February 25, 1998
Nothing official today!
Six A-37 light attack jets which have been reactivated from retirement for transfer to Colombia are requisitioned while awaiting arrival of Colombian pilots at Columbus AFB, Mississippi. The base commander authorizes the release of pilots and a single crew chief for each aircraft and sufficient fuel for each aircraft to fly to Chambers Field at Norfolk Naval Station, Virginia.
The commander of the 2nd Far Eastern Front reluctantly orders the dispatch of the veteran 27th (my 90th Guards) Tank Division to to the western front.
The crew of the destroyer USS Howard is distressed when it discovers the dire conditions ashore in northeastern Florida. The naval base is crowded with shattered survivors of the nuclear attacks on the Atlantic Fleet's other southern bases - Charleston, Kings Bay and Norfolk - both human and floating. The base is held by a heavy security force, holding off masses of desperate refugees fleeing the chaos elsewhere in the state.
In Lithuania, a platoon from the MVD's 357th Convoy Regiment is dispatched to deal with the insubordinate occupier of Trakai Castle, Colonel Česlovas Skrebys. The detachment, survivors of the desperate drive to evict American and British troops from the republic, is but 17 men strong, with a pair of worn out GAZ-66 trucks and a single Second World War-era SG-43 machinegun.
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I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like... victory. Someday this war's gonna end...
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