The Rich Five aka The Kentucky Free State

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The SSF-A continues its policy of construction of twelve auxiliary fields that, once completed, will allow for greater flexibility in its flight operations. It is intended to provide a Maintenance Flight, a Support Flight and a Ground Defense Flight for each of the auxiliary strips. This, needless to say, is running into a great deal of resistance from Council Member Madsen Wilson Kirby III. Also facing serious opposition from the Council Member are expansion plans to build two new air fields, along with the personnel and equipment to man them.

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The SSF-A maintains two Air Bases, each os responsible for the air space within its sector.

Each Base controls two Air Fields. Squadrons are normally assigned to a specific Base or Field.

Social Security Forces-Air Division Base David A. Hunter (Danville, KY). This is the headquarters of the SSF-A and is under the personal command of the Air Force Chief of Staff. Hunter Air Base is responsible for all flight operations within the eastern Free State. Assigned to Hunter Air Base are the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Fighter, the 17th and 18th Bombardment, 21st Ground Assault and the 23rd, 24th and 25th Transport Squadrons.

Social Security Forces-Air Division Field Phillip T. Studebaker (Cynthiana, KY). This field is responsible for flight operations in the northeastern sector of the Free State. Assigned to Studebaker Field are the 13th and 14th Fighter and 30th Transport Squadrons.

Social Security Forces-Air Division Field William B. Kirby (Murfreesboro, TN). This field is responsible for flight operations in the southeastern sector of the Free State. Kirby Field has the 11th and 12th Fighter and 31st Transport Squadrons.

Social Security Forces-Air Division Base Arnold F. Carswell (Russelville, KY). Carswell Air Base is responsible for flight operations within the western Free State. Assigned to Caswell Base are the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th Fighter, 19th and 20th Bombardment, 22nd Ground Assault and 26, 27th and 28th Transport Squadrons.

Social Security Forces-Air Division Field William O. MacKinnon (Louisville, KY). This field is responsible for flight operations in the northwestern sectro of teh Free State. Squadrons assigned to MacKinnon Field include the 15th and 16th Fighter and 32nd Transport.

Social Security Forces-Air Division Field Victor W. Getter (Jackson, TN). This field is responsible for flight operations in the southwestern sectot of the Free State. Assigned to Getter Field are the 9th and 10th Fighter and 29th Transport Squadrons.

Each Air Base has a Maintenacne Squadron (of four 250-man Flights), a Support Squadron (of four 250 man Flights) and a Base Defense Squadron consisting of four Ground Defense Flights (each organized as a standard infantry company) and two Air Defense Flights (each with 142 men equipped with 12 M-55 Quad .50-caliber machineguns mounts) and a Headquarters Flight (180 men).

Each Air Field has a Headquarters Flight (110 men), a Maintenance Squadron (of two 150-man flights), a Support Squadron (of three 150 man flights) and a Base Defense Squadron of two Ground Defence and one Air Defence flights).

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The Social Security Forces-Water Division is responsible for patrol duties and maintaining traffic on the Ohio, Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers. Numerically, it is the smallest of the three Divisions, fielding some one hundred and seventy patrol boats, some forty tugs and over three hundred barages plus supporting staff. Two Marine Regiments (same organization and equipments as a SSF-L Infantry Regiment) are available for amphibious operations.

The SSF-W currently has three classes of patrol craft.

The Mackinaw-class is a 14 displacement ton vessel equipped with two twin .50-caliber machineguns (fore and aft). It is capable of a top speed of 20 knots, a range of 300 miles and a crew of 7. This is the main patrol craft with over 65 in service.

The sixty Hawkins-class patrol boats are designed for use in shallow waters. It displaces 9 tons, has a top speed of 14 knots and a range of 200 miles. It has a five crew and is armed with a single twin .50-caliber machine gun mount forward and two single MG-3s aft.

The newest addition to the SSF-W is its five Crawford-class gunboats. These displace 28 tons and have atop speed of 24 knots, with a range of 300 miles and a crew of 18. It is armed with a 25mm autocannon forward and three twin .50-caliber machine guns (amidships and aft).

The Marine Regiments provide personnel to supplement the patrol boat crews, provide security for naval installations and provide customs patrols as well as performing their traditional infantry duties. Due to the nature of their duties, the Marines seldom operate in units of larger than company size.

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The SSF-W is continuning its program of conducting river surveys and clearing channels of debris. The resulting economic boom for the Free State has silenced, at least for now, Council Member Madsen Wilson Kirby III's opposition to any military expansion (at least for the Water Division).

Plans are in place to construct an additional fifteen units of the new Crawford-class gunboats as well as an additional forty units of the Mackinaw and Hawkins-class patrol boats.

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Social Security Forces-Water Division Base Henry K. Parker (Louisville, KY). Headquarters of the Water Division and home not only to the largest contingent of the Water Division but to Hunter Shipyards, the largest shipbuilding concern in the Free State. Parker naval base is responsible for all operation along the Ohio River (from Carrolton, KY) down to the Mississippi River. Units assigned to Parker Naval Base include:

1st Marine Regiment (-3rd & 4th Battalions)
Patrol Group One (PATGRP1)
Patrol Division One (Mackinaw-class): PG-01 Mackinaw; PG-02
Androscoggin; PG-03 Chatauqua; PG-04 Escanaba and PG-05 Iroquois.
Patrol Division Two (Mackinaw-class): PG-41 Unalga; PG-42 Pamlico; PG-43
Argo; PG-44 Ariadne; PG-45 Atalanta.
Patrol Division Three (Crawford-class): PG-126 Crawford; PG-127 Kimball;
PG-128 Legare; PG-129 Marion; PG-130 Pulaski.
Patrol Division Four (Hawkins-class): PG-66 Harold Allen; PG-67 Edward
Angel; PG-68 Kelly Baggs; PG-69 Edward Barnes; PG-70 James Beecher.
Patrol Division Five (Hawkins-class): PG-81 Joe Griffin; PG-82 Ashley Hicks;
PG-83 Robert Jennings; PG-84 John King; PG-85 Raymond Larsen.

Social Security Forces-Water Division Base Allan C. MacLean (Maysville, KY). Units stationed at this base are responsible for all naval activities along the Ohio River (from Carrollton, KY to Huntington, WV). A major coal terminal is also located here and the craft of PATGRP2 are often assigned convoy duty for coal barges heading downstream.

3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment
Patrol Group Two (PATGRP2)
Patrol Division Six (Mackinaw-class): PG-06 Klamath; PG-07 Mendota;
PG-08 Minnetonka; PG-09 Owasco; PG-10 Pontchartrain.
Patrol Division Seven (Mackinaw-class): PG-51 Galatea; PG-52 Hermes;
PG-53 Icarus; PG-54 Nemesis; PG-55 Nike.
Patrol Division Eight (Hawkins-class): PG-91 John Nix; PG-92 Robert
Pearson; PG-93 John Russell; PG-94 George Stockley; PG-95 John Toon.
Patrol Division Nine (Hawkins-class): PG-101 Samuel Cone; PG-102
Alexander Donovan; PG-103 James Green; PG-104 Ray Hood; PG-105
John Kerns.

Social Security Forces-Water Division Base Ryan V. Hawkins (Hickman, KY). Units assigned to this base are responsible for all naval activities along the Mississippi River (from Wickliffe, KY to Memphis, TN). Units from this base are responsible for conducting a blockade of Memphis in support of Land Division Operations against the Kingdom of Memphis.

4th Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment
Patrol Group Three (PATGRP3)
Patrol Division Ten (Mackinaw-class): PG-11 Sebago; PG-12 Wachusett;
PG-13 Winnebago; PG-14 Winona; PG-15 Storts.
Patrol Division Eleven (Mackinaw-class): PG-31 Nourmahal; PG-32
Shawnee; PG-33 Haida; PG-34 Modoc; PG-35 Mojave.
Patrol Division Twelve (Mackinaw-class): PG-56 Pandora; PG-57 Perseus;
PG-58 Thetis; PG-59 Triton; PG-60 Active.
Patrol Division Thirteen (Hawkins-class): PG-86 William McCall; PG-87
Frederick Metcalf; PG-88 Edward Miller; PG-89 William Moore; PG-90
James Nelson.
Patrol Division Fourteen (Hawkins-class): PG-111 Kenneth Moore; PG-112
Charles Bryant; PG-113 William Nugent; PG-114 William Pallesen; PG-115
Melvin Parr.

Social Security Forces-Water Division Base William F. Gunston (Savannah, TN). Units assigned to this base are responsible for all naval activities along the Tennessee River (from Riverton, AL up to Perryville, TN).

2nd Marine Regiment (-2nd & 4th Battalions)
Patrol Group Four (PATGRP4)
Patrol Division Fifteen (Mackinaw-class): PG 16 Campbell; PG-17 Duane;
PG-18 Ingham; PG-19 Taney; PG-20 Spencer.
Patrol Division Sixteen (Mackinaw-class): PG-46 Aurora; PG-47 Calypso;
PG-48 Cyane; PG-49 Daphne; PG-50 Dione.
Patrol Division Seventeen (Mackinaw-class): PG-61 Agassiz; PG-62 Alert;
PG-63 Bonham; PG-64 Boutwell; PG-65 Cahoone.
Patrol Division Eighteen (Hawkins-class): PG-71 John Bevon; PG-72 Harold
Book; PG-73 Arthur Cantrall; PG-74 George Clark; PG-75 Julius Cotton.
Patrol Division Nineteen (Hawkins-class): PG-106 Daniel Koontz; PG-107
Frank Lawson; PG-108 Wade McCoy; PG-109 William Mead; PG-110
Kenneth Merrill.

Social Security Forces-Water Division Base James F. Cocksure (McKinnon, TN). Units assigned to this base are responsible for all naval activities along the Tennessee River (from Camden, TN to Paducah, KY). Since this area is well within the borders of the Free State, Cocksure Base is used to provide training and refitting of units from other bases.

2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment
Patrol Group Five (PATGRP5)
Patrol Division Twenty (Mackinaw-class): PG-21 Bibb; PG-22 Algonquin;
PG-23 Comanche; PG-24 Mohawk; PG-25 Onondaga.
Patrol Division Twenty One (Mackinaw-class): PG-36 Tampa; PG-37
Carrabasset; PG-38 Kickapoo; PG-39 Ossipee; PG-40 Tallapoosa.
Patrol Division Twenty Two (Hawkins-class): PG-116 John Plumb; PG-117
Donald Roberts; PG-118 Gordon Ruth; PG-119 Kenneth Seaton; PG-120
Charles Selby.
Patrol Division Twenty Three (Hawkins): PG-121 Howard Thomas; PG-122
Dean Voight; PG-123 Harry White; PG-124 Dean Winters; PG-125 Joseph
Woodford.

Social Security Forces- Water Division Base George S. Weber (Tuscumbia, AL). Units assigned are responsible for all naval activities along the Tennessee River (from Riverton, AL to Decatur, AL). Currently Patrol Group Six is operating closely with SSF-L units of Military Region Fox in operations against resistance to Free State rule in the area. The commandant of the base, Commander Neal Prescott, is conducting a series of operations with the goal of clearing the approaches to as well as the body of Guntersville Lake. Numerous ambushes by locals, however, have cause heavy damage to several of his vessels. Plans are underway to reinforce his command with Patrol Divisions Twenty and Twenty Two.

4th Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment
Patrol Group Six (PATGRP6)
Patrol Division Twenty Four (Mackinaw): PG-26 Tahoma; PG-27 Champlain;
PG-28 Itasca; PG-29 Mocoma; PG-30 Sebec.
Patrol Division Twenty Five (Hawkins-class): PG-76 James Davis; PG-77
Adam Dinges; PG-78 Philip Evan; PG-79 James Faulkner; PG-80 William
Gallagher.
Patrol Division Twenty Six (Hawkins): PG-96 Peter Wilson; PG-97 Robert
Allard; PG-98 Dean Brown; PG-99 Walter Carroll; PG-100 James Casey.

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WARNING! The following aspects of my background on the Free State are intended for gaming purposes only! By no means do they reflect my own viewpoints but rather reflect the twisted extreme values that help make the KFS such wonderfully evil villains….material is based on New America from the T2K system as well as several ultra-national groups....

Philosophies
The Free State believes in the “natural and inherent superiority” of whites over all other races and in people of Northern European descent over all other whites. As well as their fanatical belief in the racial inferiority of Semitics, Negroes, Slavs and Orientals as well as those subscribing to any religious beliefs other than tat of the Aryan Church of God, the Righteous Arm of Heaven or the Church of the Chosen. All are outwardly conservative Christian in appearance, but with the embellishment of a number of nonstandard doctrines. A common theme among, for example, is that Christ was not divine, but rather, a popular revolutionary, the victim of political expediency and collusion between Jews and their Roman governors, who won divinity by giving his life for the cause. In addition, a variety of bizarre notions are part of this faith, among them, the idea that England and not Israel is the Promised Land described in the Bible, and that therefore, the British and not the Jews are the chosen people. And concluding with the belief that the modern identification of Israel as the Promised Land and the Jews as God’s Chosen are all part of a heinous plot perpetrated by a worldwide cabal of socialists and liberals designed to lead true Christians astray.

The core of Free State ideology is the belief that certain individuals, the so-called “Natural Aristocracy” are superior to other racial, social or economic groups. The Free State government has never made a public announcement of what determines who is a Natural Aristocrat. In fact, only the Committee of Five determines who is a Natural Aristocrat. As a result, a complicated tier system of classification is maintained, and a citizen’s rights under the government depend upon how they are classified.

Another important feature of the Free State is its belief that all aspects of life must be under rigid control. The economy must be carefully managed in order to prevent inflation and unemployment. Morality must be controlled in order to prevent moral decline from setting in. Science must be controlled in order to prevent another worldwide disaster from occurring. Seconds and Thirds (those enjoying only partial Free State citizenship) must be controlled because they are incapable of controlling themselves. Education, religion, marriage---all must be controlled by the Free State in order to produce more Natural Aristocrats. With this in mind, the higher officials of the Free State are encouraged to maintain several wives, since their superior genes must be passed on to as many descendants as possible in order to maintain the advancement of the Race.

The Hierarchy of the Free State
Of course, only Natural Aristocrats can occupy all senior executive and leadership positions within the Free State. It is believed that only Natural Aristocrats can be advanced beyond the 30th Tier, although the exact criteria is known only to the Committee of Five. The benefits of full citizenship, including trial by a jury of peers and the privilege of facing one’s accusers; of voting; of free choice in marriage and other matters; and of writing and implementing laws, are reserved solely for the Natural Aristocrats.

In a semantic tangle worthy of Orwell’s “Newspeak,” “Citizens” do not exercise full citizenship, but they do occupy the bulk of positions, including low-level and mid-level executive positions below that of the 30th Tier. A Natural Aristocrat board must approve marriages and rights can be arbitrarily suspended or modified by their fiat.

Below the Citizens are the “Seconds” and “Thirds.” These people have few rights, although it is possible for hard-working and loyal Seconds to become Citizens and for Thirds to become Seconds. The Free State openly acknowledges the dangers of establishing a completely static, caste-bound social structure, or one in which there is no personal advantage to working for the State. Advancement within the system is, however, slow and subject to bureaucratic red tape and inconsistencies and increasingly dominated by wealth and politics the higher one climbs within the hierarchy. Strangely, advancement in the ranks for the selected Negroes, Orientals and Hispanics is fairly rapid until the 10th Tier or so is reached, then promotion slows to a near standstill. Some misguided people will claim that this selected advancement is only a sop to keep these minorities quiet. However, the Social Security Service proudly claims that this is “merely a statistical fluke” and that their “complex and rigorous scientific testing insures that all will rise to the limit of their natural abilities.”

Finally, there are the Long Contract Laborers, the Free State’s ultimate solution both to unemployment and to the chronic need for cheap, ready labor. Long Contract Laborers, “LCs” or “Elsies” have no rights whatsoever, and exist at the whim of the Natural Aristocrat leadership. They live in camps under the direction of mid-level directors, who are backed by armed Social Security Service troops and provide a ready labor pool for construction or civic projects. They are a convenient dumping ground for undesirables such as political enemies and dissidents, criminals, itinerants and the unemployed, as well as the random victims of Social Security Services sweeps through the minority cantonments. The official position of the Elsies is that of “wards of the state” and a detailed public misinformation program argues that the Elsies are given productive work, adequate clothing, food, shelter and medical care which they would be unable to provide for themselves in these troubles times. In fact, the Elsies are slaves in all but name and hundreds of thousands of innocents have vanished into the Free State Long Contract Laborer Camps over the years, never to be seen again.

Goals
The goals of the Free State can be summed up in two words: Controlled Change. The citizens of the Free State believe that the pre-war United States was completely out of control by the time of the Final War. Drug addiction, crime, homosexuality, capitalism, rampant liberal-socialism, outright communism, general anarchy and total chaos were running roughshod over “traditional American values.” The Free State believes that society must be controlled because most of humanity is inherently unable to control its own baser emotions or to govern itself.

The Free State has formulated an elaborate pseudo-scientific racial classification system based on the alleged superiority of certain traits in those people it terms “Natural Aristocrats.” This is not racist, but merely a scientific classification system based upon intelligence tests and genetic examinations is the Free State’s claim. And, of course, it is “purely statistic coincidence” that the natural Aristocrat genes manifest themselves most often in white, Northern German, Scandinavian or English males.

The Free State’s out right hatred of Communists, Socialists, Liberals, Pacifists, Homosexuals as well as Drug Addicts, Hedonists, Hare Krishnas, Scientologists, Seventh Day Adventists, Mormons, Roman Catholics, most Protestant denominations, Feminists, Welfare Mothers and a host of other untouchables would keep a legion of psychoanalysts busy for decades. Their thinking is not original, it is nothing more than the philosophy of the 19th Century elitist/eugenicist movements recycled with new jargon.

While professing such profound dislikes might have been regard with bemused tolerance by their fellow citizens before the war, the horrendous situations brought about by the nuclear exchange has ensured that the Free State has become the very model of the new “American” way of life.

The Free State has no intention of senselessly weakening themselves in protracted, overt wards of extermination. They have instead adopted the modest goal of combining a declining “inferior” birth rate with casualties taken by its “heroic Thirds” on behalf of a society bent upon bringing all freedoms and all citizens under their own control. In this respect, the Free State is far more heinous than Hitler’s Germany.

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Foreign and Internal Policies
The Committee of Five has two separate policies: one for internal political action within their immediate zone of control, and a second, “foreign policy” for dealing with less immediate threats within the larger theater of operations.

The combined effort can best be summed up as “keep potential adversaries occupied with a variety of divide and conquer tactics while bringing the maximum possible force to bear against those threatening the immediate zone of local control.” The external threats are, for the most part, dealt with via covert agents, subverting local democracies and supporting the major substructures of the various warlords who have risen since the war. In a surprising, even breathtaking, radical policy, the Free State allied itself with the minorities for the purpose of exploiting their large manpower pool in order to seal off the borders of the Free State from interference. While the very notion of treating with these “inferior people” would seem to be highly unorthodox to the Free State’s founders, the ability to secure the Free State in the aftermath of nuclear war by the act of allying themselves with the various minorities with complete confidence in their devotion allowed the Free State the ability to operate freely and securely. In the one hundred and forty years since this policy was started, this confidence has been absolutely justified. The result is that during the critical early years, any power hostile to the Free State, and any criminal trying to escape Free State justice, had to pass through territory where the local population supported the Free State.

This foreign policy is run almost completely by the Social Security Service. Their handpicked agents keep the barbarians off the doorstep of the Free State. These agents are some of the brightest, most self-sufficient and resourceful operatives ever to practice the ancient crafts of murder, blackmail and bribery. Publicly, the Free State maintains the image of a kindly and efficient group of modern-day Zionists, laboring to build a new life out of the ruins of a post-nuclear America. Social Action Projects such as building sewage treatment plants, drilling a new water well, building a rural electrical power plant, building schools and churches are broadcast proudly to all, thus demonstrating to all, the high moral and ethical position of the Free State. Meanwhile, its agents conduct a brutal foreign policy that out-cheats, out-bribes, out-assassinated and out-manipulates anything that ancient Constantinople ever did to create the modern meaning of “Byzantine Intrigues.”

The Social Security Service maintains a network of agents that covers much of the Eastern and Midwestern United States. Their operations range from supporting a bandit kingdom on the shores of Lake Michigan, to a quasi-military pirate empire in New England. The SSS supports both sides in a bloody and bitter mini-civil war in Virginia and has people in Iowa eating their own belts and shoe leather in order to survive.

Internal policy is equally convoluted. The Free State is run like a cross between an armed kibbutz and a fundamentalist revival retreat. Everywhere that one goes within the Free State, one sees happy faces and busy hands, all working at feeding society, keeping it clothed, educating the young, maintaining the vital community facilities and meeting, classifying and integrating all new comers into what appears to be a strict, but reasonably fair and efficient society. There are no gas chambers, no concentration camps and no downtrodden masses of brutally oppressed slave races. Free State society projects a rather martial, but not a draconian regimented air of people, “forced by the harsh necessities of the world they find themselves in, to take up arms and protect what they have labored to build here by the honest sweat of their brows…etc…etc…etc.” If portions of the Free State seem a little biased or unfair, the fault, if there is one, lies with the current times, not the present government, which is “obviously doing the very best it can under trying circumstances.” As far as such things as racial animosities and crime go, prewar America should have had it so good. This is not Heaven on Earth, and the Millennium has come and gone without bringing a deliverer. But until Christ can get around to it, the Free State Committee of Five seems to be doing just fine by the citizenry, and they are giving this new nation a really good running try at being, if not paradise, at least not a living hell either. “Now, if only our neighbors could see things more reasonably.”

While shortages, hard work and even the minor stubs that occasionally gum up the government bureaucracy may provide a sticking point in the craw of most residents, it is obvious to most people who live here (and they will tell you so) that this is a great place to live and to raise a family. It would be an even better place if it weren’t for the intransigence of the (fill in the blank with the name of the current enemy)---”that slimy and unspeakable pack of low-down curs, who continue to resist those kindly folk who govern this great Free State.” The heartbreak, the grief, the genuine sorrow, and the pity of the Committee over the losses suffered by heroic boys who are fighting this hateful war is such a terrible thing to see that no one could possibly doubt that they have ending it and bringing peace as their up-most goal. “But it’s those lowlifes in (name the current location undergoing the Free State’s intentions) who’ve brought this grief and suffering down on us common folk. And don’t ever forget that everybody suffers when those murdering Morrow terrorists attack the citizens and other residents of this great community.”

And so the propaganda goes…