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COLORADO
Despite the nuking of Denver, overall damage from radiation and famine was not as severe as other areas, and the state still has about 70 percent of its pre-war population. The rich mineral wealth of the Rocky Mountains, combined with a good agricultural base in both grain and livestock, has made Colorado a keystone for MilGov's recovery plans. As previously mentioned, the capital of MilGov is at Colorado Springs. Petroleum is available from the Wyoming shale deposits, minerals and coal are available in western Colorado, and agricultural land is available in eastern Colorado. Ranching land abounds for the remaining sheep and cattle, machine shops and other manufacturing facilities exist in the Colorado Springs-Pueblo protected area. With such a large population base, Colorado can provide recruits for the Army and specialists for many skilled tasks of the reconstruction effort. 1) NUCLEAR TARGETS Date Type Target 10/28/62 SS-7 Punkin Center 10/28/62 SS-7 Denver 10/28/62 SS-7 Denver 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES 5th Infantry Division (Mechanized)--Colorado Springs (9,770 men, 112 AFVs) ------1st Brigade (BDE HQ and rest of unit in Colorado Springs) ------------1st Battalion/11th Infantry Regiment--Louisville (400 men) ------------52nd Engineer Battalion--Louisville (200 men) ------------140th Signal Battalion--Louisville (45 men) ------------759th Military Police Battalion--Louisville (50 men) ------Cadet Brigade--Colorado Springs (800 men, 20 AFVs) ------Charlie Company, 5th Battlion/9th Special Forces Group (Training)--Colorado Springs (65 men) Battery P, 5/14th Marine Regiment--Lowry AFB (60 men) 143rd Signal Company--Grand Junction (100 men) 3) NORTHERN ROCKY MOUNTAINS Nearly two years of neglect, rain, snow and ice, and minor earth tremors have taken their toll on Interstate 70 west of Denver and the small towns and resorts located in this stretch of the Rockies. In many areas, the Interstate is buried below tons of rock and gravel from avalanches and rock slides, and in other areas the road is so badly cracked and broken it is all but impassable. Still, the interstate is in good condition for long stretches and is the artery that pumps trade into the area. Many of the small towns and resorts along the interstate are simply gone. Many were lost due to natural causes, such as mentioned above. Many more were destroyed during that first terrible year, as people fought each other and stripped the towns of everything useful. Many more of the towns did survive, these people shot first and asked questions later and strangers were not even given a chance to explain themselves. The People's Freedom Movement: Northern Colorado has always been known for large groups of well-armed citizens militia and survivalists. After the nukes fell, one of the most organized of these survivalist groups, known as the "People's Freedom Movement", began to mark off a section of the mountains of northern Colorado as their own territory. Today, the PFM's holdings cover an area roughly rectangular starting from the ruins of Kremmling at the intersection of highways 40 and 9, east to the ruins of Silver Creek which is at the intersection of Highways 40 and 125, then south east to Interstate 70, west along I-70 to the ruins of Dillon and Silverthrone at the intersection of I-70 and Highway 9, and finally all the way up Highway 9 back to Kremmling, completing the rectangle. They also control the Argo Mills mining site, just to the southeast of the intersection of I-70 and Highway 125. Because the Eisenhower Tunnel has long since collapsed (see below), the survivalists have found an alternate route on the old highway to the south of the tunnel. They patrol this area on a regular basis, usually on horseback. By 1964, the total number of survivalists in this area has grown to just over 2,500 men, women and children. Since the situation has stabilized, the PFM have begun to hire out their guns for a fee for hunting purposes, trader convoy escort, and as body guards. On top of this, many of the survivalists have become bounty hunters, traveling all over Colorado and the surrounding states, bringing criminals, murderers, thieves, rapists, and other scum to justice or death, with the MilGov enclaves offering much of the bounty. The PFM have built quite a reputation for themselves as being not only tough, but highly dependable and trustworthy. The Eisenhower Tunnel: Seismic events following the bombing of Denver caused rockslides to block off both ends of the Eisenhower Tunnel, trapping several hundred fleeing motorists inside. Once they calmed down and dug a way out, they realized that the tunnel provided a strong defensible home in a newly unsafe world. The motorists were from all walks of life and the combination helped to form a core of strong leaders. Today the "tunnel community" is vibrant and growing, and they jealously guard their secrecy. 4) CENTRAL ROCKY MOUNTAINS To the south of the area controlled by the survivalists, there is only violence and death. Many of the scattered mountain towns that run down the spine of the Rocky Mountains are either deserted and looted or under marauder control. The extremely rugged mountains and rocky ravines of the area help preserve the isolation of most of the surviving communities. Buena Vista: Home to a hundred or so marauder bikers armed with handguns and rifles. They have many slaves held here and the municipal airport nearby has been looted, and the few planes left in the hangers destroyed. Aspen: An island of safety here, the former ski Mecca of Aspen is home now to an isolationist community that has posted the roads into town as dangerous for strangers and have the armed muscle to back up the threats. The militia is led by Colonel Wheelock of the Colorado National Guard. There are roving bands of marauder scum in these parts and they have attacked the town six times already this year. These renegades are not well-armed and mostly horse-mounted. 5) DENVER The War: During the night of October 28, 1962, the once lovely city of Denver was pounded into ashes by two 6 megaton warheads atop two Russian SS-7 ICBMs fired from the same complex in Siberia. The first was aimed at the state capital building but low-air burst over Commerce City in the northern part of the metroplex, obliterating a large swath of the area and laying a heavy pall of fallout over the eastern part of the city. The second missile aimed at Lowry Air Force Base missed and ground burst on the Cherry Creek Dam in the southeast part of the city. In a microsecond, hundreds of thousands of lives were snuffed out. The city was pretty well rubbled by the twin firestorms and shocks as far south as Littleton and Southwood. The blast-mirror effects of the mountains to the west hadn't helped matters any. Moreover, it had been raining on the night of the strikes and the bombs had gone off under the clouds, which meant that the thermal flashes had been intensified, though there had been fewer fires with the rain. The strong winds served to spread the fallout around, blowing most of it in a wide rooster tail extending east-southeast away from the city. About a million people were dead within two weeks. Denver today: The inner core is still deserted except for scattered scavengers digging out canned foods and killing each other over them and the area is rife with cholera, typhus, and plague. Some suburbs are better off, having some degree of stability and protection from Army units, while others are dangerous and violent. The Cherry Creek crater is still a yawning blackness of vitrified slag a thousand feet across and two hundred feet deep. The US military in Denver: Since returning to the city in force in late 1963, the military has done a number of small things, and is planning in the next year to do great things, including reopening the Federal Mint, working on radiation cleanup, and opening at least three new power plants (mostly burning trash) to allow surviving factories in the Denver area to began to put out limited products again. At this time, however, the military presence in the city is limited to enclaves in Louisville and at Lowry AFB. Downtown Denver: A group of some 300 former citizens have reoccupied the old State Capital building and are beginning the arduous task of rebuilding their shattered city on their own. They might not survive the winter. Northern Denver suburbs: The northern suburb of Louisville is now home of a US Army enclave called "Fort Gamble". The main muscle of the garrison is the 400 men of the 1st Battalion/11th Infantry Regiment, detached from the 5th Infantry Division's 1st Brigade. Other units here include the 52nd Engineer Battalion (200 men), the 140th Signal Battalion (45 men), and the 759th Military Police Battalion (50 men), all subornate to the 1st Brigade's HQ in Colorado Springs. Eastern Denver suburbs: In Aurora, the scavengers are actively fighting each other over salvage rights with firearms and homemade bombs. At Lowry Air Force Base in eastern Aurora are some US Air Force specialists salvaging the airbase. They are protected by the 60 men of Battery P of the 5th Battalion/14th Marine Regiment. These are the only US Marine Corps soldiers in Colorado and there is a lot of curiosity why they are here in the blasted suburbs of Denver and not south in Colorado Springs. General LeMay has a well-known anti-Marine bias. The Air Force personnel here are currently refitting a civilian Starliner airliner that was recovered intact from Lowry, scavenging parts from other wrecked planes and cutting out the windows to mount machine guns. Wrecked planes are plentiful at the AFB, row after row of them sit rusting, victims of EMP and radioactive fallout. Lowry's long-empty Titan I missile complex is located approximately 15 miles southeast of Denver, in Arapahoe County. These silos are next to be stripped. Western Denver suburbs: In Lakewood is the huge Denver Federal Center, now occupied by the zealots of the "Church of the New Dispensation", who took over the abandoned building in early 1963. There is no electricity, with light in the complex coming from kerosene lamps, and the treatment plants are all gone but there is water from reservoirs and a food stockpile. The several hundred zealots here are earnestly, if ominously, working to help the sick and hungry and spread the faith to all in western Denver. Led by missionary shock troops called the "Brothers of Mercy", they have some military trucks and Wells Fargo armored cars to move around in. There are rumors that agents of the zealots have looted some mustard gas canisters from the ruins of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal for whatever reason. 6) NORTHERN COLORADO CITIES The scattered cities north of Denver, stretching up towards the hard-nuked Cheyenne area, were ravaged during the chaos and coated with radioactive fallout. There are empty and abandoned Atlas E silos in Fort Collins, Greely, Briggsdale, Grover and Nunn. These silos have yet to be looted extensively. Fort Collins: Fort Collins received heavy fallout from the Cheyenne blasts and was severely depopulated. By 1963, the city had been claimed by a group of 2,000 survivors, many Vietnamese refugees who were willing to trade the increased health risks for the opportunity to stake a claim. They are mostly with salvagers, a dusty and sore-covered lot willing to root around in irradiated lands for treasures from the past. Greely: Now home to a large band of marauder crud led by an ex-con thug named Gene Booker. They are about 400 strong and are armed with everything including M-14s, Thompson's and Sten guns. Loveland: 1,000 determined survivors here have turned the town into a fortress against the marauder gang from Greely. They are led by Jon Anderson, a former Colorado state government official. 7) COLORADO SPRINGS Dodging a bullet: On October 28, 1962, the Russian 6 megaton SS-7 ICBM aimed at Fort Carson military reservation suffered an error (how and why can been argued forever), instead of striking it's primary target it instead overshot and obliterated the tiny town of Punkin Center out on the southern plains. Thanks to this fortunate turn, the Colorado Springs area is today one of the most secure and prosperous in America. In the time of chaos, much of the city of Colorado Springs had been affected. Many of the civilians, together with everything that could be moved, gathered at the massive half-built military complex at Cheyenne Mountain. It was felt that the underground base would be opened up for them as a fall-out shelter, but they were wrong. The Air Police unit guarding the complex refused to let anyone in and a bloodbath looked to be brewing. However, the valiant sacrifice of a few Colorado National Guardsmen and the desperate efforts by police and volunteers prevented the wholesale massacre of this group, and also gave the more scattered survivors something to head toward. Despite their advantages, in the two years that followed, hunger and disease took their toll and the city's population fell by 20%. The base has been fortified crudely but successfully, some basic manufacturing is taking place, and food production has finally risen to meet the falling population. New Home: With the nuke missing, the major facilities here are still intact with a large reservoir of military personnel and civilians to draw from--a prime area for relocating to. In late 1962, after the split with the civilian government, General LeMay ordered the Alternate National Military Command Center moved from Mount Weather to Colorado Springs. With him came a large number of troops and most of the surviving strategic nuclear capability of the nation. With the military presence the civilians are starting to return and the very presence of this many soldiers is instrumental in maintaining law and order. The troops quickly expanded out from Colorado Springs and by the fall of 1964 they control large parts of Denver and Pueblo and all roads in between. The sphere of direct influence is the I-25 corridor north to Denver and environs and a rough triangle from Colorado Springs to Pueblo to Canon City. All the areas under their control are virtually trouble free and probably the safest places in the world in 1964 and the people living in the Colorado Springs area are some of the most contented in America. Though the Army's long term goal is to reunite the USA, at the present, it's aims are less ambitious--keep the population fed, secure the immediate area from external (and internal) attack, proceed with reconstruction and recovery, and to keep CivGov contained to the east. The President and the General: They have a veneer of political authority here with what MilGov believes to be the legitimate President--the former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Abraham A. Ribicoff, who was in Colorado Springs vacationing when the bombs fell. He is now the Acting Chief Executive and makes frequent radio and TV announcements as such from the newly named Civil Defense Headquarters in Colorado Springs. He is, of course, a figurehead, a tool used to convince the populace that the military junta is working for their benefit. The real power, however, continues to be General Curtis LeMay, who rules with all authority and the total loyalty of his men. NORAD: The massive Cheyenne Mountain NORAD complex is more of a trophy than an actual facility of use. Groundbreaking on the mountain complex began in May of 1961, and by the time of the exchanges, a large volume of rock had been removed from the mountain's interior. While this was little more than a huge man-made cavern at this point, MilGov has found valuable use for these caverns as ultra-secure storage points for nuclear weapons and other valuables. The excavations at the facility were carried out by highly skilled American and Canadian engineers and workers, many of whom stayed in the area for safety. These personnel are valued for their knowledge as well as technical abilities and this pool of manpower was snatched up by MilGov when they moved into the area, giving them an immediate edge on personnel and capabilities. The 7th Army: The headquarters of the 7th US Army is here now, comprising some 2,000 staff personnel, operating out of Fort Carson Military Reservation. The main unit here currently is the 5th Mechanized Infantry Division (9,770 men including 4,000 local militia, and a whopping 112 assorted AFVs collected from around the nation). This division was formally reactivated on February 19, 1962, as the Army's first mechanized infantry division to be organized under the "ROAD" (Reorganization Objectives Army Division) concept. Under command of General Herbert Welsh, the 5th ID is currently in charge of internal and logistics security in the area, and also provides honor guards for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Other units here include the "Cadet Brigade" (800 men and twenty AFVs) and the 65 men of Able Company of the 10th Special Forces Group (Training). The Cadet Brigade is technically Air Force, but in practice there is no difference between it and other MilGov ground units. Until just recently, the 9th Infantry Division was also in Colorado Springs, but it was moved south to Albuquerque to stop the Mexican drive there. This has helped ease the logistics and food supply nightmare of the area. Eagles: Strong air assets are based at Ent and Peterson Air Force Bases and at Flacon Field on the grounds of the Academy. Commands include the Air Force Space Command as well as several Colorado Air National Guard headquarters including those of the 140th Fighter Wing and the 302nd Troop Carrier Wing. Operational air assets at Peterson AFB include six B-52 Stratoforts, four B-47E Stratojets, ten F-102C Delta Daggers, eight F-84 Thunderjets, one U-2 spy plane, four C-130 Hercules, ten C-119 Flying Boxcars, and six KC-135A tankers. At Ent Air Force Base are at least a dozen F-104A Starfighters, some Colorado Air National Guard Sabres, a few Air Force Voodoos, and six big B-52 Stratoforts. At Falcon Field are based a number of active strategic aircraft, including some fourteen B-52 Stratoforts with air-to-ground missiles, a civilian 707 airliner, and a lumbering Air Force C-54 Skymaster transport used to ferry personnel to Denver. The various strategic bombers and the tankers, along with the remaining stocks of nuclear bombs stored in various places, provide MilGov with a powerful nuclear deterrence. These planes are kept active mostly through the cannibalization of the hundreds of inoperable aircraft that are stacked in rows all over the area, having been flown here from all over the nation. Mystery: Currently there is an ongoing research effort under the name "Project: Looking Glass" at Falcon Air Force Base, security there has been stepped up and a number of non-military personnel have been sighted in barracks there. The project is tentatively under the control of the Air Force 18th Intelligence Squadron. Pueblo: Forming the southern arm of the MilGov enclave security zone, Pueblo is home to many civilians and a strong garrison. The Pueblo Army Depot is being used to store some of the enclave's weaponry. Bunkered here are tons of mustard gas canisters, seven Nike anti-missile systems and ten Redstone medium range tactical missiles. The nuclear warheads for the Redstones are stored up north in Colorado Springs for safe keeping. The main assembly building at the depot has been converted into a fortress, detailed to guard the southern approaches to Colorado Springs. The large brick building has been fortified and, in a cleared circle around it, eight old tanks have been buried hull-down, their fields of fire overlapping. Some 1,000 armed troops are in Pueblo at any time, cycled in four month rotations from the Colorado Springs garrisons. 8) SOUTHEASTERN COLORADO Home range of a strong local protection group with their HQ in Trinidad. They are basically armed ranchers and farmers on horseback, but since they serve as valuable pickets for the Colorado Springs area, they are funded and armed by MilGov. They are waging a continuous battle with marauders and have outposts out as far as Raton, NM to the south, east to La Junta, and to Springfield to the southeast. La Junta: The La Junta garrison (some 100 horsemen) is led by Curtis Redfeather, a Pawnee and Korean war veteran who has worked many of his Pawnee brothers into the garrison's command structure. The town itself is a fortified enclave of 1,000 people once little more than one of so many communities struggling to stave off the raiders. Though nominally open to all comers, La Junta is slipping slowly towards martial law. Visitors are welcomed only with a suspicious stare from Redfeather's militiamen (armed to the teeth with automatic rifles and grenades) from nearly every makeshift tower and stretch of wall. Lone travelers, often suspected as spies, are subject to interrogation before even allowed entrance into town. And once inside, one can definitely feel the effect a heavy-handed militia presence has. 9) SAN LUIS VALLEY This part of south-central Colorado is controlled and patrolled by the "Northern Rio Grande Federation", a collection of armed ranchers and farmers which has been working to form a central authority in the valley. They have outposts to the south at the La Veta Pass on Highway 160, and to the north at Poncha Pass on Highway 285, controlling entrance into the valley. The valley is also the home of a survivalist commune called "The Freehold", a proprietary community of 150 households living on the west side of the valley, just south of the Garitas Mountains in a cluster of mostly subterranean adobe dwellings. They are armed with automatic weapons and well trained to use them. The Freeholders have a small airfield and a hanger containing a small state-of-the-art five-seat Cessna canard prop plane with a backwards propeller and swept forward wings, a gift from a wealthy benefactor. They have named it the Sparrowhawk and retrofitted it with two Browning M-1919A4 .30-caliber machineguns to act as a fighter. They have been recently pressured by the Northern Rio Grande Federation to share the wealth. North of the Freehold in the valley is a cluster of other smaller survivalist compounds, the largest being a band led by an ex-Minuteman colonel. Many of them disagree with the Freehold's politics but they treat each other civilly, even helping from time to time. Occasionally roving bands of road gypsies and bikers harass the people in the valley. Alamosa, in the southern part of the valley has been completely depopulated by a viral plague and is a virtual ghost town. This is scaring the valley. 10) WESTERN COLORADO Grand Junction: Grand Junction is the home of the Colorado National Guard's 143rd Signal Company, mostly made up pre-war residents of Grand Junction. Whether or not this unit has gone rogue is debatable, but it is doing some odd things for sure. The unit was in training exercises at Camp Williams in central Utah when the war came and has relocated back to Grand Junction at the end of 1962 after a vote was taken by the men to return to their homes. Troop strength is now around 100 effectives with .50 cal HMGs, mortars, four 75mm recoilless rifles and even a few flamethrowers. They have a large number of vehicles at their disposal, including twenty jeeps, many trucks, a dozen prime movers, and six towed 155mm howitzers left behind in a local armory. The leader is General George Patton II, the son of the famous WW II general of the same name. Patton is a little demented but confidant in his plans to rid western Colorado of thugs and bandits. General Patton, however, is not what he seems. His eventual goal is not only to drive off the criminals, but also all those who he considers to be inferior--minorities, Native Americans, Hispanics. He has a bigger secret as well, the General is in fact no relation to the famous Patton at all, just a Captain in the Utah NG who was slick enough to step into the confusion of the post-nuke months at Camp Williams and assume command of the Signal Company by pulling rank. He did, however, lead them out of the wilderness and back here to Grand Junction mostly intact and as such gained the loyalty of his men. In Grand Junction, Patton has built a strong fortified camp and has a field hospital set up to help the locals. In the coming spring, he is planning on moving against a large marauder camp at Glenwood Springs that has been a thorn in his side. What he is forgetting perhaps is that his men are mostly artillery soldiers with little training in actual combat and the last two years of inactivity in Grand Junction has made them soft. Glenwood Springs: Unbeknownst to Patton, this marauder group is quite large and powerful and would be a serious challenge for him to take on. It is known as the "Army of Excellence" and is led by a Colonel Macklin. Macklin is a former USAF pilot, a Korean war vet and POW and more than a bit crazy. His troops, mostly rabble and refugees gathered from eastern Utah and western Colorado, follow him religiously because he provides them with food and loot from raiding area towns. They have many trucks and cars and a large supply of looted gas and diesel and Macklin has an Airstream command trailer from which he issues orders. His troops number in the thousands, all of them linked by Macklin's leadership and their want for food and shelter. |
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NEW MEXICO
The climate of New Mexico has always been dry, and the recent drought has only made it worse. There are a few cantonment settlements in the grazing lands of the western part of the state, and semi-nomadic groups wander throughout the rest, but the cities are pretty much the only place humans still live. The towns contain the usual mix of white, Hispanic and Indian groups found pre-war, with all the class differences and racial troubles as well. In May of 1964, elements of the Mexican Army raced up Interstate 25 towards Albuquerque, only to be stopped by the US Army, crushed and driven back nearly to the border. 1) NUCLEAR TARGETS Date Type Target 10/28/62 SS-7 Albuquerque 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES 9th Infantry Division ------HQ/DISCOM--Manzano WSS (275 men) ------1st Brigade--Albuquerque (1050 men, 16 AFVs) ------2nd Brigade--Albuquerque (1150 men, 8 AFVs) ------3rd Brigade--Albuquerque (730 men, 10 AFVs) ------9th Aviation Battalion--Kirtland AFB (270 men) Albuquerque Militia (1740 men) Battery C, 1st Battalion/202nd Field Artillery Regiment--White Sands (100 men) Tercio Torreon--Southern New Mexico (400 men, 1 AFV) 3) NORTHERN NEW MEXICO Santa Fe: Soon after the bombs fell, Mayor Juan Perez ordered the National Guard units in the city to go into the streets and maintain order, declaring a strict curfew and shooting looters on sight. Following the winter and the riots, he started recruiting starving Hispanics to create heavily-armed bands of "official" looters to scour neighborhood areas for food and fuel. Despite this, the last two years have not been kind to the city. Food prices are outrageous, scars of fires and looting mark every street and the darkness is prowled by bands of scavengers. In an effort to survive by trade, Santa Fe has been turned into an open city, with little local law enforcement and a lot of dirty deals and violence. The state government still survives in Santa Fe with a local militia based on a 300-man cavalry unit of the New Mexico State Guard, barracked at Saint John's College. Los Alamos: The remains of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment are here, what was not sent off to Germany in 1963. This unit has been pulled around the nation for the last year until finally settling here last spring. They have some three platoons of soldiers with rifles and shotguns, a single tank and three troop carrier helicopters and one big cargo helicopter. They were near panic when the Mexicans invaded this summer, and on the verge of evacuating to Colorado when word came that the 9 ID was coming to the rescue. The cavalrymen stood there posts and waved as the infantry drove past heading south. There is still much for them to guard here at Los Alamos atomic weapons labs, but there is also much that is missing. Ahead of the Mexican invasion this past summer, a pair of workers at the Los Alamos labs, who may have been Mexican spies, made off with some two tons of powdered plutonium. Today they are still missing, but the potential of that much plutonium, enough to make eighty bombs, is unnerving. Snake Flat:Among the citizens of this small town there is a rumor circulating that there is a nearby secret cache of nuclear weapons or material hidden away by scientists from Los Alamos. They claim that they are buried in a cavern beneath an old run-down miner's shack on Sierra Peak, outside of Snake Flat. While the claim seems dubious, it is a fact that a 20-man unit from the 3rd Cav came through here just this September looking for something. The truth is that this is where the missing two tons of plutonium are hidden. Terrero: Home of a "re-education" camp for some 200 criminals and dissidents guarded by the 17th Reconnaissance Squadron, a horse cavalry militia unit from Santa Fe. They also have a 57mm recoilless rifle, several scout cars and a halftrack weapons carrier with a howitzer mounted in it. Gallup: Gallup has been taken over by a half-a-dozen gangs of punks, thugs and Hispanic looters, all fighting each other for control of what is left of this small city, terrorizing the 1,500 remaining citizens. Apaches: After the bombs fell, the Jicarilla Apaches of northwestern New Mexico "went on the war-path" (remember, they are Apaches). They absorbed the Zuni tribe and stretched their territory out to the towns of Aztec, Bluewater and Coyote. Total population of the tribe now numbers some 6,000 people. The Apaches are currently at peace and no longer have any plans for further expansion. They believe in living in total harmony with the land and nature, but they will use guns to keep out strangers. They are very observant and keep an eye on their territory, using "smoke signals" to signal each other of intruders. 4) ALBUQUERQUE The war: During the night of October 28, 1962, the city was nuked by a 6 megaton SS-7 that popped its payload over the northeastern quadrant of the city, with the hypocenter a few miles east of Arroyo del Oso Park. The sheer, mile-long face of the Sandia Mountains fortunately reflected much of the blast and heat away the city, saving much of it from destruction. While much of Albuquerque's civilian population was killed outright, large areas of the city situated in the protected valley of the Rio Grande River survived unscathed. As such, the city was able to recover quicker than most that had been nuked. The invasion: The Mexican invasion reached northwards towards the city in 1964, with strong infantry and mechanized forces thundering up I-25. The Mexicans, however, found that the New Mexico was not going to submit without a fight. The US Army chose to make a stand here and quickly moved the 9th Infantry Division south from Colorado to take up blocking positions south of the city. Faced with a large, well-armed American force, the Mexican drive was blunted, bloodied and finally smashed with the use of tactical nuclear weapons. The invasion threat was broken after the Mexican troops panicked and ran after receiving two howitzer-delivered nuclear ground bursts on their staging areas one mile west of Los Lunas. There are still two small craters to been avoided here, both so close together that from the air the craters overlap. Today: Despite the severe damage from the nuke and the aftermath, Albuquerque is still a relatively prosperous, teeming city. It's population has been infused with refugees from the south and the surrounding countryside and now numbers some 50,000--mostly miners, merchants, and workers and their families and the families of the members of the 9th Infantry Division and the attached units. Of that,15,000 live in a well-built shantytown of adobe huts to the northwest. An additional 5,000 people, Native Americans mostly, live and work in the western suburbs. Surprisingly, there is little disease and few have starved this year. There is running water for three hours every afternoon and electricity for some public buildings. Hospitals, schools, and roads are in reasonable repair, food is in good supply, and trade is flourishing. Oil wells in the immediate area provide more than enough diesel fuel for military needs and a local munitions factory produces explosives, detonators, 105mm projectiles, and mortar shells of all sizes. Due to the large amount of trade and traffic, Albuquerque is naturally a hotbed of black market activity. The ADD: The main security force is the 9th Infantry Division, victors of the battle against the Mexican invasion this past summer. This is a relatively new division, only raised after the nuclear strikes in late 1962 using scratched-together men and equipment from around the state of Colorado. As such, it is short on training and experience, though they are well-led. Albuquerque is the key city in what the military calls the Albuquerque Defense District (hereafter referred to as the ADD). The ADD includes the towns of Casa Blanca, Los Lunas, and Escabosa. The 9th ID is a strong force by 1964 standards and is heavy on armored vehicles. The three brigades are in separate cantonments in different areas of the city. The 1st Brigade has a strength of 1,050 men and two M48A2 Patton tanks, five M41 Walker Bulldog tanks, nine M42 Dusters, two M75 APCs, six M59 APCs, five old M3 halftracks, five M3A1 White scout cars, two 8-ton trucks, four 5-ton trucks, 43 deuce-and-a-half trucks, 77 jeeps, three civilian 4x4s, four towed M101 105mm howitzers, sixteen 120mm mortars, 21 81mm mortars, thirteen 20mm auto-cannons. The 2nd Brigade has a strength of 1,150 men with three M48A2 tanks, five M41 tanks, six M113 APCs, an M75 APC, five M59 APCs, three M3 halftracks, fifteen M3A1 White scout cars, sixteen armored dump-trucks, three 5-ton trucks, 55 deuce-and-a-half trucks, two 32 jeeps, two towed 75mm howitzers, and two 40mm auto-cannons. The 3rd Brigade is the smallest of the three and has a strength of 730 men with six M41 Walker Bulldog tanks, four M42 Dusters, five M3A1 White scout cars, two armored dump-trucks, six 8-ton trucks, seventeen deuce-and-a-half trucks, 26 jeeps, and four towed 75mm howitzers. The Divisional HQ and DISCOM is based at the nuke-proof underground bunkers of the thousand-acre Manzano weapons storage complex at Kirtland AFB. Total strength of the HQ and DISCOM is 275 men with four M75 APCs, an M59 APC, three 8-ton trucks, two 5-ton trucks, six deuce-and-a-half trucks, 22 jeeps, and ten civilian 4x4s. Providing internal security are four locally-raised Albuquerque Militia Battalions with a total of 1,650 men having two towed 155mm howitzers, one captured Mexican Army towed 75mm howitzer, six 120mm mortars, eleven 81mm mortars, only with small arms and machineguns. Transport is provided by sixteen captured Mexican Army wheeled APCs--these "APCs" are Volkswagen Beetles with thin sheets of armor nailed to the sides. The CO of the division is General Bayclock. The division's muscle is augmented with seven solid-fuel Honest John surface-to-surface missiles and launchers. These weapons are in moderately good repair and are armed with conventional warheads. Kirtland Air Force Base: A freak of over-pressure dynamics meant that the AFB was spared most of the effects of the nuclear blast. Not only had most of the structures survived, but also a fair number of aircraft, and the entire east-west main runway remains useable. Kirtland is now guarded by a 90-man assemblage of former New Mexico Air National Guardsmen and Albuquerque Militiamen with two deuce-and-a-half trucks and seven civilian 4x4s. There are also 270 men of the division's 9th Aviation Battalion here working on salvage and reconstruction projects. They have twelve jeeps, ten deuce-and-a-half trucks, and three civilian 4x4s. The base still has a considerable supply of aviation fuel in underground tanks, and they have four F4 Phantom II fighter bombers, two operational C-130 Hercules cargo planes, and eight UH-19 Chicksaw helicopters. The planes fly rarely and the helos are from the Aviation Battalion. The main prize here was two Atomic Energy Commission transport trucks from the Los Alamos labs that were here awaiting transport from the base. Each was carrying enough materials to make several very large crude nuclear devices or perhaps a dozen smaller ones. They were whisked off to Colorado Springs ahead of the Mexican invasion and are presumably there today. 5) EASTERN NEW MEXICO The deserts: Large tracts of the southeastern and eastern parts of the state are almost totally depopulated. Drought, constant banditry and disease have taken their tolls and nearly all of the area's smaller towns, like Vaughn, Ramon, Clayton and Clovis, are deserted and looted. Other towns have become refugee havens, like Conchas Dam, most living on the edge of starvation. Tucumcari: A convenient stopping point for caravans, and home to one of the largest open-air bazaars in the state. Peace is maintained by fragile agreement between the militaristic mercenaries paid to watch the roads and the ruthless, profit-seeking locals. The town is fast becoming a sprawling one, barely contained within a series of walls that have been expanded again and again every two or three months and current population is nearly 5,000. At the town’s heart, oil containers and crude stockyards are jealously guarded against theft and sabotage, as is a complex of water tanks (above and below ground) used by the town to trade with the locals of the desert as well as passing caravans. Roswell: Roswell is held by a collection of Hispanic ranchers and settlers. They are doing well despite the raids of marauders and bad weather, and have began trading as far as El Paso and Albuquerque. Their militia is horse-mounted and very active in patrolling their borders. Their leader, a man named Horace de Vaca, fancies himself the new Governor of New Mexico. He is a former rancher who still loves to ride the fences in his territory. On the southern outskirts, there is an extensive tent city of about 800 assorted thieves and thugs. The community is centered around a dozen old SCTA busses and plywood sheets made into shelters. These are mostly local Milagro Beanfield-types out of Chama and Espanola and Tres Peidras. ICBMs: Between Roswell and Ruidoso, there are several empty and abandoned Atlas F ICBM silos of the nearby Walker Air Force Base complex. While abandoned, Walker AFB is notable for having an untapped underground fuel bunker of gasoline waiting to be found. Roswell nuke silo…One of the silos still contains its missile. Whether it malfunctioned or was not fired deliberately, no one knows, but the silo was abandoned by its crew soon after the exchanges started. Today, the silo is occupied by two men, named Monitor and Lou, who stumbled upon the site in 1963. Monitor is a very smart man and realizes that this ICBM could be his ticket to glory if he can fix it. He has been studying the manuals and checking all the parts, even sending Lou out to the other silos in the Roswell complex to hunt for spare parts. His dream, however, probably going to fail. He is thinking that it is a mechanical problem, but it is really a software problem caused by a flub of the fingers. A single comma was misplaced when the base code was written for the launch sequence, causing the missile to abort at the critical moment in 1962. White Sands Missile Range: When the bombs fell in 1962, White Sands became a refuge from the storms. Scattered bands of refugees, most from the cities to the north, gravitated towards the base, lured there by the promise of military protection and help. The base's huge underground missile storage complex has become the center of the enclave and today over 4,000 people call the base home--Indians, drifters, stragglers from the war, malcontents from the cities and loners who just couldn't make it anymore in the open deserts. The defenses are from the fragments of Battery C of the 1/202nd Field Artillery Regiment (New Mexico National Guard), about 100 strong, led by a Colonel named Marcus. They have some 30 vehicles, mostly old trucks and a few jeeps, with automatic weapons and grenades. They also have three working C-47 transport planes salvaged from the base's old storage hangers. A whole pack of thieves is now active in the base, the stealing and violence between refugees is getting out of hand and is straining the security. The Mexican invasion last summer bypassed the base, considering it not worth wasting time on in the drive for Albuquerque. Since then, the base has been in regular contact with the US Army unit in Albuquerque, going by the radio codename of "Sierra". Alamogordo: For the last two years, crime, disease and famine have ruled as families attempted to survive in the chaos of collapse. The local city government, after its initial attempts of stabilization, faded away. By late 1964, things have stabilized somewhat. The population has been reduced to 3% of pre-war levels. No longer do the local factories produce goods for the public. If you want food, you must find it or grow your own. If you want to survive, you must either join one of the tiny communities scattered throughout the suburbs, or be well-armed. The deserted countryside is full of Hispanic biker gangs driving ethanol-powered machines, snatched from the first few days of anarchy. 6) SOUTHERN NEW MEXICO The deserts of this part of the state are just as formidable as they was before the war. In addition to the lack of water and the fierce heat, there are wild reports of radiation zones that have melted the flesh of unwary travelers. Left-over biker gangs, rabid survivalists, crazed religious zealots, and all sorts of feral animals make their home in the desert. Traveling in the desert nowadays without an experienced guide is plain suicide. Mexican Army: Home range of the Alliance Faction's Tercio Torreon (400 men and one AFV), formerly the Torreon Brigade of the Mexican Nationalist Army. This brigade was the spearhead of the Mexican drive for Albuquerque who were trapped in southern New Mexico after the defeat at Albuquerque and splintered. The unit has been out of contact for nearly three months now. It is known, however, they are actively planning to make their way south this spring for Mexico to help their Alliance Faction in it's fight to free Mexico. Mexican control over southern New Mexico is shaky at best, most large towns are ghost towns, so the Mexicans get control by default. The local economy is based almost entirely on ranching and scavenging. By today, the Mexicans maintain control with roving patrols (mostly on horseback) and by taxing the local ranchers at gunpoint. Carlsbad: A struggling survivor enclave that than a few nearby settlements are depending on food from to survive. The town is also planning on serving as the hub of a new mail service and is now looking for folks to start braving sleet, snow and dead of night. Los Cruces: This once thriving college city has become a refugee haven with serious problems. Now home to some 45,000 people or more, Las Cruces is ruled in a military dictator-style by a charismatic former Mexican Army officer named Timon. Timon is known to employ an army of about 3,000 conscripts and local collaborators, as well as mercenaries from where ever he can find them. Lordsburg: This abandoned and shattered small city has, in some places, begun to loose its foothold over Mother Nature. Weeds, cacti, and sagebrush cover isolated buildings. Lordsburg is gritty, hard, and storm-blasted in some areas, and feral in others. Elephant Butte Dam: The settlement here is willing to trade time at the remaining generators in exchange for supplies and ammo needed to defend them against the local raiders. |
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......ahh jeeze.
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ARIZONA
By 1964, Arizona is pretty well depopulated. Except in locales where there is sufficient rainfall for crops (in the mountains) or sufficient law and order to allow irrigation (like Phoenix) there wasn't much food and water after 1963 to be found in the hot dry deserts. The relative scarcity of water sources can serve to isolate locales from each other, which helps to preserve them. 1) NUCLEAR TARGETS Date Type Target 10/28/62 SS-N-4 Tucson 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES 4th Infantry Division--Phoenix (4000 men, 19 AFVs) 111th Military Police Brigade--Fort Huachuca (635 men) 1404th Transportation Company--Northern Arizona rogues (25 men) Nogales Brigade--Tucson (1200 men, 1 AFV) 3) NORTHERN ARIZONA The northern third of the state is desolate and empty. Summer movement on foot or even by horseback across the arid and semi-arid regions is a risky venture. Many small towns are deserted and stripped clean down to their nails by scavengers. Most of the Indian reservations, like the Kaibab and the large Hopi and Navaho Nations have much reduced populations, many of the Indians having left for more fertile areas. Rogues: There are increasing indications that a rogue Arizona National Guard unit is currently terrorizing isolated Indian towns in northeastern Arizona. The rumors are unfortunately true, as the remains of the 1404th Transportation Company (25 men and several old troop carrier trucks) from Showlow has gone marauder over the summer. Canyon De Chelly National Monument: Filling with Pueblo and Navaho refugees from neighboring states. They have come here to escape the "White man's problem" and reconnect with their old ways. The upper south rim of the canyon is home of a group of bandits and killers holding the US Cavalry Museum and the old restored fort at the monument visitor's center. They are led by a brutal ex-con named Curt Stossel and many of his men have taken up the uniforms and 1800's-era weapons of the Seventh Cavalry honored at the museum. They have began renewed fighting with the Indians, raiding small settlements in the canyon floor for supplies and women. Winslow: Home base to an army of motorbike raiders that has started preying upon the travelers. Known as the “66 Knights” from the highway that runs through the town, they are fast becoming a threat to the continued survival of trade in the area. The pack is some sixty strong, running the gamut from former police bikes to dirt bikes. They are led by a man named Nigel, a British citizen and former mercenary in Africa in the 1940s. The Knights raid in large, well-organized packs using horses and vehicles as well as their bikes, and have been known to field military firearms scavenged from National Guard armories (though they use the heavy stuff sparingly as ammo is impossible to come by). The Mafia in Arizona: When the chaos came, the mobsters wisely evacuated Las Vegas and moved south. Today, they control the area from Lake Mead down to Bullhead City and run it like a feudal state. (see Las Vegas). Mystery: Up north along the Utah border there is a possible mystery brewing. Deep in the territory of the Navaho Nation, just east of Grand Gulch, there is a large, abandoned trading post out in the desert. This seemingly worthless building is now occupied by a small contingent of Mexican Special Forces troopers who are combing the area for "something special". The unit is forty men strong with some portable machineguns and one bazooka. They came up here in two troop trucks. 4) CENTRAL ARIZONA In the thick pine forests of the central part of the state, plentiful game and rainfall have allowed numerous small communities to survive, and even to prosper. Flagstaff: North of Phoenix, up in the evergreen forests, Flagstaff was the site of a marauder raid three months ago and much of the town is burned out. Now mostly jumbled ruins along a derelict-filled Interstate 40, home to just 500 to 600 survivors. The Flagstaff town leadership is vainly trying to control what remains with a relative handful of militia made up of local volunteers, former Phoenix police, and National Guard people. Sedona: A mountain town largely unaffected by the last two years, though many buildings have fallen into disrepair. No fewer than 3,500 people remain, surviving by farming and hunting in the wooded hills. The 4th Infantry Division in Phoenix has helped to train a large militia armed with sporting rifles and bows. Camp Verde: Lying on I-17, this town sees some road traffic between Phoenix and parts to the north. It has a militia organized and trained by the 4th Infantry Division from Phoenix and led by a retired USMC Sergeant-Major. They have a prisoner of war in town, a Major Hector Ajo--one of the few Mexican Air Force pilots to see combat, his P-47 Thunderbolt having been shot down over the area by ground fire. 5) PHOENIX The war: Phoenix was a growing city in 1962 that has suffered because of it's isolation. When Tucson was nuked, the citizens of Phoenix panicked and fled north for the mountains. The removal of military forces from the area to help out in the southern part of the state rendered the civic government incapable of controlling the situation. The city underwent food shortages, medicine shortages, riots, and the deprivations of competing gangs. Any citizen with any brains fled the city before the winter. Uncontrolled fires raged though the city, burning down large tracts of Glendale and North Phoenix, further depopulating the area. The remaining police and National Guard units tried to maintain order and help with the evacuation, but they were soon overwhelmed. By the spring of 1963, Phoenix was largely deserted except for scavengers and falling into ruin under the hot sun. The death of a city: Into this void stepped a grocery stocker turned would-be warlord. As the world collapsed on that horrible night in 1962, a young man named Terry Griffith took steps to assure his survival in this new era. An anti-government survivalist and gun collector before the war, Griffith had constructed a fallout bunker near the small farming town of Apache Junction, east of Phoenix. Awoken by the towering flash of light to the south during the night of October 28 that signaled the atomic destruction of Tucson, he quickly jumped into his bunker and sealed it up, sure that the bomb aimed at Phoenix was on its way as well. Even when the nuke never came, he stayed holed up for nearly three months, eating beef jerky and polishing his guns, waiting for the day when he could emerge and conqueror the world. To his fortune, by staying underground until January, he missed out on all the rioting and carnage of the immediate post-nuke chaos that would have probably killed him. A malfunctioning dosimeter also convinced him that Phoenix was a radioactive ash pile. By the time he realized that the instrument was wrong and popped the seal on his bunker, Phoenix was mostly an empty shell. Gathering together the surviving remnants of trailer trash and six-tooth rednecks from the Apache Junction area, Griffith forged a rag-tag army of misfits and conspiracy nuts. The army, eventually taking the quizzical name of the "United Welshmen Brigade", was armed with a hodgepodge of civilian weaponry and the occasional illegal assault rifle and rode in a variety of VW buses and horse-drawn carts. By the summer of 1963, Griffith was ready to expand. He marched his brigade west into Phoenix to loot and plunder, his scouts having assured him that the city was populated only by scavengers and looters. For some eight months, the United Welshmen engaged in a city-wide orgy of bloodletting and pillage, massacring any who opposed them and putting large swaths of the city to the torch. The locals begin to call Griffith "El Diablo Blanca"--the White Devil--and a certain mythology rose up about him as stories of his birth from the flaming pits of Hell circulated. But soon, as with most conquering armies, the wheels began to come off. Ideological differences between Griffith's lieutenants and an increasing scarcity of women fractured the United Welshmen. By March of 1964, the city was again abandoned to the elements and the scavengers, the brigade having killed each other off or wandered out into the desert to die. Only Terry Griffith himself and a core of dedicated followers remained, having returned to his bunker in Apache Junction to await the Second Coming. Liberation: When the Mexicans invaded in May of 1964, it was naturally assumed that they would occupy the city. Hispanic refugees from all over the area flocked to Phoenix to greet and support the Mexican Army. But then the Mexicans turned west on I-8 and headed for California, sending only a few small units north towards the city. The legions of Hispanic refugees in the city were disappointed but decided to rebuild the city nonetheless. Damn Yankees: The Mexican Army's decision to bypass Phoenix also came as a surprise to MilGov command in Colorado Springs. In a stroke of good fortune, as early as May, it was decided to try and reoccupy Phoenix as a regional power base. The changing weather patterns in the western half of the hemisphere had brought a tenfold increase in southern Arizona's rainfall, making the Phoenix valley fertile again. On the eve of the Mexican invasion the MilGov 4th Infantry Division was working its way down I-17 in a long journey from Salt Lake City to garrison the city. Hearing of the invasion, the division commander took a risk and pushed his mechanized troops forward, leaving his supply train behind, in a mad dash to beat the Mexicans to the city. Double timing it into the valley, the division hastily prepared defensive positions on the southern edge of the city and waited for the Mexicans to come. When they never came, the soldiers were relieved. In the past few months the incredible influx of refugees returning to the city was kept the unit very busy. Free city: Today, some four months after first entering the city, the division has worked tirelessly to revitalize the area. To this end, they have created a "free city" or sorts where people of all nationalities are welcome as long as they keep the peace. Much like Casablanca or Lisbon during WWII, Phoenix is now flourishing on the wavering front line of battle. The population has soared to some 80,000 by this fall and more are straggling in each day, most from south of the border. However, Phoenix has suffered much, as detailed above, and many buildings are still empty shells and several large burnt-out tracts have yet to be reclaimed. Scavengers, thugs and marauders live in these areas, and they are not safe to travel in, especially at night. The power: The 4th Infantry Division today is a strong and well-trained unit, more than capable of maintaining the peace in the city and keeping all outside forces at bay. Total strength is 4,000 soldiers with another 875 militiamen trained and armed by the unit working in close cooperation. Division equipment includes nineteen tanks, of which only five are currently operational. The other fourteen are dug-in in strategic points around the Scottsdale and Tempe areas and act as immobile pillboxes. Two of the operational tanks and five of the dug-in tanks are M60s, the rest are M48A2s. Other divisional assets include an M113 APC, two M59A1 APCs, fifteen deuce-and-a-half trucks, and numerous jeeps and civilian transports. There are also seven towed M101 105mm howitzers, six towed 75mm AT guns and numerous mortars available for the city's defenses. Scottsdale/Tempe: These two suburbs are now the hub of life in Phoenix. Nearly every open area has been planted with some food crop or another and more farming plots are being cleared daily. The military is thick here, as the bulk of the division is barracked in the area. This area is also home to many of Phoenix's growing light industries--including the manufacturing of bicycles, alcohol, mortars, mortar bombs, reloaded ammunition, drugs, and farming tools. Electrical power for these factories is provided by an alternate power plant powered by an archaic steam boiler salvaged from a junkyard. The ASU hospital is home to the city's few remaining medical personnel and equipment. Camelback Mountain: This distinctive sandstone mountain in the center of Scottsdale dominates the landscape. A huge mansion built on its summit by a wealthy publisher has become the headquarters of the division, and by default the center of civic government. The division commander has his personal residence here. A single UH-1 Iroquois helicopter is also kept at the mansion, a hanger having been specially converted from a garage for it. The helicopter and the small amount of avgas for it is carefully kept maintained and is mainly a way for the division commander to escape if something terrible happens to the city. Avondale/Glendale/Goodyear: These suburbs were damaged to a great extent by rioting and marauders. Military patrols are infrequent and almost all buildings are in a state of moderate to extreme damage. Crime is high amongst the remaining refugees here and life has little value. South Phoenix/Guadalupe: These suburbs have been largely abandoned, having been mostly burnt down during the chaos. Military check points are maintained at some crossroads. The few inhabitants are mostly involved in scavenging for scrap to trade for food with Scottsdale. Chandler/Gilbert/Mesa: These eastern suburbs are in better shape than the western side. There are more occupied buildings and relatively less crime, especially as one gets closer to Scottsdale and Tempe. A large distillery has been built in eastern Mesa, producing methanol and alcohol for the division's vehicles. Williams Air Force Base: Home to a ragtag collection of old military piston planes including T-6 trainers, two ancient B-25 Mitchells, a P-51 Mustang and a few cargo and observation planes. The Mustang has been rigged to carry a heat-seeking missile and has several extra machine guns mounted. Casa Grande: Located south of Phoenix, this town is home to a large population of poor refugees. The large Amtrak station is now home to a marauder band called the "Pirates of Penzance", split off from Terry Griffith's UWB. The leader is Nathan Decker and was once one of Griffith's most trusted lieutenants whose ideological disagreements with his leader caused him to leave the UWB, taking a number of others with him. The gang is some 40 strong and all-white, making them stand out amongst the mostly Hispanic refugees. They are all well-armed with a variety of military arms including five BARs and an 81mm mortar. Queen Creek: Much of Phoenix's food comes from the growing regions around this town and the lowlands to the southeast. As has always been the case, Hispanic workers tend to the fields and the products are shipped north to Phoenix to feed the city dwellers. The fields and the roads between are heavily guarded by military men. Apache Junction: Home of Terry Griffith's rejuvenated United Welshmen Brigade, growing stronger daily with the influx of refugees and the marauders that prey on them to the area and is now up to some 120 effectives. They have been raiding for some time and have gathered a large supply of weaponry and supplies including five trucks and a battered but serviceable M47 Patton tank scavenged from a National Guard armory (the tank is primarily a hollow threat as they have only four HE rounds for its gun). Supporting him is a survivor enclave made up of dirty locals with a fluctuating population of about 400, mostly known for its large open-air trade market. Griffith has big plans for the future, including starting up the old copper mines northeast of Phoenix and even blowing the Salt River Dam to create a huge lake in its old bed in the middle of the Phoenix Metroplex. It is doubtful that he will ever accomplish anything so grand. Griffith is very irate at Decker for splitting the Brigade and has sworn to capture and kill him in inventive ways. To this end, he is planning on marching the Brigade to Casa Grande soon to force Decker into battle. The fact that this overt display of force so close to Phoenix will surely bring the full power of the 4th Infantry Division down on him has yet to sink in. 6) SOUTHERN ARIZONA This summer the Mexicans came across the border in force, but made it only as far as the southern reaches of Phoenix before turning west and moving into California. Outside of Tucson, the southern deserts are now almost entirely devoid of life. The lack of commerce and food has forced nearly everyone north, leaving ghost towns behind. The Mexican military is scattered across areas in the extreme south, mostly battling marauders and deserters rather than the Americans. Tucson: A nuclear weapon smashed the city on the night of October 28, 1962. The Russian Golf I class ballistic missile submarine B-93 slipped in close to the coast of Baja California and fired a missile at the SAC bomber base near the city. The B-93 then continued south and successfully nuked San Francisco the next evening. The 1 megaton SS-N-4 SLBM ground burst to the southwest of the city. Fires swept through Tucson as the citizens that were still alive fled north. The remains are now a barren tangle of twisted girders, fused brick, broken stone and rusted metal with only the metal skeletons of the largest buildings standing. Radiation has dropped in the last two years but the city is still mostly populated by roaches and rats. In 1964, the Mexican Army crossed the border and drove up I-19. The Nogales Brigade was tasked to occupy the abandoned ruins and the remains of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base southeast of the city. The Brigade now has 1,200 men and one AFV and has declared for the Constitutionalist faction in the civil war in Mexico. The garrison troops are known locally as the "Iron Guard". There are still four operational aircraft used by the garrison, all former Arizona Air National Guard observation planes. A large refugee community led by a former district attorney named Mike Gorgas has popped up in the area of the AFB, brought here by the security of the army. Things in the camp are tough but tolerable. Disease is a problem, but VERY tough enforcement of sanitation (involving gunfire in a few cases) is keeping the worst of the problem under control. Some four thousand of these refugees, some of them whites, have been impressed to do clean-up and repair work by the garrison. The Mexican unit here keeps a careful eye on the US 4th Infantry Division in Phoenix, sure that one day they are coming south for them. Yuma: The right wing of Mexican 2nd Army invested heavily in destroying Yuma MCAS during the summer to knock out the Marine garrison there and to capture the Colorado River bridges. Now held by a 500-strong Mexican Army-organized militia known locally as the "Pumas", though going under the more respectable title of the "Yuma Guard Corps" when dealing with outsiders. They ride around in a collection of vehicles, including about two dozen cars, vans, RVs, three semi-trucks, and four old busses. They have looted the remains of the Yuma Marine Corps Air Station to add to their weaponry and now possess some heavy ordinance, including some light artillery. Globe: Burnt to the bedrock by the "Asphalt Avalanche" road gang last year. Only occasional scavengers passing through from time to time can be found here. Gila Bend: Abandoned during a typhus outbreak about a year ago and then burned to the ground by marauders since, nothing remains but blackened rubble. Fear of marauders from Phoenix also helped to keep people away. During the Mexican invasion in May, a Mexican convoy was caught here and destroyed by one of the rare USAF air strikes. The interstate up from Tucson is littered with burnt vehicles and ordinance craters from this strike. Lost Base: Anywhere you go, stories about lost super-secret military installations run unchecked. One prevalent rumor in the Southwest is that, deep within the Sonora desert, just southeast of Signal Peak, an entire, intact "special weapons" installation sits untouched since the beginning of the war. Some guides reportedly know exactly where it is, but can't or won't take anyone there. They say nobody has ever come out of that desert alive. There is indeed truth to the story, though the base in question is little more than a secret post built for monitoring radio intercepts. It is called "Redoubt Echo-Gamma-Five" and by 1964 is held only by a small cartaker force of USAF personnel. They have cultivated and spread the rumors about the base being death to all visitors to keep from getting overrun by refugees or the Mexican Army. The base's CO is Colonel John Fargaze, formerly of the US Air Force Intelligence service. Fargaze is an Apache Indian and still follows much of his peoples' ancient religion. He was able to organize a treaty between the increasingly militant local Apache Indians and his small group of white men, preventing a massacre. 7) SOUTHEASTERN ARIZONA In the mountains of southeastern Arizona there are just scattered settlements of survivors living off the land. Towns like Tombstone, Douglas and San Manuel have long ago been deserted, while other towns like Clifton and Safford are still supporting small populations. They are generally isolated from the rest of the world and they want it that way, though they occasionally go out on small raids in the Tucson area. These people are often seen as "freedom fighters", as their targets are usually Mexican Army occupation forces. Sierra Vista: Sierra Vista was abandoned when fallout from the Tucson drifted across the area. A few people have moved back into the town and live amongst the intact but empty buildings, but many are sick and most are starving. Fort Huachuca Military Reservation: Still the home of the 111th Military Intelligence Brigade (635 men) and sizeable local militia. The 111th survived for a year and a half after the nuclear strikes on stockpiles assembled at the base, then managed to switch over to arid agriculture techniques combined with gathering and ranching. After the exchange, the post rounded up a handful of 105mm howitzers, some mortars, a handful of light AFVs, and other equipment necessary to turn the 111th into something resembling a light infantry brigade. It has also managed to keep a handful of M41 Walker Bulldog light tanks and other AFVs functional through late 1964. The men have constructed rammed earth-and-concrete bunkers, revetments, and pillboxes to protect the post. On numerous occasions, this post was in danger of being devastated by swarms of Hispanic refugees from across the border, but some brilliant negotiating and crowd-control have helped it survive and even to gain a good reputation amongst the Mexican population. Related to this, the 111th no longer takes orders from MilGov. As the 4th ID took over control of Phoenix in May, MilGov ordered the 111th to pull up stakes and move west to Phoenix to join forces with the 4th ID. The 111th's commander replied, “Are you mad?” and things have been pretty frosty between the Brigade and MilGov since then. The 111th conducts a number of anti-bandit sweeps throughout Cochise, Pima, and Santa Cruz counties. The post is learning how to do things better, and so an increasing percentage of the population is becoming available for tasks besides food production. Though life is hard by pre-war standards, people generally have enough to eat, a place to sleep, and overall physical safety. The big problem for the post in 1964 is that they are running out of stuff. Critical stocks are in low supply. The post needs more metals, chemicals, and other raw materials of every kind. Local expedients are helping, but it isn’t enough. |
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SECTION THREE: The Great Plains (North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri)
NORTH DAKOTA North Dakota is probably as empty and barren in 1964 as it was in 1764. After the chaos destroyed the communications net, local communities were thrown on their own devices. The hearty frontier folk of the state were able to handle this better than most, but the refugees and the droughts have been tough on them. North Dakotans are still determined to solve their own problems without outside help. Many of the larger towns out in the open plains are now deserted the locals having moved to more defensible towns closer to the military garrisons. 1) NUCLEAR TARGETS None. 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES "1st Sioux Cavalry Regiment" (375 men) 164th Engineer Battalion (840 men, 10 AFVs) 3) THE STATE AT LARGE Easy riders: Numerous outlaw gangs prowl the open prairies, such as the "Barbed Wire Brotherhood", a group of bikers and military deserters armed with automatics, pistols, and riot guns who are currently terrorizing small communities in west-central North Dakota. Tower City: A biker gang called the "Blackouts" controls the ruins of Tower City. They have 250 men, but there are few weapons save some automatics, two homemade PIAT projectors and a few hand grenades. White men at arms: Like many other states, North Dakota defederalized its National Guard units in the first weeks of the chaos to protect the state's citizenry and prevent the federal government from pulling the units to other areas. The state's NG, however, was very small to begin with and of limited value. The only real unit of any strength was the 164th Engineer Battalion based in Minot, which had been called up to active service in 1961 for the Berlin Crisis and only released from federal service in August of 1962, so most of the unit's infrastructure and equipment was still in place. Reformed in late 1962 and merged with the remains of various other units, the battalion now boasts 840 soldiers and serves as the backbone of North Dakota's battles against the bandits and even as a tenuous check on Canadian expansion. While short on modern armored vehicles, they have acquired ten surplus M4A3E8 Sherman tanks which had been long garaged in Bismarck for "parades and ceremonial functions". Recognizing their value, the 164th quickly converted the vehicles into full readiness, giving them a strong armored component. They are pro-MilGov (not surprising in a very conservative state) and their main focus right now is bandit control and helping recent MilGov attempts to restore oil production in the region. They are mostly based in Bismarck but small detachments are garrisoned across the state at strategic locations. The Governor's mansion is the HQ of the city's leadership. Barb wire encircles the whole area. Watchtowers and sentry posts, some with searchlights and others with radar sets, are at regular intervals around the perimeter. A single operational Army helicopter is kept here along with the bulk of the unit's motorized assets, including the twelve tanks, an armored car, seven heavily armored and armed trucks, two gasoline tankers and two flatbed trucks. The battalion commander drives around in a snow-white turbine Cadillac convertible. Red men at arms: Also in Bismarck is the newly raised "1st Sioux Cavalry Regiment" (375 men), a unit of dubious loyalty and means, but still a force to be dealt carefully with. The regiment is mostly native Sioux with white leaders and much internal grumbling because of that perceived slight. Bismarck: Bismarck itself is a haven for whites and Indians alike. While communication is good inside the town it is virtually impossible to send a message to someone outside of town without having to deliver it yourself. The people of Bismarck work hard to keep their city in good shape--vandalizing carries a stiff fine with a possible year in prison. Bismarck specializes in medicine, on almost any block you will find some sort of medical treatment area. Located in the less-developed area of Bismarck is a poor section that is kept hidden to most people, in it contains almost anything money can buy. Minot and Minot Air Force Base: This former SAC base is now little more than a refugee camp. With the perceived security it offers, the air base has attracted large numbers of refugees looking for protection from the elements and marauders. Since the base lacks anything of strategic value anymore (the Minuteman I ICBM silos at Minot were still under construction when the war came and while no missiles were ever at the base, a lot of valuable support equipment has been looted and destroyed over the years), the state government or the military hasn't tried to evict the squatters yet. Seeing the value in self-support, the mob of refugees are currently organizing a protective militia under the guidance of some former soldiers. The militia is ill-armed, with the odd shotgun or ancient military rifle and bows of varying sizes, but most of them bear nothing more than spears, crude swords, axes and clubs. The city of Minot itself boasts a population of some 2,200 civilians, many of them dependants of the military personnel at the base. The city has survived the chaos relatively intact, having been bypassed by any roving bands of marauders. Minot is still a farming town, they trade their crops to local towns and Indian settlements. Fargo: A surviving city with barely 15% of the pre-war population left. Most concrete and brick buildings will still be standing. However, many wood buildings have been substantially decayed and hazardous to enter. Major roads are only easily passable where they have been at least partially maintained. The Red River again provides important transportation via barges and small boats. Some public busses and steam trains are also in service. Truckers still haul goods on some roads that have been kept in good condition. Conversion to alcohol has been important for many vehicles. Electricity is available to varying degrees, though it is usually only locally available. Williston: Located in the extreme northwestern corner of the state, Williston is the growing home of a group of post-war profiteers and die-hard merchants who have taken advantage of the town's isolated location and untapped resources. Following the war, junkyards and abandoned towns on the surrounding plains were scavenged to make walls and fortifications, and some oil wells in the town's vicinity were quickly brought back online to begin production. It is this oil, ultimately, that has brought power and influence to the town and its population has swelled to nearly 5,000. While a strong and powerful bastion of civilized trade and ideals, it is also physically a gray and grotesque sight. Towering derricks and oil wells dot the landscape, obscured only by the dust kicked up by motorized patrols crisscrossing the region to ward off bandits and collect refugees wandering into their lands. Huge encampments sit in the shadow of these oilfields, where groups of homeless and destitute survivors are drawn by the promise of food. The town itself gleams with a thousand pinpoints of light fuelled by an oil-fired power plant at the town’s heart, but its streets and buildings are choked with soot and oily smoke, day and night. Fort Yates: This dirty and violent town on the Missouri River south of Bismarck is now almost entirely Native American. In the first bad winter of 1962, the whites left for the cities and the Sioux Indians took over the town. Today, Fort Yates, has a population of some 5,000. Despite the lack of outside, Western influences, the town is slowly collapsing in upon themselves. The town is ruled by the "Council of Chiefs" which is lead by the "Grand Chief". Some 80% of the tribal officials are corrupt and easily swayed by women and alcohol, making any effective governing difficult. Fueled by the Council's proclamations of racial power, the citizens view themselves as the eventual rulers of North Dakota and they are militantly xenophobic towards any whites who dare to stray into their area. When the Council makes laws they apply to all of North Dakota even though the rest of North Dakota might not be aware of this. Their tribal militia armory contains mostly bows and shotguns, and infighting amongst the militia leaders has left it a paper tiger. A strong move by the military in Bismarck would crush the town, though no plans for that are in the making as long as Fort Yates continues to leave the valuable Missouri River traffic alone. |
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SOUTH DAKOTA
A strongly independent state, South Dakota would prefer to just be left alone. Bad weather, marauders and displacement have cut the state's population down below a third since 1962, and at these reduced levels the food supply is just sufficient. A CivGov-financed "invasion" in the fall of 1964 only strengthened a distrust and suspicion of outsiders which has always been a salient feature of the state. 1) NUCLEAR TARGETS Date Type Target Note 10/28/62 SS-7 Hot Springs Miss, aimed at Ellsworth AFB 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES None. The state's National Guard was mostly construction engineers and artillerymen. The artillery units were mobilized and fed into the European war early on, leaving just a few local garrisons in the state. 3) WESTERN SOUTH DAKOTA In the height of the chaos, the Native Americans in the state--a large percentage of the population--sought to band together first to survive, and then to reclaim what was once theirs. In March of 1963, representatives of the Lakota bands met at Dupree on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, and putting aside their internal political disputes, formed a joint council called the "Oceti Sakowin" (Seven Council Fires) to coordinate the survival activities of all seven Lakota bands in the state. With Frederick One Horn elected chairman, the first act of the Oceti Sakowin was to reoccupy the sacred Black Hills region, driving off interlopers, by force if necessary. A hastily raised Ogallala militia from the Pine Ridge Reservation overran the southern part of the Black Hills during the following summer. Non-Lakota were expelled, at gunpoint sometimes. There was relatively little violence at this stage of the operation, however, as many of the non-Lakota had already died from radiation from the Hot Springs strike, exposure, starvation, and violence and the military around Rapid City was busy leaving. The Lakota, who had suffered a much lower death rate due to their isolation, suddenly had an overwhelming advantage in numbers. Taking pity on some of the less obnoxious survivors, the Lakota permitted some of them to remain and orphan children and young people were often adopted into Lakota families. By the late fall of 1963, the Black Hills had been secured. The Indians today are mostly concerned with keeping what they have. They patrol daily their borders and regulate who comes and goes from the area. The white-held Rapid City area is left alone, and even traded with, and the peaceful ranchers around Pierre are tolerated. Sturgis: The larger town of Sturgis is now home to a force of about 475 militant Lakota Indians, mainly Ogallala, under General Sebastian Big Head. The town was captured in early 1964 in an unsanctioned attack by General Big Head, who was angry at what he perceived as a lack of ambition in the Seven Council Fires leadership. This blooming power struggle will probably shape the history of the state in the coming year. Rapid City: Ellsworth Air Force Base near Rapid City was the home of a Titan I ICBM complex, with the launchers located in the towns of New Underwood, Hermosa, and Sturgis. On the night of October 28, 1962, the air force base was targeted for a Russian ICBM, but the 6 megaton SS-7 missed badly and hit the town of Hot Springs about 35 miles to the south. That area now is just a vast field of dirt and dust populated by mutated bugs and weeds, the fallout rooster tail leaving a swath of death and suffering across the southwestern corner of the state. With the drought and instability in the area, MilGov has abandoned the empty ICBM silos and the air base except for some Air Policemen, leaving the area to the natives. Today, the population of Rapid City has stabilized at about 8,000, mostly engaged in trading with the Lakota Indians who surround them. There are many shanty towns around the city and in a place where most everyone carries a gun, the frontier spirit is strong. To the northwest of the city there is a large, mostly Filipino refugee camp, a rare sight in this part of the country. The sole remaining MilGov stronghold is at the South Dakota National Guard camp in the city, but is really just a small garrison of armed militiamen anymore. CivGov invasion: Last spring, troops of the Iowa Reserve Militia (on orders from CivGov command in Virginia), moved north to occupy the abandoned Ellsworth SAC base. They were there check on a rumor that there still some unfired ICBMs in the complex. The force cut through the empty grasslands of southwestern South Dakota, virtually unseen by the thinly spread Lakota sentry posts. The Iowa militia, through force of numbers rather than any military skill, forced the remaining Air Police garrison at the air base to withdraw into Rapid City. The unprepared and overmatched MilGov soldiers at the SD NG camp wisely stayed out of the action, instead just assuring that the invaders would not enter Rapid City proper. The expedition was fruitless, however, as any surviving nuclear weapons had been long ago moved to the Colorado Springs enclave. The men were extremely careful not to engage any of the Lakota, or to cause any concern in the Indians that their lands were in danger. No one in Iowa wanted the Indians raiding into their state. The militia troops are planning on heading back to Iowa before the winter snows come. 4) THE WONDERS OF THE STATE South of Rapid City are a cluster of natural wonders and historical sites. Crazy Horse Mountain: Home to a crashed B-52 strategic bomber with a cluster of eight B86 200-kiloton nuclear free-fall bombs. Despite the crash and the passage of time, two of these warheads are still capable of detonation, making them extremely dangerous and valuable to whoever might find them. Wind Cave National Park: About 500 Sioux make their home here presently, including about 60 warriors. The upper levels of the cave are used to store food and other supplies. The Sioux have a variety of small arms for hunting and defense, consisting mostly of hunting rifles and shotguns, and a small quantity of military and police weapons. They also have close to 100 horses and about half as many pack mules--extremely valuable in the harsh terrain around the park. Jewel Cave: The world's fourth longest cave, with over 80 miles of explored passages. Originally, a large elevator carried passengers from the visitor's center to the entrance into the cave, some 290 feet below the surface. Though it was 20 miles away, the nuke over Hot Springs jammed the elevator half way down, which has been enough to deter any visits to the caverns below since then. The cave holds a secret government cache, designed to be a "last ditch" stockpile in the event of a major crisis. Unfortunately, those who knew about it all died in the strike on Washington. Deep within the cave is a well-preserved stockpile of foodstuffs and seeds, as well as crates of small arms, tools, ammunition and limited quantities of petroleum products (3,000 gallons of gasoline, 2,000 gallons of diesel, 800 gallons of motor oil and a number of other lubricants). When the Eisenhower administration placed this stockpile, it was well-hidden and protected by several traps (including a particularly nasty one involving an anti-tank mine and a chemical blood-agent gas canister). The cache is of immense value to whoever can recover it. Mount Rushmore: The mammoth sculpture of Mount Rushmore portrays the faces of four American presidents: Washington, Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Lincoln. Anyone exploring the site may notice that all the electrical wiring has been removed from the area. The view from the top of the mountain is commanding, and the area is frequently used by both Sioux and Lakota scouts, though neither group maintains any kind of permanent outpost at the site. The Badlands: From all outside appearances the badlands looks the same as it was in pre-war time. It is still dry and desolate with little or no growth, the land carved out from ancient rivers. Most people stay away from the Badlands. Recently a new rumor has been spreading across the region--an old miner went into the Badlands in search of gold the week the bombs fell in 1962. At some point in the next year, the man found the mother load. Unfortunately all he had was a mule to carry out the gold, so he only carried out a small percentage. Before he could return to get the rest of the gold, he died of an illness in early 1964. So to this day people are still trying to find the gold mine. At least 100 expeditions have gone into the Badlands searching for gold. Most of the adventurers have not returned. Even though people don't comeback it hasn't stopped people from going into the badlands. People are willing to risk their lives just so it might be easier later on in life. 5) EASTERN SOUTH DAKOTA Although the destruction of governmental control was tremendous, it was not complete. Pockets of civilization still remain in the open lands of the region, some even seemingly oblivious to the nuclear exchange. There are several local "armies" in this area, including the "South Dakota Militia Association" in Huron and the smaller "South Dakota League" in Baltic. Sioux Falls is the home of several large marauder gangs, centered around the State Penitentiary and the newly-constructed Sioux Falls Arena. Aberdeen and Watertown are both home to large survivor enclaves. 6) CENTRAL SOUTH DAKOTA Pierre: As the chaos reigned in 1962, a wealthy and well-known Pierre rancher organized his neighbors into a vigilante group to combat the wandering bands of marauders. They forced out the punks and to this day have kept the state capitol and much of the open plains around it safe for travel. Not that there is much out in the open prairies to protect, with its sparse patches of timber and occasional devastated farmstead barely breaking the flat expanse of nothing. The "Ranchers", as they are called, have a standing force of 400 horsemen, with most everyone in the area pledged to join in if needed. They are vastly outnumbered by the Lakota to the west, but as long as they keep out of the Indians' lands, the two sides coexist. Today, the population of Pierre is around 20,000, thanks in large part to the security the Ranchers provide. A small group of Satanists, however, have recently set up home in the ruins of an old high school on the outskirts of the city and are doing terrible things to captives. |
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NEBRASKA
Dusted with radiation, pillaged by refugees and abandoned by the natives, Nebraska is just now beginning to recovery from two years of chaos. Once the breadbasket of the nation, the state is seeing a dramatic decrease in rain fall as a result of the nation-wide drought and is now relatively barren. Even in the areas that are still fertile, the infrastructure and manpower to work the fields simply no longer exists. 1) NUCLEAR TARGETS Date Type Target 10/28/62 SS-6 Offutt AFB 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES Except for the unit in Omaha, there are no organized forces in the state. West of Highway 81 it is rare to find anything more than occasional patrols on horseback, both from the Omaha enclave and from MilGov forces in western Kansas. 35th Infantry Division ------134th Infantry Regiment--Omaha (600 men) 3) EASTERN NEBRASKA Omaha: On October 28, 1962, a Russian SS-6 "Sapwood" ICBM arched in from a silo in central Asia. The 3 megaton warhead detonated high over the near center of the Strategic Air Command Headquarters at Offutt Air Force Base, to the south of Omaha. Despite the size of the nuke, the damage to Omaha itself was surprisingly light and here and in Lincoln the state government is holding on to what it has. The 134th Infantry Regiment, a Nebraska National Guard component of the 35th Infantry Division, is the main protective force in the area. The manpower of the regiment, some 600 men, reinforced by considerable local militia levies, is dispersed throughout Omaha and in the surrounding counties. Its outer patrols used to range far out into the Great Plains looking for salvage, but these deep recons have become increasingly rare as the fuel for them dwindles--edible material is no longer available for ethanol distillation, and methanol is a less-efficient fuel. The horse has therefore become the reconnaissance vehicle of choice these days. The 134th is staunchly CivGov and has come into clashes with several rival MilGov units over the past year. The irony of a CivGov force currently occupying Omaha, the former site of the Strategic Air Command headquarters, is a constant irritation to MilGov's leader, General LeMay. SAC was LeMay's creation and pampered baby and he is annoyed that he doesn't have control of the site, even though there is nothing left of it but charcoal. Despite the strong state government and military presence (or perhaps because of it) there is a great disparity between the haves and have-nots in the city. Outside of the fortified compounds, in the back alleys and slums, there is violence, starvation and poverty. Rage and rebellion are fomenting here every day and the city government is getting concerned. Omaha is currently trying to repair a pair of water treatment plants damaged by the Offutt strike and is looking for parts as far away as South Dakota. It is hoped that these plants will help ease the lives of the citizens and stop the rebellion. Offutt AFB: Offutt AFB is now just a sad and radioactive memorial to the war. The crater is approximately 200 yards in diameter and 40 yards deep and the area is still largely abandoned, the outskirts of the blast area patrolled irregularly by elements of Omaha's militia to keep scavengers from bringing back irradiated loot into the city. There are three empty and abandoned Atlas D ICBM silos of the Offutt AFB complex northwest of the city, at Mead and Arlington, with three more silos are across the river at Missouri Valley, IA. Empty Breadbasket: The Omaha area is the only region in the state still practicing large-scale farming, though the crazy weather this year has made that difficult. The drastic decrease in rainfall over the summer has made planting unproductive, and it is generally feared that the winter will be just as dry. This means that the winter wheat crop might not receive enough snow cover to protect it from the freezing temperatures, causing all the seeds to die in the ground. The fear of this has caused the local authorities to place Omaha under a state of emergency rationing, though they know that there is not enough stored food to last to the next summer. Lincoln: The state government moved to Omaha in 1963 to take advantage of the better situation, leaving Lincoln to the refugees and looters. The ruins of Lincoln are now the home of the "American Allegiance", a fundamentalist Christian group that has taken over an abandoned shopping mall in the south of the city. They are led by the Reverend Billy Graham, a former TV evangelist and Bible thumper from California. Graham gives almost daily sermons to anyone who comes, numbering three or four hundred at many times, usually filling up the parking lot where his podium is set up. Since his message is peace and harmony, and his followers are not likely to be a problem, the CivGov forces in Omaha leave the American Allegiance alone. Surrounding Lincoln Air Force Base was an Atlas F ICBM complex, now long abandoned, their missiles spent. These launchers were sited near the towns of Elmwood, Avoca, Eagle, Nebraska City, Palmyra, Tecumseh, Courtland, Beatrice, Wilber, York, Seward, and David City. Cedar Rapids: This otherwise ordinary small town 150 miles east of Omaha has an interesting story. After the nuclear attacks, Cedar Rapids was abandoned by its inhabitants when they panicked. People took what they could carry and left, leaving an intact, unlooted jewel in the heartland. In late 1962, as the town was emptying, the staff at Willowview Mental Hospital released the 150 patients, reasoning that their only chance of survival lay in escape. Most of the inmates chose to stay when the other citizens left and about 100 still live there. Daily life is admittedly somewhat bizarre, but the inhabitants do their best to emulate a normal town. 4) WESTERN AND CENTRAL NEBRASKA The fallout from the strikes in Wyoming and Colorado cast a pall of radioactive ash over the western half of the state, killing crops and driving people east and south. The death toll and the displacement was catastrophic and the region has yet to recover. The droughts that have smacked the Midwest have further ruined the area and by 1964, most people in western and central Nebraska have long ago decided to move when it became clear how bad the food situation would be. Much like Kansas and South Dakota, the open highways of the plains are the domain of marauder bands, many of them biker gangs. Kearny: Home to a sizeable biker gang known as "Bray's Bandits". Under their control, the town is a rotten hellhole of crime and disease. Grand Island: Home of a nasty and brutal marauder band called the "Simple Horde". Their leader is Brother Simon, a ex-con and former preacher from Kansas City. They do have some sort of organization and more than most marauder bands, are trying to keep local farm production up and keep the 4,000 remaining citizens working. North Platte: This town's 200 citizens are currently under the thumb of a biker gang led by a thug named "Pistol". Pistol's gang is called "Team Hydra" and they are executing blacks, Hispanics, Orientals, Jews and everyone else the consider foreign. Ogallala: Home of a community of some 240 survivors who have walled the city center in for protection. Many of the people here are converting to a new militant form of Christianity brought to town by a man who calls himself "Pope Gordon the First of the Plains". Broken Bow: In Broken Bow there are a group of survivors who are currently traveling across the state to the presumed safety of Omaha from Scottsbluff, where they were burned out by marauders during the summer. The leader is named Franklin Hayes and they are about 600 strong, although about half of those are women and children. They have decided to winter in Broken Bow. The group has many rifles and melee weapons and are entrenched enough with barbed wire and pit trenches to ward off nearly any marauder attack. Scottsbluff: Deserted since the abovementioned marauder attack during the summer. The old drive-in movie theatre outside of town is now the shanty home of some 60 wandering vagabonds from Wyoming who are wintering here. Chadron: This small college town drew in upon itself into a tight communistic dictatorship to survive the chaos. Strangers were met with gunfire and most of the starving masses were kept out. Despite this, however, the population has fallen to about half the pre-war level through privation, battle and sterility. |
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KANSAS
1) NUCLEAR TARGETS Date Type Target Note 10/28/62 Atlas-F Near Salina Missfire 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES "School Brigade"--Hays (550 men, 12 AFVs) 89th Infantry Division--Wichita (4000 men, 24 AFVs) 3) EASTERN KANSAS (Kansas City covered under Missouri listing) The small urban centers west of Kansas City are now the home of a large, semi-organized society led by a man who calls himself "King Louie". His power center is at the former state capital of Topeka and he controls an area stretching roughly from Manhattan in the west to Lawrence in the east and to Batesville and Chanute to the south, with tendrils stretching to both the Nebraska and Oklahoma borders. Total population within this area is about 70,000. The militia is large and effective, organized into three "battalions"--two made up of basic cannon fodder and one composed of well-trained mercenaries led by Colonel West, a long-time professional soldier. King Louie himself is crazy but smart--he has a degree in Economics from KU, spent time in the Marines and was a Wall Street broker for several years. He is also a sadistic tyrant who enjoys torturing and killing on a whim. He is, however, also a coward at heart and behind the scenes is ruled by his Security Advisor, a man named Ashley. A coup by Ashley is most likely just over the horizon. Despite all this, the average person in his domain is relatively well-fed and strangely content. King Louie has reopened some schools and hospitals, restored limited electricity and been aggressive in keeping farming up. He has, however, enslaved the surviving Fox, Kickapoo, Potawatomi, and Sac Indians from the local reservations due to his own racist views. Rebellion amongst these Indian slaves is fomenting daily. There have been frequent clashes with MilGov patrols from Wichita and militia units from Kansas City, but so far no real open fighting as everyone needs the area's crops and rightly fears Colonel West's battalion. There are some pockets of resistance within his area of control, such as Iola, which is an organized town of around 1,000 people which have managed to stay independent. 4) CENTRAL KANSAS This area was thickly sown with empty and abandoned Atlas E and F ICBM silos of the Forbes and Schilling Air Force Base complexes. The Atlas F silos were located in the towns of Bennington, Abilene, Chapman, Carlton, McPherson, Mitchell, Kannapolis, Wilson, Beverly, Tescott, Glasco, and Minneapolis. The Atlas E Forbes complex silos were located in the towns of Valley Falls, Dover, Waverly, Osage City, Delia, Wamego, Overbrook, Holton, and Bushong. All of these missiles were launched and the silos now are nearly forgotten as the Air Force personnel manning them have been long ago evacuated. Nuke in the corn: During the night of October 28, 1962, as the missiles left their silos bound for Russia, one Atlas F emerging from a cornfield outside Kannapolis malfunctioned. Due to faulty programming, instead of detonating 1,000 feet over some Russian city, the 4 megaton warhead detonated when reaching 1,000 feet out of it's own silo, roughly over I-70 east of Salina. The resulting nuclear fireball created a tornado of fire and heat that set ablaze a large acreage of farmland and mostly destroying the town of Salina with it. There were few casualties, since the land was sparsely inhabited, but this crater is very hot still. While exploding away from large population centers, this misfire caused much disruption in the flow of refugees by effectively cutting I-70. With a whole lot of people in shape to get their cars stuck in immense traffic jams trying to escape the fallout on either end of the state, I-70 became a continent-spanning traffic jam bottlenecked by the radioactive crater outside Salina. Seeking alternate routes around the mess, refugees turned to the normally little-used country roads to the north and south, soon packing them with derelict cars as well. Salina: Blast effects and fallout from the misfired ICBM to the west made Salina a ghost town overnight. The town was badly damaged by fires, and when people slowly started to return, they found that no buildings over one story were left standing. The present population is struggling to survive. A militia is being formed, based around an old police station, and a low wall of rubble is being built around the station. This so-called "Militia" is commanded by Jacob Von Puttkamer, a former landlord and reservist. He and his "officers", many dressed in their uniforms from Korea and WWII, have their own personal firearms. Their men, mostly farmers and shop-keepers, are mostly unarmed, just armbands designating them as militamen. Hutchinson: This city and the immediate area are currently the home of numerous warring gangs. The "Razorbacks" cycle gang is camping in the ruins of Medora and staging ferocious battles with a gang calling themselves "Hell's Cavalry". The Cavalry seems to be repairing and building armored cars and vans in the remains of Hutchinson. From somewhere in the burned buildings of Willowbrook, the third gang involved is the aptly named "Ghost Marauders", who have seemed to have perfected the art of surprise attacks 5) SOUTHEASTERN KANSAS The fallout rooster tail from the Salina nuke spread a thick blanket of radioactive ash over southeastern Kansas. Death and distress were soon to follow and now many communities are empty ghost towns. In recent months, some have been returning to some small towns in the area now that the radiation has died down. The largest survivor community is now Coffeyville, a town with a very effective militia that has kept the town free of marauders. Population is several hundred people. There is some influence here from the King Louie domain further north but it is minimal. Wichita: Wichita has slowly recovered and is now home to around 24,000 people. Internal security is provided by the "Wichita Guard", a militia-type organization with semi-professional training which is about 400 strong with 30 police cars. The lure of the numerous oil wells in the Wichita area have also brought a military garrison force, comprising the MilGov 89th Infantry Division (4,000 men). Formerly the 89th Division (Training), the unit was re-designated as an infantry group in 1962 to fill the gap in state security caused by the departure of the military units at Fort Riley. This unit is responsible for the occupation and operation of the remaining oil fields and refinery facilities, and the transport of the fuel to other MilGov units on the Great Plains. The division has collected every armored vehicle it could find and now has hundreds of all types with them. These include an M60 tank, an M48A2 tank, ten M46 tanks, twelve M40 155mm SP howitzers, numerous APC's, 81mm mortar carriers, M548 cargo carriers, jeeps, deuce-and-a-halves, and many requisitioned civilian vehicles. They posses a number of towed 8inch artillery pieces and have nuclear shells for them, one of the rare field units to still have tactical warheads. They also have a unique air component based at McConnell Air Force Base, made up of old WWII-era planes scavenged from across the state. They have two B-17s, two B-26s, and some P-51s and P-47s along with many transport planes, both military and converted civilian. The only real modern combat aircraft are three AC-130 PUFF planes. Easy to maintain and fly, and armed with Gatling guns, these planes provide the enclave with considerable striking power. Across the way from McConnell field is the huge Boeing airframe plant where the B-47 and B-52 bombers were built. While the plant has been idle for two years, the invaluable machinery and dies have been kept secure and covered by the former plant managers in hopes that one day they can be put back into service. The division's efforts to restore oil refinery capacity has met with only limited success because of a lack of trained personnel, but a trickle of refined fuel began to be available this past spring. Like his counterpart in Cairo, Illinois, the division's commander resents the petroleum he is required to send away to support MilGov activities elsewhere. Groundbreaking for McConnell AFB's Minuteman I ICBM complex was in late 1961 and site excavation on the silos and LCC bases was completed but work stopped after the exchanges in October. No missiles were ever here, but a lot of valuable support equipment is still at the scattered sites. 6) WESTERN KANSAS The great western deserts of Kansas from Highway 81 west are just as boring as ever--an endless white world of bone-like towns and grain silos. The drought has been severe in the western part of the state and there are often no living people for many hundreds of miles. Most of the smaller towns, like Dodge City and Great Bend, have been long ago deserted and looted. The plains are the domain of small biker gangs, who roam the highways looking for loot and fun. Anyone who resists usually ends up dead. Case in point is the small northern Kansas town of Belleville, where all the residents were recently killed and buried in a mass grave by a biker gang called "Nolan's Raiders". The various MilGov units in the area run infrequent patrols along the interstates and state highways, but usually only when a convoy is coming through. Otherwise, they leave the roads to the bikers. Hays: This town is now home to the MilGov 550-man "School Brigade". The School Brigade was originally a mixed bag of training instructors and recruits organized after the nuclear strikes at Fort Bliss, Texas but was forced north by the Mexican invasion this past summer. This brigade is now assigned the area from Hays north to the Republican River on the Nebraska border, here to watch for marauders and help guard the transport routes from the oil fields around Wichita to Colorado Springs. Outer patrols sometimes encounter patrols from the CivGov forces in Omaha and firefights have been reported. The area, due to its sheer size, has been increasingly difficult for the brigade to administer. Marauder raids have been increasing and the unit is beginning to experience difficulties providing security for the oil convoys. Although the brigade has no tanks, it still has a dozen assorted antiaircraft artillery vehicles and numerous civilian and military trucks and small cars. The ADA vehicles are a legacy of Fort Bliss' pre-war role as a training base for anti-aircraft gunners. Shipments of fuel from Oklahoma and Wichita have been reduced and the brigade will probably be forced to cut back its perimeter patrols in favor of a reactive defense. What this means is that they will only chase marauders when the core food-production areas in its area are threatened, instead of conducting punitive sweeps beyond its borders. Wrong side: On October 28, 1962, one of the Atlas E ICBMs from the Forbes complex suffered a guidance failure when launched and pitched over to skid along to a stop in Crooked Creek east of the small town of Plains in the southwest corner of the state. The errant missile was tracked by radar but was lost just before impact. A number of reports have filtered into the Colorado Springs area of an intact 4 megaton warhead in a creek in Kansas and a small unit was sent out to look for it. The small town of Plains is now home base to this Nuclear Recovery Team with 10 men with a jeep, a deuce-and-a-half, and an five-ton truck with a one-ton cargo trailer with a section of a pontoon bridge with an outboard motor. So far they have not found the warhead, which is indeed buried in the shallow creek. |
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MINNESOTA
The land of a thousand lakes is today the land of a thousand refugees. The relative isolation brought in a major influx of refugees early in the post-nuke chaos years. By 1964, however, many of these have moved back south to warmer climes to where food production is steadier. The state now is about 80% empty wild woods, with scattered settlements. Large groups of marauders are rare as there is little to loot. 1) NUCLEAR TARGETS None. 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES None. The state's 47th Infantry Division was shipped to Europe in 1963 and crushed beyond recognition. There is a small, rotating CivGov garrison at Red Wing from the LaCrosse enclave, and occasional patrols into the hinterlands, but no large standing forces exist in the state. 3) NORTHERN MINNESOTA The northern woods and lakes provide a wonderful place for wandering groups of hunting/fishing parties. The area still receives some lake-effect rains. A few small coastal communities on Lake Superior are thriving fishing towns. The wild north is also home to numerous survivalist retreats. Of note is a 30-acre survivalist compound on the outskirts of Lake Bronson State Park and another in the deeps of the Red Lake Wildlife Management Area built by a visionary man and survivalist named Bob Carter. It is mostly underground, with tunnels several dozen feet beneath the surface. International Falls: Typical of survivor communities in the northern reaches of the state overflowing with hundreds of refugees from the Twin Cities and Winnipeg. They survive by fishing and hunting and sporadic trade with other towns. They have been known to waylay travelers and raid surrounding villages when food is short and have as such garnered a reputation as a dangerous place for strangers to visit. Duluth: In the aftermath of the chaos and plagues, only one out of every ten people survived in Duluth. Today, distribution of scarce resources is managed by the former officer candidates and instructors from the ROTC program at UMD, who felt it necessary to declare martial law in late 1962. At first, the ROTC remained responsible to the chancellor of UMD and to local police authority. In time, however, they realized that they held real power and refused to be controlled. They took control of the resources and materials of survival, formed a militia and set the stage for the return of a feudal society. Duluth today is still known for its active iron foundries. The supplies of raw iron for Duluth come from the taconite mines near Virginia some 70 miles to the north. Virginia itself is an almost deserted town, serving simply as a garrison for the mines and a supply depot for the militia. About 100 militiamen operate out of the town; half to guard the mines, the other half to protect the town and Highway 53 south to Duluth. Intrusion: Some Canadian military units have recently launched raids against marauder formations into northern Minnesota, which have been of no great concern to the individualistic citizens of those states glad to be rid of a few more marauders. These troops are mostly elements of the Royal Canadian Regiment and the 3rd Battalion Toronto Regiment both based in Thunder Bay, Ontario. 4) THE TWIN CITIES: The state's lone metro area are a shambles. Abandoned in the chaos after the nuclear exchanges, the city was left to the dregs. Even when it was clear that the city was not to be nuked, most citizens chose not to go back, and many of those that did just went back to loot and burn. Groups of crazies and thugs fighting over spoils for the last two years have left many of the buildings in ruin and everything of real value destroyed. If 4,000 people are still alive in the metroplex then it's a miracle. As with most large urban centers in 1964, the city is under the sway of a plethora of warring gangs and marauders and infested with rats and packs of wild dogs. There is no electricity, guns are plentiful and ammunition is common. The area around Hennepin Avenue and Lake Street in Minneapolis is held by the "Porns", a 600-strong gang led by a former porn-chain and adult movie-house owner and organized crime boss named Creel. Most of Saint Paul is held by the "Horns", an organized group of former members of the First Church of the Nazarene who stayed in the city when everyone else fled. The Horns are about 400 strong and are led by the Reverend Paul, they control the areas around the Concordia University campus and Harding High School. The southern suburbs of the metroplex are the warring grounds of the "Wacks", a group of escaped mental patients from an asylum in Bloomington. The gritty downtown areas are no-man's-lands that are constantly warred over by all the groups. The University of Minnesota and the three hospitals are in the center zone and are the frequent targets of salvage raids. The northwestern suburbs are loosely held by the "Nomads", made up mostly of former Porns and Horns who are tired of the fighting and are trying to settle down around the lakes and creeks around Anoka. They are 200 strong and led by a man named Zahner, they have all of three rifles, having forsaken the violence for a peaceful way. Military: The large CivGov enclave across the border in LaCrosse, WI runs patrols throughout the rolling hills of southern Minnesota, with a permanent outpost centered in the town of Red Wing southeast of the city. These men make it a point not to get involved in the mess there. |
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IOWA
Iowa in 1964 is much like Iowa in 1864--rolling farmland and scattered Midwestern-style towns. It was this that attracted many refugees to the state during the chaos following the nuclear strikes. The local population resisted this invasion, and open warfare soon erupted. Some towns managed to force back the refugees, but in the majority of cases, sheer weight of numbers won the battle. When the refugees did get into the towns, they found that the situation was not as good as they had been led to believe, and fighting for the few good spots broke out amongst the refugee groups. The fighting died down as winter approached. The winter of 1962 in the Midwest was one of the worst on record, and many of the refugees died of exposure. The next year saw the survivors trying to improve their lot, but numerous marauder bands (mostly small bands of 50-100 men) had sprung up and the state degenerated into chaos again. With the changing weather, the brutal drought of 1964, much of the state is a barren dust bowl now, and hundreds of communities are deserted and looted. Only along the rivers are their functioning towns and populations, some of them quite large and well-defended. The fallout rooster tail from the Offutt AFB strike stretched across western Iowa, leaving in its wake abandoned farms, derelict cars and skeletons. Army patrols from Omaha have been entering the interior of the state lately. 1) NUCLEAR TARGETS None. 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES None. 3) THE STATE AT LARGE Des Moines: This ruin has long been recognized as a true “ghost city ”, a hollow, largely intact ruin where only scavengers and vagabonds are known to travel. Though much of the western part of town is badly decayed from wind and the trespass of travelers over the past two years, some of the city is still a pot of loot. Ottumwa: There are islands of security, however, like Ottumwa, which is home to a well-organized survivor community of farmers. They are 600 strong and are all armed with side arms, shotguns and hunting rifles. They have running water, some electricity and are determined to hold onto their homes. Decorah: In this small college town, nestled into the valley of the Upper Iowa River in the northeast corner of the state, a very unique society is growing. In early 1963, the town's population had stabilized at about 3,900, with those that left having been replaced by refugees from the Twin Cities and Wisconsin. Amongst the refugees was a former History professor from the University of Minnesota, a world renowned expert on ancient Greece. Within a short period of time he had influenced the town's civic leaders to adopt a Spartan-style militia to keep out bandits and to keep morale high. The militia that developed with his help is by now one of the most efficient fighting forces in the Midwest. The leadership corps is based on a small number of Wisconsin and Iowa National Guardsmen who had straggled in over time. Some 900 men serve in the militia, mostly part-time, and they drill and train weekly. They have some M-14s and one hand grenade, but mostly they use civilian arms and bows. Sioux City: Western Iowa along the Missouri River is a heavily CivGov area, and it's militia has been called upon by the civilian leadership in Northern Virginia to project power in the last few months. Units of the Iowa Reserve Militia from Sioux City are currently up in South Dakota (see that state), though they are planning on returning soon. Waterloo: With the horrible drought in the area, Waterloo has withered away into nothing, leaving only dry empty ruins of what was once a potential boomtown. The remaining 50 inhabitants subsisted on scavenging (and venturing south to Ames and north to Fargo to trade these pitiful items). |
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MISSOURI
1) NUCLEAR TARGETS Date Type Target 10/28/62 SS-7 Saint Louis 10/29/62 AS-3 Kansas City 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES 35th Infantry Division ------35th Engineer Brigade ------------Bde HQ/175th Military Police Battalion--Saint Louis (425 men) ------------220th Engineer Company--Saint Louis (100 men) ------------1138th Engineer Battalion--Saint Louis (90 men) ------------1140th Engineer Battalion--Saint Louis (110 men) ------------203rd Engineer Battalion--Springfield (100 men) Engineers--Fort Leonard Wood 3) SAINT LOUIS The war: The McDonald Douglas aircraft assembly plant on the north side of town was nuked by a 6 megaton SS-7 low-air burst late on October 28, 1962. The blast destroyed surrounding property, Lambert Airport and thousands of commuters on I-70. Every man-made structure with six or seven miles of ground zero was instantly disintegrated by the blast wave. To this day, the northern wedge of the city is still radioactive and charred. Today: Saint Louis is a study in desolation and ruin in 1964. Time, nuclear fire and assorted vandals and punks have turned the city into a wasteland, firestorms, fallout and riots have reduce much of the city to charred embers. The suburbs are bad enough, but the inner city is just horrible. The roof of the baseball stadium has collapsed, City Hall looks like it was hit with a giant hammer, some of the older buildings, brick office buildings and hotels, have collapsed into rubble. There doesn’t seem to be a single intact window in the city. The Gateway Arch was blown into the Mississippi River by the blast wave and now sticks up like a giant, twisted pretzel and boaters on the river have to be careful not to hit it. The city's three largest hospitals have been demolished. The only bridges across the Mississippi River still standing are the Jefferson Barracks Bridge to the south and the I-270 bridge to the north and both bridges are well-guarded by local Missouri National Guard forces. Forrest Park and Tower Grove Park are full of refugees. Forrest Park is now a wild place, home to many animals escaped from the zoo. Because of its strategic location in the center of America, Saint Louis has become a natural catch-basin for refugees from the eastern seaboard and the Midwest. Army in the city: MilGov has several garrisons throughout the city, all of them elements of the Missouri National Guard's 35th Engineer Brigade, a component of the 35th Infantry Division with some advisors from MilGov Command helping. Its pre-war home, the brigade HQ is with the 175th Military Police Battalion, based at the St. Louis Planetarium/Chandolet Park with some 425 men, a few M-113 APCs and two UH-1 Iroquois helicopters. The 1138th Engineer Battalion (90 men) is at the Battalion headquarters in Jefferson Barracks, the 1140th Engineer Battalion (110 men) is at the stump of the Gateway Arch currently working to clear the river for better barge traffic, and the 220th Engineer Company (100 men) is based out of the Science and Technology building on the campus of Saint Louis University. Gangs: Several, less friendly, forces are vying for control of the rest of city today. The largest gang in the city is the 300-strong "Leather Knights", a motorcycle gang that controls the area around the St. Louis Library. A less powerful gang called the "Thunder Gang" is based in the ruins of Union Station and the tram tunnels beneath. The "Omega Force", led by former Missouri Senator Mason Bragdon with about 50 members and three civilian 4x4s is based in an abandoned shopping mall in South County and in the sewers. The large "Blitzkreigers" biker gang have a base just over the bridge in East St. Louis and at the Anheiser Busch Brewery which was claimed the brewery by squatter's rights in 1963 and have been making their own beer. They also are beginning to convert the huge stills to produce ethanol and methanol to run their bikes. They have something of a deal with MilGov to help police the refugees. The Blitzkreigers also are sitting on a gold mine and don't know it. Across the river, in the gritty industrial run-down suburb of Sauget there is a former gasoline-additive plant with an underground bunker holding 250,000 liters of number 6 fuel oil. The bikers control this area but have never bothered to loot it systematically. 4) KANSAS CITY The war: During the night of October 29, 1962, two Tu-95K-20 Bear Bs broke through the EMP-ravaged radar coverage and got to within a hundred miles of Kansas City before being detected. Interceptors were vectored to stop them but one Bear launched a AS-3 Kangaroo nuclear cruise missile at the city. That Bear was then brought down by a ramming attack by a USAF fighter. The missile impacted nearly on top of the Highway 291 bridge across the Missouri River in the northern part of the suburb of Independence. The blast was about 100 kT, far less than designed 800 kT due to a design flaw in the warhead, but still wiped out about a quarter of the metroplex. Between one and two hundred thousand people died as a direct result of the bombing, but the population of the city has remained high. The rest city was spared much of the fallout thanks to a storm front and the prevailing winds that day. Holding together: Abandoned by the state and federal governments during the chaos, KC found salvation in the strong leadership of Municipal Judge Dexter White. He organized the survivors and his strict rule kept things from falling apart too much. Today: In 1964 now-Mayor White has both sides of the city under control and is well into the process of rebuilding and cleaning up. The total city population, swelled by refugees lured here by the reports of safe haven, now number some 750,000. An aficionado of the Middle Ages, White has dreams of creating a feudal state in KC, but for now is content with restoring infrastructure and there is now running water in most areas and electricity for three hours a day for the common citizen if they pay their "power taxes". KC is now either the best police state in America or the worst dictatorship, depending on who you ask. Mayor White has put most able-bodied people to work across the city. Numerous work gangs are clearing wrecks and ruble and moving the dead to reduce the outbreaks of disease while other groups are scavenging gas from car tanks and collecting food to bring to centralized locations where it is doled out to the needy. In some areas they have repaired the broken water mains and gotten pressure up. Often these work gangs are escorted by armed policemen to protect them from marauders. The total number of trained police under uniform in the city is around 2,000, counting auxiliaries, and they are very well-armed. They also have an old UH-19 Chickasaw chopper with a 2.75" rocket pod bolted onto one side. There is still a uniformed fire department with at least one pumper truck as well. While most city streets and lesser highways are still choked with cars and wrecks, the I-635 bridge across the Kansas River and the I-35 bridge across the Missouri River are both open for travel, though there are roadblock checkpoints on either ends manned by police. The tenement blocks of North Kansas City are deserted, the remaining populace having moved into the southern suburbs. Of the western suburbs, Shawnee has been neglected the most by the Mayor because of all the work to be done still in the city proper and is now a ghost town with only a 1,000 or so refugees holed up here. The Army arrives: Recently arrived in the metro area is a 123-man company of soldiers who have recently returned from Europe with the USAEUR evacuation and comprising mostly of men originally from the Kansas City area. These men remained loyal to CivGov even though the evacuation was MilGov sponsored, and have made a long arduous journey overland from Savannah. They are tired, wore out and ready to find family and renew old friendships. They have an M75 APC, a jeep with a 75mm recoilless rifle and a jeep-towed M101 105mm howitzer. The unit is led by Colonel Derkszoon, a Dutchman, and they are fiercely loyal to him. Despite being such a small unit compared to the city militia, Mayor White isn't too happy about the soldiers being in his city, he thinks it is a challenge to his power. Mysteries: Of special note, of the two Tu-95K-20 Bear Bs that attacked the city in 1962, the one that wasn't shot down amazingly landed at KC Downtown Airport and the crew had tried to surrender. One of the crew spoke English and was negotiating the surrender on the runway when an enraged citizen grabbed a Tommy gun from a police officer and mowed down the whole crew. It was found later that the Bear was strictly a photo recon plane and carried no nuclear weapons. The current whereabouts of the plane are not known. In the northern suburb of Gladstone is the remains of a Nike-Hercules missile battery. There are rumors that the underground missile magazine at the base hides an intact nuclear warhead. 5) NORTHERN MISSOURI Between the two cities was once a land of open farmland and rolling fields of corn and wheat that have been emptied due to refugee rampages, disease, fallout and brutal droughts. Caught between Saint Louis and Kansas City, northern Missouri was crushed in a vise-grip of refugees fleeing the cities. Current populations of the scattered survivor enclaves range from just a handful, like in Trenton and Princeton, to over a hundred in Chilicothe. Columbia: Once a fair sized city, now strikingly devoid of human life except for a few stragglers combing the ruins for salvageable materials. This city was smashed by panicking refugees heading west from Saint Louis and east from Kansas City who met here and fought each other to death over Columbia's food and resources. The University of Missouri campus is deserted except for one senile old professor and several young students who had elected to stay behind and care for him. Moberly: This town is surrounded by a high wall of earth and junked cars, and the surviving 120 locals greet strangers with hostility (if not outright gunfire). They will tolerate only a few merchants, those from neighboring counties only, and even these are not welcomed warmly. Marshall: Holed up in the old Missouri Valley College campus here is a group of more than a hundred refugees, most from South Dakota. Hannibal: Along the Mississippi River, Hannibal is remarkably well preserved and mostly unlooted and a large boat here takes people and vehicles across the Mississippi River but it is expensive. Of special note, the Lock and Dam Number 22 to the south of Hannibal was the site of a major battle between MilGov and CivGov forces. The area is still littered with burnt out tanks and bomb craters. Whiteman Air Force Base: Groundbreaking for the base's Minuteman I ICBM complex was in April of 1962 and some work was done before the exchanges in October. No missiles were ever at the base, but a lot of valuable support equipment is still here. 6) SOUTHERN MISSOURI The southern half of the state, from Columbia south to the Arkansas border. While the open plains of northern Missouri were quickly and easily overrun by refugees, the rugged mountains and valleys of the southern half of the state kept most of the refugees out. A well-armed local populace also served to steer refugee in other directions. The Ozark Mountains region is now home to a large number of anti-government and anti-social splinter groups. Hiding in the forests are groups ranging from rural moonshiners and dope farmers to cult religions and neo-Nazi camps. Mark Twain National Forest: It’s a wilderness in there. Mountains and hills covered with forest and grass. The water is clear and cold with the hills full of all the game you want. Some settlements even have their own electricity, run from old gristmills on the rivers. These red-necked Ozark hillbillies are as stubborn as they come, and they don’t move easy. Their places are isolated and hard to get to. And generally, they’re well defended. Jefferson City: The former state capital of Jefferson City is a now rubble-strewn, looted and trashed. Though still home to some 3,600 survivors, civic organization is lacking, with people splintered off into little groups, in some cases in open fighting with each other. Any form of state government is long gone and the capital has been burned. A wicked bout of typhoid swept through the hill country south and west of Jefferson City this past summer, taking away many of the people who thought they had a chance to rebuild. Rolla: Home to some 300 well-armed but generally good people who make their living farming and fishing. Rolla does possess a valuable resource--a fairly advanced chemical laboratory on the campus of the University of Missouri-Rolla capable of turning out modest quantities of smokeless powder for the manufacturing of ammunition and other explosives. This lab, run by a couple of ex-high school teachers, and it's products are Rolla's primary trade goods. Fort Leonard Wood Military Reservation: Home of a group of US Army engineers, mostly support and staff of the engineer training school there. They mostly just try to stay fed and rarely venture off post. Springfield: This small city is now garrisoned by the 100 men of the 203rd Engineer Battalion, a Missouri National Guard unit officially subornate to the 35th Engineer Brigade in Saint Louis but in reality completely on its own. They often sends convoys up I-44 to Fort Wood to trade with the soldiers there. Ash Grove: Home to the "Ash Grove Boys", a violent marauder gang. Branson: A perfect settlement, with their own water supply and electricity. They raided the hillbilly Silver Dollar Theme Park nearby and from the old technology saved from the past, they now have leather working shops, bakeries, a place to cure meat, and enough farm land around close to raise wheat for bread. 7) THE BOOT HEEL This swampy patch of land has been severely depopulated by disease and refugee migrations. Many towns are now deserted and looted, while others, like Poplar Bluff (300 people), Campbell (500 people), Sikeston and Kennett, are homes to just rabbles of dirty survivors. Lake Wappapello is home to fifty or sixty thugs who are terrorizing the area. Caruthersville: An island of safety and an active river trading town on the banks of the Mississippi River. Jeremiah Starking has close to five hundred men, women, and kids here. Maybe a hundred of them are fighting men. He’s ex-military and knows what he’s doing. His people haven’t turned raider yet, but they’re not far from it. |
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Later: The Oil States (Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana)
A Quinn Martin Production ! |
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SECTION FOUR: The Oil States (Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana)
OKLAHOMA 1) NUCLEAR TARGETS None. 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES The state's 45th Infantry Division was shipped to Korea in 1962 and ravaged. Since that unit returned to Oregon in 1963, numerous deserters have made their way back home to Oklahoma. For the most part, these veterans just want to be left alone. 95th Infantry Division--Muskogee (1160 men, 12 AFVs) 3) OKLAHOMA CITY The buckle of the bible belt, Oklahoma City today is a thriving metropolis by 1964 standards. After the nuclear fallout and the paralyzing EMP waves, the rains came to wash and scrub the air clean. Once the derelict cars and buses were cleared away, the city began to go about its business again. Oklahoma City now has a number of operating oil wells within the city limits, including some derricks on the Capital grounds itself. Whatever the state of the rest of the nation, Oklahoma City did not starve for fuel in the chaos years, preserving its safety. The city is still home to the TV evangelist Oral Roberts who rules from his citadel in the city's northwestern Village suburb. His religious fervor is carried across the country by his KFSU radio station. Despite the prosperity, there are miles upon miles of deserted neighborhoods of overturned cars and weed infested streets. The western suburbs are largely depopulated and the southern suburbs are infested with gangs, including the "89th Street Bombers", who control the old Crossroads Mall off I-35. Things are starting to break down, however, threatening the security that the citizens have worked so hard for the last few months. The main reason could be the governor's refusal to allow the 95th Infantry Division (see below) back into the city after it returned from Texas this fall, which helped ease the food problem but also removed a large police force from the city. Competing forces of the state and city governments are beginning to fight for the city's valuable oil fields, using mortars in some cases. The area around Tinker Air Force Base was fought over by competing factions for days and is still a tangle of twisted girders, burnt-out buildings and piles of bricks and stones. 4) NORTHWESTERN OKLAHOMA From the north-south stretch of Highway 81 west to the Texas border and along the Panhandle there is virtually nothing. Nearly all the towns in between have been long ago abandoned, the residents that were not killed by fallout or marauders moving south. Enid: Now a deserted and trashed city. To the south, Vance Air Force Base has been looted so many times that it is not worth mentioning. 5) SOUTHWESTERN OKLAHOMA Chickasaw: The town of Chickasha is now home to a survivor enclave led by a man named Jesse Boston. There are four or five thousand people here and it seems that they are all heavily armed. They are, however, a racist bunch of punks who have run off or killed every non-white in the immediate area, enslaving several hundred for nefarious deeds. Grudgingly to his credit, Boston has cleaned up the town, restored sewer and water service and even turned the electricity back on. The main industry here is the manufacture of bicycles and ammunition, and trade with Oklahoma City is frequent and profitable. Lawton: Lawton is now under the control of this tyrant and his death squad soldiers. It is a nightmare growing more hellish by the day. Dark masked thugs go door-to-door in the shantytown suburbs arresting refugees and citizens alike who refuse to submit to the will of the supposedly "popularily elected" Mayor. Everyone knows that if you want your rations of food and want to drink clean water that you have to submit to the Mayor. But not everyone submits. Corrupt power resides behind 20-foot high walls constructed around a ten-block section of downtown where electricity had recently been restored with the help of archaic-looking windmills and where partially-rebuilt buildings of rebar and concrete slabs are covered in thick ivy and banners displaying the smiling picture of the new Mayor. The Mayor has some old artillery guns used to put down riots and to just let people know he was master of their lives. The guns came from nearby Fort Sill. People are often grossly tortured and all remnants of the old American way were no longer visible here. Fort Sill Military Reservation: Though close to the chaos and tyranny in Lawton, this base has been kept clear of that mess due to some treaties. The local base commander here, a Major Dugan, is still biding his time declaring for CivGov or MilGov, keeping his remaining troops busy policing the area in the meantime. His forces, mostly training staff of the Field Artillery Training Center, number only in the company strength by 1964. Many of these men are survivors of the 107th Signal Company, a Delaware National Guard unit that was sent here during the Berlin Crisis and was still here in 1962. Trapped by the chaos, most of the unit agreed to stay put. Altus Air Force Base: A former B-52 base, now abandoned with all remaining aircraft and personnel having gone to Colorado Springs in 1963. Also the home of a twelve-missile Atlas F ICBM complex. The empty silos are located in the towns of Lone Wolf, Hobart, Snyder, Cache, Mantiou, Frederick, Creta, Hollis, Russell, Willow, and across the river at Fargo, Texas. Elk City: A town under siege. The past three months have seen over a dozen well-executed marauder attacks on the small enclave, most of them coming from a motorcycle posse called “The Hello Nastie” based in the Black Kettle National Grasslands nearby. Elk City is running out of bullets. 6) EASTERN OKLAHOMA Tulsa: When the state government failed and crashed in the chaos, Tulsa was hit by severe rioting. The entire north side practically went up in flames, leaving just the skeletons of buildings. Marauder gangs then came in and all but took over some areas of the city. The police managed to regain some control by the summer of 1963, bringing law back into most of the city except for scattered areas of the north. Since then, Tulsa has seen dramatic population growth with most of the people coming in from rural areas in Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri, and the eastern portion of Oklahoma and the total Tulsa-area population is now nearing 100,000. In 1964, Malcolm Xavier, newly elected mayor, redefined Tulsa city proper as being anything south of I-244 to Harvard Avenue, and east of US-75. All territory outside of this boundary is not patrolled by the Tulsa police and is given up to the gangs and scavengers. To the north of the city is Mohawk Park, now home to biker gang called the "Wild Bunch". There are rumors that something "out of the ordinary" may be going on in the park, maybe something unnatural... Bartlesville: North of Tulsa, Bartlesville is a strong survivor community that is protected by security forces of the Osage Indian tribe, which have kept the town safe from most of Tulsa's more adventurous marauder bands. Muskogee: Now a MilGov US Army enclave. The city is home of the newly formed XI Corps HQ with the eventual mission to retake the Oklahoma oil fields and redeploy and protect Oklahoma and northern Texas. They are currently drawing up plans for this endeavor, set for next spring. The main component is the 95th Infantry Division (1,160 men, twelve tanks), a unit formed in Midwest City in late 1962 by redesignating the 95th Division (Training). The 95th was in Oklahoma City until last summer when it was sent south to stop the Mexican invasion. Plagued by bad leadership and mauled by the Mexicans, the division retreated back across the Red River, moving to Muskogee when the state government in Oklahoma City balked at having all those mouths to feed again. XI Corps is also keeping their end of the I-40 corridor to the MilGov enclave at Fort Smith, Arkansas open and there are frequent convoys between the two. The citizens of Tulsa are upset that the army units in Muskogee are not in their city instead, helping them against the gangs. The army, however, has no intentions of becoming a police force when it has better things to do just now. 7) SOUTHERN OKLAHOMA The southern edge of the state is a wild land of swamps, forests and lakes. Many of the small towns in the region, like Pauls Valley and Ardmore, are deserted and looted, while others are still hanging on. The whole area is home range to the "All-Caucasian Army", a white-only rabble led by "Generalissimo" Renquist that is terrorizing the area. They have two old Buicks with metal welded on as armor, a few M-14s and a 3.5" bazooka. Haileyville: Empty except for an old couple living in their farmhouse on the edge of town. They appear harmless and defenseless but they are not. The wife is a former surgeon and nurse, and the husband was a career soldier, ex-SF and Green Beret. They have three .30 cal and two .50 HMGs set up in the house to cover all possible routes and a short wave radio to keep up on events. |
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TEXAS
1) NUCLEAR TARGETS Date Type Target 10/28/62 SS-7 Dallas 10/28/62 SS-7 Houston 10/28/62 SS-7 Randolph AFB 10/28/62 SS-4 Corpus Christi 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES The state's two main National Guard units, the 36th Infantry Division and the 49th Armored Division, were both left in Texas throughout the war. As such, they were here to help defend the state against the Mexican invasion in 1964, though they were largely unsuccessful at that task. 36th Infantry Division--Dallas (1100 men, 4 AFVs) ------Able and Bravo Companies, 2nd Battle Group/142nd Infantry Regiment--Stratford (95 men, 4 AFVs) 49th Armored Division--Sherman (1200 men, 16 AFVs) "1st Free Texas Motorized Volunteers"--Amarillo (75 men) "First Cavalry Division"--Fort Hood, TX (300 men) Company--Pasadena, TX (125 men) Mexican Army: 2nd Brigada--Austin (1000 men, 3 AFVs) Veracruz Brigade ------1st Infantry Battalion--Pearsall (600 men) ------2nd Infantry Battalion--Uvalde (800 men) ------Bde HQ/3rd Infantry Battalion--Crystal City (600 men, 9 AFVs) San Luis Potosi Brigade ------Bde HQ/1st Infantry Battalion--Falfurrias (400 men) ------2nd Infantry Battalion--Raymondville (100 men) ------3rd Infantry Battalion--Rio Grande City (180 men) Saltillo Brigade--Beeville (400 men) Tampico Brigade--McAllen (600 men) ------2nd Infantry Battalion--Harlingen (300 men) Matamoros Brigade--Brownsville (400 men) 3rd Regimento Caballeria--Carrizo Springs (600 men,3 AFVs) Tercio Vanguardia--Larado (800 men, 2 AFVs) Agrupacion Jimenez--Larado (600 men, 3 AFVs) Tercio Liberdad--Corpus Christi (200 men) "Division Cuba"--San Antonio (1500 men, 9 AFVs) 3) DALLAS/FORT WORTH Nuked: On October 28, 1962, the metroplex was struck by a Russian SS-7 Saddler ICBM, which landed amidst the defense industries along Singleton Boulevard in western Dallas. The 6 megaton warhead dug into the earth before exploding. The blast area today is just low hills of rubble with only the major streets, forming intersecting patterns, remaining passable. For miles around the edge of the blast zone, all is blackened earth and shattered trees, a vast charcoal radius with the buildings perched along the edges of the zone mere twisted skeletons of concrete and steel girders standing like sentinels over the rubble field. Today: Dallas now resembles most of the major cities in America. Ravaged in the aftermath of the chaos, with no will or way to fight fires, thousands of buildings were destroyed and neglect has brought down many more over the years. Dust now cakes the streets, broken bits of glass lay under every window, trash and debris litter the sidewalks and streets, and the rusted hulks of cars and garbage clog the avenues. Packs of feral dogs and cats now prowl the alleys of the twin cities area, far outnumbering the 10 to 15,000 people still alive in the city today. The Army: The eastern edges of Dallas are now home to a US Army cantonment, situated around the Rockwell-Forney Dam at the south end of Lake Ray Hubbard. The garrison is the remains of the Texas National Guard 36th Infantry Division. The 36th ID has suffered greatly since the war, being chopped up in riot control operations in the Dallas area, mangled near Tyler in marauder operations, and further smashed by the Mexican invasion this summer. They did, however, manage to halt the Mexican drive at Waco and have gained much local praise and support for that. Since they retired here to rest and recover, the division has recovered nicely. Currently, they have some 1,100 soldiers here, along with two old M26 Pershing tanks, two older M4 Sherman tanks, and few jeeps mounted with 75mm recoilless rifles. They also have a small Piper scout plane. Many of the soldiers are originally from this area so they have received a better welcome than many US Army units have. The unit is loyal to the Texas state government and the governor in Sherman (see below), and they have frequent contact with the military units in that city. They are also working to reopen and control the I-30 corridor from Dallas to Texarkana, where they have set up a small outpost. The gangs: The still occupied areas of Dallas are cut up into fifty or sixty vaguely defined zones, each with a different "warlord" in control. You go a half dozen blocks in either direction and someone else is in charge. Control changes frequently, one gang will go out on a raid and another gang will move into their territory and then there will be a fight when the first returns. There are three notable large gangs in the downtown Dallas area today whose actions affect the whole dynamics of the city. "The Chosen" (150 men) live in the old Cotton Bowl and in the summer they like to run around naked and be crazy. The "Chains" (80 men) are led by second-rate warlord called "Blackeye" Farrel and they control the area around the intersection of Midway Road and Forest Lane north of I-30. The "Stompers" (70 men) by a man named MacNally, control much territory around Buckner Blvd and I-20, with his HQ in a warehouse. The Chains and Stompers are mortal enemies, constantly fighting each other, raiding turf and taking women. The. Fort Worth: The western half of the metroplex, Fort Worth is thriving on a limited basis, though still ravaged by years of neglect and chaos. The gangs, such as the "Arlington Vipers" who have raised packs of pit bulls to patrol their turf, still control some of the streets, but they are less active and dangerous than the ones in Dallas. Lake Worth is still relatively clean, and the fishing on the lake is still good. Both Forth Worth Meacham Field and Carswell Air Force Base have been abandoned, everything of value being trucked off to the enclave at Sherman. Carswell was also home to several large aircraft plants, mostly all stripped of the most valuable machinery and portable tools. These machines, vital for the fabricating of airframes, are kept warehoused in Sherman for the eventual day that the plants can be reopened. Once the military pulled out, the remains of the airfields and the plants were quickly looted by locals looking for anything that was left behind. 4) NORTH TEXAS Outside of the cities and a few isolated oasis towns, the wide open plains of North Texas are a forbidding land of dust and guns. Think of a wasteland of beached hills and scorched scrub, with summer temperatures over 110 degrees and more rattlesnakes than people. The war didn’t cause all this, but the horrible droughts of 1963 and 1964, combined with the lack of commerce and security, have made it worse. The war did force most of the people living here out, moving them north and east to more fertile areas. Behind them they left vast deserts of parched and blistered earth where once rolling grasslands that fed a million head of longhorn cattle. Numerous abandoned towns dot this landscape, tumbled down buildings and rusted cars are everywhere. North of Dallas, along the more fertile tributaries of the Red River, are two competing power centers in Sherman and Wichita Falls. Each claims to be the legitimate new capital of Texas. Sherman: In Sherman, north of Dallas, Price Daniel, the pre-war Governor, is still claiming power. The consolidated 49th Armored Division (1,200 men and sixteen tanks), a Texas National Guard unit, provides the muscle for Daniel's claims. The entire 49th AD was in Louisiana when the bombs fell and was called home to help the Texas government stabilize the situation. Desertion and constant action weakened the division to the point where when the Mexicans invaded in 1964, they were unable to stop them. They pulled out north, and settled in Sherman on the orders of Governor Price, who was concerned with protecting himself. Three of the division's sixteen remaining M48A2 Patton tanks are parked in reserve near the new state capital building. The tanks are all operational, as are five M113 APCs, but fuel and spare parts are in short supply and they are held for emergencies. The division is also short of ammunition, especially for the tanks and howitzers, but they are working to build up the industry in Sherman needed to produce more. At the local Perrin Air Force Base is the bulk of the Texas Air National Guard, now reduced to one B-66B Destroyer, four B-45A Tornados and a C-130 transport. The military is Sherman is in conflict with the Wichita Falls group, roving gangs from Dallas, and a host of marauder bands from Oklahoma. They have sentry posts between Sherman and Dallas to control immigration out of the metroplex with the four block posts located in north Dallas--one along I-35 about fifteen miles north of Dallas, one each along Highways 289, 75 and 78. They also work closely with their brothers in the 36th ID at Lake Ray Hibbard, and there is a fairly regular exchange of supplies and men between the two units. Wichita Falls: The other self-proclaimed new capital of Texas is at Wichita Falls. This "Governor" is James Thomas, who was the pre-war head of the Texas Department of Public Safety who has claimed power due to an obscure provision of martial law in the state's constitution. Thomas and his supporters, however, control only the immediate area around Wichita Falls. He has no plans for expansion as yet, and is truly concerned with building a better life for the people in his state. As such, there is little actual conflict between his group and the Sherman group. Wichita Falls is a neat little city of 11,000 people led by forward-looking people who have reopened schools and have produce enough food for a surplus. They also have a staffed and adequately equipped hospital, the former Wichita Falls State Hospital, now probably the best civilian hospital in the state. Abilene: East of Dallas, Abilene was the home of Dyess Air Force Base, now just empty, dust-blown ruins. Dyess was the center of an Atlas F ICBM complex, with the silos located in the towns of Abilene, Albany, Clyde, Oplin, Lawn, Bradshaw, Winters, Shep, Nolan, and Anson. All the silos are empty, their missiles long ago fired off. These abandoned sites have made great places for marauders and survivalists to hold out. The Republic of North Texas: A more fertile than most section of the open plains of north-central Texas is now the dominion of the grandly-named "Republic of North Texas". This is mostly a loose organization of ranchers, farmers and cowhands from area towns who have banded together for mutual protection and the common good. Towns in the republic territory include Childress, Tampico, Jayton, Quanah, Crowell, Chalk, New Delwin, Matador, Medicine Mound, Farmers Valley, Rayland, Lockett, Paducah, Grow, Rhineland, Vernon, Chillicothe, and Kirkland. The total population of the Republic is now probably 30,000 people total. Much of the Republic's current leadership comes from former members of the American Quarter Horse Association, a prominent and wealthy group of ranchers and horsemen in the area before the war. The Republic's HQ is now at a ranch outside of Paducah. The ranch now looks more like an old frontier post, with a fortified perimeter, lookout posts, and stake-filled moat. The leader is "Pop" Ewell, an old rancher in his seventies. An artesian well provides clean water for the enclave, a valuable commodity. The real prize here, however, is a tanker truck with some 5,000 gallons of gasoline siphoned from old underground storage tanks at an old drilling site near Greenville. Taking members from almost every town, they have formed the "North Texas Militia" to patrol the plains and rivers. The area is pretty isolated so the militia is content with dealing with the stray marauder and drunken cowpoke. Important assets of the Republic include a twin-engine Beechcraft airplane and a helicopter. "Nates": This fall, a new group of people have begun to enter the Republic of North Texas' territory. They are the "Nates", short for "Natives", the nickname of a large group of Kiowa Indians from Oklahoma who have moved into the area looking for fresh pastures. They currently have settled the area along the North Wichita River as far west as Hackberry. So far, they have yet to cause any trouble, though the militia is watching them closely. Haskell: This small town on the southeastern edge of the Republic of North Texas' territory is home to an unusual community of foreigners called the "Zealanders". These are native new Zealanders, former students and families who were attending colleges in Texas. When the bombs fell in 1962, they were meeting in Haskell for a kind of group retreat organized by the New Zealand Student Association at Baylor University. Many have left for other places since then, but most of them, realizing that getting back to New Zealand is out of the question for now, have stayed here and have formed a tight-knit community of traders and farmers. In 1964, they took over the abandoned power station at Lake Stamford and are refurbishing it. Many of them still long to go back home, but the dangers of the trip keep them from trying to hard. Comanches: Recently a war band of Comanches have entered the area, led by Chief Drawoher. They are raiding the area around Cross Plains and Rising Star, southeast of Abeline. These Indians are unconnected to the "Nates" mentioned above, and even are hostile to them. Tyler: Now home to the "Texian Congress", a right-wing nationalistic organization with roots as disunited bands of brigands and opportunists organized under the leadership of a man named Randan Soames. Though formed only in late 1963, the Texian Congress was strong enough by early 1964 to have ambushed and defeated a battle group-sized attempt by the 36th Infantry Division to clear them out. From this encounter, the military arm of the Congress, known as the "Texian Legion", acquired a fair number of US military equipment and vehicles. The Legion includes a healthy percentage of US Army veterans and avid hunters in their ranks, and they are fighting on terrain with which they are intimately familiar, making them dangerous and effective opponents. Due to this strong defensive presence, Tyler today is a clean, rebuilding town of about 50,000 people, still filled with cowboy hats and pick-up trucks. They have elected leadership within the Legion and are getting back on their feet. 5) THE PANHANDLE After the initial lawlessness following the bombs, the people of the Texas Panhandle settled down to live the best they could. After the first winter most of the people who depended on medical supplies for their survival (epileptics, diabetics, drug addicts, etc.) died and left a fairly healthy populace to carry on. There was plenty to eat in the area--before the war 25% of the nation's fed beef came from this area. All the survivors really had to do was plant some vegetables and wait for them to come up. The two companies of Texas National Guard infantry that were in the area did what they could for the civilians and refugees never really were a problem. Things went very well for the first year or so, the local police continued to do their job, the cattlemen and farmers continued to produce food, the refineries continued to produce limited amounts of fuel for local consumption and life continued. Granted, the people didn’t have the luxuries they once enjoyed, but they were alive, good wholesome people taking care of each other and getting on with their lives the best they could. But, things began to change once the harsh droughts of late 1963 began to affect the area. The young white men started to blame the minority groups in the area for the weather and the food shortages. The Hispanics and Laotians who had for generations worked the farms, ranches, and the refineries were targeted as being the problem. From there it spread to the small African-American population, they were to blame too. Then the violence started as the spring crops failed in the first brutal drought of 1964, first isolated fights between different race groups, then more serious violence. Martial law was declared and the police and Guardsmen took over the running of the area. Although the refineries still produce some refined fuel, most of the vehicles have fallen on disrepair due to lack of spare parts. Horses and wagons have returned as a primary means of transportation throughout the panhandle. Refined fuel is still used for lighting (kerosene lamps), heating (fuel oil) and fuel for the few remaining vehicles (fuel oil). Most trade is between towns within and surrounding the panhandle, traders from outside are rare (most fall prey to the bandits or elements before reaching the towns). The entire population of the panhandle has topped at about 15,000 people at this time. Those that live in the towns are well off as compared to their counterparts outside of the towns. In town the police keep the peace and generally let the people go about their business. Perryton: The northeast corner of the panhandle is home to a particularly large following of redneck trash, about 1,500 strong, led by an avowed racist named John Masters. They pretty much just tend their fields, tinker on their oil wells and generally keep to themselves. This won't last, however, as they are planning on spreading their hate soon. There are encamped in and around the town of Perryton. Borger: A small part of the Phillips Petroleum and Diamond Shamrock oil refining and storage facilities at Borger still work and are still able to produce small quantities of low-grade kerosene on a continuing basis. The Chief of Police patrols on horse back and still has the ceremonial sidearm of his office, a .45 Colt revolver. He has reverently maintained this sidearm and carries it everyday, but has no ammunition for it. With a population of 2,000, Borger has become the crossroads of the western panhandle, it is here that goods are brought to be sold to wandering traders. Stratford: Stratford is now home to the combined remnants of the Texas National Guard units that were stationed in the panhandle before the war, some 95 men total. These were Able and Bravo Companies of the 2nd Battle Group/142nd Infantry Regiment, a 36th Infantry Division component totally out of contact with the division HQ in Sherman. For the past year or so, the unit has basically gone native, settling down in this town and not answering the radio anymore. The 1,500 civilians help feed the unit in exchange for the protection. The Guards have heavily fortified the town, and this is now a tough nut indeed. Covering the approaches to the town are two immobile M-24 Chaffee light tanks. They are permanently hull-down, and their turrets are fully functional on manual backups; therefore night fighting will limit their firing to what they can see by starlight or from muzzle flash. They also have two more mobile M-24 tanks, five jeeps, a deuce-and-a-half truck, a 3.5" bazooka with one rocket, five BARs, and two M2HB heavy machineguns. The vehicles are relics from local Texas National Guard armories. In the past year the unit has been augmented by several groups of deserters from the 49th Armored Division, men whose home were in the area and left their unit to go home. Amarillo: The only real city in the panhandle is Amarillo, though today its not much of one anymore. The ruins here rise abruptly from the powdery yellow wasteland and reach into the sky, the tops of their once-magnificent glass and steel skyscrapers now little more than dusty skeletons of buildings. Filth litters the streets and the stench of death hangs everywhere. Amarillo College has been looted and vandalized by gangs of punks and the small Tradewind Airport is blocked and cluttered. In a district of warehouses and light industry that hadn't been too badly damaged by the rioting, various traders using the interstates through the city have set up a kind of “fortified community”, occupying several city blocks and encircled by a makeshift wall of old cars, barbed-wire fences, and fiberglass partitions scavenged from the ruins. Here, trade is conducted regularly during the day with local inhabitants and passing caravans, and shelter is offered (for a price) to those seeking it in one of the city’s boarding houses. There are about 3,000 men, women and children living in this camp. Armed with shotguns and the odd military rifle, the locals here often conduct raids into the surrounding downtown area to hunt bandits, which seem to be unusually abundant in the ruins. The military recently has sent details to nearby Amarillo Air Force Base salvaging what they can find and even steeling supplies from survivors one the east side closest to the base. They have gotten one of the runways patched up enough to allow in flights, they have three aircraft here: a one-engined airplane, an old twin-engine CH-37 Mojave and an older UH-19 Chicksaw chopper. Working with the military contingent is some irregular forces. A motel complex off I-40 is the base camp of the 1st Free Texas Motorized Volunteers (75 men). This half patriot-half road vigilante group is responsible for local security and patrol in the Staked Plains area. They are nominally loyal to the Republic of Texas government in San Antonio, but they are in reality much on their own. They have numerous civilian vehicles, many set up to act as "Q ships" for ambushing biker gangs, and a .30 cal armed jeep, and have two 37mm anti-tank guns liberated from National Guard armories. The commander rides in a jeep with a 57mm recoilless rifle on it. Personnel weapons are a mix but include some M2 carbines. 6) CENTRAL TEXAS Waco: South of Dallas, Waco was the furthest extent of the Mexican advance towards Oklahoma. The drive stalled more because of the Mexican's overstretched supply line final snapped than any efforts on the American military's part. Soon after the Mexican entered the town, it was shelled to pieces by the 36th Infantry Division, and they looted and burned with gusto when they "recaptured" Waco after the Mexicans pulled back south after a few days, Waco was then thrashed again by rioters and scavengers when the 36th ID abandoned the city and headed back north to Dallas. Ravaged by all this, barely one-percent of the population still lives here. Fort Hood Military Reservation: South of Waco, this base was one of the largest military posts in the nation. Mostly abandoned when food supplies became scarce in late 1963, the base was stripped of everything of value, shut down and only a caretaker force of stragglers and volunteers was left behind to basically fend for themselves. Under the command of Colonel Killian, the 300 or so remaining soldiers left here formed a patchwork division operating under the unofficial name of the "First Cavalry Division". While they are mostly horse cavalry, they have scratched together an armored platoon with four old M26 Pershing tanks and a few M75 APCs. When the Mexican Army came up I-35 in 1964, the First Cavalry Division put up such a strong show of force that the Mexicans wisely bypassed the base and headed on north to Waco. Along with the military personnel, the base is now home to some 1,600 scraggly refugees squatting on the base perimeter. Living conditions are miserable and the Army men can do little for them. Colonel Killian is firmly MilGov and has recently aligned his unit with the government in Sherman. His loyalty is more than lip-service, and he has sent a detached company down at the Space Center near Houston at the request of the Sherman leadership. Austin: The radiation fallout rooster tail from the Randolph AFB strike severely depopulated Austin in 1962, and riots and the predations of refugees in later years have left it a gutted shell. A former rail transportation hub, the majority of rolling stock and engines were obliterated during the war. Those remaining are slowly rusting in the city's rail yards, unable to move on the shattered lines. Despite being so severely damaged, Austin today serves as the northernmost stronghold of what is left of the Mexican invasion force. The city's garrison consists of 800 Hispanic militiamen (serving part time) and the NATIONALISTS' 2nd Brigada (1,000 men and three captured American M41 tanks). The troops here have a fair amount of motorized transport with ten or twelve big one- and five-ton troop trucks, ten semi trucks, and three big tanks liberated from the US Army. The officers are Hqed in the Ney Museum, with troops barracked around the city. They have done little to control the population except for roadblocks at major roads. While they actually control little beyond the valley around the city, they occasionally patrol as far south as San Marcos, where they have a small outpost. They are currently hunting the countryside west of the city for a rumored treasure. There are a number of armed Americans in town now, deserters from the 49th Armored Division. So far they are not a problem, they just want to be home. In a deep-shaft shale-oil mine complex are supposedly several tons of supplies and food placed there by the Texas state government in the 1950s. When the Randolph nuke hit, the seismic wave collapsed the mine entrance and no one is left alive to pinpoint the exact location. 7) SAN ANTONIO Randolph Air Force Base to the northeast was nuked by a 6 megaton SS-7 low air burst late on October 28, 1962. The bomb landed a bit off center, but close enough to wipe the airbase and the surrounding area off the face of the planet. A 200 foot wide and 150 foot deep crater remains at the spot underneath where the bomb went off. Though hammered by the nuclear strike, the riots and the chaos, San Antonio kept on its feet though the long dark months. By mid-1963, the city was well on the way to recovery. Over 200,000 people were still in the city and were determined to rebuild. Rebuilding is a major task--the eastern half of the city towards the AFB is a radioactive ruin, the northern suburbs are full of rows of burnt-out tract houses, and cannibalism is still a problem. Revival: In late-1963, the city became the new capital of the secessionist "Republic of Texas", led by "President" George Bush, a former Texas oil tycoon and master organizer. Bush, and his two sons Jed and George Jr., have worked to clean up the city, concentrating on the downtown area within the I-410 ring road, which hadn't been too badly effected by the nuke and the chaos. Press-gangs of civilians are clearing out rubble and pushing car wrecks to the side to open up roads. The Bush's rule from the Spanish Governor's Palace in the middle of the Military Plaza, as the top half of City Hall was taken off by the Randolph strike. He has over 3,000 armed men at his disposal, along with a lot of salvaged support weapons. There are two local TV channels working in town, both repaired after militant Hispanics blew them up earlier, with power coming from natural gas pumps. They have recently began trading with the Russians encamped southeast of the city, trading for food and fuel. In the parts of the city not under the Bush's control, various minor gang leaders and Hispanic street warlords are the local power bosses, but they are small enough to not be a threat. Invasion: Then, in May of this year, the Mexicans crossed the border. As it unfolded, and became obvious that the Mexicans were going to reach San Antonio, the city panicked again. President Bush worked to quiet the civilians and get them to build up the southern defenses. The hasty preparations probably would have stopped the Mexicans anyway, but they had already decided to bypass San Antonio and head for Dallas. Nuclear deterrence:As the Mexicans drove around the eastern side of the city, a local US Army commander in Austin decided to use ultimate means to stop the drive in his sector. He fired two low-yield tactical nuclear artillery shells at the suburb of Selma, then hosting a concentration of Mexican troops and vehicles. The Mexican drive didn't fragment, however, and was still able to push on to Austin. The nukes burned out several square miles of land, leaving radioactive craters to poison the survivors. For lack of information, many people in San Antonio believe that the Mexicans had nukes. Hotbed: Today, San Antonio and it’s citizens are a major pain for the Mexicans and Soviet Division Cuba, from 80-year-old grandmas to teenagers who were being taught by cadre from the ROTC departments of the three colleges in town. There were a large number of military vets that had settled down in San Antonio that have taken up arms again. There are even some urban gangs that have turned into patriots. Division Cuba: The San Antonio area is also the home of the remnants of the Russian "Division Cuba", now held up in the far western reaches of the city and content to scheme and plot a way back home. These men are former Russian, Hungarian, Czech, and even Chinese "advisors" and trainers who banded together after the smashing of Cuba. At the time of the invasion there were about 42,000 men in Cuba, and they gave a good account of themselves in defending the island. Unfortunately, the SAC nuked the island hard after the war started and by the end of the year only about 5,000 of them were still alive. The division, or what was left of it after the mess in Cuba, worked its way across to Mexico in early 1964, escaping the radioactive horror of that island with every piece of equipment they could scrounge up. In Mexico, they found a Marxist-leaning government who was excited at having a Russian Army unit help them in their plan to conqueror Texas. The Russians went along with the plan, and were trapped in South Texas when the Mexican drive fell apart. The unit called it's own independent ceasefire and began looking for a place to encamp. They found it around the prime fishing grounds of Calaveras Lake, just a dozen miles southeast of San Antonio. They have total control over their immediate area, comprising the entire lake shore and the towns of Palm Park, Sasparnco and Elmendorf, but have little interest in any more offensive operations and have even began to trade with the civilians in San Antonio. In some ways, the Russians are good neighbors--they don't cause much trouble and their presence helps keep many marauder bands away from the city. Their strength is now about 1,500 men with seven operational tanks (mostly captured American but with some Cuban T-34/85s), two captured M19 anti-aircraft tanks, three BTR-60s, twelve assorted former US and Mexican APCs, ten trucks, fourteen jeeps, and two 10,000-liter tank trucks full of carefully husbanded diesel. The division's commander is General of the Army Issa Pliyev, a stodgy old warhorse best know for his command of cavalry forces in Manchuria in 1945. He was the commander of the Russian forces in Cuba when the war started and was the one who authorized the first use of tactical nuclear weapons against the invading Americans. Rumor has it that the Russians are planning on marching west for California in order to find shipping home, perhaps turning over their heavy equipment to the Americans or Mexicans for a ride much like the Americans did in Germany. A small group of Russians made the overland trip early this fall and are now in San Diego trying to contact their comrades in Texas. 8) SOUTH TEXAS South Texas between San Antonio and the border is a patchwork of abandoned and looted towns, Mexican army garrisons and marauder enclaves. As the invasion built up speed, most of the whites in South Texas wisely headed north, and today the area is probably 90% Hispanic. When the Mexican government disintegrated into the competing CONSTITUTIONALIST, NATIONALIST and ALLIANCE factions, the invasion abruptly stopped. The various garrisons now have different allegiances to the various factions in Mexico based on the affinities of each unit's leaders. Manpower figures given for individual units usually include large numbers of local levies from amongst the more militant young Hispanics. The CONSTITUTIONALISTS in South Texas: The CONSTITUTIONALIST faction controls the 1,600-man Veracruz Brigade, with 1st Infantry Battalion (600 men) in Pearsall, the 2nd Infantry Battalion in Uvalde (800 men with four Cuban 122mm howitzers but little ammunition for them), and the brigade HQ and the 3rd Infantry Battalion (600 men) in Crystal City. Today Crystal City and the surrounding valley are rich in agriculture, the area having been spared much of the radiation and fighting. With such an opportunity for prosperity, the townspeople have risen to the occasion and today the city feeds much of the surrounding countryside. The nearby state prison, the Connally Institute for Correction, was transformed into the Brigade's fort. It is now very formidable and would be difficult to take. The Mexicans have assembled a hodge-podge of armored vehicles here, hoarding them for some eventual use, though most of them are museum pieces or refugees from the Mexican National Guard. They have one of the last running M3 Lee MBTs, an M8 75mm self-propelled howitzer, an M3A1 Stuart, an M5 Stuart, five M4 Shermans, and a captured M75 APC. The local airfield has three Mexican Air Force planes but no fuel for them, but the Mexicans guard them day and night just the same. Just recently entering the CONSTITUTIONALIST fold are two smaller units. The 3rd Regimento Caballeria (600 men with an M4 Calliope fire support vehicle and two other AFVs) is in Carrizo Springs, they have several mortar squads but little ammunition and their HQ is set up in an old architect's office. To the south is the San Luis Potosi Brigade, also recently converted to the CONSTITUTIONALIST credo. The brigade is now split with the brigade HQ and the 1st Infantry Battalion (400 men) in Falfurrias, the 2nd Infantry Battalion (100 men) in Raymondville, and the 3rd Infantry Battalion (180 men) in Rio Grande City. The NATIONALISTS in South Texas: Along with the Austin garrison, the NATIONALIST faction controls the Saltillo Brigade (400 men) in Beeville. The Brigade HQ is in a large ranch house just north of town, amidst a large Mexican refugee camp of perhaps 40,000 people living in cardboard and tent shanties. The Brigade is under the command of General Rivera and has twelve jeeps, four two-and-half ton trucks, eight three-quarter ton trucks, a 10,000 liter tank truck carrying methanol, and five appropriated civilian cars--all vehicles converted to run on alcohol. The troops are armed with an assortment of weapons, including 7.62mm M1954 bolt-action rifles, AK-47s, M-14s, and Mexican-made hunting rifles. They watch over the many refugees who farm the fertile and well-watered land below Lake Corpus Christi and the Wesley-Seale Dam. The have outposts at George West and Mathis and run frequent patrols through Victoria. South along the border, the NATIONALIST movement also controls elements of the NATIONALISTS' Tampico Brigade, split with the brigade HQ and the bulk (600 men) in McAllen and the 300 men of the detached 2nd Infantry Battalion in Harlingen. McAllen is a particularly large town, now supporting a population of 50,000, about half Mexican refugees, with most of them living by working the surrounding citrus groves for the Mexican government and the local army units. The ALLIANCE in South Texas: The ALLIANCE faction controls the large city of Larado, still home to 30,000 residents, mostly refugees, mostly starving and living in temporary camps along the Rio Grande River. The Alliance unit here is the Tercio Vanguardia (800 men, 2 AFVs), formerly the Monterrey Brigade of the Nationalist Army, and also the Agrupacion Jimenez (600 men, 3 AFVs), formed from deserters from the Saltillo and Tampico Brigades. Their HQ is in the old Federal Building in Jarvis Plaza close by the US end of the International Bridge, with a large supply dump located on the grounds of the former Larado Air Force Base. Laredo is constantly under attack from bandits and marauders and a cholera epidemic is brewing in the slums, 8,000 people have died this year already and are buried in shallow mass graves north of the city. As well, the ALLIANCE is the only faction that has troops in the Corpus Christi area. Banditos on the loose: Several other Mexican units have turned marauder in the area. The Bandera Rodriguez, a 400-man Mexican marauder band (formerly the 2nd Regiment of the Nationalist Ciudad Victoria Brigade), is holed up in Kingsville. They also control the Chase Field Naval Air Station to the NE, but all buildings here have been destroyed by fire, and the rubble has been picked over many times by parties searching for food, fuel and weapons. As well, the Bandera Benito Juarez (100 men), formed from elements of various Nationalist defectors and local guerrillas, is currently wintering in Gonzales. 9) CORPUS CHRISTI The beautiful port city of Corpus Christi was nuked by a 1.2 megaton SS-4 MRBM launched from Cuba on October 28, 1962 that air burst over the gas and oil fields and the refineries west of the city. Fires burned for months afterward, and the local casualty rate ran close to 70%. Anyone who survived fled inland, leaving the ruins to the rats and roaches. Today: The western districts of the city still contain small amounts of residual radiation, but the remainder of the city is now free of radiation danger. The ruins have been searched by dozens of marauder bands, soldiers and local defense groups over the years. Still, much of the city, and particular the outlying suburbs and nearby towns to the east and north, has sustained little damage. Few people live in Corpus Christi now, though a handful of rugged individuals farm areas which once were parklands or landscaping by the entrance ramps for highway interchanges. Mexican Army: The ruins today are home of the ALLIANCE's Tercio Liberdad (200 men), formed from defectors from the Nationalist Saltillo Brigade, led by Corporal Huerta. They have a variety of sporting and military small arms, but no military vehicles and just a few horses. Corpus Christi Naval Air Station: Abandoned and destroyed by Americans during the general withdraw in 1963, it is now the home of a band of marauders called the "Baby Squad". Almost 200 bandits, led by Grady LaMarr, are quartered here among the modern "hotel" barracks which formerly housed naval pilot trainees. Rubble from destroyed buildings has been piled up by hundreds of civilians forced to labor under the marauders' guns to make a fortified wall around the control tower building, which LaMarr uses as his HQ. The men are heavily armed, with six .30 cal machine guns, a number of rifle grenade launchers, and two 60 mm mortars with about thirty rounds. Extra weapons are stored in an arsenal bunker behind the tower and a motor pool includes two M59 APCs. The MGs have been stripped from the APCs but they are otherwise in working order. Also in the pool are eight civilian cars and eight jeeps. About 600 civilians are held outside the fort behind a barrier of rubble and concertina wire which encloses a number of barracks. 10) BROWNSVILLE The major Mexican holding in Texas is Brownsville, with a current population is around 70,000, almost entirely Hispanic. The city is not currently aligned with any of the political factions, but all are actively trying to convert the leaders in the town. Work gangs of civilians under guard are building a sandbag and rubble wall around the town now. The International Bridge is guarded by barricades on either end, and manned by armed troops with machine guns and a toll of food or ammunition is collected for travelers. The real power in town is a former Mexican drug cartel sect called "La Familia". They number around 400 mercenary types and they are armed with a variety of submachine guns, civilian sporting guns, and a small number of heavy machine guns and military weapons. The cartel's leader is known as "El Jefe", and his power base is in the City Hall and Market Place in the center of town. Brownsville is also home of the Matamoros Brigade, a 400-man Mexican Army unit (nominally NATIONALIST) that now answers only to El Jefe and can be considered mercenaries. Numerous trucks, jeeps, and APCs are used in Brownsville, most converted to methanol use, though a few still use gasoline and there are small quantities of gas and oil still available. The troops are armed with a mix of automatic rifles, Mexican M1954s and assault rifles, Browning .30 cal and DShK machine guns, and a small number of Russian Bazookas and US recoilless rifles. They have also deployed 60mm mortars at key defensive positions around the city perimeter. Port Isabel: Down the Rio Grande River to the Gulf of Mexico, rumor has it that Port Isabel, now home to about 5,500 people, mostly refugees, is now held by a Swedish mercenary group also paid by El Jefe. There are armed fishing boats and launches anchored at Port Isabel on the mainland side of the Laguna Madre. Brazos Santiago: Offshore, the Brazos Santiago Coast Guard Station and the lighthouse that lies between the southern tip of South Padre Island and Brazos Island are occupied by at least 60 El Jefe marauders. There are a number of small craft-motor launches, pleasure craft, fishing and shrimping boats armed with machineguns and grenade launchers that are used as an ad-hoc coast guard. 10) OTHER SOUTH TEXAS TOWNS OF NOTE Hebbronville: Home of the "Jim Hogg Irregulars", a racist organization of local thugs that are determined to purge all Hispanics from the area. They patrol an area roughly 30 square miles, centered around the town. They are armed with a variety of weapons, including M-14s, AK-47s, Mexican military rifles, shotguns, and sporting rifles. Shiner: This town, north of Victoria, is known for producing a locally-brewed beer called Shiner Bock. Owing to it's location, Shiner is plagued by attacks from Mexican marauder gangs to the south. Local residents have been kidnapped and held for ransom. This usually includes several barrels of Shiner Bock. Shiner is protected by the town militia. The militia, guided by the mayor Bob Kreiger, has been able to stave off most threats to the town proper. Kreiger is a former Texas Ranger and has strong contacts within the Texas Department of Public Safety at the capital of Wichita Falls. The militia consists of 60 volunteers organized into four platoons. Militia armament consists predominantly of old hunting rifles and shotguns with some automatic rifles. Most of the recruits are young people between the ages of 18-25. Normally the town militia fields only the scout platoon fulltime, with the other platoons dividing their time evenly between military drilling, town projects and apprenticeships. The militia commander is currently Captain James Kreiger--the mayor's youngest brother. The mode of transport used by the militia varies from an ancient 1920 patrol cruiser to Palomino ponies and rebuilt motorcycles. The brewery has managed to continue operating on a limited basis by using locally grown ingredients. Goliad: An old P-51 Mustang, restored by a private collector, still runs recon and ground-attack missions on rebels patrols and refugees. 11) VICTORIA Victoria: The most notable city not under direct Mexican control in South Texas is Victoria. A virtual metropolis by 1964 standards, Victoria now has a population of nearly 84,000, many of whom are refugees from San Antonio, Corpus Christi, and south Texas. Many of these refugees live in temporary camps south of the city along the banks of the Guadalupe River. It serves now as a trading center for goods coming into Port Lavaca destined for other parts of Texas and holds a strategically important position between it and San Antonio. There is some evidence of the war in Victoria--numerous factories and industrial plants, including DuPont, Alcoa, and Union Carbide, now stand stripped and empty or burned out. Two rival groups are HQed in Victoria today, the "South Texas Grange" and a 200-man local branch of the "Texian Legion". Though not openly at war with each other, harassment on both sides has erupted into low-level warfare with riots, stonings, and gunfire on several occasions. The Legion has its HQ in a warehouse on the east side of town. The Grange is established in an apartment complex two miles to the west. Neither group is strong enough to challenge the nearby Mexican Army enclave at Beeville, which runs occasional patrols through Victoria but otherwise leaves the city alone. Government is carried out by a town council which includes both Grangers and Legionnaires, and by an armed militia numbering several hundred. There is a local Mexican military governor, but he is in the pay of the Victorian town council, and turns his back on most activities. Trade is carried out through barter, Mexican Pesos, or gold or silver. Port Lavaca: The ocean port of Victoria is Port Lavaca. Small, ocean going craft still trade out of this port and some cotton is harvested and traded out of the area. The city supports a population of around 22,000 and food is plentiful. Many of the refugees live in shantytowns of plywood, cardboard, canvas and sheet metal throughout Calhoun County as a large number of the buildings in the town proper were destroyed in the riots after the nukes fell. The city is ruled by "Mayor" James Calhoun, with a town militia of several hundred. The harbor is crowded with shipping, with several freighters, ocean tugs, and oil rig motor launches having come here to wait out the war now unused or abandoned, and large numbers of fishing and shrimp boats. The refineries and oil storage tanks in the area have long since been emptied and most oil wells have been shut down and capped off, though a few small wells have been reopened and produce small amounts of poor-grade crude. A causeway connects Port Lavaca with Point Comfort, home to the ruins of chemical and aluminum plants. The town has been ravaged by two years of riots, looting and fighting. Matagorda Air Force Base: Off shore of Port Lavaca, Matagorda Island is now completely desolate, exposed, and deserted. Matagorda AFB was stripped and blown up when US forces evacuated from the area and nothing remains but crumbling brick shells and the charred frameworks of empty Quonset huts and hangars. 12) HOUSTON The war: A vital port city and oil production center, Houston was nuked by a 6 megaton SS-7 that airburst low over the northeastern part of the city during the night of October 28, 1962. The northeast Houston skyline is now mostly unobstructed by skyscrapers and other creations of man. Many skyscrapers have been flash-melted to molten slag as seismic waves made the ground heave, rupturing gas lines to feed the firestorm. Of many other buildings, only the foundations remain. Thousands of cars and buses have been contorted into rusted abstract forms, their paintwork uniformly scorched black. Millions of tons of incinerated rubble mercifully conceal the numerous skeletons beneath, although one doesn’t have to look far for signs of human destruction. Vast stretches of rubble now lay between the charred structural-steel skeletons as whole city blocks were leveled by the shock wave. The warhead burst over Jacinto City and the zone of total destruction extends from there four miles in every direction. The only fortunate thing to happen to the city was that on the night of the nuke, a gusty wind blew most of the heavy fallout southeast out to sea. Houston today: Despite the damage to the city, there is a considerable population living in the ruins, especially around the city's western and southern outskirts where both radiation and ruin are not as bad as in the northeast area. Former park areas have been cleared and are used for agriculture, and rubble and many standing buildings have been converted into small fortresses both to keep people in and out of the city. Today, there are still over 23,000 people in the Houston area, a surprisingly large number all things considered, but they are well spread out and mostly in the suburbs, and all fighting each other. There is a salvage swap-meet of sorts in the still-radioactive hypocenter of the burst, where the fires and the pressure waves have created a large clearing in the center of the city. The meet is open to both blacks and whites. Black and white: Houston was also ravaged by race and food riots, the winters of 1962 and 63 were especially brutal, even this far south, and many died from exposure. The whites controlled the suburbs, the blacks the inner city and during the chaos the whites cordoned off the ghettos and wouldn't let the blacks out. Expressways were blocked and guarded, the same with bridges and avenues, and the ghettos became unlivable deathtraps. The whites raided National Guard and Reserve armories to get mortars and cannons, and began shelling the inner city. It was a regular war. In early 1964, a force of whites invaded the ghettos and downtown areas, slaughtering all the blacks they could find before retreating to the suburbs again. The race wars have created a physical wall to separate the two sides, started by the black communities south of I-610 in the first brutal months of the chaos. The wall runs down the middle of the I-610 inter beltway, with white militias patrolling north of it and black militants below. It stretches from Lawndale Avenue near the Houston Ship Channel (where it consists only of barbed wire) westward to where the road curves north in Bellaire (where it finally ends in another loose skein of wire in a white neighborhood). In between the wall is built of cement and cinder blocks, wrecked and stolen cars, burned and stripped semi-trailers, upended furniture, broken concrete, bricks, and skeletons. Every major road in the inner city is unfit for vehicular travel and fires often rage through large parts of the city. The Black Aces: The black neighborhoods in South Houston horrible human remains are now ruled over by a violent bandit gang called the "Black Aces". The Aces are led by a man named Jonas Williams. Williams quickly forged his empire out of the chaos following the nuclear strike and the ensuing racial violence, eliminating all the smaller gangs in the southern ghettos and forcing tribute from others until he had sovereignty over them all. He has nearly quadrupled the size of his "army" since then and it is he who built the wall down I-610 to keep his territory separate. His HQ is now in a miraculously intact Holiday Inn and has worked to fill it with the choicest of loot and salvage and enjoys looking down from his penthouse at the carnage that he rules through a powerful telescope. Oddities in his collection include a Mercury space capsule from the NASA center in Pasadena, a stuffed woolly mammoth from the Museum of Natural History and even a yellow cab. His main cohort is a man named "Schizo" Streczov, a former surgeon at the Manned Spacecraft Center who now is his torture specialist. The Baron has amassed a large amount of weaponry scavenged from all over the city. The Brotherhood: The southwestern suburbs of Houston are the home range to a group of Hispanic bandits called "The Brotherhood", a very strong force of rabble that pushed their way up slowly from Mexico behind the Mexican Army drive this summer. The Brotherhood is run by a man whose title is "Kamfyurer". The Kamfyurer's real name is Jorj, and apparently is quite the tactical genius. His force is estimated at twenty thousand people of various sorts, mostly Hispanic Americans looking for food and Mexicans who were lured across the border by Jori's promises of plunder. They wear no uniforms and their weapons range from fancy assault rifles to bolt-and-lever actions rifles of odd calibers. His trump cards are two M41 tanks (one of them without it's turret) and three M59 APCs that he claims he "bought" from the First Cav in Fort Hood. No one is quite clear how he got them, however, as the Americans surely wouldn't sell him anything. NASA Manned Spacecraft Center: Located southeast of the sprawling rubble of Houston, this center is in decent repair, in fact it's condition is far better than actually can be expected and has been just recently reoccupied by a small salvage team from the government in Sherman. The facility is lightly defended by seven US Army Green Berets from Sherman, and a company of the First Cavalry from Fort Hood (125 men and two M75 APCs). The overall commander is named Pale. To aid in the defense, they have armored and armed several earth movers found at the site. They have had to beat off several strong attacks from rag-tag elements of the Brotherhood recently and are now extremely low ammunition--they are down to a clip per man. The military presence has brought out the civilians looking for protection from and now there is a sizeable number (200 plus) of women and children within the center complex. Texas City: Looted, savaged, fought over and shelled numerous times and finally burned, there is not much left standing. The port is wrecked, with dozens of ships having been sunk in the harbor. Starvation is rampant in the few survivors here. The I-45 bridge across to Galveston is down, isolating the latter from the chaos in Texas City. La Porte: Home of a growing body of marauders, led by "Surtur, the King of the Raiders". They are being encouraged and supplied by the Jonas William's Black Aces in Houston to soon attack Galveston. Right now there are some 500 here, armed with light arms, a few heavy machineguns and some mortars. To help accomplish this, Williams has gathered a small "navy" to blockade Galveston when the time comes. The navy consists of about 25 former pleasure and fishing craft, armed and armored, and one US Navy PT boat. The PT has no torpedoes but it's cannons are operational. Galveston: The Houston Ship Channel from Galveston Bay almost to the San Jacinto Monument is a huge black scar. The waters still shine from leaking oil and the shallows are clogged by years of charred flotsam and sunken ships. At the ocean-end of the channel, Galveston, which has escaped much of the chaos, retains much of it's former identity. Isolated from the mainland by the downed I-45 bridge, the city has been growing. Though depopulated, the port still has some trade ongoing and fishing boats still ply the waters off here. It is most noted for being a pirate base and clearing house for their looted goods. The pirates, generally known as the "Shrimpers" because so many of them were once shrimpers operating from Galveston, number about 1,500 total including dependents and captives. The pirate "fleet" consists of five sailing schooners rigged with small arms and boat hooks. The flagship is the 140-foot Lucia, a fast and agile sailing yacht. The most heavily armed (and sluggish) boat is the 125-foot Tooth of Horan, which mounts three small cannons starboard and three more at the stern. The other boats of the fleet are the Windon Wait, the Darwip, and the 40-foot Kapinta. Offshore, the scattered oil rigs have become the home of these pirates and renegades. The largest is now called "Paradise Cove" and is the main pirate stronghold in the gulf. They have many armed boats that operate from here. Their prize is a medium-sized oil supertanker that they recently found wandering in the Gulf of Mexico. They want to try and get it operational again to make a floating traders' bazaar for the remaining port towns. They also want to try and get it armed and make a floating fortress. Mystery: Sometime in the last six months an abandoned submarine washed up ashore on the coast southwest of Galveston. It is a World War II-vintage Balao class diesel sub. The pirates there haven't found it yet, thankfully, but several local fishermen know of it, but they are afraid of it and avoid going near it. The sub is empty of crew, but otherwise intact. The logs will say that she was abandoned off the coast of Brazil in 1963 by her crew after a mutiny, though how she made it all the way here is a mystery. The engines are still operational and there are five torpedoes still aboard 13) WEST TEXAS Notable only for ribbons of cracked pavement stretching into the deserts, passing though deserted and looted towns. For hundreds of miles there is nothing but rattlers and armadillos. The rule of thumb is that to survive in West Texas you need two of three things: brains, numbers, or big guns. Communities exist in the area, though they rarely are larger than small hamlets. All the same, these villages are home to over half of the region's population. These societies sustain themselves by either gathering or, more commonly, subsistence farming. There are also bandit and raider groups that live by praying on small communities; these groups are rare near areas with strong infrastructure. Some survivalists, Mexican Army deserters, nuts, individualists, and poor shmucks live in alone or in very small groups in West Texas. Like others, they usually survive on subsistence farming. The Rio Grande Valley on the border with Mexico south of Highway 90 is an empty quarter with nearly all the small towns being deserted, burnt and looted. The Mexican Army this summer was able to rush through this area almost unopposed because there was no one there to even notice them. Midland: Home to a small petroleum operation run by the locals. They sell their oil to anyone with food. Big Springs: Now home to a struggling survivor community, 105-strong. The surrounding area is being terrorized by an outlaw bandit force led by a Hispanic warlord called El Sangre Dio, "The Blood God", as he is called. At last report, the Blood God could field over a dozen jeeps and light trucks, nearly 100 motorcycles, over 150 foot soldiers, and at least one modified tractor-trailer. Reports of a helicopter are unconfirmed. Dio had been a mechanic at the race track near Lake Dallas before the war, and this knowledge of engines has helped him maintain his gang's cycles and vehicles. Webb Air Force Base: This airbase to the south of Big Springs was devastated by a rat-borne plague, and there are now only five surviving servicemen here. San Angelo: This former city of a million people has seen some rough and tumble times. The city core is littered with the ravaged shells of banks and state offices, and surrounded with a ring of filth and dust. The southern suburbs of the city are now nearly completely abandoned to the dogs and the snakes, the majority of the remaining citizens clustered in the downtown business area. These helpless people are now controlled by a marauder gang called the "Angelinos" led by a man named Mekong Mike. Mike used to be a big-time drug runner from Mexico, now his business is women and guns, much more valuable products. He has built a low wall around parts of the downtown area and the northern freeway approaches are controlled by roadblocks. Just this fall, there was a schism in the gang, with a group of forty or so marauders under "Mad Dog Michigan" splitting off and moving northeast to Strawn, west of Fort Worth. Here they have built a fortress out of an old truck stop and are planning on attacking San Angelo next spring to get revenge on Mekong Mike. Lubbock and the nuke: Out on the barren plains of northwest Texas, Lubbock is a ghost town with lingering radioactivity keeping all but the most desperate refugees away. Early this past summer, as an expeditionary force of Mexican cavalry pushed though the area, the US Army commander in the section authorized the use of nuclear weapons to halt the drive. A 10 kiloton nuclear demolition charge severely damaged the industrial section of the city. Most of the transportation network through the city remained intact, however, when the Mexicans reformed and occupied the hulk a week later. Soon after, the city was the target of two American nuclear artillery shells which devastated what was left. After that the Mexicans left Lubbock for good and headed back south. It is a radioactive ruin now, inhabited by barely 50 scavengers. The Caverns of Sonora: These deep caves are now inhabited by a band of cannibals. Fort Stockton: What little of this town that has survived the droughts and refugee migrations was burned by a marauder gang last summer. Fort Stockton is notable for having a hidden treasure. In an abandoned and forgotten warehouse missed by the marauders, there sits a bank armored car containing some 30 million dollars in now-useless cash. El Paso: In the far western spur of Texas is El Paso, now occupied by Mexican forces. The whites fled the city as the Mexican invasion became certain during the summer of 1964, leaving it almost 100% Hispanic. This historic border city is now the home base of the popular religious movement known as the "Army of Christ the King", led by a sixteen-year old virgin prophet girl named Hermana Luz. She showed up in August of this year and has quickly galvanized the city's Hispanic population. She has promised the immediate return of Jesus and is organizing the populace to rebuild the city before the Second Coming. In 1964, she has at least 20,000 converts, mostly from the urban slums around central El Paso and they have in just a few months made the city stable again. The military arm of the "Army" is led by a former Israeli Navy Captain who is more interested in adventure than religion. His "Sword of God" is a mixed brigade of uniformed soldiers, Indian auxiliaries, and Mexican freebooters. They are armed with the best weapons and material that looted National Guard armories and Fort Bliss can provide. Vehicles include two M-113 APCs along with a large number of jeeps and trucks. The civic leaders here have begin to re-open the Community College campus, having scavenge needed equipment and texts for the new center of learning from the old University of Texas-El Paso campus. Scattered about the hills to the north and east are the mangled remnants of the US 2nd Armored Division, which was sent here from Fort Hood to try and contain the invasion last summer and was crushed by a combination of bad planning and ambushes. Fabens: This town now guards the eastern approaches to El Paso along Interstate 10. A force of soldiers of the "Sword of God" have built a fortified wall blocking the freeway consisting of auto wrecks filled with earth and broken chunks of concrete stacked three deep. Along the edges, pits have been dug to trap any vehicles attempting to bypass the roadblock. The troops here also have a single 106mm recoilless rifle with several dozen shells to further deter any gate crashers. |
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ARKANSAS
Always culturally and historically backwards, the war and chaos has only sent Arkansas further back in time. Ravaged by starvation and banditry, the state is now the haven for various fringe groups, like New America (a well-organized white supremacy structure) and other radical extremists. 1) NUCLEAR TARGETS Date Type Target 10/28/62 SS-6 Eaker AFB 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY UNITS Arkansas' major National Guard units, their part of the 39th Infantry Division, were called up the day after the nuclear strikes to help the Governor maintain peace and order. In December, the three battle groups were tapped to go to Europe and were shipped down the Mississippi River to New Orleans for embarkation. They were fed into the furnace there and never seen again. Left in the state then were mostly service and support units, and most of these concentrated in the state capital of Little Rock. 100th Division (Training)--Fort Smith (300 men, 23 AFVs) 3) NORTHERN ARKANSAS Eaker Air Force Base: This SAC bomber base, the state's lone nuclear target, was destroyed by a 6 megaton SS-7 ICBM ground burst late on October 28, 1962. The nuke mostly flattened the town of Blytheville and the fallout forced the surrounding area to be evacuated. Every single building has suffered damage of some sort. Towns to the west as far as Paragould are still empty and radioactive. Since then the base has been picked clean by scavengers and military salvage crews. New America in Northern Arkansas: Home to a large and growing pocket of New America which has designs on more. They have garrisons in most all the important towns in the area, controlling the population with a combination of protection racketeering and heavy-handed force. Minorities and those that do not agree with the NA philosophy have been largely run out or eliminated. There sphere of influence stretches from the Missouri border south to roughly Interstate 40, east to within fifty miles or so of the Mississippi River and west to nearly Fayetteville. The military and civil governments in Little Rock, Fort Smith, and Memphis are complacent to the NA advances, and it is widely known that many high-placed politicians and military commanders are NA sympathizers. The HQ of the Ozarks New America cell is somewhere along the shores of Lake Conway just north of Little Rock. This closeness to the state capital has fuelled the rumors that the state leaders are in bed with the NA. The leader is named Emile Hite, a former used car salesman from Chattanooga. Hite saw the ICBM streaking in for Atlanta and in a haze of illegal drugs, interpreted it as a sign from God that he was destined to rule the nation. In many towns the townsfolk despise the heavy-handed soldiers and a rebellion is seething, while in others there is abject surrender. In many areas, neighbors have turned on each other, trying to gain favor with the NA soldiers, and violence is common. It is estimated that only about 10% of the regions population has converted to the New American philosophy, and many of those in name only. The part of the population that has converted to the New American credo has begun to wear blue armbands. The area is patrolled constantly and it is difficult for strangers to pass unnoticed. Towns that resisted occupation were often burned or dynamited, the citizens killed or carted off. NA Air Force: The Ozarks New America cell can claim some 1,800 fighters, of varying degrees of skill and fervor. About a third maybe are hard-core racists and the rest are just thugs with guns. The key to their power, however, lies in unique airpower. The NA cell has several large dirigibles and ultralights that are used to move men and patrol the area. The main blimp base is in the Lost Valley State Park. The airships, supplies and manpower quarters are located in the many caves in the park. There are 250 soldiers in the park, and 250 more noncombatants which include technicians, laborers, executives and slave workers. Vehicles include jeeps, pickup trucks, autos and a few military trucks. The security forces are well organized and armed with a huge arsenal of M2 carbines, M3A1 grease guns and Thompson SMGs, rifle grenade launchers, 60 mm mortars, a few towed 37mm anti-tank guns, and a miscellany of shotguns, hunting rifles, and such. Also stored in the caves are five air-launched Bell GAM-63 Rascal cruise missiles stolen from the ruins of Eaker AFB before the salvage teams arrived. The Rascal ALCMs are retrofitted with crude warheads and guidance systems and are planned to be launched by the airships. There are three airships in the valley, two in operation and one fitting out. A large New American garrison of 500 watches the vital town of Harrison and the airport northwest of town, the main staging area for the New American air force. Supplies for the airship fleet (weapons, ammo, food, fuel) are stored here. Airships frequently resupply here rather than enter the tricky Lost Valley canyons, as well as during bad weather. The airport is also site of most ultralight activity. There are always 20-30 ultralights available here, either disassembled, assembled, parked in hangers or stored in a supply shed. The population is tightly controlled, with escaping civilians hunted down by ultralights and then retribution exacted on hostages. Fayetteville: The NA cell's next major push is at the large town of Fayetteville on the western edge of their territory. The population here numbers 56,000, mostly refugees from Fort Smith and Tulsa and they are understandably worried about the spread of the NA to the east. There is a militia in town armed with shotguns and hunting rifles. NA leaders are currently studying the best way to take over such a large population without creating alarm within either the US Army or local governments. Several towns just east of Fayetteville, such as Eureka Springs and Huntsville, have recently been emptied of civilians and repopulated by soldiers and sympathizers to be used as staging areas for the planned takeover of Fayetteville. Little Rock: Still remains the seat of government, protected by the remaining bulk of the National Guard. The Capital Building is still in use, but the lawns are crowded with the tents of the militia now. Parts of the city are suffering from a wave of recent riots, but the militia polices the streets and maintains order, rationing food, electricity and fuel. The Cammack Village and the Allsop Park District have been completely razed by fires. The new governor is Felix Morris, an outspoken supporter of MilGov and the leader of the State Militia. The militia is armed with a variety of weapons and even has a few Israeli-modified Sherman tanks with 105mm guns that were at Camp Robinson Military Reservation for trials when the war started. Governor Morris is, however, unwittingly controlled by advisors who are New America plants. Fort Smith: There are now 100,000 people in the Fort Smith area, mostly refugees from the west and south. They live in shanty towns north and east of the city. The local militia is led by retired US Army colonel William Simms and 2,000 men, mostly former police, National Guard, civilian vigilantes, and borrowed troops from nearby Fort Chaffee Military Reservation. The city itself is not particularly run down, although not much is getting fixed or improved. The government in Fort Smith has nothing to do with the government in Little Rock. Fort Chaffee is also the home of the MilGov 100th Division (Training) (300 men) currently helping fend off any marauders and to act as a check on New American advances in the area. They are also keeping their end of the I-40 corridor to the MilGov XV Corps in Muskogee, Oklahoma open and there is frequent convoys between the two. In October 1961, this Army Reserve Training Division was ordered to active military duty to open the training center at Fort Chaffee and it is still here today. The division is a tight, compact unit, with some 300 men, and has become more of an armored unit than a training one, with nine M60 tanks, four M48A2 Patton tanks, seven M47 tanks, three old M-36 tank destroyers, eight M113 APCs and a battery of four M109 SP howitzers. Despite the relative peace of Fort Smith, the division is slowly disintegrating as a coherent military unit. Morale is quite low and numerous groups of soldiers have already split away and gone back to their homes. The wild frontier: In the areas of the north not under NA or state influence towns are usually either abandoned or each occupied by a small number of people. They mostly survive by fishing, farming, and hunting and regard all outsiders with deep suspicion and are little effected by the events in either Little Rock or the rest of the world. The social and political patterns resemble the early 1800s. Justice and law are very basic, the "he stole the horse so we hung him" type of law is in effect. Barter is the universal form of exchange. Bullets, antibiotics, fuel, and whisky are worth their weight in gold. They will often trade food and homemade booze for guns and ammo, but will be generally wary of strangers. In towns close enough to larger cities to be inundated with refugees, conditions are terrible with starvation and disease rampant. Typhus, Yellow Fever and dysentery are especially bad. Notable among the last is Russellville, home to about 8,000 miserable refugees, mostly from Fort Smith, and Batesville which boasts eight or nine thousand struggling citizens. 4) SOUTHEASTERN ARKANSAS This is a region of muddy flats, fetid swamps and cotton fields. The area has suffered much since 1962, with the low level of medical services and general bad sanitation making the epidemics of 1963 and 64 especially harsh. By 1964, uncounted small towns in Jefferson, Desha, Drew, Lincoln and Ashley counties are deserted and looted, their residents either succumbing to disease or their desperate neighbors. As well, the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers have seen some massive flooding in the past year and many small communities have been completely washed away. A few of the ones that still survive note follow. Monticello: The main enclave of security and civilization in southeastern Arkansas is centered on the University of Arkansas at Monticello campus. The survivors at the university have managed to create a self-sustaining society that is prospering in these tough times. Before the war there was a large SCA medieval recreation group active on the campus and in the post-chaos years their organization and low-tech knowledge were valuable. They now hold places of honor on the campus when before they were geeks. The ROTC cadets and the Campus police became the militia and the surviving faculty stayed in charge and oversaw everything, led by the school's former Vice-Chancellor Donald Strumm and a counsel of Deans. The rest of the students and the surrounding population became citizens. The old Central Administration Building of the university serves as the seat of government now. There is also a functional hospital on campus, with a staff of seven physicians and 23 nurses and medical assistants. The fields of the area are ordered and sufficient and a couple of mills are going to process the grain. They have more than enough to eat, and if they wanted to, they could probably really dominate the area agriculturally. Their militia is rather effective. The militia is well-trained but their weapons aren't the best--they have some M2 carbines but a lot of their troops carry old bolt-action rifles, M-1s and Lee-Enfields. They have six old surplus M-8 Greyhound scout cars and some jeeps and two deuce-and-a-halves. They've got They have a lot of cottage industry: little cotton mill, dying, light metal industry, a distillery to make ethanol/methanol for their vehicles, and a small setup where they reload empty rounds. The radio network is basic and they use a telegraph to reach nearby outlying areas. Pine Bluff: Protected by earthworks and other fortifications, including one or two large caliber guns. A quiet city of farms, fields, and horse-drawn plows that makes things for trade but pretty much keeps to themselves. Pine Bluff is run by a town council of mostly Catholic church folk. Of note, to the south of the town is a mysterious sealed-off cave, rumored to be a Presidential Emergency Bunker. A few local boys found an air shaft and entered the cave one day last summer. They swear that the bunker had five concrete and steel rooms, as well as several rough hewn caves extending from the walls. Several sets of human remains were there and the bunker appeared to have been picked over. Except for the rusted remnants of a large black limo, there was nothing of worth. Inside the limo were the skeletal remains of four people and a worn, rotted briefcase with a rusted handcuff attached to it (the "football"--the bag with all the Presidential War Codes?). As well, in a second rotted leather bag, was the Seal of the Office Of The President Of The United States Of America. The boys didn't bring any of this to the town--but won't say why--but do claim that they found the remains of the last President Kennedy. True? Saint Charles: An old riverboat steamboat on the White River now serves as the community center for this town. The people here have a working Ag-Cat biplane cropduster floatplane, with a .30 cal LMG mounted WWI style over the upper wing and an old WWI-veteran pilot flying it. Stuttgart: Stuttgart was destroyed by refugees and fire leaving the city is a shell. Almost two years of erosion and decay show their handiwork on the small city, abandoned and overgrown suburbs are being taken over by the vegetation. The ruins are still home to a number of rough survivors and thugs. To the north of the town is an old abandoned power plant. Riverside, south of Stuttgart, still supports a population of some 40 farmers clustered mainly around the ruins of a motel/shopping plaza. 5) SOUTHWESTERN ARKANSAS Murfreesboro: Home of the Crater of Diamonds State Park, now controlled by a local white supremacy group called the "Confederate Commando Corps". They have pressed most of the remaining 3,800 citizens into working the diamond mines for their own gain. The CCC are ruthless taskmasters, working their slaves to the point of death under highly dangerous conditions. Camden: Home base of the ultra-fundamentalist Christian sect called the "Children of Caanan". They suspect everyone to be Satanists and kill all unbelievers they come across. The leader is called the Prophet and he currently has over 300 fanatical troops. Hot Springs: One of the biggest survivor enclaves in the area, run by a man who calls himself "The Gov'ner". Dumas goes through Gov'ners pretty quick these days, but this last one has been around about a year and he's got potential. They have 130-160 men in a militia but are woefully short of firearms. They do have a Civil War relic cannon. |
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LOUISIANA
1) NUCLEAR TARGETS None. 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES 39th Infantry Division ------1st, 2nd, and 3rd Battle Groups/156th Infantry Regiment--NE Louisiana (2000 men) 3) NORTHERN LOUISIANA Monroe: This area is now the home base for the largest MilGov force in the region. Enclaved here are the 2,000 Louisiana National Guardsmen of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Battle Groups of the 156th Infantry Regiment, a component of the 39th Infantry Division. The HQ is in Monroe, and is known as "Base Camp One". The territory that they actively patrol extends from the Arkansas border south to about forty miles south of Monroe then east to the Mississippi River. They have been trading with the survivor enclaves in Vicksburg and Jackson, both in Mississippi, for some time now and have several representatives in each town. Shreveport: Now home to some 5,000 remaining citizens, most in the outskirts as the city center was burned to the ground during the chaos. The community is now run by a strange counsel of men known as the "Ranks of the Fit". A small motorcycle gang of white supremacy skinheads is based out of the suburb of Bossier City and are the main threat to the survival of the city. They are well armed with automatic weapons and such and their bikes are in good shape. 4) SOUTHERN LOUISIANA After the nuclear strikes and the breakdown of civil government, the ORFCS (Old River Flood Control System), a complex system of levees, dams and controlled flood plains, broke down and "Old Man River" did what it had been trying to do since the 1840s--change course. In 1964, the Mississippi River now flows into the Gulf through the mouth of the Atchafalaya River near Morgan City. This course change radically affected the water table in the old delta (which was the man reason for the ORFCS). Most of the fresh water supplies of the cities downstream of Baton Rouge were hopelessly contaminated with salt water. Life in the old delta quickly became untenable and the population was forced elsewhere. The former delta is now drying up as the river flow has slowed to a trickle. With the lifeblood river having left, the people of the delta fled in droves, leaving the swamps to the mosquitoes. The drought has been incredibly brutal in southern Louisiana, further depopulating the area and today only a few coastal fishing villages survive. Radiation has made the sawgrass and cattails grow at accelerated rates over the last two years and in some areas the boglands have swelled so much as to dry up much of the standing water. In a few decades there might not be any open water for miles in some places. Baton Rouge: The state capital of Baton Rouge was hit hard by epidemics and is also now largely depopulated. New Orleans: New Orleans is now largely empty and large parts of the outer suburbs are being reclaimed by Mother Nature. When the Mississippi River changed it's course, this city died. The Gulf of Mexico quickly rushed in to fill the empty river bed, causing widespread flooding and destruction. Most of the city was built on mud flats and landfills, and these were eaten away, taking whole city blocks with them into the muddy water. With this came disease and pestilence, even small pox, further depopulating the city. Today there are around a thousand, maybe just a few hundred, people still left in the half-sunken city. Based in an apartment block of one of the drier suburbs is the Brazilian Expeditionary Force Exercito Centrale led by General-de-Brigada Carlos Alberto Pinto Silva with a company of soldiers and one EE-11 APC. They are here just to salvage and explore, though their presence in itself is a mystery. The real dominant power in the damp, battered city is probably the "Black Snake Society", a voodoo cult brought into New Orleans in the last year by refugees from the southern Louisiana swamps. Donaldsonville: This Mississippi River town between Baton Rouge and the New Orleans bayou is home to a group of pirates living in the remnants of the small shipyard. The bandits, known as the "Iron Society", have been plundering villages along the waterway for some time. They have eight large recreational boats and have shown over thirty well-armed individuals. There are questions, however, about where the pirates are getting their seemingly ample fuel supply. Lafayette: This city, which managed to avoid most of the radioactive contamination of the Texas strikes due to some lucky fluke of wind and weather, has had it's population swollen to the breaking point by some 50,000 refugees. Sanitation is the main problem here, with disease killing hundreds a week and the dead piling up in the streets. Port Sulphur: Just west of town, in the rapidly drying former river delta, is an old petroleum plant. While the installation has definitely been hammered by the weather and the grounds are a haphazard mess, there does look to be some reasonable chances for reopening it as the pumps themselves are intact. The Cubans in Louisiana: Franklin, in south-central Louisiana, is now home of the remnants of the Cuban 21st Motor Rifle Regiment. This unit has been stranded here since November 1, 1962, when the Skate-class nuclear attack sub USS Sargo attacked the Bulgarian freighter A.B. Buzko off the western coast of Cuba. The A.B. Buzko was begin used as a makeshift troop transport for the 21st MRR evacuating devastated Cuba for Mexico. The ship lost two props and a rudder from a Mark-37 torpedo and was lucky to stay afloat. Carried by the currents, the ship drifted north to Louisiana and eventually beached on a sand bar in Atchafalaya Bay. The Cubans moved quickly north into the town of Franklin and proceeded to subjugate and isolate the town. For many long months now, the citizens have been under the thumb of the erratic commander and his force of Cuban troops; forced to serve their every whim. Those that resist often find themselves in a concentration camp of sorts that the Cubans have established in the coastal swamps. Have recently made contact with what is left of the Cuban government, the Cuban leadership dispatched a ship just last month with reinforcements. The ship is the ex-Soviet Kotlin-SAM class guided-missile destroyer Bessledny, now renamed Cienfuegos by the Cubans who took her over when she was found adrift. There are 200 Cubans aboard the destroyer and they have come ashore to join with the Franklin garrison. They have big dreams of eventually conquering America for Cuba. |
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SECTION FIVE: The Great Lakes (Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio)
WISCONSIN The state in 1964 is a wild and wooly place, but perhaps the hope of the future as well. The state suffered a nuclear strike and large areas of the state are empty and barren today. Disease, shortages and exposure took their toll during the chaos and many local communities were left to their own devices. The predations of marauders have made life tough, but the land is good and food was plentiful until recently when some shortages began to be felt due to the drought. Despite these problems, Wisconsin is heaven compared to most of the rest of the nation 1) NUCLEAR TARGETS Date Type Target 10/28/62 SS-7 Lake Geneva (overshoot) 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES The state's 32nd Infantry Division was mobilized and shipped out the Saint Lawrence in 1962 and demolished in the European theatre. In late 1962, the 84th Infantry Division was formed in Milwaukee by redesignation of 84th Training Division (US Army Reserve) and was employed to internal security and disaster relief missions. Pressures of the job and the unstable supply net caused the unit to move out of the cities and relocate to LaCrosse in 1963. 84th Infantry Division--LaCrosse (2500 men, 20 AFVs) 3) THE STATE AT LARGE Eh?: Some Canadian military units have recently launched raids against marauder formations into northern Wisconsin, which have brought protests by both CivGov and MilGov but no great concern from the individualistic citizens of those states glad to be rid of a few more marauders. There is some question where these incursions are official sanctioned by the Canadians or the actions of rogue units. Lake Geneva: Hit by an overshot 6 megaton SS-7 ground burst aimed at Chicago on October 28, 1962, and is now just a radioactive windswept ghost town, picked clean by wary survivors. A vast, glass-lined crater is all that remains today of the city. Madison: The former state capital is now a gutted ruin. Around the city buildings are broken and blackened from fire. Milwaukee: Destroyed by riots, the city of Milwaukee now consists of three isolated enclaves of survivors surrounded by a burnt-out urban husk. The enclaves are centered around the Saint Francis Seminary, the old breweries, and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus. The group controlling the breweries still turns out limited amounts of beer, but the main product is a limited amount of ethanol and methanol for burning in engines. The market for this is large in the city. Menominee: Home of the "Free Republic of Wisconsin", founded and led by Kari Mortikai, an Asian woman in her 30's. LaCrosse: The unchallenged oasis of security in this state is the river town of LaCrosse. The outskirts are fortified and the town is in fairly good structural shape and boasts an ever-growing refugee population, many from Minneapolis and Chicago. The number fluctuate but are about 52,000 by now. Currently garrisoned by the CivGov 84th Infantry Division. An former training unit with 2,500 men, a number significantly boosted by reinforcements from local militias, overall division command is under General Leger. This is an all-Wisconsin unit that has worked hard to make the town's defenses formidable. While strong on manpower, the unit is even stronger in armored vehicles and firepower. At the east entrance, five M48 Patton tanks are barricaded by a low brick wall, the engines won't start, so they are basically metal pillboxes. They also have ten other M48s which operate--one stationed on the north wall and the other on the west wall. Other assets include a WWII-era M24 Chaffee tank with no rounds for it's 76mm main gun, two M88 Armored Recovery Vehicles, six M59A1 APCs, two M40 155mm self-propelled guns with it's tracked FAASVs, four LVTP-5 amphibious tractors armed with MGs and grenade launchers, and a pair of elderly 75mm-armed M3 GMC anti-tank halftracks dug in behind the city's wall. Additionally, they have six WWII surplus M3A1 White scout cars, and numerous deuce-and-a-halves, five-ton trucks, and civilian pickup trucks. Personal weapons are mainly M-14s, but several homemade Sterling-type weapon types are being introduced to their numbers. The base defenses include at each side of the compound a well-riveted and dug-in mortar pit, each holding eight 81mm tubes. In the dead center of the base, not far from HQ, is another pit with six 4.2 inch mortars in place. Each pit is well-manned and those crewmen are very competent. They have .50 caliber and .30 caliber MGs along the town's perimeter wall. They are low on the munitions, however, as they have been battling marauders virtually non-stop for months and are just now beginning to set up reloading industries. For their 90mm tank guns they are down to basically a vehicle's base load per track and have scarcely fifty 155mm rounds left for the self-propelled guns. They also have very little 75mm left for the GMCs and are down to a couple of hundred rounds for each machinegun type. Ammo for personal weapons and grenades are okay. The enclave here runs frequent cross-border patrols throughout southern Minnesota, with a permanent outpost being centered in the town of Red Wing. |
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ILLINOIS
Illinois in 1964 is an interesting place. In the south, the rolling hills are held by MilGov, the central plains are a scattering of independent city states, and the north is dominated by the crumbling ruins of the Chicago metroplex and strong CivGov forces. The state government is trying but pitifully weak and the few remaining functioning cities manage their own affairs. Outside of the organized areas, the vast majority of the area's populace are hungry and desperate. Food, weapons, and medical supplies are the three most sought after commodities. 1) NUCLEAR TARGETS Date Type Target Note 10/28/62 SS-6 Chicago 10/28/62 SS-6 Chicago Missed 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES Total CivGov forces at the Naval Training Station (435 men) 33rd Infantry Division--Cairo (3200 men, 61 AFVs) ------1st Battle Group/178th Infantry Regiment--Robinson (400 men, 13 AFVs) 3) CHICAGO The war: A trio of 6 megaton SS-7 were launched at the city during the night of October 28, 1962. The first undershot and hit far to the north at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin (see that state for details). The second ground burst in Garfield Park in downtown Chicago. The third missile was also off-target but not by as much and landed in Lake Michigan off Glencoe. The radioactive water sprayed for miles up and down the waterfront, causing many casualties, but also putting out many of the raging fires caused by the Garfield Park strike. This fortunate rain of quenching lake water saved much of the structures along the upper waterfront. The nuke: The Garfield Park strike was the death of the city, exploding over the most built-up area of the city. Being a ground burst, it caused massive localized damaged but not as widespread if it had been an airburst. The zone of total destruction extends from Lincolnwood in the north, to Cumberland Avenue in the west, to 55th Street in the south, and all the way to the lakefront in the east. The hypocenter area is a wreckage-strewn moonscape, with the impassable streets, buildings bent giants, hulking shadows of burned brick and sagging beams. No building is recognizable at this point, everything is a uniform layer of charred rubble. Nothing of value exists here anymore. Death of a city: In the weeks following the nuke hit, most of the outer city was in flames. The firestorm swept through those areas of the city which were not in rubble, destroying many of the structures that had survived the blast. The destruction was nearly complete. Over half the native population died in the first two weeks. Those who remained alive had to flee into the countryside, where disease and marauders took many more. As the radiation died down to tolerable levels in early 1963, people began to slowly move back into Chicago. Very few of the returning citizens could give a rational reason for their returns to a blasted hulk like Chicago, but those went back never thought of an alternative. Chicago was their home, and that was reason enough. These "settlers" began to hack out a bleak living from the ruins, trading such things as metal and stone to their neighbors in the countryside. Their numbers were small at first, due to a justified fear of radiation, the presence of tens of thousands of unburied corpses and the accompanying diseases, an the skyrocketing rat and insect populations. By the late spring, however, the situation was somewhat better. The settlers began to dig up rubble in order to farm the land under it. The easiest locations for this were parks and greenbelts, both common in Chicago. Separate communities began to form around the largest of the cleared plots, mostly conforming roughly to the pre-nuke suburbs. Within these communities craftsmen and specialized laborers quickly appeared. Over time, the population of the inner suburbs rose to some 3,000 total and things were looking up. To take it all away: Unfortunately, all was not to remain happy. A marauder warlord known as the "Black Baron", originally from the area of Milwaukee, moved into the city in the fall of 1963 to make it the base of his operations. The Baron was once a part-time riot-duty policeman in Milwaukee named Thad Black. His original army of marauders, cutthroats, deserters and hangers-on moved in virtually unopposed, settling in the Broadview area around the old VA hospital where the Baron had once been a patient. To supply his troops, the Baron began to extort what food and other supplies he could from the various communities in the region in exchange for "protection". The protection, of course, was from the depredations of the Baron's own soldiers. By the beginning of 1964, the Baron's army had swelled to nearly four times the size it had been when he first arrived in Chicago just three months before. He now virtually rules the inner suburbs and is thirsty for more. The inner suburbs: There are now a number of communities of settlers and original residents in Chicago, each under its own government system, if any, and each possessing different attitudes towards the Black Baron. These include… Broadview: While it was extensively damaged by the nuke, the topography of the immediate area saved a large part of the suburb from the blast effects. Fires did race through the area, but there are many larger buildings still standing. It is here that the Baron has set up his empire, basing it out of the old Veterans Administration hospital. The VA hospital is an imposing concrete block building, now fortified and bristling with guns. Marauders once used this building as a base before the Baron. The main roads are being cleared to promote travel. The problem is that the Baron has spent too much time and effort this year building up his army and not enough time planting food. The winter looks to be difficult for him, and he is understandably worried that if his troops start to starve, they will revolt against him. To solve this, he is working up a drive on the productive farming areas in Elmhurst. The Baron's Army: The Baron's forces are a mix of Army deserters, street punks, hungry refugees, violent thugs and well-intentioned but misguided young men. It is roughly divided into three groupings--the Baron's personal guard (90 men), the loyal shock troops (565 men), and the unwashed rabble Janissaries (varies but about 200 men). The men are all well-armed with a variety of military small arms and civilian rifles and shotguns, and some heavy equipment is available, including six 3.5" bazookas, eleven heavy machineguns, and six 81mm mortars. Vehicles are nearly useless in the rubble strewn streets of Chicago but the Baron does have a collection of military vehicles looted from a National Guard armory. These include an M48A1 Patton tank, four M59 APCs, an a M20 scout car. The tank is operational but only has eighteen rounds for the main gun and is severely limited in where it can travel. The real prize is a single M101 105mm howitzer, which the Baron has been using to occasionally shell Elmhurst. As of now he only has twenty HE shells left for the gun, but he is working to find more. Most of the troops can be found in and around the Broadview suburb, with frequent patrols and attacks in all directions. Elmhurst: By far the largest and most productive of the inner suburban communities. It is also the most opposed to the Black Baron's expansion. This are received very little damaged from the nuke and is relatively intact except for fire damage. Some 1,100 people live here, led by Philip Christopher, and they are all active in clearing rubble and planting crops. The area is almost completely under the plow, the rubble having been used to almost completely ring the parks with a defensive wall. There are some 300 men under arms in the Elmhurst Militia. Except during plant and harvesting times, every person in Elmhurst is subject to duty in the Militia or with one of the reclamation and salvage teams to are rebuilding Elmhurst from the ruins. This summer's harvest provided plenty for the community and enough for a large surplus. The Baron has his eyes on this surplus and the fields as well. Franklin Park: This area received relatively minor damage. Most larger structures have been damaged, but most are still standing and inhabitable. The banks of the Des Plaines River and parks have been cleared for planting by the 500 or so people who live here. The community is very anti-Black Baron, with "mayor" Ludwick Starsinski being at the forefront, and has so far been able to resist his rule. The militia here is strong and active, having enough arms for 115 of the citizens, and are masters at small scale ambushes in the rubble. Melrose Park: Melrose is notable for the large greenbelt along the Des Plaines River. The area received somewhat les destructive force from the blast, and was therefore easier to clear out. The community here numbers some 150 people, all involved in clearing the greenbelt and planting crops. There is no overall government and no militia, and as such has not attracted much attention from the Black Baron. Forest River: A few sturdy buildings are still standing here, mostly part of the Concordia and Dominican University campuses. All other larger buildings have had their interiors caved in. All parts of the suburb are choked with the rubble filling the spaces in between them. The parks are all being farmed by a community of some 1,000 people. Their leader is named Victor Ryback, a former social worker. He has organized a campaign of passive resistance against the Black Baron's forces--small ambushes and disinformation. He is worried that the Baron will try and take his fields or force him to give up a share of the crops, which are just enough to feed the community as it is. The community has a militia of about 100 men under arms, though they suffer from a lack of training. Elmwood Park: This suburb has been severely damaged. Large buildings are just shells, the smaller structures have been all but wiped out and the roads are blocked with rubble. The area is completely abandoned, patrolled only infrequently by the Black Baron's forces. Oak Park: This suburb of tenement blocks has almost been completely leveled. The rubble is especially deep in the area, as the housing developments were not well constructed. There is no organized community still in Oak Park, though there are twenty or so families who have cleared enough of the rubble to plant enough to stay alive. These are generally not multi-family efforts. The Black Baron is happy to leave these people alone. Maywood: This area is completely in ruins, receiving very heavy damage overall. Several parks and greenbelts have been cleared and planted, however, the largest of them being in the Miller Meadow. The Maywood community numbers some 300 individuals, most living around the Meadow. They have no actual government, but are allied around one Simon Crow, a former Longshoreman. Maywood is firmly under the Black Baron's thumb and he controls all that happens. Crow is quietly building a resistance movement amongst the people. Bellwood: The explosion of gasoline storage tanks during the Chicago firestorms demolished most of the buildings, leaving little but rubble. The ruins here are dangerous, consisting of many twisted steel frameworks and pools of toxic chemicals. No civilians live here at all. Cicero: This suburb suffered extensive damage from the nuke. Only the skeletal remains of the larger buildings rise above the rubble. Rubble at street-level is especially treacherous, all the smaller buildings having been lost in the debris. There are approximately 30 civilians living in a cleared park. The park itself is completely surrounded by rubble, making it a very isolated community. The Black Baron has sent patrols to meet with the people and have determined that they pose no threat to him at all. Marquette Park: Home to the Chicano marauder gang called the "Marquette Park Marauders". Urban rats: Though not considered an organized group, the "Street People" have a large camp in the wreckage of a block of low rent apartments north of the Loop. They are armed with an assortment of improvised melee weapons. The outer suburbs: Further out in the western suburbs there are more survivor enclaves. Most of these have little or no contact with the Black Baron and prefer it that way. Agriculture further out is better and the people here have had an easier time of it over the last two years. These include… Geneva: Now run by a local marauder force calling itself the "Liberation". Their leader, known simply as Michael, has organized the town into one large labor camp for his own purposes. His troops number about 100, which easily enough contains the 200 or so citizens. Michael realizes that he has to hole up here for the winter but has plans to expand come the spring. Lisle: Lisle has become a religious retreat and a fortress town. Soon after the chaos began, the local Catholic priests from Benedictine University declared themselves the ruling counsel of the town after marauders killed off the elected officials. The town's small 15-man militia, which are all militant Catholics, will allow no one to pass through without the consent of a priest. The town seems to be doing well for itself, farming the nearby countryside and parks. Pirates: There are some fierce pirates southwest of the city along the Fox River. None know how many put they have numerous military-style weapons. The pirates get around the problems of the dams along the river and the often shallow water by utilizing large numbers of canoes and rubber rafts, as well as a number of WWII-surplus amphibious DUKWs. Midway Airport: Home to the “Confederation”, a group of survivors numbering near 600. They have a number of repaired cars, trucks, and buses, as well as a small airplane that they run cargo for people back east. They run a small trade bazaar on the airport grounds. Loyola University: On the north side at Loyola University, there are group of scholars and teachers. There are trying to teach the world in their image. They have some automatic weapons, mostly rifles and shotguns, some cars and school buses. There numbers is around 3000 people. University of Chicago Medical Center: Protecting the grounds of the hospital is a group of about 70 people calling themselves the “Emdees.” They offer their medical services to the local population for a fee. They are peaceful people, but will defend themselves or will contract with the local gangs to go after people who own them money. Aurora: Home to "The General's Forces", a small group of resistance fighters numbering about 200, armed with civilian rifles and some older US military weapons. They regularly patrol the far western suburbs. Bolingbrook: Home to "The "Duchess's Band", numbering around 80 with assorted weapons. This group is originally from southern Wisconsin and is lead by "Duchess Ona". She is looking to set up a "Grand Duchy of Chicago" in southwestern Chicago but is a long ways from realizing that. Skokie: The Aryan Brotherhood of KKK is around the Skokie area. There is a small band of some 300 followers here, armed with everything from melee weapons to firearms. They mostly use horses but have a few automobiles. Joliet: After the nuking of Chicago, literally hundreds of thousands of people flooded through Joliet. The population sympathized with them and took in as many as they could, but the numbers of sick, wounded, and hungry people simply overwhelmed them. That first winter, disease and starvation wiped out both the refugees and the locals, until the city became a ghost town. Today, the neighborhoods are littered with stripped and torched cars, paved with buckled and pockmarked streets. The Duchess's Band keeps a small garrison here to keep Highway 53 open to allow merchants to get to Bolingbrook. The Army in Chicagoland: In mid-1964, the Civilian government began an earnest effort to reclaim the city from the anarchy it had fallen into. The problem is that from their desks in northern Virginia, they did not realize how strong the Black Baron's grip is and how devastated the city really is. There had been since the war a small number of National Guard and naval cadets holed up at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station north of the city who had done quite well for themselves. The forces at the NTS number about 435 total men, all remnants of a dozen Illinois National Guard units, the 85th Division (Training) and the staff of the NTS. Here they have marked off several clear strips of runway to fly in planes, even using rows of flares to guide planes in at night. Equipment here includes six M20 armored cars retrofitted with .50 cals and two M59 APCs. They also have two C-130 Hercules cargo planes and one De Havilland prop cargo plane, but they are grounded for a lack of fuel. CivGov has grand future plans for 1965 to eliminate the Black Baron and restore order in the city. Good luck… 4) ILLINOIS CITY STATES In downstate Illinois there are a number of large independent "city states" that have sprung up. Food shortages were not severe in these small cities, and most deaths occurred from disease and rioting. Ottawa: Following the nuclear strikes, the army unit in this city declared marshal law, thus saving it from much of the chaos. By 1964, there are some 30,000 people plus another 3,000 in the surrounding farming communities remaining in Ottawa. The military unit is still here and now has 700 people with trucks, jeeps, and some light tanks. The unit is a paper tiger, however, as they have no commander, as he has recently died, little ammunition, and their vehicles have nearly all broken down. The city's main commerce comes by selling food stuffs up the Illinois River to the Chicago suburbs in exchange for manufactured goods and weapons. By now, they have gathered an impressive number of river barges (fifteen) plus five more armed escort barges each mounting a M2HB machinegun, two .30 cal LMGs and one 81mm mortar each to keep any adventurous river pirates at bay. The merchants are armed with M14, M1, shotgun, hunting rifle and side arms. Springfield: Springfield is now home to some 15,600 survivors who are in rough shape, fractionalized and helpless and in need of direction. There are some 12 different biker gangs in the city. They range from 25 to as large as 250 per gang. Decatur: Decatur is now home to 30,000 rather paranoid people. There are five groups of truckers that work in the city. They have between 15 and 30 trucks per groups. They are independent contractor. They will transport anything anywhere. They have automatic weapons and a number around 500 per group. Rockford: Today Rockford is home to around 50,000 people. It is only half a city now as the eastern half perished in the ensuing riots and is a nest of marauders and road gangs. The two most dangerous gangs are the "Spinners" and the "Sweeps", but they are in such a state of near-constant warfare with each other that they rarely bother the western half. Peoria: Peoria has a large wall around it and Peoria proper is home to some 20,000 people known as the "Free Peoples" and is the seat of a power base that extends to neighboring towns. The area surrounding Peoria is all farmland and the small outlying towns such as Mossville, Pekin, Eureka and Hanna City serve as a picket line to help control marauders. The southern suburb of Bartonville, home to another 16,000 refugees living outside the city's fortifications, has a thriving country market that serves the Peoria area. They have cars, trucks, buses, armor, some watercrafts, and aircrafts. They carry automatic weapons and machinegun. This a weapon free zone except for the militia. You can find, buy, or trade anything. Quincy: Currently under siege by a large group of bandits called the "Beastlords". The Beastlords have taken over certain parts of Quincy and are using hostages to ensure they have control over the rest of the town. The mayor and his family are among those captured. 5) EASTERN ILLINOIS Along the eastern border with Indiana there are a number of active survivor communities, including Momence, Paris, Lawrenceville (1,000 people), and Watseka. Watseka is home to a ragged band of armed survivors, over three dozen strong, they are known for ambushing travelers on Highway 24. As well, Pinkstaff is the home of a group called "The Deformed Ones", along with Marco, IN, who supplement their food stocks by trading recovered items of technology. Scattered across the southern half of the state are other survivor communities, including Breese, and Litchfield. Bethany: This town is currently held by a group of marauders originally from Urbana. They are about 2,000 strong including dependents and "General" John Mitchell is their leader. They are equipped mainly with rifles, captured weapons, M14s, M-1s and Springfields and they have no motorized transportation, just horse-drawn wagons. Last year, they were driven out of Urbana by a stronger gang, and bringing all the remaining people with them, they moved south, taking what they have needed from the land, stopping to winter in Bethany. The town’s stores are being used up with the sudden influx of two thousand people and the 400 townspeople are being held captive. To the south, Lake Shelbyville has expanded at least a quarter mile over it’s pre-war boundaries. 6) SOUTHERN ILLINOIS Cairo: At the extreme southern tip of the state, the strategic river town of Cairo is home of the main body of MilGov's 33rd Infantry Division. The unit has some 3,200 men with 36 modern M60 tanks and 25 other AFVs, plus a detached battle group at Robinson. The 33rd ID is made up of men from Illinois, and has suffered some desertion being so close to the soldier's homes, but has largely stayed intact. Cairo is large town, with several hundred residents and is walled, gated, and well-patrolled. Under the leadership of the 33rd's staff, who effectively run the town, Cairo is slowly gathering power, controlling ten oil wells in southern Illinois and several villages to the north. This ready supply of oil allows for the abnormally large amount of working tanks in the unit. It is a center of trade and commerce for the area, attracting business from all over the region, a hustling and bustling place, with regular ship traffic both up and down the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. Trade occurs at several points in the city, and overland cargo comes down from Illinois, while trade boats arrive and depart up and down all three river ways. All this trade and relative prosperity is possible due to the protection afforded by the Army unit and they are well-respected. Marauders: The Shawnee National Forest in Southern Illinois is an area of strange rock formations, dolomite hills, caves, narrow valleys and tiny isolated towns. It is a wonderful place to hide, and several groups of bandits keep the Cairo garrison busy running them down. The towns of McClure, Ullin and Grand Chain (populations 500, 600, and 1,100 respectively) have been fortified as picket posts to control the flow of overland traffic. Islands: North of the garrison's picket lines are several independent communities, including Murphysboro, Carbondale, Mount Vernon, and Harrisburg, where the survivors have come together and have started to rebuild and trade with Cairo. The area around Harrisburg is also home of the "United Ranchers", an independent community that still raises cattle. They are under occasional ambush from the CivGov forces in Evansville, IN who rustle their cattle. Black gold: The 33rd has earlier this year sent out the 1st Battle Group/178th Infantry Regiment (400 men and 13 M60 tanks) to occupy the intact oil refinery at Robinson. This refinery, and the few functional oil wells surrounding it is a major source of oil for MilGov and the division considers the site it's top priority. Just this fall an accident, blamed on a lack of properly trained personnel, severely damaged the plant's last operating catalytic converter used to extract the maximum proportion of gasoline from crude oil, and the refinery is now operating at only about one percent of it's designed capacity. The division formerly traded oil for food with communities in southern Illinois and Indiana, but the accident has forced them to choose between cutting back off this trade or cutting back on it's fuel shipments to Memphis. With only a trickle of oil being produced now, it is just enough to keep the division's own vehicles running, but not enough to supply Memphis and other areas. The 33rd's command staff, growing more reluctant about parting with "their" oil, is rumored to be considering moving the entire division to Robinson and even cutting ties to MilGov and going independent. |
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MICHIGAN
Michigan is in a state of flux. At one end, the main city of Detroit is under the quasi-marauder control of a rogue military unit, while at the other end is an active CivGov Army enclave in the northwestern part of the state. In between, there are mostly isolated survivor communities and picked-over ruins. A deep-seated distrust of the federal government has made any type of reorganization of the state difficult. 1) NUCLEAR TARGETS None. 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES The state's 46th Infantry Division was mobilized and subsequently shipped to Virginia by rail and then off to Europe to be chewed up. To fill the gap in the state's defenses, the 70th Infantry Division was formed by redesignating the 70th Training Division at Livonia in early 1963, and took over control of Detroit. 70th Infantry Division--Detroit (3000 men, 5 AFVs) 107th Engineer Battalion--Manistee (500 men, 6 AFVs) 3) DETROIT Chaos: While not nuked, Detroit was typically burned and looted in the post-war chaos as the citizen fled to the countryside to escape catastrophes real and imagined. Much of the city's famed car industries are intact, though fire, rust and looters have all taken their toll and it might be a decade or more before any more cars roll off the assembly lines. All the King's men: The city is now firmly under the grip of the "King of Detroit", better known as Lieutenant General Julian Philips, the commander of the 70th Infantry Division. The 70th ID is a formed training division that was sent into the city in early 1963 to try and restore order. The division basically just held onto the lakefront region and let the rest go to hell. With the state of the union at the time, the division was on its own from the start and soon began to see itself as a independent unit, not obligated to any government. The King, so named by his subjects in jest, is based out of a Hyatt Regency hotel on Gratiot downtown, with a field headquarters in the old General Motors building on Grand Boulevard. Out of a total manpower of some 3,000 men, the unit has a standing force of 900 armed soldiers with enough weapons stored to arm nearly a thousand more on short notice. Division equipment includes five M60 tanks, eight M75 APCs, ten M3 halftracks and some twenty-four 105mm mortars. His men have recently cleaned out the last of the organized resistance in the city and are expanding outward in an attempt to gain more farming area--all the available parks and even the zoo have already been planted. They have already occupied portions of Windsor, Ontario. The King afloat: The King, despite his name, is really interested in fostering peaceful relations and trade with the surrounding country and has realized that water transport is the way to go. The division is currently acquiring a fleet of ships to trade on the Great Lakes. Vessels already collected include river tugs and huge bulk carriers, and two field-expedient gunboats with M101 105mm howitzers bolted on their decks to provide encouragement for uncooperatives. Today a trading outpost on the opposite side of the state at Benton Harbor run by the division. Based here is the Manitowac Ferry, an armed cargo ship, the biggest ship in his fleet. 4) SOUTHERN MICHIGAN The gritty industrial towns in the southern quarter of the state west of Detroit have suffered greatly from refugee swarms and rioting. Kalamazoo: Looted and is now infested with several hundred punks and gangers. The toughest gang is called "Martin's Legion" and is led by former US Army Lieutenant Peter Martin. The gang is 215 men strong and has two older-model APC's stolen from the Michigan National Guard. Ann Arbor: During the post-nuke chaos, University of Michigan president Martha Bridgeport organized the students into a fighting unit and took over the defense of Ann Arbor, providing a rallying point for those citizens who chose to join them, making Ann Arbor relatively safe today. Flint: Once a large industrial city, Flint is now home to just a few thousand, who try to eek out a bare living in the parks and open areas remaining in the city. Large sections of the city lie in ruins. Lansing: Destroyed by riots and refugees over the years. The center of the city is not inhabited, but the outskirts support a modest population. Home to the 2nd Howitzer Battalion of the 182nd Artillery Regiment. This Michigan National Guard battalion was virtual destroyed before it could even form up during the chaos. It withdrew with what personnel it had to Lansing in 1963 and has been here since. It has 315 men today, and no howitzers but two 81mm mortars. The commander has set up an agreement with the local merchants to provide security and convoy escort services in return for food and shelter. Over the last year, he has become increasingly oppressive as food stocks have dwindled, and the local populace has been correspondingly restive, but open rebellion has been avoided. Grand Rapids: The self-styled "Barony of Grand Rapids" is barely surviving. What with a population of just 2,000, they can barely run their own enclave, let alone pose a threat to other towns. Militia: The resurgent "Michigan Citizens Militia" is operating along the shores of Saginaw Bay, sending out patrols as far as Highway 10. This is a very dedicated pre-war group of survivalists and constitutionalists who are also rebuilding the area. The MCM is formed into loosely organized Rifle Companies. This was done by former US military personnel who were either too old or too cripple to be recalled. They operate watercrafts and snowmobiles in the winter. 5) NORTHERN MICHIGAN Surrounded as it is by lakes, the northern half of the Michigan peninsula was less troubled by the mass refugee migrations and the island and coastal communities have been able to supplement their food stocks with fishing. Nevertheless, homegrown marauders still trouble communities in the thick forests. Northwest Michigan coast: There are just some 500 souls spread over the area from East Jordan to Boyne City to Petoskey, surviving mostly by hunting and gathering. What little livestock they have are a few and some hogs. The people seem to only be organized in small groups of 40 to 50 people at any place. These small groups living in the areas are organized in defense of each other. Traverse City: There are about 3,000 refugees in this area at this time. The locals that are left in the town are not using the schools or parks for anything. They have been living large houses with big yards that they have been using for small garden plots. A fire that ravaged the town north of the bridge and looters ravaged some of the southern part of the town. There are many buildings with broken windows and ransacked interiors. For arms the citizens are armed with hunting rifles and shotguns mainly. Some even seem to hunt with bow and arrows. They also have an old converted LST from WWII that was used in the area for ferry work. Charlevoix: Much of the northern part of the city was destroyed by fire. The canal to Round Lake and Lake Charlevoix is open but is barely navigable. Perhaps 500 people are still in the area. Most of them are people who lived in the area before the war began and are fiercely independent. There is an active USCG launch here helping the populace. Oscoda Air Force Base: Abandoned by the USAF in 1963, the base is now empty of all aircraft. The remnants of the Michigan Air National Guard at Oscoda are doing light patrolling along the coast when they can, and hunting and gathering for themselves and their families. They have limited resources, just two working jeeps, a duce-and-a-half, and forty M1 Garand rifles with about 8,000 rounds of ammo. Camp Grayling Michigan National Guard Reservation: The military personnel at this NG base in the central highlands of the state were overwhelmed by the influx of survivors looking for both help and an authority figure in late 1962. Unknown to the soldiers and the survivors, several refugees brought the plague with them. Within days the entire camp was infected and the population was dying off. Soon, marauder forces entered the scene and a battle broke out between them and a combined force of still-healthy armed survivors and soldiers. It was a massacre. The better armed marauders wiped out most of the civilians and soldiers within a matter of hours. They did take losses of their own though, and to make matters worse, they contracted the same disease that was beginning to take its toll on the base. The marauders began to strip the base of any useful equipment. This took several days, as they were being harassed by survivors using guerrilla tactics, and during that time the plague spread quickly in the marauder ranks. Within three days, every living person on the base died. It was only in the spring of 1964 that anyone ventured into the ruins of the base. Early in the year, the "North Michigan Wolverines", a powerful and brutal partisan army formed in this region, numbering some 3,000 strong with controlling influence over various small feudal fiefdoms, renegade gangs and packs of marauders, and terrorizing the remaining pockets of civilians. Scouts from the Wolverines had heard rumors of a large amount of weapons at the base and went in to find out. Fear of the disease was still strong, fuelled by numerous hand-painted warning signs posted around the base perimeter, but they realized that without a host, the disease will have died out--or so they hoped. To their surprise, it had died off and the scouts brought back the good news to their boss. Today the remains of the base are occupied by the main body of the Wolverines. They have housed their vast cache of assorted small arms, military equipments, and "essentials" of post holocaust survival in an 40's era ammunition bunker on the base. Millions of rounds of ammunition, crates upon crates of small arms, power tools, generators, assorted rare metals and alloys, as well as a rumored 3 million gallons of high grade diesel fuel, stored in underground government-grade holding tanks. They even a have few vehicles, as they had been stored in the intact buildings on the base. Manistee: Home of "Fort Rosson", formerly Camp Riverton Army Reserve Depot. This the home of the remains of the Michigan National Guard 107th Engineer Battalion (500 men), a unit that was in extreme northern Michigan when the war started and moved down here in 1963 to take advantage of the better weather and fishing off Manistee. The unit commander is named Villars. The recent completion of the first true airstrip here at Fort Rosson should also help the area. Based at this airfield are two CH-21 Shawnee troop carriers, a CH-34 Choctaw, four CH-37 Mojaves and a newly rebuilt UH-19 Chickasaw. They also have a wide collection of tanks. Formed up as two troops of armor, they include a defected Canadian Army Centurion driven all the way here from Ontario, three M48A1 Pattons that were at the depot since the war, all the way down to some Sherman types that were formerly owned by museums. Most of them are in working order, except for one of the M48s that has ignition problems. Add to that about a battalion's worth of APC's and a pair of M-40 155mm self-propelled guns as well. Other forces in the town include the Mason County Militia. Formed at and stationed around Fort Rosson, this unit is made up of volunteers who serve at Fort Rosson, and at small two man-sized outposts throughout the local area. The local militia totals about battalion strength now, but their arms aren't the best, most of the militia is armed with M1 Garands, some Sterlings, and quite a few bolt-actions. Furthermore, they are strictly foot-mobile, there's a few horses among them, but that's the best they have. Also in town is the "Nonnewaug Resistance", a tribe of American Indians numbering about 200 counting noncombatants and their leader is Paul Sender. Finally, there is "Mack's Clan", a small resistance force, a little over 30 members, and under the command of their leader Mack. The lost fighters: Unbeknownst to these forces, to the east at an old Park ranger Fire fighting camp in the Manistee National Forest, sits six F-104B Thundercheifs formerly based in Grand Rapids. When the nukes came in 1962, the squadron was flying maneuvers. The pilots, knowing that someday the jets may be needed, decided to fly them to a remote location, far off any beaten track to hide them. The old Park ranger Fire fighting camp and its airstrip proved to be just what they were looking for. The Camp had several large hangers, maintenance sheds, and a long runway (even if the Thundercheifs wouldn't need that). Setting down, the pilots managed to open the hanger doors and taxi the Thundercheifs inside. They spent several days removing the weapon pods and shutting down the aircraft's systems. Satisfied that they completed their tasks, they covered the jets in camo netting, to protect them from casual observation. Having completed their task, the pilots left the camp and headed towards the town of Manistee. Here, they got rid of their gear, donned civilian clothing and blended in with the other survivors. The next few years were a terrifying fight for survival. Out of the six pilots, when the nuclear winter finally ended, only two managed to survive. Both have taken wives and are doing their best to carve out a meager existence in the harsh new world. They have also vowed to keep the existence of the jets a secret from the CivGov garrison, who they believe are trying to carve out their own empire rather than help the nation recover. 6) THE UPPER PENINSULA The inhabitants of the UP have always considered themselves a state apart, and the chaos has only emphasized that separation. The hardy, mainly rural folk of the region are used to harsh winters and isolation, so they survived better than most Americans. Several petty kingdoms are growing around Saint Ingace and Newberry. A large en-masse prison escape from Michigan State Prison in 1962 spawned many marauder "armies" across the Upper Peninsula. Most of these aren't larger than 50 men but there are a few that have upward to 700 men. Marauders still operate in small bands in the eastern Upper Peninsula, especially in the Hiathawa National Forest and between Raco and Hulbert in Chippewa County. Marquette: Marquette, the only large town on the peninsula, is protected by "The Badges", a militia of former police officers. This group consists of nineteen men and seven women. They travel via five old, but well maintained highway interceptors. They also have two old pickup trucks which they use to carry extra fuel, food, and their personal belongings, which also includes a fairly large collection of old law text books. The Badges carry a variety of weapons, but mainly old .38 revolvers, 12 gauge shot guns, and four M2 carbine's. They also have a half dozen fragmentation grenades. The pride and joy of their weapon collection are 3.5" bazookas (one tube per vehicle). They all have hand held communication gear, and each vehicle has a built in radio system. There is much popular support in the western part of the UP for forming what they are planning on called Superior State with its capital in Marquette. Sault Sainte Marie: Now know locally as the "Free City of Sault Ste Marie", and protected by a group made up of militia members, civilians, and with support from both the MilGov and CivGov forces. The "Sault Militia" started up in late 1962 on both sides of the Saint Mary River, and by early 1963 it was fairly well-organized, even if it lacked equipment. Despite the lack of heavy weapons in large part and lack of uniformity the Sault Militia is probably one of the best militia in both US and Canada. The twin city councils formed the Joint City Council and almost immediately took over the running of Chippewa County, too. The Sault Militia has also received numerous M14s, Springfields, and M-16s from the US Government in 1964 just after it declared itself a "Free City". Personnel from the US Army Corps of Engineer keep the Soo Locks operating and the Saint Mary River free for navigation. By late 1964, most of the eastern UP under the control of the Free City with several detachment of militia in the communities. This also means the Free City had to take over basic services and policing in these communities too. To this extent the Sheriff Departments of Chippewa, Luce, and Mackinaw Counties along with the four Michigan State Police Posts, the Ontario Provincial Police Post and the City Police have been formed along with several ex-Prison Guards into a Military Police organization that handles internal security operation in the Sault and other communities and keeps one prison in operation in Kinross. In the city and in the immediate area power is still supplied by the Sault Edison plant. Also the Soo Line railroad that travels through the Sault and Eastern UP is still in operating order, but on a limited basis. The Sault City Council also has two tug/barge outfits that can move supplies on the lakes. It is hope that these tugs/barges can be put to use to move goods from place to place in the future. Both of the tugs (named the Salty Bride and the Marchinko) have been converted to steam power with either wood or coal as a power source. There is plenty of food, enough, in fact, that they are exporting what we don't need to Sudbury, ON and Marquette, MI. The Sault Council also operates two hospitals, one on each side of the St Marys River. The International Bridge sees limited use (emergency) since regular maintenance stopped in 1963. Now a limited car ferry operation works between them. Also the same type of thing has happened with the Mackinaw Brigade with car ferry and passenger ferry now operating out of both St Ignace and Mackinaw City. The newly finished Sault Arms Factory runs several plants on both side of the St Mary's River and they make ammo, homemade explovisive, homemade grenades, and weapons systems. The Sault Militia was never supplied with any heavy weapon from the US or Canadian Government(one of many reason why they declared a Free City). For artillery the Militia has only home made mortars. They make 60mm, 81mm/82mm and 120mm. As for basic weapons they have the tools and dies to produce the M14 rifle, M2 carbine, M3 submachine gun, as well as several types of auto-pistols. Yet at this time only 30% of the Sault Militia is armed with these type of weapons (only the Airborne "Regiment" is complete "refitted"). The other 70% is armed with a wide variety of arms including several shotguns and civilian rifles that have been deemed fit for military use. They also can make several types of .22LR, 5.56N, or 7.62N sporting rifles or various types of shotguns. Air assets for the city have come from K.I. Sawyer and Kincheloe Air Force Bases and from Sander Army Airfield. In 1963, these bases were evacuated to the MilGov enclaves in Colorado, taking every plane that was operational. Those that were broken were left behind and teams from Sault have since recovered and repaired several of them. Currently the city has three C-130 transports, eight CH-21 Shawnees, three UH-19 Chickasaws, and six CH-37 Mojaves that were put back into operational order from the equipment left behind. These are all now at Sander Airfield in Sault. The US Navy Sault Group operates a collection of five Rescue Boats, seven PT Boats, and five Riverine Patrol Boats. They operate from two bases with one being in the Sault and the other in Saint Ignace (Isn't uncommon for these to be at Mackinaw Island or Mackinaw City). The city is also home to a Canadian Army unit, the 1st Provisional Battalion (Reinforced)/The Cheshire Regiment. The 350 men of this unit are most often in the northern areas of the enclave but also do duty on the American side. Led by Colonel Lindsay. Vehicles include two light tanks, two 75mm self-propelled guns, and some troop carriers. They have a few handheld rockets and mortars. The CIA, DIA, and Canadian Intelligence all have active cells in the Sault. The City Government doesn’t mind for now as long as they keep their spy activities outside of the Sault and the CIA and DIA don’t shoot at each other in Sault Militia protected areas. The city is also home to representatives of the Sault Indian Tribal and Bay Mills Indian Tribal Militias. |
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INDIANA
Indiana in 1964 is a mix of small independent towns and military-garrisoned cities with a lot of open and empty territory in between. The northern part of the state is dominated by the trashed coast of Lake Michigan, the central plains by a strong military presence, and the wooded southern area by a preponderance of small independent towns and villages, many of whom have banded together for mutual protection. Most of the state's cities were not badly damaged during the last two years since food was relatively easy to get to them, but civil unrest (early on) and marauders (more recently) have reduced the urban populations to about 40 percent pre-war levels. State government was broken by the strain of the chaos, and "government" is now almost entirely limited to military enclaves and rural farming/village communities run by local strongmen and defended by locally raised militias. Some isolated communities pay lip service to one government or the other, but most prefer to straddle the fence or do what they must to survive. The key to the state's recovery has been the Indiana National Guard's swift reaction to the nuclear strikes on America. One of the first acts of Governor Matthew Empson Welsh after the bombs fell was to call to muster and defederalized all National Guard that were still in the state. Thankfully, the federal government had not yet called up many of the units for duty overseas and the NG was able to concentrate on in-state duties. The NG is now deployed in communities around the state working to stabilize the state. The State Government declared for the civilian federal leadership (CivGov) soon after it was forced to move from Indianapolis to Fort Wayne and the state is considered a bastion of CivGov power. MilGov has to work through spies and turncoats, of which there are plenty. 1) NUCLEAR TARGETS None. 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES For what ever reason, Indiana's National Guard has remained mostly intact when most other states have had theirs dissolve. The main unit is the 38th Infantry Division, now headquartered in Fort Wayne with the new state government. This has given Indiana a leg up in recovery and is one of the reasons that CivGov is so keen on keeping the state in it's fold. There are no regular Army units in the state and no large marauder bands to speak of. 38th Infantry Division ------DIV HQ/DISCOM--Fort Wayne (1050 men) ------1st Battle Group/151st Infantry Regiment--Fort Harrison (550 men) ------------Able Company-- Muncie (60 men) ------2nd Battle Group/151st Infantry Regiment--Fort Wayne (950 men, 16 AFVs) ------------Able Company--Gary (100 men) ------------Baker Company--South Bend (100 men) ------2nd Battle Group/152nd Infantry Regiment--Evansville (425 men) ------------Platoon 1--Charlestown (55 men) ------------Platoon 2--Jefferson Proving Grounds (80 men) ------2nd Battle Group/293rd Infantry Regiment--Crane (900 men) ------1st Howitzer Battalion/139th Artillery Regiment--Grissom AFB (300 men) ------1438th Infantry Battalion--Camp Atterbury (700 men, 7 AFVs) ------2nd Reconnaissance Squadron/138th Armored Regiment--Terra Haute (85 men), ------3/24th Marine Corps Reserve Regiment ------------Bravo Company--Terra Haute (120 men) ------438th Chemical Company--Terra Haute (15 men) ------38th Quartermaster Company--Terra Haute (40 men) ------434th Security Forces Squadron (Motorized)--Grissom AFB (70 men) 3) NORTHERN INDIANA The northern part of the state from Chicago east to South Bend and the new state capital of Fort Wayne is a relatively stable CivGov-controlled pocket. Being this close to Chicago, this area was naturally badly affected by the chaos and rioting and large stretches were leveled and burned. Today, two companies of the 2nd Battle Group/151st Infantry from Fort Wayne are spread across the area doing garrison duty. Whiting: This lakeshore town was smashed by looters and rioting from nearby Chicago. The nuclear blast over the city also set afire the string of productive oil wells along within the city, sending firestorms racing through the town and surrounding area. Today the area is completely deserted and in ruins, with eighty-percent of the buildings burned down. One or two of the oil wells still burn fitfully, however, and this has attracted the attention of CivGov agents, who want to know if the wells can be reopened. A small survey team from the Chicago-area enclave is currently in Whiting, studying methods of extinguishing the two year-old fires and capping the well-heads. Gary: The lake port of Gary was ravaged by looters and rioting from Chicago and the port facilities have been largely burnt to a crisp. It was further abandoned in late 1963 when the few survivors were struck by a epidemic of bubonic plague. Today, barely 1,000 people remain on the southern fringes of the city, most of them subsistence farmers trying to eek out a living. The 100 soldiers here--Able Company of the 2nd Battle Group/151st Infantry from Fort Wayne--make only a small additional load on the food producing capacity on the community. Almost all the company's duties consist of overseeing salvage operations in the destroyed industrial areas and they are currently trying to get a small arms manufacturing plant in the city back online. South Bend: Sickness and famine have taken their toll on this city over the past two years and now less than 6,000 people still live here, including a large group of refugees from Chicago. The town, however, is well-run and the people here are quite happy and fee lucky. They have a strong local militia with a little over 450 volunteers. The men are armed mainly with rifles and they have dynamite available but little else in the way of explosives. The town's true muscle is the 100 soldiers of Baker Company of the 2nd Battle Group/151st Infantry from Fort Wayne. The soldiers are carrying out civil recovery and anti-bandit duties within a 20 mile radius of South Bend and have cleared the town of malcontents, thieves and bushwhackers. South Bend merchants now has feelers out in all directions to spread their influence. Five surrounding towns now even have a garrison of sorts of South Bend Militia in them now, being Elkhart, Plymouth, Michigan City, Goshen and Niles, Michigan. The garrisons (each with a few National Guardsmen for advisors) help patrol the towns against bandits in exchange for food shipped to South Bend. The Goshen enclave is currently suffering from a cholera outbreak, which has South Bend very worried. Fort Wayne: This good-sized city is now the largest and most stable urban area in the state, as well as the new state capital and residence of Governor Welsh. When the Indiana government (which moved here from Indianapolis) declared for CivGov, the local civic leaders in Fort Wayne began a training program so that civilians would have something to do and to replace much-needed specialists. They also recovered a number of secret caches in the area, some dating back to the late 1940s, that the government had buried and forgotten about. Fort Wayne now has working hospitals and good doctors, making it the object of much praise in the area. Led by Police Commissioner Lisette Hogan, who many say is more powerful than the governor, the citizens are strong and well-protected. An active police force patrols the local area in patrol cars and Commissioner Hogan can often be seen patrolling in an UH-19 Chickasaw helicopter with machinegun pods mounted on each slide (a gift from the army). The real power in the city is the National Guard and the city serves as the overall state command center for all operations. Based at Fort Wayne International Airport, the garrison is centered around the Headquarters and DISCOM of the 38th Infantry Division (1,050 men) as well as the main body of the 2nd Battle Group/151st Infantry (950 men). The 2/151st here has 16 tanks, six of which are inoperable and are presently serving as pillboxes around the battle group's headquarters at the airport. Several surrounding towns are under Fort Wayne police protection as well, including Columbia City and Huntington and the 2/151st has companies rotating garrison duties in South Bend and Gary. Bluffton: This smallish farming town south of Fort Wayne and neighboring farmers were overrun with refugees from Fort Wayne and Indianapolis early in the chaos. The people of Bluffton were not hospitable and the refugees were desperate--townspeople were badly beaten and often killed for their cars, homes and food. In general, this time is looked upon by the residents of the town as a fight for survival, and although many people were lost, the town pulled itself together once winter stopped the worst of the refugee movement. By the time things settled down, the town leaders realized that steps had to be taken to keep the town safe from further attacks by outsiders. The remaining 2,000 people, aided by those peaceful refugees who found a home here, set to work fortifying their town. The looming stone town hall was sandbagged and stocked with supplies and arms and a thirty foot wide, ten foot deep moat was built around the town center using far equipment and heavy machinery from local construction sites. The dirt from the moat forms a continuous hill ten feet in from the moat, and the moat is now about half filled with rain water, making the whole thing extremely difficult to cross on foot and impossible by vehicle. There is only one opening, along Highway 1 on the north edge of town, and one bridge over the moat that is heavily guarded. Most of the town is in average condition, and it has plenty of empty buildings and businesses. The security of this town has been noted by the Indiana state government in Fort Wayne, and a small detachment of State Police rotates with the town's own militia. Bluffton now makes a comfortable living by overproducing food and selling it to Fort Wayne. During the winters, they over hunt and sell the meat to the city as well. Berne: The inhabitants of the small town of Berne and its environs are mostly Swiss-German immigrants, and they have been trying since the chaos started to carve out a Germanic enclave in northeastern Indiana. Ruled by a man known as “The Kazir”, they mostly speak German amongst themselves and take the great Bavarian empire of the last century as their inspiration. In the last two years, they have expanded and organized around this immigrant population, and by now their territorial holdings are considerable. Many of the citizens are avowed Nazis, people who left Germany following WWII to find better jobs but never gave up their beliefs. Now that the world is a mess, they are free to publicly espouse their racist views again, and in this community, those views have taken root. The Berne militia forces are known colloquially as the “Jaegers”, and other than protecting the area against marauders, the Jaegers' sole purpose seems to be tracking down and capturing “Mexis” (people of Mexican heritage who worked the fields of the area in years past). This seems to be a case of well-meaning citizens taking survival too far. The area was home to a large number of Hispanic migrant farm workers and these people have become virtual slaves of the ruling class. The pride of the town is the railroad line that connects the town of Decatur to Berne, and two steam-powered locomotives and many boxcars run on it, carrying goods and slaves. As such, these two towns are very powerful despite their sizes. South and east of Berne, in numerous small farm towns, outposts of Berne influence have been set up. As a result of their ideology and methods, they are in conflict with everyone around them. The military and state leadership to the north at Fort Wayne have been keeping a careful eye on them for years, though there is much mutual trade. Decatur: This town is now a major Berne base and concentration camp, which is the central holding facility for nearly 5,000 ill-fed men, women, old ones and children, mostly Hispanic slaves. Militia forces include around 500 armed Jaeger overseers, a troop of cavalry, and twenty pickup trucks, most with pintle mounts for various kinds of weapons. Several factories are located in the town and are worked by the Hispanic prisoners (think of it as a Mexican "Ghetto"). The militia HQ and the camp dominate the western part of town while the factories, small businesses and silos fill the east with residential neighborhoods to the north and south. There are also rail yard rail repair shops in the northern part of town. There is also a small coal-fired power plant and many streetlights stay on all night. There is a new draft program recently in effect to beef up the Jaeger force here. As a client town of Berne, the train is used to take the Hispanic slave farm hands back and forth to Berne's fields. There is also a Berne security group here presently to help keep the populace under control. They are about 30 strong and have two armored buses and an industrial-size dump truck with an old 37mm cannon mounted up top. They are pretty much running a local protection racket that is taking most of the food supplies from farm families in exchange for nothing. They also come looking for runaways and the town has given them a hundred or so of them this year in exchange for some rifles and ammunition. 4) CENTRAL INDIANA Central Indiana is a mix of isolated farming outposts and sprawling Midwestern-style cities. Out in the open plains you still have a lot of rural farms, most folk have a rifle or shotgun for hunting and varmit control. If they are still alive by 1964, then they are definitely wary of strangers and many smaller communities have banded together to deal with their own problems when law enforcement and or the military is not around. The National Guard in Central Indiana: Across the area there are scattered garrisons, representing a variety of units, usually small in size but capable of exerting influence over their immediate areas. They are all elements of the 38th ID headquartered in Fort Wayne and take their orders from there. Most are in at least limited convoy contact with the other garrisons in their region. Indianapolis: In 1962, this city was the recipient of a rain-borne cloud of fallout from the strike on downtown Chicago, killing many and panicking the population into a mass exodus. The state government left for Fort Wayne soon after, taking everything they could with them. Even when the danger of being nuked passed, the city was barely repopulated, and then only by die-hards and scavengers. Today, two years later, in the capital city there is still quite a bit of lingering radiation, and the ruins are still prowled by those searching for valuables, like unopened bank vaults and the like. The White River Park area has been razed by recent fires, leaving a wide scar. There are several strong Latino groups as well as rumors of roving bands of cannibals. At Fort Benjamin Harrison there is a military garrison consisting of the HQ and main body of the 1st Battle Group/151st Infantry (550 men), who mainly try to keep the urban gangs in the city and out of the countryside. While in the military-controlled areas things are better, in the other areas of the city ragged bands of survivors survive on whatever can still be found. Muncie: An independent-minded town and a trouble spot full of local thugs, rowdies, marauders, army deserters, and God knows what else. The southern edge of Muncie is now home of Able Company (60 men) of the 1st Battle Group/151st Infantry detached from the battle group's enclave at Fort Benjamin Harrison to try and keep the peace. Camp Atterbury Military Reservation: To the northwest of Columbus, this base had been inactive since 1955, but it's good location and intact facilities made it ideal for reopening by the state government following the chaos. The camp is now home of the 1438th Infantry Battalion (700 men and seven M48A2 Patton tanks). They also have some operational helicopters maintained by Army mechanics. The 1438th IB is an Indiana National Guard unit formerly known as the 1438th Transportation Company that was pressed into serve during the chaos. They are currently subornate to the 38th ID HQ in Fort Wayne. The unit has been augmented by impressed militias and levies over the years and the tanks originally came from the Camp's vehicle pool. The city of Columbus itself still has a large civilian population and the military at Atterbury funds and supplies the town's hospital. Grissom Air Force Base: This large air base is now home of the CivGov Air Mobility Command Acting HQ. US Air Force assets here include the 434th Troop Carrier Wing, though the title is more impressive than any real operational ability. The planes rarely fly due to the enormous amount of fuel they require even to get off the ground. Base defense is provided by the 300 men of the 1st Howitzer Battalion/139th Artillery Regiment (IN NG) and the 70 men of the 932nd Security Forces Squadron (Motorized), both suborate units of the 38th ID in Fort Wayne. Crane: The remaining assets at the Naval Surface Weapons Center near Crane are currently garrisoned by the 900 men of the Indiana National Guard 2nd Battle Group/293rd Infantry Regiment. This battalion is subornate to the 38th ID HQ in Fort Wayne but mostly handles it's own affairs. No armored vehicles are present but numerous trucks are available to transport personnel and supplies. Logansport: Just 20 miles from Grissom AFB, this town is not doing well, and is currently being held by a marauder group called the "Yunguns" as they are all in their teens or early twenties. The leaders change with the times and whoever is strongest. There are at least forty motorized vehicles ranging from motorcycles to pick-up trucks amongst the gang, most all gasahol powered. They are armed with mostly old shotguns and bolt-actions rifles with a few pistols thrown into the mix. They do not have a great ability with the firearms and they are indiscriminate with the amount of ammunition they use. The military at Grissom are watching them closely. Richmond: A group of survivalists now controls Richmond and the 3,000 remaining citizens of this large town are virtual slaves. The bandit leader is a man by the name of Anderson Pike and he runs the place very close to what Stalin or Hitler probably did with their governments. His gang controls a significant, though not overly extensive area to the immediate south of that town stretching along the Ohio border to Brookville Lake, as well as small portions to the north and east. Pike has about 400 effective fighting men, some machineguns and some pre-fab armored trucks. Richmond is Malone's HQ as his pre-war house is here. Around this modest suburban home, Pike has built a six-foot tall log wall with MG-armed guard towers at the corners. He also have an antique 10-pounder cannon inside the wall, formerly a civil war memorial, that is more for executing people than defense. He does have about three gunsmiths working for him repairing weapons and making some new ones. 5) WESTERN INDIANA Terre Haute: The industrial works in this city have been severely damaged by looting and neglect and the population has been reduced to some 12,000. CivGov Air Force air assets based at Hulman Regional Airport include the 181st Fighter Wing, though the lack of maintenance and fuel has drastically reduced its effectiveness. Ground forces garrisoning the city and the airport are all subornate to the 38th ID HQ in Fort Wayne and are centered around the 2nd Reconnaissance Squadron/138th Armored Regiment (85 men), Bravo Company of the 3rd Battalion/24th Marines (120 men), the 438th Chemical Company (15 men), and the 38th Quartermaster Company (40 men). Many of the soldiers are currently helping to guard the Newport Chemical Company in the city as it is salvaged, as well as trying to restore electrical power to a less damaged part of the industrial facilities. They are severely short of tools and supplies, however. Bloomington: Now (still) ruled by a benevolent council made up of the community's best and brightest. They are called the "Bloomies" by the local populace because the council is almost entirely faculty from Indiana University. Their leader is "King" Bobby Knight, the university's half-mad basketball coach. Lafayette: Now run by a Council of Deans from Purdue University. Their militia is well-trained and has heavy machineguns and M-1 rifles. They are actively trading for more arms and ammo with neighboring towns. Lafayette is sort of like a Israeli-style kibbutz now. The Deans are encouraging folks to move here and take up farming with hopes to build a self-governing community that can both care for and defend itself. The only real thing they have to offer right now is land and protection. There is a newly established farmer’s market in Lafayette for the locals to come and trade food, clothing and necessities. This market is free for all to use. Near here is a man-made cavern system once belonging to a company called CONEX, which dealt with the commercial use of explosives. Several of the chambers are underwater, but the ones that aren’t have large quantities of explosives of various types. Some appear to be useable while others may be highly unstable. Fifteen chambers are above the waterline. Of those, nine have construction grade explosives that are stable enough to use; two are questionable and one is definitely hazardous. This is a valuable prize to find. 6) SOUTHERN INDIANA Notable for aspiring empire-builders and small town power bosses. Evansville: Now a xenophobic and extremely defensive community at odds with most of it's neighbors, especially the Kentucky State Militia. Home now of a small CivGov garrison which includes the remaining bulk of the 2nd Battle Group/152nd Infantry Regiment minus two platoons stationed in other towns in the state. This Indiana National Guard unit is 425 men strong and have four M101 105mm and one 155mm howitzers as well as four jeeps, ten deuce-and-a-half trucks, four 18-wheeled fuel trucks, a large panel truck, an old-style bazooka and at least fifty M1 Garand rifles. This unit is pretty much turned rogue in the last year, thanks to the undermining efforts of MilGov spies. They frequently go on bloody foraging expeditions to get supplies from surrounding towns, further alienating the population. Due to the rapacious nature of the troops, many citizens have fled the city. The battle group's parent unit, the 38th ID in Fort Wayne, is very concerned, but aware that there is little that can be done short of armed conflict. The citizens here are slowly realizing that the army here is really little better than the marauders they say they are keeping out. The battle group commander feels like he owns the town and everyone in it. He is an atrocious womanizer and he forces the townspeople to work longer hours than is necessary. The strain between the soldiers and the citizens is becoming critical. Mount Vernon: The Evansville unit's next target is the old Country Mark oil refinery near Mount Vernon to the west. The current owners are a group of bikers who have been terrorizing the area. There are at least 50 of these bikers here, with 22 bikes; three pick-up trucks with pintle-mounted machineguns, some M2 carbines, a few BARs, and at least one .30 cal LMG in a guard tower. They have a number of captives from the town working the refinery for them. The surrounding communities are lining up to become paying customers for their fuel, although the customers don’t trust the bikers as far as they can throw them. As well as the oil refinery, in the remains of Mount Vernon, there is the remains of a Bristol Myers-Squibb factory on the east side of town. Much of the equipment is still useable, if power can be brought back to the plant. The Evansville army unit has been trading food for fuel with the bikers controlling the refinery, but plan to take it over soon for themselves. Loyal men of the 2/152nd: Two reinforced platoons of the 2nd Battle Group/152nd Infantry Regiment were dispatched from the main body in Evansville to two different Ohio River towns (Charlestown and Madison) over the summer and have dug in. These men have not gone rogue as their parent unit back in Evansville has done and they remain loyal to the state government. They are in constant danger from marauders and adventurous units of the KSM. Charlestown: The Indiana Army Ammunition Plant here is home of Platoon 1 of the 2/152nd (55 men). Being only ten miles from Louisville, this garrison is on constant watch for any hostile moves by the KSM. A “company town”, Charlestown is centered around the ammunition plant, the only functioning industry of note in the region. It's operator, Dirk Baize, appears to be a on his way to being a local strongman, but with definite connections to the Kentucky State Militia. The potential benefit of the plant for aiding local recovery operations cannot be overstated. The presence and demands of the army platoon on the local food supply have caused bad feeling amongst the local civilian population. Madison and the nuke: The Jefferson Proving Grounds north of Madison are now home of Platoon 2 of the 2/152nd (80 men). As a side note, the town of Madison suffered a mysterious low-yield sub-kiloton nuclear explosion last fall, cause unknown but suspected to be an accidental explosion of some weapon at the nearby Jefferson Proving Grounds that was somehow moved into the town. There is, however, some speculation that the KSM was responsible for the blast. The explosion badly damaged the town and polluted the fields to the east. The northern one-third of the city is still relatively intact, though it is largely uninhabited except for a few scavengers and harmless (or are they?) loonies around the outskirts. The KSM in Southern Indiana: While the state of Kentucky pledged early to not interfere with any of it's neighboring states, that is slowly beginning to change. In August of 1964, small units of the Kentucky State Militia crossed the border in force to "liberate some wrongly imprisoned peace loving freedom fighters" in the Hoosier National Forest. Despite protests from local authorities, they are still here and look to stay a while. They have set up a permanent camp in Leavenworth with barracks and quarters for their officers and sandbagged emplacements. As well, the river town of Maukport is now a KSM outpost, with a unit here guarding the valuable Highway 135 bridge across the Ohio River. The garrison here is very strong with 300 troops, four modern M60 tanks and at least three artillery pieces. Communication is horrible in this part of the state and it is not known whether the state government in Fort Wayne is really aware of how large the KSM force is or even where they are exactly. A general letter of complaint has been sent to Danville and Fort Wayne is waiting for a reply to it now. |
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OHIO
As with many other states, the Ohio state government collapsed under the storm of refugees and chaos. Once the winter killed off the weak and the food situation stabilized, the state began to rebuild. Ohio is now divided into a series of fortified enclaves controlling various population centers or key positions and which attempt to control the surrounding territory via patrols and friendly contact with inhabitants. They are often several towns grouped together by location, sharing resources and defenses. These are often operated and controlled by various Ohio National Guard and Ohio Military Reserve units still loyal to Governor Michael DiSalle and the federal civilian government. (The Ohio Military Reserve was authorized in the late 1950s as a backup force in case the Ohio National Guard was called up. This unpaid, volunteer force consisted of retirees, those unfit for service in the active branches and those who just wanted to play soldier). Much of the state is not controlled by the state's enclaves and is inhabited by small bands of farmers, hunters and refugees from all over. In addition, there are several active marauder groups, both former military and civilian. Most of the groups, however, are small in both size and area of operation. The New America Cell in Ohio has a few friends in the Ohio government. The real strengths in the state are Cleveland and the WP enclave. 1) NUCLEAR TARGETS Date Type Target 10/29/62 1 mT Bomb Toledo 10/29/62 1 mT Bomb Lima 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES 33rd Infantry Division ------Platoon 1, Baker Company, 2nd Battle Group/130th Infantry Regiment--Defiance (25 men) 37th Infantry Division--Columbus (1600 men) ------1st Gun Battalion/174th Anti Aircraft Artillery Regiment--Lancaster (56 men, 6 AFVs) 107th Armored Cavalry Regiment--Cleveland (1050 men) 324th Military Police Company--Oxford (45 men) 1486th Transportation Company--Middletown (40 men) 1st Military Police Group, OMR ------OMR HQ/1st and 3rd Battalions--Dayton (110 men) ------2nd Battalion--New Richmond (55 men) 2nd Military Police Group, OMR--Zanesville (210 men) 2nd Infantry Battalion, OMR--Findlay (55 men) 3rd Military Police Group, OMR--Lucasville (80 men) 3) NORTHEASTERN OHIO Cleveland: This city is one of the most intact in the Great Lakes region today. Oddly not nuked in the war one of the reasonably largest collections of urban survivors, with more than 1,250,000 people here--many refugees from other places. In the immediate post-nuke months, the mayor of the city coordinated with the local Ohio National Guard commander (the colonel of the OH NG 107th Armored Cavalry Regiment which was stationed in the city when the bombs fell) to garrison vital city functions (power plant, water plant, etc.). The ACR commander, initially having no contact with any higher authority, chose to assist the largest civilian population center that he knew was still intact. Once contact with the civilian chain of command was reestablished, the ACR was ordered to stay in Cleveland and try and keep the place together. This solidified the unit as a CivGov supporter. Shortly the water and power problem became apparent and the Armored Cav secured the local reservoirs and reconned the rail lines running from Cleveland down to West Virginia and it's coal fields. West Virginia was selected rather than the mayor's first choice of Pennsylvania because the 107th's armories ran down the east side of the state and had one of it's squadrons stationed in West Virginia. The Cleveland rail yard workers were hired by the city and with some RR crews and assistance from some Combat Engineers and Air National Guard Civil Engineers they got to West Virginia and made trade arrangements with the miners to exchange coal for manufactured products and pharmaceuticals. Agreements were also made with any crop and dairy farmers who could get there products to the railroad to trade food. Several small grain elevators were refurbished or re-opened to accommodate the trade, and the Cavalry found it needed to recruit soldiers to man forts that needed to be built along the line to protect the miners and farmers from bandits and scavengers. Lack of sufficient gasoline and diesel fuel resulted in it being confiscated for military and emergency use only. When the realization finally settled in that 1) everything's gone to hell and 2) there was no eminent Soviet Invasion, a restructuring of society was called for if the majority were to survive, mainly an employment restructuring. Almost all office workers were out of a job so some were sent to the farms to train as field workers since farming became more labor intensive since fuel was restricted. Lumbering and replanting trees became important and regulated by the new government. Murder and rape were punished by public hanging. Deliberately killing a horse and other anti-survival crimes were jailing offenses. Great Lakes vessels were hired by the government to explore the Great Lakes and return with reports of the situation, and to establish initial trade deals if they had something the Clevelanders needed. (The boat captains were given a list of items most needed, and a Geiger counter). The city recommisioned some railroad steam engines that had been pulling tourist or dinner trains, or sitting in museums as soon as they could so that they could use coal for rail transport rather than diesel fuel. And, extrapolating off of that, a new little country has been born in eastern Ohio. They have expanded some, but prefer to trade with the Appalachians rather than risk a possible guerilla war. The calvarymen are divided into well-armed and defended "forts" spread around the city. 175 men are at the Regimental HQ at the City Police Building, 70 men at Case Western Reserve University, 20 men at a tankworks, and 20 more at a motorworks. As well, 150 men are detailed to patrol the northside docks, 40 more patrolling the rather peaceful eastern suburbs, and 140 patrolling the more dangerous western suburbs. The "Army Camp" in the downtown area holds around 300 soldiers at any one time, along with three tanks, fifteen armored cars, ten troop carrier trucks, twenty motorcycles and machine gun and mortar emplacements and even a multiple rocket launcher. There are a further 2,000 or so militia that can be called up within the city. The militia is armed with rifles, carbines, pistols, grenades, and homemade bombs. The Ohio National Guard has joined with the 107th ACR and is tasked with keeping the city safe and have numerous forces in town, operating roadblocks and checkpoints throughout the city. One of the biggest entry checkpoints is at the I-80 and I-71 overpass, which is manned by troops and an M103 heavy tank. The 107th ACR now has some 1050 soldiers. The ONG forces in the city are armed with a variety of weapons including 4.2" mortars, recoilless rifles and an old M41 tank. The city has come under increasing scrutiny by the Civilian Government recently, as they consider a massive relocation of the leadership from Northern Virginia to the Great Lakes area. 4) NORTHCENTRAL OHIO Marion: Presently inhabited by several hundred refugees and deserters from various military units in the area. The area is a fairly rich agricultural area, however, and the people here have had better than average food crops this year. The town is defended by 40 former soldiers. Bucyrus: North of Columbus, this town represents the largest independent force in the state, trading with Cleveland, Columbus, and Dayton. Due to a difference of opinion with the state government, no OMR or OH NG troops are in this growing town. Bucyrus is extensively overcrowded but has new facilities under construction. Local agriculture is now barely adequate to support the population and more people come every month. The town can muster about 120 fulltime local militiamen and 160 part-time local militiamen, but they are all of limited effectiveness. Upper Sandusky: Abandoned when fallout from the Lima strike panicked the residents into fleeing. A few people have moved back but not very many. Marysville: This town northwest of Columbus is only controlled by its own local militia and police force. The town has 60 full-time local militiamen, and 80 part-time local militiamen as well as four deuce-and-a-half cargo trucks and five jeeps. Kenton: Initially abandoned when Lima was nuked and the fallout drifted in, Kenton has since become a haven for refugees and a prime target for marauders. Its buildings have suffered considerably from neglect and the occasional firefight. Mansfield: An active survivor community strongly augmented by refugees from the northeastern part of the state. The militia is efficient, although not well-trained as they are mostly farmers and businessmen. Mount Vernon: To the northeast of Columbus, between there and Cleveland are a number of independent communities. Inspired by the science fiction classic novel A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller, in which a religious order preserves the knowledge of a pre-nuclear holocaust world, a small group of college students, headed by Baptist Minister Gerald F. Foster, founded the Order of St. Leibowitz in Mount Vernon in early in 1963. 5) NORTHWESTERN OHIO Marauders: The largest bandit gang in the state has taken the curious name of "Bandito Yankee". They number nearly 500 and operate in the northwestern Ohio/southern Michigan/northeastern Indiana region. They are led by former US Army General Robert Newman. They used to have a large number of ad-hoc armored cars but when it became a hassle keeping them running they switched to horses. They have two machineguns, a number of M14s and several crates of rifle grenades. Toledo: Early in the morning of October 29, 1962, a single Mi-4-3M Bison B bomber slipped past the USAF interceptors and flew into Ohio. It dropped a 1 megaton nuclear bomb on the oil fields and refineries to the west of Toledo before continuing south to Lima. Today, only the northern third of the city is remotely intact and even there large areas of residential districts are burnt-out or severely damaged. The rest of the city is a mass of rubble, still dangerously radioactive. This city is not under any organized control and is very chaotic, occupied by handfuls of scavengers desperate enough to brave the radiation. The southern suburb of Perrysburg is home to the largest biker gang in the area. Bowling Green: This small city south of Toledo was abandoned when fallout from the Toledo strike drifted over. The buildings are largely intact and several groups of people have returned to the town lately. They are under constant marauder pressure, however, and may not last long. Findlay: This large town south of Toledo was flooded by refugees from the Toledo and Lima nuclear attacks in 1962 and thus it lacked all the basic necessities and facilities to deal with the influx. The state had no unit to send to aid the town, so the townspeople relied upon local police forces and the civic government to keep order. The plan failed miserably, and the half-trained, ill-equipped, 2nd Infantry Battalion, OMR was eventually committed to suppress the rioting and restore order in Findlay. They quickly learned how to rule through intimidation and force, and their efforts resulted in many deaths. Today the town has improved slightly and has been extensively fortified. The 2nd Infantry Battalion, OMR has 55 soldiers and about 60 impressed militiamen. They mount no exterior patrols after dark and have become extensively raided by bikers from the Toledo area. Defiance: To the southwest of Toledo, this town is currently the home of the MilGov Platoon 1, Company B, 2nd Battle Group/130th Infantry Regiment, 33rd Infantry Division. This is a recon group dispatched from the main unit's enclave at Cairo, Illinois to Detroit a month ago to gain spare parts for the 33rd's vehicles. They were ambushed by bikers and withdrew to Defiance awaiting support, which is yet to come. They have 26 soldiers, 20 local recruits, one M59A1 APC and five jeeps. They are still loyal to MilGov and they are aware that they are in a heavily CivGov area and are keeping a very low profile. The men have been good to the local population and have made a very favorable impression in their short time here. Lima: The same rogue Mi-4-3M Bison B that hit Toledo dropped it's second 1 megaton nuclear bomb on Lima, extensively damaging the city's oil refining and storage facilities and armored vehicle repair and manufacturing facilities. The bomber then crashed. Lima was half destroyed by the blast that hit just to the southwest of the city. With most of the city in rubble and much of it uninhabited due to the radiation, the scavengers and thieves operate out of the northeast corner of the city, where the tank plant is located. This area is controlled by the "Lima Constabulary"--a group of escaped convicts from the state prison led by Bruce Alexander. They have gained control of the long-idle Lima Tank Plant, but no one knows the value of what they hold. They have about 35 experienced men and numerous small arms, mostly shotguns, pistols and some M14s but no heavy equipment except for a handful of tear gas grenades. The tank plant, deactivated since 1955, consists of several large buildings, one housing the assembly line, one housing administrative offices and one housing a substantial foundry. In addition, behind the facility is a large parking lot (to house vehicles until they were shipped out), a railroad spur (to ship the vehicles out on) and several driving ranges. The only tanks still at the plant today are three elderly M-24 Chaffees, and only one has complete armament. The real treasure is the buildings have hardly been touched by vandals. The tools and dies are more valuable than the tanks themselves, as they could be used to one day make more tanks. 6) WESTCENTRAL OHIO Sidney: These community south of Lima pulled in on itself in late 1962 for protection from marauders. The citizens actively support the state government with food, and in return they get advisors and material. Consequently, they now have about 65 militiamen. They still cannot mount patrols and are easy prey for marauders. Dayton: The large city of Dayton and it's suburbs are controlled by the 1st Military Police Group, OMR (1st and 3rd battalions only--the 2nd being down near Cincinnati). Dayton is also the HQ of the OMR. The life of this area is now dominated by the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base enclave in the northeast part of the city. Dayton drew in around WP AFB during the chaos, leaving much of the city to lie in ruins. There are today some 150,000 people in the area, with many of those not around the AFB being in the relatively undamaged southern suburb of Kettering. Overcrowding and supply shortages are becoming a major problem in these areas due to the refugee camps there and packs of wild children are a common sight. Some inhabitants have even expressed a desire to break with the state government and join with MilGov. The two MP Battalions have about 110 trained soldiers, 100 fulltime militia and 200 part-time militia. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base: Located in the northeast corner of Dayton, the Wright-Patterson AFB (known as the WP Enclave) is a bastion of CivGov power in the state. The enclave has grown, necessarily, to incorporate Fairborn, which sits between the Wright and Patterson airfields. By today, Wright Field has ceased to function as a viable airfield. Much of the electronics and equipment has been transferred to Patterson Field. The runways are overgrown and cracked due to lack of maintenance, and the grassed areas have been converted to small farms, which produce vegetables and fruit used by the base. Also, a small herd of cattle, some chickens and a few hogs call Wright Field their home. Many of the hangars, originally designed to house the mighty B-52 Stratofortresses, have been converted to housing. Hanger 18, however is still classified, closed and closely guarded. The base hospital, which sits near Wright Field's main gate, is still open. Patterson Field has many small farms occupying its infield, producing lettuce, potatoes, cabbage and carrots. The WP Enclave's defenses are organized in three rings. The outer ring, encompassing the entirety of the base and the city of Fairborn, consists of guard posts along the roads, plus outpost bunkers that are mostly monitoring stations for electronic surveillance systems. All roads entering the perimeter have guard posts, with field-expedient concertina wire stretched across the road and sandbagged bunkers on either side of the road. The second ring of the WP Enclave's defenses circles the air force base. All areas of the perimeter are covered by MG pits and a nine-foot-high chain link fence topped with concertina wire surrounds the perimeter. More remote areas are covered with minefields and hidden trip flares. Perimeter bunkers are located every 1,500-2,500 yards. The base's two entrances are covered by single roadblock bunkers. Located 1,000 yards behind the main entrance is a supporting bunker which houses a towed 75mm anti-tank gun. The WP Enclave's inner defense ring is a rapid reaction force, centered around two ground surveillance radar systems, one covering each airfield. Four-man (or two-man/two-dog) teams patrol inside the perimeter. An emergency response team consists of two armored cars with 57mm recoilless rifles, 15 air force security police and 35 recruits. The airfield control/operations building and the base headquarters are sandbagged and heavily guarded, backed by two M60 LMGs and one M2HB .50 cal heavy machinegun in sandbagged emplacements. The base headquarters houses the armory, which has a 90mm anti-aircraft gun among its more interesting items. 7) CENTRAL OHIO Columbus: The largest of the survivor enclaves still controlled by the state government. It is actually composed of a ring of suburban towns now, as the center of the city has been given up to scavengers. The area between the German Village and the State Fair Grounds has been completely razed by fires. The largest of these refugee camps is in the Dublin-Hilliard corridor, just northwest of the city, The second largest is in the Reynoldsburg area, with others at Sunbury, Pataskala, Grove City and Westerville. The situation in the Columbus metroplex is now stable, and the camps have been fortified. The senior unit in Columbus is the CivGov 37th Infantry Division, an Ohio National Guard unit which had just been stood down from being mobilized for the Berlin Crisis when the war came. It has 1,600 men in four firebases, along with 250 full-time militia and 450 emergency militia. They mount patrols, both out of Columbus and into the city center, and have regular messenger service with Lancaster. Springfield: This refugee-swollen city west of Columbus is among the most productive of any in the state and is a major supplier of food to the Dayton area. The town is overcrowded, but not excessively so--at least not at the present. Springfield has established its own militia using former soldiers and police officers as leaders and currently has about 90 local militiamen. Washington Court House: This town southwest of Columbus is among the best developed under state control. While the refugee camps are large and they have been gaining population faster than most, order has been maintained. The town is under their own control and has been heavily fortified over the last few months. Patrols are nonexistent, but a well-established militia has come into being with some 50 full-time local militiamen. 8) EASTCENTRAL OHIO Zanesville: This town is massively overcrowded, and living conditions are among the worst in the state. The town is controlled by the 2nd Military Police Group, OMR, but it is so under-strength that external patrols are impossible and most of the soldiers spend their time with refugee squabbles. The MP unit has 70 soldiers and about 30 full-time local militiamen in each. The town has yet to be fortified and is a prime target for raiders. The fishing grounds around Dillon Lake north of Zanesville are home to a group of bikers known as the "Sons of the Knife". They have a huge APC they had put together known as the "Leviathan". Zanesville is coming under sporadic attacks from these men. Coshocton: The small, independent community of Coshocton has constructed its own fortifications. It has a well-established agriculture base, with a universal military conscription for all members of the community between the ages of 16 and 60. They are equipped with a wide variety of paramilitary and civilian arms, and are extremely leery of all strangers. 9) SOUTHEASTERN OHIO Lancaster: This large town, located along Route 33 southeast of Columbus, is a state-controlled refugee camp. The town is heavily fortified, and the area surrounding it is extensively patrolled. Almost the entire population is involved in the agriculture system and the camp is expanding daily to meet the influx of refugees sent here from Columbus. The town is controlled by the Ohio National Guard 1st Gun Battalion/174th Anti Aircraft Artillery Regiment, subornate to the 37th Infantry Division in Columbus. The unit has 56 soldiers with six operational M42 Duster antiaircraft vehicles and one towed 75mm AA gun. The town also has about 50 full-time local militiamen. The NG unit has been functionally independent for several months, owing little allegiance to division HQ in Columbus or anyone else, but cooperates with everyone for mutual benefit. Marietta: Along the Ohio River, Marietta was deserted in 1963 and it has never officially been repopulated. Recently, however, a group calling itself the "River People" has moved into the city to scavenge and gain shelter. The River People have proved to be hostile to all strangers and have attacked individuals, Ohio military patrols and marauder raiders. They have built up a defensive position along the Ohio River and patrol their territory using an old converted river tug. The River People consist of about 200 militiamen, deserters, survivalists and people attracted to the area's seeming tranquility. 10) SOUTHCENTRAL OHIO Lucasville: This refugee camp was established in 1963 to control the Ohio Correctional Facility at Lucasville and escalated into a major penal colony for riffraff from around the state. Law and order are maintained by the heavy hand of the 3rd Military Police Group, OMR. The 3rd MP Group has established a heavily fortified camp at Lucasville and has 80 trained soldiers (and former corrections officers), plus 100 full-time militia. Portsmouth: The river town of Portsmouth has been the site of numerous raids from groups such as "Jameyson's Irregulars" and the "Kentucky Mountainmen". Even though hurt by the raids, the residents have done quite well. The town is heavily fortified on all sides and is defended by some 320 militiamen of the "Ohio Defense Corps". 11) SOUTHWESTERN OHIO Middletown: Overrun with refugees from both Cincinnati and Dayton during the bombings. The Ohio National Guard 1486th Transportation Company, which was stationed there at the time, stepped in and took effective control over the situation. Without state aid, the group established housing, farms, and fortifications for the population and in exchange, inhabitants gave the company their loyalty. They have subsequently quit taking orders from the state government. The 1486th has about 40 men, six jeeps and three .30 cal LMGs. This is a Shaker town and the presence of men with guns is unsettling for many of the locals. Oxford: In 1964, after a break with state control and several unsuccessful raids, the CivGov 324th Military Police Company (OH NG) turned marauder and settled in Oxford. This former college town has been used ever since by the 324th MP Co to raid in Ohio and Indiana. There are about 45 soldiers and 60 recruits, with six jeeps and four .30 cal LMGs. Hamilton: The western half of Hamilton is populated but the eastern sections have been scavenged and picked over extensively over the years. The population in the area is only about 700 people and most of the land is not cultivated. Most of the old buildings have been torn down and the courthouse, library, city hall and the post office all have been ransacked and gutted by flames. The campus of Miami University at Hamilton is occupied by squatters who want to be left alone. East Hamilton across the bridge is abandoned and most of the buildings are little more than debris. The brick buildings close to the bridge have been carted off brick by brick to make more sturdier structures on the western side of the river and in the northern part of town all the wooden buildings are long ago burned. Hamilton is now the home of a Special Forces recon team tasked with hunting suspected marauders and rogue soldiers in the area. They have an armored police riot squad van and two jeeps. Cincinnati: Once the "Queen City of the Ohio River," Cincinnati now lies sacked and nearly deserted. Gutted, burned-out buildings, overturned cars, uncountable human skeletons are common sights here. The Delhi Hills section has been completely razed by fires. The only inhabitants are scavengers and those under control of the Cincinnati Pirates, a group of marauders which has taken over the bridges and occupied the riverfront areas of the city. The marauders have established a river toll and a river crossing tax, enforced by 60-80 men headquartered at several fortified areas. In addition, they have managed to obtain an 75mm recoilless rifle and several rounds of ammunition. There is one river freighter at the docks today, as well as several smaller barges. At the former campus of the College of Mount Saint Joseph, the US Army is building a base camp to help control the area. The 2nd Battalion, 1st Military Police Group, OMR, detached from its parent unit in Dayton, has established extensive defenses around the construction site to prevent marauders from gaining equipment. There are 55 men with eight .30 cal LMGs here. They are also wary of troops from Kentucky trying to loot the city. |
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SECTION SIX: Appalachia (Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina)
KENTUCKY After the bombs fell, the Kentucky state government moved quickly to preserve their state's assets. The Kentucky National Guard was defederalized and reformed into Regiments as the "Kentucky State Militia", subornate only to the state government and Governor Bertram Thomas Combs. It has been successful in keeping much of the chaos out of the state, but has gained a reputation as being brutal and heavy-handed with out-of-state refugees. As the two main federal bases in the state (Forts Knox and Campbell) were both nuked, there were only a few federal troops in the state and these were asked to leave. Realizing that the state was too big to effectively control, Governor Combs wisely abandoned the eastern half of the state, moving everyone who wanted to west of the Kentucky River. Control of the bridges over this natural barrier allowed the KSM to keep most of the marauders and disease out of the core of the state. With this eastern boundary, and the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to the north and west, only the southern border was open. Governor Combs made pledges to both national governments and to the states surrounding Kentucky to not interfere with them if they did so also. However, as time passes, Kentucky is eyeing resources across it's state borders. The drought has not been as hard in most parts of Kentucky, ensuring that the core of the state will survive the coming winter intact and fed, making it a real danger to expand in the spring of 1965. 1) NUCLEAR TARGETS TARGET DATE TYPE SIZE Fort Knox 10/29/62 Bomb 1 mT 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES The Kentucky National Guard was defederalized in November of 1962 and all associated personnel were reformed into four Regiments numbered First through Fourth. The Regiments follow established US Army organization and structure and are allowed to function independently of each other. First Ranger Battalion--Louisville (300 men) First Regiment--Danville (1000 men) Second Regiment--Louisville (1700 men) ------Detachment--Fort Knox (100 men) Third Regiment--Bowling Green (1000 men) Fourth Regiment--Lexington (1000 men) Tenth Regiment--Mayfield (750 men, 25 AFVs) ------Benton--Fourth Calvary Squadron (50 men) 1) WESTERN KENTUCKY Most of the western areas of Kentucky are not under the KSM's direct control and conditions here much more harsh and difficult. No effective government exists above the local level. Many rural towns are deserted and looted and food shortages due to a localized crop blight are decimating the remaining populations of larger towns such as Owensboro and Henderson. The nuclear strike on Fort Campbell polluted a large area of southwestern Kentucky, driving the population out of the area. A bad flood of the Mississippi River last year also caused extensive damage to western Kentucky, the flood waters rolling over and completely razing numerous towns on the banks of the river. Individual towns are basically self-sufficient and rule themselves, though most are nominal members of the Kentucky Free State. Marauders are often a major problem due to the ineffectiveness of the KSM patrols. Trade with Illinois and Tennessee has recently began again and attempts are being made to cash in on the lucrative Mississippi River trade. Mayfield: The KFS forces in western Kentucky are centered here in the town of Mayfield, with patrols going as far as the rivers and the Tennessee border. The unit here is the Tenth Regiment under Colonel Franz. This is an understrength regiment, just some 750 men in five company-sized units and some 25 tanks, most dug-in at strategic intersections. They have had some firefights lately with holdouts at the Fort Campbell area, many of them straggles from the 101st Airborne. Benton: Home to the KFS Fourth Calvary Squad (50 men) under Corporal Jenkins. This unit takes orders from the Tenth Regiment HQ at Mayfield but has the authority to operate on it's own. Paducah: Destroyed by raging wild fires in 1963 that raged through this river town. The oil storage tanks down on the river exploded, turning the central business district to charcoal. 2) CENTRAL KENTUCKY While Kentucky is a large state, in reality all that survives intact is the central flatlands where most of the surviving population and industry is located. This area stretches roughly with a rectangle stretching from Louisville south to Bowling Green, then east to London and back north to Lexington. Nearly everything of value left in the state is now concentrated in this rectangle, as well as the bulk of the KSM forces. Danville: The new capital of Kentucky is soon to be Danville, the state government currently moving from Frankfort after that city was severely damaged by a flood of the Kentucky River this summer. Home of the KSM First Regiment (1,000 men), tasked with protecting and policing the capital. At the moment, many of the soldiers are helping with the move. By now, the citizens of Danville are beginning to call their city "New Manhattan" because of its relative prosperity. Frankfort: Frankfort, meanwhile, is currently rebuilding and some 30,000 people live here now. Louisville: Severely damaged in the aftermath of the nuclear strike on Fort Knox, Louisville tore itself apart in rioting and violence. The Muddy Fork section has been almost completely razed by fires. Now, Kentucky State Militia forces are being slowly built up in and around the ruins of the city, and more importantly around the vital I-64 bridge to New Albany, IN, the only bridge available to vehicle traffic for many miles in either direction on the muddy Ohio River. Two other largish highway bridges had been blown up in the earlier, paranoid days of the state, and there had also been some railway bridges, but those had all fallen in on their own accord. The area around the southern terminus of the I-64 bridge is home to the extremely well dug-in First Ranger Battalion (300 men). There are also some locally-raised Border Guards here, though they are mostly rejects from the Sheriff stations, and most of them have little more than pistols and shotguns. A rotating platoon of Border Guards man a guard shack and inspects all traffic entering and leaving Louisville across the bridge. Ordinarily, the normal traffic is a caravan or two a week and at least six or seven farmers each day driving a wagon-full of produce south into the city for sale. As to be expected in a city the size of Louisville, not all is peaceful under KFS rule. There are a number of semi-organized groups in the depths of the city, either supporting the KFS policy or opposing it in their own ways. The largest, the "Greenwood Gang" led by "Randall One-Eye", control an area of the waterfront. Other prominent groups include the "Satan's Stormtroopers" and the "Knights of the White Magnolia", a KKK offshoot led by "Imperial Grand Wizard" Bertrand Fassett. The Second Regiment: The KSM's Second Regiment, the largest of the state's four regiments, is based in southern Louisville with 1,700 total men. The Second Regiment arrived in Louisville in mid-summer of 1964, taking over for the Fourth Regiment which was cycled down to Lexington for rest and refit. The Second moved into the established positions in the city, concentrating in the more intact southern suburbs. The men of the Second Regiment are armed with small arms which run the gamut of pre-war National Guard-issued weapons. Regimental equipment includes two M59 APCs, fourteen M3 halftracks, eight towed 75mm howitzers, four towed 75mm anti-tank guns, plus numerous jeeps and motorcycles. Fort Knox Military Reservation: This large Army post southwest of Louisville had the misfortune of being nuked by a 1 megaton free-fall atomic bomb dropped from a Mi-4-3M Bison B late on October 29, 1962. Today only the northwestern portion of the fort is remotely intact. Even there, large areas of base housing are burnt out or severely damaged. Current radiation levels (in the neighborhood of 200 to 1,000 rads) make most of the base an extremely unattractive place to go souvenir hunting, but it has to be done and there are many slaves to do it. The nearby town of Muldraugh is now home base of a detachment of the Second Regiment from Louisville (100 men, three M59 APCs) tasked with salvaging the base. They are brutal in their treatment of the some four or five hundred squatters who still try to survive in the area, impressing many of them in salvage operations. The soldiers are currently refurbishing the hulls of the M48 Patton and M41 tanks they have dug out of the ruins of Fort Knox (the things are almost indestructible). What they have to replace are the engines and internal organs. Bowling Green: The southern most intact city in Kentucky today. The KSM Third Regiment (1,000 men) is based here and operates training camps at several locations around the city to train new recruits. Lexington: Home of the KSM Fourth Regiment (1,000 men). At the University of Kentucky, like all universities down through the ages, is a hotbed of activity. The "Children of Liberty" are an underground anti-government/anarchy group here. Pulaski: Home to a company of KFS infantry. Most of these men are local farmers who train as soldiers on the weekends. This is typical of many of the KFS units. Rebels in the fold: Not everyone in the Kentucky Free State, of course, is happy with the government's oppressive policies. Large bands of "freedom fighters" have sprung up over the last two years. Many of them have been hunted down but others have survived including one large one led by "Eric the Lame.". The move into Indiana: While the state of Kentucky pledged early to not interfere with any of it's neighboring states, that is slowly beginning to change. In August of 1964, small units of the KSM crossed the border in force to "offer humanitarian aide" to some communities on the Indiana side of the Ohio River. The Kentucky unit, comprising some 300 troops, four M60 tanks and at least three artillery pieces, crossed the Highway 135 bridge at Maukport east of Louisville and followed the river bank north to Leavenworth where they have settled in for the winter. A general letter of complaint has been sent to Danville from Fort Wayne. 3) EASTERN KENTUCKY The new Kentucky state government, once they chose to take matters into their own hands, quickly realized that the underdeveloped and mountainous eastern third of the state had to be sacrificed. All those that wished to were moved west of the Kentucky River, though most of the hearty mountain folk chose to stay put. Today, this area is characterized by small isolated towns and shotgun-toting farmers. Few marauder groups operate in these highlands, as the populace is well-armed and travel is difficult even in summer. |
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TENNESSEE
The state today is a mix of survivor towns and open countryside. Tennessee is considered MilGov territory but is not physically held by them. The drought has not come as hard to large parts of the state, helping to support the population but also bringing in waves of hungry refugees. 1) NUCLEAR TARGETS TARGET DATE TYPE SIZE Fort Campbell 10/30/62 Bomb 1 mT 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES Federal MilGov units are limited to small patrols from the Cairo, Illinois garrison. Tennessee's National Guard units were called up in the weeks following the nuclear attacks, though attrition and desertion have thinned them out considerably. The state's biggest city, Memphis, is now held by a National Guard force, but they rarely step foot out of that city. Other than two garrisons at Nashville and Knoxville, and the men in Memphis, the rest of the state is virtually empty of any organized group of troops. 30th Armored Division--Memphis (1500 men, 13 AFVs) ------117th Infantry Regiment--Nashville (400 men) ------------Able Company--Knoxville (50 men) 3) MEMPHIS In December 1962, during the height of the chaos, a brutal warlord named "Count" Forman Beaufort took over the city. The Tennessee National Guard was being mobilized at the time and the bulk of the Tennessee National Guard's 30th Armored Division was sent to besiege the city. The warlord and his men in the city held out for some eight months before being driven west into Arkansas. Though the military was successful in retaking the city, there was not much left of it. Two years of looting and neglect, the heavy hand of a strong a feudal-style overlord, and finally a siege by the military were enough to ruin this once fine city. Most of the buildings are vacant and dilapidated and packs of wild dogs run the streets and rule the nights. The residential districts of South Memphis have burned numerous times over the years, the mostly-wooden structures easy prey for wild fires. The business districts are wrecked and the residential neighborhoods are in disrepair--rusted, derelict vehicles are everywhere. While a lot of the rubble has been cleared away since the Army broke the siege, there has been little rebuilding. The 30th AD is still here with 1,500 men and thirteen M60 tanks, victors of the siege. While the large armored contingent is impressive, it is also a liability due to the amount of fuel needed to run them. Some fuel arrives downriver from the refinery at Robinson, Illinois, but that has slowed to a trickle since the fall. Without it, the tanks are increasingly relying on less-efficient methanol, or being left as stationary pillboxes. The Division HQ is located in the old Memphis Defense Depot. The soldiers keep to the areas they control, rarely venturing out of their compounds. The 30th's commanding officer has gone off the deep end lately. Never very stable, the rigors of the new world have made him crazy. Though still a dedicated officer and excellent soldier, he has taken up the persona of "The King" behind closed doors, and fancies himself as Elvis reincarnated. He has recently moved himself into the Graceland Mansion and is increasingly detached from the day to day operations of his unit. Civilian government is conducted from the partly intact Civic Center and a warehouse near the riverfront has been converted into a hospital, both are supported by the military. The total population of the inner city is now about 1,800 survivors occupying decayed, ramshackle structures in the areas along the waterfront. Around 20,000 refugees live in shantytowns east and south of the city, most, but not all, citizens of Memphis who have come back now that the warlord is gone. Ample land lies fallow, and it is unlikely that the Mississippi will ever run dry, therefore, many more refugees will undoubtedly relocate to Memphis in the coming year. Count Beaufort is rumored to have survived the siege and is holed up in a fortified mansion somewhere to the east of Memphis plotting his revenge. 4) WESTERN TENNESSEE Fallout zone: North of Memphis is a virtual dead zone caused by the fallout from the Eaker AFB nuke in 1962. Many towns in the area, such as Covington and Union City, were trashed as the gangs of looters and thugs preyed on the confusion of the evacuation. By late 1964, however, people have begun to return to the area as the bandits have moved on and the drought has forced people to look for every possible way to get food. There are now several active communities in the area, such as the river trading town of Golddust. Dyersburg: Home to a mangy bunch of survivors, some 800 strong, perhaps the largest surviving town in the area. constantly hassled by marauders and bandits. The town militia boasts around 300 effectives and has several one-ton trucks fortified with welded-on sheets of metal. 4) CENTRAL TENNESSEE Nashville: Once the center of country music, Nashville is now the center of crazy people. In the aftermath of the nuclear strikes the city was mostly sacked and burned by a combination of marauders and rioters. Today, with a population of 8,000 (not counting slaves), Nashville is a struggling city of traders, gambling dens, gunfights, cage matches, and gang warfare. There are plenty of places for drink, barter, rest, and entertainment and most of them will get you killed. Just as before the war, religion is everywhere and twice as oppressive. Several new sects have arisen since the war, most common is "The Divine Church", who control quite a bit of the remaining police force and numerous businesses, and who claim to have a divine mission to redeem the world by prayer, fasting, and flagellation. Another sect, the "Armageddonists", have a rather large mission close to the Riverfront, a prime spot to bring in the downtrodden. Although the state government dissolved early in the chaos, the remnants of it still claim power in the city, though really just control the few square blocks around the capital building. Protecting this small enclave in the ruins are the 400 men of the 117th Infantry Regiment, a Tennessee National Guard unit detached from the main body of the 30th AD in Memphis. Currently Able Company is at Knoxville (see below). Fort Campbell Military Reservation: Early on October 30, 1962, a Russian Mi-4-3M Bison B bomber, flying low over the ground to avoid the fighters, dropped a free-fall atomic bomb on this army post. The 1 megaton bomb ground burst in the base's parade ground, sending a huge mushroom cloud of radioactive debris into the sky. The raid was sort of a waste in that the post was virtually empty at the time of the attack, with its resident 101st Airborne Division being in Cuba at the time. It is now known to the locals as "Fort Crater" for obvious reasons, since all it is now is a big crater. Travelers are advised to be wary of it, since anything that gets within a quarter-mile of the crater is as good as dead. The fallout cloud left many area towns, such as Clarksville and Stewart, deserted ghost towns to this day. Murfreesboro: A town unsafe to visit, as it is held by a strong force of around 100 marauders. These are not your average road-trash, however, they are mostly army deserters and are well-armed with mortars and a heavy machine gun. Chattanooga: Chattanooga itself mostly died when Atlanta was nuked in 1962. Due to confused upper air wind patterns, the mushroom cloud full of radioactive fallout came to earth just over five hours later, with the swath of the primary fallout zone extending past Chattanooga. Almost 95% of those exposed in Chattanooga died before the end of the year. What was left was further depopulated after a plague outbreak in 1963, which the survivors called the "Fidel Flu". The city's outskirts have been the home of roving gangs since, and the entire area of the city north of the Tennessee River is demolished and empty. 5) EASTERN TENNESSEE Eastern Tennessee between Nashville and the North Carolina border is a mountainous forest full of xenophobic rednecks and roving gangs and anyone who wants to remain safe has banded together for protection. Streams still hold fish and plentiful game is to be had in the forests, so this area will hold a stable population for the foreseeable future. "Brown Mountain Boys": An extremely ruthless raider band that operates freely in the Great Smokey Mountains, severely hampering travel through them. They seem to be more like outlaw woodsmen than real bandits, wearing leather and skins and wielding less advanced weapons such as spears, bows, and axes and even frequently use dogs in combat. Evidence points to the raiders being holed up in some cavernous mountain stronghold. "The Mongols": Another marauder band in the eastern part of the state, with some 60 effectives led by an ex-con named Douglas "Khan" Wyoming. They are a highly mobile group with three converted dump trucks used to raid isolated towns, overwhelming their defenses with sheer weight. The vehicles' engines and cabs have been armored with steel plating, and the sides have been sandbagged. Oak Ridge National Laboratory: Following the nuclear attacks, waves of angry and frightened refugees stormed the facilities, looking for revenge on the scientists who split the atom. Overrunning the security guards, they killed off nearly everyone and ransacked the place thoroughly enough that there is nothing left of value anymore. Fortunately (or not, depending on your point of view), in the hours before the mobs came, the fissionable materials were crated up and shipped by air north to Griffiss AFB outside Rome, New York, where they remain today (see that state). The city of Oak Ridge has been smashed. Building foundations, steel girders, fire-blackened rubble, and blanched trees mixed with scrub undergrowth. Norris Dam, northeast of the city, has been burst, and the river has shifted south around the massive concrete structure. The majority of the former population, including many of the technical and engineering staff of the labs, scattered, many of them staying in the area. Today, there are some large Oak Ridge survivor concentrations at Olive Springs to the northwest and at Solway to the west. With the passing of time, the locals now sort of fear the ruins as a superstitious place of death. Perhaps because of the fear of radiation, much the area around Oak Ridge is still deserted. The wooded hills north Oak Ridge are still home to many small bandit gangs, however, the largest of which is 50 strong and led by a fifteen-year old boy named Ferret. Ferret has survived the past two years by his cunning and woodsmanship and, despite his age, is followed religiously by the older members of his gang. Knoxville: This large city was trashed by riots and fires in the chaos, forcing the population to flee for their lives and reducing the city to just haunted, shattered ruins. The fires wrought unprecedented damage and today, Knoxville's main attractions are diseases and piles of charred bones scattered about. Hit by an epidemic of anthrax this past summer. A small MilGov enclave is centered on the Tellico Hydroelectric Dam on the Tennessee river just southwest of Knoxville, having moved here in a futile effort to reclaim Knoxville in 1963. It is the 50 Tennessee National Guardsmen of Able Company detached from the 117th Infantry Regiment in Nashville, who have converted the massive structure into a mighty fortress with several defensive howitzers on the roof. Cookeville: A small city totally destroyed by neglect and forest fires. Today, only debris-filled basements and a few lonely brick chimneys stand above the grass. Bristol: A notable exception to the anarchy rule in the Smokies is Bristol, a prosperous town of several hundred citizens up in the mountains. Home of some extensive mining operations, run by experienced coal miners from North Carolina and West Virginia, that keep the town lit and warm in the winter. Bristol is clean, organized, well-defended, and powered by a coal-fired generator. The townspeople have huge, well-cared-for gardens to feed the populace, and have reopened a small clothing factory to trade with local towns. Ricky Owens, a former USAF fighter pilot, is the town's undisputed leader and has organized the militia into an efficient fighting force. |
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WEST VIRGINIA
West Virginia is still a wild backwater of racism and clan infighting, a region of scenic beauty and less than beautiful people. The rugged mountains appear to be mostly devoid of life, but on closer inspection the state teems with life in the secluded hollows and isolated mountain canyons. Travel through the steep hills, except along established roads, is difficult in the summer months and nearly impossible after the snow starts failing. Roads of any sort through the mountains were formerly few--improved roads, even fewer--and multilane hardtop highways were the rarest and were a key ingredient to a successful trade and travel. Complete passage by vehicle from point to point is usually impossible, and by mule or foot it is difficult. In addition to collapsed tunnels and bridges, the remote sections are often clogged with the rusting wrecks of abandoned vehicles. Another common sight on these roads are skeletons as thousands upon thousands of refugees who died here in the first months of the chaos--city folks who underestimated the harsh climate of the West Virginia hills. The marauders that infest these hills usually travel in small groups (from three to 60 members), are indifferently armed, and are usually not too experienced, bright or healthy. They can, however, be dangerous to those who let their guard down. None of the larger cities are intact, and little civic leadership is seen above the town and family level. 1) NUCLEAR TARGETS None. 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES The West Virginia National Guard contained the 150th Armored Cavalry Regiment. Called up for the Berlin Crisis in 1961, this unit was one of the first shipped to Europe to counter the Warsaw Pact's aggression in 1962. It was crushed in action there and has ceased to exist as a unit. The state's National Guard was small to begin with, and most of the personnel were long-time residents who had families to feed and protect before they went off to serve the nation. As such, there are virtually no organized military units left in the state, and that is just how the citizens want it. 157th Military Police Company--Wheeling (53 men) 3) THE STATE AT LARGE Charleston: The former state capital is now mostly a collection of burnt-out and empty buildings with a brackish river running through it. The northern suburbs are home now of "Jameyson's Irregulars", a large 250-strong marauder band, which, despite the name, is led by a man called "Moose". They are well-armed with a mixture of civilian and military equipment, as many of it's members are deserters. Wheeling: While the city proper is only occupied by about 1,400 survivors, there is a useable bridge across the Ohio River here. The bridge is heavily fortified on the eastern end and controlled by the West Virginia National Guard 157th Military Police Company (53 men). This unit is just about the only organized National Guard group left in the state, and is really an independent force using the NG name to help it extort tolls from the bridge traffic. New America in West Virginia: If the state were a teapot, then the spout would be firmly under New American control. In fact, New America's national leader, Carl Hughes, has a fortified residence in Charles Town. Hughes’ home is virtually a supply cache in of itself, filled with all kinds of loot, tons of food, thousands of rounds of ammo, and hundreds of weapons, as well as a number of mainframe computers still in operation. While he has grand plans for West Virginia, so far Hughes has been content to monitor the success of his followers across the nation from the safety of his castle. Mystery I: In the deep coal mines of Pocahontas County, just across the state line with Virginia, there is the craggy ridge of Warwick Mountain. Rumor has it that there is a secret government base hidden down in the bowls of the mines on the crest of the ridge. Some even say that this is where President Kennedy is, still hiding out from a vengeful nation. In a small lake in the valley east of Warwick Mountain it is said that Air Force One crash landed, backwoods trappers have seen it's rusting tail plane still sticking up out of the lake. Mystery II: Rumors abound in the region of a secret US military base hidden somewhere in the Paylaytion Mountains. It was code named "Pine Bough Farm" in the records and it was officially listed as a "Rest and Relaxation Facility" for government big wigs. However, Department of Defense supply and requisition forms had too much military grade, top-of-the-line equipment moving into that location throughout the late 1950s for anyone to believe that. |
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VIRGINIA
Virginia is still one of the most important states on the east coast, home to great industry, national leadership and large military bases. Though severely damaged by the war and the chaos, Virginia still remains a center of recovery in the area. The CivGov capital is in northern Virginia, and the state government is still in control of most of the state's larger urban areas with the governor still running things at amazingly efficient levels from Richmond. Outside of these areas, however, there is much anarchy and death, though no more than in any other area and in many ways less due to the large military presence in the state. There are areas that are for the most part devastated (specifically Hampton Roads and Washington D.C. belt-way regions) and these areas are generally abandoned. Major highway systems are in relatively good repair west of Richmond and east of Roanoke (I-64), on northward to Winchester (I-81). East of Richmond the loss of a great many bridges has rendered I-95 useless to vehicular travel. The use of water craft has grown as a way to travel within the state. In the mountains west of Roanoke, rock slides and erosion have rendered nearly all of I-64 and I-77 useless to vehicular travel, even to hitched teams. The far western regions of the state, always difficult to reach, are almost totally insular. By 1964, the population has dropped to just 2.2 million, augmented by thousands of refugees from the north. Control of the state is firmly in the hands of Governor J. Lindsay Almond, a staunch CivGov supporter, and the driving force behind Virginia's recovery plans. As such, MilGov presence in Virginia is restricted to a few sympathizers scattered about the region. 1) NUCLEAR TARGETS TARGET DATE TYPE SIZE Norfolk 10/28/62 SS-7 6 mT 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES With the civilian government capital in the state, and the governor strongly supporting them, it is no surprise that CivGov forces in Virginia are numerous, and are more often of a higher reliability than else where in the region. The state's main muscle is the Virginia component of the 29th Infantry Division, a Virginia National Guard division that is spread across the area. Forces are not necessarily "federal", since Virginia defederalized their National Guard and ceased sending recruits to embarkation areas, but they do claim loyalty to the civilian government in Mount Weather. Virginia State Police have converted from pre-war missions to ensuring order and security state wide, but specifically in areas of refugee sheltering. By executive order, state-wide gun retailers were closed and their owners employed by the government, their stocks interned for police and militia use. The Virginia Defense Force has become a state-wide militia force to supplement the National Guard. The VDF is a pre-war organization that monitored armories when National Guard units deployed overseas. After the loss of several armories during rioting in 1962, the governor ordered an increase in manning and to better arms for the VDF. With nearly 500 regulars and 2000 part-time members, including many former members of Virginia National Guard, law enforcement and regular Army units, they are tasked with monitoring commercial roads on the frontier, supporting the State Police against internal strife, and providing security details for state management agencies. 3rd Infantry Regiment--Mount Weather (800 men) 29th Infantry Division ------1st/83rd Armored Regiment--Richmond (3000 men, 40 AFVs) ------116th Infantry Regiment ------------1st Battalion--Roanoke (50 men) ------------2nd Battalion--Charlottesville (65 men) ------229th Engineer Battalion --Norfolk (200 men) Virginia Defense Force--Statewide (500 men) 3) MOUNT WEATHER The nation's premiere underground emergency facility and the relocated CivGov administrative center. Hidden in the carved-out innards of a heavily wooded mountain ridge, on a 434 acre site on the borders of Loudon and Clarke counties near Berryville. Intended to shelter the nation's leaders in the event of a nuclear attack, Mount Weather is a self-contained city, with it's own power plant, TV and radio station, computer network, stores of dried, canned, and preserved food, underground reservoirs of drinking water, living quarters, offices and a direct link to the White House Security Room. It's residents include computer programmers, engineers, fire fighters, security personnel, craftsmen, secretaries, and mostly importantly, bureaucrats. Originally both the Civilian and the Military Governments were here, both having ended up here following the destruction of Washington, but when the split came, the military left for Colorado Springs. Not only did they want to get to a dedicated military facility that was more centrally located, they also recognized that feeding Mount Weather was eventually going to be a problem in the arid and radioactive northeast. Once the military command staff and personnel pulled out, the civilian government structure took over fully. The National Emergency Council is in now control, being made up of those surviving cabinet members and national lawmakers who escaped the Washington-area blasts on October 29, 1962. The surviving bureaucrats of the NEC assembled in Mount Weather within the week, but by then it was too late, the military had taken over and was running the nation without them. It was more than three weeks before Secretary of State Dean Rusk was located and sworn into office in the sublevels of Mount Weather. The Military (in the person of General LeMay) refused to recognize his authority and the MilGov/CivGov split was born. Once the military left Mount Weather, things improved somewhat, but it was short-lived. On December 13, 1962, President Rusk suffered a nervous breakdown, and stepped aside in favor of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. McNamara was not in good health and suffered a fatal heart attack only a week later. His successor, Secretary of Commerce Luther Hodges was so overwhelmed by the task he would commit suicide by the end of the year. A number of other former members of congress attempted to take the job but all failed and no body outside of the immediate area even cared. Through early 1963, the Federal Government was attempting to find pre-war Senators and Congressmen to establish the next in line and set up elections. This was largely unsuccessful and the lack of a firm voice only assured that MilGov would be able to take over most of the nation. April 1963, saw Congress finally reconvened in Mount Weather. There were considerable irregularities over credentials (including one old-style gunfight on the halls of the new capital) and many questioned its legitimacy, including General LeMay. Only New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania were able to send participants, the rest of the nation was unable or unwilling to make the effort. As such, this "Rump" congress is little more than for show. To this day, the CivGov leadership is fractured over their role and course of action and as such is rather ineffective outside of a few select areas. Direct security for the facility is provided by the "Old Guard" 3rd Infantry Regiment, a ceremonial unit that helped the government evacuated Washington in 1962 and has stayed loyal to their pledge to protect the civilian leadership of America. The unit commander is Roger Caldwell and many believe that is in reality the de facto President of the USA, due to his influence over the current president. Manpower stands at about 800 and while they have no heavy weapons or tanks, they do have a lot of wheeled transport and civilian trucks. The climatic conditions in the region, the uncentralized location of Mount Weather, and the strong New American forces in West Virginia have had the Civilian Government recently considering a massive relocation to the Great Lakes area. The Cleveland area, with its good location, intact industry, and healthy fishing stocks is first on the list. 4) NORFOLK The war: The Atlantic Command Headquarters and port facilities at the Norfolk Naval Base Complex were nuked by a Russian SS-7 ICBM late on October 28, 1962. The 6 megaton warhead was mistimed and actually smashed through the deck of a tugboat before exploding at nearly sea level. Despite this, the very large mega tonnage of the warhead ensured the end of the city. The hit reduced the city's population from 300,000 to 30,000 in a blink of an eye and destroyed what ships of the US Atlantic Fleet that were still in port. The urban area is basically flattened and rubbled and the Hampton Roads channel all the way over to the mouth of the James River is totally obstructed by ocean-going vessels sunk by the blast, either partially submerged or lying on the silty bottom. Current radiation levels (in the neighborhood of 200 to 1,000 rads) make Norfolk an extremely unattractive place to go souvenir hunting, but there are many desperate enough to do it. Today: Few lights twinkle across the water and many houses and buildings are collapsed ruins. The Highway 13 causeway connecting Norfolk to the peninsula of Northampton was severed in three separate locations. I-64, connecting Norfolk to Hampton and Newport News, suffered the same fate but in only one place. In mid-1964, despite the dangers, the military finally returned to Norfolk to salvage and survey. The 229th Engineer Battalion (200 men) of the 29th ID in Richmond has set up a forward base of operations in Chesapeake at the Fort Stalwart Military Reservation and is the acting HQ for all salvage operations in the city. Most of these men have engineering backgrounds and know what to look for in the salvage-rich docks. The remains of the US Navy Atlantic Fleet command staff are here as well, working more as consultants than anything. They have recently brought in the floating crane VK-27, herself salvaged from Baltimore, to help clear away some of the sunken hulks of merchantmen and warships from the docks. Little Creek Amphibious Base and NAS Oceana received minimal damage from the strike over downtown Norfolk and are being salvaged as well. The USS Massachusetts: The blast over the Norfolk Naval Base sank every ship in the harbor, including the South Dakota class battleship BB-59 Massachusetts, which was docked at the far end of the bay rusting in mothball status. The ship's superstructure was blasted off, but the tough steel hull held tight. It since has settled into the shallow, muddy dock and today sits with the deck line only a few feet above water. Still the ship is reasonably intact inside. In early 1963, a group of scavengers, many of them former dock workers, found that it was a well-armored and easily-defended sanctuary from the bandits that wandered the area at the time. More people began arriving as the word spread, some bringing their families. There was plenty of room as new tenants began shaping their defenses. Scavenging parties went looking for food, tools, machinery and weapons and work began on transforming the ship into a home as well as a fortress. The state government in Richmond was aware of the ship, but had too many other things to do. There have been numerous attacks on the Massachusetts. First desperate gangs, trying to find food or shelter from the epidemics of late 1963. Next unfriendly scavengers, hungry for the ship's resources. Finally more organized groups as petty warlords arose and fell in southeastern Virginia. There were often casualties from the raids but also weapons and ammunition were gleaned from the fallen. The "crew" is currently trading with the Special Detail, and they are benefiting from offering guides to the military as they prowl the ruins. 5) EASTERN VIRGINIA Williamsburg: The reason that no weapons were targeted near Williamsburg was that the Russian Premier once visited Williamsburg. He liked it so much that he instructed his missile command to spare it. He wanted to use it as his colonial capital after his invasion. Williamsburg is home to a major reconstruction movement. The leader is a Fundamentalist preacher with hidden aspirations to be a king. He would prefer not to be messed with. Richmond: The capital of Virginia and probably home to the most intact state government on the east coast, still led by the capable and charismatic Governor J. Lindsay Almond. The city is thriving and growing daily, serving as the center of trade and commerce in the region. Nearby Fort Lee Military Reservation is now home of the Virginia National Guard's 1st/83rd Armored Regiment of the 29th Infantry Division (3,000 men, 28 M-48 tanks, twelve M88 ARVs). The brigade has been augmented with additional manpower coming from assimilated Army regulars, veterans, deserters from MilGov units and even former VMI cadets. Fort Lee is also the state headquarters of the Virginia Defense Force (see above). Air assets based at several different operational airfields in the Richmond area include six F-102C Delta Daggers, one F-89J Scorpion, six F-101 Voodoos, one KB-29 tanker, four P-2 Neptunes, and eight CH-43 helicopters. Aviation fuel is strictly husbanded and the jets rarely leave the hangers anymore. Training has virtually ceased and there is some question whether the pilots even remember how to fly. The VDF across Virginia: The VDF has barracks established in several key towns across the state, being Emporia, Fredericksburg, Onancock, Fort A.P. Hill, Fort Pickett, and Roanoke. Overall command is from the Fort Lee HQ and regular supply convoys are made to the garrisons from Richmond. The 29th ID across Virginia: The 29th ID's 116th Infantry Regiment's two battalions are one each billeted in the cities of Roanoke (1st Battalion with 50 men) and Charlottesville (2nd Battalion with 65 men). New America in Virginia: Numerous New American sympathetic cells exist in the northern and western mountains but are mostly held in check by the popularity of the sitting Governor. It is rumored that the State Police has penetrated these cells and that Governor Almond knowingly has not attempted to disband them due to some future purpose being feasible. Roanoke: Hit by an epidemic of anthrax this past summer, crippling essential services. 6) THE REST OF VIRGINIA The area around South Hill and La Crosse are populated by mostly mixed-blood Native Americans who are part of the "Creek Nation". The Creeks are unpredictable, they have one focus--the Creeks--and anything not good for the Creeks is crushed. With that kind of system it would be kind of hard to avoid trouble. They don't dicker, they don't negotiate, no treaties or deals. They figure the whites screwed them but good the last time and they are determined to be on the upper end next time. Or at least not let there be a next time. So far they have kept to themselves and not attracted the attention of the military, which would surely repeat 1880 on them if need be. To the north of them is the home range of the so-called "Central Virginia Alliance". This group is focused on keeping democratic conditions going. They are generally good people, holding onto the old values, laws, and ways of doing things. Staunton: Home range of a survivalist militia group called the "Thomas Jefferson Legion". They are well-trained and militant and virulently anti-government. |
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NORTH CAROLINA
North Carolina was swamped with refugees from the northern states during the great chaos. This, along with internal problems caused by racial injustice, tore the state apart. Food riots, disease and famine have culled both the refugee population and the state's own citizens down to low levels by 1964. The drought of this year has hit the central and western parts of the state hard, drying out the fields and turning the forests into tinderboxes. As winter nears, large parts of the state are descending into a swirling morass of roaming marauders and fortified villages, all fighting over the few fertile plots of land. 1) NUCLEAR TARGETS None. 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES The state's major National Guard division, the 30th Infantry "Old Hickory", was mobilized in late 1962 and shipped off to Europe to be decimated. The remaining NG forces in the state mostly fell apart by 1963, leaving a serious lack of organized military forces to protect the state from marauders, with the exception of a few spots along the coast. The US Marines have recently come to southeastern North Carolina and perhaps in the future more will follow them. 1st Marine Division ------1st Marine Regiment ------------2nd Battalion--Wilmington (250 men, 12 AFVs) ----------------Echo Company--Clinton (70 men) ----------------Fox Company--Camp LeJeune (50 men) 3) WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA During this past summer, one of the driest on record, the western farming areas of the state were devastated by a disastrous series of combination forest and grass fires, which local officials were powerless to control. In one stroke, more than a third of the state's food reserves were wiped out, forcing many people to migrate east in search of food. Those who are staying are mountain people up in the Appalachians, simple folk who watch out for their own and shoot first. The fires have only served to isolate them further, and that's just the way they like it. 4) EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA Greensboro/Winston-Salem: In mid-1963, a combination of factors, including the summer heat, dwindling food supplies and unfounded rumors of blacks hoarding food and ammo, caused the Greensboro and Winston-Salem areas to explode in violence. In what is known as the "Greensboro Massacre", white militias, with visible KKK and police support, slashed through black neighborhoods, killing and pillaging. Though such racial violence hasn't been seen since, the scars of that summer are still open today. There are still more than a quarter million people in Forsyth and Guilford Counties and the two cities have combined resources to mount an effective Highway Patrol on horseback. Once a center of textile production, the area still produces textiles, but neither in the quantity nor in the variety of former days. The main competing force today is a fast-growing sect of religious fanatics calling themselves the "Legion of Argos", led by Pearl Lazenby, who calls herself the "Eye of God". Durham: Swept by an epidemic of anthrax this summer. The rat population has blossomed and typhus is certainly coming soon. Wilmington: Home of the main MilGov enclave in the state, and one the strongest on the entire east coast. With its docks, fishing fleet and airport all untouched by the bombs and the majority of the chaos, Wilmington is a very important place today. During the early fall of this year, it was decided that the large numbers of excess personnel at Savannah could be used to secure another port further north up the coast. With the eventual goal of obtaining a port between Savannah and Cape May, it was decided to occupy Wilmington. A force of Marines from the Savannah enclave was assembled and shipped up along the coast to Wilmington, arriving there in early August. The city is now the home of the 1st Marine Division's 2nd Battalion of the 1st Marine Regiment (one of the units that originally founded the Savannah enclave in 1963) with 250 men, twelve AFVs and numerous trucks and jeeps. Wilmington's garrison is loaded with seasoned combat veterans, as the Battalion was reinforced with men who had returned from the European theatre and were still looking for some action. The HQ of the Battalion is now at the Sunny Point Ordnance Depot, at the actual mouth of the Cape Fear River, though a new command post is being considered at the city's airport. Clinton: In the first step towards building a corridor between Wilmington and Charlotte, the battalion staff has just sent the 70-man Echo Company north to Clinton, which sits at the juncture of six state highways. Clinton was the pre-war HQ of the 30th Infantry Division and the facilities are now being used by the Marine command. The marines here are continually chasing some kind of bandits or rustlers into the interior of the state. From this stepping stone, it is hoped that the interior of the state will be opened by next spring. Camp LeJeune Marine Corps Base: Abandoned in 1963 as extraneous and a waste of resources, this camp is now being considered for reopening. The Wilmington enclave has recently sent the 50-man Fox Company to Camp LeJeune to see what needs to be done. The base could have been a radioactive crater back in 1962 were it not for good luck and bad Soviet engineering. The Soviet Golf I class ballistic missile sub K-110 which was assigned to fire her two missiles at Camp LeJeune and Fort Jackson spent three days dodging the Tang class attack submarine SS-565 Wahoo in the waters off the North Carolina coast. When she finally fired her first SS-N-4 SLBM, a fault in its propellant system caused it to implode and sink the sub, saving Camp LeJeune and Fort Jackson to boot. Morehead City: A city being swallowed by the resurgent forest and grassland greenery of nearby Croatan National Forest. This sleepy port town is on it's own, separated from the rest of the state and not yet in close contact with the Marines down south. In 1962, Morehead City received a large number of refugees from Norfolk and Washington and the situation was chaotic for some time. The town is now controlled by a company of North Carolina National Guardsmen, heavily augmented by local policemen and impressed civilians. There about 120 men under arms with six troop carriers and numerous automatic weapons. The town has some electricity but it is mostly routed to military uses and very little fuel is available to the general population. This lack of fuel has left the bay full of stranded fishing trawlers and shrimp boats. There is a small Coast Guard station at Fort Macon offshore, and the cannon-armed cutter Avenger occasionally patrols the Intracoastal Waterway for pirates and smugglers. Immediately following the war, two US Navy ships were forced to dock here, the Farragut class DLG-11 Mahan and the Rudderow class DE-231 Hodges. Both were off Norfolk when it was nuked and were badly damaged and heavily irradiated--the Mahan's superstructure is torn and tattered and the Hodges is listing to port and slowly settling into the mud. Anything of value has been removed from the ships long ago and now they sit rusting in the turning basin, still somewhat radioactive, both their crews having died off soon after docking. |
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SECTION SEVEN: The Deep South (Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Florida)
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MISSISSIPPI
Mississippi in 1964 is a backwater of racism and violence, heavily effected by the drought and the epidemics that characterize the deep south. Mississippi is considered MilGov for no other reason than the fact that her neighbors are all MilGov. 1) NUCLEAR TARGETS TARGET DATE TYPE SIZE Keesler AFB 10/28/62 SS-N-4 1 mT 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES The Mississippi National Guard contained the 108th Armored Cavalry Regiment, and this unit was called up in late 1962. Sent to the Middle East in 1963, this unit has still not been able to return home. The only real organized force left is the Jackson city militia, detailed below. There is virtually nothing left in Mississippi that either federal government feels like spending their limited resources to protect. All the military facilities in the state have been abandoned due to the difficulty in feeding and supplying them, and reoccupying them anytime in the near future is a dream. In the various river communities there are a few MilGov commercial agents and militia advisors but nothing close to an organized force exists outside of Jackson. Most of these advisors come from the MilGov enclaves in northeastern Louisiana and Memphis. CivGov is represented in the state only by a few CIA agents in Jackson. "City Armored Corps"--Jackson (1700 men, 21 AFVs) 3) MISSISSIPPI RIVER BANK Several communities along the river at the various lock sites serve as portages for the vital barge traffic that flows along the river. Since nearly all the barge traffic is sponsored or affiliated with MilGov in some way, many of these communities are controlled by militia garrisons who pay lip service to MilGov. Many are purely independent trading towns, however, who will deal with anyone. Greenville: An active river trading community, fairly typical of the smaller river towns in the area. Greenville receives much trade and travel from Memphis upriver and is steadily growing in size. The Highway 82 bridge spanning the river to Arkansas collapsed last year and much of the cross-river traffic is done by a large ferry that uses a horse-drawn rope system capable of carrying anything up to a five-ton truck. Vicksburg: A bustling survivor community home to 20,000 souls and the largest river enclave between Memphis and the Gulf. The barge traffic is steady and the city has become a vital stopping point on the Mississippi River for both commercial and travel purposes. As the I-20 river bridge is still up, there is also a fair amount of overland travel and trade into and out of Louisiana from here, especially with the 39th Infantry Division being just across the river in northeastern Louisiana. Vicksburg's barge and caravan-carried goods are traded with Jackson for that city's natural gas, and Vicksburg has thus been able to restore electricity to many parts of town. On the northern outskirts, in an area of trailer courts, used car lots and swampy tributaries of the Yazoo River, there is an old forgotten WW I-vintage ammunition bunker. The bunker still holds stocks of mustard gas and some crazy survivalists have recently discovered them and are plotting how to use them against the Vicksburg government that refuses to give them respect. 4) NORTHERN PLAINS The northern parts of the state have seen fields dry up and people flee in large numbers over the last year, leaving much pickings for marauders and bandits. Many refugees escaping the violence in Memphis have scoured the area of nearly anything left of value. Grenada: The largest survivor community in the northern half of the state, Grenada is controlled by a racist overlordship led by a man named Neely Green. Green has set himself up as "king of his own country" and is busy enslaving minorities and taking tolls on I-55. His troops number some four or five hundred, well-armed but complacent with having it so easy lately. Grenada was the pre-war home of the 631st Field Artillery Brigade (MS ARNG), and while that unit was shipped to Europe, there was ample equipment left behind to outfit Green's militia. He is very short of ammunition and that is usually what he takes as toll fare. The drought is reducing his prey daily so it is just a matter of time before Green pulls up stakes and moves his operation elsewhere, much to the relief of the citizens of Grenada. Columbus Air Force Base: Abandoned in 1963 as too difficult to defend and feed, this air base is now just a deserted shell. The total population is now only four soldiers, although one of them a general, who mainly spend their time playing cards. 5) CENTRAL MISSISSIPPI A wasteland of bone-dry fields and small scattered survivor communities. The epidemics of 1963 hit this area hard, severely reducing the population. The state capital of Jackson is still functioning and is the only large city left in the state. Meridian: Almost completely abandoned as the drought depleted the food reserves to the point where the town collapsed. Many of the residents moved west to Jackson to crowd into the refugee camps there. Jackson: The largest pocket of civilization away from the river and the home of the reorganized state government. Some 40,000 people still live in Jackson, along with probably 20,000 more impoverished refugees from the drought-ravaged lands around the state camped at the outskirts in huge tent cities. Jackson has a large supply of natural gas that has helped it through fuel oil shortages, providing some basic electricity and water pumping. This gas supply is heavily guarded by the "City Armor Corps"--a combination of strong municipal militias and the fragmentary remains of a few Mississippi National Guard units that were in Jackson before the war (some 1,700 total men under arms plus 21 AFVs left behind when the 108th ACR shipped out). The gas will be tapped out in a decade or so, but for now it keeps the city alive and worth living in as well as giving the city something of value to trade. There is much commerce with Vicksburg (just 45 miles away) for goods shipped up and down the river, and even with the 39th Infantry Division in Louisiana, with Jackson's energy resources being the main commodity. 6) SOUTHERN/GULF COAST In the southern part of the state, the nuking of Biloxi disrupted the fishing trade along the Gulf Coast for a year or so, but desperation brought on by the drought is causing people to reoccupy the coastal communities again. Biloxi: On October 28, 1962, the Soviet Golf I class ballistic missile submarine B-121, lurking off the southern coast of Cuba, launched a SS-N-4 SLBM at Keesler Air Force Base. The 1 megaton warhead airburst low over the air base, the damage was enormous and the fires raged for days. The area of total devastation stretches from I-110 in the east to I-10 in the north to Popps Ferry Road in the west. Into November, the surviving citizens buried their dead as best they could, until the sheer numbers got out of hand and the survivors fled to the north. The dying did a fair amount of pillaging and looting on their way out and most of the city is now in ruins. The residential districts on the other side of Biloxi Bay from the AFB are especially devastated and no one lives between the bay and I-10 at all. Through a freak of wind patterns, much of the initial fallout fell out to sea, and today Biloxi's radiation levels are relatively low, though this is not common knowledge. The empty streets of downtown Biloxi are roamed by a group of thirty escaped mental patients from Gary, Indiana under the sadistic leadership of "Carl the King". How they got from Gary to here is an epic story of stolen cars, hijacked river tugs and a trail of violence and murder along the way. They are holed up in a luxurious waterfront resort hotel, the Edgwater, which they have filled with the choicest loot from the city, and take pleasure in hunting the few remaining refugees in the area. Gulfport: In the immediate aftermath of the nuke on Biloxi just fifteen miles away and the crazed rioting and panic that followed, the US Navy evacuated the naval base here and has never returned. There has been some planning by MilGov Command about how to try and salvage the naval docks and shipyards, but there are currently no resources available for such an undertaking. After two years of neglect and looting it is doubtful that anything of value remains, anyway. US Navy forces from Pensacola occasionally visit the base looking for specific items they need. |
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ALABAMA
Alabama in 1964 is heavily contested and severely depopulated. The drought that has laid much of the deep south bare has hit Alabama hard in the last year, leaving once-fertile fields bone dry. This, coupled with the epidemics and civil unrest of the year before, has reduced Alabama's population by nearly 90%. Most of the remaining citizens have moved into the larger cities where there is still salvaged food to be had, leaving vast tracts of countryside empty dust bowls. The only real oasis of security is the MilGov enclave at Huntsville. The southern port city of Mobile was the target of three Russian nuclear weapons, but they all turned out to be duds. 1) NUCLEAR TARGETS TARGET DATE TYPE SIZE NOTE Mobile 10/28/62 SS-4 1.2 mT Dud Mobile 10/28/62 SS-4 1.2 mT Dud Mobile 10/28/62 SS-4 1.2 mT Dud 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES Alabama was fairly well abandoned by the US military as the drought and famine took hold. Today only around Huntsville are there any organized military units left. 1st Battalion Alabama Volunteers--Huntsville (800 men) 2nd Battalion Alabama Volunteers--Athens (245 men) 59th Ordinance Brigade ------159th Marine Rifle Company--Huntsville (60 men) ------259th Mechanized Company--Huntsville (250 men, 13 AFVs) ------359th Mounted Reconnaissance Company--Huntsville (75 men) ------787th Military Police Battalion--Huntsville (500 men) ------832nd Ordnance Battalion (Infantry)--Guntersville Dam (175 men, 2 AFVs) 3) HUNTSVILLE The war and aftermath: The main MilGov enclave in the state and one of the largest in the immediate region, Huntsville is the hope for the future. During the initial post-nuke chaos, looting and panicked citizens rampaged through the city. By the end of 1962, however, the US Army units in the city had consolidated enough power to evict the worst of the looters and convince the peaceful citizens that remained to trust that the army would protect them. The clean up job was enormous and goes on even today. Army umbrella: Huntsville is home to the MilGov 59th Ordinance Brigade, a pre-war US Army training unit, headquartered at Redstone Arsenal, and the overall umbrella unit designation for all the military units located in the city environs. The unit is augmented with troops from the Chemical and Military Police Schools, surviving personnel and equipment from training brigades that were evacuated from the US Army Chemical Center and School at Fort McClellan and from Anniston Army Depot to the south, and by scattered National Guardsmen from all over the state. MPs: Personnel evacuated here from the various Fort McClellan training units, despite their pre-war jobs, were consolidated into the newly formed 787th Military Police Battalion (500 men). The 787th is currently the primary garrison for Redstone Arsenal and responsible for internal policing of the city at large. It has no organic heavy weapons or artillery assets but is well-equipped to police the streets. Tracks and wheels: The 259th Mechanized Company (250 men) was formed in the spring of 1963 to gather all the enclave's AFV assets into one unit. Before the war, Redstone Arsenal was the home of a number of tactical missile projects which required a small number of vehicles and weapon systems for testing purposes. The vehicles that survived the chaos were pooled to create the Brigade’s Mechanized Company, with additional vehicles obtained by putting obsolete target vehicles and even vehicles from other countries (also present for testing purposed) into service. The personnel are a mix of US Army soldiers, civilian contractors, and military veterans recruited from the local area. AFVs in the unit include two old M-90 tanks (which have not been brought up to M-90A5 standards, they lack modern fire control), two M-26 Pershing tanks, four M42 Duster air defense vehicles (the Dusters have had their cannons removed and replaced with rocket pods containing seven 2.75” rockets, giving them a fierce anti-personnel capability), two M16 MGMC M3 halftrack AA conversions, one West German Ostwind SPAA, one Russian ZSU-23-2 flak tank, and one Russian ZSU-57-2 flak tank. As well, there are two M59 APCs, two regular M3 halftracks, three M3A1 White scout vehicles, and four M-20 armored security vehicles used for internal patrols. The Company is powerful, in theory, but with fuel, spare parts and ammunition for both large caliber guns (especially the 90mm guns) and missile systems in very short supply, the vehicles generally remain in the garrison motor pool at Redstone. Marines: Huntsville is also home to the 159th Marine Rifle Company (60 men), a throw-together unit formed from USMC instructors and students who were at the various schools in the area when the war came. This unit is tasked with protecting the 59th Brigade's HQ at Redstone, relatively boring duty. Horsemen: And lastly here is the 359th Mounted Reconnaissance Company (75 men), a recently raised horse cavalry unit ideal for long-range patrolling in the Tennessee Valley area. The unit is composed of volunteers from the 59th Brigade, as well as experienced civilians from the general population, including a good number of WWII veterans with Special Forces or LRRP backgrounds, and the overall level of training in the company is excellent. Militia: Huntsville is also home to the 1st Battalion Alabama Volunteers, a militia unit organized in 1963 from Huntsville residents, trained and equipped by the military. Core cadre for the Battalion consists of local law enforcement personnel and some older military veterans. Manpower is 800 men divided into four companies. Each company serves for one week each month (so approximately one fourth of the unit’s manpower is available at any time), unless the entire unit is called up for some reason. During the harvest, the entire battalion is stood down for approximately a month to get the crops in. The battalion is relatively well-equipped for a militia force, with about half armed with M-14 rifles and the rest with an assortment of sporting rifles and shotguns. Support weapons are limited to one .30 cal light machinegun per company. Athens: The town of Athens to the northwest is garrisoned by the 245 men of the 2nd Battalion Alabama Volunteers, a militia unit organized and equipped by the military in Huntsville. It has suffered extensive losses in combat against New American guerillas and marauders since having been sent here in late 1963, and what remains of the battalion is now a veteran anti-guerilla force to be reckoned with. Athens is occupied only as a buffer between the marauders in the mountains and Huntsville. Guntersville Dam Hydroelectric Plant: This power plant sits on the Tennessee River about twenty miles southeast of Huntsville. While it is currently offline, repairs to the plant are proceeding rapidly and it is scheduled to come back online by next summer. This will be an immeasurable boon to the region, restoring the high-voltage power needed to get factories and pumps back running. The facility is garrisoned by the 832nd Ordnance Battalion (Infantry), a subunit of the 59th OB in Huntsville and a pre-war training unit converted to infantry after the nuclear strikes. The Battalion has 175 men here and has heavily fortified the plant perimeter with earth walls and crude towers. Heavy weapons are limited to two 81mm mortars and two non-functional M-26 Pershing tanks sited as pillboxes on low berms overlooking the plant. As the value of the plant is huge, the main roads between the plant and Huntsville are patrolled daily by troops and regular supply convoys keep the garrison here well-stocked. Mystery: The George C. Marshall Space Flight Center and the US Army Missile Command facilities were looted during the chaos of everything they understood enough to use, and some things they didn't. Rumors persist that the looters found some very powerful experimental equipment, though they have no idea what it was, that they took with them into the Tennessee hills. 4) CENTRAL ALABAMA The worsening drought has meant that the fields are dust dry and many farmers did not even bother with planting this season, instead simply packed up and left for Florida, where rumors say the crops are better. The result is that many towns in the region have become deserted and many parched farmlands are covered only with the stubble of last year's crop. In these ghost towns, burned buildings now make uncomfortable homes for transients and refugees. Forest fires have devastated many counties as no effective firefighting force anymore. Birmingham: Birmingham, once the largest city in the state, is a microcosm of the problems of large urban areas in the deep south. A large and restless minority population, a heavy-handed police force trying to keep the peace in the aftermath of nationwide nuclear war, and human fear all mixed together to create a firestorm of violence and destruction. As the city burned under it's own hand, people fled into the countryside in droves, swamping the farmers overnight. The hulking remains of the city are currently under devastating siege from the "Vulcans", a large white supremacy marauder band led by a man named Wink Payne. Their base of operations is the statue of Vulcan on State Street south of the city proper, which lends its name to the band, in the hills strategically overlooking the downtown area. The Vulcans number only around 1,250 effectives but their ranks are swelling daily by vagrant scum with the need to kill and refugees who see them as the best way to get food. They now dominate the southeastern part of the city, from the Jefferson County border to the Alabama State Fairgrounds, south of Highway 11. The rest of the city tries to cope with their terrible plight the best they can and the population is still about 40,000 souls, though they are fleeing in large numbers by the day. Local police and militia forces, now numbering less than 2,000 effectives, concentrate on guarding the industrial sections of the city north of I-59 from raiders. The rest of the city is home to small pockets of beings who try to survive in the ruins, ripe pickings for the Vulcan's pleas for support. With the drought in the region, it is likely that a large portion of the population will not survive the winter. Anniston Army Depot: Completely looted over the years with most of its "prize" content (like spare parts for tracked vehicles, refurbishable AFV hulls, heavy weapons ammunition, etc.) having been carted off by evacuating soldiers or smashed by looters. Montgomery: While the state government has totally collapsed, the capital city has survived fairly well, certainly when compared to other cities in Alabama. The epidemics of 1963 killed off much of the poorer and older citizens, leaving a city of strong survivors to carry on. Montgomery is now home to around 110,000 people, a growing number that worries the city's leaders. The population has swelled to beyond its capacity to feed with an influx of refugees from other parts of the state, many of them fleeing the violence in Birmingham and Mobile. The drought has limited the fall harvest to where it is barely enough to feed the original citizens, let alone thousands of refugees. Mayor Artemis rules Montgomery with his supposedly beneficent "Peace Brigade Militia". The Brigade, however, has been unable to defend the town from attacks by marauders, and the people are tired of the tax burden imposed to support this "defense". The government under Artemis, however, is sometimes brutal, but always efficient, with surprisingly few layers of bureaucracy. The Peace Brigade militia is pretty well-armed and actually do seem to serve and protect the wealthy and middle-class sections of town. They are sometimes blind to goings on in the slums, after all, who cares if some of the dregs of humanity there kill and rob each other. There are several large squatter camps on the outskirts of the city and the overworked police have shoot-to-kill orders to keep these refugees out of the city proper. This is a tinderbox waiting to ignite and the results could devastate this struggling enclave. 5) THE GULF COAST The Alabama Gulf Coast probably represents the best source of fresh food in the state right now. Unfortunately, few people live here as the area is still a disorganized mess. Outside of Mobile there are only scattered refugees and isolated families of survivors between the Gulf coast and Montgomery. The southeastern part of the region is being penetrated deeper and deeper by patrols from the MilGov enclave at Pensacola and it is just a matter of time before they come into conflict with the marauder king that controls Mobile. Mobile: Late in the night of October 28, 1962 the Soviets on Cuba launched three 1.2 megaton SS-4 MRBMs at the sleepy port city of Mobile in an attempt to disrupt the ability of the nation to continue the war in Cuba. The SS-4 warhead system was badly designed, however, and, as proved common with the SS-4, none of them exploded when they landed. The first missile hit the I-65 causeway across the Mobile River about eighteen miles north of the city. The warhead did not explode properly and just blew a hole in the causeway and spread solid radiation thick around the immediate area, leaving fused remains of the missile still visible in the shallows even today. The second missile landed in the town of Fairhope, about fifteen miles southeast of the city across Mobile Bay, coming to rest in the middle of Prospect Avenue, having hit the roof of a huge brick clothing store, bounced off and rolled into the street. Today, the battered and rusting missile bus still lies where it fell--nobody is brave enough to try and move it. The third missile actually hit Mobile, smacking into the thirtieth floor of a high-rise building on Broad Street in downtown Mobile. While the nuclear warhead was a dud, the concussion of the impact brought the tower down, and the ensuing dust cloud helped to spread the thick particles of solid radiation from the shattered warhead across the bay. With nukes seemingly landing all over the city, the citizens of Mobile panicked and ran. On the way out they managed to burn and loot most of the city, leaving large areas of it charred ruins. The city basically sat empty and rusting for nearly a year until people started to come back to the area looking to fish. Today, there are a modest number of civilians in the city, mostly living off of fishing and scavenging the ruins. In early 1964, a Cajun refugee from Louisiana named Rollins moved into the area at the head of a mishmash of bandits and thugs, driven out of Louisiana by the arrival of the 39th Infantry Division in their territory (see that state). Rollins has established his marauder force in a pre-war USCG base right downtown on the waterfront. Rollins is a dreamer and fancies himself the next Napoleon, with the Mobile base represents the first building block in a unifying military force he calls the "Army of the Northern Panhandle". Rollins is currently building a fortified stronghold on Pinto Island offshore to act as his future headquarters, using much forced labor from the local citizens. He has so far kept to himself, realizing that as yet his army is too weak to challenge the forces in Pensacola or in the rest of Alabama. The Pensacola forces, however, might not wait for him to come to them, and their patrols have been probing the outskirts of Rollin's territory lately. A major fight is inevitable and the locals are afraid that such a war will destroy everything they have rebuilt over the last year. Unknown to anyone, there is a huge amount of broken armored vehicles on a railcar line outside Mobile on the rails to the Anniston Depot to be fixed that never made it there due to the nukes in 1962. |
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GEORGIA
Georgia is both the present and the future of America. The war, epidemics, drought and the hand of man have all had their turn trashing this state, killing off hundreds of thousands and spoiling the land for decades to come. However, two large military-controlled cities (Atlanta and Savannah) will provide the state and the nation with the men and material to drive the recovery and rebuild what has been lost. 1) NUCLEAR TARGETS TARGET DATE TYPE SIZE Atlanta 10/28/62 SS-7 6 mT 2) ORGANIZED MILITARY FORCES Georgia is about as military controlled as any state in the union. With large and effective enclaves in Atlanta, Savannah, and Columbus, plus numerous smaller areas, nearly all commerce and trade is in someway connected to the military. As the debarkation point for the European evacuation, Georgia has both benefited by the influx of trained and qualified personnel and been hurt by added strain on the food resources of the state. Total US military personnel in Savannah number nearly 43,000 1st Armored Division--Atlanta (8000 men, 72 AFVs) 197th Infantry Brigade--Fort Benning (1500 men, 4 AFVs) 3rd Ranger Battalion/75th Infantry Regiment--Atlanta (500 men) Able Company, 2/121st Infantry Regiment--Valdosta (90 men) 3) ATLANTA The war: Near midnight on October 28, 1962, an SS-7 ICBM fell from the sky over Atlanta. The 6 megaton warhead detonated 2,000 feet above the intersection of Northside Drive and Wesley Avenue, instantly killing hundreds of thousands of sleeping citizens. People fled for the hills in droves as wind-driven fires consumed most everything within the blast zone. The area of total destruction eventually extended from the east/west segment of I-285 in the north to Simpson Road in the south, from the town of Oakdale in the west and to Toco Hills in the next county east. The firestorms and fallout cloud, however, were pushed northwest by a strong local storm system and the southern third of the city survived to form the nucleus of the city in 1964. To the north of Atlanta, however, the fallout left a swath of empty death and ruin from the city north all the way to Chattanooga, Tennessee. The suburban freeways are a nightmare junkyard of abandoned vehicles, dusty and decayed. Two years of rain, rust, vines and weeds have increased the destruction. The Atlanta skyline is a visage of shattered towers and burnt-out husks and tangled webs of twisted rebar and clinging chunks of concrete. The Army to the rescue: In October 1962, less than three months after the 1st Armored Division had become part of the strategic force, the Army used it as part of an emergency assault force being assembled to counter the buildup of Soviet missiles in Cuba. For more immediate access to port facilities, the division moved from Fort Hood to Fort Stewart, Georgia, where it conducted a series of amphibious exercises. The MilGov 1st Armored Division, which was exercising down at Fort Stewart near Savannah when the war started, was hastily moved up here to help with crisis control, and eventually took over reconstruction efforts. Ultimately, the division commander, Brigadier General Ralph Haines, moved his HQ from Fort Stewart to the Atlanta Army Depot in southeastern Atlanta and took a seat on the city's emergency council. Benefiting from strong leadership and a clear mission, the division has stayed intact and is huge by 1964 standards, comprising some 8,000 men garrisoned in and around the city. There are some 72 AFVs still running today, including Patton tanks, self-propelled howitzers, armored personnel carriers, weapon carriers and even two Honest John rocket launcher vehicles. The Mk-50 Honest Johns are short-ranged tactical battlefield artillery rockets each carrying a nuclear warhead rated at 20 kilotons. This division was just created in early 1962 as a test bed for the Army's new divisional structure reorganization and has held up exceptionally well. Also, the 3rd Ranger Battalion of the 75th Infantry Regiment (500 men) moved up here from Fort Benning soon after the 1st Armored came. The 3/75th is the combination of two training and one line Ranger battalions stationed at Fort Benning before the war, along with the regimental HQ and the staff of the US Army's Jump School. The 3/75th is now the Atlanta's primary commando and scouting force and are probably the best troops to be had on the continent. Revival: The city prospers, despite, or because of it's isolated location and strong military authority. Virtually everything of value was moved into the southern suburbs, which has become the core of new Atlanta. The plentiful rubble from the northern half of the city was used to make fortifications at vital road intersections and routes into the city and access is tightly controlled. The citizens here are well into rebuilding their shattered city and feel that they can make it a better place than even before. It does have things it needs, but it does without when it must. The military here runs occasional convoys south down I-85 to the enclave at Fort Benning and infrequent runs to Savannah and into Tennessee, all helping to keep the flow of food and goods in and out of Atlanta. Electrical power is available, if rationed, and to bring fresh water into the city, the division's engineers have diverted the Chattahoochee River and blew the Buford Dam upstream. Dark side: As with any big city, there are problems to be had with keeping the ruffians out. The devastated northern suburbs are infested with bandits and small-time gangs that often make it difficult for salvage crews to work. The largest of these gangs is the 250-strong "Festers", led by a man calling himself Robert E. Leech. The city police along with the County Sheriff and his deputies have been tasked with clearing out this area, as the military doesn't want to risk it's men. A smaller, though more destructive, gang is called the "Purple Cloud Commandoes"--anarchists and arsonists who burn for fun. Their last show was the burning of the baseball stadium this summer. 4) NORTHERN AND CENTRAL GEORGIA Excluding the Atlanta metroplex, the top two-thirds of the state is a mix of empty, terrorized areas and isolated fortified islands. Outlaws and petty thugs abound in the thick woods, posing a constant threat to the surviving locals and keeping the military garrisons busy. The rolling, forested countryside surrounding Atlanta is a mix of poverty and desolation, fuelled by drought and famine. Forest fires represent a significant danger, consuming numerous abandoned towns every season and even threatening the Atlanta enclave on occasion. The northwestern portion of the state received the lions share of the fallout from the Atlanta strike in 1962 and is still mostly abandoned. Rome: Rome, a former college town northwest of Atlanta, has suffered from the fallout from the Atlanta strike in 1962 and the more recent exodus of the surviving farmers. Currently, the town is controlled by a group of marauders. The band is composed of 40 bikers and 22 army deserters with various small arms based at the old town hall and an equal number of dependents camped out in the town. The group has in its possession an M3 GMC gun carrier halftrack, but no ammunition for the 75mm gun. Instead, they have mounted a .30 cal LMG on the gun shield. Local militia groups have been unable to neutralize them and the Army is never in the right place at the right time. The bikers have been making raids into Alabama, using their motorcycles to give them immense mobility. The former military personnel, however, want to move on by winter, so they have not mistreated the townspeople or the neighboring farmers as much as the bikers in the group. This split in methodology is going to cause the group to splinter before too long. Athens: East of Atlanta, the large former college town of Athens is now held by a marauder band who have turned the town into a virtual trashcan fortress. The band is called the "Road Blight" and is composed of 225 scum, drifters and misfits, armed with a variety of pistols, rifles and submachine guns. The gang leader and his ten officers are all US Army deserters from Fort Gordon, who took with them a lot of modern hardware when they awolled. The gang rides in two five-ton cargo trucks, one 18-wheeler semi-trailer, an M88 ARV (with the winch removed and only three shells for the main gun), and an M59A1 command APC with the M2HB and most of the electronics (which didn't work anyway due to EMP) removed. These vehicles are not in the best of shape and all are covered in graffiti and rust. The group has no goals, no direction, no organization, and is in real danger of being mauled by the Army forces in Atlanta if they keep mistreating trade missions. Some of the original citizens have stayed--the place does offer a bit of security if nothing else. Macon: Macon is surrounded by impoverished bandit gangs to the east and south that would like nothing better than to loot and burn the town, and the citizens of Macon are armed to the teeth to prevent this. The town's ace in the hole are "Avery's Raiders", a group of 170 militiamen led by an ex-Marine lieutenant, John Lucas Avery. Avery returned from overseas earlier this year when his unit was evacuated from Europe to Savannah and made his way back to his hometown of Macon where he founded the Raiders in response to the marauder problem. Avery's unit is an elite team comprised of numerous elements: Georgia National Guardsmen, law enforcement agents, well-trained civilians and some of Avery's friends from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit that came to Macon with him. Most are armed with military issue weapons and there is a large pool of military vehicles obtained from the local National Guard armory, including two M48A2 Patton tanks, an M113 APC, two M59 APCs and five five-ton trucks mounted with .30 cal LMGs and improvised armored plates along the sides. The bulk of Avery's Marine unit decided to stay in Savannah, so he feels he has been unofficially discharged from government service. However, the rest of Raiders--although they stay with Avery and operate only out of Macon--still consider themselves employed by the state of Georgia and the federal government. After all, they are still defending the interests of Georgia, which was their job to begin with. They operate under an unusual premise: "If the marauders steal things, fine. We'll just steal it back". Augusta: This city along the South Carolina border currently supports a population of about 3,000 people who make their living through farming and trade with people in both Georgia and South Carolina. Recently, the citizens have come under the grip of a crazed evangelist who has been "purifying" the town of sinners through executions. The populace is terrified, and many are fleeing in the night, leaving everything behind. The preacher has recently been sending patrols of his firearm-toting "apostles" into the countryside to strike at some of the farms. 5) FORT BENNING The main activity in the area is the US Army enclave at Fort Benning, the largest concentration of people in the region and the biggest user of the region's food resources. Fort Benning Military Reservation: This base outside of Columbus is now home of the MilGov 197th Infantry Brigade (1,500 men, four M88 ARVs). This is a mix-and-match unit created from recruits and support staff of the fort, local National Guardsmen, and soldiers left behind when Fort Benning's resident unit (the 2nd Infantry Division) was shipped to the European theatre late in 1962. Also blended in are smaller elements of the Airborne School cadre and students of the Ranger Training Brigade. The surrounding area does not produce sufficient food to adequately feed the 3,000 soldiers and dependents living here and there is much talk of evacuating to Savannah or the shore islands where fishing can help feed the men. Although Fort Benning has a full gunsmithing and ammunition recycling program, the ordnance, ammunition, and spare parts the unit looses to deterioration and attrition are hard to replace. Several small convoys run on a weekly rotation all through southern Georgia to collect food, and their travels through the area is a common event. In recent months, marauder pressure on the 197th Bde has increased through raids on their food producing regions to the south, which has served to aggravate an already bleak situation and has led many Benning personnel to believe that the area around the fort is no longer under military control. Columbus: Columbus itself, though on the edge of the fort, is really considered separate from the army base. The 197th Bde maintains a rotating garrison here of 150 troops and two M59 APC's, mainly to regulate the trade that goes through the town. Numerous merchants flock here, as the town serves as the main marketplace for the fort. Columbus has something of a boomtown atmosphere, but everyone knows that the boom is likely to bust--and soon. The drought is placing pressure on farmers to leave and many will soon start to make the exodus. 6) SOUTHERN GEORGIA The open fields and swampy creeks of southern Georgia have seen a lot of epidemics and plagues since 1962 and nearly all the original population has died or moved away. With the exception of the thriving port city of Savannah, the southern third of Georgia is a mix of small, isolated survivor communities, deserted and looted ruins and hungry marauders. Albany: Albany is controlled by the city militia, all former New America members. These men were part of the New America cell assigned to take over Fort Benning and the surrounding countryside in late 1963--those orders came directly from high-level operatives subverting the command of the 197th Bde. But early in 1964, these men broke away from the main NA cell when it was obvious that the plan was never going to happen, or if it did, it was going to get them all killed. They have since set up their base of operations at the abandoned Turner Air Force Base. A modest market exists in Albany, selling ammunition, food, clothing, and other basic items. Racial tensions are very high in this farming community, and recent marauder attacks have not made the situation better. People are beginning to leaving the town as winter nears, and soon the only people left in Albany will be transients. Moultrie: An enclave home to more than 400 survivors. They are currently held hostage and terrorized by a racist marauder group that calls themselves the "Georgia Militia" to give themselves some false legitimacy. The marauders, who came from the town of Ocilla to the northeast in two clunky deuce-and-a-half trucks, are thirty or forty strong and are dressed in a mishmash of military BDUs and Georgia State Trooper uniforms. Moody Air Force Base: Abandoned in 1963 when it became clear that feeding the base would be next to impossible under the circumstances. The remaining men and planes were moved down the road to Valdosta and local scum have occupied the base. Valdosta: Home to 2,600 citizens and a small Georgia National Guard unit, Able Company of the 2nd Battalion/121st Infantry Regiment. These men are all local Valdosta residents and the unit has not left the town since it was mobilized soon after the war started. They have some 90 soldiers, plus some 120 USAF personnel from nearby Moody Air Force Base, mostly support and technical staff. The HQ is a fortified building (formerly the fire station) in the center of town. The company is short of heavy weapons and vehicles, having only two M59A1 APCs and seven armed pickup trucks, with one M59A1 always beside the fire hall while the other is at a permanent roadblock on the I-75 highway north of town. At the Valdosta Municipal Airport sits one big C-119 Flying Boxcar transport plane and a partially dismantled F-100 Super Sabre, both brought here from Moody. For a while they were trading convoys with the 648th Engineer Battalion in Orlando but those have stopped lately as the drought has worsened. Just this fall, there has been a horrible outbreak of smallpox in southern Georgia, killing many and driving more north and south. The outbreak started in the town of Quitman, just fifteen miles west of Valdosta, and is spreading from there, threatening Valdosta and moving down into Florida. Due to the rapid spread of the smallpox, and the National Guard unit commander's helplessness to do anything about it, some of the Air Force personnel with no ties to the area have been deserting and heading north on their own. Waycross: While deserted, Waycross is home to a group of seventeen marauder cavalry troops who have been launching raids into the neighboring towns in the adjoining counties, demanding minimal tolls from farmers in exchange for use of the roads. As the drought worsens, they are planning on moving into the Dixon State Forest where there is still some game to be had. 7) SAVANNAH Savannah is now one of the largest cities on the East Coast of North America still functioning near pre-war levels. A strongly MilGov city with a population of some 332,000, Savannah is the center of the universe for the remains of international trade and travel. The city was damaged somewhat by food riots in the chaos, but it was minimal and government-organizing clean-up crews have cleaned up most of the damage a long time ago. The reason Savannah exists as a functioning city is the US military, which is thick as flies in the city, keeping the bandits out and giving the people the peace of mind they need to rebuild and recover. Nearly all civic utilities and functions are working, and unemployment is negligible. Fishing provides the bulk of the food for the enclave, supplemented heavily by locally-grown crops. The Marines, first to come: When the first nuclear bombs began falling in 1962, the 5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, built around the 1st and 3rd Battalions/1st Marine Regiment of the 1st Marine Division, had been in Panama, having just arrived from their California base on President Kennedy's orders to reinforce Guantanamo Bay. When the world collapsed, the 5th MEB settled into Panama City to let the dust settle. There was rightful fear that any grouping of naval ships would be asking for a nuclear strike, so the US Navy ordered them to stay put for a while. A few days later, two Farragut class destroyers showed up off the Panamanian coast, escorting three Caribbean cruise ships which had been hiding in the islands. The MEB leaders contacted MilGov command, then still in Mount Weather, and requested to come home to California. This request was denied, as there were currently no open ports on the west coast, and the unit was ordered to head for Savannah, one of the most stable ports on the Atlantic. In Guantanamo Bay, the 2nd Battalion/1st Marine Regiment was desperately calling for evacuation from the nuked remains of the base. This battalion had been airlifted to Cuba on October 21 and they had been heavily engaged with Cuban forces for some time. New orders were sent allowing the 5th MEB to swing by Guantanamo and pick up their brother battalion. They then linked up with the survivors of the Essex and Independence battle groups in the eastern Caribbean, and the combined force headed north for Savannah. On November 10, 1962 the MEB sailed into Savannah harbor and immediately took over the city's defenses. Nearby Fort Stewart Military Reservation was ideal for garrisoning the men and it has become the most heavily fortified place on earth. Once they had calmed the population down and helped to restore civic leadership, the marines spent the winter reconstituting and merging local National Guard units, reequipping as best as they could, and come the spring they had a city defense force of about 6,500 men under arms. The Marine Expeditionary Brigade ships carried a number of M48 Patton tanks, LVTP-5s and engineer vehicles, and these vehicles were used to fortify the city's borders. They are in constant contact and run supplies and men up to the enclave at Parris Island Marine Base forty miles away in South Carolina. This continued show of force and support is the only reason the independent South Carolina state government hasn't pushed to have the enclave leave the state yet. Operation Omega: In April of 1964, the war in Europe was brought to a conclusion and MilGov leadership decided to evacuate all MilGov-loyal units from Europe. Savannah was chosen as the unloading point for obvious reasons, and in the end, some 43,000 people were evacuated by Task Force 34. The force reached Savannah on May 20. While most were American soldiers, that figure included considerable numbers of civilian dependents and members of NATO armies who wished to come to America. These units were badly mauled in the war in Europe and are mere shadows of their former strengths. Many of the men who returned from Europe have stayed here and are beginning to reform into new units, others have been sent elsewhere or disbanded to become civilians again. Many of the men have been shipped to Wilmington, North Carolina recently (see that state). Relations with the Marines who have been here since 1962 are often strained. The Marines resent the added people eating their food and sleeping with their hookers, and the USAEUR veterans often denigrate the Marines for not coming to fight in Europe with them. For these reasons, the two groups are kept separate as much as possible and all efforts are being made to relocated the USAEUR personnel before winter. Intact units now in Savannah include the entire Seventh Army HQ, the 3rd Armored Division (2,500 men), the 44th Armored Division (2,000 men), the 1st Infantry Division (5,000 men), the 3rd Infantry Division (5,000 men), and the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment (100 men). Civilian leadership: The US Army's civilian political representative in Savannah is a bad seed behind a slick politician's smile. He was the former assistant deputy ambassador to Lebanon who had defected in Beirut the day the war started because he was sure the Russians were destined to win. Seeing the tide shifting back to the west, he quickly re-defected back to the west and snuck away to Germany where he attached himself to the American embassy staff there. He hitched a ride back on the Omega evacuation fleet and once back in the states, has weaseled his way back into a position of power. He is an arrogant and forceful man, but terribly afraid of running into someone who knows about his defection in 1962. The Navy: The US Navy now has a large force here, made up of local stragglers plus units of both Task Force 34 and the Marine MEB. Fuel oil is available but is rationed so that the larger warships mostly sit at anchor for months at a time. As well, most of the ships used to bring home the soldiers are still here. These are a hodge-podge of container ships, general cargo ships and tankers (converted to passenger service by rough wooden constructions in their holds), excursion ships and smaller vessels like river boats and channel ferries that were large enough to make the trans-Atlantic crossing. They are mostly West German, but British, Dutch and other nationalities are represented as well. Operational ships here include: Midway class attack carrier CVA-42 Franklin D. Roosevelt 1 Baltimore class cruiser CA-73 Saint Paul Worcester class cruiser CL-144 Worcester Mitscher class destroyer leaders DL-5 Wilkinson DL-2 Mitscher Farragut class missile destroyers DLG-12 Dahlgren DLG-7 Luce Forrest Sherman class destroyers DD-944 Mullinnix DD-932 John Paul Jones 2 DD-943 Blandy DD-940 Mamley Allen M. Sumner class destroyer DD-758 Strong John C. Butler class destroyer escorts DE-341 Raymond DE-364 Rombach DE-448 Cross Rudderow class destroyer escort DE-686 Eugene E. Elmore Iwo Jima class amphibious carrier LPH-2 Iwo Jima Landing Ship Tanks LST-519 Calhoun County LST- 603 Coconino County Haskell class amphibious transports APA-220 Okanogan APA-237 Bexar Bayfield class amphibious transports APA-33 Bayfield APA-45 Henrico Tankers TAO-117 Mission Los Angeles TAO-57 Marias Container Ship Von Hess3 Three Coast Guard cutters Six PT boats Notes: 1) The Roosevelt fought all though the European war before returning to Savannah in January of 1964 when her airwing was nearly gone and when damage received in battle became too much for operations. She is now immobilized for lack of fuel, just a large hulk taking up harbor space. A caretaker crew is still aboard, but most of her seamen have been reassigned to other ships in the area. The remaining crew keeps the ship up as best as possible with some civilian assistance. She will need a supertanker-sized dry-dock to repair some underwater damage from a near-miss ASM, as well as needing new arrester gear if she is to ever operate jets again. Most of the JP-5 that Savannah is able to produce goes to keeping the remains of her airwing flying from shore fields. 2) Overall naval command in Savannah is still directed from the John Paul Jones, which was the Operation Omega flagship. 3) This ship is formerly of the German Merchant Marine. |
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