US Recovery Plan

[chico20854]

I especially like the Britney Spears part - LMFAO!

Everyone loves a star!!

[Rainbow Six]

Very, very well done...I really can't stress enough how awesome I find the DC Group's work...thanks to you all for sharing it.

[Targan]

I've been wearing a stupid grin for hours since seeing elements of my campaign mentioned. The player of Major Po is coming round to my place tomorrow and I'm going to taunt him mercilessly.

[chico20854]

I've been wearing a stupid grin for hours since seeing elements of my campaign mentioned. The player of Major Po is coming round to my place tomorrow and I'm going to taunt him mercilessly.

Well, like I said, everyone loves a star. And around here over the past couple years there has been no single PC that has been as much of a star as Major Po!

[Jason Weiser]

I've been wearing a stupid grin for hours since seeing elements of my campaign mentioned. The player of Major Po is coming round to my place tomorrow and I'm going to taunt him mercilessly.

Whatever you do...playing the single "Oops, I Did It Again!" while doing so is almost mandatory.

[chico20854]

only one more update after this one... I'm posting faster than I can write!

V Corps in the Old South

V Corps returned from Europe to Mobile, Alabama. Composed of the 1st Infantry Brigade, 3rd Armored Brigade, 6th Infantry Brigade, 308th Civil Affairs Brigade and 7th Naval Construction Regiment, V Corps reinforced XIX Corps, nominally subordinate to 5th Army headquartered in Fort Sill, Oklahoma. In reality, XIX Corps was independent, as it had been over a year since the last patrols from XIX Corps and XIII Corps from Fort Sill had met. Nonetheless, 5th Army tried to maintain portions of a secure route along the Lower Mississippi River and contain the Civgov enclaves in Georgia, the Carolinas and Florida. Following their success against the Texian National Legion in 1999, XIX Corps fell back to the Mississippi River and east into Alabama. Accordingly, XIX Corps deployed roughly along the Interstate 65 corridor in central Alabama, linking the Gulf of Mexico with the Tennessee River. Connection to the Mississippi River was maintained by patrols and escorted convoys along Interstate 20 to Vicksburg, Mississippi. Upstream of Vicksburg, Milgov maintained outposts at Memphis (197th Infantry Brigade) and Cairo, Illinois (194th Armored Brigade). Marauders blocked the overland route from Memphis to the rest of 5th Army along Interstate 40, and reports trickled in during the spring of 2001 of a disciplined armed force operating in northern Arkansas.

A major impediment to travel along the Mississippi River was the effects of an unnamed hurricane that struck the Gulf Coast in August 1998. The combination of 150 mph winds and a 27-foot storm surge, accompanied by over 30 inches of rain and dozens of tornadoes wrecked havoc on the Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf coasts. Following the devastation from nuclear strikes in the suburbs of New Orleans, on the capital city of Baton Rouge and refineries four other cities in Louisiana the storm was the final element in the breakdown of society along the central Gulf Coast. The cities of New Orleans, Gulfport and Biloxi were essentially destroyed, and the remnants of the local, state and federal governments, already broken by the nuclear exchange, were unable to provide any relief or reconstruction. The flooding of the Lower Mississippi River following the hurricane dug a new exit for the Mississippi River near Morgan City (which was wiped out by the storm), west of the pre-storm exit. Lake Pontchartrain flooded into the city of New Orleans, destroying most of it, and the change in the route of the Mississippi left the water by New Orleans' docks a stagnant backwater no longer connected to the Gulf of Mexico. Interstate 10, which ran along the Gulf Coast, was washed away in dozens of places and had miles of bridges and causeways destroyed. The offshore oil and gas infrastructure - rigs, platforms, pipelines and terminal facilities - were damaged. Repair could have come had there been workers, but the scope of the damage was so great and government support so feeble that the vital infrastructure, both onshore and offshore, was simply abandoned. The wave of refugees from communities along coastal Louisiana and Mississippi fleeing the storm, for which there was no warning due to the breakdown of the weather tracking and reporting system in the wake of the nuclear exchange, in most cases was too much for inland communities to withstand. Casualties from disease, starvation, crime and civil strife in the area were massive, and shortly after the storm much of the southern half of Louisiana and Mississippi was depopulated. The remnants of state government in Louisiana (always among the least competent in the US in peacetime) collapsed entirely, unable to deal with the chaos and demands imposed by nuclear strikes on the four largest cities, including the state capital, and the aftermath of the storm.

In the inland area of Mississippi islands of order remained around the Milgov cantonments at Camp Shelby (held by the XIX Corps HQ and two regiments of the Mississippi State Guard), Jackson (where the governor and remnants of the State Police were reinforced with troops from the 85th Infantry Division) and Vicksburg (held by the main body of the 85th Infantry Division and a force of SeeBees evacuated from Gulfport, operating under the banner of the 6th Naval Construction Regiment). The cantonments were under heavy pressure and unable to do more than maintain patrols along the major highways between each other. The backwoods and northern half of Mississippi saw nothing but privation, anarchy and despair, while northern Louisiana was slowly infiltrated by marauder bands, some of which pledged allegiance to the Texian National Legion or, it was later discovered, New America.

Prior to the arrival of V Corps, XIX Corps was slowly withering away. The anarchy in the pinewoods of Mississippi and Louisiana meant that food was scarce, replacements (obtained entirely by drafting the young from refugee camps or at roadblocks and checkpoints) meager and material support from Milgov non-existent. A sense of hopelessness began to settle in among the Army troops (the Marine Brigade in Mobile exhibited extremely high levels of motivation), and desertion began to become a problem. Despite these difficulties, XIX Corps had several valuable assets. First, there was limited electrical service in Alabama from the Farley nuclear power plant near Dothan (just a few miles from Fort Rucker and guarded by its troops), the Browns Ferry nuclear power plant west of Huntsville (secured by troops of the 59th Ordnance Brigade) and the Guntersville Dam, also near Huntsville. Experts from the 59th used power generated by the dam's turbines to restart Browns Ferry reactor one, which had been offline since 1985 and had its control systems disassembled, shielding it from EMP. Technicians were painstakingly rewiring the control systems of the other two reactors at Browns Ferry. Meanwhile, the Farley plant had restarted in the summer of 1999 with the assistance of technicians and engineers from military units throughout southern Alabama. Another valuable asset XIX Corps had was control of Fort McClellan and the adjacent Anniston Army Depot. Anniston was one of the Army's major armored vehicle overhaul and repair facilities as well as its primary storehouse for excess and obsolete small arms, so XIX Corps retained control of over 2 million rifles, pistols, submachineguns and machineguns. In addition, the fields of Anniston were filled with battle-damaged tanks, artillery and APCs. Gradually, XIX Corps was able to coax some of the former repair workers from Aniston to return to work in a makeshift facility that combined tools and equipment from several of the abandoned and fought-over shops on the post. While there was no supply of new spare parts, the fields of damaged armored vehicles provided an endless supply of spare parts. It was a painstaking process, but by the time V Corps returned from Europe the workers of Anniston had managed to get a dozen tanks, a handful of SP guns and 20 APCs operational. Ammunition and fuel for the armored vehicles was short, but the psychological advantage of operable, massed heavy armor was not to be easily dismissed.

The final asset XIX Corps had was control of the city of Mobile, Alabama. The city remained intact despite the hurricanes that had ripped apart the Gulf Coast to its east and west. A major industrial area and general-purpose port, Mobile hosted an oil refinery (74,000 barrels per day), two major shipyards, a plastic plant and miles of docks and wharves. The city was garrisoned by troops from the 2nd Marine "Raider" Brigade, a composite unit formed from Marine Corps garrison troops from stations, bases and posts around the southeast and equipped from the USMC war reserve stockpile at Albany, Georgia. Also present in Mobile was a sizeable naval fleet centered on the USS Lexington and elements of her battle group. The Lexington was recommissioned shortly after the outbreak of war to train additional naval aviators, but following the breakout of Soviet raiders into the Atlantic and Caribbean she was pressed into service to patrol the Caribbean with a scratch air wing, mostly composed of A-4 aircraft and instructors that had been training Chinese pilots. After several successful raider hunts she suffered an engineering casualty and was towed to Mobile for repairs. The repairs were never completed following the TDM, as the repair required replacement parts from one of Lexington's museum ship sisters. Lexington's escorts were placed on convoy escort duty, while her crew manned the museum ship USS Alabama's 16-inch guns to protect the city and served ashore in a variety of relief and reconstruction tasks.

As a result of the operable port facility and potential for both success (if reinforced) or collapse (if not reinforced), JCS made the decision to bring the reformed V Corps back from Europe to Mobile. The troops of V Corps could restore order to the backwoods of Mississippi, secure additional industrial facilities and power plants in northern Alabama, and most importantly, work to restore a viable waterborne transportation route to and from the Mississippi River (and, by extension, the Midwest and Great Plains). The armored vehicles recovered from Anniston and a detachment of helicopters from Fort Rucker (grounded following the TDM for want of fuel) were assigned to VII Corps, which came ashore and trained in the Mobile vicinity for several weeks before moving on to Texas (detailed below). XIX Corps' eastern border with Civgov was relatively stable, so upon arrival V Corps moved north and west to restore order and a connection to the Mississippi River. The 6th Infantry Brigade moved to Camp Shelby, Mississippi to reinforce XIX Corps headquarters and free one of the State Guard regiments to patrol the highways to the west of Hattiesburg leading to Natchez. The 6th also patrolled south and southwest towards the gulf coast. The 3rd Armored Brigade moved further northwest, to Greenville, Mississippi, to establish patrols on both sides of the river and set the stage for spring planting in the fertile agricultural land of the Mississippi River bottomlands.

The 1st Infantry Brigade drew the toughest mission - to move by barge and boat up the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway - a barge canal that connected the Tennessee River to the Gulf of Mexico - restoring the dams along the way, and establish a headquarters in Tupelo, Mississippi to begin restoring order to northeastern Mississippi. Opening of the waterway (popularly known as the Tenn-Tom) would provide a route to move barges (carrying grain, coal, oil or other bulk commodities) to and from the Ohio, Missouri and Upper Mississippi river basins, restoring the waterborne transportation route that was lost when the Mississippi River changed course. In this movement, the 1st was providing security for troops from the 7th Naval Construction Regiment, who performed the heavy construction and repair on the waterway's facilities. In addition, the 1st Infantry Brigade was able to perform a vital duty - relieving the beleaguered 14th Security Police Squadron and other airmen of Columbus Air Force Base. Columbus, home of the 14th Flying Training Wing, had not only its normally assigned T-37 and T-38 trainer aircraft, but also a mix of training and tactical aircraft from along the Gulf Coast who had fled there to avoid hurricanes. Most importantly for Milgov, however, it hosted a cell of four B-52G bombers and their attendant KC-135 tankers, dispersed from Barksdale AFB, with a full complement of nuclear-tipped air launched cruise missiles and nuclear gravity bombs, awaiting restoration of reliable communications from national command authorities as to their next mission. Knowing the bomber's importance to the nation, the base commander hoarded the facility's stock of JP-8, with over 500,000 gallons on hand - enough for the BUFFs to fly two round-trip missions to Moscow. From the beginning of 1998 until the arrival of the 1st Infantry Brigade, the 14th Flying Training Wing ceased all operations not related to either producing food and other necessities or securing the B-52s and their cargo. Fortunately, the base's perimeter was only probed a handful of times by passing marauder bands - the locals knew better than to approach the base and its nervous and trigger-happy defenders. The colonel commanding the base, seeing his dream of retirement finally coming true (command of the wing and base had traditionally been a final pre-retirement assignment for colonels who would never become generals), was bitterly disappointed to discover that the 1st Infantry Brigade did not have direct contact with the JCS and, that when the Joint Chiefs learned of the bombers and their cargo of weapons (and mass of fuel) they ordered the bombers to remain in place until further orders were issued.

1st Infantry Brigade's advance to Tupelo was a slow and difficult journey. Six of the dams along the Tenn-Tom had been damaged and needed the locks rebuilt, a task that took almost six weeks per dam. (Work proceeded simultaneously, so that the process took a little over five months). The brigade's logistic support moved by barge (escorted by armed tugs and small craft), limiting the range of the infantry operating shoreside. Resistance was surprisingly heavy, coming from the odd New America cell, right-wing extremist gangs (armed remnants of the KKK) and desperate farmers who were afraid that the reestablished government wanted nothing more than to confiscate their meager crops. Upon arrival at Tupelo, the brigade was forced to lay siege to the town to depose a local warlord and Elvis impersonator named Elvis The Second or "The Second King" (Tupelo was the birthplace of Elvis Presley) and his criminal militia, the Sons of the State Line Mob. The town fell after six weeks of deprivation for the civilian population, although State Line sympathizers maintained a low-level resistance movement in the area for years afterwards. The population of Tupelo was overwhelmingly hostile to the Army, requiring 1st Brigade to impose a curfew and actively patrol the town. In encounters between the criminals and the Army, the battle-hardened European veterans routinely defeated the criminals with minimal loss, but the soldiers were limited in their ability to pursue the fleeing gangsters by low numbers and a dearth of vehicles and fuel for them and further expansion of Milgov control was slowed by the lack of friendly troops to perform security missions for travel on the highways, requiring the infantrymen to carry out patrols rather than expand into adjacent counties.

Further to the west, the 3rd Armored Brigade faced less resistance. The Mississippi Delta, one of the richest farming areas in North America, had suffered severely following the nuclear exchange. The flood control system along the Mississippi River had deteriorated, and the damage from the resultant flooding had not been repaired. The agricultural economy had changed in the decades after the Second World War, with ever more large corporate farmers replacing the small landholdings and sharecropping that had dominated since the Civil War. Mechanized farming required less labor, and the Mississippi Delta suffered from a steady decrease in population. When the supply of petroleum, spare parts and fertilizer stopped food production, like elsewhere, collapsed. The poor and mostly black local population extended their traditional hospitality to refugees from the cities and Gulf Coast, but the refugees were totally unfamiliar with farming, leaving food production to those older locals who remembered the old ways of farming. Many refugees starved in the first years following the nuclear exchange, and the farmers were under constant pressure from bandits that roamed the roads and rivers. By the time Milgov troops arrived the surviving population was much depleted and very willing to support Milgov in its attempt to restore order. To protect the farmers from raids by desperate refugees and bandits, roads were patrolled and an organized food distribution system was established. Milgov civil affairs troops worked with local leaders to restore functioning local government and to organize the surviving refugees into labor, security and transport units to augment the 3rd Armored. While electrical power was not restored (the local plants relied on natural gas or coal from outside the state) life in the Mississippi Delta improved substantially in the spring and summer of 2001. Of vital importance was the repair of the levees along the Mississippi, a task led by SeeBees of the 27th Naval Mobile Construction Battalion and augmented by the combined labor of locals, refugees and soldiers. While the 3rd Armored had arrived in Greenville after the planting of the spring crop, the community organization, levee repair and increase in security set the stage for the Mississippi Delta to perform as the breadbasket of the southeast in 2002.

With the cooperation of the local population, the 3rd Armored Brigade was able to quickly eliminate the majority of marauder bands operating in the counties surrounding Greenville. The Brigade's reconnaissance troop began to send long-range patrols out to the north and west, establishing sporadic contact with the 197th Infantry Brigade at Memphis and with the Milgov-friendly Arkansas state government in Little Rock. Covert long-range patrols scouted as far west as Texarkana and the ruins of Shreveport, locating the outer pickets of the Texian Legion in the woods of East Texas. The majority of the brigade's patrolling efforts, however, were concentrated on establishing a Milgov presence along the major roads leading to the other Milgov cantonments in Memphis, Tupelo, Jackson and Vicksburg, gradually fanning farther from the main road and rail lines as banditry was driven deeper into the forests of northern Mississippi.

In the south, the 6th Infantry Brigade established its headquarters at Camp Shelby and began to expand the area under Milgov's control. With the backing of the 6th's regulars, the guardsmen of the Mississippi 2nd State Guard Regiment became more aggressive in their patrols, clearing Interstate 59 north and east to Meridian. The 6th, meanwhile, sent task forces west and south to establish clear lines of communications with Natchez and the Gulf Coast, respectively. In this effort they were hindered by the massive damage inflicted by the hurricane of August 1998. Downed trees blocked many of the roads and power and telephone lines were likewise downed by the storm. Efforts were initially made to transport the downed trees to sawmills for use as lumber for the reconstruction effort, but it was quickly discovered that less precious fuel was consumed if fresh timber from near the sawmill was used, rather than moving heavy logs miles on scarce heavy trucks. The fuel shortage slowed tree clearing considerably as gangs of troops and civilian volunteers (in reality, press-ganged civilians from the refugee camps in and around Camp Shelby) manually cleared roads with axe, saw and flame. By the end of the summer of 2001, troops of the 6th had reached the Gulf Coast at Gulfport and were within 20 miles of Natchez, having cleared major stretches of Interstate 59 and U.S. Routes 49, 84 and 98. During this period the troops also restored order to the areas between these roads, resulting in effective Milgov control of the entire state south and west of Jackson and Hattiesburg. With assistance of the engineer battalion of the 2nd Raider Brigade from Mobile the 6th was able to open the port of Gulfport. The cranes, warehouses, power and water supplies had been destroyed, but the harbor was cleared to a depth of 36 feet (after the removal of a wrecked Liberian freighter) - deep enough to dock any naval ship up to cruiser size or a 250,000-barrel tanker. Within a week, Milgov deployed the destroyer tender USS Yellowstone to Gulfport to provide berthing, electrical power, drinking water and machine shop support to troops ashore. The Yellowstone also brought along a crew of approximately 500 sailors from Task Force 34 ships tied up in Mobile Bay. These sailors, like their brethren around the world, soon found themselves engaged in relief and reconstruction tasks ashore.

By Christmas, 2001 V Corps was able to report to the JCS that the states of Alabama and Mississippi were mostly under Milgov control. Civilian travel along the main highways was once again safe, the Tenn-Tom waterway had been reopened and begun moving barges (under escort) through to the Mississippi and Tennessee rivers. The Mississippi State Guard had been trained and equipped so that they could assume responsibility for internal security. This left V Corps' 3rd Armored Brigade, 6th Infantry Brigade and all but one battalion of the 1st Infantry Brigade available to move across Louisiana and engage the Texian Legion in the spring of 2002.

For V Corps, an economic long-term goal, which demanded restoration of natural gas production (and renovation of the gas distribution network), was the reopening of Alabama's steel mills - the mini-mills in Birmingham, Decatur and Tuscaloosa, and the integrated steel mill at Gadsden, with the ability to turn out over four million tons of steel a year. The restoration of natural gas production would also allow electrical service to be restored through all areas of the region. Fortunately, the mouth of Mobile Bay was a productive gas field before the nuclear exchange. In late 2001, a team of petroleum engineers and rig operating personnel were flown into Mobile from CENTCOM (via a long airbridge operated by the 53rd Aerial Port Squadron) to bring the gas field back online. The drill rig Cecil Brown, laid up in Mobile Bay during the war, had been reactivated in the Mobile shipyards, and by February 2002 there was a trickle of natural gas flowing ashore. It would be another six months until the pipelines to Tuscaloosa were repaired and another year of repair, retraining and organization until the first of the steel mills began production. Throughout 2002 and 2003 the electricity in Alabama and eastern Mississippi came back on for a few hours each day, demonstrating to the civilian population that Milgov was bringing American life closer to normal.

In the fall of 2001 XIX Corps and V Corps faced a new problem - the growing threat presented by New America from both east and west. August saw New America defeat the self-proclaimed "Sea Lord of Jacksonville", and in September New America sympathizers in the 108th Infantry Division and 35th Engineer carried out a coup d'etat, delivering most of Georgia and the Carolinas to New America, leaving the extremist organization in control of the eastern seaboard from south of Norfolk to the Florida panhandle and the interior areas from the coast to deep into the Appalachians. While the rare encounters between Civgov and Milgov troops in eastern Alabama had been tense but peaceful, New America patrols uniformly clashed with Milgov patrols and began to raid forward outposts of XIX Corps. In the west, numerous reconnaissance teams attached to the 197th Infantry Brigade from Memphis disappeared in northern Arkansas before a team composed of European veterans identified a major New America cell in the Ozarks. The New America threat was one that could not be addressed solely by V and XIX Corps - the guidance of the JCS was needed to coordinate Milgov operations. In the meantime, V Corps' mission was to link up overland with VII Corps.

[chico20854]

This is the last segment for a while... the posting has caught up to what has been written!

VII Corps in Texas

VII Corps was structured somewhat differently than III Corps and V Corps - it had heavier equipment and air support. The portion of Task Force 34 that carried VII Corps home accompanied the part carrying V Corps back to Mobile, Alabama. Upon arrival in Mobile, VII Corps received what little heavy equipment that was available to Milgov troops in Alabama (the 2nd Marine Raider Brigade, Aviation Training Brigade, 17th Airborne Division and 59th Ordnance Brigade) and helicopters from Fort Rucker and formed the 2nd Armored Cavalry Battalion, 17th Field Artillery Battalion and 11th Aviation Battalion. VII Corps then conducted a few weeks of company and battalion-level exercises before loading the 2nd Cavalry Battalion and 35th Armor Battalion, 1st Armored Brigade (which incorporated most of the heavy equipment between the two units) onto the remnants of the USS Still to be Determined! amphibious group and the rest of VII Corps onto the Omega fleet. Lurking offshore was a surprise reinforcement - the USS Eisenhower and part of its battle group, and most importantly, a scratch air wing composed of remnants of Eisenhower's Carrier Air Wing 7, elements of Enterprise's Carrier Air Wing 20, USS Lexington's Carrier Air Wing 21 and training aircraft from along the Gulf Coast. While VII Corps was ashore training, the tanker USS Wabash from CENTCOM rendezvoused with the Eisenhower group and transferred 85,000 barrels of JP-5 and 400 tons of munitions, allowing Eisenhower to resume flight operations. After a short voyage across the Gulf of Mexico, VII Corps began the liberation of Texas.

DIA teams had conducted a reconnaissance of the south Texas coast and become familiar with the political situation in the region. The DIA teams had identified four groups that were actively opposed to the restoration of Milgov control - the remnants of the Mexican Army (broken into four warring factions), the Soviet Division Cuba, the Texian Legion and assorted local marauder bands. Likewise, they had identified two groups that would be able to help restore order to Texas - the South Texas Grange and the remnants of the Texas Rangers - legitimate representatives of the state government. DIA liaison teams established contact with the latter two organizations and VII Corps prepared to rely on them as local civilian authorities. All other armed groups were to be considered hostile.

A special case was the Soviet Division Cuba. The DIA teams reported that the division, based in and around San Antonio, was suffering from low morale, desertion and harassing attacks from local guerrillas. In addition, the division had recently sent a detachment to Brownsville, Texas that had routed a marauder band that controlled the city, and, more importantly, captured a small refinery and intact offshore oil platform. Production from the well and refinery was imminent, which would grant Division Cuba unparalleled mobility and allow it to return its Mi-24 Hind attack helicopters to the air over Texas.

The CG, VII Corps decided to take a carrot and stick approach to Division Cuba. At dawn on January 1, 2001, General Konstantin Femerov, commander of Division Cuba, was rudely awakened by the roar of jet engines as his headquarters at Lackland Air Force base was buzzed by over two dozen fighter and attack aircraft. Shortly afterwords, an American helicopter landed at the base and Major General Harrison Richards, CG, VII Corps, stepped out, accompanied by acting governor James "Big Tom" Thomas. They presented General Femerov with the choice of either accepting Milgov aid in evacuating Division Cuba from Texas or the commencement of active hostilities with VII Corps. Milgov aid in evacuation would consist of escorting Soviet troops, if desired, to a port on the Gulf Coast, where they could load onto some of the ships of the Operation Omega fleet - the remnants of the German merchant marine, refueled and for Division Cuba to keep and do as they pleased with (so long as they did not land on NATO territory). Due to the dilapidated state of the ships and port facilities, much of Division Cuba's armored vehicles would have to be left in Texas. The alternative would be around the clock bombing of Division Cuba followed by an offensive of combat-hardened European veterans. While being presented with this offer, General Femerov was informed that landing craft had appeared in the Gulf of Mexico outside of Brownsville, helicopters were landing troops outside of Brownsville and Port Isabelle, and that transmissions to Gulfwind 40 (the offshore oil rig) went unanswered. Knowing that production from the Brownsville facility had not yet started, the poor state of his division, and his deep desire to leave Texas, General Femerov accepted General Richards' offer, although he declined to accept the humiliation of having his soldiers, the only Warsaw Pact troops to invade the continental United States, escorted out of the country by enemy troops. Division Cuba was evacuated with honor through Brownsville saluted by troops of the 1st Armored Brigade, which had arrived to maintain order after the Soviet withdrawal.

The rest of VII Corps came ashore farther north in Texas and began to restore order. The 3rd Infantry Brigade came ashore in the less ruined part of Corpus Christi, making short work of the marauder band that occupied the Naval Air Station, while the 10th Mountain Infantry Brigade moved ashore from Port Lavaca. VII Corps headquarters established itself at the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station along with the 11th Aviation Battalion and headquarters of the 25th Naval Construction Regiment and 352nd Civil Affairs Brigade, while its 2nd Corps Support Command set up in Port Lavaca to take advantage of the vibrant market in food and other goods needed to maintain the Corps.

General Richards had to restrain his commanders from becoming over-eager in liberating territory - he wanted to restore order, security and some semblance of an economy in one county per brigade before moving farther inland. Mexican Army units of any faction were to be engaged if overtly hostile. If within the counties under VII Corps control, Mexican Army units that did not act in a hostile manner (always a difficult decision to ask low-level soldiers to make) were to be relieved of heavy weapons and directed to head south to Mexico. Marauders and members of the Texian Legion were to be engaged on sight. To help with the maintenance of law and order, whenever possible Texas Rangers, sheriff deputies or local police accompanied patrols and were present at perimeter checkpoints. Their local knowledge and civilian law enforcement authority (while technically not needed due to the martial law decree) went a long way in identifying local criminals and building Milgov credibility as more than an occupying force. DIA reconnaissance teams and members of 1st Company, 10th Special Forces Group (VII Corps' special operations unit, composed of a smattering of Special Operations and Ranger-qualified troops from seven NATO nations) sought out marauder havens in areas beyond the counties under Milgov control, which were then attacked by troops from the 2nd Cavalry Battalion, helicopters from the 11th Aviation Battalion or aircraft operating from the USS Eisenhower or ashore from Corpus Christi Naval Air Station. In the absence of Soviet troops, San Antonio suffered from a month of near-constant gang warfare, as groups of marauders, deserters and Mexican factions fought for control. After three weeks of chaos, the Banditos outlaw biker gang (allied with a yet unidentified! Mexican drug cartel rolled into town and imposed a harsh order. General Richards was not happy with this development but did not have the resources to act, and so was forced to simply monitor events and wait until he had the strength to dislodge and destroy the bikers.

Typical operations for a brigade saw two light infantry battalions maintaining outposts and patrols along the borders of the county, the other infantry battalion providing security for vital infrastructure (power plants, oil wells, water purification plants, refugee camps and industrial facilities) and a quick-reaction company, the military police battalion providing security for the headquarters, convoys outside the county and roving mounted area patrols. The SeeBee detachments, operating under orders from Corps HQ and acting governor Thomas' reconstruction tsar, worked on repairing roads and key railroad lines, fixing or replacing bridges, irrigation systems, water supply systems, power and telephone lines and the port facilities along the Gulf Coast. They also worked to restore electrical power plants, oil production facilities and the other infrastructure needed to restart America. Civil affairs teams from the 352nd Civil Affairs Brigade worked to identify local leaders and prewar government employees that could resume local civil government and interviewed refugees to identify those with useful skills (medical, engineering, teaching, administrative, mechanical, etc.) and to establish food distribution systems and a labor pool to augment the soldiers.

VII Corps' reconstruction plan envisioned building up a secure base along the Gulf Coast south of Houston, which could provide food and fuel (from reactivated onshore and offshore oil wells) to sustain future liberation of Texas. Once that secure base had been set, VII Corps brigades would expand county by county, first securing the Gulf Coast and expanding west to the Interstate 35 corridor. Moving north along the Interstate, the Corps planned to clear San Antonio of the Banditos and sweep the remnants of the Mexican Army from Austin and Waco, linking up with forces of XIII Corps moving south from their cantonments at Fort Sill, Oklahoma and Wichita Falls, Texas, skirting the ruins of the Dallas - Fort Worth metropolitan area. After establishing secure communications by road and rail with XIII Corps (and by extension, with Milgov headquarters in Colorado Springs), the combined forces would then move east and, in coordination with V Corps advancing west from Louisiana, encircle the forces of the Texian Legion. Following that operation, VII Corps would continue to clear Texas of Mexican Army troops and marauders of all types, while continuing the reconstruction effort.

In the initial months of VII Corps operation, they were able to achieve several successes. In Corpus Christi, 3rd Infantry Brigade cleared the city of marauders and bandits and began regular security and stability patrols. Behind this wall of friendly troops, the SeeBees of the 53rd Naval Mobile Construction Battalion began the task of clearing major roads through Corpus Christi of rubble, debris and abandoned cars. They also checked the berths in the Port of Corpus Christi, and found several that were capable of docking ocean-going vessels. While the cranes in the port had been damaged beyond repair by the blast, the port could still handle ships that had cranes aboard or roll-on/roll-off ships. On an interim basis a 35-ton construction crane was parked on a flat-decked barge to unload ships that called, until a real floating crane barge could be found or shoreside cranes fabricated. The electrical power plant in the port area was refurbished but not brought online due to lack of fuel for it. A quick survey of the refinery complex on the west side of Corpus Christi confirmed that nothing usable had survived the airbursts and subsequent firestorms. Likewise, nothing useful remained of the helicopter maintenance and overhaul facility on the naval air station after the military abandoned the facility and marauders occupied it. The barracks were usable after a thorough cleaning and some relatively minor repair, and most importantly the runway and some of the hangars were undamaged. A detachment of aircraft was stationed there to provide air support to VII Corps units. This detachment consisted of the 11th Aviation Battalion's AH-1, UH-1, OH-58 and CH-47 helicopters and a composite Navy-Air Force squadron of T-34Cs (fitted with hardpoints for bombs, rockets and gun pods), a pair of A-7s and a DC-3 transport.

After the departure of Division Cuba, 1st Armored Brigade began multiple reconstruction and security tasks. First priority was providing security and support for Gulfwind 40 and the refinery in Port Isabel. The security task was a challenge due to the brigade's proximity to Mexico and the stream of people crossing in both directions. The brigade commander decided to simply close the border to all northbound traffic that was not of a clearly commercial nature, while anyone who wanted would be permitted to leave the U.S. Tense unofficial negotiations with Mexico authorities in Matamoros established a ceasefire between armies that remained on their respective side of the border and an agreement to share information about marauder bands in the area, such as the remnants of the Familia that had been pushed out of Brownsville by Division Cuba. The low population in the area forced the 1st Armored Brigade to depend more on the supply of food from VII Corps's 2nd Corps Support Command than the other brigades operating in Texas. A weekly shuttle boat sailed the Intracoastal Waterway from Port Lavaca to Brownsville and back, bringing food southbound and refined petroleum northbound. 1st Armored Brigade was able to expand the area of its control north to include the town of Harlingen quite quickly, and by the end of April 2001 was sending patrols as far west as Laredo. (Those patrols reported that much of the northbound traffic that was shut down by the brigade was diverted west to Laredo, but like the Banditos in San Antonio that was a problem to be solved at a later time.) A SeeBee detachment from the 121st Naval Mobile Construction Battalion operated the refinery while the rest of the battalion performed a multitude of other reconstruction tasks.

Under the protection of the 10th Mountain Brigade, SeeBees from the 11th Naval Mobile Construction Battalion, both based in Port Lavaca, were able to restore several oil and gas wells within Calhoun County that had been only lightly damaged in the war. Using this gas and a combination of local and military expertise, the SeeBees were able to restore operation of a water purification facility and, more importantly, one of the three power plants in the county. There was only enough natural gas provided by the wells to run the plant for two hours a day, but the lights coming back on in Port Lavaca and armed American troops patrolling both the city streets and the country roads delivered an important message to the people of Texas - the government was there, and it was there to help the citizens.

[Adm.Lee]

and a DC-3 transport.

Man, those things are like roaches! Everything else is grounded, but one of these is still flying!

Any chance the Confederate Air Force home base in Harlingen has anything salvageable

Again, this has been great to read.

[stilleto69]

Excellent work as always Chico, but I have a couple of questions: 1.) Isn't CVW-20 assigned to the USS Stennis & CVW-11 assigned to the USS Enterprise 2.) What happened to the USS Enterprise and 3.) Wasn't the Stennis assigned to LANTFLT as per your US Naval Aviation Orbat

Just curious But again GREAT WORK!

[Graebarde]

Man, those things are like roaches! Everything else is grounded, but one of these is still flying!

Any chance the Confederate Air Force home base in Harlingen has anything salvageable

Again, this has been great to read.

Their like a Timex. Get a licking and keep on ticking. In '87 there were at least six of them sitting at McAllen airport in flyable condition. McAllen is next the Harlingen BTW.

As for the CAF, they moved to Midland-Odessa about this time frame IIRC. But most of the aircraft in the CAF was not located at Harlingen as it's privately owned and comes and goes for shows etc. B17, B24, B26, Mustangs, and god knows what all else they have in their fleet. All avgas consumers though.

And added cudos to Chico and gang for thier timeless work of excellence.

Grae

[chico20854]

Excellent work as always Chico, but I have a couple of questions: 1.) Isn't CVW-20 assigned to the USS Stennis & CVW-11 assigned to the USS Enterprise 2.) What happened to the USS Enterprise and 3.) Wasn't the Stennis assigned to LANTFLT as per your US Naval Aviation Orbat

Just curious But again GREAT WORK!

Thanks!

I worked with Matt Wiser on the USN Aviation a bit after I put the orbat up on my site. I'll have to get around to updating the web site...

Here is the quick breakdown we're using these days:

CVW 1 - America
2 - Kitty Hawk
3 - JFK
5 - Connie
6 - Forrestal
7 - Ike
8 - TR
9 - Nimitz
10 - Independence
11 - Lincoln
13 - Washington
14 - Ranger
15 - Vinson
16 - Midway
17 - Saratoga
19 - Coral Sea
20 - Enterprise
30 - Stennis
21 - Lexington
56 - Oriskany

When Enterprise moved to the Atlantic Fleet, CVW-11 stayed in the Pacific. Enterprise went to war with a reserve air wing, CVW-20, and was damaged during the Kola operation. It retired to Belfast and remained there until TF 34 sailed back to the U.S., when it accompanied the fleet to Norfolk. The remnants of CVW-20 were integrated into Eisenhower's as the Atlantic Fleet's primary active carrier.

Stennis was newly delivered from the shipyard at the outbreak of war (commissioned in January 96). She was still on post-commissioning workups, so she was not in the initial operations in the Pacific. The air wing that was scheduled to deploy on Stennis upon her entry into full service instead stayed on Ranger (which was to decommission) and it was decided to have the reserve air wing CVW-30 do its workups on Stennis as she was doing her workups. When she was declared ready to deploy the powers that be decided to leave CVW-30 aboard.

I'd hope that not much of the CAF was at Harlingen. Too close to the border. On a practical level, the CAF would not be of too much use - maintenance intensive, need to find real machineguns for it, modern ordnance generally won't fit on WWII-era bomb racks, and they run off of real AvGas (100% octane, not kerosene JP-8 Jet fuel).

[stilleto69]

Thanks Chico for the update. I'll change my orbat.

[Matt Wiser]

Nicely done, Chico. Now, what's going on west coastwise Or have you guys even discussed things west of the Rockies

[chico20854]

Nicely done, Chico. Now, what's going on west coastwise Or have you guys even discussed things west of the Rockies

We have discussed it in detail.


And written none of it down yet.

I'm going to try to find some time in the next few weeks to write some more... I can claim to the family I have an "important project" I need to work on and avoid endless days of babysitting!

[Mohoender]

I'm going to try to find some time in the next few weeks to write some more... I can claim to the family I have an "important project" I need to work on and avoid endless days of babysitting!

That will be perfectly true and we can all be brought up as witnesses of how impotant this project is. Not to you only but to an ever growing international community.