June 9, 1998
Nothing in canon for the day. Unofficially,
Mexican units rush towards the border as the Mexican Army establishes command and control structures for the invasion of the US: 2nd Army is responsible for operations west of the Sierra Madre Occidental, 3rd Army for operations in New Mexico and west Texas and 4th Army for operations in eastern and central Texas. American intelligence agents in the border region, mainly from the Drug Enforcement Agency, have been inactive for some months and in any case would be unable to relay news of the troop movements to the Joint Chiefs, such is the state of both communications and command and control within the US government at this stage. The DIA station chief in Mexico City was killed in anti-American rioting earlier in the year and has not been replaced; the three-man CIA team in the capital is absorbed with trying to determine who holds the reins of power, investigating rumors that the PPS-PRI alliance may have the support of narcotrafficers. The CIA team attributes the sudden disappearance of Mexican Army APCs and troops to their returning to barracks, not noticing that the 1st and 2nd Mechanized Brigades are in fact loading onto railcars on the city's outskirts, or that the parachute brigade is moving to the international airport, where a stream of transports is arriving.
The Soviet 41st Army receives a trainload of reinforcements from the USSR. It includes another two dozen T-34 tanks from deep storage near the Urals, which are assigned to the 62nd Tank Division, partially replacing the heavy losses it sustained in the capture of Erbach an der Donau. The train from home also brings fresh replacement troops, over 200 young men from Uzbekistan, some of whom even speak Russian.
The commander of the John F Kennedy battle group, deeming the Soviet air threat greatly diminished, detaches the cruiser USS Gettysburg to conduct an anti-surface sweep through the Ionian Sea and islands, responding to rumors of enemy naval and merchant traffic through the Corinth Canal. The remainder of the battle group continues to patrol the central Mediterranean at low speed to conserve fuel, maintaining a single aircraft aloft during daylight hours with additional planes on deck, armed and ready to respond to any enemy activity.
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I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like... victory. Someday this war's gonna end...
Last edited by chico20854; 06-12-2023 at 03:30 PM.
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