[chico20854]

June 30, 1998

The 106th Guards Air Assault Division arrives in the Ryazan area for reconstruction from the remaining elements of the Airborne center there. (Unofficially) It ends up absorbing not only the center's remaining personnel but also a number of local militias and MVD troops. It also dispatches a detachment to scavenge the site of the Kubinka Armor Museum, which yields a hodgepodge of aged and unique armor, a mixed blessing given the burden it places on the unit's mechanics.

Unofficially,

The destroyer USS John Paul Jones (DDG-32), which reactivated in November after over a decade in reserve, appears off the coast of San Diego. Its missile launchers are empty, but the ship boasts over 450 rounds of ammunition for its pair of 5-inch guns, many of which are expended over the next few hours as experienced ANGLICO spotter teams ashore direct the destroyer's fire on Mexican positions. This fire forces the Mexican force to avoid the open ground along the base's southern and western edges.

The Marine Corps belatedly organizes the cadre and miscellaneous staff at its base at Twentynine Palms as an ad-hoc force composed of two infantry battalions and a LAV-25 scout company and places the command, designated Task Force Devil Dog, at the disposal of the 89 (my II) Corps commander. That corps' attack is beginning to slow as the meagre stockpiles of fuel in California are increasingly depleted by the movement of 63 (my XVI) and 89 (my II) Corps.

The School Brigade's overland movement out of Fort Bliss continues, with the rearguard 5th Battalion, 56th Air Defense Artillery slipping out of the cantonment area in the early morning hours, leaving a massive inferno behind as the few remaining undamaged buildings are torched to deny them to the enemy. The column is forced to halt mid-morning as the temperature rises and the many civilian-type vehicles begin to suffer from the relentless dust and rough tank trails; the halt gives the column time to clear filters, refuel and distribute water to the passengers.

To the west, the Torres Motorized Cavalry Regiment (releasing the cavalry regiments of the Torreon and Durango Brigades back to their parent commands to pursue the School Brigade) begins advancing on the next strategic target, New Mexico's largest city, Albuquerque. The Mexican armored cars advance up Interstate 25, staying on the western bank of the Rio Grande.

4th Army's drive up the Interstate 35 corridor resumes, with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment reaching the perimeter fence of Bergstrom Air Force Base and the capital city of Austin, which the Governor and his bodyguard of Texas Rangers has fled for the safety of, initially, Waco. To its east, Brigade Saltillo is engaged in fierce combat with the 2nd Texas Brigade at Camp Swift; the relatively fresh Mexican troops have greater amounts of ammunition as well as more heavy weapons (particularly mortars) which give them the advantage. The 91st Training Division dispatches its reaction regiment to Austin to try to slow the Mexican advance, while directing its remaining trainees to preparing defenses for Fort Hood.

A E-8 JSTARS of the 968th Airborne Warning and Control Training Squadron, one of two training aircraft remaining in the US, flies an operational sortie over Mexico, its radar system mapping a number of targets throughout the central part of the country. It is escorted on the mission by a pair of F-16s of the 388th Tactical Fighter Wing to ensure that the Mexican Air Force's F-5 fleet, believed to be neutralized over a week prior, does not interfere with the vital mission. When the JSTARS crosses back into American territory the radar map information is relayed to the Joint Chiefs as well as several Air Force bases in the region. Upon receipt, the data is pored over by mission planners and by midnight orders are being issued.

The 47th Infantry Division, fighting alone in British Columbia, tries to hobble together a defense of the vital transportation hub of Prince George. The isolated division commander fears that Soviet troops advancing overland from the port of Prince Rupert will sever his escape route as his troops undertake a fighting withdrawal against Soviet troops that are pushing south from the Yukon.

The pace of the Pact advance in southern Germany is limited by logistic challenges and poor communications and motivation - Soviet, Czech and Italian troops are aware of the strategic goal of the campaign but are reluctant to be killed in a war that it is very clear has been lost by all sides. Isolated NATO positions are taking days or weeks to reduce, since there is insufficient ammunition (or troops) to overrun them, resorting to sieges to defeat the defenders.

The defense of Heidelberg holds, despite appalling conditions for everyone (soldiers on both sides and civilians which have not fled) in the city. Fires rage, the streets are choked with debris and trash as well as running with a disease-ridden ooze of oil, sewage and who knows what. Supplies for the defenders are running low, with hastily drafted civilian porters and NATO headquarters troops daring to cross the Neckar River carrying duffel bags stuffed with a somewhat standard allocation of ammunition (including a handful of pre-loaded magazines), water and rations. Soviet troops make minimal gains in the day's fighting.