CONUS Installations

[Homer]

(First thread- if this needs to be moved, consolidated, etc. my apologies in advance)

The conversation about Fort Hood got me thinking; how do you use the CONUS installations, less those destroyed in the exchange, overrun, or specifically abandoned, in your campaigns?

Cannon specifically mentions some, like Camp Beauregard, Fort Bragg, Moffett Field and USCG TRACEN Cape May as garrison or cantonment locations. There are others not mentioned that can be inferred to still be in use in some capacity because of operations ongoing in the general area, like Fort Sill or Little Rock AFB. Some, like NAS/JRB New Orleans or NS Mayport may have suffered damage from proximity to strikes or were in the fallout/TIC path of others. Finally, there are those that have likely been abandoned like the USCG facilities on Governors Island or ammunition storage and rework depots that have emptied or been idled.

The description of the strike on MacDill got me thinking about dependents, resources, and any remaining personnel.

Once an installation has deployed its material and ceased trading replacements, it would still have substantial residual value. Most are located in close proximity to at least one major transportation artery (interstate, rail, river, or port), have their own infrastructure to include repair and fabrication, and offer housing and medical facilities. While some large installations would be very difficult to secure in their entirety, most have relatively compact cantonment areas that could be defended by remaining forces. The truly indefensible, like NIMA St. Louis, may join the ranks of the evacuated and abandoned

Looking at what happens on unit deployments a number of dependents may have left for family as the war dragged on. Some may have left installations like bomber or SSBN bases which were likely nuclear targets. But others may have stayed, in part because of the relative stability offered on bases as things decline. Or they may have had ties to the local area and maintained their housing because they were already close to home, perhaps moving relatives into unused space as they could. Excess barracks, schools, gyms, etc would make great housing for evacuees, who may well fund themselves becoming conscripts as things continue.

In the downside, everyone else in the area would either know or assume that conditions on base were were better. While security forces may initially be hesitant to use deadly force to defend the perimeter, that will likely change as conditions get harsher. Last Submarine gives us the vignette of the New London base being overrun as its security force is overwhelmed by a mob after the rumor of food being on base is spread. Some installations would be easier to fortify against this (Portsmouth NSY is on a small island in a tidal estuary. Once the bridge is denied it’s pretty easy to control the approaches. I could see the real Constitution ending up here.) than others (good luck defending Fort McPherson).

In my construct, the remaining installations have become shadows of their former selves (where the shopettes are always out of dip!). Rather than the sprawling industrialized mega-bases of 1996 they’d fill a role more akin to frontier forts or medieval castles by providing a place for patrols and raiding forces operating to secure the local area to prepare and recover back to, waypoints in trading and supply routes, and islands of reasonable order where the vestiges of stability exist and local communities huddle close for protection.

Just my thoughts.

If anybody has dug into this or implemented it in a game I’d love to hear.

Thanks!