[chico20854]

July 15, 1998

The replica USS Constitution arrives in Brest, France and discharges passengers.

Unofficially,

A hodgepodge collection of trucks, both military and requisitioned civilian heavy vehicles (often with their drivers), is assembled in Muskogee, Oklahoma along with a fleet of iconic yellow school buses to transport the troops and equipment of the 3rd Brigade, 49th Armored Division the 225 miles to Fort Sill.

In southern Mexico, the Green Berets of the 8th Special Forces Group step up their activity levels, forcing the local military forces to expend more resources in tracking down the elusive American commandos.

The front in Germany has generally stabilized along the line Fulda-Frankfurt. Western TVD does not have the combat or logistic strength to continue the assault and behind the lines is struggling to absorb the territory it had seized, extend its supply system to reach the new front line and send what little replacement troops and equipment it receives forward. Likewise, the slapdash NATO defense has barely succeeded but has left units hopelessly intermixed and disorganized and expended most of the remaining stocks, leaving the German, British and American units in no condition to go over to the offense. In addition, the surviving NATO command staff has a more ambitious plan to drive the Warsaw Pact out of southern Germany and possibly liberate Austria.

The American 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized) launches local counterattacks against the elements of the Soviet 102nd (my 254th) Motor-Rifle Division that were isolated by the prior days tactical nuclear strike along the route of the Soviet breakthrough. Isolated Soviet troops fight with a desperation seen all too often by NATO troops in Europe, taking many "fine American boys with them as they fight to the death.

The Italian-allied Croatian Nationalist Army ramps up its recruitment effort, sweeping men and boys off the streets of Zagreb and provincial towns as it furiously tries to hobble together a force sufficient to halt the advancing JSA, which is emerging from its strongholds in the Balkan Mountains and gaining strength daily as it too gathers recruits to man the weapons and armored vehicles abandoned by Soviet forces in the aftermath of the nuclear exchange.

An air assault by members of the 9th Infantry Division's 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry attacks the home base of a group of 250 marauders, mostly IPA deserters, 100 km north of Kazerun. With the support of helicopter gunships and fire by the division's artillery the attack is a success and few of the bandits escape capture by the American troops; the Iranians are arrested by a small detachment of the Iranian National Security Force while Soviets are treated as POWs and any Western deserters are placed under arrest by the battalion commander.