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Originally Posted by Homer
Great work, and lots of research. Really enjoying this.
Did you move JRTC to Polk in your history? OTL the move out of Chaffee was a combo of a cost cutting measure, aggressive congressional efforts on the part of Louisiana to offset the closure of England AFB (23rd TFW, A-10A) and preserve Louisiana’s remaining military bases (NAS NOLA, NSA NOLA, Barksdale, Beauregard, LAAP, and Polk), and space made available by the deactivation of 5th ID. With England AFB presumably staying open (no “peace dividend”) and 5th ID filling the cantonment, training areas, and ranges on Fort Polk and Peason Ridge there may not have been the impetus to relocate.
One thing that may have happened with a continuing Soviet threat and military spending under the Strategic Homeport Program is the commissioning of NS Lake Charles in the early 90s. In reality, this project was abandoned in 1991. Unlike the bases in NOLA, NS Lake Charles may have been able to ride out the strikes in 1997, even though Lake Charles itself would burn from the Westlake strike.
Barksdale (2d BW, B-52G) wasn’t targeted and was a survivable distance from the strike on Shreveport and Beauregard is expressly mentioned in cannon as surviving. Holding these ports on the Red River of the South may help MILGOV secure a water linkage from LA to enclaves in AR, TN, OH, and OK post 1997.
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I'm glad people are enjoying this!
I actually had JRTC's running at both posts, with Polk being the primary prewar JRTC and Chaffee a war-emergency expansion, staffed by a National Guard Regional Training Institute as cadre. This was mirrored by the addition of two additional NTCs, at Yakima Training Center in Washington and Yuma Training Grounds in Arizona. These expansions allow nearly every reserve component brigade to get a rotation at one of the training centers before deploying, a lesson I imagine the Army may have learned from the Desert Shield mobilizations of roundout brigades.
Louisiana is going to be interesting! Between the strikes, Ft Polk, Barksdale and other military bases, the strategic waterway of the Mississippi, the hurriccane that swept through in 1998, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve sites and petroleum industry there's a lot going on!