[chico20854]

August 21, 1997

Nothing in the canon for the day.

The Freedom ship Tacoma Freedom is delivered in Galveston, Texas.

Fighting rages in the streets of Anchorage. Further east, outnumbered by the 1st Arctic Mechanized Brigade and the 13th Guards Airborne Division, the 172nd Infantry (Arctic), with nearly half of the unit’s remaining hovercraft out of service requiring maintenance or spare parts, abandons Valdez aboard its own amphibious craft and a requisitioned ferry.

FEMA assumes responsibility for operation of the Defense Logistics Agency underground storage facility in Quinlan, Texas and begins restocking it as a strategic stockpile. At the outset of the war the facility had housed millions of MREs as well as machine tools, medical supplies, cots, blankets, tents, sleeping bags and sand bags. Those supplies have been distributed around the world, leaving the facility available to other users.

The deputy division commander of the 40th Infantry Division, the senior unwounded officer, after consulting with USAEUR staff, orders the survivors concentrated in the division's 1st Brigade to bring it up to strength. Excess command and support personnel are to be returned to the US to form a new division.

On the Bavarian front, the 111th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, protecting XX Corps from Italian air attack, finds that the Italian Air Force, familiar with both the Hawk and the Patriot missile systems, is able to minimize the units’ effectiveness against its most advanced aircraft. The brigade is, however, still able to successfully engage Italian helicopters, transports and close air support aircraft. Polish and Soviet forces coordinate another series of attacks against Third German Army on the southern end of the front, further depleting the Allied force of supplies and reserves.

The press officer for the NATO occupation force in Sicily rushes in to the commander, distraught that the local militia that NATO is sponsoring to maintain order on the island is in fact nothing other than the Cosa Nostra, the infamous Italian organized criminal groups. He has a talk with the commander, who explains the reality of the war to the press officer, who is on a plane back to the US early the next morning.

CVW-10 (Carrier Air Wing 10) aboard the USS Independence disembarks from the damaged carrier. They join with the Seebees of the 1st Naval Construction Regiment in establishing semi-permanent housing, administrative and support facilities at the massive Al Qatif air base in eastern Saudi Arabia. The Independence battle group commander brings the support ship USS Wabash alongside the carrier to speed the unloading of the damaged flattop's ammunition, spares, aviation fuel and other materiel for transportation to the air wing's new operations base.

The Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Soviet Ministry of Defense inquires as to why no SS-23 missiles have been delivered; the production plant in Votinsk replies that it is awaiting receipt of the new guidance packages.

British Military Intelligence officers on the Falklands identify the equipment carried by the dead Argentine commando from the prior day's battle as definitely Argentine of 1990s manufacture (not a relic of the 1982 war) and transmit a report to London that Argentine forces are active on the islands.