[chico20854]

June 25, 1998

Nothing in canon for the day. Unofficially,

After an overnight session discussing options, a dialogue usually held by the nation's highest political leaders, the Joint Chiefs respond to their G-3's request for orders. Having ended debate with "Let the historians 50 or 100 years from now debate whether or not this is the right decision. We don't have the conventional forces to stop the invasion. Nonetheless, this effort will be to halt offensive operations, not kill millions of Mexicans. We've got to live with these people after the Recovery, after all." GEN Cummings, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, directs that American nuclear forces are to strike the headquarters of the Mexican Ministry of Defense in Mexico City and the logistic/transportation hubs in northern Mexico that are supporting the invasion. The minimal possible yields required to neutralize the targets are to be used, minimizing civilian casaulties and, hopefully, fallout over American territory. Cummings realizes that the transport hubs are relatively "hard" targets, likely requiring fallout-creating ground bursts, but decides that the tradeoff is one that must unfortunately be made.

One of the 40th Infantry Division's observation posts in the Hollywood Hills, taking advantage of the disappearance of smog over the Los Angeles area with the death of LA's automobile culture, observes the green fields of the Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach in the vast field of ruins that was LA. The observation is relayed up the chain of command and the division's Aviation Brigade is tasked to dispatch a patrol to examine it. The main body of the division's 2nd Brigade departs Camp Roberts, headed south, behind a screen established by the 1st Squadron, 18th Cavalry (-). To the east, the 1st Brigade, 4th Armored Division has sent another battalion (the 3rd Battalion, 51st Infantry) to the front, bolstering the flank security as 89th (my II) Corps prepares for an armored counterattack to drive Brigade Mexicali back from the Imperial Valley.

It is an inauspicious day for the American defense of the Southwest, with the collapse of resistance at the San Diego Naval Base and the evacuation of key assets from San Antonio as the commander of Lackland Air Force Base prepares to surrender his command to the Mexican 4th Army. Fires rage at the Merida Annex as the intelligence operators destroy their sensitive signals intelligence equipment and burn years worth of records, while their supply specialists hurriedly rush to issue them all uniforms grabbed from Lackland's Air Force basic training barracks, allowing the intelligence specialists to blend in with the new recruits. Meanwhile, the commanders of the major military hospitals in the city, which have been an island of calm and comfort for some of the most severely wounded survivors of battlefields around the world, address their staffs and prepare them for the oncoming reality of life under Mexican occupation, offering them the opportunity to abandon their patients and evacuate; few do.

To the north, the commanders of Army units that have seemingly done their level best to avoid preparing for the upcoming battle are rattled out of their stupor by the impending fall of San Antonio. The 46th Infantry Division dispatches six companies, from six separate battalions, to the south to contain the oncoming Coastal Column; the division's heavy weapons and armored vehicles were sent to Europe as replacements earlier in the year and the division has not been able to replace its B Companies, which were sent overseas as replacements in the fall as well. The 95th Training Division at Fort Hood forms a reaction regiment, formed around the three battalions of trained tanker privates that graduated training earlier in the year but remained assigned to the division after transportation system breakdown stranded them at the base; the privates are assigned tank commanders from among the division's drill sergeants and recovering wounded located on and near the base. The formation tries to wrangle enough fuel to try platoon and company-level manuevers in the hodgepoddge of training tanks the division maintains as part of its mission to turn out replacement tank drivers and loaders.

The bad news for the American defenders of the Southwest continues, with the Chihuahua Brigade overrunning Holloman Air Force Base in central New Mexico. With news of the base's capture the Torres Motorized Cavalry Brigade launches its portion of 3rd Army's double envelopment of the Fort Bliss garrison, striking north along Interstate 25 through uncoordinated Texas State Guard roadblocks.

The diversion of troops and supplies from rear areas in Germany to the front creates opportunities for many of the armed bands roaming the country's interior to intensify their ravaging of the country. Along the northern portion of the former Inner-German Border, 5th Squad and its allied group 5th Squadron begin establishing semi-permanent control of rural areas.

Unloading of the sail training ship Statsraad Lehmkuh in Bergen, Norway has been completed and the ship is moved to the shipyard for minor repairs following its long voyage to South America and back.

The carrier USS John F. Kennedy, damaged by a mine off the Greek coast, limps into Marsaxlokk Bay on the southeastern end of the island of Malta, accompanied by its escorts. The local authorities object to the entry of combatant warships into their neutral port - legally they are obligated to intern the ships and their crews for the duration of the conflict if they remain beyond 24 hours, and international law (the Hague Convention of 1907) limits combatant vessels to three in any single port, while the Kennedy is accompanied by three escorts and the oiler USNS Lenthal. The carrier's commander is claiming the right to refuge while repairing the ship to a seaworthy state, and offers to order some of his escorts to sail to Valetta, the capital, to comply with the limitation on vessel numbers.

3rd and 4th Marine Aircraft Wings, operating from a number of fields in and around Bandar Abbas along with a rear reserve base at Al Minhad Air Base in the UAE, is able to maintain its aircraft better than nearly any other combatant air formation in the world thanks to the support it receives from the advanced maintenance detachment on board the aviation maintenance ship SS Curtiss, a US government-owned, civilian manned freighter outfitted with a large helipad and extensive containerized workshops and spare parts stores. The converted merchantman is semi-permanently moored in Bandar Abbas, servicing helicopters onboard while a detachment ashore overhauls fixed-wing aircraft at Havadarya airport, adjacent to the port.

The 27th (my 90th) Tank Division, loaded on a series of six steam-powered trains, reaches the Volga River at Zelenodolsk, where the railroad troops have repaired one of the two spans of the bridge which was destroyed by an American B-2 bomber in December. The division's locomotives are replenished with additional coal from semi-abandoned river barges tied up nearby, giving them enough fuel to continue their journey west.