1st US Army / XII Corps

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Originally Posted by Legbreaker

During the recovery period though, I rather doubt much effort would be put into maintaining the largely irrelevant units.

I concur completely. I've been thinking about events in New Mexico as they tie into the rest of the Southwest. Specifically, I foresee that many of the various specialized units and functions of the USAF in New Mexico will go by the wayside. Part of the reason is the obvious: the bases are overrrun by Mexican forces and the hordes streaming out of Albuquerque. Part of the reason is that many of the Air Force functions become moot after the Exchange. Relatively young and fit people who can march and use a rifle are needed at the front. During the course of the underdocumented fighting in southern New Mexico and the almost undocumented collapse of Albuquerque, the USAF presence in New Mexico is virtually wiped out. Cannon AFB survives and is an important bastion of MilGov power. Holloman AFB is destroyed during the 1998 campaign season, while Kirtland meets a fate remarkably like that of Luke AFB for about the same reasons.

The survivors of the significant USAF presence in New Mexico end up in a few locations. Some attach themselves to the so-called School Brigade as the brigade withdraws north. Some make their way west to Fort Huachuca. Some make their way east to Cannon AFB. Some never rejoin a larger unit and find their way among the surviving communities of central and northern New Mexico. A large of portion of this group end up being included in the defense force of Santa Fe, where the surviving government of the State of New Mexico still exists. Few of these people are doing the jobs for which they were trained, and fewer still are doing anything that could be called specific Air Force jobs.

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