[chico20854]

June 17, 1998

It is obvious to Major General Femerov, commander of the Soviet troops in Cuba, that Guantanamo II (the enclave at Mariel in which the Cuban government has confined Soviet troops in Cuba, nearly a division in strength) presents a very tempting target for the U.S. This fact, combined with pressure from a Cuban government anxious to appear increasingly neutral to America, causes Femerov to look for a means to get out of Cuba while striking a blow for the USSR. The opportunity to deliver a blow into America comes from the Marxist PRI/PPS coalition in Mexico. The PPS offers Femerov and his ""Division Cuba"" a passage off of the island and back to the USSR, in return for a short detour. Femerov and his soldiers are to assist
in the invasion of America, to drive into the Yankee heartland, and end the war.

At the Marine Military Academy campus in Harlingen, Texas, the stubborn, last-ditch stand of the Academy students in the face of overwhelming numbers comes to an end. There are no known American survivors of the battle, which will compared to Travis' stand at the Alamo. The final pockets of resistance are shattered by a terrific artillery barrage before being overrun by Mexican infantry of the Matamoros and 2nd Mechanized Brigades.

Unofficially,

On New York's Upper East Side, there is turmoil within the Hells Own marauder gang. One of the gangsters gets in a verbal argument with ex-Corporal Nathan Snyder, who then refuses to allow the member to collect his allocation of food (a bag of stale potato chips and can of chicken soup taken from a local salvager as "tax") for the evening. The gangster calls Snyder out, and in the brawl that follows Snyder and his girlfriend end up killing the upstart and injuring his best friend in the gang. There are few challenges to Snyder's control of the food from then on, and other gang members treat Snyder and "his old lady" with more respect, although it s unclear if that respect is out of admiration or fear.

The 347th Strategic Missile Squadron, operating on the Nellis Air Force Base range complex, observes the 868th Tactical Missile Training Squadron's dispersal near its stationary sites and makes contact.

The B-Team from the 8th Special Forces Group, travelling in a small convoy of unmarked civilian vans and trucks, crosses the border into Guatemala. The liberal application of cash and the grim looks on the faces of the rough, heavily armed men assures a welcome entry into Mexico's southern neighbor. At Sato Cano Air Base a C-130 arrives carrying ground crew, support equipment and a small stock of munitions to support the AT-33E Skyfoxes that arrived the day prior.

The troops of the Chihuahua Brigade encounter their first organized resistance, an entrenched infantry force blocking the highway into the town of Carlsbad. The outer pickets fall back when Mexican armor attacks under cover of infantry mortars; the dead left behind wear uniform patches from a military academy in the town.

American F-5Es from the 65th Aggressor Squadron, using some of the last stocks of aviation fuel at Nellis Air Force Base, launch a surprise raid on Mexican airfields. The defenders, believing the aircraft are in fact Mexican F-5s, hold their fire as a pair of fighters, with another pair trailing, approach the runway at Santa Lucia near Mexico City. The fighters come in low and slow, placing them in prime position to release the stick of runway-busting munitions that they soon release before hitting their afterburners and zipping away, leaving the pattern clear for the second pair to finish off the other runway.

As the fighting in San Diego continues, Mexican Marines advance on the Coronado Amphibious base. As they enter the perimeter, the captain of the landing ship USS Cleveland orders his crew to set the ship, damaged in the prior year's naval battles and unable to be repaired rapidly enough to be evacuated, afire. The few remaining munitions in the ship's magazine are used to set a large mine, which is detonated as the Mexican troops approach the dock.

In the desert east of LA, the 177th Armored Brigade disembarks from the motley collection of civilian trucks and military tank transporters that has brought it to the north end of the Imperial Valley.

The Mexican 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment cautiously moves north, scouting for organized American resistance but is mostly encountering desperate refugees from the strikes and chaos of Los Angeles.

The opposition encountered by the troops of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment are identified as members of the US Air Force, trainees and cadre from the Security Police training program at Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio acting in a mobile role while basic trainees (and graduates from the prior months, who have remained at the base thanks to the breakdown in transportation, performing relief and security duties) man fixed defensive positions.

The Mexican Marines in the Gulf of Mexico complete their disembarkation from the array of naval craft onto South Padre Island as the fleet is engaged by patrol craft from the USCG, now under naval command. The USS Steelhead is sunk by the Mexican destroyer Vincente Guerrero while the USS Point Nowell rakes the Mexican transport Manzanillo with 20mm fire before turning and fleeing north at high speed, dropping to 8 knots when out of range of the Vincente Guerrero's guns to conserve the last gallons of diesel aboard, allowing it to reach a friendly port.

In the early morning hours Specialist Cutler and his fellow new arrivals at the remote POW camp in eastern Czechoslovakia are roused to begin their first brutal 12-hour shift filling in a 100-meter wide, 49-meter deep crater (created by a 150-kiloton Ground Launched Cruise Missile ground burst) with their bare hands, a handful of shovels and no protection from residual radiation. At the end of the day the exhausted prisoners eat a meal of potato-barley stew before collapsing into a deep slumber.

XX US Corps, cut off from the remainder of NATO forces in Germany, is sustained by two C-130 flights daily, which bring in food (mostly French combat rations), fuel (like the Mexican Air Force, USAF Europe uses C-130's fuel tanks for transporting fuel, draining the excess in the aircraft before departure) and ammunition and evacuate the wounded. The flow is insufficient to maintain stock levels, but it helps morale and helps keep supply levels from dropping to critical levels. Aiding the situation is that the opposing Italian 4th Corps is equally starved of supplies, most of what arrives via the circuitous route through northeastern Italy, Austria and overland from Munich going to support 3rd Corps' mechanized troops.

NATO forces in Central Germany have established a somewhat-continuous defensive line along the Main River from Frankfurt to Kulmbach, with a significant Soviet-held salient north of Wurzburg. Retreating Allied forces had attempted to bring any small boats they could locate with them as they withdrew, to deny their use to the Soviets for assault crossings of the river.

The A-37s of the 169th Tactical Air Support Squadron (Illinois Air National Guard) fly their first deep strike sorties in Kenya, supporting the offensive against the Sudanese. Intelligence has identified three villages as supply depots and rest areas for the Sudanese, and refugees report that the Sudanese Army has driven all the Kenyans from the town. Satisfied that no civilians will be hit, the 169th's commander authorizes a strike by a lone A-37. The Dragonfly is carrying six M47A2 white phosphorous bombs, six CBU-24B cluster canisters and two SUU-11A gun pods, each pod weighing 323 lbs and mounting a 7.62mm Minigun identical to the aircraft's fixed armament. In a single sortie the Dragonfly is able to level to the ground all but three or four of the approximately 100 huts and other small buildings that comprised the group of villages.

In its first pass, approaching the nearest village in line, the aircraft opens fire with a simultaneous two-second burst from all three Miniguns. The shattering and splintering effect of these 600 rounds on the buildings in line of fire make the village look to the pilot like "hay going through a threshing machine."

As the aircraft passes over the village it drops two cluster canisters, each weighing 718 lbs and containing 600 bomblets. The bomblets release a total of 300,000 steel shards, densely meshing in all directions at hundreds of feet per second, cracking stone, deeply pitting wood, and shattering into fragments any less sturdy or less pliable materials, all in a matter of ten seconds.

To the aircrew above, it looks like "hundreds of sparklers going off."

People are seen running from the next two villages as the Dragonfly approaches, but the pilot believes that the first village had been taken fully by surprise. The subsequent villages are struck in the same manner, and on their second pass the crew drops their phosphorous bombs. As each bomb hits, the ground structures at the explosion's epicenter collapse in a cloud of brilliant white smoke, and long trails of phosphorous shot out of the cloud and arched for hundreds of feet in the air. Wherever they land, and all along the length of their trails, the particles of phosphorous stick to buildings, trees, vegetation and anything else with which they came into contact, immediately setting it afire. When the aircraft turns for base, the entire area is in flames.

The attack has taken about three minutes.