[kalos72]

Yuma was pretty quiet considering they were flanked by Mexican Army units but they had developed a very strong local militia and kept to only securing Yuma so the Mexicans didn’t want to bother them much. But continued to make periodic patrols through the city to try and “impose” their power, even though they had no real control or influence on the day to day affairs of the city itself. The city worked a very delicate balance with the Mexican forces surrounding them.

The reason for the strength of the local militia was that Yuma had a significant number of Marines from the Marine Air Station nearby and Special Forces from the Yuma Proving Grounds. Both groups consolidated personnel and equipment at the Marine Air Station late in 1998 and worked with local leaders to help secure the city and the civilian population.

Once contact with the leaders of Yuma was established and safe passage of the 7th Army forces was confirmed, the 6th started the typical pacification process keeping in mind the cities obvious success before the 7th Army arrived.

Yuma had not received any word about the absorption of the Mexican units around Tuscon, so Starks assumed that no survivors had either come this way or at least none had made it this far and that was Starks preference. He updated Yuma leadership to the current status to the East but asked that the leaders keep the information quiet until the 7th could secure San Diego and deal with the last of the Mexican Army.

From Yuma, the 7th Army only had one more known hostile to deal with before San Diego, Brigada Hermosillo outside of El Centro.

Unlike most other units so far, these Mexican Army soldiers were not scared of meeting the 7th Army forces and proved to be very capable. Parley was attempted but the command of the brigade would not even talk about their surrender and the 7th Army options. In fact, he wouldn’t even give his name or rank but thanks for the ever helpful General Huerta, who surrendered earlier that week near Tuscon, he was identified as Colonel Juan Robertos.

Colonel Robertos was very confident about his chances going against 3 American armored brigades, even to the point of boisterous threats and insults during the parley. Right up until he met with General Huerta and General Rivera and realized all the Mexican forces to the East were gone, or had surrendered entirely to the 7th Army, and they would not be coming to his aid.

At that point, talks were immediately ended and he sent our negotiators back under threat of immediate attack while he sent orders to his field officers to prepare for immediate attack and before the negotiators even made it back to camp, the Brigada Hermosillo forces were advancing.

Even though the Mexicans numbers were only around 700 men, they had a large number of mortars and heavy machine guns mounted on armored trucks and assorted civilian vehicles giving them a reasonable amount of mobility considering the almost complete lack of fuel they had gotten from Mexico.

Initially, the 700 men caught the 1st Armored by surprise and Colonel Lewis, commander of the 1stArmored Brigade, had to really work to gain the advantage back even though he had far superior numbers and hardware but by the second hour of fighting, it was obvious to the Mexican’s their time was up.

Mexican soldiers were throwing themselves at the Americans, completely giving their last to keep the Americans from taking any ground but given that the 7th Army was in Europe for the last 3 years fighting top tier opponents, it was purely an afterthought.

After 5hrs, the 7th Army claimed the field and had won the “Battle of El Centro”, losing over 75 soldiers themselves with twice that wounded. But the Mexican Brigada Hermosillo was dead to the man. The battle was probably the heaviest fighting the 7th Army had seen since coming back to the States, delaying their advance to San Diego for 3 more days as they dealt with the dead and wounded before continuing.

At Yuma, after taking care of their wounded, they moved on down I8 towards El Cajon. There was some debate about taking the southerly route and clearing the railway through Tijuana, the most direct route, but they didn’t want to get delayed trying to clear Tijuana before having secured Coronado.

Once they hit the 125 near La Mesa, 7th Army sent scouts to connect with the 63rd Corps, Marine General Mack and Colonel Braxton out of Coronado to notify them of their presence and their plans.

The two Mexican units that were in the vicinity where hold up at the Imperial Beach Naval Air Field just south of San Diego. Here they had a clear secure route back to Mexico through Tijuana. They had setup a defensive perimeter around the airfield and created an earth berm wall to close off most of the area.

Within that area, sat almost 1000 Mexican soldiers, 7 M51 Super Sherman (only 1 operational), 9 fully functional AMX-13’s and almost a full dozen of the various DN type armored vehicles, all being controlled by one man, Colonel Juan Lopez.

Juan Lopez was the son of an influential Los Zetas leader who was given a commission in the Mexican Army just before the invasion started that was only supposed to be “ceremonial”, he was never expected nor trained to command anything more than 3 men in the Mess Hall. But by 2000 he was the highest ranking officer in Brigade Nogales and he took command of the unit.

Colonel Lopez had developed quiet the reputation by the time the 7th Army made to the West coast. He was as hated by his own men, and the Mexican nationals, as he was by the Americans. He had no training or military experience so he resorted to the only thing he knew, life as a Los Zetas. Murder, rape and kidnapping were all common place in the area controlled by the Mexicans, and it made no difference what race, color or nationality you were. If you not one of his own, you were cattle to be used however he saw fit.

As the 7th Army started to recon the area, locals started to come out and help provide information to the soldiers. Mexicans and Americans alike, both were hopeful when the word made its way around that the Americans were there to clear him and his men out.

Information was received that the Mexicans would expect daily deliveries of food from the locals and that they knew if those deliveries weren’t made, someone’s family was going to die, or worse. Lopez made it clear what was expected and became very lazy in even checking the convoy of carts brought into the compound every day. Security grew to know who was coming and let them in, treating them more as slaves then as people who would betray the Mexicans.

Colonel Lewis of the 1st Armored sent several of his men, escorted by some of the expected locals to infiltrate the compound. Lewis, nor Starks, had any qualms about using chemical warfare at this point in the game if he was sure civilians wouldn’t get hurt in the process.

His scout force setup almost 2 dozen IED’s in barracks and command facilities, focusing on doing as much damage as possible before the 7th Army even engaged them. The scout force and the locals left the compound and the IED’s went off as scheduled just past midnight that night.

The next morning, reports came back that over half his command was dead and the rest of his men were either too sick to fight or had fled all together once word got out that Colonel Lopez was killed in the explosions. That’s when the message from the 7th Army was received, “Surrender now or die”.

By the time the message was received, the 7th Army had moved into position and had surrounded the Mexicans on 3 sides, leaving them just south to retreat into Tijuana. For those that tried, they met an angry and emboldened Mexican civilian force ready put an end to their suffering at the hands of the Mexican Army.

The rest, surrendered and received medical care and treatment as they were secured. Only 300 men made it through that night, the rest either killed by the IED’s and their effects or during the retreat into Tijuana at the hands of the disgruntled Mexican population.

On Sunday May 21st, the 1st Cavalry moved onto Coronado Island to secure the base and firmly establish command of the region and establishing a supply chain from Fort Hood Texas to San Diego.