June 15, 1998
The 49th Armored Division (Texas National Guard), on civil security and relief duties in the Upper Midwest, is ordered south to halt the Mexican invasion.
Command of surviving fixed-wing elements of the US Navy and the US Marine Corps 1st Marine Air Wing is transferred to USAFCENT (9th Air Force) for operational and administrative purposes. (Unofficially) Resistance to this development from Marine officers, who insist that 1 MAW should continue to be dedicated to supporting I MEF, is overruled by General McLaren, who declares the situation too serious for Marine commanders to hoard such scarce assets and rightfully points out that the move allows the most efficient use of the remaining combat aircraft.
Unofficially,
The 47th Infantry Division gives ground in British Columbia, trying to delay as long as possible to give local civilians time to evacuate.
In Colorado Springs, the FEMA laison officer to the Joint Chiefs passes away due to complications of the bubonic plague. He is the last FEMA official still serving that had knowledge of the Strategic Reserve Stockpile system assembled at great expense in the prior two years; his deputy, who has assumed his responsibilities, never was cleared to be briefed on the program. This development assures that the Joint Chiefs are unaware of the vital assets that could be used to assist American recovery.
The Joint Chiefs order the evacuation of nuclear weapons from Texas south of San Antonio and California south of Bakersfield.
The US Navy begins evacuating non-combatants and civilians from San Diego as overland ties to the rest of California are cut. The evacuation effort makes use of the vast numbers of harbor service craft, excess support ships stranded in port from lack of fuel and ships in or awaiting repair that are still seaworthy. The Marines holding the perimeter (which have largely replaced the sailors facing Brigade Ensenada) repel another Mexican attack, although they lack armored vehicles, heavy weapons or even machinegun ammunition to try to break the 1st Mechanized Brigade's blockade of the harbor area. Mexican cavalry troops and paratroops begin tentative probes north into Camp Pendelton.
To the east, the Mexicali Brigade has established a series of blocking positions along Interstate 8 to, hopefully, slow any advance of the 108th Armored Cavalry Regiment and 223rd Armored Regiment (the OPFOR for the Yuma Proving Ground's National Training Center), should those units attempt to cut off the lone Mexican brigade.
The Battle of Fort Bliss continues, with repeated attacks on the garrison while the Mexican Torres Mororized Cavalry Brigade issucceeding in suppressing the Texas State Guard's 9th Brigade, advancing to the northern outskirts of El Paso. Back in Mexico, the Durango and Torreon Brigades are ordered to reinforce the effort; they begin preparing their cavalry regiments for immediate deployment while transport is arranged for the infantry. To the east, the Chihuahua Brigade has dramatically increased its mobility through requisitioning civilian vehicles and stocks of fuel stored on various ranches and oil wells. Given the desperate situation in El Paso and near-total lack of coordinated resistance (after overrunning the border patrol stations the brigade has only faced at most 10 armed civilians and no armed troops), 3rd Army orders the brigade to rush north to Pecos, then turn northwest to execute a double envelopment of the American force at Fort Bliss (and the base's extensive back country that runs into White Sands Missile Range and Holloman AFB).
The Nogales Brigade in Arizona has slowed its advance on Tucson, wary of its deep exposure on both flanks and shortages of fuel. Advance parties have Tucson in sight, but the main body remains farther south lest it be cut off by troops from Ft. Huachuca.
In central Texas the Monclova Brigade turns northeast after having smashed the Aggies of the 3rd Texas Regiment (part of the former Texas A&M Cadet Corps) and overrun Laughlin Air Force Base and its training squadrons. The Monterrey Brigade and 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment continue their advance up Interstate 35 towards San Antonio, slowed by low fuel supplies. To their east the battle for Brownsville is seeing Mexican progress, with the partially-completed hull of the USS Makin island now ablaze after mutliple hits by Mexican heavy weapons; the sailors' resistance begins to wane as ammunition and food runs low and the commander has authorized the evacuation of nonessential personnel to small and civilian craft operating in the Intracoastal Waterway. In Harlingen, the Mexican 2nd Mechanized Brigade has fought its way onto the campus of the Marine Military Academy, taking advanbtage of the massed artillery (as it happens to be) of 4th Army.
The managers of Lone Star Oil, a small oil company that is still operating a handful of rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, order the shutdown and evacuation of their platforms south of Corpus Christi, including Gulfwind 40 and Gulfwind 42.
map of front lines
The Soviet 21st Army launches another spoiling attack on the US XV Corps, ensuring that the unit diverts scarce ammunition, fuel and air support from other units farther to the west. The Soviet troops, however, do not press their attacks and have not, in fact, even overrun the American outpost line to reach the main line of resistance.
After five days of stop and start travel in a crowded and claustrophobic boxcar, during which ten prisoners die, Specialist Cutler and his fellow prisoners are unloaded at a remote siding in eastern Czechoslovakia. They are greeted by Czech SNB internal troops and Czecch militiamen, who begin marching the dazed prisoners (they were served two meals during their journey) along the tracks.
STAVKA realizes that the veteran 27th (my 90th) Tank Division is still stuck in eastern Siberia, en route to the European theatre, and directs that local and regional Party authorities make the division's passage to the front "highest priotiry". The decree is sufficient to compel authorities in the Krasnoyarsk region to release six heavy-duty LV steam locomotives, each with 225 tons of coal to propel the division (and its thousands of hungry, armed troops) far across the USSR.