[chico20854]

July 6, 1998

Nothing official for the day. Unofficially,

A fierce battle erupts in Duluth, Minnesota between a semi-official militia (led by a former sheriff's deputy, his family and a group of younger members of the town's VFW post) and a group of desperate refugees from the Twin Cities that have been sheltering at the nearby Jay Cooke State Park, who are trying to seize control of a grain elevator in the town's port. The storage facility contains nearly 3.5 million bushels of grain harvested late in 1997 that has been stranded in the port by the frozen Lake Superior and the breakdown in transportation. The refugees assault is repelled, but the militia has sustained heavy losses in the defense.

After two weeks of training, the first Mexican Army independent Voluntarios companies are declared combat ready. Ten companies are dispatched to each army operating in American territory under command of junior officers, many seconded from the Rural Guard force. Privately, many surviving senior officers in Mexico City figure they are sending the barely trained soldiers, most of whom were civilians less than three weeks ago, to their death if they were to face US Army troops. Unbeknownst to them, however, a group of generals within the Ministry of Defense have coordinated with senior PRI politicians, who see the Voluntarios as a useful way to reduce the population of impoverished people that would otherwise threaten instability under the pressures of economic collapse and American nuclear attack.

The transport USS Frederick is dispatched from Port Hueneme back to the San Diego area carrying supplies and another LAV-25. It is escorted by the light frigate USS Joyce and the Coast Guard cutter Chase, detached from the USS Oriskany group in San Francisco Bay.

In the San Diego fighting, the Marine's last remaining armored vehicle, a LAV-25 brought in by helicopter, is destroyed when one of 1st Mechanized Brigade's remaining ten AMX-13s catches it dashing from cover to cover, ripping it apart with a 90mm high explosive round. Mexican troops have established a foothold in the recruit training area, having crossed under cover of darkness and smoke. The Marines launch a furious counterattack but, low on ammunition, are unable to drive them out; they reluctantly resort to lighting the barracks the Mexicans have seized partial control of on fire, withdrawing the remaining friendly troops and using the previously meticulously maintained landscape in between as a kill zone.

A patrol from the battle-scarred New Mexico Military Institute links up with a scouting party from the withdrawing School Brigade west of Artesia. The cadets inform the Army unit that the nearby town (and its supplies of food and fuel from nearby oil wells) is held by two companies of Brigade Chihuahua's 35th Infantry Regiment and informal Mexican auxiliary troops and allied gangsters.

Fighting continues to rage in Austin, with the Mexican advance essentially halted by American resistance, disorganized as it is.

Troops of the 62nd Tank Division are able to break out of their bridgehead on the north side of the Neckar River in the ruins of Mannheim; the division's engineers restore the shattered railroad bridge enough for the unit's T-34s and T-55s to cross over as the division's troops race north. 1st Southwestern Front gives the formation priority of supply, ordering the rest of the front's troops to keep up pressure on NATO troops elsewhere along the line.

Allied troops in South Korea sweep the area evacuated by retreating North Korean and Soviet troops, hoping to identify any booby traps left behind, salvage weapons and ammunition and ensure that no stragglers, deserters or stay-behind parties are operating in the area.

A squad of MVD troops from the Volkhov garrison surround the farmhouse outside town that has been taken over by a group of three deserters from the 115th Guards Motor-Rifle Division. The squad leader calls for them to come out; one does so and is arrested but his two compatriots refuse, holding three civilians hostage.