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Old 09-27-2022, 02:28 PM
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September 12, 1997

The 2nd Brigade, Arkansas State Guard is activated in Fort Smith, under the command of retired US Army Colonel William Simms. Simms and much of his command staff are former servicemen past mandatory retirement age. The brigade leadership’s advanced age leads to it to be derided as the “Seniors Brigade.” Due to the demands of the war, the brigade is placed on a waiting list to receive small arms and surplus uniforms (M1 carbines and M1 rifles, M1911 pistols, olive green field uniforms and steel helmets) from the federal government.

The 11th Infantry Brigade (Light) is assigned to III MEF and is thrown onto the lines on Korea's west coast, with the air assault battalion held in reserve as a counter-breakthrough reaction force.

1st Brigade, 40th Infantry Division, now an independent formation, is ordered back to the front. It is returned to XXIII Corps' command and brought into Poland. It is held in a reserve position, however, preparing defensive positions on the east side of Lodz for the rest of the corps to fall back upon if, as it looks increasingly likely, it is driven back from Warsaw.

VI German Korps, unable to maintain contact with XI US Corps to its northeast, abandons the defense of Tarnow, falling back westward as the only corps in Third German Army on the south/east bank of the Wisla. Troops of the 3rd Polish Army triumphantly enter the town, the first town of over 100,000 it has liberated from the Free Polish Congress.

The plan to support NATO resistance with Poland recaptured by Pact troops is amended to add support for Free Polish stay-behind units and pro-NATO partisans.

The America and John F Kennedy battle groups move cautiously north into the Ionian Sea, stretching the range of their attack aircraft to try to support the embattled Jugoslav resistance over Croatia.

The arrival of the 205th Guards Motor-Rifle Regiment, 70th Guards Motor-Rifle Division opposite Romanian lines east of Bucharest is an ominous development, for the veteran Soviet unit is the first from the 13th Army to arrive in the Balkan theater from China.

The Soviet 1st Guards Army makes progress into the Carpathians, capturing the oil refinery at Onesti, aided by a tactical nuclear strike on the headquarters of the Romanian 2nd Mountain Brigade, which falls back in disarray into the mountains overhead.

In Pristina, capital of the Serbian province of Kosovo, the recently activated Territorial Defense militia, composed almost entirely of ethnic Serbs, breaks up a minor demonstration by ethnic Albanian students, who are agitating to be armed as well, wanting to do their part to defend their nation.

Italian troops in Croatia approach the outskirts of the Croatian capital of Zagreb and begin long-range shelling of the city, inducing a panic among the city's civilians.

The Iranian 42nd Tactical Fighter Squadron, part of the 41st Wing, which received its F-20s in March, is down to three operable aircraft. It transfers those aircraft to its sister 41st Tactical Fighter Squaadron, along with its remaining six trained pilots and experienced ground crew, and temporarily disbands, as the flow of replacement aircraft from the US is insufficient to keep up with the Iranian Air Force's losses.

As 1st Marine Division covers more ground heading south, the rest of I MEF is able to provide more support. Battalions of the 4th Marine Division and the British 27 Brigade launch local attacks to tie down the 201st Motor-Rifle Division, while the 48th Infantry Brigade (Georgia National Guard) prepares for an armored dash to link up with the isolated marines. Marine Corps aviation and the shore-based air wing from the carrier Independence provide support, while more helicopters are in range of the Bandar Abbas perimeter, allowing more fuel to be flown in to the 1st Division and excess troops evacauted on the return flights.

The US Air Force flies another Golden Spike sortie against the Trans-Siberian Railroad. This one crosses into the USSR over the Arctic and, failing to locate any troop trains or rail-mobile ICBMs, departs over the Mongolian border, striking four air defense sites as it goes.
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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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