“Colonel,” he called. “I’m glad to see you boys in blue decided to accept our party invitation!” COL Halvorson saluted the general, laughing.
“Oh, Mac, we wouldn’t miss this for the world. After all, you know you army types can’t manage without the Air Force to guide the way.”
Seeing the surprised look on Sammy’s face, Mac turned to him and said, “Sammy, let me introduce an old buddy. Kevin and I go way back. We did some training together when we were both young officers, and we’ve been friends ever since. Kevin Halvorson meet Sammy Iverson.” The two men shook hands, and then the three of them headed into the headquarters area.
“Yep, you can tell this is an army set-up. There’s no air conditioning in here,” ribbed Halvorson. Mac grinned at him.
“Air conditioning? We don’ need no stinkin’ air conditioning,” Mac said.
“And in a few days, ‘stinkin’ will be the operational word around here, I’m afraid,” answered Sammy. The three men stopped at the coffee pot for a quick fill up, then settled around the table in the private conference area.
“So, Colonel, what did you bring with you?” Mac asked, sipping on his coffee.
“Well, I’ve got 52 airmen, most of whom are technicians and/or radar operators. We’ve also got a few air traffic controllers who will manage all flight operations at this airfield. Believe it or not, I also have a platoon of Marine Corp combat engineers who will be making improvements to the runways and will then be available for any other projects we might come up with for them. We did not bring any heavy equipment for them, but I am sure they will manage to find what they need. We also brought the equipment we will need to get the radars and tower up and running, as well as a goodly amount of groceries. When we talked on the radio, you said you had housing for my folks?”
Mac stretched out in his chair and took a long sip of coffee before answering. “We are putting troops up in the dorms from the college next door. I’ve also got three hangars set up with cots, enough to sleep a few hundred. Sammy, where are we putting his folks?”
“We saved three floors of one of the dorms for your airmen. They will have to share rooms, but at least they will be spared being in a tent.” Sammy smiled and added, “There’s not any air conditioning in the dorms, either. You are welcome to billet with your troops, or billet over here with us. We have a few extra rooms over here. What kind of command staff do you have?”
“We don’t have much. I think there are a total of nine officers out of the bunch with me today. My orders were to follow your orders. Seems like in the current Patriot military, there’s not a whole lot of distinction between the branches anymore.” Kevin got an evil grin on his face. “Too bad we don’t have any sailors here. The navy always makes sure they have ice cream machines.”
The three men started laughing and relaxed for a few minutes before Sammy excused himself to go show the Air Force to their quarters. After Sammy left, Kevin and Mac got serious and Mac started explaining the setup of the base and his plans for how they would all work together.
CHAPTER TEN
Major Lucas Angelo was exhausted as he led his convoy through the gates of the Riverdale Airport. A military policeman accompanied them to the Headquarters building, and the convoy was told to wait while the MP went in to let BG Iverson know they had arrived. Sammy was accompanied by General McPherson, and both generals were very happy to see Angelo and his men. They wanted him to come in and tell them what he saw, but Angelo asked if the people with him could be given a place to rest and a meal, first. Sammy signaled one of his aides and instructed him to take the entire convoy for now to the reception hangar and let everyone grab a nap and something to eat.
Angelo thanked Mac and Sammy and went into the Headquarters building with them. While Sammy got the coffee pot and several cups, Mac led Angelo into the conference room. “Start at the beginning and tell us what happened. Why didn’t you just follow us out?” the general asked.
Angelo looked a little bit embarrassed and said, “I had too many supplies stashed in my basement to just leave them behind, so we decided to make a quick stop at the house and load up.” He was quiet for a moment as he collected his thoughts.
“We were at my house in Fayetteville near the airport when it happened. Most of us were in the basement when the bomb detonated. We had two men on ground level to keep watch while the rest of us carried supplies up from the basement. When the bomb went off, the sound was so incredibly loud, it left all of us with ringing in our ears.” He stopped and looked at General McPherson with a look of shock. “I never expected Homeland to actually use a nuke on fellow Americans. I expected it to be Iran or some other enemy state, not an American agency. Luckily, I was prepared. I used my Geiger counter and was surprised and very relieved to see the radiation levels were at or near normal. The guys and I talked for a few minutes and decided it would be best to continue loading supplies and head to the caves rather than shelter in place. We had four deuce-and-a-halfs, and we needed all four because of all the supplies I had stashed. While the men continued to load, I went through the house and gathered personal belongings I wanted to keep – things like childhood pictures, music, and of course, my personal firearm collection. It took a couple of hours, but eventually the house was emptied of everything we thought we could use. I know I’ll probably never see that house again.
“As we finished loading, several vehicles approached. One was a Humvee, and the others were civilian vehicles. They were overloaded with supplies and packed with people. The driver of the Humvee jumped out I recognized him as a staff sergeant from the 82nd who was my neighbor from up the road. I told him I thought Homeland just nuked us, and it was time to get out of Dodge. He asked if he could follow us since there is strength in numbers and they had some wives and kids with them.
“I agreed to allow the others to follow us, but suggested they have the civilian vehicles right behind us, and then bring up the rear with the hummer. After all, we had no idea what we would run into on the road. I explained to them that I expected all of them to follow our directions, but if they wanted to split off from us, that’s fine. They agreed, and so we headed out. I had the Geiger counter on the seat beside me, and so far, the readings were staying in the normal range. We had just turned onto 401 west when I noticed two of the civilian vehicles slowing down and pulling off the road. I pulled off to the side of the road and called over the radio for the men to form a security perimeter so I could find out what was going on. I walked back to the first of the stopped vehicles and asked the driver why they pulled off. He told me the car just stopped. No warning, a full tank of gas, and a fairly new battery. Radio stopped, power steering quit, no brakes. The second driver said the same thing. That’s when I realized we had also been hit with an EMP. The timing was off, though, so I figured it was two separate events. I explained this to the two drivers and told them we would need to move their things into other vehicles. We didn’t have a lot of room, so I explained if they wanted to be able to keep everything, we might have to find a couple of trailers. The second driver told us he worked about two blocks from where we were stopped, and he knew they had several trailers behind their building. I assigned the staff sergeant and one of my guys to take the second driver in the Humvee to his workplace and bring the trailers back. While they were gone, we all pulled into a parking lot. We pushed the two disabled vehicles up into the parking lot, too. By the time the second car was situated, the hummer was back pulling a 14-foot enclosed trailer. They detached the trailer next to the first disabled car and left to go get another. Everyone then began moving items from the disabled vehicles to the trailer. It didn’t take long for the first trailer to fill up, and I have to say, I was amazed at how they had gotten so much stuff inside the two SUVs and still had room for all the people. When the second trailer arrived, I directed the family with the truck to load their supplies into the trailer to make room for all the people that were in the two disabled vehicles. Soon the second trailer was also load
ed and hitched to a deuce. It was a tight fit, but everyone was able to find a place to ride. I wound up with one of the drivers of the disabled cars riding with me. Finally, we got back on the road, headed west. It was approaching two in the morning when we reached the cut-off that would take us up to Plank Road. So far, we had not seen any signs of violence or looting, but it was still early, and I knew the people around us were probably still in shock from the nuke. I told everyone to keep their eyes peeled, as they would be going through a housing development to get to Plank Road, and once on Plank, we would be speeding up. Of course, speeding up meant we would be able to get to about 35 miles per hour because of all of the cars stopped haphazardly in the road. I hoped to make it to an area just past Mott Lake where we could stop and rest. I planned to drive at night and rest during the day to avoid winding up in the middle of anything.
“Mott Lake was empty when we got to the campgrounds. It was still too cool at night for the campground to be busy. I deployed several troops to secure the area, and then all vehicles pulled in. The men quickly erected a shelter of sorts made from tarps hooked onto the sides of the trucks. I told everyone to eat something and try to sleep for a while. My plan was for us to leave at sunset and try to make it to the Uwharrie National Forest by morning. I planned for us to stop at the training site there and stay with the guys who run the site.
“We were on the road and ready to go by sunset and arrived at the training site just before dawn. Luckily, they had protected radios and I was able to contact them before we got to the site. Bear had the gates open and ready for us when we got there. The guys were great and put us all up for the day. While the rest of the folks were sleeping, I met with Sasquatch and Vulture. Sasquatch wanted to know if we had done any kind of damage assessment before we left Bragg. I told him I didn’t have the equipment, and even if I did, I couldn’t put all the civilians at risk trying that. Vulture told me they did have the equipment and suggested the three of us go. His exact words were ‘We can put a nice report together for General Mac, and then you can come back and finish escorting these people to the caves.’ To make a long story short, we left Devin in charge of my people and Sasquatch, Vulture and I hopped into their MRAP and headed back to Bragg. Please don’t ask me where they got the MOPP gear – I didn’t ask, and they didn’t offer.
“There was not really anything to see until we got close to Cape Fear Medical Center on the southwestern side of Fayetteville. The area around the hospital was crowded with people, many of whom were injured. With no power, the hospital was dark, but they were using the parking lot for triage. As we got closer, people started banging on the MRAP, demanding a ride. We quickly drove away from the hospital and took back roads until we reached the All-American Freeway. Vulture drove until the probe for the Geiger counter hanging outside the window began to click. At that point, we stopped, donned our protective equipment, pulled the probe back into the vehicle, and sealed the MRAP to keep any smoke or fallout out of the vehicle.
“The drive onto Fort Bragg was . . . devastating.” Angelo stopped and closed his eyes for a moment. “We could not recognize anything, there was so much damage. When we reached what we thought was the intersection of Gruber Road and the All-American, there was nothing but debris everywhere. There were a few brick buildings standing, but they were heavily damaged. Anything wood was flattened. We turned on Gruber towards the Special Warfare Center but couldn’t see anything. Between the destruction, the smoke, and the debris covering the road, we couldn’t recognize anything. We went back to the All-American and tried going towards Womack Army Medical Center. Again, nothing but debris. We couldn’t even see the outline of the hospital. I think it is just…gone. Reilly Road was impassable; even in a combat vehicle we couldn’t get through. In addition, there were fires burning everywhere, so we headed back towards Fayetteville. One of the things we saw that really stuck with me was a flag pole in front of one of the damaged buildings we passed. The building was burning, the flagpole was tipped at a funny angle, but the flag. . .”
Angelo’s voice wavered, and he took a deep breath. “The flag was tattered, but it was still flying.” He paused again and swallowed hard.
“Now I know how Francis Scott Key felt. We left Bragg and went back to Fayetteville. Downtown looked relatively unscathed, although there were many fires burning in various places in the city. We tried to head down Bragg Boulevard towards Spring Lake, but the Geiger counter was going crazy and there was an incredible amount of destruction. Pope Field, Fort Bragg, Spring Lake - I think all of them are just memories now. On the way back here, we stopped at Mott Lake and washed the MRAP down with soap and water from the lake in order to try to decontaminate it. Then we washed the MOPP gear the same way and packed it into a metal box in the back of the MRAP.
“We got back to the training site late that night. The rest of the instructors at the site had arrived and several of them brought their families. They decided to come back to the caves with us. Even though they are all retired special forces troops, they want back in the action. They say that if we can find a safe place for their families, they will all volunteer to go kick some homeland as… er…butt. We loaded up everything possible from the training site and headed to the caves. We fount LT Evans at the caves and he directed us here. So, now we are here, and we’ve got a large group of really angry men ready to go heap some hurting on those Homeland traitors.” Angelo sat back, even more exhausted from retelling the story. He knew the general would have questions.
“Tell us about casualties,” the general probed.
“We saw a lot of bodies on Bragg. From the time we first noticed radiation on the All-American until we headed back to Fayetteville, we did not see a single living person. In Fayetteville, especially around the hospital, we saw many injured. Most appeared to be burned, but there were a significant number of victims with traumatic injuries as well. Honestly, we knew we could not help them, and so after seeing them the first time, we tried not to look, especially the kids.”
“Was there much of a civilian emergency response?” asked Sammy.
“We saw a number of police cars and ambulances near the hospital, but none seemed to be working. The hospital staff looked like they were doing a heroic job dealing with the victims, but there were so many. I suspect that as they run out of supplies to treat people, things will get ugly.”
Mac turned to Sammy. “The people of Fayetteville have always been good to the troops at Bragg. I think we will need to return the favor. Let’s see about putting together a group to go and set up relief stations. We should be able to provide medical support and probably some assistance to shelters - maybe some kind of soup kitchen support. It needs to be short term, until the people of Fayetteville can start helping themselves. We probably ought to send some civil affairs staff out there to help support local government get re-established. Will you take care of that, Sammy?”
“Of course.” Sammy pulled out a small notebook and jotted some notes. General McPherson then turned back to Major Angelo.
“How many people did you bring with you?”
Angelo had to stop and think. “Let’s see, there were 21 of my guys plus me. Then, we had four neighbor families. That was eleven adults and about ten or eleven kids. All fourteen instructors from the Ranger training site came with us, and they brought their families, too. That would be another eight or nine adults and fourteen or fifteen kids. I’m so tired, though, I can’t even add up the numbers in my head, so I’ll say somewhere around eighty people, I guess. We also brought a lot of supplies, both the stuff from my basement and all the stuff from the training site. It’s a good thing their trucks still worked after the EMP because we had a LOT of stuff.”
General McPherson nodded, and then looked at Angelo, who was fighting sleep. “Angelo, you look exhausted. Why don’t you head over to the reception area and get some rest? In the morning, we’ll see about getting everyone settled.”
“Thanks, General. I am beyond exhausted at this point.�
�� As he stood up to leave, General McPherson called him back.
“I just wanted to tell you good job bringing all those civilians back.” Angelo gave him a very tired smile, saluted, and headed off to get some desperately-needed rest.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The week following the funeral was quiet at the farm. We had all been shaken to the core by Red’s death. Small groups made a couple of short trips in to Whispering Willows, but always under heavy guard. They were making progress getting houses ready, and three families had already settled into new homes. John’s shoulder was starting to heal, and he and Lois went back to Whispering Willows. As soon as there were two houses ready next door to each other, Lois, John and their kids would move into one, and Lois’ sister Caroline and her family would move into the other. I went out twice to help get their gardens ready. We spent time looking in already-established gardens and found a lot of volunteer plants things planted the year before that came back without help this year. In fact, all three of the newly occupied homes had volunteer gardens. It did not take too many hours to clean out each garden and transplant more volunteer plants from other gardens. If they could keep the gardens healthy, each family would be rewarded with a good crop of vegetables.
One of the other things we did while I was there was look at all of the trees for several blocks in each direction from the school. We noted which ones were fruit trees and which were nut trees and marked each one on the map. As the community expanded, additional blocks would be checked, and those trees added to the map. Later this summer, we would know exactly where to look to harvest fruit and nuts to put up for the winter.
Premonitions: Book 2: War Page 11
