Soldier Up Read online

  They would need firewood so people in the refugee camps stared to cut down whatever trees they could find. It would be stacked and stored for everyone to use, wood burning stoves were in high demand, and Colonel Clayton sent out his squads to look for them but had no clue where to start. The military had their own diesel burning stoves which were generally used inside the tents, but they could also be used as wood burning stoves. They set up quite a few in the refugee camp but warned them about leaving them unattended in the tents and fire extinguishers were a must. It still didn’t stop all of the fires though; Camp Parks did have its own fire station, the fire engines no longer ran, they out fitted a couple of the military trucks to act as fire engines, it carried several barrels of water that could be pumped into a hose to help put out a small fire, several of those trucks could put out a large fire. The trucks were also stocked with all sorts of fire extinguishers and other equipment that you would find on a fire engine. Innovation, innovation, innovation was the new key to survival.

  Those trucks were still operated by fire men and women, they had stayed as long as they could live on post, the fire station there served Camp Parks and the refugee camp.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  With success come problems.

  Word had spread about Camp Parks, which was causing a refugee crisis at the post. More and more people were leaving areas for security reasons then food and water. Many of the neighborhoods in San Francisco, Hayward, San Bruno, Union City, Oakland you name it had become increasingly under attack by large gangs which in effect had become small armies.

  These small armies were run by war lords, the descriptive term used throughout history, regarding a man or woman who ran rampant through areas pillaging and raping, then killing anyone who disagreed with them. To an extent they could be compared to ISIS or Al Qeada during the wars, which conquered large swaths of territory using strength through arms and intimidation. The war lords for now steer cleared of Camp Parks and for the most part Dublin although they were knocking on the door. Up to this point Colonel Clayton and his Senior Staff had been monitoring what was going on outside of Durbin but had taken very little action.

  The largest confrontation they had so far was the securing of Moffett Field; they had flown one of the aircraft into the field, which surprised the hell out of the command there. The aircraft was large enough to carry a full A-Team and its weapons; this also happily surprised everyone there.

  The A-Team Detachment Commander, Captain Alexander Reid, met with the Moffett Field Commander Lieutenant Colonel Oscar March.

  “Sir,” said Captain Reid. “Need a bit of help?” smiled the Captain and shook hands with the Colonel.

  “Well Captain I don’t think you’re men are going to stop that crowd out there.”

  “No Sir we won’t, I’m here to give you a heads up.”

  Then all of a sudden gun fire was heard at the main gate to Moffett, then the sound of a heavy machine guns, something like a ma deuce followed by more small arms fire. “Sir, can you get word out as quickly as you can for your people to get their heads down, I think the Colonel arrived a bit early and that’s them knocking on the door.”

  “The Colonel? Knocking on the door?” said the Colonel.

  “Sir, just spread the word please.”

  With that Captain Reid and his men took off at a run towards the gun fire. The pilot and co-pilot secured the plane. Colonel March turned to the pilots, “What the hell is going on?”

  “Sir we suggest you get the word out, we don’t want anyone getting hurt who shouldn’t. All of your questions will be answered soon.” The Colonel returned to his office and sent runners throughout the post to notify the various commands and asked them to keep their heads down and don’t engage.

  By the time Colonel March had gotten the word out the combined forces Army and Marine had already subdued the gangs at the main gate and moved through it. Within minutes they arrived at the Headquarters building where Colonel March’s office was. Colonel Clayton got out of his vehicle and walked towards the building entrance. Colonel March met him there holding a 9mm Berretta, pointing right at Colonel Clayton, with this the men with Colonel Clayton raised their weapons and pointed them at Colonel March.

  “Who are you?” asked Colonel March.

  Colonel Clayton looked down at his uniform, pointed to the tab that read US Army then pointed to the other tab that read Clayton, and then pointed to the Eagle on his lapel. “Any more questions?”

  “We still have an Army?” asked Colonel March.

  “Yes we do and the Marines, who are over there, I wouldn’t piss them off though. We have an Air Force and Navy too.” replied Colonel Clayton.

  Colonel March slowly lowered his pistol, “What took you so damned long to get here?”

  Colonel Clayton laughed, “Damn Oscar I didn’t even know until a few days ago what was going on here. I came as soon as I found out.”

  The two men smiled and hugged each other; they had been good friends for years. Colonel Clayton’s men lowered their weapons while shaking their heads saying just loud enough, “Fucking Officers.”

  Colonel Clayton called a quick command meeting, he ordered the commanders from the various units to spread out and check out the rest of the field, if they run into any resistance eliminate it and secure the field, then to let him know when they were done. A collective, “Yes Sir.” and they all turned and left.

  The Colonel’s headed into Colonel March’s office where Colonel March had been living. He had no family to speak of and had dedicated himself to the Army and the 63rd Regional Support Command. “What happened Oscar?”

  Lieutenant Colonel March sighed, “The 341st MP’s are doing the best they can, but they are only a company if that. A lot of them left to protect their families then there’s the Pysch Ops boys over at the 7th who were are all but useless. It’s a tough nut to crack trying to secure all of this especially when we’re connected to a civilian airport. How’s Camp Parks?”

  “Secure for the time being, we have about 1,000 troops Soldiers and Marines, a couple hundred Sailors, and a hundred or so Air Force. We’re supporting the families too.”

  Colonel Clayton when onto explain the situation at Camp Parks, the logistics, man power, everything. Colonel March was impressed and told him so, most of the people under his command were either ready to die here or move out on their own.

  Colonel Clayton invited all military personnel and their families to Camp Parks; he stated that he wouldn’t be able to leave any sizable force behind right now to guard Moffitt, not now at least. If they wanted to go back to Parks they would need to take everything they could carry or drive back with them, everything. Colonel March thanked Colonel Parks and told him he would get with Moffitt’s units and find out what they wanted to do today, if that was ok and then let him know NLT tomorrow morning.

  Colonel Clayton told him he would be more than happy to meet with any of the unit Commanders and talk with them if he needed them too. He made clear though, Camp Parks and all military personnel were still part of the United States of America, which meant they were still part of the US Military and they still a had a job to do. Colonel March couldn’t agree more, knowing this also brought some normalcy back to their lives.

  While Colonel March was out talking to the area Commanders; Colonel Clayton made checks on his own units, they reported back they had secured the rest of the base without any further incidents. At the main gate there were wounded civilians who were caught in the crossfire between the various gangs who wanted a fight with the military, who were more than happy to accommodate, and who paid a heavy price with their lives. Fortunately most of the civilians that were injured were not hurt bad and were able to be treated and released. All of them wanted to know if they were staying in the area, they were told no they would be moving on in the morning.

  The civilians told of the gang armies that were heavily armed and were running rapid through the cities, women were being raped and children made
slaves. In some circumstances they were reporting cannibalism, no one was safe. There were horror stories to be sure and Colonel Clayton knew something would have to be done soon to help people; he just didn’t have a plan yet.

  Around 2300 Colonel March found Colonel Clayton hanging around a CP that he had set up which was actually just a few offices down from his own. He was amazed, he had radios and radio operators, they had generators running for electricity and most of all they had coffee brewing. His staff had put up some maps of the area which showed Moffett Field and the surrounding area. On it were marked the military units on base as well as where his own units were set up. There was radio traffic coming in with the status of each unit. It was running like a military organization was supposed to be.

  “It’s unanimous they all want to go to Parks especially after the show today, can they have another day to pack it up though?” said Colonel March.

  “Sure take a couple of days if you like. The A-Team that came in by plane will be taking off in the morning and they can let my XO know we will be a couple of days behind them.”

  “That’s great John, by-the-way we have four running Bradley’s what should we do with them?”

  With that news Colonel Clayton almost spit his coffee out his nose. “You have Bradley’s?”

  “Yeah I just said that.”

  “Why aren’t you using them?” asked Colonel Clayton.

  “We tried but damn near killed ourselves doing it, after trying a few times we gave up.” replied Colonel March.

  “What? C’mon they aren’t that hard to operate. Do you have ammo for the 25 mike mike? Do any of them have TOW mounts and if they do, do you have the missiles? Do you have the 249 for them too?” All of these questions came rushing out of Colonel Clayton.

  “Geesh, yes, yes and yes, actually plenty of ammo as far as I know for all of them.” said a smiling Colonel March.

  Colonel Clayton hustled back into the office and told his staff to find him four Bradley crews, we got a lot of infantry types and I’m sure some have got to know how to operate a Bradley. Within thirty minutes four Bradley crews reported to the Office, three Army and one Marine.

  “You boys sure you know how to operate the Bradley’s?” Colonel Clayton asked.

  Each man answered in the affirmative, all of the men stated that one time or another they had been part of a Bradley crew and knew the vehicles very well. Colonel March showed the men were the vehicles were in storage. He told them they were started once a month for the last year but hadn’t really moved. They were here for to help protect the airfield but the never got the crews for them. The men climbed onto the vehicles and then crawled inside them. Luck was still with them as each vehicles engine turned over and roared to life. The doors were open and they drove them out to the armory where they could pick up their basic ammo load and the 249’s.

  Once they had their basic loads they went to the fuel point, where the new pump was installed and topped off the vehicles. Then drove them over to HQ as they were driving up Colonel Clayton thought they were one of the most beautiful things he had seen in a long time. He told his staff he wanted the Bradley’s position at and along the main gate, he wanted them to see the firepower, “That’ll make them think twice,” he thought to himself.

  It took three full days to get all of the units who were going back to Camp Parks loaded up. While the units were busy packing Colonel Clayton had instructed his units to scavenge anything not nailed down that they could use. They had even brought five empty fuel tankers and topped them all off, no point in leaving fuel behind. They took everything from the PX, which was actually a lot, it wasn’t looted as bad because it was on post, the men and women on post had certainly gone through it but only taken what they needed.

  They went through the mess and medical facilities and took everything they could, it was almost like Christmas. On the morning they were leaving to go back to Camp Parks he had received a radio call from one of the squads that they had found something he really needed to see at one of the bases fire stations.

  He ordered them to move on and get back to their units that they were moving out, but the men were insistent that he come and see it. Fine, he told them, he had them sit tight since it was on the way out he would stop by to see what they had and to pick them up. He didn’t want to hold up the convoy too long it was almost fifty vehicles long, with two of the Bradley’s out front of it and two at it rear.

  At 1300 the convoy moved out heading to Camp Parks, but had one more stop to make, the fire station, Colonel Clayton wondered what the hell could be so fricken important. The convoy stopped a couple of hundred yards from the station. Colonel Clayton got out of his vehicle and into the back of one of the Bradley’s, couldn’t be too careful. The men could have been compromised and the entire thing could be an ambush, he thought if that were the case it was unlikely that attackers had any anti-armor weapons.

  The three other Bradley’s moved to positons back and sides of the station with the Bradley the Colonel was in headed straight for the front. As they got closer the front doors that allowed the fire engines to exit the building were opened. The Soldiers stepped out signaling that everything was alight. The Bradley with the Colonel in it pulled alongside the front of the building and dropped its rear ramp. The Colonel walked out and looked at the men, then looked behind them, “Wow!” was all that came to mind. There in front of him was a vintage 1936 Maxim Fire truck in excellent condition. “It runs too.” said the squad leader. “We sort of figured since Camp Parks didn’t have a real fire truck we could take this one, it’s all topped off and ready to go.”

  Colonel Clayton walked over to the truck and ran his hand along it, he wasn’t some sort of fire truck enthusiast by any means but he could certainly appreciate the beauty of the truck. “Yes, yes by all means, great find men. Who’s gonna drive it?”

  The squad leader spoke up, “Well Sir since we found it and made sure it ran, we were sort of hoping you’d let us drive it back.”

  The Colonel chuckled, “Sure no problem, to be sure though you drop it off at the fire station back at Parks right?”

  “Yes Sir,” the squad leader said. With that the squad loaded up and got the truck into positon in the convoy. The Colonel then told the Bradley to return to the convoy and he would walk back to his vehicle.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Mel had been very busy since day one of the event and she hadn’t really slowed down since. She was now responsible for all of the Family Services on base which covered hundreds if not thousands of families. They had also started reach out programs to the refugee camps that now surrounded Camp Parks or just about.

  Family Services included finding homes for new military arrivals that had families, helping them get furniture, pot and pans, fuel, food, childcare and the kids into schools. Just about all of the spouses worked on post doing something there were exceptions where mothers or fathers stayed home with young children or to care for a family member. Family members who worked were paid with various items, more food, fuel, and creature comforts things of that nature.

  There was a Post Exchange which allowed for barter in goods, you could also buy items with gold, silver, diamonds, or other precious stones. If you wanted to barter then it had to be something that could be put back to use by the community some place. Also, there was no credit to anyone but there was always a way to work it off. They also accepted US coins (no paper money) the coins had some value still, not always much. The paper money could almost be picked up off the street it had no value anymore, you could walk into any bank these days, because there was no one there and grab stacks of hundred dollar bills.

  Mel and the kids had adjusted to life inside the camp, it had been close to six months since what they still believed was an EMP event and if it was that, was it solar or nuclear, no one knew. To help the kids better acclimate to the new order some of the old order remained. There were enough kids to start little league, pop warner football, softball and soccer, a
ll after school activities. As for now these activities were limited to on post only, where security was guaranteed.

  Mel’s outreach programs in the refugee communities were meant to help women with children who were struggling in aftermath of the event, they were fortunate to have made it this far and still be alive or made someone’s slave. She was meeting with marginal success there was lawlessness throughout the camps so woman with children were easy targets for rape, and burglary. It started to change after about two weeks a brow beating John regarding security issues inside the refugee camps.

  She asked John why an A-Team or two couldn’t train security forces for the camps. After all wasn’t that really their mission in the Army. John couldn’t argue with her about it, one of the Missions of Special Forces was to train indigenous forces, as force multipliers to fight alongside US forces. In Iraq and Afghanistan SF had trained the Army and Police Forces in some cases. That should work here if not better; at least they could all speak the same language.

  John had thought about it and agreed to help train security forces for all of the camps. They had done it for the original camp that was out the main gate, but it had grown considerably since then. They were having problems of their own getting new recruits then training them effectively. He told Mel that she needed to get it altogether and start the recruiting drive that she also needed to run it by each camps council. Once she did that he would have his teams take it from there, recruits would be required to undergo a physical, oral and written exams then pass them before starting training.

  She quickly agreed and kissed him, “Thank you sweetie!” she said and left smiling to get the ball rolling. Her and her staff created flyers and posted them throughout the camps, the biggest question she got was would they get paid, yes but it was up to the councils to pay them. Within the next two days she had contacted each camps council and met with them to discuss her plans regarding creating a security force for them. Two of the camps weren’t happy that she had put up the fliers without their approval and started the recruiting process; the other three couldn’t be more than happy.