May 1, 1998
Nothing official for the day. Unofficially,
California authorities order the immediate quarantine of San Francisco to prevent the spread of bubonic plague. Unfortunately, issuing the orders is the easiest step to take; the State Guard is more than fully engaged just trying to keep food distribution going (and the exhausted guardsmen are less than enthusiastic about travelling into the quarantine zone and interacting with people in rat-infested warehouses), and the federal government has no meaningful assistance to lend.
The weather over X Corps' front lines in Alaska finally clears enough for 120 paratroops of the 10th Mountain (my 11th Airborne) Division to drop behind Soviet lines in the hamlet of McKinley Village, blocking their supply route in coordination with scattered patrols of the 2nd Infantry Brigade (Arctic Recon), which are blocking minor routes and other potential travel routes.
Map of front lines
In Europe, the warring armies are ready to resume active hostilities. Higher commanders have regained contact with most remaining subordinate units and the long, cold winter has given units time to rest and restructure. While supplies of food and fuel were depleted over the winter, ammunition stocks have not been used and the long quiet period gave unit maintainers time to sort through remaining spare part inventories and identify vehicles for cannibalization, restoring some vehicles to full operational status. Many formations have disbanded understrength units to bring others up to closer to full strength, resulting in brigades with two battalions or companies short of a platoon but otherwise at 75 percent of “book” strength. Additional reinforcements have been sent to front-line units after rear area support units were culled for surplus soldiers and excess air force and shoreside naval personnel were reassigned to army units.
For the first time since 1917, there is no parade through Red Square in Moscow, which is much too irradiated for most surviving Soviet citizens to dare enter.