Retribution (Soldier Up - Book Five 5) (4 page)

There were all sorts of camps spread-out through Washington D.C, none of them in very good shape, looking more like old shanty towns.  The safest camps were located around Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, which was actually made up of three joined bases, Fort Myer and Fort McNair (both US Army) and Henderson Hall USMC.  There were four camps that surrounded the Joint Base that went from bad to horrendous.  They were camps Alpha through Delta, Camp Alpha being the closest to Fort Myer’s main gate and Delta being the closest to the primary gate to Henderson Hall. 

              Each camp held roughly fifteen hundred people.  The camps were not secure and none had any form of government.  The military had kept a hands-off approach believing it wasn’t their responsibility but that the civilians should police themselves.  Joint Base Myer-Henderson was home to the 3
rd
Infantry Regiment, the Old Guard, the oldest infantry unit in the entire United States military.  They were the only combat unit, although all soldiers and Marines were somewhat trained with weapons and basic tactics, so they weren’t true infantry types.  The 3
rd
Infantry Regiment had pulled as many qualified soldiers from the other support services, signal, quartermaster, food service, that they could, but not everyone was fit to be infantry.

              The 3
rd
Infantry Regiment was tasked with securing as much of the city as possible.  They were able to stop much of the rampaging gang activity, the looting of retail establishments, and the hoarding of food and water.  However, by the time the Army got involved most of the retail establishments had been looted and the gangs had done severe damage to the communities.  The Army had taken a hard look at its long-term needs months after the event realizing they should have done it a week or weeks after it.  Many of the gangs and civilians in general had looted what retail establishments they could.  The gangs had sold much of what they got on the black market, which was thriving. When the Army eradicated one of the gangs it took all of the goods they had looted and stored them on post for future use.  The civilians were allowed to keep what they had, because it wasn’t worth the effort to go after them. Not to mention the Army didn’t really want to take on the civilian law enforcement role; again they wanted them to police themselves, which wasn’t working.

              During the winter months the camps turned into cesspools, disease was rampant and there weren’t enough doctors and nurses to help.  The Army had secured many, if not most, of the medical facilities throughout the city and there were small clinics at each camp.  The Army had also secured the corridors to each facility from the camps, which would allow civilians to get to them.  However, the corridors weren’t a hundred percent secure as the 3
rd
Infantry couldn’t be every place at once and law enforcement had all but disappeared.   The 3
rd
Infantry did run two patrols a day down each corridor at different times of the day or night, but it didn’t stop all of the attacks on civilians that were using them.  It was dangerous times if you weren’t armed and even if you were could you know how to use the weapon and kill someone if threatened.

              Even when people could make it to a medical center there wasn’t always help available or what help there was wasn’t much.  Each medical center / hospital had been set up with a minimum of two Army generators, which ran twelve hours a day only, usually at night.   The reason behind this was fuel rationing. There was a lot of fuel being used with no new fuel resources coming in.  Fortunately, it had proven difficult for the average civilian or gangs to get fuel out of the underground reservoirs at the gas stations—not impossible, but difficult.  When the Army finally moved in they found that most of the fuel at the stations was still there.  The Army had devised an efficient method using both manual and electric pumps that ran off small generators collected at sporting goods stores or other establishments.  They had drained the gas stations and stored the reserve fuel on post. Next they began the very long process of extracting fuel from abandoned vehicles.  This was hit-and-miss at best because they were easy targets for people to siphon fuel.  The Army had to continually push further and further out away from civilian populations to gather fuel this way.

              Medical emergencies in many cases had little treatment opportunities, since the clinics within the camps weren’t much.  They had the ability to treat minor ailments usually with aspirin or ibuprofen;   they could treat minor wounds with disinfectant and bandages.  Outside of that a person needed the medical center or hospital and there were no ambulances to speak of.  Many of the camps had a horse and carriage that could be used to transport someone in a medical emergency to the medical center or hospital.  It happened frequently enough that the four camps around the post has designated horse-drawn ambulances.  People within the camps had requested the Army supply them with vehicles, but the Army had declined repeatedly.  Local law enforcement agencies had also requested vehicles and fuel from the Army, which the Army declined.

              The issue was that the Army couldn’t supply everyone with everything they wanted because if they did, they wouldn’t be able to defend the country.  There was also the issue of finites amount of fuel, the Army reminded everyone. They also told them there were plenty of vehicles out there that still ran; they only had to find them. However they would still have to deal with the fuel issues.  There were no new fuel sources which meant that when it ran out it ran out.  People were confused because most of them weren’t around in the nineteen seventies for the fuel shortages.  Their entire lives there had been plenty of oil, gasoline, natural gas, kerosene and heating oil. It was hard for them to wrap their heads around that. In a few months or so all of it would be done.  The biggest concern was what was going to happen when the fuel ran out.

              There were people that were already using wood as a fuel source and had ditched the cars for a horse or bicycle.  These were people that were able to adapt quickly and recognize the new challenges and that things weren’t going to get better anytime soon.  Some were preppers and survivalists that lived for this type of life style.  The preppers and survivalists were prepared. Most of them had firearms and knew how to use them, and they had some sort of motorized vehicle and fuel (not an indefinite fuel source).  They had food and water stored someplace either on their property or in another location, possibly a safe house they evacuated to as well.  These people kept to themselves and very rarely interacted with any of the camps.

              During spring the camps around the area didn’t get much better, possibly even worse because the melting snow had no place to run off.  The ground in and around the camps was mud and in some places knee deep.  Most homes within the camps had no indoor plumbing. There were communal showers, baths for the young, places to wash your dishes, wash and dry your laundry as well as restroom facilities aka outhouses.  It was a chore to trudge through the mud to complete your daily chores only to find out many of the facilities were already occupied or in use.  At times it came to blows as people fought over their right to use what facility. There were death threats and finally two people were brutally murdered over it.

              The murders for the most part went unsolved. Even though most people in the camp knew who did it there was no law enforcement effort to bring them to justice. When the Army was notified of the incident, they referred it back to local law enforcement, who turned a blind-eye to it.  When law enforcement and the Army didn’t react to the murders it sent a strong message to the rest of the camps.  Crime began to skyrocket; it started to become an Army issue because the infantry units leaving post had to pass through the camps to get to their objective.  These units started to be harassed by the civilians as they left post; some of the squads were being attacked by large mobs of men and women.  Although the soldiers were able to escape unharmed, they were leaving a trail a dead and maimed behind them.  That’s when the riots started in the camps; people pelted the soldiers with anything they had on hand.  There were too many of them for the Army to handle. When the Army backed off people started to force their way onto post.

              Soldiers responded by firing on them and killing the intruders which only made things worse.  In an effort to solve the problem the commander of Joint Base Myer–Henderson Hall, Colonel Joseph Sumner, sent word to each camp.  The Colonel asked each camp to select six people that would represent them. They needed to be voted on and majority rule.  Once that was completed, they would hold forums within the camp to discuss the issues.  They should document the issues and provide a plan to solve them potentially with the Army’s help.  Once they had done this then and only then Colonel Sumner and his staff would meet with a single camp’s council to discuss their findings and what the Army could realistically do for them.

              This was the start of the camp councils. There wasn’t much opposition to the Colonel’s plan; of course there were some nay-sayers that believed the Army should open their gates and let everyone in and surrender everything they had.  The more rational people, which were most of the population in each camp, realized that the Army was here to stay; they were now being offered a choice, to work with the Army to solve their problems or go at it alone.  All of them knew the latter wasn’t working so it was time to try a different approach.

A vintage C-47 landed at Pope AFB at 0700 bright and early that morning. General Portson, General Moon and several other staff members were in the main terminal.  It was surreal to all of them to be watching this aircraft land and taxi up since it was from a bygone era.  Every man there was very familiar with the aircraft as it was a very important part of airborne history.  It was widely used during World War II during D-Day when it dropped airborne soldiers all over Normandy.  The door opened on the aircraft and Brigadier General John Clayton stepped out. 

              General Moon knew General Clayton personally from his days with Delta.  General Moon was his commanding officer and was well aware of General Clayton’s capabilities. 

              “Good to see you John,” General Moon said while reaching to shake General Clayton’s hand.

              The two men shook hands, “Good to see you again sir.  How’s it swinging?” General Clayton replied smiling.

              “Always the smartass,” General Moon stated.

              “Yes sir wouldn’t have it any other way,” replied General Clayton.

              “Me either John, me either.”

              General Moon led General Clayton over to General Portson and the rest of the staff and introduced him.  John knew most of General Moon’s staff as he had served with just about all of them in one capacity or another.  John had also known f General Portson when he was the commander of the 18
th
Airborne Corp.  Everyone knew about General Clayton, not because of the President. John was a legend on Fort Bragg from his time with Delta.  He was known as no bullshit, treated his people right and everyone from officer to enlisted adored him. 

              General Portson and his staff loaded onto the aircraft and prepared for departure, headed to Washington D.C. to meet with the President and the Joint Chief of Staff.  General Clayton headed off with General Moon and his staff to JFK Center. General Clayton’s mission was to examine what they were doing on Bragg and find what they were missing.  It was going to be a long day for General Clayton; he was given the nickel tour of Fort Bragg even though he used to live there many years ago.  It had changed after the event. It seemed that the soldiers had lost their spirit-de-corps because he could see it in how they carried themselves.  Where were the marching troops? Where were the formations? This was Fort Bragg, the home of the elite, but the elite looked to be gone. It was understandable to an extent that airborne soldiers were no longer airborne. 

              Generals Moon and Clayton arrived at JFK Center, the home of Special Forces once there they headed into the building to General Moon’s office.  There were several senior NCOs that were there to great General Clayton and a few retired Green Berets.  All of them had served with John at one point or another during his or their careers. John was much respected among all of them.  General Moon sat down with General Clayton to talk with him at length about the operations on the West Coast.

              “Alright John what aren’t you telling us?” General Moon said.

              “I’m sorry General, I don’t understand the question,” replied General Clayton.

              “You had help; you couldn’t have done it all on your own, right?” General Moon asked.

              “Ah, I see …” General Clayton said.  “Of course I had help. The bottom line was that I had people in place that I trusted and trusted me.  A lot of it had to do with Dognillo and his powers of persuasion. I’ve never hidden anyone’s contribution to the effort.  In fact, I’ve done everything I possibly could to redirect all of the accolades being thrust on me.  You know we ran drill-after-drill on EMP scenarios and that’s why the underground facilities were built. “

              “True, but it takes a Presidential order to open them John; you know that,” General Moon stated.

              “I do, so court martial me. I did what needed to be done and got the job done.  Have you forgotten that’s our job, that’s the very definition of our job?  We take charge and accomplish the mission in the absence of orders,” General Clayton responded testily.

              “Ok John, Ok don’t get your panties in a bunch. I meant nothing by it.  I’m just asking questions; to tell you the truth, we’ve been running our own operations in and around the various communities without General Portson’s knowledge.  My predecessor felt it necessary to keep the facilities a secret from the rest of the post.  However, we’ve been in and out of the facilities ourselves and taken out what we needed when we needed it.  He felt it was necessary to keep it a secret until it was necessary to open them,” General Moon said.

              “Why is that?” General Clayton was a bit skeptical.

              “He felt that the other commanders on post would want to strip it of everything and take it for themselves.”

              “Why now then?”

              “Well that’s a long story and not really my place to say but what I can say is that someone in the know let the cat out of the bag.”