Soldier Up (24 page)

              “At ease Lieutenant.” said Commander Elliot.

              The Lieutenant move to Parade Rest.  “No Lieutenant I mean at ease.” said the Commander.

              The Lieutenant moved to at ease stance.

              “Lieutenant,” said Commander Elliot.  “I understand that you ran a recruiting office in San Diego before the event?”

              “Yes Sir I did.” she responded.

              “Did you like it?” he asked.

              “Yes Sir very much, I like that kind of work.”

              “Great Lieutenant you’re now responsible for the overall recruitment for the entire US Navy.”

              Lieutenant Woolery’s mouth opened and then shut, “Sir the entire US Navy?”

              Commander Elliot laughed, “Yes Lieutenant but relax the entire Navy consists of the local municipalities. The entire Navy as we know it consists of the Seabees and the Hornet.  If I were you I would start with the camps in the area around the ship.  From what I understand there are some willing people there.”

              “Sir once I recruit them what do I do then?” she asked.

              “Boot Camp at Camp Parks I have a POC for you there to talk too.  Once they are recruited and sign the documents they will be processed through Camp Parks, where they will get a physical, testing and back ground checks.” said Commander Elliot.

              “Back ground checks Sir?”

              “Well they try, the recruits try to give someone who can vouch for them and if they are local a team goes out to talk to them.”

              “Sir will I get a recruiting Staff?”

              “Yup, here are five Sailors who have volunteered to help you.”

              “And an office?” she asked.

              “Yup on the hanger deck near the entrance. It’s already marked Recruiter and it’s ready to go now.”

              “When do I start Sir?”

              “Now Lieutenant now…” replied the Commander.

              With that the Lieutenant came to attention and saluted, the Commander returned her salute, “That will be all Lieutenant.” he said.

              With that she did an about face and marched out of his office with the biggest smile on her face and a new lease on life.  She made her way to her new office on the hanger deck once in she had five Sailors who looked at her and immediately came to attention, “Carry one,” she said.

              She introduced herself and went over her recruiting experience and then had the other follow her.  All five Sailors had been recruiters at one point in their career, there were two who were active recruiters one from El Paso and the other from Portland, the one from El Paso was here for a wedding and the other was here for his mom’s funeral.

              They spent the rest of the day brain storming what they would do next and how they would recruit.  One of the Commanders orders was that they could not leave the ship and go into the camps or anywhere else for that matter off the ship alone they had to go with at least one other person and must carry side-arms at all times.  It was time for them to get to work.

At Oakland Aviation Museum it was a somewhat different story when the Soldiers entered the museum they found all sorts of people living there.  They had to breach the main entrance because the rear entrance was somehow blocked.  When they breached some of the people who were living there open fired on the Soldiers killing the first three that entered. 

              The Soldiers pulled back and threw in two smoke grenades followed by two concussions. In stacked formation they entered again this time taking out the shooters who had killed the Soldiers.  They secured the lobby and the rooms off it before moving into the exhibition areas.  Two platoons of B Company, 1
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Battalion, 184
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Infantry Regiment would take on the challenge of securing the building.  Regardless whether or not the aircraft worked the Soldiers reasoned that if these people were going to fire on them they would fire on anyone, it was their job to eliminate that threat.

              As the entered the exhibitions they yelled US ARMY several times to give the people in them the opportunity to surrender.  As they entered the exhibition hall they started to take fire the Soldiers were able to quickly recognize where it was coming from and eliminate the shooters.  They continued to move and maneuver through the halls taking fire at almost every turn.  It was tough going because there were also civilians huddled in corners terrified.  The Soldiers stopped a few times to ask where the bad guys were and the civilians were generally more than willing to tell them. 

              The Soldiers were under strict rules of engagement inside the museum, the instinct of the Soldiers was to destroy everything to get at their prey, and then kill them.  Command wanted the airplanes intact and as much of their equipment, it would be counter-productive to clear the building and in doing so destroy everything in it.  The primary mission rules though were to eliminate elements that would engage them and to an extent primary mission rules overrode part of the rules of engagement.  The Soldiers felt that if they destroyed one of the precious airplanes while defending themselves so be it they would deal with that fallout if they got through it, what were they going to do bend their dog tags and send them in a post-apocalypse world. 

              It took the Soldiers over two hours to clear the building, they lost two more of their brethren and five wounded who would be stabilized by the medic and then transported to the nearest aid station by vehicle. 

              The Soldiers swept every corner and floor of the complex three more times and got all of the civilians with the belongings out, only after ensuring they had no weapons.  They really weren’t anti-civilians having any weapons they knew it was essential for defending themselves and family.  But this was a different situation where unknown people in the complex had fired on them and killed or wounded many of them.

              As it turned out most of the people they searched didn’t have any firearms, when questioned about the shooters they told them it was a gang of men who had preyed on them and forced them here.  Most of the civilians were women with children.  The women were being used as sex slaves by the men and there were several babies that were attributed to them.  This information was relayed back to Command who sent out several trucks with tents and other supplies that could be set up by the Soldiers for the women outside of the building.

              They had also sent some medical supplies and two A-Team doc’s to examine the women and children and address any health concerns.  The ones that needed more medical help would be transported to the ValleyCare Medical Center where they could be treated.

              The women were surprised and suspicious of the Soldiers and what they were doing for them, but as they noticed not all of the Soldiers were men many of them were women.  The women questioned the women Soldiers at length wondering if they had been forced into serving.  The female Soldiers assured them they had not been and were volunteers and they were really the US Army.  This helped a lot and gave the women assurances that they were really there to help.

              The Soldiers put out security around the aviation museum and the Soldiers who weren’t on security played with the older kids who loved that fact that there were men who wanted to play games with them.  The Soldiers gave them the candy and cookies out of their MRE’s and sent word back to command asking if they could send out toys for the children.  Hours later a deuce and a half filled with toys arrived.

              That evening a mess was set up which served the women and children with hot meals many of the woman cried which concerned the children.  Their moms explained they weren’t sad but were crying because they were happy that these people had saved them. 

              The following morning Lieutenant Colonel March arrived with several of the men from Hiller to inspect the museum.   First things first, Colonel March met with the families and assured them they would be taken care of.  They would be taken to one of the camps were there lots of people in there same predicament or they could stay here for now the Army wasn’t going any place anytime soon until the planes could be secured and moved which could be weeks.  After that though they would have to decide what they wanted to do because they would be pulling out.

              While Colonel March spoke with the families the men from Hiller entered the building and looked around, they were aware of the firefight inside of the building and there might be some damage to the planes.  The good news was that most of the planes were undamaged some had bullet holes in them but they could be patched up.  The bad news was there were not a lot of propeller fighter aircraft.  There were certainly a lot of propeller aircraft inside and out and they were sure they would run or could be fixed to run. 

              “What about that flying boat we saw?” asked Colonel March.

              “Yeah it’s a beautiful thing!” said one of the Hiller men.  “We don’t know enough about it we can see if it will fly and if it won’t start we can try.”

              Colonel March nodded, “Ok let’s get make and model of all of the airplanes that are propeller driven, all of them.  Then let’s see if we can get any of them to start especially the boat plane.  Also let’s see what we can use in the hangers.”

              With that everyone took off to get it all done, everyone had a job to do, it was going to be a long day and they needed to get moving.  Colonel March took off to speak with the First Lieutenant Harris who was responsible for the assault on the building and the two platoons who would remain in place to guard the museum.  Colonel March wanted to know from the Lieutenant was there anything he and his men needed to help them with the rest of their mission.  The Lieutenant responded they were fine, they were the infantry to this as a lot better than they were used too, he was smiling when he was saying it.

              Colonel March told the Lieutenant to let him know anytime if they needed anything and he would have it brought out.  He also told him to make sure they took care of the families and they were now under his care.  Lieutenant Harris nodded, “Yes Sir they’ll be fine, I’ll make sure if it.”

              With that Colonel March returned to the museum to see what he could do to help to keep the process moving.   As he moved back to the museum he was approached by several of the women who were held captive they wanted more information regarding the other camps he spoke about.  The first woman introduced herself as Margret.

              “Well Margret when I say camps I mean it somewhat loosely.    For instance, there are four Camps around Camp Parks in Dublin.  Each of those camps is made up of several hundred people and

they have civilian security forces that patrol and guard the camp and each camp has a council that runs them independent of each other.  Then there’s Dublin itself which consists of about 5000 people and has its own police forces and is for the most part separate from Camp Parks and the camps that surround it.  To move into any of the camps you need permission from the council which in many cases isn’t hard.  They need to be able to control the population and are really looking for people who can contribute, everyone works, everyone.”

              “Honestly Colonel what are the chances we can get into one of the camps?” asked Margret.

              “I would think very good, you have to ask yourself what you are willing to do for the community to help.  Everyone has something to offer a community if you don’t have a specialty they are looking for then they will train you but you have to be willing to work.” he said.

              “What do we get out of it?” she asked.

              “You get security and safety for you and your family.  You get food and a place to live, depending on the community you might get your own house, trailer or a tent that has been built over a structure until something more substantial becomes available.  You get medical care and schools for the kids, many of the camps have activities for the kids such as soccer, baseball, football, acting you name it.”

              “You’re serious?” Margret thought it was too good to be true her and the others had been barely surviving over the last year since the event happened.

              “I’m very serious but with all that said you get what you put into it.  If you decide not to work and want to sit around and do nothing they can evict you from it, granted there are exceptions to the rule.  Like getting to sick to work or pregnancy and injuries they understand things happen, but just wanting to be lazy no they won’t stand for that.” said Colonel March.

              “How many camps are there?” another woman by the name of Sally asked.

              “There are at least a dozen that I know of now, there is one down by the USS Hornet that has only been there a couple of months they are being supported by the Navy.  We are working on new ones in Rodeo, Martinez, Richmond, San Bruno and San Mateo and a few other places. The camps at Camp Parks are the oldest and most settled.  The others are emulating the organization structure of the ones at Camp Parks.”

              “Would we all be able to stay together or would we have to be broken up?” asked Margret.

              “Now that I don’t know, there is a woman at Camp Parks who’s in charge of Family Services, Mel Clayton a great gal.  She is the one everyone has to go through you would all have to apply through her.”

              “How do we do that?” asked Sally.

              “Give me a list of everyone’s names to include children’s and what they did for a living before the event and I will personally give it to her today.” said the Colonel.

              “That seems fair Colonel let me talk to everyone else and see what they want to do, is that ok?” said Margret.

              “Absolutely any time you’re already just let me know.” Colonel March was smiling and he understood their fear, according to them they had been held captive and used as sex slaves.  He had no reason not to believe them there were similar stories all over the Bay area very similar to theirs.  With that the Colonel shook their hands and walked with them back to their little camp outside of the museum.  He told them again to let him know there decision and he would get right to work on it.  Then he left them and went into the museum to see how things were proceeding there.

              Colonel March entered the museum seeking out the Hiller men to find out where they were and a status.  He found several outside working on the boat plane they had brought over some new batteries and had gotten some fuel into the engines and were going to give it a try to see if it would start.  Colonel March looked around, then started wondering even if they got it started how in the hell were they going to get it out of here.  The engines of the plane struggled to turn over, they coughed a bit and blow smoke out of the engines, the first try that was all that happened.  Inside the men gave it a little more throttle and tried again after coughing and sputtering a bit this time they kicked to life and sounded strong.  It was an amazing site to see these old planes still had a lot of life in them and seemed like they really wanted to get out there and fly again.

              Now back to the main logistical problem, how the hell were they going to get out of there?  Then one of the Hiller men who must have been reading his mind, “I suspect we can taxi her over to the 61 and see if we could get her in the air from there.  But we gotta clear the way, get the fences down and get those cars out-of-the-way.  Maybe clear some trees or branches but can’t hurt to try.”

              “Yeah can’t hurt to try.” the Colonel was looking at him.

              “Let’s say we can get it onto the air where to we take it?” asked the Hiller man.

              “Fly it over to the Hornet and let the Navy deal with it.” said Colonel March.

              “Sounds like a plan to me!” said the Hiller man and the rest nodded it was a good idea.

              Many of the other planes, if they could get them started, could take off from the street just outside it was certainly long enough and there wasn’t much in the way.  First things first let’s see if we can get the boat plane out of here and over to the Hornet, it would be a huge surprise to them to say the least.  In order to get the fences down and the cars moved they would need help from the 184
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to get it done