Soldier Up (12 page)

Mel and the kid’s arrived at the front gate, the guards called in her arrival, there instructions were to let no civilians in without calling it in first to the OD (Officer of the Day) or the NCO in charge of the guard detail, they were allowed to pass.

              They noticed that everyone was very busy and everyone was armed, it was hard to tell if the weapons were loaded.  It took her about ten minutes to get to the 19
th
HQ, once there John was out front waiting for them.  He wore a big smile when he saw them pull up, Mel earned herself a big kiss and the kids got big hugs, they were all very happy to see each other.

              Mel asked, “It is what I think it is?”

              “Well sweetheart if you’re thinking EMP, then I think so.” replied John.

              “Where do you need me?” she asked.

              “Why don’t you take your beautiful self-up to Dog and he will get you and the kids squared away.  Then I’m sure if you’re still looking for something to do he’ll find it for you.”

              With that Mel gave him a big hug and a kiss, “I love you sweet cheeks!” she said to him.  The kids laughed and the Soldiers who overheard the exchange thought it was the funniest thing in the world and soon to spread the word around camp.

              It was almost 0900 and he had another Command Briefing to find out where they stood so off to the HQ conference room he went.  As he entered the conference room the Sergeant Major called out, “Atten hut!” the Colonel replied, “As you were, please take your seats.”

              “Sir where would you like to start?” asked the Sergeant Major.

              “Personnel first, where do we stand?” asked the Colonel.

              First up was the 19
th
and the reinforced Battalion he was in charge of his XO (Executive Officer) was located in Los Alamitos, standing in for him was the Sergeant Major. 

              “Sir all 19
th
personnel will be staying, most of them are single, the ones with families which is about a quarter would like their families brought in, they all lived within the fifty miles.”

              “Thank you Sergeant Major, how about the 352
nd
Colonel Spears?” said Colonel Clayton.

              Colonel Spears stood, “Sir most of the unit will be staying, there are three - two PFC’s and a Sergeant who have family about a hundred miles or so and want to find out how they are.  They had a single working vehicle that is topped off with fuel.  They’re going to be using that, they plan on getting their families and returning as soon as possible.  Half the unit has families locally or within the fifty miles and would like them brought in.”

              “Great to hear Colonel’s Spears, ok how about the 184
th
?” asked the Colonel.

              “Sir, I’m Captain Holcourt I will be speaking on behalf of both Alpha and Bravo Company.  Everyone is staying; two thirds of the men live within the fifty miles and are asking to bring their families in”.

              “Thank you Captain again good to hear, next up is MI, what’s going on gentlemen?”

              “Sir,” said Major Paul.  “Half the unit has decided to leave I’m sorry, we couldn’t make the case to them for staying.  The others didn’t believe our bullshit and decided they are staying they have no families they want to bring in.”

              Colonel Clayton heard part of their briefing to their Soldiers, they did everything they could to discourage them from staying, stating if it was an EMP event they no longer really had a country to protect.  Colonel Clayton let it go, if the ones who decided to leave couldn’t think for themselves he didn’t really want them to stay anyway.  Many of them after meeting with their Officers (not the NCO’s) decided to talk to the Colonel to find out the real scoop, he told them, those are the ones who decided to stay.  Most of the MI Officers were leaving except for a First and Second Lieutenant, all of the Senior NCO’s were staying and a good number of the lower enlisted were staying.

              “Well Major I will be sorry to see you and your Officers go.”

              “Sir we will be talking one of our vehicles with us.” add the Major.

              “No you won’t.” the Colonel glared at him.

              “Sir those vehicles belong to the 368
th
I’m signed for them.” said an arrogant Major.

              “Those vehicles belong to the US Army and to the US Government, those vehicles are staying, in fact Major after this meeting those of you that are leaving will immediately be escorted off the base. If that’s your attitude.”

              “What are you going to so shoot me?” asked the Major.

              “Roger that Major.” with that the Colonel pulled out his sidearm, cocked it and aimed it at the Major’s head.  I have no problem blowing your fucking head off Major.”

              The people in the room held their collective breath. “Yes Sir, no problem we will be leaving on foot.”

              Sergeant Major yelled the Colonel, “Please see that the Major and the people who are leaving with him are escorted off post.  Take one of the teams with you, if they give you any trouble, arrest them and throw them in the stockade.”

              “Yes Sir,” said the Sergeant Major. “Let’s go Major.”

              The MI Major and his XO got up and were escorted out of the conference room, once outside they were escorted out by the Sergeant Major and an A-Team who just happened to be standing by.  The Colonel looked over the rest of the people in the room, “I said up front that no one was allowed to take any of the Military vehicles period, I intend to do everything I can to hold on to them, we’re going to need them.  Now if the Major told me they had a POV they were taking I would have happily shaken his hand and wished him well.”

              They continued to talk about the personnel issues, the Colonel told them they needed to secure housing for the families, and he instructed the Sergeant Major to get with Mister Dognillo to get on it and get it resolved.  Next they discussed the POV situation; the Commanders stated that about a quarter of the POV’s started right up with no problems.  They also said that just about everyone wanted to donate their vehicle to the cause.  Colonel Clayton told the Commanders to thank them for the offer but he wasn’t going to confiscate any personal property, well not yet.  He did suggest that they probably needed a secure place to keep all running vehicles, soon people would be looking for them and right now the entire base wasn’t secure.

              There was a knock on the conference room door, Colonel Clayton signaled to go ahead and open it, standing there was a Colonel Blackfoot, the CO of the 1
st
Brigade, 91
st
Division, Headquarters.  Everyone in the room looked towards him, Colonel Clayton immediately got up and walked over to meet him, “Joe it’s good to see you.” said Colonel Clayton.

              “Well I couldn’t let the party start without me could I?” said Colonel Blackfoot.

              “I’m glad you’re here we just started the briefing twenty minutes ago, just wrapping up the personnel side of it.”

              Colonel Blackfoot grabbed a seat near Colonel Clayton and sat down. Colonel Clayton said, “It looks like we’re going to have about ninety-percent strength at this time, that’s good news.”

              Colonel Blackfoot stated, “The entire 91
st
HQ is local and we had a 100% turnout for drill which means everyone is here now, no one is leaving assuming some can get their families in.  Word out in the street is that you’re the man to talk to about that?”

              “Yeah Joe we can make that happen as long as they aren’t any further than fifty miles away from post.  But, if they have their own running POV they can go as far as they like, we will help out with fuel as much as we can.”

              “Like I said there all local, where are we going to put the families?” asked Colonel Blackfoot.

              “Mister Dognillo and a few others are looking into it now.”

              “Well we could start by using the Hotels in and around post that are close there are a ton of those.  We have a lot of barracks that we could probably convert into family housing.” Colonel Blackfoot went on.

              “Alright Colonel why don’t you and your folks take on logistics for the post?” asked Colonel Clayton.             

              “It’s our specialty, glad to help! What else can we do?”

              Colonel Clayton responded, “How about a Cessna or another plane like that, actually a few of them would be good and pilots to go with them?”

              “Will they still work?”

              “They should they are all engine, I’m talking about prop planes not jets.  Their radios and guidance won’t work but we can solve those problems.”

              “Great but we will need security as we hit the local airport and maybe a few other airports around the area and of course vehicles.”

              “Captain Holcourt can you and yours help out the Colonel?” asked Colonel Clayton.

              “Yes Sir of course, I’ll get with him after the meeting.”

              Colonel Clayton and Colonel Blackfoot were good friends outside of the guard Joe and John had met briefly before the meeting to discuss some issues, one of them being command structure.  John outranked Joe by time in rank technically John could exercise his authority that way but decided the best way was to get Joe’s buy in.

              Joe had no problem letting John take the lead in fact he hoped for it, if this was an EMP event someplace down the road combat was going to happen and Joe was not a combat leader he had never been.  He knew what he could and couldn’t do, he also knew that John had years of combat experience under his belt and was also a good combat leader.  In his mind he wouldn’t mind being second or third in command, he like everyone else just wanted to get through this.

               “Alright let’s move on to the next subject.” said Colonel Clayton.  “Vehicles I believe is where we left off of. Like I said I don’t want anyone surrendering their POV’s right now, but they should probably be closer and secure.  We can set up a secure parking lot if the owners want to move them in there. What’s everyone think?”

              Everyone nodded in agreement, no problems there.  “Next on the agenda?” the Colonel asked.

              “Food Sir, we need to consolidate all of the food on post into one or more facilities we can control.” said Colonel Backfoot.  “With families coming with kids we need to eat all of the perishable items we can find before we start digging into everything else.”

              “Agreed,” said Colonel Clayton. “Sergeant Major give Colonel Blackfoot a couple of teams and vehicles to search the post, the PX, barracks, anything else we might find for all food items.  We need to find a place near to keep it all and figure out what we need to use now.  In the meantime its MRE’s, how’s that Colonel?”

              “That’ll work,” said Colonel Blackfoot.

              “Sir,” said the Commander of Bravo Company, 319th Signal Battalion. “We have several PRC-77’s that we can hand out to different teams to use, they were hardened and look are in good condition. “

              “That’s great news Captain, Sergeant Major don’t we have some in storage too?” asked Colonel Clayton.

              “Yes Sir we do.”

              “Alright let’s dig them out and any other radio gear we have and get it dispersed, test it first to make sure it’s working.  Also let’s pull out a couple of the DPV’s (Desert Patrol Vehicles) see if they run and if they do get them geared up.”

              “Yes Sir we’ll get right on it.” replied the Sergeant Major.

              “Colonel Spears how’s 352nd doing?” asked Colonel Clayton.

              “Sir, we are all set up and ready for business.”

              “Great News Colonel! Have you been in touch with Mr. Lowell out at ValleyCare Medical yet?”

              “Yes Sir I did right before the meeting, if it’s Ok I would like to hitch a ride out there with a couple members of my staff with the mechanics and signal people when they go out.” asked Colonel Spears.

              “Not a problem Colonel, that’s also good news. Listen folks we need to be out there showing our colors in the community whenever possible.  There may not be much we can do right now but just the civilians knowing we are here and working, it will help a lot of them relax.”

              “Sir, what about the Seabees?” asked Captain Holcourt.

              “Are they around?” asked the Colonel.

              “Yes Sir they had to make up a drill weekend and this was it, I have a few friends who work there.” said Captain Holcourt.

              “You’re on point then Captain; I want you to get your ass over there to see what’s going on, are they in our out?”

              “Yes Sir will do.”

              “Any other business then?” asked Colonel Clayton looking around the room. “Ok then let’s get on it we’ve got work to do.”