[chico20854]

June 11, 2998

The replica USS Constitution calls in Porta Delgado, Azores.

Lead elements of the Mexican Army cross the border in force along five major axes - from Tijuana into San Diego, into California's Imperial Valley, into Arizona south of Tucson, against El Paso for a drive on Albuquerque, New Mexico, and on a broad front along the Rio Grande in Texas.

[The following is a mix of canon and unofficial material]

The California assault is carried out by the 2nd Army, which sends the Ensenada Brigade across the border, overrunning the startled Border Patrol agents and squad of California State Guardsmen on duty at the busy San Ysidro border crossing point. Within an hour they have overrun the border post and the nearby Naval Outlying Landing Field Imperial Beach and by sunset they have covered most of the 14 miles between the border and the city of San Diego.

The Mexican 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment crosses the border overland a few miles to the east, while in the predawn hours the Marine Parachute Regiment lands (the first two companies by parachute, the last two later in the day air-landed) on Naval Air Station Miramar. They overcome the USN security troops, mechanics, pilots and technicians stationed there, destroy the few remaining aircraft that are based there and seizing the remaining fuel supplies before they can be destroyed. The 1st Mechanized Brigade remains in reserve to exploit any breakthroughs or reinforce any units that need it.

In the central sector of the 2nd Army sector, Brigade Mexicali crosses the border at Calexico and overruns the USMC air station at El Centro. When the truck-borne infantry catches up with the brigade's 18th Motorized Cavalry Regiment at the air station the cavalry once again leaps forward, capturing the parched fields of the Imperial Valley. The Nogales Brigade crosses into Arizona, sending mechanized detachments north along Interstate 19 towards Tucson while deploying flank security detachments to protect its right flank from the 111th Military Intelligence Brigade at Ft. Huachuca.

Throughout the 2nd Army sector the advance is assisted by local guides, local ethnic-Mexican criminal gangs, some of which defended Mexican refugee camps and others allied with the narcotrafficing gangs that have operated in the region for years. Handsomely rewarded drug lords have made an arrangement with the PPS-PRI alliance in Mexico City to assist in the invasion in exchange for the right to "repatriate" the wealth of the captured territory.

In West Texas the 3rd Army crosses the Rio Grande. The Ciudad Juarez Brigade invades El Paso, pushing through the crowded built up area to try to capture Fort Bliss in a coup-de-main. The Torres Motorized Cavalry Brigade advances to the west, moving cautiously up Interstate 10 to try to surround the base from the northwest. It only advances a mile and a half when it encounters the first ambush by state guardsmen of the 9th Texas Brigade, losing a French-built VBL armored car. The ambush is quickly suppressed with some heavy weapons fire and the use of a Milan anti-tank missile, but the cavalry's momentum has been broken by the soldiers' desire to avoid more ambushes, three of which are encountered in the next two miles. The Chihuahua Brigade crosses the Rio Grande nearly 200 miles to the southeast, at the Presidio, Texas border crossing. Largely unopposed, the brigade advances up Highway 67 towards Odessa, commandeering civilian vehicles to enhance its mobility.

The 4th Army invades on a broad front further east in Texas. The Monterrey Brigade crosses the border at Laredo, immediately encountering the state guardsmen of the 1st Texas Brigade, who just days earlier were massacring unarmed Mexican civilians. The 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment remains on the Mexican side of the border, ready to lunge forward up Interstate 35 towards San Antonio and Austin once the infantry clear the Texan blocking force. To the west, the Monclova Brigade crosses the Rio Grand at Eagle Pass, where much of the unit turns northwest to face the combined might of the 3rd Texas Regiment and the trainees of the USF basic training wing at Laughlin AFB.

The fiercest resistance comes along the Gulf Coast, where the Matamoros Brigade and 2nd Mechanized Brigade cross into Brownsville and McAllen, respectively. Brownsville is garrisoned by the sailors of the USS Makin Pre-Commissioning Unit. The mechanized troops' advance to highway 77 is stalled by resistance from the cadets and cadre of the Marine Military Academy, a private military school in Harlingen, who are fiercely defending their campus and blocking traffic on the highway.

Unofficially,

The Mexican Air Force operates in the skies overhead. The sole fighter squadron, the 401st, with eight flyable F-5 aircraft, supports 4th Army's ground troops with rocket and gunfire as well as bombing fixed emplacements, to little effect overall. The 402nd Squadron, operating in the west, flies close support missions assisting the paratroops at Miramar with its ancient T-33 trainers, while 3rd Army is nominally supported by several squadrons of turboprop PC-7 armed trainers, which struggle to avoid the heavy anti-aircraft defenses of Fort Bliss, home to the US Army Air Defense Center and School.

In all sectors, the American response is weak and uncoordinated. Almost uniformly they are surprised by the arrival of Mexican units and out of position to mount a coherent defense. The troops are poorly supplied - those on civil relief and internal security missions have but a single magazine of ammunition, many Navy and Air Force training units only have enough small arms for a third of their troops, food and fuel are scarce and combat units are in most cases awaiting deployment overseas, with vague promises that heavy weapons and equipment will be provided in theatre. The Mexicans have achieved strategic and tactical surprise, leaving the Joint Chiefs struggling to form a response.

In Germany, having had two days to integrate the reinforcements and replacements, the 62nd Tank Division is ordered back into action as 41st Army attempts to surround (rather than overrun) the city of Stuttgart.

The USS Virginia crosses into the Pacific Ocean, braving fierce winter storms in the treacherous waters of Cape Horn. Despite the potential shelter of the channels to the north in Tierra del Fuego the cruiser's captain decides to remain offshore, unwilling to risk his ship in constrained waters where it would be vulnerable to attack or interdiction from ashore.