east.
The original op order called for an occupation of the barracks not to exceed one hour. During this time, they systematically searched for useful logistics and for maps and papers that might have intelligence value. A procession of two-and-a-half and five-ton trucks were backed up to the dorms to load up the captured supplies. As the militias were getting ready to leave and “melt into the hills,” nearby Federal unit commanders started to call in, one after another, through the field telephone switchboard, to ask for their terms of surrender.
Matt Keane at first thought that the calls were a trick. “They want to know how they can surrender? But they outnumber us. This is crazy! They should be pounding us with arty right now.”
Mike Nelson shook his head, and said, “No. Just think about it, Matt. Their headquarters is gone, and their commander is no longer commanding. The snake has been decapitated. For the subordinate units, this is their chance to surrender gracefully. They’ve probably been waiting for an opportunity, and this is the best one that we could have given them.”
Once the first two maneuver units in the Corps surrendered, nearly all the rest—as far north as Coeur d’Alene in the north and Grangeville in the south—capitulated in rapid succession. One field artillery battalion made some trouble. They shelled the downtown and campus areas of Moscow on the afternoon of the raid. Dozens of civilians were killed. But since the battalion’s battery locations were known, a heavy counter-battery MLRS barrage soon silenced them. Then, like most of the other units before them, they capitulated via radio or field telephone. Militia teams were sent out to each unit in APCs and trucks to formalize the surrender and disarming process.
At sunset, Todd Gray was given the honor of lowering the UN flag at the Moscow barracks, and raising the Idaho flag. Once he had raised the flag, he kneeled down and prayed his thanks. Seeing this, the ranks of armed militia-men and disarmed Federals on parade did likewise. It was a solemn and emotional moment.
CHAPTER 32
The Amendments
“Food is power. We use it to change behavior. Some may call that bribery. We do not apologize.”
—Catherine Bertini, UN World Food Program Executive Director, 1997
Continental Region 6—the former United States, Mexico, and Canada—was gradually falling into the hands of guerrillas. Even formerly pacified areas saw increasing resistance, both passive and active. Guerrilla bands were operational as far south as theYucatan peninsula, and as far north as upper Newfoundland. The UN was steadily losing its grip on the region, and could do nothing about it.
A particularly embarrassing incident for the UN came the day that President Hutchings was to give one of his biannual “State of the Continent” speeches. When Hutchings and his entourage arrived at the Fort Knox TV studio in their APCs, they found the studio staff and several MPs attacking two of the building’s steel doors with crowbars and a sledgehammer. An empty tube of “Krazy Glue” cyanoacrylate epoxy was found near one of the doors and bagged as evidence. The lock cylinders of every door were frozen in place.
After resorting to using a cutting torch, they finally got into the building twenty minutes before Hutchings was scheduled to go on the air.
Once inside, the studio staff found some of the inner door locks similarly jammed, but they were less of an obstacle. A couple of quick blows from a sledgehammer opened each door. The staff fumbled with flashlights, trying to determine why the lights weren’t working. They soon found that the saboteur had removed all of the circuit breakers from the main breaker box. The floor cameras had their lenses smashed, but a spare handheld camera from the mobile van was brought in and set up on a tripod. Maynard Hutchings finally went on the air twenty-five minutes late, “due to technical difficulties” and without his usual makeup. In his speech, he glowed about the “outstanding cooperation” shown by the UN Partners for Peace, recent victories over bandits in Michigan and Colorado, and the “rapidly decreasing rates of terrorist acts.” He promised regional elections “real soon.”
The following week, a firing squad from the Fort Knox Provost Marshall’s office executed the TV studio saboteur. He was the thirteen-year old son of an Ordnance Corps major who was stationed at the Fort and lived in nearby Radcliffe, Kentucky. The major and his wife were executed by another firing squad two days later. President Hutchings was quoted as saying, “Parents should be held accountable for their children’s
actions.” Throughout the North American continent, a pattern was clearly evident.
Resistance was the strongest, the best organized, and the most successful in rural areas. Unable to wipe out the elusive guerrillas, the UN administration and their Quislings began to concentrate on eliminating the guerrillas’ food supplies.
In areas where resistance was rampant, “temporary detainment facilities” were constructed to house anyone thought to be politically unreliable. Special emphasis was placed on rounding up suspect farmers or ranchers, or anyone remotely connected with food distribution businesses. When farmers were put into custody, their crops were either confiscated, plowed under, or burned.
Bulk food stocks were carefully monitored by the authorities. Despite these efforts, the guerrillas rapidly gained in numbers.
As the war went on, resistance gradually increased beyond the UN’s ability to match it. Every new detainment camp spawned the formation of new resistance cells. Every reprisal or atrocity by the UN or Federal forces pushed more citizens and even Federal unit commanders into active support for the guerrillas. Increasing numbers of commanders decided to “do the right thing,” and support The Document (The Constitution) rather than the Provisional government’s power elite at Fort Knox. Units as large as brigade size were parlaying with the guerrillas and turning over their equipment. In many instances the majority of their troops joined the resistance. County after county, and eventually state after state, was controlled by the resistance.
The remaining loyal Federal and UN units gradually retreated into Kentucky, Tennessee, and southern Illinois. Most held out there until the early summer of the war’s fourth year. Militias and their allied “realigned” Federal units relentlessly closed in on the remaining Federal territory from all directions.
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