[chico20854]

December 17, 1997

At Fort Ritchie, Maryland, Commander Kearny is confirmed as an active-duty Naval officer and assigned to stand watch at the Alternative National Command Center at nearby Site R, Raven Rock.

Unofficially,

The French retaliate for the Soviet strikes on their refineries with the launch of three S3 IRBMs from their silos in southeastern France. Two of the missiles, with 1.2 MT warheads, hit Riga and Kishinev, while the third destroys the massive refinery complex in occupied Ploesti, Romania.

As part of the effort to cut the US off from fuel from its North American neighbors, the USSR intensifies its nuclear attacks on the Western Hemisphere's petroleum industry. Once again the Typhoon-class submarine Barrikada is ordered to launch six missiles at targets at various countries. One missile targets Texas, hitting refneries in El Paso, Borger and Sunray with a trio of 100-kiloton warheads at each (unofficially, the 10th MIRV strikes the large airfield at White Sands Missile Range, which the GRU suspects may harbor dispersed SAC bombers). One missile is aimed at Alberta's oil industry, depositing MIRVs along a 300-kilometer stretch from Edmonton to Calgary.

Two of Barrikada's missiles destroy the PEMEX refineries at Tula, Minatitlan, Cadereyta Jiménez, Salamanca, and Salina Cruz, destroying all of them, killing 260,000 and injuring 350,000 people in the process. The refinery at Ciudad Madero is spared when the guidance system on the warhead malfunctions causing it to explode 20 miles to the south, leaving the refinery intact.

In Colombia both the Barrancabermeja Refinery and the Cartagena Refinery are hit by two 100-kt warheads, causing over a half million casualties, sparking rioting and panic buying that rapidly spirals out of control. The Isla Refinery in Curacao is targeted as well by the Soviets. Newly arrived Patriot missile batteries shoot the 100-kiloton warhead down short of its target. The warhead salvage fuses and detonates, killing over 16,000 people and injuring another 47,000, overwhelming the ability of the hospitals to treat the injured. The magnetic pulse from the warhead detonation takes out power all over the island, completely shutting down the refinery and Hato Airport.

After Washington and Annapolis are hit by nuclear strikes, the Naval Academy is relocated to Newport, Rhode Island, home of the Naval War College and OCS program. With its combat-ready resources already stretched thin, the Navy assigns Coast Guard Commandant HoIsgirder the duty of providing local security and defense for the new Naval Academy. HoIsgirder welcomes the assignment; Newport is a perfect base of operations and very likely to last through the dark ages he sees on the horizon. He begins shifting his assets out of bases on Cape Cod and Maine, and reorganizing them into a full-time fighting force at Newport.

RainbowSix reports that the town of Hereford is destroyed by a Soviet nuclear missile. (Hereford has no major strategic targets, although it was the pre-war home of 22 Special Air Service Regiment, the British Army's Special Forces, however by this time virtually the entire Regiment is deployed on operations worldwide and only a few dozen personnel remain at Hereford, most of whom operate in a support role).

The American carriers Eisenhower and Theodore Roosevelt and their battle groups enter the Vestfjord off central Norway. As their escorts clear the area of enemy submarines, the force prepares to execute a number of nuclear strikes, which launch in the early evening. A ragged mix of F-14s, F/A-18s and F-4 fighters provide escort to the Soviet border for a trio of A-6F medium bombers, EA-6B jammers and KA-6D tankers, which refuel the bombers before turning back. The force overflies Norway, Sweden and Finland before crossing into the USSR, where the bombers split onto separate courses. One bomber attacks the submarine building yards at Severodvinsk while the other two hit a variety of targets in the nearby port city of Arkhangelsk. (The latter city had been targeted by British Tornados in June in the disastrous Operation Gabriel which saw the loss of 15 of the 20 bombers.) Two of the A-6s returned to the carriers, the last one simply disappearing in the Arctic night after dropping its B61 bombs.

SAC is ordered to eliminate the Soviets ability to launch further SS-18 missiles, following the previous day's SS-18 attack that ripped apart massive parts of the Chicago area. Two B-2 bombers, operating from the forward airbase in the Western Chinese desert (which the Soviets still have no idea exists), cross into the USSR and loiter some 150 kilometers away from the surviving SS-18 bases, at Kartaly in the southern Urals and Uzhur in eastern Siberia. Weaving between air defense radars, they each launch ten SRAM-II missiles, set for ground burst with their 200-kiloton warheads, at the regimental and divisional command posts of the 59th and 62nd Missile Divisions, respectively. As each bomber exits Soviet territory (flying across the North Pole, returning to dispersal bases in the Midwest), it expends its remaining six SRAMs against remaining operable SAM sites, air defense radars and air defense garrisons.

The flow of supplies to Soviet forces in the Balkans has slowed to a trickle as disorder convulses the USSR, disrupting production of war materiel and transportation through the Ukraine. Southwestern TVD pleads for more support from STAVKA, but is instead instructed to make do with what they can gather from the comparatively rich and undamaged lands they occupy.

The remnants of the Romanian and Jugoslav militaries (and the US 71st Airborne Brigade and 6th Special Forces Group) continue their active guerrilla campaigns against the Soviet occupiers, gaining valuable supplies in raids and ambushes while simultaneously making the occupiers' logistic situation worse.

TSgt Watson evades a group of LRA rebels seeking him out after his helicopter crashed in rough weather. He is unable to reestablish contact with the squadron's other rescue helicopter, which was sent to locate him.