January 18, 1997
Nothing in the canon for today...
The FBI announces the establishment of sixteen regional internment centers for Warsaw Pact nationals.
The first units of the California and Texas State Defense Forces report for duty. The Hawaii State Guard is hastily formed from retired Hawaii National Guard officers and NCOs, prison guards, police officers and veterans, to patrol beaches and vital infrastructure on Oahu. Initially armed with rifles and shotguns taken from police armories (and suitable weapons taken from evidence rooms!), they were issued M14 rifles from federal stockpiles flown in from the mainland later in the month.
The last flight carrying the 25 ID(L) lands at Kimpo AB, Korea.
German territorials rush to border in Bavaria, trying to contain Pact offensive. Their deployment is slowed by fierce snowstorms, which also hamper the Pact advance, while shielding the attackers from Allied airpower.
The 72nd Naval Infantry Brigade is formed from personnel of the Severomorsk naval base outside Murmansk.
The Soviet destroyer Buliny, under the command of Captain 2nd Rank Mikhail Mischenko, sinks the Liberian-flagged containership Aramac with 130mm gunfire.
25 rioters are killed by Cyptiot Army troops, 18 Turks and 7 Greeks.
Soviet ASW aircraft locate the damaged American submarine Bluefish and maintain active pursuit for eight hours.
The last flight carrying troops of the 278 ACR arrives in the Netherlands.
Iranian National Security Force paramilitary troops arrest suspected Tudeh rebels attempting to hide in a southbound flow of refugees.
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The US Navy, alarmed at the continuing losses of merchantmen around the world, orders the establishment of light carrier forces to hunt down Soviet raiders, freeing more formidable units for front-line duty. The Essex-class fleet carriers Oriskany, Hancock and Bennington join their sister Lexington reactivating in shipyards. The Navy also takes custody of the light carrier Cabot, which it had decommissioned in 1955 and lent to Spain, which had returned it in 1989 and spent the intervening years in various ports in the Gulf Coast. All these reactivations would take months (at least) to complete, so as an interim measure several containerships were requisitioned and began conversion to sea control ships.
The aircraft to fly from these ships were to come from three sources. 44 AV-8C Harriers remained in storage in Arizona, alongside several dozen SH-3 helicopters and a smaller contingent of SH-2s. (Contracts were signed to quickly convert some of the SH-3s to EH-3I Airborne Early Warning aircraft, the American designation for the British Sea King AEW.5). T-2C armed trainers and various models of A-4 light attack aircraft were diverted from the Navy's shoreside training establishment, and T-45 trainers came from training units and from the production line in St. Louis, Missouri. Five Carrier Air Group headquarters, three Marine Scout-Bombing Squadrons and 30 Navy attack and helicopter squadrons were authorized to command this aerial armada.