What to do with the 43,000 troops and dependents from Going Home?

[agrikk]

I've been struggling with what happens to Norfolk and places beyond when the 43,000 combat-weary troops and dependents come home from Europe at the conclusion of Going Home.

All we really know about Norfolk VA is that it was nuked (per Howling Wilderness) and that orders come from there at the beginning of Armies of the Night sending them to NY.

We know that the area around Norfolk "currently supports a small (and shrinking) Milgov enclave, consisting mostly of troops brought back from Europe in late 2000."


What happens to the troops who arrive Who was there to greet them

I assume a lot of folks don't want to stay in the Army and want to return home. What happens to them Are they disarmed and escorted to a gate with a "have a nice day" Are any convoys organized to get folks back to the West Coast with what fuel

The logistics of the sudden arrival of 43,000 people can't be overlooked, and yet the modules and all the source material treat them as if they vanish into thin air as soon as they get off the boat.

Never mind that the majority of these 43,000 people are combat veterans and who are basically broke and gearless (thanks to the 100kg limit imposed). Unless something is done about these folks in an organized fashion, the surrounding countryside is about to get blasted with a nomad population who all know how to use a firearm.

Does anyone have any ideas about what to do with this mob

[ArmySGT.]

I am sure some G1 staffers will be segregating them as they arrive.

Army to hangar 1
Air Force Hanger 2
Marines Hangar 3
Navy Hangar 4
Coast Guard 5
DOD Civilians 6
All Family Members stay with your Military Member.

The will be food, facilities and Members of YOUR Branch to answer your questions.

Amtrak will get pressed into Service (it Govt) as Troop trains. Service Members may get separated fast and find themselves on the way to a new front.

[agrikk]

Oooh! Amtrak! I'd totally forgotten about it as a resource.

What a great idea. A few trains run to get the bulk of troops out of the area will be a great way to thin out the herd...

[Legbreaker]

The following threads have all dealt with this to some degree or other.

http://forum.juhlin.com/showthread.phpt=2408

http://forum.juhlin.com/showthread.phpt=2088

http://forum.juhlin.com/showthread.phpt=1957

http://forum.juhlin.com/showthread.phpt=1745

There is evidence to say the bulk of the returning soldiers were demobilised, weapons and other military equipment confiscated and the new civilians essentially just shown the door.

All Family Members stay with your Military Member.

So what happens with say a navy man married to a air force woman

Trains aren't really going to be much of an option with major transportation hubs nuked (not to mention where the troops landed in the first place). They might get a few dozen, maybe a hundred miles, but that's about it before they hit a section of impassible (without major work) track. Besides, the military got tens of thousands of people back to the US, for those they've demobilised, that's about where their responsibilty to them ends.

[pmulcahy11b]

So what happens with say a navy man married to a air force woman

Even IRL, that's been a big problem for a long time. Even if the military members are in the same branch of service. The military tries their best to station married service members as near as possible to each other, but officially, there are no guarantees.

Old saying in the Army: "If the Army wanted you to have a wife, they'd issue you one."

[pmulcahy11b]

Does anyone have any ideas about what to do with this mob

Ummm...serve them up in a light wine sauce and with a side of fava beans

[Legbreaker]

Agreed, it's a crappy situation with the marriage almost certainly doomed to fail IRL. In T2K on the other hand, at least by 2000, it doesn't seem as much of a problem. Without planes to service and fly, the air force personnel are twiddling their thumbs, and so are naval crew. Both are likely to find themselves either demobilised (most likely) or seconded to the Army.

[Targan]

Are any convoys organized to get folks back to the West Coast with what fuel

Ha! Umm, no, I don't think so. Most or all of that journey would be done at a level of technology of the steam era or earlier (and I don't mean the time before Valve's excellent online games delivery system). As in, wagon trains. I think if MILGOV or CIVGOV wanted to send a small team to the west coast it would be a pretty major undertaking. Sending, say, 15,000 people It's... well it's just not going to happen.

I could see a lot of semi-official organisations springing up to try to organise people into groups with mutual interests, traveling from Norfolk to certain far away locations for instance. These would probably (at first) have official sanction and some official assistance. I think MILGOV would try really hard to keep things organised and civilised around Norfolk at first but by mid to late 2001 the authorities would be losing their grip on all but the specified east coast enclaves.

By far and away the best source of canon information about conditions and locations along the east coast from Norfolk to New Jersey post-Going Home is the mini-sourcebook A Rock in Troubled Waters in Challenge Magazine issue #42. It is 9 pages long and far, far more detailed than, say, Howling Wildernes. It is set in early 2001 and contains notable remaining MILGOV units, major militia and maurauder groups and even some of the remaining naval assets being operated by MILGOV between Virginia and New Jersey.

This is the opening section of A Rock in Troubled Waters:

"The coastal settlements around south Jersey's shores form a region of small communities that has managed to survive the war relatively intact. This is one of the more stable and lucrative areas held by MILGOV. This article provdes a detailed reference of the area, centering on the Intracoastal Waterway - the most reliable local avenue in the year 2001 - used by slow-moving military and civilian traffic. It is also designed to tie the Going Home module with any adventure set in the northeastern United States. A Rock in Troubled Water (set in early 2001) details and territory and notable clusters of civilization from the Delaware Canal and Cape Henlopen in Delaware, north and east across Pennsylvania and New Jersey to Perth Amboy. This includes Philadelphia, Trenton, Wilmington, Cape May Naval Base, Fort Dix, and Tom's River Naval Station. Also covered are the specifications on several "brown water navy" vessels, as well as the state government and militia system for New Jersey (as organized by MILGOV)."

The Challenge magazine articles and mini modules for T2K were a huge resource of canon material (and they ARE officially canon). Discussions like the ones contained in this thread are likely to fall into two main divisions, those of people with the Challenge mags and those without.

When I was running that part of my last campaign involving the PCs traveling from Norfolk to NYC A Rock in Troubled Waters proved absolutely invaluable. Other Challenge articles very useful for east coast play include Rifle River (covers Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island and has excellent details on a big chunk of the remnants of the USCG and the 43 Military Police Brigade), Pennsylvania Crude (covers a largely civilian operation to uncap an old Pennsylvanian oil well), and Strangers in a Strange Land (an excellent mini-adventure about a maurauder band made up of escaped WARPAC POWs roaming around New Jersey). They are all contained in the Challenge mag issues 25 to #50 (issue #50 contains a fantastic index of all the articles to that point). I haven't completed my own index of the issues past 50 yet and I don't have the time right now to trawl through them. There are probably other mini-sourcebooks and mini-modules relevant to this discussion contained in issues #51+.

I would also direct your attention to the essay in Challenge issue #25 titled What Do We Do Now which offers some great ideas about the choices soldiers returning from the Twilight War are faced with. The article Wilderness Travel and Pursuit contained in Challenge issue #28 is also very useful. Look, there are 55 T2K articles and mini-modules contained in Challenge issues 25 to 50. There are probably a similar number of T2K articles and mini-modules contained in Challenge issues 51 to 77 (the last one published). If you don't have this excellent source of T2K material then I can't urge you strongly enough to obtain them.

[Fusilier]

Although it can't realistically handle a large fraction of all of those troops, there are military convoys between Norfolk and Muskogee (Oklahoma), by way of Greensboro, Nashville, Memphis and Little Rock.

-Allegheny Uprising

[Legbreaker]

My guess is that there might be only a dozen seats or so available on any one convoy. Much of the space would be taken up by stores, spare fuel, and escorting troops.

[LAW0306]

Check out chico's page. two years of work went into what he came up with.

[Targan]

Check out chico's page.

Good suggestion Law. Maybe you could post a link for the new guys (I'm at work and don't have access to my 'favorites' list on my internet browser).

[Mohoender]

May I ask naive questions

What the point of bringing all these 43000 personnels home (with at least their hand weapons) and sacrifice what is left of available ressources simply to demobilize them and, then, throw them out, barehands, in the mess that has become the USA

If something can be granted to Milgov is that it always did its best to keep its troops alive and back home Why would it, as a final act, sacrifices all these same troops

Back to 1940. Belgian soldiers in France were taken into custody in the region of Camargue (St Marie de la Mer). Although, the Belgian troops where deprive of all weapons (Belgium already capitulated), it was planned to use them to manage supplies (until France in turn capitulated).

Also in 1940, 10,000 French troops had been brought to UK after Dunkirk. The British government wanted to throw them out. The new Free French authorities negociated the right to ask them to stay and fight: 400 accepted while the others left for France. In the meantime, British troops that had been brought back from Dunkirk (with much less than 100kg of gears) were immediately issued new assignments; UK still had a war to fight and its homeland to defend.

In 2000, Milgov still has a war to fight and its homeland to defend.

[Chris]

Unabashed Plug

Look, there are 55 T2K articles and mini-modules contained in Challenge issues 25 to 50. There are probably a similar number of T2K articles and mini-modules contained in Challenge issues 51 to 77 (the last one published). If you don't have this excellent source of T2K material then I can't urge you strongly enough to obtain them.

The Twilight v1.0 and v2.2 CDs at http://www.farfuture.net/cdroms.html contain all the Challenege articles for the given game system at $35.00 each as well as all the modules, rules and supplements you counld want in PDF format. I picked them both up a few months as I was having trouble finding some of my old gaming stuff.

Still can't find Armies of the Night in my pile of stuff.

[Adm.Lee]

I always figured they would try to organize some new units around volunteers, and take a lot more and organize them to go home.

For instance, everyone from Maryland (pretty close to Norfolk) has the option of rapid demobilization, and will get delivered to their county seat. From there, they may be on their own to get home, but I would try to set up some kind of militia from the veterans to suppress marauders/bandits/New America once they settle down.

Folks from Colorado, well, it's a long walk, are you sure you wouldn't rather be in the Regulars

I can't see Amtrak being much of a resource, as much as I love trains. If the infrastructure were still in good shape and there was fuel, sure. The railnet may be one of the first things to try to get running, IMO. What I can see would be big road convoys moving along the interstates to get to states further west. If someplace is not under control, then it might have to get bypassed.

One of my inspirations is the soldier colonies the Romans used to pay off their veterans: you get land, but promise to keep your arms clean in case we need you (or your son, as the case may be). I think a lot of places are going to have to keep armed militias/sheriff's posses available for a decade or so.