[chico20854]

November 26, 1997

The Honorable Judge Patrick Mahan Warren, a respected judge and community leader in St. Petersburg, Florida (and secretly the New American Natural Aristocrat in charge of the St Petersburg cell since 1990) suffers a debilitating stroke and is incapacitated. His wife Augusta assumes her husband's covert duties.

Colonel Nikita Borisov, one of the newly arrived KGB agents, arrives in London. He kills a beggar, Damien Metcalfe, and takes on his identity

Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ships Mesa and Santa Ana Freedoms are delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi. (Nine sister ships will be abandoned in various stages of completion after Pascagoula is struck by Soviet nuclear weapons.)

The Red Oak Victory, veteran of three wars, is activated for a fourth in Oakland, California. It begins movement to Concord NWS to load ammunition.

The cargo ship Ruth is activated in Oakland and leaves for Long Beach to load troops.

Rainbow Six reports that the senior KGB agent in the UK, Colonel Mikhail Romanov, based in London, leaves the British capital, having been alerted to the impending Black Thursday nuclear strikes by a coded message from KGB Headquarters.

CVW-546's last A-4 squadron aboard the USS Oriskany launches a full-squadron mission, this one a firepower demonstration for visiting VIPs at Camp Pendleton. The Oriskany group commander receives word that the two of the original escorts identified for the group - the missile cruiser Little Rock (CLG-4) and destroyer Barry (DD-933) - will be indefinitely delayed due to shipyard overcrowding, and that the last escort, the destroyer Mullinix, will be delayed until February. The Navy will attempt to identify other ships that can be assigned to the group as they complete repairs at various shipyards.

A team from the 3rd Infantry Division picks up the four M-1A2D tanks at the Bielefeld transfer site and returns to the division rear area, where they are issued to the 4th Battalion, 69th Armor. Two of the M939 5-ton trucks are issued to the 28th Infantry Division's 28th Signal Battalion, twelve go to the 43rd Infantry Division and the last half dozen to the 107th Armored Cavalry Regiment. Supply officers are confounded by the Gama Goats, which were replaced by the HMMWV in the 1980s and are not on any unit's TOE.

The 24th Infantry Division in Iran is allocated the newly arrived recruits that were received on a charter 767 from Fort Benning, Georgia. The privates are rushed from Saudi Arabia to the front north of Bandar-e-Khomeyni, where the dazed soldiers are welcomed into squads of grizzled veterans.

The Belizian Defense Force group responding to the Guatemalan Marine landing divides into two groups. Two platoons make a cautious advance along the road south from Belize City and, not unexpectedly, run into a Guatemalan ambush, triggering an intense firefight. The firefight absorbs the Guatemalan commander's full attention, allowing the remainder of the Force, traveling overland through farms and jungle, to recapture the town of Dangriga and its tiny port. The second force gets tied up in fighting the Guatemalan patrol boats in the harbor, but the application of several LAW80s convinces the boats to depart. The Guatemalan marines are cut off, but hunker down in preparation for a bloody final stand.