West Point

[kato13]

DeaconR 11-14-2005, 08:38 AM I can't seem to find any details about the fate of the West Point military academy. There are some about Annapolis, the Coast Guard academy and the US Air Force Academy but none about West Point.


Incidentally, I am also somewhat wondering about all the state military colleges as well, though I've generally decided that in the areas that had an overwhelming need they would have been incorporated into the local structure to some extent, particularly the older cadets as per "Rifle River" and descriptions of the units in Colorado.

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DeaconR 11-14-2005, 10:33 PM This is what I've come up with as a possible fate for West Point, and I'm curious to see what others might think.


The last class of West Point to actually graduate in the formal sense is the class of 1997. Following this, overwhelming national emergency requires the regional military authorities to call upon all those capable of rendering assistance to do so.


In the aftermath of the death of the last person in formal succession to the presidency and in the near chaos that follows, some cadets have become casualties in the troubles, some have left to return to their homes, some nearer completion of their training have found themselves filling the gap and sent immediately to help form the divisions formed in 1998-99.


Of the cadets who remain along with staff and members of the 1-1 Infantry Battalion there are 1200 left. They have chosen to do their duty and help police the area they are in, but they are a long way from any stable areas or large military units, and talk of evacuation ended up just being talk.


Most of their weapons consist of M14s and M1 Garands, though they have some heavy weapons such as mortars and grenades available. For vehicles they mostly have trucks, Humvees and assorted civilian vehicles, though fuel is scarce.


The Superintendant of Cadets, a Lieutenant-General who formerly commanded the 101st Airborne Division felt that his responsibility was to the town, academy and garrison of West Point.


Food is a major problem here as it is nearly everywhere on the East Coast, and they may at last have to contemplate evacuation.

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firewalker 11-15-2005, 12:04 AM i like that and think it's vary possible, how far have you gotten on detailing the surrounding arya? a farley large at lest sim legit met group armed at lest as well as most marauders, not a bad start for a new micro nation.


the commander and his cadet's transform easily into a warlord and his soldiers. i mean that in a good way because over time warlord=just lord and soldiers=knights, assuming he and his men are going to be "good" rulers.


agine assuming a time line were civilization spends a little more time sliding down before it starts back up.

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DeaconR 11-15-2005, 12:38 AM I'm still working on the surrounding area, so more on that later. However as far as I can figure right now that area of New York is generally devastated/anarchy/insular by that time, due to the sheer numbers of refugees fleeing the destruction and collapse of authority in the greater New York City area.

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thefusilier 11-15-2005, 05:16 AM I liked the idea of a number of them filling in the divisions after the strikes... seems to help organizing the training divisions into "infantry" units. I had a number of them returning to their homes but this one is a good addition.


Personally I have them in place, holding West Point and the local area. The first big test was dealing with the refugees and now that the large scale population movements are pretty much finished, food is the mission. I don't have them going rogue or warlord style, more of a "still loyal to someone" attittude but not really sure who, (now that 1st US Army pretty much broke up). I thought about having them in radio contact with either New Jersey (78th) or 1st Army HQ in Virginia but haven't decided. I had their strength at 500 but since I lack an important bit of information that leads me to my question...



How many cadets are in West Point at any given time? I figure with the war there would be an increase, but any figures?

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DeaconR 11-15-2005, 08:41 AM There are normally 4000 cadets at West Point. They are broken down as follows:

The whole body of cadets are the cadet brigade. There are 4 regiments, 8 battalions, 32 companies and 112 platoons.

The following are the general groupings of regular army personnel attached to West Point.


1. Brigade Tactical Department. These are officers and NCOs who inspect and assist the cadet units. So from the Colonel commanding the Tactical Department to 4 senior officers for the regiments, 8 middle ranking officers for the battalions, 32 captains or lieutenants for the companies and 112 NCOs for the platoons. This department is directly under the Commandant's office.


2. The faculty. (led by a Dean, usually a colonel or brigadier-general) Academics include: civil and mechanical engineering, behavior science and leadership, chemical and biological science, geological and environmental engineering, electrical engineering, computer sciences, english, foreign languages, history, law, mathematical sciences, law, social sciences, systems engineering. There are also such programs as a terrorism combat center, leadership and organization research, economic and manpower analysis, information technology and research. The Academy has an extensive library with an obvious focus on military activities but also references to all the academic subjects listed above. It also has an extensive map library. Generally I believe that having a well defended library with all this information would be very valuable.


3. The staff are led by a superintendant, who is usually a Lieutenant-general, as well as a Commandant of Cadets who is a Brigadier-General. While the Superintendant is in charge of the school and any military commands attached to West Point, the Commandant is directly in charge of the cadets' day to day discipline and the honor code of West Point. There are also a chief of staff, an adjutant-general, a dean of the academic college, a command sergeant major, a staff judge advocate, chaplain, inspector general and base surgeon.


4. I must add that those who are assigned to West Point would if they had families have them there with them. This would I believe be a strong factor in encouraging them to stay on even when there were no clear orders from above and everything was going to hell in a hand basket. All staff, faculty, attached military personnel MUST live on base. There is a military prep school associated with West Point as well as two Catholic schools which are not officially associated.


5. 1-1 Infantry Battalion. This is a support unit attached to West Point. It includes a headquarters company, an MP company, and the 2nd Aviation Detachment. It is commanded by a lieutenant-colonel.


6. Keller Army Community Hospital. This is a small but efficient hospital which services the local community as well as military personnel.


7. Local department of works: headed by a Director of Public Works at West Point, this government organization deals with everything from public engineering such as waterworks to appliances and utilities provided by the government. I think that this would be invaluable as well, having a government organization with direct responsibility to the military community. This makes it all the more likely that certain public utilities would still be functioning, albeit probably on a reduced level.


8. Department of Military Instruction. Director is a Colonel. This includes everything from warfare simulation to the military clubs including the parachute club, infantry club, weapons club, pistol team, cavalry scout club.

There are branching service officers who assist cadets in chosing their career, and instruction in tactics, leadership, and organization.

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Jason Weiser 11-15-2005, 07:24 PM My thoughts:


1. West Point is defensable (It was in the Revolution) and it'd be a good reason to stay.


2. The other reasons DeaconR mentioned work as well, as well as the Cadets themselves, there would be a lot of peer pressure to stay amongst the Cadets (Reference the movie "Taps" but on a more positive note.). I could see the other instutions having their able bodied men formed up with the Cadets providing the NCOs and Officer cadre, and the instructors becoming the senior leadership. Might manage to make a short, underequipped Brigade out of it.


3. Evacuation might become a real reality in 2001, and when that happens, routes west might include running into NA (Remember the Anarondiak cell?)


4. I think the academy might actually do two things once war breaks out. Class of 1997 graduates early and is in-processed to go to war. 1998 class is graduated in June of 1997 (Such things happened during WWII with all the academies shortening to three years and all of them doubling their class sizes). So, there could be as many as 6-8000 Cadets there.


5. Here is another thought...What about schools with large ROTC detachments? There's another source of militias, we have one at Fordham here (Part of the reason the NYC government controls the Bronx IMC) and there are other schools as well.

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pmulcahy 11-15-2005, 10:14 PM When I was in college ROTC (long story about why I didn't get a commission...), we were told that if the balloon went up, the following would happen:


MS IVs (Senior Year) would be immediately comissioned as second lieutenants, given sent to an abbreviated OBC (Officers' Basic Course) for whatever branch (branch here meaning branch of the Army, such as Infantry, MI, MPs, etc) were most needed at the time, and sent off to combat.


MS IIIs (Junior Year) would immediately be sent to a normal OBC for their branch and then sent to their units.


MS IIs (Sophomore Year), not being under contract to the US military yet, would be offered enlistment as E-5 sergeants, or (if a draft had been started) drafted as E-5 sergeants, given an abbreviated Basic Training, and sent to whatever branch and unit needed them the most.


MS Is (Freshman Year), also not yet under contract to military -- it would depend upon where they were in their Freshman year. They would be offerered/encouraged to enlist (or drafted if such were to occur) at ranks of either E-3 or E-4, given normal basic training, andd sent on their way.


I've always had in the timeline of my games that the last classes of ROTC and the Academies which had a full year was the class of 1996. The class of 1997 had a somewhat abbreviated year, and the fledgeling classes of 1998 ended up commisssioned as some of the greenest lieutenants ever to walk a battlefield. What would have been the classes of 1999 and 2000 were drafted as above, except that Basic Training in both cases was drastically abbreviated.

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DeaconR 11-16-2005, 02:16 AM Paul, how would you then respond to the fact that the US Coast Guard Academy and the US Air Force Academy cadets are formed into operational units in respectively Rhode Island and Colorado? I'm not disputing your idea which is frankly a route I'd recommend if people didn't want to detail every single military academy or ROTC program.


For my campaign, this what I'm picturing: that you'd have a group of young people in good shape, disciplined and already organized and led by professional officers and ncos. Why not simply put them directly to work as they are? Yes, in a sense it is a waste of potential leadership but if you are desperately trying to deal with riots, hordes of refugees and other disasters you might not have a lot of choice.


So far what I'm working out about the area surrounding them is this: as with the areas near New Jersey and Philadelphia, the smaller cities near New York City (Yonkers, Paterson, Newark, etc) are virtually abandoned save for a few thousand very wretched refugees in each. The smaller towns are abandoned, inhabited by other wretched refugees, by a hardy few able to raise food and grimly fortified against marauders, or by marauders who have settled down to become warlords if in some cases on a temporary basis.


My general sense of the campaign I'm doing which mostly takes place on the Eastern coastal region of the USA, basically from about Chesapeake Bay to southern Massachusetts is this:

There are a few islands of relative peace and order in the area but not many. I want to add West Point as one of these because it will serve as a good example of the need to remember that they should not forget the fate of those who live in the interior. I could I suppose use another group but I was uninspired for quite some time until I wondered about this one.


Also Kevin you pointed out a reason I forgot to mention before: the place itself is rather defensible.

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thefusilier 11-16-2005, 03:28 AM 3. Evacuation might become a real reality in 2001, and when that happens, routes west might include running into NA (Remember the Anarondiak cell?)


I don't remember that one from any of the books. Can you tell me about it?

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DeaconR 11-16-2005, 03:59 AM Me neither. I'd be interested in hearing about it if there is anything written about it. Otherwise "Howling Wilderness" states that there are a few farms remaining hidden in the Adirondacks. Are you perhaps thinking of the cells in the Smokey Mountains, or perhaps upstate New York around Lake Champlain?

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pmulcahy 11-16-2005, 12:45 PM Paul, how would you then respond to the fact that the US Coast Guard Academy and the US Air Force Academy cadets are formed into operational units in respectively Rhode Island and Colorado? I'm not disputing your idea which is frankly a route I'd recommend if people didn't want to detail every single military academy or ROTC program.


For my campaign, this what I'm picturing: that you'd have a group of young people in good shape, disciplined and already organized and led by professional officers and ncos. Why not simply put them directly to work as they are? Yes, in a sense it is a waste of potential leadership but if you are desperately trying to deal with riots, hordes of refugees and other disasters you might not have a lot of choice.


Actually, that's a good point, and I forgot about the AF Academy units. A compromise between your information and my campaign "canon" would be that the classes of 1999 and 2000 (and maybe 1998) would form these units at the Academies and some military schools and schools with ROTC departments. Or those units the cadets were sent off to after drafting or commissioning were in fact local units or other units in CONUS. (BTW, I don't know how Academy cadets are handled since they are under contract to the military from day one, or how shake-and-bakes are handled if they haven't finished OCS yet.)

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Jason Weiser 11-16-2005, 12:56 PM Also Kevin you pointed out a reason I forgot to mention before: the place itself is rather defensible.


Kevin, who's Kevin? :-)


Anyhow as for the Adarondaks, check out Howling Wilderness and the SITREP in Kidnapped.


Well, as I said, in WWII, classes continued, but were shortened to three years...aka Class of '43 graduates in '42 and so on, so the class of '45 made it in time for the latter end of the festivities. I do not suspect it's any different in Twilight. Also, they really threw open the doors of the Academies. Namely because they needed folks...class sizes doubled during WWII, and I suspect the academies prepared for that.

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DeaconR 11-16-2005, 01:29 PM I'm sorry but aren't you thinking of the Alleghenies and Appalachians? The Adirondacks are in northern New York.

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Jason Weiser 11-16-2005, 01:37 PM Nope,


Page 34 of Howling Wilderness, last sentence of top paragraph:




...but now that he [Hughes] is out of the picture, the Adiondack cells of New America will soon fall to infighting and will become easy targets of roving Marauder bands


Like I said, they're there....

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DeaconR 11-16-2005, 01:42 PM Interesting, thanks for that, somehow I overlooked it. Did you ever do any details about them? If I can't find any I may just transplant the situation described in "The Postman" for that.

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Jason Weiser 11-16-2005, 01:53 PM Me no, I usually ran adventures out of the published books, with some changes..but then again, I am looking to do Regional campaigns if I could find the right group...New York gamers for the most part equate Twilight 2000 with some sort of survivalist/militia/patriot thing that doesn't resonate with them....wait till they get a load of Armies of the Night. :-)

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DeaconR 11-16-2005, 02:29 PM I'd be interested in sharing ideas back and forth since my campaign is basically set on the Northeastern Coast. I have already run "Airlords of the Ozarks" and dabbled in "Urban Guerilla" but both of them have good ideas for making an New American cell up.


It's funny about stuff like that with people not getting what the game is about, I have to admit I kind of suckered my players into TW2000 by starting the campaign before the war. It's been going on for a few years actually.

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ReHerakhte 11-16-2005, 03:22 PM Hmmm....

Originally Posted by DeaconR

"Also Kevin you pointed out a reason I forgot to mention before: the place itself is rather defensible."


Wasn't me! :nono:

Jason is the provider of this information. :smile:


Cheers,

Kevin

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thefusilier 11-16-2005, 09:41 PM Nope,

Page 34 of Howling Wilderness, last sentence of top paragraph:

Like I said, they're there....


Oh ok. I knew about a northern New York cell, I thought near Fort Drum or so, I just never knew the name (or read it in Howling W. and forgot about it).


Thanks for clearing that up.

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