Retribution (Soldier Up - Book Five 5) (13 page)

The entire 82
nd
Airborne Division had been mobilized and was preparing for the largest combat drop since World War Two. Unfortunately that drop was happing in the United States.  The only job was to defend Washington D.C. from an advancing army of which most of the members of the 82
nd
had never heard f.  However, the soldiers thought it was not their job to reason why, but only to follow the orders of their superiors.  During the briefing that each Company, Battalion, Brigade, Combat Team was going through everyone thought it was a joke that they would be picked up by C-47s and dropped into the nation’s capital.  There were the same type of aircraft that dropped their grandfathers and great-grandfathers into Nazi-occupied France or Holland.  As they found out when they got to Pope Air Force Base it wasn’t a joke.  There were dozens of the planes, if not a hundred or more on the base. They were even more astounded to see four large C-17s being loaded with artillery and other weapons systems.  Not everyone would be jumping in. The artillery and other systems, although were perfectly capable of being airdropped, would land at Dulles and be off loaded where they would meet up with the 3
rd
Infantry Regiment, The Old Guard. 

              It was going to be a daytime drop since there was no eminent contact with the enemy.  The entire division wouldn’t jump into the same location either; they would be spread all over the city, primarily as close to the avenue of approaches that the generals believed Colonel Magnus’ army would take.   It was over an hour and a half flight from Pope to Washington, not all that long for most of the paratroopers.  They had practiced, prior to the event, flying up to twelve to seventeen hours, and then were expected to jump into a hostile environment and fight.  All things being equal, it was a daytime jump, an hour and a half flight and not contact with the enemy, so it was going to be a good day.  They were also going to get a free visit to the nation’s capital.  Many hoped they would get some sight-seeing time.

              At 1000 hours they began loading up onto the C-47s with all of their jump gear on. Truth be told almost every soldier was happy to be off Bragg and doing something.  Most of the men and woman were combat veterans of Iraq and or Afghanistan.  They weren’t happy about fighting other soldiers from their own country.  However, the oath they took was to protect the Constitution from enemies foreign and domestic.  Of course, none of them ever believed that they would be fighting in their home country; many reasoned it was a new world.  In addition, most of them had heard the stories emerging out of the West Coast.  The United States Army had taken on something called the Islamic States of America in the Midwest and kicked their ass. 

              The Navy, Marines, Army and Air Force had taken on the entire Mexican Army and another Army of gangs in Southern California and came out of it, kicking more asses.  At least these were the stories they were hearing, but all of the combat veterans knew the kicking ass part wasn’t true.  The officers and senior NCOs had been briefed on the operations and they knew that the Army and Marines had taken heavy losses in both engagements, but they had won.  However, this was a different fight altogether. They were going to fight men and women that had the same training as they did, with the same weapons and weapons systems. 

              The C-47s were lined up on the runway; they began to taxi and then lift off heading north, one after another.  They were an armada of aircraft once they were all airborne.  The civilians in the area came out of their dwellings, whatever they might be, and looked up to see the sun blotted out by the aircraft flying over.  They were in awe of the power flying over and never in their lifetimes did they expect to see United States war planes heading to war within the United States.  The paratroopers within the aircraft sat facing each other, they settled in for the flight knowing they were all going to war, this was different though.  They weren’t in a foreign land, fighting insurgents; they were in their own country and they were going to fight another professional army.

              Some of the men in the various aircraft joked around with their friends. Others slept or tried to sleep, while some sat in silence, staring straight ahead, lost in thought.  It was for the most part going to be a quick trip.  After an hour flight aircraft began to splinter off from the main body. They were leaving to drop their payloads in various locations throughout the city.  In most cases, they would be dropped in the fields outside of the city or in large parks and then hike to their rally points and set up their respective defenses.  No one had a clue when the fight was coming or if it would get as far as the capital.  They were told they were the last line of defense, that if they got past them the city would be lost and there was a good chance the Colonel would level it.

              The 18
th
Airborne Corps wasn’t joining this fight; they were staying back at Bragg.  Their mission was to continue to secure the surrounding communities in the area and to push out.  Of course the soldiers of the 82
nd
thought the 18
th
was going to have it easy staying back at Bragg.  What they didn’t know at the time there was a much larger storm brewing in the south. Nothing they were going to do now or had done previously could prepare them for the storm that was coming. 

              At 1145 hours the paratroopers were ordered in every aircraft to stand for final checks.  They were ordered to hook up to the static line, the jump door to the aircraft was opened, and the Jump Master with both hands on either side of the door looked leaned out a bit and looked.  The next order came, shuffle up to the door, the light next to the door that was red all of a sudden turned green.  At that point the Jump Master signaled for the first man in the stick to jump and then it was on. Each soldier on each aircraft began the process of exiting the aircraft. 

              Inside each aircraft you could hear, “Go, Go, Go!” as the Jump Master ensured that every single soldier had exited the aircraft.  Once the last soldier of the last stick was out, the Jump Master exited the aircraft.  The pilot in each aircraft radioed back that they had chutes in the air.  Once the aircraft was empty the pilots slowly turned the aircraft and headed to the airport in Dearborn, Michigan.  There was another mission there waiting for them; this mission could prove a lot more dangerous for the pilots and for the men and women they were to move.

The United States Navy had departed San Diego a week earlier and was now sitting outside of the Panama Canal Zone. They were waiting to hear if it was safe to enter or if they would have to send in the Marines to clear it.  About three days earlier all communication was lost with the two SEAL teams. Because of a very large storm that had it the area they feared this had prohibited the SEALs from making contact.  The storm had cleared a day ago, and there was no word from them and it was evident by anyone on shore looking out to sea there was a large Naval Force sitting off the coast. The Admiral in his flagship, the
USS Iowa
, wasn’t worried about being attacked; only a fool would attack them.

              The Admiral was worried about potential losses if the Marines had to land to take the Canal Zone.  Captain Stokie, the commander of the Iowa contacted the Admiral in his quarters, “Sir, we have an incoming zodiac from the shore.  It has three occupants, all of them in what looks to be US uniforms.”

              “I’m on my way,” the Admiral stated.  The Admiral hurried out of his stateroom and headed for the bridge.  The Admiral arrived on the bridge within minutes and approached Captain Stokie. “Where’s it at?” the Admiral asked.

              Captain Stokie pointed to his left, “There, coming hard and fast.”

              The Admiral raised his binoculars to his eyes, “I can make out US Navy and US Army on the uniforms.  Let’s not fire on them and bring them aboard.”

              “Aye, aye sir.” Captain Stokie said, he then relayed his orders to the Master at Arms.  “Sir, why don’t we make our way down to the deck and we can see what they caught.”

              “Roger that Captain, let’s do it.”

              Both the Admiral and Captain left the bridge and headed down to the deck. As they arrived the zodiac was docking, and the three men exited the boat and headed up the stairs to topside.  Leading the group of three was Lieutenant Williams, followed by Lieutenant Anderson, the two SEAL team commanders and then General Baker the US Army commander of the Canal Zone.  Lieutenant Williams stopped at the head of the stairs, turned and saluted the flag, and then turned to the Admiral. “Permission to come aboard sir?” the Lieutenant asked.

              “Permission granted,” the Admiral replied, this was repeated two more times by each man, although it seemed a little odd to the General.  Each of the men shook hands, “Please follow me,” the Admiral stated, as he stepped off heading to the wardroom, each man following by rank.  As they entered the Admiral sat at the head of the table and asked everyone to take a seat.

              “What the hell’s going on boys?” The Admiral asked.  He was also treading lightly, General Baker had three stars to his two and even though different services, he was outranked by a star.  The two Lieutenants looked at each other and then both looked at the General. “Don’t look at me,” General Baker said. “It’s your show; I’m only the supporting cast.”

              Lieutenant Williams shrugged, “Sir, the canal is secure. We can pass through.”

              “That’s it? That’s all you have to say?” The Admiral was hoping for a more detailed briefing.             

              “Wow, you two suck.” General Baker told the two SEAL Lieutenants. “What would you like to know Admiral? Ask away and I’ll do my best to cover what these two young Naval Officers left out.”

              The Admiral and Captain laughed at what the General had said to the two SEALs; they were happy to see that the General had a sense of humor.  “Well, Sir, what’s the status down here? Did you lose everything, electricity, cars, and communications?” Captain Stokie asked.

              “I take it you’re referring to the EMP event?” General Baker asked.

              “Yes sir, how’d you arrive at that solution?” the Admiral asked.

              General Baker chuckled, “I didn’t really, these two yahoos filled me in.  I certainly had my suspicions about what happened and that occurred to me.  However, once it happened all hell broke loose down here.  I never had time to put a lot of thought into it, because the magnitude of what happened here was huge.  The Panamanian military splintered and began fighting each other and each side tried to drag us into it.   Then huge mega gangs formed, primarily to fight off the various military factions.  We retreated to old Fort Sherman as I felt it was more defensible; we were also pulling in a few hundred refugees a day.  We have people from all over, Mexico, Honduras, and Costa Rica, you name it and they told us it was the same everywhere.”

              That part was disheartening to hear from the General. The command structure and leadership back in the United States had hoped it would only be contained to North America, which at this time was looking like a world-wide event.  General Baker looked at the Captain and Admiral then continued, “Eventually, we had some of the Panamanian Army join us. I made it absolutely clear that if they did it was under my command, which they had no issue with.  I won’t say I was a prince during all of this. I made many decisions that got people killed, military and civilians alike.  By six months into the event things had simmered down enough for us to get an accurate picture of what factions held what parts of the Canal Zone.   Once we had that picture down and collected all of the intelligence we felt we could, I then put my staff to work on a war plan to take and hold the entire canal.  While the planning stage was going on I implemented a training routine with US and Panamanian Forces.  I needed for them to become one large cohesive unit that could fight together.  In addition, I formed a large group of civilians that could act as our eyes and ears in the forward areas that the enemy wouldn’t suspect.  It took about two months to put it altogether and execute the plan.”  General Baker stopped for a moment, looked at the Admiral and Captain and waited to see if they had any questions.

              The Admiral spoke up, “Please General continue; we’re all ears.”

              General Baker satisfied, continued, “Well there’s not a lot more to add, the entire operation took about a month to execute.  The Panamanian Army units were given a choice to either join us, under my command, or be destroyed, and they chose to join.  The large gangs fought, but they were out gunned and out manned.  The ones that weren’t killed disappeared in the towns and cities they came from. The Army hunted them down. Hence the stories that you will hear about us taking civilians and making them slaves.  We captured the gang members, they had their day in court and when found guilty were sent to prison.  I’m not one to let them sit in prison so they were put to work. I want to add that not all of the people we captured were found guilty; about a quarter of them were found not guilty and released.  There are also some that chose to put up a fight and they were killed.”

              “So, the Canal Zone is secure?” Captain Stokie asked.

              General Baker nodding, “Yes absolutely and fully operational. We have generators on line that can run the locks. Anytime you’re ready we can move you through.”

              The Admiral looked at the General, “Sir don’t be too concerned with your actions here. Things haven’t been much better in the States.  Do you have an airfield that’s operational?”

              The airfield question stunned the General. “Well no not really, but I’m sure we can make sure the one in Panama City is clear and opened, Why do you ask?”

              “Sir, I’m pretty sure they’re going to want to talk to you in Washington or Monterrey in California. They’d send a plane down for you,” Captain Stokie responded.

              It was fairly obvious to General Baker that they had working aircraft. Why else would they send an aircraft carrier, but for some reason the thought of him being able to return home to the United States had escaped him.  “Sir.” The Admiral said. “We can contact the Pentagon via shortwave radio. I’m sure the Chairman is going to want to talk to you if not the President himself.”

              General Baker once again nodded, “That’s fine. I have a question though. What’s in Monterrey?”

              “The United States West Coast Defense Command.” The Admiral stated and then gave the General a summary of what had happened on the West Coast.  The General had gotten some information from the SEALs, but nothing like what the Admiral was telling him.  Once the Admiral had finished his summary, General Baker’s only comment was, “Wow.”