This is the last segment for a while... the posting has caught up to what has been written!
VII Corps in Texas
VII Corps was structured somewhat differently than III Corps and V Corps - it had heavier equipment and air support. The portion of Task Force 34 that carried VII Corps home accompanied the part carrying V Corps back to Mobile, Alabama. Upon arrival in Mobile, VII Corps received what little heavy equipment that was available to Milgov troops in Alabama (the 2nd Marine Raider Brigade, Aviation Training Brigade, 17th Airborne Division and 59th Ordnance Brigade) and helicopters from Fort Rucker and formed the 2nd Armored Cavalry Battalion, 17th Field Artillery Battalion and 11th Aviation Battalion. VII Corps then conducted a few weeks of company and battalion-level exercises before loading the 2nd Cavalry Battalion and 35th Armor Battalion, 1st Armored Brigade (which incorporated most of the heavy equipment between the two units) onto the remnants of the
USS Still to be Determined! amphibious group and the rest of VII Corps onto the Omega fleet. Lurking offshore was a surprise reinforcement - the
USS Eisenhower and part of its battle group, and most importantly, a scratch air wing composed of remnants of
Eisenhower's Carrier Air Wing 7, elements of
Enterprise's Carrier Air Wing 20,
USS Lexington's Carrier Air Wing 21 and training aircraft from along the Gulf Coast. While VII Corps was ashore training, the tanker
USS Wabash from CENTCOM rendezvoused with the Eisenhower group and transferred 85,000 barrels of JP-5 and 400 tons of munitions, allowing
Eisenhower to resume flight operations. After a short voyage across the Gulf of Mexico, VII Corps began the liberation of Texas.
DIA teams had conducted a reconnaissance of the south Texas coast and become familiar with the political situation in the region. The DIA teams had identified four groups that were actively opposed to the restoration of Milgov control - the remnants of the Mexican Army (broken into four warring factions), the Soviet Division Cuba, the Texian Legion and assorted local marauder bands. Likewise, they had identified two groups that would be able to help restore order to Texas - the South Texas Grange and the remnants of the Texas Rangers - legitimate representatives of the state government. DIA liaison teams established contact with the latter two organizations and VII Corps prepared to rely on them as local civilian authorities. All other armed groups were to be considered hostile.
A special case was the Soviet Division Cuba. The DIA teams reported that the division, based in and around San Antonio, was suffering from low morale, desertion and harassing attacks from local guerrillas. In addition, the division had recently sent a detachment to Brownsville, Texas that had routed a marauder band that controlled the city, and, more importantly, captured a small refinery and intact offshore oil platform. Production from the well and refinery was imminent, which would grant Division Cuba unparalleled mobility and allow it to return its Mi-24 Hind attack helicopters to the air over Texas.
The CG, VII Corps decided to take a carrot and stick approach to Division Cuba. At dawn on January 1, 2001, General Konstantin Femerov, commander of Division Cuba, was rudely awakened by the roar of jet engines as his headquarters at Lackland Air Force base was buzzed by over two dozen fighter and attack aircraft. Shortly afterwords, an American helicopter landed at the base and Major General Harrison Richards, CG, VII Corps, stepped out, accompanied by acting governor James "Big Tom" Thomas. They presented General Femerov with the choice of either accepting Milgov aid in evacuating Division Cuba from Texas or the commencement of active hostilities with VII Corps. Milgov aid in evacuation would consist of escorting Soviet troops, if desired, to a port on the Gulf Coast, where they could load onto some of the ships of the Operation Omega fleet - the remnants of the German merchant marine, refueled and for Division Cuba to keep and do as they pleased with (so long as they did not land on NATO territory). Due to the dilapidated state of the ships and port facilities, much of Division Cuba's armored vehicles would have to be left in Texas. The alternative would be around the clock bombing of Division Cuba followed by an offensive of combat-hardened European veterans. While being presented with this offer, General Femerov was informed that landing craft had appeared in the Gulf of Mexico outside of Brownsville, helicopters were landing troops outside of Brownsville and Port Isabelle, and that transmissions to Gulfwind 40 (the offshore oil rig) went unanswered. Knowing that production from the Brownsville facility had not yet started, the poor state of his division, and his deep desire to leave Texas, General Femerov accepted General Richards' offer, although he declined to accept the humiliation of having his soldiers, the only Warsaw Pact troops to invade the continental United States, escorted out of the country by enemy troops. Division Cuba was evacuated with honor through Brownsville saluted by troops of the 1st Armored Brigade, which had arrived to maintain order after the Soviet withdrawal.
The rest of VII Corps came ashore farther north in Texas and began to restore order. The 3rd Infantry Brigade came ashore in the less ruined part of Corpus Christi, making short work of the marauder band that occupied the Naval Air Station, while the 10th Mountain Infantry Brigade moved ashore from Port Lavaca. VII Corps headquarters established itself at the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station along with the 11th Aviation Battalion and headquarters of the 25th Naval Construction Regiment and 352nd Civil Affairs Brigade, while its 2nd Corps Support Command set up in Port Lavaca to take advantage of the vibrant market in food and other goods needed to maintain the Corps.
General Richards had to restrain his commanders from becoming over-eager in liberating territory - he wanted to restore order, security and some semblance of an economy in one county per brigade before moving farther inland. Mexican Army units of any faction were to be engaged if overtly hostile. If within the counties under VII Corps control, Mexican Army units that did not act in a hostile manner (always a difficult decision to ask low-level soldiers to make) were to be relieved of heavy weapons and directed to head south to Mexico. Marauders and members of the Texian Legion were to be engaged on sight. To help with the maintenance of law and order, whenever possible Texas Rangers, sheriff deputies or local police accompanied patrols and were present at perimeter checkpoints. Their local knowledge and civilian law enforcement authority (while technically not needed due to the martial law decree) went a long way in identifying local criminals and building Milgov credibility as more than an occupying force. DIA reconnaissance teams and members of 1st Company, 10th Special Forces Group (VII Corps' special operations unit, composed of a smattering of Special Operations and Ranger-qualified troops from seven NATO nations) sought out marauder havens in areas beyond the counties under Milgov control, which were then attacked by troops from the 2nd Cavalry Battalion, helicopters from the 11th Aviation Battalion or aircraft operating from the
USS Eisenhower or ashore from Corpus Christi Naval Air Station. In the absence of Soviet troops, San Antonio suffered from a month of near-constant gang warfare, as groups of marauders, deserters and Mexican factions fought for control. After three weeks of chaos, the Banditos outlaw biker gang (allied with a
yet unidentified! Mexican drug cartel rolled into town and imposed a harsh order. General Richards was not happy with this development but did not have the resources to act, and so was forced to simply monitor events and wait until he had the strength to dislodge and destroy the bikers.
Typical operations for a brigade saw two light infantry battalions maintaining outposts and patrols along the borders of the county, the other infantry battalion providing security for vital infrastructure (power plants, oil wells, water purification plants, refugee camps and industrial facilities) and a quick-reaction company, the military police battalion providing security for the headquarters, convoys outside the county and roving mounted area patrols. The SeeBee detachments, operating under orders from Corps HQ and acting governor Thomas' reconstruction tsar, worked on repairing roads and key railroad lines, fixing or replacing bridges, irrigation systems, water supply systems, power and telephone lines and the port facilities along the Gulf Coast. They also worked to restore electrical power plants, oil production facilities and the other infrastructure needed to restart America. Civil affairs teams from the 352nd Civil Affairs Brigade worked to identify local leaders and prewar government employees that could resume local civil government and interviewed refugees to identify those with useful skills (medical, engineering, teaching, administrative, mechanical, etc.) and to establish food distribution systems and a labor pool to augment the soldiers.
VII Corps' reconstruction plan envisioned building up a secure base along the Gulf Coast south of Houston, which could provide food and fuel (from reactivated onshore and offshore oil wells) to sustain future liberation of Texas. Once that secure base had been set, VII Corps brigades would expand county by county, first securing the Gulf Coast and expanding west to the Interstate 35 corridor. Moving north along the Interstate, the Corps planned to clear San Antonio of the Banditos and sweep the remnants of the Mexican Army from Austin and Waco, linking up with forces of XIII Corps moving south from their cantonments at Fort Sill, Oklahoma and Wichita Falls, Texas, skirting the ruins of the Dallas - Fort Worth metropolitan area. After establishing secure communications by road and rail with XIII Corps (and by extension, with Milgov headquarters in Colorado Springs), the combined forces would then move east and, in coordination with V Corps advancing west from Louisiana, encircle the forces of the Texian Legion. Following that operation, VII Corps would continue to clear Texas of Mexican Army troops and marauders of all types, while continuing the reconstruction effort.
In the initial months of VII Corps operation, they were able to achieve several successes. In Corpus Christi, 3rd Infantry Brigade cleared the city of marauders and bandits and began regular security and stability patrols. Behind this wall of friendly troops, the SeeBees of the 53rd Naval Mobile Construction Battalion began the task of clearing major roads through Corpus Christi of rubble, debris and abandoned cars. They also checked the berths in the Port of Corpus Christi, and found several that were capable of docking ocean-going vessels. While the cranes in the port had been damaged beyond repair by the blast, the port could still handle ships that had cranes aboard or roll-on/roll-off ships. On an interim basis a 35-ton construction crane was parked on a flat-decked barge to unload ships that called, until a real floating crane barge could be found or shoreside cranes fabricated. The electrical power plant in the port area was refurbished but not brought online due to lack of fuel for it. A quick survey of the refinery complex on the west side of Corpus Christi confirmed that nothing usable had survived the airbursts and subsequent firestorms. Likewise, nothing useful remained of the helicopter maintenance and overhaul facility on the naval air station after the military abandoned the facility and marauders occupied it. The barracks were usable after a thorough cleaning and some relatively minor repair, and most importantly the runway and some of the hangars were undamaged. A detachment of aircraft was stationed there to provide air support to VII Corps units. This detachment consisted of the 11th Aviation Battalion's AH-1, UH-1, OH-58 and CH-47 helicopters and a composite Navy-Air Force squadron of T-34Cs (fitted with hardpoints for bombs, rockets and gun pods), a pair of A-7s and a DC-3 transport.
After the departure of Division Cuba, 1st Armored Brigade began multiple reconstruction and security tasks. First priority was providing security and support for Gulfwind 40 and the refinery in Port Isabel. The security task was a challenge due to the brigade's proximity to Mexico and the stream of people crossing in both directions. The brigade commander decided to simply close the border to all northbound traffic that was not of a clearly commercial nature, while anyone who wanted would be permitted to leave the U.S. Tense unofficial negotiations with Mexico authorities in Matamoros established a ceasefire between armies that remained on their respective side of the border and an agreement to share information about marauder bands in the area, such as the remnants of the Familia that had been pushed out of Brownsville by Division Cuba. The low population in the area forced the 1st Armored Brigade to depend more on the supply of food from VII Corps's 2nd Corps Support Command than the other brigades operating in Texas. A weekly shuttle boat sailed the Intracoastal Waterway from Port Lavaca to Brownsville and back, bringing food southbound and refined petroleum northbound. 1st Armored Brigade was able to expand the area of its control north to include the town of Harlingen quite quickly, and by the end of April 2001 was sending patrols as far west as Laredo. (Those patrols reported that much of the northbound traffic that was shut down by the brigade was diverted west to Laredo, but like the Banditos in San Antonio that was a problem to be solved at a later time.) A SeeBee detachment from the 121st Naval Mobile Construction Battalion operated the refinery while the rest of the battalion performed a multitude of other reconstruction tasks.
Under the protection of the 10th Mountain Brigade, SeeBees from the 11th Naval Mobile Construction Battalion, both based in Port Lavaca, were able to restore several oil and gas wells within Calhoun County that had been only lightly damaged in the war. Using this gas and a combination of local and military expertise, the SeeBees were able to restore operation of a water purification facility and, more importantly, one of the three power plants in the county. There was only enough natural gas provided by the wells to run the plant for two hours a day, but the lights coming back on in Port Lavaca and armed American troops patrolling both the city streets and the country roads delivered an important message to the people of Texas - the government was there, and it was there to help the citizens.