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3RD TEXAS REGIMENT - This unit was a prewar standing military formation, the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets. While much of the regiment’s senior membership were inducted into federal military service at the outbreak of war, a large number remained as the Army struggled to absorb draftees from around the nation. At the conclusion of the 1996-97 school year, the Governor of Texas ordered the Corps onto active duty, splitting its membership into two regiments. This unit (unofficially known as “the 1st Aggies”) left its College Station home to augment the Border Patrol in guarding the Mexican border, operating out of a ranch on the outskirts of Eagle Pass and from Laughlin Air Force Base near Del Rio. The regiment’s cadets were armed with a hodgepodge of M-16s from Air Force and National Guard stocks, M-14s and M-1s from the State Guard, shotguns from the factory in Eagle Pass and civilian weapons owned by the unit’s members or donated by alumni. (The prize of the latter category was a pair of custom-made gold plated Barrett M-82 .50-caliber rifles donated by a Vietnam Veteran and oilman from the Class of 1963). The unit’s patrols soon began to intercept thousands upon thousands of Mexican refugees fleeing chaos back home, directing them to makeshift camps, transporting them back across the border or moving them further into Texas to avoid overwhelming the Rio Grande valley. In early 1998 as the transportation system broke down the first food riots broke out in the refugee camps. The regiment was sent in to restore order; its troops were met with gunfire from the heavily armed Mexican gangs which were attempting to assert control in the camps. Within a week the camps were full-fledged combat zones and the regiment, reinforced with armored cars from the nearby Air Force base and under orders from the Governor, was ordered to shut them down and deport all the surviving inhabitants. The Mexican government protested and the relocation convoys were blocked by Mexican Army units, forcing the regiment to drive the refugees en masse towards the border at gunpoint. Conditions continued to deteriorate until the unit found itself in combat against the Mexican Army. With few support weapons (even after absorbing the Air Force Security Police Squadron and other base personnel and the Border Patrol agents in the sector) and with its rear area under pressure from Mexican refugees, sympathizers and infiltrators the regiment was forced north, retreating over Interstate 10 before rallying in San Angelo. The Mexican drive ran out of steam, slowed by American nuclear strikes on Mexico, inadequate logistics and resistance from the local populace. The regiment wintered in the town, building impressive defenses and absorbing the cadre and student body from Goodfellow Air Force Base’s intelligence school. With a trickle of fuel from the nearby oil fields the formation was able to actively patrol, although cut off from other units in the vast spaces of Texas. It took part in the 1999 drive into Central Texas, linking up with units of XIII Corps before being repulsed by the Soviet Division Cuba. The regiment evacuated to the northwest, returning to its cantonment in San Angelo. It remained there throughout the remainder of the war.
Subordination: State of Texas
Current Location: San Angelo, TX
Manpower: 500

8TH TEXAS BRIGADE - This unit started the war as the 2nd Military Police Group, headquartered in Houston with subordinate units in Beaumont, Port Arthur and Bryan. The unit was called into state service at the outbreak of war and assigned several hundred untrained draftees and 50 retired NCOs from the Texas National Guard. Within a few weeks the unit, by now renamed a brigade (named “Terry’s Texas Rangers”) was issued obsolete small arms and began patrolling the refineries along the Houston Ship Canal as well as protecting the ports and refineries in Port Arthur and Beaumont. The unit took heavy losses in the Soviet nuclear strikes on those refineries and the subsequent civil unrest and chaos, unrest that the unit was nominally responsible for quelling. Composed mostly of part-time guardsmen, like the other Texas State Guard units, many individual guardsmen survived the strikes while the unit’s command structure was devastated. In that environment the unit disintegrated, with individual guardsmen often using their weapons and training in unofficial militias and bands of bandits (although at times the distinction was lost between the two).

9TH TEXAS BRIGADE - This Texas State Guard formation was the smallest of the Texas brigades, drawing recruits from the city of El Paso and surrounding areas. Unfortunately those areas were sparsely populated so the “brigade” never exceeded five companies in strength, despite the influx of retired NCOs and draftees. The unit was primarily assigned to provide area defense for Fort Bliss and patrol the Mexican border in the immediate area of the city. The brigade was called into full-time service following the November 1997 nuclear strikes; its remote location prevented a significant influx of refugees from elsewhere in Texas. By January 1998, however, the El Paso area was being overwhelmed by streams of refugees from Mexico and the unit’s harsh methods of dealing with the flow soon were causes of tension with the Mexican government. By June the brigade was engaged in full-blown riot control duties which the Mexican Army soon crossed the border to halt. The unit, stretched to the limit, put up brief resistance before being overwhelmed. The survivors were absorbed by the School Brigade.