4) SAN FRANCISCO/ WESTERN SIDE OF THE BAY
The mountainous spine of the San Francisco peninsula, stretching from the Golden Gate bridge in the north to San Jose in the south, is a mixed bag of ruin and rebirth. The military has returned and has built up a strong enclave as a power base for reclaiming all of California. Scattered throughout the western side of the bay are numerous groups of hold-outs and survivors, some good and some not so good.
The nuke: Late in the chilly night of October 29, 1962, central San Francisco took a SS-N-4 SLBM fired from the Soviet Golf I class ballistic missile submarine B-93 (who the night before had nuked Tucson). The 1 megaton warhead ground burst south of Market Street and left nearly the entire city in tatters. Most of the survivors on the mainland side of the bay fled into the surrounding countryside and much of the area was nearly completely burned to the ground in the chaos and riots that followed.
The city today: The zone of total destruction caused by the nuclear hit was massive. East to west from 3rd Street to Great Highway and north to south from Market Street to far down the peninsula to Pacifica and San Bruno there is nothing but charred stumps and scorched foundations, thanks to the firestorm. Most all of the city south of Golden Gate Park and Market Street lies in ruins, with few buildings over three stories high poking up out of the rubble field. Most of the streets in the city are impassable to all but foot traffic, but north of Market Street the situation is much better. While the tall buildings are gone--the TransAmerica Pyramid is little more than a skeleton sans glass--many of the smaller buildings remain. Many were knocked down, though, and the streets are no more passable here than further south, being little better than cow paths between busted-down buildings. Golden Gate Park, Lincoln Park and similar places went up like dry tinder, spawning mini-forest fires all over the city, adding their destructive power to the atomic firestorm. The small communities on the south side of the peninsula were spared both blast and radiation, but were quickly overwhelmed by refugees. Route 101 and I-280 heading south out of the city are both choked with burnt and abandoned cars and are impassible for large stretches. The San Mateo and Dumbarton Bay Bridges are still up, and are controlled at both ends by the Army. The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, however, is down in the water, blocking most ship traffic into the southern arm of the Bay. Both Naval Station Treasure Island and Hunters Point NAS were mostly destroyed by the blast over the peninsula in 1962 and are now abandoned.
The Army: The military initially tried to help in the chaos, and for about a year things were looking up. But in 1963, the first major outbreak of bubonic plague occurred in the San Francisco area, pushing many of the survivor communities over the edge. Faced with something they couldn't handle, the remaining military pulled out to save itself, heading south and east to regroup. By late summer 1963, the epidemic had burned itself out and the 5th Army HQ returned to the Bay area. San Jose was still relatively intact and provided a large base of industry and manpower, and Moffitt Field became the HQ. This is part of the massive MilGov plan to make northern California the center of reconstruction. The Moffett Field garrison comprises the HQ, DISCOM and the entire 1st Battalion/14th Infantry Regiment of the 25th Infantry Division (some 3,000 men all total), which was stationed on Hawaii when the war came and was shipped here when those islands were abandoned in the spring of 1963. Four of the division's battalions have been assigned to other locations in northern California for garrison duty while the 1/14 is kept in the Bay Area as a strategic reserve of sorts. The division was able to load up virtually every running vehicle on Oahu and take them with them to California, where most have been kept with the 1/14 in San Francisco. The San Jose garrison's equipment includes some 90 vehicles with four dozen Patton tanks and even an M65 280mm "Atomic Annie" howitzer, an enormous 85-ton monster designed to fire tactical nuclear shells and one of only twenty originally produced in the 1950s. Much other equipment has been given to other local garrisons and sent to Fort Ord to help equip the newly raised 6th Infantry Division (see below). Other units in the Bay area include the 900-man 32nd Marine Battalion (Provisional). This battalion was formed from several Marine Corps and Navy support units based in Hawaii, as well as from several Marine Corps and Navy bases in the Northern California region. As attrition mounted and supplies dwindled, specialized support units were no longer needed. As an expedient measure, all excess personnel assisted federal and local law enforcement agencies in riot control and security. Once they islands were evacuated, Fleet command authorized the use of all excess personnel in Hawaii to augment Army troops once they got to San Francisco. Detachments now provide security in the Bay area at the various naval anchorages and the roads between them and San Jose while the bulk of this battalion is involved in anti-piracy work throughout the region. Also in the area are the remnants of the 1st Special Forces Group (50 men). The 1st SFG is a United States Army Reserve unit activated in Okinawa in1957, mangled in China and Korea during the war and then shipped to Hawaii and then on to the states with the 5th Army in 1964.
The Air Force: Based at Moffitt Field are some operational aircraft collected from around the Bay, including fifteen A-4 Skyhawk ground attack jets, two F-4D Skyrays, six P-2 Neptunes, one old TBM torpedo bomber, and twenty assorted transport helicopters including two CH-37 Mojaves. Moffitt is a rather active airbase for 1964, with some small refineries operating in central California, there is fuel to fly aircraft on a semi-regular basis, even if the Mexicans have few targets worth hitting. With aviation fuel in short supply, and the need for high-tech planes lessened, the enclave has been experimenting with other forms of air support. They currently have a squadron of ultralights and a small blimp corps of three blimps for patrolling the sea lanes. The ultralights have been hardened to carry bombs and are capable of a pilot and a maximum 200lb bomb load. The blimps are restored airships from the blimp museum at Moffett Field and confiscated commercial blimps. They are currently being fitted with contact bombs, contact torpedoes, depth charges, and even anti-tank missiles. They are also being modified to carry small auto cannons and machineguns.
The Navy: The Bay area also hosts a considerable naval group, based mostly at the naval bases at the northern end of the bay that are still assessable. The southern arms of the bay are a maze of downed bridges and sunken hulks, they are not accessible to large ships. Most of these vessels here are the remains of the Seventh Fleet, which was thrashed during the war, it's carrier groups nuked hard by medium ranged ballistic missiles. With the abandonment of Hawaii, the remaining units of the Fleet have moved here. There is some talk amongst the command structure of converting some of the oil burning ships to coal burning, and several trials have been made this fall, though it is probably impractical for the larger vessels. A list of operational vessels based in the Bay area follows, but note that the bay is also filled with uncounted non-operational ships rusting at anchor for lack of fuel and need. The following are those ships that are still kept at a state of readiness in the event that they are needed:
Kitty Hawk class carrier
------CVA-63 Kitty Hawk (Seventh Fleet flagship) 1
Essex class carrier
------CVS-12 Hornet 2
Skipjack class attack sub
------SSN-591 Shark 3
George Washington class ballistic missile sub
------SSBN-601 Robert E. Lee 4
Baltimore class cruiser
------CG-11 Chicago
Cleveland class cruiser
------CLG-8 Topeka
Leahy class destroyer leader
------DLG-23 Halsey 5
Charles F. Adams class destroyer
------DDG-3 John King 6
Mitscher class destroyer leaders
------DL-4 Willis A. Lee
------DL-3 John S. McCain
Farragut class destroyers
------DLG-13 William V. Pratt
------DLG-8 MacDonough
John C. Butler class escort
------DE-358 Mack
Escambia class oiler
------AO-134 Mission Santa Ynez
Suamico class oiler
------AO-79 Cowanesque
Seven minesweepers
Four LCMs
Eleven PT boats
Notes: 1 The two carriers are technically operational, but in reality these fuel hogs will probably never leave the Bay again. Their remaining air wings have been dispersed to shore installations and their fuel bunkers are bone-dry empty, having been emptied to feed smaller ships. Out of habit alone, the Seventh Fleet flag is still kept aboard the Kitty Hawk, and the Admiral and his staff still hold daily meetings in the wardroom of the virtually empty carrier. 2 The Hornet's captain and the 25th ID CO have recently decided to moor the Hornet in the center of the San Francisco Bay--a better means of being able to use the vessel in the future should excess fuel become available. She now acts as a floating fortress of sorts, having a 360 degree field of fire and view. The flight deck can be used as a gun platform and even a massed mortar platform. 3 The Shark, being nuclear powered, is the only vessel here that has a worthwhile radius of action and as such is kept in very good repair. 4 The Robert E. Lee returned from patrol some months after the war ended and has been immobile in the Bay ever since, her reactor offline for repairs that may never come. All her SLBMs have been fired and she has only torpedoes left. 5 The Halsey was fitting out in the Bay in 1962 and was badly damaged by the nuke over the city. Most of her electronic equipment and weapons were trashed and the hull was badly damaged. The Navy has recently been using the destroyer as a coastal transport ship, with all of her equipment removed and every possible space converted into cargo holds. Her maximum speed is now just eight knots and thus the ship cannot operate during high sea states. 6 The John King was also damaged by the nuclear blast while docked off the Hyde Street pier. Most of her external arrays were either torn off by the blast or melted by the temperature (she looks like there was a fire on board) as the ground zero was only four miles away from the destroyer, and no one really knows how she survived. However, while the external damage is massive, most of internal facilities are still in quite good condition and the ship is still able to operate. Like the Halsey, this ship is used as a costal transport between the Bay area and other ports and only when weather conditions are good.
With total control of the sea lanes, the enclave has begun to engage in trade with Canada, South and Central America and even receives a few ships from Asia, mostly Chinese and the odd tramp steamer from Japan.
Padre's enclave: A large civilian survivor enclave exists on the northern end of the peninsula, where the quirks of the blast damage left a strip along the waterfront semi-intact. They are about 200 strong and are centered around the waterfront, from the Municipal Pier to the Trans Bay Tube, the North Beach neighborhood and Telegraph Hill Park. The militia is about 20 strong with their HQ at a former seafood restaurant in Fisherman's Wharf. The enclave has many intelligent leaders who have worked hard to rebuild their little corner of the world, foremost a man called "Padre" who first organized a resistance out of the chaos. Padre is really George Fisher, an Episcopalian priest from Nob Hill and a former US Army surgeon. A seagoing tugboat has been tied up to the Pier 43 and it's generators have been hot-wired to keep the lights burning in the Fisherman's Wharf area. They also have a windmill from a museum exhibit on alternative energy set up on the Hyde Street Pier to supply backup power and to provide some running water from pumps. In the boardwalk of warehouses, the survivors found a supply of canned food and they now have a large store of food and supplies locked up in the west end of the BART tunnel. They can't really defend it but they have made it known to all that they will dynamite the tunnel if it is attacked, and that threat has kept it safe for now. They have a hospital of sorts in the Coit Tower building in Telegraph Hill and the Padre often operates on patients himself. Their prize possession, no doubt, is the Priscilla, an old 1888 oyster schooner that was a tourist attraction in the wharf area before the war and is now being refitted for sea. How this wooden ship survived is a mystery, as the blast wave played havoc with the shipping at the docks along the northeast edge of the city. The whole area is still choked with ships broken in half or shoved under the bay by falling debris, their mangled, burnt superstructures barely sticking out of the water. Due to a difference in opinion on relocation, the Padre's group receives very little support and even less concern from the large US military forces in the Bay area. This has left them resentful of the Army and pretty much on their own, thus the desire to get the schooner up and running. They are under pressure from rival bands of survivors on the peninsula but are holding them off for now.
Barbarossa's gang: Their main rivals are a large gang based to the west in the Golden Gate National Park area. The park is now just open scrub land dominated by burnt, dead trees and thick weeds, bordered on the southern edge by a dead zone of crushed buildings. They number hundreds of effectives and their leader is a man calling himself "Barbarossa". He is efficient, if crazy, and very dangerous, a former fundamentalist preacher who has become crazy from radiation poisoning and now fancies himself as a cross between Charles Manson and Napoleon. He has looted several firearms stores and has set up a medieval-style rule in his territory. His followers are armed mostly with shotguns and handguns and have a handful of motorcycles, Barbarossa himself drives around in a 1961 Mercury convertible. They are mostly based in the ruins of the Presidio Military Reservation, which was totally destroyed by fires following the nuclear blast. They also control the southern half of the remains of the Golden Gate Bridge, which remarkably is partially intact, although just barely. One of its twin trestles has collapsed across the roadway, which cants perilously to one side and it is fit only for foot travel by the brave at heart. The northern half of the bridge is more intact and allows for ships to sail under it into the bay. They have wisely refrained from trying to stop this travel or firing on the Navy ships and often hang from the bridge watching the ships go by.
The White Shirts: To the south is another survivor group known as the "White Shirts", more or less a loosely organize gang of looters and gleaners eking out a living at the edges of ground zero. Their HQ is in the old Greyhound bus depot on Mission and Seventh Street, south of Market Street. The depot is a battered concrete hulk with the upper reaches eaten away by the firestorm but the lower levels are stable enough to provide safety. They have untold numbers but are so unorganized that they pose less danger than expected to the Padre's enclave and kill each other more than anything.
Starving artists: There is also a population of former starving artists, disenchanted people from various places, and some ex-military personnel that have taken over an old oil tanker still floating in the Bay. They will usually trade expertise for goods, although they prefer to be left alone.
Hubologists: Another group, which does not seek contact at all, is a religious community called the "Hubologists", led by a man called "Blind Sunflower Jim". They are obsessed with an old B-17 bomber they found parked at the ruins of the San Francisco International Airport. They are attempting to make it fly again, so they can join their "gods" in the heavens above.
Japanese: Half Moon Bay on the western coast of the peninsula is now home to a small population of Japanese, survivors of a Japanese Navy submarine, damaged in battle in 1963, which drifted east until it landed on the west coast of America. They call themselves the "Shi", and have are working to contact their government without dealing directly with the US military, who they distrust.
Russians: Along the southwestern edge of the blast area the murky waters of Lake Merced still provide some fish and fresh water. A group of Russian-American immigrants has recently settled here, obviously keeping a very low profile due to the political climate. They number about 70 total and are led by Sergei Yusupov. About a dozen of their members have some military training from when they were in Russia and they have kept them safe so far.
Arabs: Broadmoor, south of Lake Merced, is home base of a small group of about 50 Iranian and Syrian Islamic fundamentalists, mostly former students from San Francisco State University and their families, who are becoming increasingly more militant and desperate as the food runs out. They haven't made any hostile moves yet, but it is just a matter of time now. They have been raiding unlooted sporting goods and gun stores for weaponry and have now amassed a considerable cache of small arms. They are led by Mohammed Yahzdi, a former Iranian fishpacker-turned-leader. It is his virulent Sunni Muslim rhetoric above all else that will push the enclave into action.
Gays: Daly City is home to the "West Coast Gay Alliance", survivors of the Bay area's once-thriving gay population. They are led by a man named Francis Pelf, a former corporal and tank mechanic in the US Army.
Blacks: Fort Baker Military Reservation, at the northern end of the Golden Gate Bridge, is now held by an all-black gang known as the "Natty Bumpo Brigade". Their leader is a man named Norman, originally a doctor from Sausalito. Although they nominally control the northern part of the bridge, they are aware that Barbarossa has plans to take it all from them.
Burlingame: Now an outpost of the military, and a growing induction and training center for recruits "volunteered" from the local refugee population. Most of the recruits are being used for reconstruction and salvage teams.
Belmont: A farmer has just recently found a missile in his field while plowing, buried under a thin layer of soil where it crashed back in 1962. It is a nuclear-armed Nike anti-aircraft missile that misfired and burrowed into his corn field. The farmer is selling of the components for a penny a piece, there are thousands in the guidance system alone, but doesn't realize yet that he has a nuclear warhead in his barn that is slowly poisoning him and his family.
5) EASTERN SIDE OF THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY
Horror story: The eastern suburbs of the Bay area have all been badly damaged by the chaos. The nuke over the peninsula set the population to panic and it quickly got out of control. As the radioactive fallout fell in a swath directly on Oakland and Berkeley, civil authority melted away and the scared residents fled their homes, burning and looting everything in their way out of town. Riots and famine raged through the area and by the winter, most of the area was abandoned to the unburied dead. Once the situation stabilized in the middle of 1963, the eastern fringes were slowly repopulated and the area now supports a modest population of salvagers and squatters. The thick urban zones along the shore of the bay still remain mostly abandoned, save for a few isolated communities of refugees who have found pockets to stay in, gleaning the ample salvage. The various MilGov enclaves avoid the area when moving convoys and rarely venture into the worst parts of the destruction.
Oakland: Devastated by fires all the way to the Berkeley Hills and nearly depopulated. Around the area of the City of Oakland ferry pier there is an enclave of refugees, numbering some 100. They survive on fishing the Bay and catching rats in the city ruins.
Alameda Naval Air Station: Badly damaged by the nuke blast in 1962 and now abandoned.
Hamilton Air Force Base: Salvage teams from the 25th ID have recently been combing the ruins of this airbase. They are looking for a suspected cache of small observation blimps that were stored here before the war.
The Governor: California Governor Jerry Brown was on a campaign tour in Oakland when the nuke fell, spending the night in a hotel near the shore. The following morning he tried to get back to Sacramento as the city burned around him. His motorcade was unable to get trough Oakland's streets and was stopped by a group of policemen who demanded that he give up his car to them. Brown has not been seen since, though there are consistent rumors that he is still alive and living somewhere in the Oakland area.
Travis Air Force Base: From 1963 on, the MilGov enclave at Travis AFB northeast of the Bay area has been the companion to the Moffitt base in controlling refugees in the area. The garrison is the 300-man 899th Infantry Battalion. This unit was formed from surviving Air Force personnel from Vandenburg, Los Angeles, March and Edwards Air Force Bases, as well as local facilities, formed into an infantry battalion in mid-1963. They mostly serve a military police function and also provide security for remaining aircraft at the base. As most of the personnel have technical backgrounds, contingents can be found throughout the Silicon Valley area, helping in salvage operations. Operational air assets currently based at Travis include a single F-4 Phantom II fighter bomber, six C-130 transports, four C-135 transports, a C-141 heavy-lift transport, four KC-135A tankers, a KC-10 tanker, and six H-25A Army Mule light cargo helicopters. Fuel is available but limited, and the big, thirsty transport planes only fly when absolutely necessary.
6) SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY
The San Joaquin valley is mostly uncontested and heavily patrolled by MilGov forces, who keep open the vital trade and travel routes between Bakersfield and Stockton. Interstate 5 is the main convoy route, Highway 99 is used but you have to bypass the mess that is Fresno.
Madera: A small oil field and refinery complex here is occupied by a strong MilGov garrison. The garrison is the 3rd Battalion/69th Armor Regiment, detached from the 25th ID in San Francisco, tasked with protecting the refinery from the roving gangs in Fresno. They are based at "Camp Stewart Udall", a collection of liberated house trailers and tents in a fortified ring around the refinery. The battalion has about 600 soldiers total, with a dozen or so M3A1 White scout cars, numerous assorted trucks, jeeps, and cars, but despite being an armored unit, has only four old M41 Walker Bulldog tanks. The battalion commander drives around in an old German Kubelwagen jeep. The oil pumped and refined from here is shipped north along Highway 99 to Stockton where it is distributed further and is a major reason why the vehicles up north keep running. Just this month the 3/69th leadership has been informed by MilGov command in Colorado Springs to prepare for possible action against the 40th AD to the south in Bakersfield (see below). As they are aware that they cannot compete with the 40th in battle, this news has the men of the battalion very worried.
Fresno: Fresno was the scene of some of the nation's worst race and food riots following the nukings. For months, Hispanics and whites fought it out in the streets, with police and local military units helpless to stop it, and in some cases actively participating on one side or the other. Years later, the city is still largely a rubbled wreck and the few less-spoiled parts are controlled by several large, well-armed Chicano gangs. While not much on discipline or organization, they have a high number of hard-core criminals and deserters from both US and Mexican Armies who brought their weapons, including some machineguns, mortars and bazookas. The main gang leader is a man named Victor Sama and the city under his rule has been even more trashed and looted. Most of the surviving white residents fled north or south or moved into the northeastern suburb of Clovis where they have a small fortified enclave. MilGov has largely bypassed the city and convoys passing by the city have to swing wide to the west on Highways 198 and 145 to avoid the mess.
Mystery: At a small private airfield at North Fork, about 30 miles northeast of Fresno, up in the rugged Sierra Nevada mountains, sits an intact B-52 strategic bomber. On October 30, 1962 this plane left March AFB headed for targets in Siberia, but massive engine trouble forced it into an emergency landing at this airstrip. The crew tried to get a repair team up to them, but the poor state of communications and the general chaos throughout California thwarted their efforts. Soon, they just wandered back south to find their families and disappeared. The plane is still intact, though still with three bad engines. The real prize is the four nuclear bombs she still has inside. The plane captain took the detonating fuses with him when he left but the weapons are still intact and just waiting to be found.
Emptiness: Between Fresno and Bakersfield there is nothing, towns such as Tulare, Delano and Calico are long-ago deserted and looted. As well, the nearby Lemoore Naval Air Station is abandoned and looted. MilGov convoys who run up and down Highway 99 barely notice the dusty ruins alongside.
7) BAKERSFIELD
The city: A large and strong survivor enclave at the southern end of the valley, Bakersfield is a thriving city and the hotbed of southern independence talk. Southern California had the most population, but the effort to evacuate these survivors was met with strong resistance from central California cities like Bakersfield. The local National Guardsmen were called on to keep the migrations manageable and they have stayed ever since. Due to the security and economic stimulus of the Army, people have been flocking to Bakersfield and today the population hovers around 160,000, a virtual megalopolis by 1964 standards.
40th Armored Division: The California National Guard's 40th Armored Division, one of the best equipped and well-trained NG divisions in the nation, was gathered in Bakersfield by the end of 1962 and quickly began to seal the borders. In 1964, division has some 6,000 men under arms, with many more making up a well-armed militia. Divisional equipment includes ten M60 tanks, thirty M48A2 Patton tanks, fourteen M41 Walker Bulldog light tanks, eight M40 155mm SPGs, and sixteen M88 ARVs along with numerous support and transport vehicles. There are several oil fields in the area, located in Taft, Buttonwillow and McKettrick, all vital in keeping the division's vehicles running. The 40th AD's commander is General Lake, a decorated veteran and bonafide war hero. Also here with the unit are a large number of technical experts from the Fort Irwin Field Training Equipment Concentration Site. The 40th AD has a good deal of equipment with which the Irwin folks are intimately familiar and they have found very gainful employment with 5th Army since being forced out of the Barstow area.
Governor Lake: General Lake is intelligent, insightful, a brilliant tactician, and very independent. He is also a power-hunger bigot with big plans, and as commander of the city's defense force, he has probably more power than anyone in the city. Lake, who has begun to call himself "Governor" behind closed doors, has began a ruthless consolidation of power within the civilian leadership in Bakersfield. Lake is very much an "end justifies the means" sort of person, believing the United States needs to become one again, and the only sure way to do it is militarily and he is just the man to carry it out. There is a lot of concern amongst the MilGov leadership in Colorado Springs that Lake is going to turn independent soon, but they are afraid to remove him because his troops are fiercely loyal to him, and perhaps aware that if it came to it, Lake's division could probably defeat anything they can throw at them. On the surface, Lake continues to pay lip-service to MilGov, and keeps his supplies of oil and food running north, but everyone knows this won’t last.
Independence Day: Lake is upset with Colorado Springs and considering going independent because of what he sees as General LeMay's favoritism towards fellow Air Force generals. In recent months, LeMay has made it known that he "trusts more" the men from his own pre-war branch. He is slowly replacing Army generals with Air Force generals, even in command of field units, whether or not they have any experience with ground units or not. In September of this year Lake was told by an informant in Colorado Springs that LeMay was going to replace him before the year was out for "insubornation". This has only fuelled Lake's ambitions of setting up an independent state in Bakersfield.
Plans and schemes: General LeMay is now aware that Lake knows of his plan to replace him and is deeply afraid that Lake with take his division with him. LeMay needs the 40th AD, both as a check on Mexican expansion and because he eventually would like to use it to push the Mexicans out of California altogether. To assure that it remains loyal to the MilGov goals, LeMay has been quietly laying plans to take out Lake by force. He has sent in several hit-teams and is preparing other Army units in California for the prospect that they might have to fight the 40th if that fails. The 6th Infantry Division is being hastily reformed at Fort Ord right now, and they will probably march towards Bakersfield before the year ends.
Hidden dagger: General Lake has an ace in the hole, however, one that he hopes to use against LeMay if he decides to go independent. Lake has an intact 1.4 megaton W-49 warhead from a malfunctioned Atlas-D ICBM. The warhead, recovered by Lake's agents amongst the ruins of nearby Vandenburg Air Force Base, is not active, and in fact is inert, that's why it was left at the base to begin with. Lake knows that it is a paper weight, but has kept it a secret and just the potential of the weapon might be enough to deter any moves against him.
Bakersfield Militia: In a city this large, finding enough able-bodied men to serve in a militia is not hard, especially when the militiamen know that the Army will bail them out if they get into trouble. As such, the city's militia now stands at about 1,600 members, with many tending to be young and inexperienced, but there are a large number of experienced older soldiers who retirement ended when the militia was formed. They are officially known as the "Voluntary Police", to lend an air of civil service to them. General Lake has recognized the importance of the militia, both to help in securing the city and as possible allies if LeMay decides to attack the city to get at him. He has instituted a rigorous training program for the militia and NCOs and specialists from the division rotate monthly into advisor positions with the citizens. In theory, the militia is not under General Lake's direct control, but in reality, Lake tends to get his way in matters which concern defense. More importantly, Lake has armed the militia from his own stocks, further strengthening the militia's loyalty to him. Along with quantities of M14 and M1 rifles, he has provided them with a dozen trucks and an M75 APC to act as a command post for the militia leader. He also turned over twelve tanks that were in the back lot of a National Guard motor pool in Bakersfield. These tanks are all at least twenty years old (five M4A3 Shermans, four M5A1 Stuarts and three M3 Stuarts) and only one of them (an M3) can be considered fully operational. The other tanks have been dug into the ground along the entrances to the city as pill boxes, manned by militiamen. It has not been lost on these men that General Lake ordered seven of the tanks dug in on the northern approaches to the city, away from the Mexicans but towards the other MilGov enclaves.
Mexican concerns: The remains of the Mexican 2nd Army are strung along the southern limits of the 40th Armored Division's patrol range, waiting and watching for any moves. Much like the situation to the south at Camp Pendleton (see below), it is quite obvious that General Lake could easily roll over the Mexican Army elements at anytime he wished. The reasons for not doing so are simple--Lake knows that the Mexicans will never try and engage him in open fighting and they provide a vital buffer for marauders and refugees that would otherwise be a burden on Bakersfield. As such, as long as the Mexicans don't try anything funny, Lake is content to coexist with them until such time as it becomes necessary to take action. The Mexican do have spies in the city, however, and they have learned that Lake is thinking about going independent.
Monkey Wrench: There are many other players in the Bakersfield area. Glenn Anderson, the former California Lieutenant Governor, is also in the city and has own hopes of setting himself up as the co-emperor of a new California that Lake creates. Anderson fled Sacramento during the chaos, shirking his duties and removing any chance he had to return to power legally, and has been living in Bakersfield ever since. His deep, dark secret is that he is really a member of the Communist Party and a sleeper agent for the KGB. Anderson now has a secret weapon at his disposal, a squad of fanatical Russian-American Communist Party commandoes, who were on the way to blow up the Japanese embassy in Sacramento when the nukes fell and have been with him ever since.
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