Patriot Dawn: The Resistance Rises (40 page)

             
As night fell, they were in a good defensive position, well-armed and supplied. Caleb had reported that the streets around the area were deserted; the place was a ghost town. Trash was piled up in the streets and it appeared that DC had become a nightmare of failed promises. The elites were provided for, while the people lived in poverty.

             
Jack relieved Caleb’s 1
st
Platoon and moved 2
nd
Platoon into the recon role for the time being, assigning Owen to a series of vehicle mounted ground domination patrols in the surrounding area, in an attempt to gather Intel and detect any approaching threats.

             
Towards midnight, Ned reported to Jack that he had received a situation report on the secure satellite radio. It appeared that the ground advance had been halted in North Carolina, close to Fayetteville where the I-95 bridged across the Cape Fear River.

             
The Regime forces out of Fort Bragg, including elements of the 82
nd
Airborne Division, had staged a defense of the river crossing, blowing the road bridges. A huge battle had ensued, ongoing right now. It looked like it would last through the night.

According to the rather terse
situation report, the Federation forces were attempting to seize the bridge crossing in an attempt to bring up engineer bridging equipment assets and continue the advance.

Jack grunted, deep in thought.

Those that fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it; Operation Market Garden? A bridge too far?

             
Jack had passed back to the Federation command the news on the flight of the Regime leadership. There was no news back about where they may have fled to. Jack surmised that they would have likely gone to one of the underground nuclear command or continuity of government bunkers to wait out the attack and coordinate their forces to respond.

The Company spent a quiet night in and around the White House. Jack managed a couple of hours sleep on one of the couches. In the early hours before morning, waiting for the next situation report on the ground forces advance, Jack and his command team sat around in the oval office, drinking coffee.

Ned came in, looking excited, clutching some paperwork.

“Jack, take a look at this. It was partially burned, the staffers had the shredders going full out and had started to burn stuff in waste bins, but we stopped them before they got it all done. I’ve been looking through what was left overnight and this here is dynamite.”

Jack took the partially burned folder. It was a classified folder and he could still see the words ‘Red Dawn’ typed on the front. He started to thumb through it but much of it was obscured and blackened.

“Ok Ned, give me the lowdown.”

“R
oger that. From what I can make out, it’s a summary of an operation to entirely subdue and disarm the American population, including the military. The military is useful for now, but will serve its purpose.

“
The Chinese invasion, you see, it’s not really an invasion. The Regime enabled the Chinese to overcome the PACFLEET defense of Hawaii using cyber warfare to shut down defense systems. The ultimate aim is for Chinese forces to integrate with Regime forces as a ‘Peacekeeping’ force across America.”

Jack interrupted, “So it’s grand treason by the Regime?”

“Yep. The kicker is, General Wall and USPACOM were not supposed to be so successful in blocking the Chinese in California. This is why the previous commanders did not try so hard, until he took over. Wall threw a spanner in the works. The next phase was supposed to be a ‘truce’ with Chinese forces and a joint military command working in the ‘best interests’ of America.

“The United Nations is going to support it. The motivation is the disarmament and subjugation of the American people because we are seen as the world’s greatest threat to one world United Nations government, standing in the way of world socialism.”

Jack interjected, “What, we hold our freedom too dearly?”

“Looks like it. There is a report here,” Ned showed Jack the relevant section, “detailing the situation with
General Wall and the options. One option is to ‘terminate’ Wall personally, but the report states that it may be hard to get to him. The other option is limited tactical nuclear strike to severely degrade USPACOM forces and allow the Chinese to overcome them.”

Jack stared at Ned,
and then he looked around at the shocked faces of his command team.

“
Ok Ned, you did a good job finding that. Let’s get what you can recover of the report summarized, and then get me Federation command on the satellite radio. We need to pass this up.”

“Will do.” Ned headed out.

“Oh yea, and let’s see if we can get an update on the Federation advance?” Jack called as Ned turned back in the door. Ned nodded and walked out.

Jack walked over and looked out of the shattered windows of the Oval Office, over the south lawn as the dawn lightened the sky. He thought of Caitlin and the kids, and wondered how this situation was going to pan out.

Above him atop the White House flew Old Glory, fluttering in the dawn breeze. Just below, where Jim had strung it up, was the yellow Gadsden flag, the coiled snake with the words “Don’t Tread On Me’ inscribed below.

Now we wait.

Glossary of Abbreviations

A-10
                            - Close Air Support Aircraft ‘Tank Buster’

AAR
                            - After Action Review

AC-130
                            - Gun Ship/see C-130

AFV
                            - Armored Fighting Vehicle

AH
                            - Attack Helicopter

AK
                            - 7.62 x 39mm semi-automatic rifle

Apache
                            - Attack Helicopter

APC
                            - Armored Personnel Carrier

AR-15
                            - .223 semi-automatic rifle

ARF
                            - Airborne Reaction Force

AT-4
                            - Anti-Tank Rocket

Barrett .50
              - .50 caliber sniper rifle

C-130
                            - Transport Aircraft

CAT
                            - Combat Application Tourniquet

CH-47
                            - Large Transport Helicopter – CH-47

Chinook
              - Large Transport Helicopter – Chinook

Claymore
              - Anti-Personnel Mine, directional

Company
              - 90-120 men, 3-4 Platoons + HQ             

COP
                            - Combat Out Post

DZ
                            - Drop Zone

ECP
                            - Entry Control Point

EFP
                            - Explosively Formed Penetrator

EOD
                            - Explosive Ordnance Disposal

ERV
                            - Emergency Rendezvous

FLIR
                            - Forward Looking Infra-Red - TI

FOB
                            - Forward Operating Base

HEAT
                            - High Explosive Anti-Tank – Tank Round

Hercules
              - Transport Aircraft

HESCO
              - Fortification Bastion

HESH
                            - High Explosive Squash Head – Tank Round

HQ
                            - Headquarters

IED
                            - Improvised Explosive Device

IFAK
                            - Individual First Aid Kit

IR
                            - Infra-Red

KIA
                            - Killed in Action

LMTV
                            - Light Medium Tactical Vehicle – Army Truck

Lt-Col
                            - Lieutenant Colonel

LZ
                            - Landing Zone

M203
                            - 40mm under slung grenade launcher

M4
                            - 5.56mm semi-auto/auto rifle

MANPAD
              - Shoulder fired anti-aircraft missile

MBT
                            - Main Battle Tank

MFC
                            - Mortar Fire Controller

MIA
                            - Missing in Action

MRAP
                            - Mine Resistant Ambush Protected - Vehicle

NATO
                            - North Atlantic Treaty Organization

NOD
                            - Night Observation Device

NVG
                            - Night Vision Goggles

OP
                            - Observation Post

Op Order
              - Operations Order

OPSEC
                            - Operational Security

ORP
                            - Objective Rally Point

Platoon
                            - Approx. thirty men, 3 Squads plus HQ

QRF
                            - Quick Reaction Force

RPG
                            - Rocket Propelled Grenade

RTOC
                            - Regional Tactical Operations Center

RV
                            - Rendezvous

SAM
                            - Surface to Air Missile

SAW
                            - Squad Automatic Weapon

SF Role
                            - Sustained Fire Role

SITREP
              - Situation Report

SMAW-D
              - Bunker Busting Rocket

SOF
                            - Special Operations Forces

Squad
                            - Approx. 8 or 9 Men, 2 x Teams of 4

UAV
                            - Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (Drone)

VSI
                            - Very Seriously Injured

TI
                            - Thermal Imaging

TOC
                            - Tactical Operations Center

.50cal
                            - .50 caliber machine-gun

240
                            - 7.62 x 51mm machine-gun

Contact! A Tactical Manual for Post Collapse Survival

This manual is the result of a detailed consideration of a societal collapse and the civil shift and aftermath that would impact individuals and families who are intent on survival. 

The purpose of this manual is to provide information to enhance security, tactics and survival skills of law-abiding citizens who are faced with civil disorder, lawlessness, violence and physical threat in a post-collapse environment. 

The information in this manual is derived from years of experience gained from service with special operations forces (SOF) followed by years of employment as a security contractor in hostile environments including Iraq and Afghanistan.  It is a distillation of military and security training, principles, and tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) adapted to the threat and environment anticipated in this type of scenario in order to provide knowledge needed to train to survive in a world turned upside down.  It is no longer just survival of the fittest but survival of those prepared.

The manual will take you from self-defense as an individual, team and family, both pre and post collapse, and move on to tactics, techniques, procedures and training that can be used by tactical teams that you may need to form in order to survive. In a serious post-event scenario, one of total collapse with several months or years before recovery, families, groups and communities may be forced to create such tactical defense forces to protect personnel, loved ones and resources against marauders.