[chico20854]

December 19, 1997

The first arrest for hoarding under the provisions of FEP-D is made.

The Dutch 101st Mechanized Brigade is brought home from Germany, where it had been mainly performing rear area security duties, to the Leeuwarden area to assist Territorial troops with internal security duties.

Unofficially,

With stocks of aviation fuel running low on many dispersal bases and the exchange somewhat settled into a handful of attacks daily, President Munson authorizes a dramatic cutback to SAC's airborne alert posture. The new status will be but four bombers airborne at any time, each with an accompanying tanker, one airborne command post and a single relay aircraft.

A mixture of military and police forces operating out of Nellis Air Force Base attempt to maintain law and order in Clark County, Nevada, but they are unable to prevent the rise of a number of gangs that compete ruthlessly for the remaining consumables.

The Soviets make what will prove to be the final attack an American refinery, hitting Sweeney, Texas with a SS-N-18 from the Delta III-class SSBN K-496. The SLBM is topped with a single 450-kiloton warhead, which incinerates the refinery and much of the surrounding area.

American Pershing II missiles hit more targets in the Western USSR. The strategic early warning radar in Mukachevo, Ukraine is hit, as is the Kharkov tank plant, the Smolensk nuclear power plant and the Lysychansk refinery.

The 1st Battalion, Minnesota Regiment (a state guard unit) is called away from evacuation duties to provide relief following the prior day's refinery strikes outside the Twin Cities.

The headquarters of the Sixth Army, holding out in the Presidio of San Francisco, like other Army headquarters around the nation, determines that it needs more troops to maintain martial law. Unlike, others, however, it has an available force - the 221st MP Brigade in Hawaii.

Rainbow Six reports that the Greater Manchester-Merseyside area has, to date, escaped the 1997 nuclear strikes (although it has suffered from widespread civil disorder, which the authorities struggle to contain). A TA battalion, 5/8 KINGS, is deployed to the Manchester area to quell the serious disorder as rioting mobs fight with the authorities and each other over control of food, water, and other supplies. As the Regional Government implements a dusk to dawn curfew the troops find themselves confronting the mobs with orders to shoot to kill if necessary. A peace returns to the city, but it is an uneasy one, one enforced only by military patrols, by the threat of deadly force. The Battalion takes under command all manner of reinforcements, airmen and women from the RAF, Army cadets, civilian police officers, even traffic wardens. As well as maintaining order they distribute aid to the city's population, although supplies are becoming harder to come by as each week passes. Tent cities spring up outside the barracks.

Lest it be caught in port, the destroyer USS Morton, which was quickly refuelled and took on stores, departs Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, accompanied by the container-barge carrier Harbin Carrier, headed for the Phillippines.

The American frigate USS Klackring sinks after hitting a mine in Vestfjord while protecting the Eisenhower and Roosevelt battle groups. The mine's origin is never established - whether it was a NATO or Soviet mine, freshly laid or left over from the Battle of the Norwegian Sea in December of 1996.

The new, massive containership Susan Mae arrives in New York on its maiden voyage. Upon arrival it rapidly becomes clear that conditions ashore are difficult and that it is extremely unlikely that there are 8,000 containers of cargo ready to be loaded. Wary of the disorder shore, the ship's master anchors in the outer harbor and contacts the Coast Guard for guidance. The Coast Guard responds, urging utmost caution (that there are armed, desperate people in small boats on the water) and advising the ship not to berth.

US Air Forces Africa calls off the search for TSgt Watson. Uknown to his headquarters, he is alive and sheltering in the bush outside a Ugandan village.