Invasion USA 3 - The Battle for Survival (20 page)

“And pray what is our debt to you, grand knight?” replied Martie in the same tone.

“Last year I would have asked for your hand in marriage, Ms. Roebels, but due to my meeting Ms. Wallace here a month or so ago, I’ll let you off the hook. But there is one thing. I feel pretty left out of this flying stuff and would like some flying lessons in something slow and safe. That way I could travel the highways at a faster speed. Also, I’m thinking that I might have always been jealous of you guys and really wanted to become a pilot. Look at the women pilots around here; they are far better looking than the raggedy old male pilots, and I’m sure more fun.” There was much laughter. “The eighth trailer is full of brand new and working John Deere lawn tractors, America’s new mode of transportation. The ninth trailer is a weird one from Nevada, full of Indian stuff, and I’ll let you ladies unpack that one.

“My boys are lighting the charcoal BBQs and have taken out enough meat for an old-fashioned grill-up for lunch, and due to the weather, all the beers are cold.” Joe got a standing ovation and returned to his seat.

General Patterson walked to the front of the room and began the meeting. “Apart from my two Air Force Base Commanders, Army General Ward and Marine Colonel Mickiewicz from Camp Lejeune, all of you have been in all of the meetings we have had here at Preston’s airfield. Yesterday’s meeting was our information group; today is our planning group and you guys are the think-tank group the President has asked me to put together. There are thirty of you in this room and our mission is to try and stay behind the eight ball, because future events are coming at us from close and far. Lee Wang couldn’t make it today. He and his family flew back to California last night to solve a problem with these Chinese parts. We have teams working 24/7 to get things going again. We don’t know where to start, but it is not up to me to decide what is important. I’m a pilot, not an engineer. We need to discuss what is important for defense and work on future threats to our country. I will ask the President say a few words to you first.”

“Ladies and gentleman, and Joe, who has gone up on my list of important people, started the President in a relaxed mood, “nobody in this country knows what the hell is going on and what the future is going to bring, except more death and destruction. I have no Congress or Senate to worry about for the first time in my administration and I want to get the United States back on track as soon as possible. What goes on in this room stays in this room. I know you military personnel are all different ranks, but at these meetings, you are all as equal as I am, except I must make the final decisions.” He sat down.

Preston looked around the room. The First Lady was sitting and listening closely, as were all the high military brass and civilians who had been here before, but the kids were not in the hangar, nor were the lower-ranking military personnel. The hangar was on lockdown by guards on the outside. Also, Preston noticed, apart from David, everybody was American.

“Some of you have flown outside our borders very recently,” continued General Patterson. “Carlos, come up and tell us what is happening out there, as far as South America is concerned.” The men switched positions.

“We spent only three days in Colombia, so we don’t know much about the world. What I did notice was that poorer populations, shall we say second-world countries, are not as bad off as we think. I did learn that many countries must have more operational Vietnam-era and older weapons and electronics as compared to the USA and the European Block, and maybe even Russia and China. To me, that means that all countries might be of equal standing and have the same arms and munitions. The United States, Russia, the European countries of Germany, France and Great Britain, and China, that had far more modern electronics and depended on them more, are worse off for their dependence on them. The middle-strength nations still have capabilities with their World War II and Vietnam-era aircraft, ships and equipment just as we have, here at Preston’s field. Colombia is far better off than we are here. It’s not so cold and for example, private and commercial kitchen equipment is still working. From this small sample, I estimate that the really poor nations have seen little or no change due to having less modern equipment to fail in their daily lives. I would assume that hospital equipment of all nations would be more modern, such as emergency vehicles like fire engines, ambulances and police vehicles, but to me it seems that all middle-strength nations have increased in strength compared the more powerful nations who have lost more.”

“Does that mean that we might not be one of the most powerful nations in the world any more, and maybe a country like Mexico, Brazil, India or Venezuela could be more powerful than us?” asked the President.

“I don’t think so,” replied Carlos. “I think we have much more residual strength than many other countries. Yes, we lost more modern technologies than other countries, but the other countries have all lost something,especially communications and knowledge. With our military size, strength and available equipment and supplies, we are in a powerful position to defend ourselves from another country’s attacking force. What is most important is that we have Blue-Water oceans between us and all other potentially powerful nations.”

“So, future invasions or attacks from external forces could come from our southern or northern borders?” the President asked.

“I would think so, and although our satellite feed can help keep eyes on the seas around us, searching for shipping, the satellites won’t see a couple of jeeps driving over our borders, north or south,” Carlos answered. “In Colombia, nobody knows who to trust. One of the major centers of power in Colombia is composed of my five uncles. They control half of the police force, much of the Air Force and Navy, and a good portion of the Army. Many soldiers have deserted, but not in my uncles’ divisions. Admiral Rogers, may I ask you a question? What is the effectiveness of your Navycurrently?”

“Zero,” replied the admiral bluntly. “I’m thinking, like Joe, maybe I should learn to fly.”

“Would three Light Frigates of the Colombian Navy help you if they were loaned to you?”

“In a smaller patrol area, yes,” replied the Admiral. “We currently have six operational Destroyers that are older and more obsolete models and two Submarines. There are another half dozen ships, even Aircraft Carriers, the
USS Yorktown
in Charleston, South Carolina and the
Midway
on the West Coast that might be salvageable, but it will take a year to get them up to steam. If I needed to patrol over a certain area, let us say the Caribbean or Gulf of Mexico, three Light Frigates would be a formidable force compared to what we have now. I would say that three ships could treble our naval defense opportunities.”

“General Patterson, my Uncle Philippe asked that you turn his seven C-130s into Gunships.” The general nodded. “Do you have enough equipment to do this?”

“Yes, we have more than a dozen 105mm howitzers in the latest, grounded AC-130 Gunships worldwide, which are at least a decade away from being active again. We have already salvaged what we could out of three of the 130s in Japan and another two in Korea. We are gutting three in Europe and bringing what is usable back stateside. These aircraft skeletons have been, or will be destroyed once cleaned out. So is most of our now defunct equipment overseas. The U.S. Air Force has over a hundred teams looking at all of our 3,000 aircraft over there and will dismantle anything worth keeping. Within a month or two, all of our defunct military equipment in unsafe countries will be destroyed. Back to the AC-130s, they all have the same systems
Blue Moon
is fitted with. We also can fit your Colombian aircraft out with Vietnam-era infrared scopes and a complete range of the Vietnam-era electronics we have in
Blue Moon
. General Allen’s
Ghost Rider
had the same equipment. We will have salvaged enough gunship equipment to equip the seven Colombian C-130s as well as five of our own aircraft. I’m sure we will find more and more equipment as we look deeper into storage warehouses around the country and overseas.”

“How many future 130 Gunships are we going to have and can our country depend on the Colombians as back up if we need them?” asked the President.

“A dozen, Mr. President,” replied the general. “And we will have them to back us up if needed. Carlos, as to your requirement for Miniguns, we have already salvaged 45 complete units from our overseas bases; we believe there are at least another 1,800 or more in the grounded overseas aircraft that we haven’t touched yet and at least another 200 on defunct aircraft inside the U.S. I would think that the Air Force alone has another 500 or more units stashed away. What are your estimates for the Army and Marines, gentlemen?”

“Unconfirmed numbers; I would say 500 or more nationwide and we are also bringing Miniguns back on the jumbo jets when we can; I’d say another 1,500 over there,” replied General Ward.

“About 100 here, General, mostly on older jeeps and another 500 overseas,” added Colonel Mickiewicz.

“So Carlos, your uncles may have 100 Miniguns and ammunition from us. What are we going to get in return?” asked the general.

“My uncles were thinking of loaning the U.S. Navy three Light Frigates and all you give us in return is back-up for any attacks the U.S. might incur in the future,” Carlos replied. “It depends on our bordering countries, also potential enemies of the United States, General, countries like Venezuela. We will keep an eye out for Colombia as well as the U.S.”

“I like that idea, General,” stated the President. “We need all the friends we can get. Do you have anything to add to what Carlos has just brought up?” Carlos sat down and General Patterson returned to the podium.

“I think that a friendly army and air force as backup is a very positive idea. Admiral Rogers needs more ships, and we do have some ideas ourselves to increase our shipping. Admiral Rogers, will you come up and tell us your new projects?”

“Remember those five massive container ships we captured in New York harbor?” Everyone nodded as the Admiral started. “All the food is unloaded and all the full shipping containers are on dry land. It certainly is a large amount of food and we have 3,000 people packing necessities like rice, flour, and canned meats and vegetables. We divided the food into two-month cases for people and have been giving them out in New York, Boston, Philly, Trenton and Hartford for a month now, as well as a couple of other smaller cities for further distribution into smaller airfields since last week. These food rations have taken the strain away from our military MRE ration packs in these areas and will do so for several more weeks. Many of the containers are now empty and we are turning the 20-foot and 40-foot containers into single family accommodations in a new refugee camp we are building in the Burlington, New Jersey area.

“The new camp is on 40 acres just south of Trenton. Families walking down I-95 and I-295 are directed to the new camp which is starting to get new occupants daily. We have 300 livable containers completed and occupied to date. There are 100 new septic tanks going in every week and we are building separate shower and toilet facilities per 12 containers. Currently families with children or older pensioners are given a 20-foot container, one container per family. The 20-foot containers have bunks for four and the larger 40-foot, bunks for larger families of five to eight people. Insulation, a door and three windows are being added to the walls of each unit. A V-shaped metal roof is being built over the container for rain, snow and heat in the coming summer and lastly, basic army furniture is added—a table, chairs, carpeting, a gas oven and a simple kitchen without washing facilities. All washing up, cleaning and water-related needs are done in the central washrooms, much like a camp site. Finally we have placed a large military or civilian generator outside the wash room with a line going into each house for light, one generator per 12 houses and the washrooms. It’s very basic, but livable and some of the first houses are small, cozy and warm. We have 20,000 containers from the ships plus another 30,000 from the surrounding docks ready for modification. Modifications to the containers are being completed at the docks themselves and a couple of Navy Bases close by. The completed containers are moved without their new roofs by a dozen still-operational container trucks between dock areas and then are airlifted by two Jolly Green Giants to the camp. Here, the roof is added, the container mounted on a leveled piece of ground, connections made and then it’s ready for a family. Each container takes 48 hours from start to finish and we are lifting a dozen per day per helicopter. I have 500 engineers and ship-repair workmen working on the project. Are there any questions?”

“How many other empty shipping containers are there in the harbors further afield, and are they meant to be permanent camps or new towns?” asked Mike Mallory. “It sounds great, but surely all the containers available would never be enough for all the people migrating south.”

“Correct, Mike,” replied Admiral Rogers. “We are not getting thousands of families heading south on I-295 and I-95 as yet. I think most of them are heading your way, to your food points further west. That’s good until we have more containers to give to people. The 50,000 containers we have collected so far are for only 50,000 families, and that is just the start of the project. I believe that there could be up to a million empty shipping containers around the country and the next project is to start a camp, Mike, where you believe one is needed. Next is camp security. We have 100 soldiers on guard duty in towers around the camp. Unfortunately these guard towers make the camp look like an old World War II Concentration Camp and will be taken down once all troubles are ended. We believe that with a possible one million empty shipping containers around the country we—the Navy—plan to turn them into hundreds of camps in the safer, middle areas of the country, within a year. These camps could house 40 million people if needed and could be permanent camps for as long as the country needs them. OK?”