NEW JERSEY
The current government is loyal to the Military Government of the United States for several reasons. Governor Charles R. Samson, the pre-war district attorney of Gloucester County, was a WWII vet sympathizer and former veteran himself. There are two main enclaves of the military, at Fort Dix and at Cape May. The proximity of these large MilGov enclaves to the CivGov capital in Northern Virginia is one of the main reasons that CivGov is planning on moving to the Great Lakes region soon. Out of all the mid-Atlantic states New Jersey has had a decent, if meager, harvest. The farmlands of central and southern New Jersey brought in a fairly substantial crop during the autumn harvest, ensuring that the large populations still here will have something to eat over the long winter to come. This, combined with the productive fishing industry, will most likely see New Jersey as the most intact Northeastern state come the spring of 1965.
1) NUCLEAR TARGETS
None, though the state has been severely damaged by nuclear strikes in New York City and Philadelphia.
2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES IN NEW JERSEY
The state's main National Guard unit, the 50th Armored Division, was mobilized in late 1962 and sent into the firestorm of Europe, leaving the state to be policed by smaller NG units and state-funded militias. The 78th Training Division in Newark was destroyed in the chaos and has ceased to exist. As there was a lot of destruction following the nukings around the state, it was difficult to keep a unit together and by 1964 most of the state's defenses are manned by militias.
77th Infantry Division--Fort Dix (1000 men, 11 AFVs)
------Able Company, 1st Battalion /612th Infantry Regiment--Cape May (50 men)
1st Regiment NJSM--Fort Dix (300 men)
3rd Regiment NJSM--Cape May (200 men)
4th Regiment NJSM--Fort Dix (275 men)
5th Regiment NJSM--Fort Dix (370 men)
6th Regiment NJSM--Fort Dix (350 men)
1st Cavalry Squadron NJSM--Fort Dix (75 men)
2nd Cavalry Squadron NJSM--Cape May (100 men)
3rd Motorized Squadron NJSM--Fort Dix (240 men)
3) EAST BANK OF DELAWARE RIVER
Towns such as Palmyra and Berlin suffered severely during the nuclear attack on Philadelphia. Uncontrolled fires helped to destroy 85 percent of all structures in these areas.
Trenton: Formerly the state capital, Trenton was destroyed by liquid propane firestorms ignited by the blast across the river at Philadelphia and then finished off by refugees from Philadelphia rioting with locals in the year or so after the nuclear exchange. A great deal of salvage lies untapped, too far away to safely reach at this time. Less than 500 starving refugees live in the ruins, many in a bank building in the financial district.
4) FORT DIX MILITARY RESERVATION
A large pre-war basic training center, Fort Dix is now the economic and military center of New Jersey and the MilGov HQ for the region. Once the radiation died down and it became clear that the military could provide protection for refugees, people started to flock to the area. Pemberton, Brown's Mills and several refugee camps provide an economic base, supplying MilGov with food and manpower in exchange for protection. Currently, 250,000 residents and refugees reside in a 10-mile radius around the Fort, stretching to Tom's River to the east, north to Long Branch and to the Forked River/State Game Farm to the south. Dix was a typical pre-war military base--a group of generic buildings, home to the army's Cooks and Bakers School, as well as a training ground for drivers. In 1964, the engineers took the precaution of building a ditch and a berm with a firing step around the main camp. This protective measure is just over half a mile long. After the 77th was reformed, sandbagged observation towers were installed every 150 yards along the berm, with bunkers evenly spaced between them. The ditch was filled with sharpened stakes, and the top of the berm was strung with barbed wire. The base hospital is up and running, a godsend for the local area. McGuire Air Force Base on post is home to some operational air assets including six F-101 Voodoos, four F-84 Thunderjets, three UH-1 Iroquois, and six CH-43s.
The 77th: The Fort Dix area is home to the MilGov 77th Infantry Division with 1,000 men and its attached militia and support units. The unit was a Army Reserve training division based in the New York City area that was thrashed during the evacuation of New York City and retreated here to reform. It was re-designated as an infantry division upon reforming in 1963. A good portion of the men include Manhattan taxi drivers, Bronx tailors, Brooklyn factory hands, Wall Street executives and first generation emigrants. The division has been strengthened by small numbers of returnees from Europe and survivors from Dover AFB and Philadelphia Ship Yard. This unit has been building its strength, stores, and morale since its crushing defeat. Their headquarters has been promised reinforcements from the USAEUR returnees, but so far only a few dozen have shown up and they are mostly New Jersey natives who came on their own. Support weapons include three recently received 105mm howitzers, eight 4.2" mortars, and thirty 60mm mortars. Main muscle of the division is a single M48A2 Patton tank, ten M-42 Duster AA tanks (only half of the Dusters are working still) and ten M59 APCs.
The New Jersey State Militia: Fort Dix is also home to the state armory, a large collection of small arms without which the New Jersey State Militia would never exist. After the New Jersey National Guard left for Europe, state armories were bare. Though the legal framework and manpower were available to raise a state militia, there were no weapons to issue. The prize cache was 4,000 Garand drill rifles removed from Annapolis when the school was abandoned before the war, and sent to New Jersey for safekeeping. The weapons were reactivated and became standard issue in the militia. Additional weapons were obtained from gun stores, a large civilian weapons parts company, and the inventory of a local importer/manufacturer of Thompson submachine guns. The end result was a pile of hardware, ammunition and parts that would give teeth to the state tiger (and turn into a quartermaster's nightmare). NJSM forces in the area today are formidable. They include the 1st Regiment (300 men) and 6th Regiment (350 men) both assigned to security duty north of the Fort Dix/Tom's River area and patrol as far north as New Brunswick-Perth Amboy, and the 4th Regiment (275 men) and the 5th Regiment (370 men) both assigned to garrison duty and training at Fort Dix. As well, there is the 3rd Motorized Squadron (240 men), which was formed from remnants of the state police and local law enforcement units, mounted on cross-country motorcycles and used for reconnaissance and peace keeping and the 1st Cavalry Squadron, which consists of 75 horse mounted troopers armed with carbines and two M60 machineguns. They also carry a miscellaneous collection of sabers looted from a local museum. This unit was initially formed around a cadre of a half-dozen civil war reenactment enthusiasts, and some of the troopers use their reenactment uniforms and equipment. They, currently operate north of the canal, sometimes deep into the interior on recon missions.
5) CAPE MAY
Cape May was a pre-war resort community catering to an older crowd. It was also home to a Coast Guard station and a small fleet of fishing and pleasure boats. Early in the war the Coast Guard was brought under military command and, with Philadelphia being destroyed, Cape May was reclassified as a naval base (CMNB). This town is built on a tip of land extending into the Delaware Bay, separated from the mainland by a canal 120 yards wide. Currently this canal serves as the main defense line for Cape May. Watchtowers were built every 200 yards and are manned around the clock and scrap chain link fencing, barbed wire and an abatis protect the entire length of the south side. The Cape May area has a small runway for light fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft, fuel and ammunition bunkers, barracks, docks and a fairly well-equipped, though small, military shipyard.
By sea: The naval fleet stationed currently at Cape May consists of stragglers and survivors of the Atlantic Fleet plus local ships impressed into service. As always, fuel and maintenance are problems, but the ships are kept up as best they can. In addition, a large civilian fishing fleet uses the harbor, with 35 large fishing vessels and 85 small fishing vessels. Operational vessels here include:
Farragut class destroyer
DLG-14 Dewey
Forrest Sherman class destroyers
DD-942 Bigelow
DD-947 Somers
John C. Butler class radar escort
DER-540 Vandivier
Landing Ship Tank
LST-1154 Tallahatchie County
Five small Coast Guard cutters
Twelve small inshore patrol craft (PCF)
One oceangoing tug
The sailing ship USS Hyman Rickover
Two Cape May/Lewes car ferries
Four LCMs
One immobile 10,000-ton tanker
By land, traditional: Ground forces stationed here include the 3rd Regiment and the 2nd Cavalry Squadron, both of the New Jersey State Militia. The 3rd Regiment is a 200-man unit that is willing though generally ill-trained, with many of the men being former service and support detachment staff, survivors of sunken ships, retired naval veterans, civilian recruited from the refugee crowds, and a handful of young soldiers. They are armed primarily with M1 Garand rifles, though some members carry shotguns or hunting rifles and others have acquired extra firepower by various means. It is hoped that, if called upon to defend their homes, they will make up in tenacity what they lack in training. The 2nd Cavalry Squadron has 100 troopers carried by ten armored bank trucks and they are responsible for road patrol in and around Cape May, north of the canal. The 2nd Cavalry Squadron is mostly made up of the survivors of the New Jersey Volunteer Militia, a well-equipped pre-war organization of conservative survivalists and gun store commandos once numbering 1,000. The main stopping muscle is provided by the Able Company, 1st Battalion /612th Infantry Regiment, a 50-man rifle company of the 77th ID with four .30 cals and two 60mm mortars providing last-line security for the naval base.
By land, nontraditional: Additionally, there are other, nontraditional units at Cape May, including the "Red Dragons", a mercenary group of 50 Chinese-American refugees (formerly a Philadelphia street gang), trained by a cadre of ex-military types. This group is fiercely loyal to the commander of the Naval Command at Cape May and is currently used as an amphibious strike force. As well, there are "Piseck's Commandos", named for Peter Piseck, the unit's commander, consisting of eighteen ex-Riot Squad team members from the Philadelphia and New Jersey State Police. They are currently deployed as an amphibious commando team and are well-armed with light military weapons. And finally there is the 301st Independent Artillery Battery, which is currently providing fire support for the Naval Base. Staffed with 80 ex-military "graybeards" culled from the refugees, the unit has three M202 howitzers and six 120mm mortars salvaged from National Guard and Army Reserve armories.
By air: Cape May County Airport is now a government installation, with the hangars, fortified control tower, and four runways (the longest is 5,000 feet) constantly patrolled. Navigation aids and control equipment have been scrounged from every other field in South Jersey. Fuel and spare parts are scarce, so flights are restricted to a minimum, and the fuel bunkers are guarded. Aviation assets include the 112th Naval Aviation Squadron with two P-2 Neptune patrol planes, three 0-2 Cessna twin-engine spotter planes, each rigged with a 7.62 machinegun, and two OH-23 Raven helicopters (ex-crop dusters). Fuel limitations prohibit the larger Neptunes from flying at all but there is enough fuel to occasionally turn over the engines and to fly extremely critical support missions with the Cessnas.
Other: What remains of the supertanker Amoco Arabia is just outside the entrance to the bay. Abandoned in late 1962 off Cape May after taking four torpedoes from a Russian submarine, it is burnt out and falling apart--pieces sporadically wash ashore after storms.
6) SOUTH JERSEY
The deserted coasts of South Jersey have been a haven of smugglers, pirates, and back-water political intrigue since long before the days of the American Revolution. In the year 1964, nothing much has changed. Marauders run across the state, raiding farms, and attacking merchant convoys and passing ships. The predominate terrain feature of South Jersey is flat, fertile land which becomes sandy toward the coast. The area has been supporting agriculture since it was first settled in the mid-1600s. The great forest of the colonial times has vanished, replaced by the light woods of today, but a large pine forest thrives in the sandy soil of the eastern part of the state and gives the area its name--the Pine Barrens. The state is susceptible to the whims of the weather. The Atlantic coastal islands are constantly shifting, and gales and hurricanes have destroyed more than a quarter of the dwellings in the last two years. The lowlands along the bays are regularly flooded during the rainy season and the forests threaten to burn during the dry season. Although it has dissipated, radiation from the west is a problem. The nuclear attacks around Philadelphia and New York (plus disease, starvation and chaos) killed millions. Many more fled the state and New Jersey was seriously depopulated. The survivors in South Jersey, however, are relatively prosperous by 1964 standards--they farm enough to eat well and even export a bit. Dietary protein comes from fish and chicken with goats, sheep, cattle and horses raised primarily for government consumption. Salvage and remanufacturing are thriving cottage industries, and pay the taxes in the MilGov protected areas.
Leesburg and the State Prison: One of the pockets of safety operated by what remains of the New Jersey state government--a MilGov program of "local autonomy" intended to add some prestige and legitimacy to local rule. Beyond a 3 mile radius, it's everyone for himself. A 100-man militia company is quartered within the walls. The local populace is to use the prison as a fort when threatened. After the nuclear exchange, inmates seized control of the prison. Some left to scatter across the countryside to sow horror and chaos. An armed group of convicts held the prison (and some fifty hostages) until mid-April 1963 when a raiding force of militia and state police eliminated them.
Millville: Presently the location of a south Jersey New America cell that was overrun by marauders in 1963. All of their papers and communication gear was destroyed in the fire that consumed their fortified farm. The survivors moved south and settled in an abandoned trailer park near the town. The idea was to somehow link up with or contact another New America cell, so they moved into a community hoping to get word of the eventual New America uprising. They number 35 men and women, are well armed, and act friendly to visiting government forces, even providing guides upon occasion. 120 farmers, herdsmen, and their families live in and around Millville.
Bridgeton: A healthy cluster of buildings acting as a community center and seat of government for the 3,200 farmers and their dependents in the area. The population resides within a 8 mile radius of the town, between the bay and the Cohansey River. Trade and traffic with the outside world are conducted via the river, as caravans along Route 49 to the cape disappear before they reach Millville. Although the government patrols are aware of the situation, they can do little. The feeling in Bridgeton is that the folks in Millville might have something to do with the lost caravans.
Stow Creek Lodge: A marauder hangout in a sprawling old cluster of farmhouses and outbuildings. The marauders are 23 convicts from Leesburg. Most are novices poorly armed with stolen and makeshift weapons. One of them, however, was a former artilleryman in the Army and he is constructing several trench mortars for their use. They hold fourteen women and three children captive. They force the captives to do some farming and keep house for them. Three small sailboats are used for local raiding. The marauders fooled a militia patrol that visited last year into believing that they were honest locals and refugee farmers. Another 400 people live in single-family units around the area--they want little to do with outsiders.
Atlantic City: The vacation capital of the east which drew hundreds of thousands of tourists and millions of dollars of revenue a year to the state before the war is now officially abandoned. In the rubbled lobby of one of the stately hotels is a vault rumored to contain hundreds of thousands of dollars in gems and jewelry. However, the vault door is closed, and nobody knows how to open it. Although the weather has wiped out many smaller buildings and the first floor lobbies of the hotels, society's dregs have somehow managed to survive in the ruins, living in a twisted parody of civilized society. Four hundred of society's misfits now call Atlantic City home. They are escaped criminals, army deserters, marauders, and other lowlifes who scavenge, raid the mainland for food, and fight among themselves. MilGov has mounted a couple of operations against these inhabitants, but both failed because all the inhabitants scrambled into the tangle of high-rises to hide. In frustration, the captain of the Bigelow once shelled three hotels, reducing one to a heap of rubble with a lucky shot and eliminating over 100 inhabitants. The raids decreased in frequency for a month afterward. Two groups now vie for control of this lonely island. One is lead by a former Mafia drug smuggler nicknamed "the Indian"; the other is a group of counter-culture types known as "those punks." Each group numbers about 50; the rest are neutral bystanders. So far conflict between the groups has been minimal, as pressing concerns (like eating) have required everyone's attention. The Indian plans to end this situation soon.
The Pine Barrens: From Route 30 north to Fort Dix extends this lonely pine forest that, in spite of two years of unchecked plagues of diseases, insects, and fires, stands relatively intact. After the nukes, nature quickly reclaimed her turf. Dense growths of pine and heavy underbrush thrive in sandy soil, making off-road movement difficult and reducing visibility all year round. In the warmer months, mosquitoes, ticks, and snakes make it unhealthy for man, but game deer, fowl, and wild pigs fare somewhat better (especially small animals and birds). Quicksand, lightning fires, and unsociable, superstitious hermits dissuade casual travelers. There is one other local hazard--the legendary "Jersey Devil." As frequently happens in mankind's darker moments, the Jersey Devil has recently returned with a vengeance. In the 21st century, his appetite has expanded to include people. Away from the coastal areas, there is no civilization. Fifty thousand people live in the interior, on farms of three families or less, or in wandering groups of less than 50 marauder/refugees. The vast majority of these people are antisocial, extremely xenophobic, and just plumb crazy. Roads are usually narrow, twisted, and blocked by wrecks. This makes overland travel through the area lethal and practical only for heavily armed convoys. The federal government stashed a lot of stuff back in the 1940s and 50s here, and there are a couple of Mafia drug gangs that had stashes in the Barrens before the war. The locations and status of these caches are still unknown.
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