PAW Fiction - Tired Old Man (Gary D Ott) - Silent Running

Silent Running – Chapter 1
Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground)
Take the children and yourself

And hide out in the cellar
By now the fighting will be close at hand
Don’t believe the church and state
And everything they tell you
Believe in me, I’m with the high command
Can you hear me, can you hear me running?
Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you?
There’s a gun and ammunition

Just inside the doorway
Use it only in emergency
Better you should pray to God
The Father and the Spirit
Will guide you and protect from up here

Swear allegiance to the flag

Whatever flag they offer
Never hint at what you really feel
Teach the children quietly
For some day sons and daughters
Will rise up and fight while we stood still

Can you hear me running (can you hear me calling you?)

(Can you hear me) hear me calling you?
(Can you hear me running) hear me running babe?
(Can you hear me running) hear me running?
Calling you, calling you
1
I’m sure you remember the song by Mike and the Mechanics, it described the situation
absolutely. I first became aware of what might happen on Thursday, October 19, 2006
when I a read a piece about an American General dated Friday, Nov. 21, 2003:
Gen. Tommy Franks said that if the United States is hit with a weapon of mass destruc-
tion that inflicted large casualties, the Constitution will likely be discarded in favor of a
military form of government. Franks, who successfully led the US military operation to
liberate Iraq, expressed his worries in an extensive interview he gave to the men’s life-
style magazine Cigar Aficionado. You’re kidding, right? The other day, Bush signed into
law the Military Commissions Act which effectively places any and all persons (including
American citizens) beyond the protection of the Writ of Habeas Corpus and most of the
Bill of Rights. For the first time since 1776, citizens can be arrested, confined and (yes,
I’ll call a spade, a spade) tortured at the whim of a single ruler/President. What did “We
The People” do about it? Nothing, Nada, Zip.
It came back to bite us on the butt, but at the time, I was busy getting ready for WW III,
not the Second American Revolution. Although, when I think about it, it came down to
the same darn thing, in far too many ways. How was I preparing? Well, I live in the Peo-
ple’s Republik of Kalifornia, so I was breaking laws right and left.
I bought a Kalifornia legal M1A loaded rifle with a synthetic stock, about 3,000 rounds of
South African .308 surplus and the Package from KI4U. I also bought a ten pack of 20-
round magazines from Ammoman and had them shipped to Arkansas plus 5 30-round
M16 magazines and had them shipped elsewhere. They all ended up in Palmdale, the
T-57 mags for me and the M16 mags for Ron to use in his Kel-Tec Su-16.
Around the end of the month, Sharon had returned home from Iowa and we got her a
new dryer, upright 21ft³ freezer and began to fill the shelves in the garage with food and
the freezer with meat. I had converted Sharon into believing in preps, she thought we
could end up in WW III. That’s how I was able to get a 7kw generator and 3 drums of
gas stabilized with PRI-G.
In November, the Democrats got back the House and Senate, barely. The Republicans
were po’d about that and it appeared we’d have a lame duck government for the next
couple of years, neither party could agree on anything resulting in a backhanded recall
of our troops because there was no money to pay for the worsening war.
Derek had completed his tour of active duty on Saturday, 10/21 and had returned to
Gassville. They came out to visit between Christmas and New Years of 2006. He filled
me in a little on his duties in Iraq and they took the kids to Sea World on the free tickets
provided returning soldiers.
“I’m not happy about that Military Commissions Act. Especially if they combine it with
the USA PATRIOT Act. Tommy Franks said if we were ever attacked with a nuclear
2
WMD, a military government would probably take over. The new Passports and now the
driver’s licenses will all meet Federal standards. Plus, they have the 4473s on all the
guns people have purchased recently.”
“What about that FN FAL you talked about getting me?”
“I’ll talk to Sharon about it and we’ll work something out. You’d better buy SA surplus if
you can find any, otherwise get some Lake City overruns from Ammoman. I’m sending
Rambo I and III back with you, sharpen I and return it; you can keep III.”
“Thanks. What’s this nonsense about Gen. Franks?”
“It’s about the military taking over running the country if we’re attacked with a WMD.
China must have threatened North Korea with something serious; Kim Jong Il said he
was sorry for the test. I wouldn’t be surprised if we were attacked by some of those Ira-
nian Jihadists. They vowed to make Israel disappear.”
Derek had filled me in a little on his tour in Iraq. I can’t repeat what he told me, it was a
little bit of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. It was clear that he didn’t want to go back
under any circumstances. Knowing him, he’d go if he got orders but wouldn’t like it. He
still had enough time on this enlistment in the Guard to cover one more trip.
Another thing that had me concerned was the federal requirement that all state drivers’
licenses conform to a new federal standard or the feds wouldn’t accept them as ID. I al-
so needed to renew my Passport. Sharon had gotten one of the new ones that had the
chip. My Kalifornia ID card was good until 2009, but I’d probably have to replace it early
to meet the new federal requirements.
I hadn’t been a champion of the USA PATRIOT Act, it wiped out part of the Bill of
Rights. The Military Commission Act wiped out the rest. I was considering voting for a
Democrat, for the first time in my life, in the 2008 elections. I think they call that collat-
eral damage. The title of this piece is Silent Running. It’s a song and also a movie that
stared Bruce Dern. The last vegetation on the planet was stored in spaceships and
Dern fought when they tried to destroy the last forest. I believe it was also a warning;
the founding fathers must be turning over in their graves.
That said, I only thought the song was written for the Dern movie. It was actually written
for Choke Canyon, an action adventure movie that panned at the box office.
They, the government, had done it one piece at a time beginning in 1934 with the Na-
tional Firearms Act. With their first successful assault on the Bill of Rights, one might
have thought that the government was on a roll and would continue. Those were differ-
ent times and it wasn’t until the Vietnam War that they assaulted the 2nd Amendment
again with the GCA of ‘68, eliminating mail order firearms. I’ll tell you right now; the gov-
3
ernment was gathering steam, over the next 30+ years they defanged the 2nd Amend-
ment more and then started in on the others, using the excuse of the attacks on the
WTC and the Pentagon on 9/11/01.
The turning point when money became worthless was in 1965 when they eliminated
90% silver coins. Then, tricky Dicky eliminated the gold standard. From that point on,
money was nothing but printed paper. It wasn’t backed by anything but your faith and
trust in the government. Another thing that happened after 9/11 was the resurfacing of
the suggestion of a National ID Card. There was a hue and cry over that so they turned
sneaky, first implementing the Passport with the chip and then, in 2006, mandating uni-
formity in state driver licenses. 2006 was also the year I quit talking about preparedness
and began to do it.
Sharon had a Fen Phen settlement and we got ourselves out of debt except for the car
and house payments and set a goal of having a six-month supply of food on hand. With
the 7 gallons in the generator’s tank plus another 35 gallons of gas in 7 cans, we could
keep the food frozen for quite a while if we should lose power. I guess I went crazy, it
was around the time that Kim set off that nuke and I got ready for a radioactive emer-
gency too. I had wanted a M1A for several years, but now I was glad I waited. I would
have bought a Standard model earlier but instead, I bought the Loaded model. It had a
medium weight, air gauged, match barrel with 6 1:11 rifling grooves.
In the election, we’d reelected Arnold, the better choice, not the best choice. Arnold was
the Governor who signed the Bill outlawing .50 caliber rifles. We didn’t have a choice,
Governor Moonbeam was running for Attorney General and there was some thought he
might try to be Governor again. At least Linda Ronstadt wouldn’t be first lady, and yes,
she was still single but had gained weight due to a medical condition.
Because of the federal mandate, I went ahead and got the biometric Passport and the
new Kalifornia ID Card, which didn’t really please me. I knew down deep inside it was
just a matter of time before someone attacked the country with a WMD and anyone
without the proper ID would end up in some camp. My crystal ball was pretty clear these
days; I got some new glass cleaner.
The definition of a Weapon of Mass Destruction includes: nuclear weapons, chemical

weapons and biological weapons. You knew that, huh? Wiki says, “A weapon of mass
destruction (WMD) is a term used to describe munitions with the capacity to indiscrimi-
nately kill large numbers of human beings. The phrase broadly encompasses several
areas of weapon synthesis, including nuclear, biological, chemical (NBC) and, increas-
ingly, radiological weapons (dirty bombs).” I have an addition to make to that list, Ameri-
can soldiers following illegal orders.
After the first of the year, we began to get the house ready for the market, planting re-
placement glass, painting and cleaning. Our last act before listing it would be to put
down new carpet. In order to that, we had to do something about the dogs, none of
them was house trained. When Amy finally got her job rolled over into a fulltime County
4
job, Sharon helped her to move her stuff into her own apartment. Amy temporarily
boarded all of the pets, including Missy.
The housing market was soft and we were lucky to get $300,000 for the house. After the
commission, we had $270,000 and paid off the $90,000 balance of the house loan. We
also paid off Amy’s car because Sharon had co-signed on it. That left us right around
$170,000 to buy a new home, furnish it and construct some kind of bunker. We also
needed a new vehicle; the Daewoo was kind of cramped. It was easy on gas and when
the car was in the shop getting fixed, Enterprise provided a SUV that turned out to be
made by Daewoo. Naturally, it had a computer that could be wiped out by EMP, but I
could store gas in drums.
The main question was where to go. Iowa was out; Sharon didn’t care for the weather.
That also eliminated Arkansas, too much humidity. We didn’t want to move to a location
predominately inhabited by Kalifornians, leaving Vegas and Reno out of consideration.
Where Fleataxi lived was in the mountains and that would be as bad as living in Iowa. It
was quickly coming down to Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. Ron said property in Cedar
Hill was fairly expensive. He went on to say that Linda’s Dad was planning on living to
200 and they probably wouldn’t be moving over to live with his brother Robert.
The only thing I could think to tell him was, “Bye, we’re leaving the PRK.”
I had no problems with the idea of living with a group of LDS, but when you got right
down to talking about it, there was always the question of the weather, basically elimi-
nating Utah. We certainly wouldn’t be locating in the Phoenix area for 3 reasons, lots of
Kalifornians, high prices and the high heat we presumed we’d find in Phoenix and Tuc-
son. It boiled down to my being right all along, and wrong at the same time, Sharon said
that there was no way she’d live along I-40.
That quickly eliminated Holbrook and Winslow. We’d thought long and hard about the
possibility of moving to Flagstaff, Flight ER Doc lived in the Sedona area. Despite Cost-
co having a policy of not allowing persons to carry firearms in their stores, how many
places could a person boycott? We put our things in storage along with Amy’s, traded
cars to get the Daewoo SUV Sharon thought so much of and I mounted a rifle rack be-
hind the front seat for my M1A.
Because we couldn’t make up our minds, we set out to explore various other locations
in Arizona. We went down the road and bought a small trailer in Acton and we decided
to load a few of our things in the enclosed trailer and hit the road.
The United States Military Commissions Act of 2006, Pub. L. No. 109-366, 120 Stat.
2600 (Oct. 17, 2006), enacting Chapter 47A of title 10 of the US Code, is an Act of
Congress (Senate Bill 3930) signed by President Bush on 17Oct06. Drafted in the wake
of the Supreme Court’s decision on Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the Act provides for contro-
5
versial practices relating to the US government’s detention and treatment of alien pris-
oners.
Section 948b of title 10 of the United States Code, as enacted by the Act, provides (in
part):
(a) Purpose. – This chapter establishes procedures governing the use of military com-
missions to try alien unlawful enemy combatants engaged in hostilities against the Unit-
ed States for violations of the law of war and other offenses triable by military commis-
sion.
Section 948d of title 10 of the United States Code, as added by the Act, providing for
the jurisdiction of military commissions, states (in part):
A military commission under this chapter shall have jurisdiction to try any offense made
punishable by this chapter or the law of war when committed by an alien unlawful ene-
my combatant before, on, or after September 11, 2001.
Section 948a of title 10 of the United States Code, as added by the Act, defines an “un-
lawful enemy combatant” as:
(i) a person who has engaged in hostilities or who has purposefully and materially sup-
ported hostilities against the United States or its co-belligerents who is not a lawful en-
emy combatant (including a person who is part of the Taliban, al Qaeda, or associated
forces); or
(ii) a person who, before, on, or after the date of the enactment of the Military Commis-
sions Act of 2006, has been determined to be an unlawful enemy combatant by a Com-
batant Status Review Tribunal or another competent tribunal established under the au-
thority of the President or the Secretary of Defense.
This definition does not exclude American citizens. Prior to the enactment, the phrase
“unlawful enemy combatant” was applied by the Bush administration to at least 3 Amer-
ican citizens. See John Walker Lindh, José Padilla, Yaser Hamdi.
Section 948c of 10 USC, as added by the Act, states, “Any alien unlawful enemy com-
batant is subject to trial by military commission under this chapter” - with “alien” defined
in section 948a(3) as “a person who is not a citizen of the United States”. The Act does
not specify any provisions for trying unlawful enemy combatants who may be American
citizens. There is disagreement over whether the Act’s provisions could be applied to
them as well – since 10 USC sec. 948c does not expressly exclude the possibility.
A “competent tribunal” is defined in the US Army Field Manual, section 27-10, for the
purpose of determining whether a person is or is not entitled to prisoner-of-war status
and consists of a board of not less than three officers. It is also a term defined in Article
five of the third Geneva Convention.
6
The criteria by which a Combatant Status Review Tribunal might determine someone to
be an unlawful enemy combatant under section ii of the definition is provided by the De-
tainee Treatment Act of 2005, and referenced in section 10 of the Military Commissions
Act of 2006. The Combatant Status Review Tribunal is to be comprised of three neutral
officers, none of whom were involved with the detainee. One serves as a judge advo-
cate and the senior ranking officer will serve as the president of the tribunal. Detainees
may testify before the tribunal, call witnesses and introduce any other evidence. Follow-
ing the hearing the tribunal will determine in a closed-door session whether the detainee
is properly held as an enemy combatant. The criteria by which “another competent tri-
bunal” might do so are specified Detainee Treatment Act of 2005.
The Act changes pre-existing law to explicitly disallow the invocation of the Geneva
Conventions when executing the writ of habeas corpus or in other civil actions [Act sec.
5(a)]. This provision applies to all cases pending at the time the Act is enacted, as well
as to all such future cases.
If the government chooses to bring a prosecution against the detainee, a military com-
mission is convened for this purpose. The following rules are some of those established
for trying alien unlawful enemy combatants:
● Certain sections of the Uniform Code of Military Justice are deemed inapplicable - in-
cluding some relating to a speedy trial [10 USC sec. 948b(d)(1)(A)], compulsory self-
incrimination [10 USC sec. 948b(d)(1)(B)], and pre-trial investigation [10 USC sec.
948b(d)(1)(C)].
● A civilian defense attorney may not be used unless the attorney has been determined
to be eligible for access to classified information that is classified at the level Secret or
higher. [10 USC sec. 949c(b)(3)(D)]
● Based on his findings, the judge may introduce hearsay evidence [10 USC sec.
949a(b)(2)(E)(i)], evidence obtained without a search warrant [10 USC sec.
949a(b)(2)(B)], evidence obtained when the degree of coercion is disputed [10 USC
sec. 948r(d)], or classified evidence not made available to the defense [10 USC sec.
949d(f)(2)(B)].
● A finding of Guilty by a particular commission requires only a two-thirds majority of the
members of the commission present at the time the vote is taken [10 USC sec.
949m(a)]
●In General – No person may invoke the Geneva Conventions or any protocols thereto
in any habeas corpus or other civil action or proceeding to which the United States, or a
current or former officer, employee, member of the Armed Forces, or other agent of the
United States is a party as a source of rights in any court of the United States or its
States or territories. [Act sec. 5(a)]
● As provided by the Constitution and by this section, the President has the authority for
the United States to interpret the meaning and application of the Geneva Conventions
and to promulgate higher standards and administrative regulations for violations of trea-
ty obligations which are not grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions. [Act sec.
6(a)(3)(A)]
7
● No person may, without his consent, be tried by a military commission under this
chapter a second time for the same offense. [10 USC sec. 949h(a)].
The text of the law states that its “Purpose” is to “establish procedures governing the
use of military commissions to try alien unlawful enemy combatants engaged in hostili-
ties against the United States for violations of the law of war and other offenses triable
by military commission.” Legal and Constitutional scholar Robert A. Levy commented
that the Act denies habeas rights only to aliens, and that US citizens detained as “un-
lawful combatants” would still have habeas rights and could challenge their detention.
While formally opposed to the Act, Human Rights Watch has also concluded that the
new law limits the scope of trials by military commissions to non-US citizens including
all legal aliens. CBS Legal expert Andrew Cohen has commented on this question and
writes that the “suspension of the writ of habeas corpus – the ability of an imprisoned
person to challenge their confinement in court – applies only to resident aliens within the
United States as well as other foreign nationals captured here and abroad” and that “it
does not restrict the rights and freedoms and liberties of US citizens any more than they
already have been restricted”.
Aside from the harsh criticism levied on the bill, many see these complaints as hyster-
ics. National Review columnist Andrew McCarthy argues that since the law applies to
aliens with no immigration status they do not have a constitutional right to habeas cor-
pus. McCarthy also notes that the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, while not allowing a
standard habeas corpus review, still allows an enemy combatant the right to challenge
his or her detention under a modified legal framework.
We took 138 to 18 to I-15 and drove north to I-40. It was all uphill from there. We head-
ed east, hoping to find somewhere to land. Most of the time, Sharon was a slow poke
but when she got on the freeway, it was something to behold. I pointed out we were lim-
ited to 55mph pulling the trailer. If I hadn’t said anything, she wouldn’t have had a prob-
lem, but me and my big mouth.
I only had one agenda: staying alive. That might be easier said than done although in
the PRK, it might be impossible. The majority of the population was liberal and hated
everything I liked. They didn’t like cigarettes and want them to cost about $55 a carton.
Neither did they want you to be able to defend yourself or your family. If you were on the
freeway and going a bit slow or a little too fast, there was always a cop around to give
you a ticket; if you broke down, there wasn’t a cop within a country mile.
The PRK had a lot to offer, but you paid for it, big time. Kalifornia invented the US wel-
fare system and later perfected it. Orange County was a Republican outpost assuming
you could afford to live there. It produced such notables as Mary Kay Letourneau. Mary
Kay’s father was John G. Schmidt, a US Congressman from Orange County and a pro-
fessor at Santa Ana College. He was generally considered one of the more conserva-
8
tive members of the House, and ran for President of the US in 1972 on the ultra-
conservative American Independent Party ticket.
Her mother Mary Schmitz was a homemaker and anti-feminist activist. Mary Kay is one
of seven children born to John and Mary, and she has two half-siblings that were the
result of a longtime affair between her father and his mistress. Like father, like daugh-
ter?
Perhaps it would be well to point out early on that this tale of survival isn’t my usual fare.
Sorry, no significant natural disasters and the man-made disasters are small scale. With
that in mind, I should point out that a single match or lightning strike can start a forest
fire that will burn hundreds of thousands of acres. I had no idea pulling out of Kingman
what we’d face in the coming days. If I had, I’d have insisted we drive on to Iowa. I had
no place in Charles City because by now I was an outsider and far more liberal than that
bunch of rednecks. And, keep in mind, I’m very conservative.
“Where to next?”
“Why don’t you drive up to Fredonia and we’ll eliminate that as a choice?”
“How do you get there?”
“Go to Flagstaff and turn left.”
That raghead in charge of Iran had said that in the first year of development, their nu-
clear program had increased 10-fold. If Gen. Casey was right, the last thing we needed
was for some nut to detonate a nuclear weapon on our soil. Habeas corpus was sus-
pended on 27Apr61, during the Civil War by President Lincoln in Maryland and parts of
Midwestern states, including southern Indiana. He did so in response to riots; local mili-
tia actions; and the threat that the border slave state of Maryland would secede from the
Union, leaving the nation’s capital, Washington DC, surrounded by hostile territory.
Then, after Reconstruction, the Congress passed Posse Comitatus (18USC §1385) in
1878 to prevent federal troops from acting in a law enforcement capacity. The Posse
Comitatus Act and the Insurrection Act (10USC §331) substantially limit the powers of
the Federal government to use the military for law enforcement. The question of wheth-
er both remained in force after the USA PATRIOT Act had yet to be tested.
Our society was crumbling, morality was something people wrote plays about, the
gangs weren’t limited to young people; they were cartels. Schools could no longer en-
force dress codes; it stepped on someone’s individual rights. Somehow they found ways
to get their machine guns past the metal detectors in the schools’ entrances. I was hap-
py we didn’t have any small kids in school; buying them Dragon Skin would have put us
in the poor house. I was a substitute teacher back in the late 90s; there was no way I
9
could envision arming some of those teachers. Most of them would sooner pick up a
Black Mamba than a M1911.
“Where are we?”
“Arizona.”
“Yeah, got that, where in Arizona?”
“North of Flagstaff on highway Alt 89.”
“Alt 89? We must be getting close to Fredonia.”
“Don’t blink.”
“Huh?”
“If you blink, you’ll probably miss it.”
“Probably. I was just surprised you couldn’t find Derek at the Welcome Home ceremony
at Camp Dodge.”
“The auditorium was packed, I tried. That’s why I bought you the DVD of the Ceremo-
ny.”
“I wish we could live near them.”
“I will not live in a town where the humidity is 98% at midnight.”
“What about Texas?”
“Where in Texas?”
“Paris is located at 33°39’45N, 95°39’52”W (33.662508, -95.547692). According to the

US Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 115.0km² (44.4 mi²). 110.7 km² (42.8
mi²) of it is land and 4.3 km² (1.7 mi²) of it (3.74%) is water.”
“Paris is located in ‘Tornado Alley’, an area largely centered on the middle of the United
States which sees tornados frequently. Paris is in USDA plant hardiness zone 7b for
winter temperatures. This is cooler than its southern neighbor Dallas, and while similar
to Atlanta, its warmer summertime temperatures must be accounted for as well. Sum-
mertime average highs reach 94 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit in July and August, with
associated lows of 72 and 71. Winter temps drop to an average high of 51 and low of 30
in January. The highest temperature on record was 115, set in August of 1836, and the
record low was -5 set in 1930. Average precipitation is 47.82 inches. Snow is not unu-
sual, but is by no means predictable, and years can pass with no snowfall at all.”
10
Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk,

I’m a woman’s man: no time to talk.
Music loud and women warm, I’ve been kicked around since I was born.
And now it’s all right. It’s OK. And you may look the other way.
We can try to understand the New York Times’ effect on man.
Whether you’re a brother or whether you’re a mother,
you’re stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive.
Feel the city breakin’ and everybody shakin’,

and we’re stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive. Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin’ alive.
Well now, I get low and I get high, and if I can’t get either, I really try.
Got the wings of heaven on my shoes. I’m a dancin’ man and I just can’t lose.
You know it’s all right. It’s OK. I’ll live to see another day.
We can try to understand the New York Times’ effect on man.

Life goin’ nowhere. Somebody help me. Somebody help me, yeah.
Stayin’ alive.
Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk,

I’m a woman’s man: no time to talk. Music loud and women warm,
I’ve been kicked around since I was born. And now it’s all right.
It’s OK.
And you may look the other way. We can try to understand
the New York Times’ effect on man.

11
Life goin’ nowhere. Somebody help me, yeah. I’m stayin’ alive.
“I guess we could go look.”
“I’ll find it on the map.”
“Ok, take I-40 to Amarillo. Just east of there, pick up US 287 and then pick up US 81 at
Henrietta and take that to Paris.”
“Where will we be?”
“Northeast of Dallas when we get to Paris, but basically moving west to east just north
of Dallas.”
“You don’t want to go to Dallas, do you?”
“Been there, done that, no thank you. About the only thing they have in Dallas I might
enjoy seeing is the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. But, I can see them on TV.”
“Texas was part of the Confederacy, weren’t they?”
“About 150 years ago, yes. The last battle of the Civil War was fought in Texas.”
Union forces marched upriver from Brazos Santiago to attack the Confederate en-
campment, and were at first successful, due to the Confederates being under the un-
derstanding that hostilities had ceased. However, after some confusion and bitter
fighting, the Union forces were then driven back by a relief Confederate force. The next
day, the Union forces attacked again and again to initial success and later failure. Ulti-
mately, the Union force retreated to the coast.
There were 118 Union casualties. Confederate casualties were “a few dozen” wounded,
none killed. Like the war’s first big battle at First Bull Run, which also yielded little gain
for either side, the battle is recorded as a Confederate victory. Like the Battle of New
Orleans, it occurred after the war was over and therefore could not affect the outcome.
Texas armies formally surrendered on May 26, 1865; Confederate General Kirby Smith
surrendered his forces in the Trans-Mississippi Department on June 2nd.
It is worth noting that Private John J. Williams of the 34th Indiana Volunteer Infantry was
the last man killed at the Battle at Palmito Ranch, and probably the last combat casualty
of the war. Fighting in the battle were white, African, Hispanic and native troops. Re-
12
ports of shots from the Mexican side are unverified, though many witnesses reported
firing from the Mexican shore.
“You know, if the government keeps going the way they are going, we’re either going to
have the 2nd American Revolution or the 2nd Civil War.”
“Why do you think that, Gary?”
“The government has all but wiped out the Bill of Rights with the USA PATRIOT Act and
the Military Commissions Act. This country has a long history of becoming more civi-
lized and taking away individual rights for the good of the people.”
“Maybe it will be better in Texas.”
“Maybe, but I wouldn’t count on it, Sharon.”
“What does your crystal ball tell you now?”
“If I had to guess, terrorists would use one or more Weapons of Mass Destruction on
the country and the President would suspend Habeas Corpus and Posse Comitatus. He
has a pile of Executive Orders that he can fall back on to enforce whatever he chooses.
Basically, he can seize the entire country and put it under military control.”
“The population of the US is over 300 million. Our military is what, 2-3 million?”
“Yeah, but, they have the guns. Derek finally sort of told me what he really did in Iraq,
but if I tell anyone, he said he’d have to kill me.”
“What was he doing?”
“Guard duty. Sometimes it was for convoys and sometimes it wasn’t. His vehicle got hit
by a total of 6 IEDs, that’s why he’s as deaf as I am.”
“Why didn’t he tell you?”
“He said that he didn’t want me to worry.”
“But you worried anyway.”
“He said I’d only worry worse. He’s with the Arkansas National Guard now, in an E-6
slot at Marshall.”
“Did he get the extra stripe?”
13
“Not until he’s up to speed on his new MOS.”
“What about him getting sent back overseas?”
“It’s not going to happen for at least 5 years. Let me tell you how it really is, dear:”
“EO 10990 allows the government to take over all modes of transportation and control
of highways and seaports.
“EO 10995 allows the government to seize and control the communication media.
“EO 10997 allows the government to take over all electrical power, gas, petroleum, fuels
and minerals.
“EO 10998 allows the government to take over all food resources and farms.
“EO 11000 allows the government to mobilize civilians into work brigades under gov-
ernment supervision.
“EO 11001 allows the government to take over all health, education and welfare func-
tions.
“EO 11002 designates the Postmaster General to operate a national registration of all
persons.
“EO 11003 allows the government to take over all airports and aircraft, including com-
mercial aircraft.
“EO 11004 allows the Housing and Finance Authority to relocate communities, build
new housing with public funds, designate areas to be abandoned, and establish new
locations for populations.
“EO 11005 allows the government to take over railroads, inland waterways and public
storage facilities.
“EO 11051 specifies the responsibility of the Office of Emergency Planning and gives
authorization to put all Executive Orders into effect in times of increased international
tensions and economic or financial crisis.
“EO 11310 grants authority to the Department of Justice to enforce the plans set out in
Executive Orders, to institute industrial support, to establish judicial and legislative liai-
son, to control all aliens, to operate penal and correctional institutions, and to advise
and assist the President.
“Without Congressional approval, the President now has the power to transfer whole
populations to any part of the country, the power to suspend the Press and to force a
14
national registration of all persons. The President, in essence, has dictatorial powers
never provided to him under the Constitution. The President has the power to suspend
the Constitution and the Bill of Rights in a real or perceived emergency. Unlike Lincoln
and Roosevelt, these powers are not derived from a wartime need, but from any crisis,
domestic or foreign, hostile or economic. Roosevelt created extraordinary measures
during the Great Depression, but any President faced with a similar, or lesser, economic
crisis now has extraordinary powers to assume dictatorial status.
“EO 11049 assigns emergency preparedness function to federal departments and

agencies, consolidating 21 operative Executive Orders issued over a fifteen-year period.
“EO 11921 allows the Federal Emergency Preparedness Agency to develop plans to
establish control over the mechanisms of production and distribution, of energy sources,
wages, salaries, credit and the flow of money in US financial institution in any undefined
national emergency. It also provides that when the President declares a state of emer-
gency, Congress cannot review the action for six months.
“EO 12148 created the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that is to in-
terface with the Department of Defense for civil defense planning and funding. An
‘emergency czar’ was appointed. FEMA has only spent about 6 percent of its budget on
national emergencies; the bulk of their funding has been used for the construction of
secret underground facilities to assure continuity of government in case of a major
emergency, foreign or domestic. Now FEMA is part of Homeland Security.
“EO 12656 appointed the National Security Council as the principal body that should
consider emergency powers. This allows the government to increase domestic intelli-
gence and surveillance of US citizens and would restrict the freedom of movement with-
in the United States and granted the government the right to isolate large groups of civil-
ians. The National Guard could be federalized to seal all borders and take control of US
air space and all ports of entry. Many of the figures in the Iran-Contra scandal were part
of this emergency contingent, including Marine Colonel Oliver North.”
“The Federal Emergency Management Agency has broad powers in every aspect of the
nation. General Frank Salzedo, chief of FEMA’s Civil Security Division stated in a 1983
conference that he saw FEMA’s role as a ‘new frontier in the protection of individual and
governmental leaders from assassination, and of civil and military installations from
sabotage and/or attack, as well as prevention of dissident groups from gaining access
to US opinion, or a global audience in times of crisis’.
“The Violent Crime Control Act of 1991 provides additional powers to the President of
the United States, allowing the suspension of the Constitution and Constitutional rights
of Americans during a ‘drug crisis’. It provides for the construction of detention camps,
seizure of property, and military control of populated areas. This, teamed with the Exec-
utive Orders of the President, enables Orwellian prophecies to rest on whoever occu-
pies the White House. The power provided by these ‘laws’ allows suspension of the
Constitution and the rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights during any civil disturbances,
15
major demonstrations and strikes and allows the military to implement government or-
dered movements of civilian populations at state and regional levels, the arrest of cer-
tain unidentified segments of the population, and the imposition of Martial Law.
“When the Constitution of the United States was framed it placed the exclusive legisla-
tive authority in the hands of Congress and with the President. Article I, Section 1 of the
United States Constitution is concise in its language, ‘All legislative powers herein
granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a
Senate and House of Representatives.’ That is no longer true. The Bill of Rights pro-
tected Americans against loss of freedoms. That is no longer true. The Constitution pro-
vided for a balanced separation of powers. That is no longer applicable.
“Then they passed the USA PATRIOT Act, and renewed it. We all know that FEMA be-
came part of Homeland Security, but the Hurricane forced Michael Brown to resign.
Then Congress got hold of FEMA and, well, you know the rest of that story. They’ve
eroded the Constitution down to the point that the founding fathers wouldn’t recognize it.
“To compound that, the Congress passed the Military Commissions Act.”
“All I ask was if you had a list. You don’t need to lecture me on how corrupt the govern-
ment has become, Gary.”
“I was just reminding you how we got in the position where we’re going to war with the
United States of America, the most powerful military in the world.”
“We’re here, where is the Eiffel Tower?”
“It’s northeast of here, about 7,800km.”
“No it’s not, it’s right over there.”
“Huh! It’s not as tall as the one in Las Vegas. What would you say, 60’?”
“I don’t know, but the town looks good to me, I’ve seen Chinese restaurants, Tex-Mex
places and several Barbeques.”
“From what I see Sharon, this is farming country. I think we should fit right in. It will only
take about a week before we’re saying y’all just like the natives.”
“Do you want to live in town or out in the country?”
“Out of town, if possible, we can check with that realtor over there after we eat.”
16
We found a lot that was 0.95 acre for $5,000 southwest of town. It had REA, Private
Water and Septic. From my viewpoint, it was perfect. Sharon liked it too and I began to
try and figure out where to put the storm shelter. I had the perfect excuse, tornadoes. I
might have been cheaper to buy a shelter from Utah Shelter Systems, but to tell you the
truth, I didn’t want to live in a culvert and they had a waiting list. Sharon and I talked it
over and decided to spend $10,000 on a pair of ANDAIR AV-150s and one PT2 vertical
blast door which ran $3,500. We ordered them immediately because they had to come
by air freight from Switzerland. I had the shelter fully designed, in my mind, and it was
simply a matter of getting the things for inside, including a Kohler 30REOZJB, diesel
generator. It was the non-emissions certified model that used from 100% 2.6gph, 75%
2.1gph, 50% 1.5gph and 25% 1.0gph and the Decision Maker controller with a maxi-
mum 125 amp capacity at 240v.
The prime power ratings apply to installations where utility power is unavailable or unre-
liable. At varying load, the number of generator set operating hours is unlimited. A 10%
overload capacity is available for one hour in twelve. Ratings are in accordance with
ISO-8528/1, overload power in accordance with ISO-3046/1, BS 5514, AS 2789, and
DIN 6271. General Guidelines for duration were Altitude: Derate 1.3% per 100 m (328
ft.) elevation above 2000 m (6560 ft.). Temperature: Derate 1.0% per temperature
above 40°C (104°F). The engine was a John Deere, model 3029TF150. Engine type 4-
Cycle, turbocharged cylinder arrangement 3 inline. Basically, we didn’t have to derate
the generator one bit for the area and we needed a large diesel tank. It was totally doa-
ble in this area.
Sharon selected the Fleetwood Beacon Hill Series D with 3 bedrooms and 3 baths with
2,280ft² and added the 4’ stretch, making it 2,560ft²; the optional activity room for her
and optional study for me. I didn’t mind one bit because that was exactly what I wanted.
I believe you knew the drill, right? We did the required concrete wall thickness for the
door (10”). Sharon Draper was about $13,500 richer and we were very secure with plen-
ty of air to breathe. She had the $170 grand to blow and between us, we did a pretty
good job.
Almost anyway. Let me tell, you by the time we had that storm shelter fully fixed up with
the 10’ risers so we could have 8’ of compacted soil for the really good protection factor,
the money was getting gone. You know that ramp had to go nearly all the way around
the storm shelter so the ramp wasn’t too steep in case I actually had to use that stupid
wheelchair. Fortunately, we were able to afford that combat wheelchair, too. I was going
to need it because of all the guns I wanted. The old wheelchair didn’t go to waste, now
we both had a wheelchair.
What was it I wanted for firearms? Well, since you asked, I’ll tell you. I had my M1A
Loaded with the Red Dot sight, a M1A Super Match with the really nice Leopold 4.5-
14x50mm LR/T M1 Illuminated Reticule variable scope, Ruger SR-556 Rifle, used Win-
chester 9422 XTD, Mossberg 590A1 and a Taurus PT1911B. My rule of thumb for am-
mo was 5,000 rounds per MBR/AR, 10,000 of .22LR, and 2,000 rounds for the pistol
and shotgun. Plus I’d always wanted a Barrett M82A1M and a cart to carry it on. 1,000
17
rounds of Raufoss should do nicely, but if I had a second round, it would be APIT. Given
the choice, I’d suppress everything but the .22 and the shotgun. I favored those pricey
Surefire suppressors; they’ll outlast your barrel. To tell the truth, I had a ways to go, I
only had a M1A Loaded rifle with iron sights and a .32 caliber pistol.
The contractor insisted I was crazy wanting 10” thick walls and a 12” thick overhead. I
asked him if he’d ever heard of Charles City where an F-5 tornado hit on May 15, 1968.
We compromised the wall and overhead would be as thick as required to properly install
the PT-2 blast door, which was 10” minimum. In the end, I got my way and paid for it, it
took twice as much concrete. His men excavated a hole large enough for the basement
and the ramp, the actual size of the shelter would be the same as the house, 32’x80’.
Apparently this guy had never built a storm shelter like this before. We ended up paying
one of Sharon Packer’s installation experts to make sure the systems were properly in-
stalled. The volume of the shelter was 20,480ft³. Depending on the number of people,
we’d probably have to run both air systems full time. We also installed lithium hydroxide
CO2 scrubbers and had spare canisters. It wasn’t that difficult to find a good used diesel
tank and have it checked for leaks. Because we were only using propane for the stove
and furnace, we rented a 1,100 gallon tank.
Sharon said that once we were in the house and settled, she’d think about me spending
more money on firearms. She didn’t say I could buy more, just that she’d think about it. I
had to order a CD V-717 and a CD V-700 rom Shane Connor to supplement the CD V-
715 I already had. While I was at it, I bought one more charger and several more do-
simeters. Once the house was installed, we arranged to have the oak furniture moved
from California. In retrospect, it would have been cheaper to sell it and buy new.
In the fall of ‘06, Newsweek had run a poll asking if Bush should be impeached. I
couldn’t believe it, the majority said yes. The liberals all thought Bush was a fascist or
something. Admittedly, the country appeared headed in the wrong direction; I had some
concerns, but a fascist? And what was this bit about Bush buying almost 100,000 acres
in Paraguay? Let me tell you, he can run, but he can’t hide!
We got settled in the new home and added 500 gallons of diesel every month, more
when the price dipped. It was done on a fixed budget, $1,000 a month until both the
propane and diesel tanks were filled. The REA was reliable; so far we hadn’t had a
power outage which was more than I could say for Palmdale. They always happened
about 2 seconds before you saved your work on your computer.
“Do we have any money left; I’d like to consider those guns now.”
“First, we stock the larder; we’ll take the trailer to Sam’s Club and stock up.”
“How much ground beef do we have?”
18
“Not much, I prefer Ribeyes.”
“But, my teeth get tired.”
“Gary, there’s no room in the freezer for more ground beef.”
“Fine, buy a second freezer.”
“Wouldn’t the meat freezer burn?”
“Not if we double wrap and it vacuum pack it.”
“So, tell me, what are you going to do to finish off the storm shelter?”
“We ran conduits so we could put in TV, radio antennas and so forth. I was thinking
maybe an electric counter top with 4 burners in the kitchen area plus a large refrigera-
tor. I thought maybe we could build a storeroom that we could lock down opposite the
utility room.”
“What utility room?”
“Oh, the room with the generator, washer and dryer.”
“You’re going to buy another washer and dryer?”
“Yep, but it can be bottom of the line as far as I’m concerned.”
“What about tables and chairs?”
“How about 8’ folding tables and padded folding chairs. Think about it, if we have to use
the shelter for anything other than a storm, we’ll be sitting for a very long time.”
“Do you have a list of everything you want?”
“I do, how about you?”
“Between buying the land, putting in the storm shelter and the house, we have about
$40,000 left. I want to keep 25% of that back for emergencies. I let you have $5,000 to
buy whatever guns you want and another $5,000 for anything else you need. We’ll stock
the basement with a 5 year supply of food for 2, will that be enough?”
“Don’t forget the toilet paper.”
“You can only have that 10 grand to buy everything you want.”
19
“Does that include an extra freezer, the tables and chairs and stuff we need to finish the
shelter?”
“I’ll meet you halfway on those things, ok?”
What choice did I have? I had to buy the firearms and ammo I wanted, communications
equipment and that was all on me. Sharon was insistent she’d only pay half the price of
the extra appliances and furniture. I was already settling for things I didn’t like, like dia-
lup internet. But, like Ron always said, oh well.
The entrance to the shelter ramp was a slab of chain driven road plate mounted in a
carrier assembly. We could do that because we were never without power for more than
a few seconds, thanks to the Kohler backup generator. I had it set up to exercise itself
weekly so we wouldn’t have a problem if the REA had a problem.
I figured to save buying the firearms for last, communications equipment was the top of
my list. I like Kenwood, go figure. I liked the TS-2000, and the MFJ vertical 10 band an-
tenna. I needed to add a few extras to finish out the ham shack, like a SSB CB base
station. All in all, I got by for about $3,500. My share of the washer, dryer and freezer
came to about $800, leaving me $5,700 to spend on tables, chairs, guns and ammo.
I had a DVD player that we could put in the shelter. Sharon had one of those combo
VHS/DVD rigs on the main TV. I pointed out that since we only watched DVDs on the
TV, we swap, better to have the combo player in the shelter with our 400+ VHS movies.
She went along with that one, thank God. It took us until spring to buy and store the
food and finish off stocking the shelter. We were in time for tornado season.
Meanwhile, Congress was embroiled in a cat fight, the Dems wanted to bring the troops
home and the Reps wanted a phased withdrawal. George had been slowly relinquishing
his positions and we were no better off for it. If we were going to pull the troops out, we
should try and do it in one fell swoop, retreat to Kuwait and get the heck out. I couldn’t
figure out why the President couldn’t read the handwriting on the wall. It wouldn’t take
long, the Dems would block his funding and he wouldn’t have a choice.
I don’t think anyone was surprised when he addressed the nation and said our job was
done. Except, perhaps, for the Iraqis. That ding bat in charge of Iran declared a victory
for the insurgency; he had no idea how mad the President was. NATO took over the
fight in Afghanistan and Britain left Iraq before we did. A person could almost hear the
clocking ticking, Hezbollah was making small incursions into Israel. Iran was threatening
Israel over their nuclear program because Israel was threatening to do to it what they’d
done to the Iraqi program.
20
A word to my critics, the story is extra – this is all about education. If you find it too
wordy and rambling, don’t read it. It contains elements of controversy, satire and any-
thing else my senile mind can come up with.
color me your color, baby

color me your car
color me your color, darling
I know who you are
Come up off your color chart
I know where you’re comin’ from
Call me (call me) on the line

Call me, call me any, anytime
Call me (call me) my love
You can call me any day or night
Call me
Cover me with kisses, baby

Cover me with love
Roll me in designer sheets
I’ll never get enough
Emotions come, I don’t know why
Cover up love’s alibi

Call me (call me) oh love
When you’re ready we can share the wine
Call me
Ooo-oo-oo-oo-oo, he speaks the languages of love

Ooo-oo-oo-oo-oo, amore, chiamami, chiamami
Ooo-oo-oo-oo-oo, appelle-moi mon cheri, appelle-moi
Anytime, anyplace, anywhere, any way
Anytime, anyplace, anywhere, any day-ay

Call me (call me) for a ride
Call me, call me for some overtime
Call me, call me in a sweet design
Call me (call me), call me for your lover’s lover’s alibi
21
Call me (call me)
Oh, call me, oo-hoo-hah
Worse, there was another shooting in a school and the media was blaming the guns,
not the shooter. I’ve got to get one of those guns, they have legs and can pull their own
triggers. I’d forgiven Geraldo; my new favorite person was Wolf Blitzer, a graduate of
the Communist school of Journalism. We didn’t need enemies, we had Wolf.
What does Deborah Harry have to do with anything? Darned if I know, I just like the
song. But then, I also liked Culture Club’s Karma Chameleon. On August 14, 2006, Boy
George reported for garbage duty, picking up trash for the New York City Department of
Sanitation as part of his community service. As a result of the media frenzy, he was al-
lowed to perform his community service inside the Sanitation Department grounds.
Strange, very strange. Personally, I didn’t care for his shade of lipstick and thought he
belonged in Kalifornia. I failed to get off on the music of the Grateful Dead, unlike Mark
Harmon (The Presidio).
You remember the Alfred E. Newman drawing that said, “What, me worry?” I was very
worried and despite the election, Cheney said that Hillary was a threat in 2008. This fel-
la from Illinois Barack Obama, was being touted by some as a Presidential candidate.
His father was from Kenya and his mother was an American from Hawaii. Sooner or lat-
er, we have a minority President and if he ran, I’d have to think long and hard to vote
against him. For me, it really depended on who the Republicans ran in ‘08. If McCain
was the candidate, I’d vote for him, otherwise…
You just knew that in ‘08, the Dems would get back the House and Senate. It might be
close and we’d have another 2 years of a do nothing Congress, but it seemed inevita-
ble. If you think about it, no matter which party the President belonged to, that party took
heat from the media. I didn’t want Bill Clinton to have a 3rd and 4th term. There were
issues dividing the country including the right to choose and stem cell research. The
Christian Right was trying to force everyone to accept their views while the Liberal Left
was doing the same and no matter which side won, it would only divide the country.
You could take it to the bank; on January 21, 2009 our troops would be coming home.
Derek was back, but we still had 140,000+ in the line of fire. I kept thinking about what
Gen. Casey had said, we’d be living under martial law in the event terrorists used a
WMD on America. Even if they detonated a nuclear weapon in Dallas, Sharon and I
were protected. I wasn’t as worried about the weapon as I was the aftermath. I watched
every penny from that point on, Sharon said 10 grand and Sharon meant 10 grand. That
meant doing many of the things I’d normally hired done, by myself.
22
For a radio mast, I dug a hole, poured some sackrete and put in a pluming fixture I
could screw a pipe in. For a mast, I used 3 10’ sections of 1½” pipe and guyed the mast
once it was in place. Instead of RG-213, I used RG-8 and a bought a Galaxy DX 2547
AM/SSB CB base station. Our mobile CB was a Cobra 148 GTL AM/SSB. I watched the
prices on everything and finally had my armory built, except for the .50 caliber. I’d re-
cently learned of the McMillan Tac-50 and changed my plans from the M82 to the Tac-
50.
The Army had screwed up Derek’s reenlistment bonus and instead of getting it while he
was in Iraq, he had to fight them and got it when he got home. I told him he had more
money than I did, he could buy his own rifle.
It was cheaper to drive to a gun dealer and pickup ammo than to order it, Texas had
plenty of surplus places. The price kept creeping up partly due to the value of brass and
partly to the shortage of surplus. I didn’t want to use commercial ammo because of the
sensitive primers. The supply of South African surplus had dried up and about all a per-
son could get was Lake City overruns. The problem with that was that the cases often
contained mixed lots and you never knew for sure what you were getting.
I persisted and eventually had the weapons I wanted and the ammo to go with them.
The fanciest firearm I had was the first one, the Loaded M1A. Sharon asked me to buy
her a 9mm and I told her to buy her own, it wasn’t in my budget.
The Independent Working Group has looked at a number of scenarios. One involves al
Qaeda, or a similar group, outfitting five “tramp” freighters or possibly container ships
with nuclear tipped (15-kiloton, Hiroshima size) Scud-B missiles. The number five was
selected because the pattern of mounting “the mother of all” attacks, at least on Sep-
tember 11, involved at minimum five commercial jets, three of which succeeded. Were
such a cataclysmic event to be contemplated, it seems reasonable to assume that five
vessels likely would be involved, with, say, three deployed off the East Coast (New
York, Washington, Norfolk and the Atlantic fleet) and two off the West Coast (Seattle
and San Diego and the Pacific fleet). The combined death toll projected by reliable data
could be as high as 3,729,000 not counting a like number of injuries, plus extreme dam-
age to infrastructure. While not attempting here to assess the probability, it should be
stressed that the capability is realistically available and, thus, deserves to be factored
into homeland defense planning. See “Scenarios Involving Various US Cities Attacked
by Al Qaeda Terrorists with Sea-launched Scud Nuclear Missiles.” The Independent
Working Group on Missile Defense.
If you read the full 2007 Report, you would notice that they were very big on the SDI
Brilliant Pebbles plan. All of the involved technology had been proven with the launch of
Clementine I, which was used to survey the Moon. The authors were quick to point out
that Brilliant Pebbles could be fully deployed for $11B while the current missile defense
system had cost $46B and climbing.
23
°
Day after day I sat at my computer, reading everything I could find on the internet that
might be a clue to what would happen next. We did a small garden the summer of 2007
and I talked Sharon into getting the 30-quart canner from Canning Pantry. We had plen-
ty of room in the shelter because I hadn’t done much to fix it up. That’s not totally true; I
put up a wall for a storage room and built his and her bathrooms around the two stools
and sinks the plumber had installed. When it came to storing my guns, I took most of
the shelves out of my office cabinet and built a rack inside to hold the long guns. I had
the M1A, the SR-556, the 590A1 and the model 9422. I also had the PT1911, Sauer
.32acp and Sharon coughed up the money for her own Browning Hi-Power.
I tried to walk to and from the shelter, but even with the ramp, I couldn’t get back up, my
legs were all but gone. I resolved that by leaving my old wheelchair in the house and
parking the combat (tactical) wheelchair on the ramp. If I hadn’t had the contractor set
up the ramp cover to be power driven, I’d have never been able to do more than look at
it. The sad part was that I wasn’t that old, only 64. I had my computer in the shelter to
keep it safe and Sharon kept hers in her activity room. We had a home network and
could easily transfer most files between the two machines.
Eventually we got cable TV and we got a new cable router. It had gotten to the point
that I couldn’t take the frustration any longer and when our chance came, we signed up.
I took the TV antenna down and packed it away in case of a rainy day. I was talking
about our garden and took a wrong turn. We planted green beans, cucumbers, sweet
corn, tomatoes, green pepper and potatoes. The only things we canned were bread and
butter pickles, tomato sauce and the green beans. We cut and stripped and froze the
green peppers for pepper steak and stored the ½ ton of potatoes in the shelter. We only
planted enough corn to have some to eat.
Amy called to tell Sharon that she’d finally gotten the Bachelor’s degree. She had a
good job working for LA County but was looking at the Sheriff’s Department and the
Department of Corrections at a Probation Officer position. I wouldn’t be opposed to her
moving to Dallas, Texas had Probation Officers too. What I didn’t want and wouldn’t
permit was her moving in with us again. With 3 kids along, I figured it would take Lorrie
and her about a day and a half to get here, it was ~1,440 miles.
Although Paris was off the beaten path, Derek and Mary were ~ 400 miles away. Da-
mon, by contrast, could get on I-35 and take it all the way to the US 82 exit. I know I
could make it from Britt to Paris in a single day, if I still drove, and hoped Damon could
too. When I talked to him on the phone, he claimed he could beat the MSN maps quick-
est time by at least an hour. It was ~760 miles from Britt to Paris, 11-12 hours.
Circling the wagons? No, but there’s nothing wrong with planning ahead. If some of
those towelheads actually did attack the US again, this time with a WMD, it would de-
pend on what happened whether or not that would be necessary. For more than a year,
24
that statement by Gen Casey had burned my gut. It required Prevacid to keep from get-
ting ulcers and Pepcid AC, to put down the burn I still got.
“How about I go with you to Wal-Mart?”
“Why you want to leave the house? What do you want at Wal-Mart?”
“I just want to look around.”
“I hope they have a scooter available.”
“If they don’t, I have dibs on the cart.”
Paris had a Wal-Mart Super store. There was a Sam’s Club in Sherman and several in
Dallas. We could also order online, but the shipping ate up the savings.
“Would you rather go to Sam’s Club?”
“Yes, where do you want to go?”
“Sherman is only about an hour’s drive. Let’s take the trailer and we’ll stock up.”
“I spent 20 years trying to get you onboard and when you did, it was Katie bar the door,
here come the Indians. Do you have a shopping list?”
“Gary, I always have a shopping list, I write stuff down as we take it out of our stocks.
That’s what I get for being around you for 35 years. You do the same thing; you go to
the range and shoot up one battle pack of ammo then turn around and order a case to
replace what you used.”
“Well… I couldn’t buy all the ammo I thought we should have and used that as an ex-
cuse to increase our supply.”
“I think you probably have enough to last through World War Seven.”
“I’d be happy just to survive World War Three.”
Never turn me loose in a Sam’s Club when we have a trailer behind the SUV and a fat
checkbook. We spent more time in the store and loading our purchases than we did
driving to and from. I was grabbing case lots of the things we used and sometimes, 50
or 100 pound bags of stuff I thought would keep. It wasn’t like I went to the Sam’s Club
every day. We didn’t buy anything that needed to be quickly unloaded and put away.
That way, I got stuck with dragging most of the stuff to the shelter. I had a 4 wheel cart
and the same Warn Winch I had on the ramp in my previous stories, actually, that’s
25
where I got the idea. I could load up the cart, take a smoke break, lower the cart, take a
smoke break, haul the cart into the shelter, take a smoke break and unload the cart. By
then, I was too tired to light another cigarette.
I had it figured that it would take until fall to top off the propane tank and into 2008 be-
fore the diesel was full. Once we had 1,000 gallons of diesel, Sharon concentrated on
filling that 1,100 gallon propane tank. After, all the money went into loads of fuel to fill
the diesel tank for the generator. While I won’t claim we had tons of money, not having
a house payment, car payment and God only knows what other payments left Sharon
with a lot of money to concentrate on what was really important.
I had purchased 15 gallons of PRI-D. She was buying about 1,000 gallons of diesel a
month. Since it could get cold, I also added a load #1 Diesel (kerosene). One gallon of
that stuff would treat 3,800 gallons of fuel. The farm tank Sharon had installed for the
SUV held 500 gallons and was treated with PRI-G.
I had HEET too, just in case there was water in the gas tank and/or a gas line froze.
HEET is basically methyl alcohol with a few additives. The manufacture recommends
using HEET or Iso-HEET year round in hot humid climates. The latter product can be
used in all gasoline engines. Let me give you an idea about some of the other things I’d
managed to accumulate.
I had a chain saw, axe, splitting maul, splitting wedges and a big sledge hammer. How-
ever, we bought firewood for the 3 fireplaces in the home. In the shelter on the shelf or
in the metal storage cabinet were spare every things for the SUV. Spare computer,
spare wires, spare bulbs, fuses and anything you could think of but spare tires. It might
have been cheaper to buy a spare vehicle.
We had a water pump that attached to the water tank and allowed us to use a 1½” fire
hose. Water tank? Sorry, I forgot to tell you about the tank. I heard a dairyman was sell-
ing a 5,000 gallon stainless steel tank because his herd had grown and he wanted a
larger tank. That set me to thinking about cows. Assuming you got an average of 20 gal-
lons of milk per cow per day, he had a pretty big herd, somewhere between 200 and
250. I called the number in the paper and the tank was still available. I checked on the
web and got an average price then called him and made him an offer. I must have been
high, he took it.
When I was in the Air Force, most of the work we did used stainless steel for pipes be-
cause of the corrosive chemicals we used. I figured you couldn’t wear a tank like that
out and when he accepted $2,500, I jumped on it. When they pulled his old tank to put
in the new tank, I hired a local to deliver it. Next, I rented one of those jet washers and
did my best to wash out any remaining milk. Finally, we got the plumber and excavator
back and buried the tank between the well and the house. The plumber connected it in
line with the pipe from the well, giving us stored water. We attached 2 pumps, the one
26
for the drinking/house/shelter water and a second for the pump for the fire hose. I
bought one of those folded hoses you sometimes see in office buildings and it was con-
nected to the pipe coming up from the fire pump. The plumber tested it when he was
finished and all that was required to put out a small fire was to pull out the hose and flip
the switch to the pump. The pump was rated at 750 gallons a minute and the plumber
said we’d have about 7 minutes of water at that flow rate.
That wasn’t much water but Sharon and I agreed that if we could catch a fire early, we
might keep it down until the Fire Department arrived. The well pump would take several
hours to refill the tank so the tank represented all of our available water. As a kid in Io-
wa, I’d seen a few barns burn and it was never pretty. My Uncle Pete’s barn burned and
he lost his whole herd of dairy cows and a loft full of hay. They said the hay had been a
little green and had started the fire through spontaneous combustion.
There were just the four of us, Sharon, me, Missy and Sassy. Missy got a cataract in
her left eye and was blind on that side, a side effect of her diabetes. We had both of the
pets on Senior Diet Eukanuba. Actually, Missy preferred cat food, but the vet said it
wasn’t good for her. The vet wanted $2,500 to remove her cataracts and replace her
lenses. We told him we’d think about it.
With Derek and Mary so close, they came down about once a quarter and half of the
holidays. I liked that because we could go shooting and I could get a bit of my edge
back. I don’t see that well by then and my M1A felt liked it had gained weight, but we
took all the guns out and ran a couple of boxes through each. Derek said I shouldn’t try
to join any shooting teams but I was good enough to keep their heads down until the
Sheriff could show up. Right, if we needed the Sheriff, we’d probably be dead before
they dispatched a car.
We didn’t have many buildings because it was only 0.95 acre, the house, the well house
and a pole shed that doubled as a garage, workshop and storage. We did desert land-
scaping so we wouldn’t have to worry about mowing a lawn. We didn’t have a lot of
spare space, not with 41,412 ft² (203×204). Each time they came down, Derek helped
me and we’d put in another row of fence. It wasn’t much, steel posts with treated wood
corner posts and 4 strands of barbed wire, but it did define the property lines. The front
gate was one of the standard gates intended to keep livestock in but almost nothing out.
I’d have preferred pig wire on the bottom to keep Missy in but found that chicken wire
was far cheaper and just as effective.
Sharon had taken to flying to Iowa during October to visit Shirley. She’d take a bus to
the DFW airport and fly up to Des Moines and on the return trip do the reverse. I’d stay
home and give Missy her meds and let Sassy in and out to roam whenever he wanted.
We had a fair number of Salisbury Steaks (Hearty One by Banquet) and a few boxes of
macaroni and cheese. Aside from keeping Missy and my meds sorted out it was a relax-
ing, quiet time.
27
When we moved, I hadn’t bothered to register to vote, I was so sick of politics and politi-
cians, they could elect any liar they wanted. That went way back to the Founding Fa-
thers, we had the First Party System from 1792 through 1824, the Second Party System
from 1824 to 1854, the Third Party System from 1854 until the mid-1890s, the Fourth
Party System from then until 1932. After that, I have no idea; I’m not a Political Scientist.
Whatever we have, it’s sure screwed up now.
The Bush Doctrine is a set of foreign policy guidelines first unveiled by President
George W. Bush in his commencement speech to the graduating class of West Point
given on 01Jun02. The policies, taken together, outlined a broad new phase in US poli-
cy that would place greater emphasis on military pre-emption, military superiority
“strength beyond challenge”, unilateral action, and a commitment to “extending democ-
racy, liberty, and security to all regions”. The policy was formalized in a document titled
‘The National Security Strategy of the United States of America’, published on 20Sep02.
The Bush Doctrine is a marked departure from the policies of deterrence and contain-
ment that generally characterized American foreign policy during the Cold War and the
decade between the collapse of the Soviet Union and 9/11. Bush summed up this policy
with the words, “Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you
are with us, or you are with the terrorists.”
‘The One Percent Doctrine’ was the title of a book written by Ron Suskind. The source
of the title was something Cheney said: If there’s a 1% chance that Pakistani scientists
are helping al-Qaeda build or develop a nuclear weapon, we have to treat it as a cer-
tainty in terms of our response. It’s not about our analysis ... It’s about our response.
A superpower is a state with the first rank in the international system and the ability to
influence events and project power on a worldwide scale; it is considered a higher level
of power than a Great power. It was a term first applied in 1943 to the Soviet Union, the
United States, and the British Empire. Following WW II, the British Empire was gradual-
ly decentralized and dismantled and the Soviet Union and the United States were re-
garded as the only two superpowers, and then engaged in the Cold War.
Currently, the most common belief among mainstream journalists and in the world of
academia holds that only the United States fulfills the criteria to be considered a super-
power. Sometimes, given the unipolar nature of the world, it is described as a hyper-
power.
Throughout history, there have been Superpowers, Egypt, Persia, Greece and Rome.
The first Global power was Spain and they were eventually replaced by the British Em-
pire. After WW I, the US emerged as one of the top 4 and after WW II, the only 2 real
Superpowers were the US and the Soviet Union. The British Empire had been reduced
in status to a Great power. There are 2 emerging Superpowers, China and India.
28
We are now living in a world where, if there is a 1% chance of terrorists getting the
bomb, we will launch a preemptive strike. Frankly, I preferred the Cold War, at least
then we knew where we stood. The Cold War never ended, it just changed character.
When I wrote that back in 2005, most probably thought I was full of it. Brother, read the
paper and then tell me I’m wrong. I’ll quote myself:
There is only one thing wrong with the information about the Cold War at Global Securi-
ty. The Cold War never ended; it simply went underground for a few years. That was
never more apparent than in the year 2005. During early 2005, the Russians held joint
maneuvers with the Chinese. Later in 2005, the Russian supplied missiles to Syria and
nuclear technology to Iran. That’s fact, not speculation.
Speculation involved whether or not the Russians were missing any nuclear material.
Vladimir Putin told Ariel Sharon that he stopped the sale of missiles to Syria that could
reach Israel because Israel didn’t have a system that could stop the long-range missiles
Syria really wanted to buy.
Between when I wrote that and now we had the 34-Day war between Hezbollah and Is-
rael. Putin claimed the only way anyone would come in contact with Syria’s missiles
was if they attacked Syria. What can I say, times change? However, Russia is still sell-
ing missiles to Iran and Syria buys them third hand. They, in turn, provide them to Hez-
bollah. And what’s this stuff about al-Qaeda in Gaza? Perhaps you can understand why,
in the spring of 2006 just before we planted the garden, I was concerned beyond any
level I can describe, terrified comes to mind.
“I think we should plant extra potatoes this year.”
“Why Gary, we have some left over from last year?”
“No we don’t, I gave those to Derek. I just kept back enough to get eyes to plant. There
should be enough eyes to grow a couple of tons.”
“Why would you want 2 tons of potatoes?”
“Sharon, it’s by no means certain, but I expect a party swap with the Democrats taking
power. I never thought I’d live to see the day, but Hillary might end up President, giving
Bill another 4 year term.”
“What about that guy from Illinois?”
“Obama? I don’t know. Is the country ready for a Black President? Maybe if Hillary takes
the Convention, she’ll pick him as her running mate. I’d rather have him in charge than
either Hillary or Bill.”
29
“That’s not going to happen unless she dies in office.”
“We can always hope, huh? I saw him on TV, an interview on Fox. He’s well-spoken
and in some ways reminded me a little of Powell. We’d have been much better off if
Powell’s wife hadn’t made him pull out of the run for the Presidency.”
“You’re going to stock up more, aren’t you?”
“If we can, yes. There is probably enough room in the shelter for one more trailer load of
food and supplies. If it looks like things are going Hell, we’ll call the kids and circle the
wagons.”
“What was it you had the mechanic do to the SUV?”
“Oh that. I had him modify it to run on E-85. He replaced the gas tank and fuel lines. I
don’t know what he did to the engine, probably changed the computer chip, oxygen
sensor and injectors. Anyway, he said it would run on anything from unleaded to E-85.
The vehicles are basically the same, right down to the sticker price. There’s only one
major additional part – a fuel sensor that detects the ethanol/gasoline ratio. Otherwise,
flexible fuel vehicles have slightly modified fuel tanks, fuel lines, fuel injectors, computer
systems, anti-siphon devices and dashboard gauges to be ethanol-compatible. He told
me to bring in the spare computer and he’d switch it over.”
“Why would you want to convert the car?”
“500 gallons of gasoline will produce about 3,333 gallons of E-85, that’s why. You can
make alcohol out of many things, corn is just the easiest. If TSHTF, we can always
make some anhydrous alcohol and mix it with the gas.”
“Can you run E-85 in that chainsaw?”
“Nope. I figured we’d save back enough gas to run the chainsaw.”
“Have you ever used a chainsaw?”
“Nope and I don’t plan on learning how. I figured that Derek would be the one to learn to
use it, assuming it came to that, I can barely pick up my M1A.”
“If that’s the case, why did you buy it?”
“Because I wanted one?”
“Tell the truth, Gary, you bought it to give to Derek when you die.”
“Yeah, that too.”
30
“You get feebler every day, Gary.”
31
Sweet dreams are made of this

Who am I to disagree?
I travel the world
And the seven seas–
Everybody’s looking for something
Some of them want to use you

Some of them want to get used by you
Some of them want to abuse you
Some of them want to be abused

I travel the world
Hold your head up–Keep your head up–Movin’ on

Hold your head up –movin’ on
Keep your head up –movin’ on
Keep your head up –movin’ on
Keep your head up

I travel the world
Eurythmics (often incorrectly referred to as “The Eurythmics”) are a British musical duo,
formed in 1980 by Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart.
“Don’t worry about it dear, I read on the internet that if you make it to 65, your life expec-
tancy increases to 84.”
“I hope not.”
Obama had decided to run and appeared to be stealing votes from Hillary. The leading
Republican candidate was John McCain. He had some rather interesting support, Colin
Powell for one. I knew how I was going to vote and Sharon said she’d never vote for Hil-
32
lary. I liked McCain because when compared to Bush, he was a liberal. He wasn’t
though, just something we hadn’t seen in a while, a moderate Republican. For too many
years, the Republican Party had been sucking up to the fundamentalist Christians and
supporting their agenda. I don’t have anything against fundamentalist Christians; how-
ever they do have their own agenda. I sometimes think they believe that life begins be-
fore you get your clothes off. The first court case that defined when life began was State
v. Chavez, a California case where a woman let a full term baby die because she
couldn’t be bothered to tie the umbilical cord with a shoestring.
Sharon and I believe that abortion should always be permitted in the case of rape or in-
cest. We don’t believe that it should be used for selecting the sex of your child or as an
alternate to birth control. Any boy or girl old enough to engage in sex probably knows
the possible consequences. Those babies can be born and put up for adoption. We
would also make an exception if the life of the mother is endangered. Odds are they can
have another baby and if they already have children to do otherwise would leave the
children without a mother. We’re both well past child rearing age and both took steps
amounting to permanent birth control. It’s a free country and we’re entitled to our opin-
ions.
“Hi Dad, it will be Christmas this year, we’re spending Thanksgiving with Mary’s folks.”
“Sure, we can have a ham, turkey or prime rib, what would you prefer?”
“Real Prime Rib?”
“Is there any other kind?”
“Sounds good.”
“I figured you’d say that; anyway it will make Sharon happy. Bring your guns and we’ll
try and get in some shooting. Did you decide who you’re going to vote for?”
“McCain. If it were Obama with Hillary as VP, I might vote for Obama, but I won’t put her
in office for another 8 years.”
“When y’all come down, we need to talk.”
“Oh, something up?”
“If she wins, I think this country is in for very big trouble. We need to sit down and have
a long talk to prepare for any untoward developments. I’m going to invited Damon down
too; he should be in on this. If Lorrie and Amy can get away, it might be a good time to
have an old fashioned family Christmas with all of you kids.”
33
“Do you have room for all of us?”
“We do now; Sharon made me subdivide the shelter into 6 small bedrooms, the kitchen
and a great room. It’s nothing fancy, but you’ll have some privacy and the sixth room is
fitted with 10 bunk beds, enough for all of the grandchildren.”
“Sharon, would you try to reach Lorrie and Amy and invite them for Christmas? They
can stay in the shelter and we can provide gas money.”
“Fine, what do you want for Christmas dinner?”
“I offered Derek prime rib, turkey and ham. He said prime rib and I thought you’d like
that.”
“I’ll have to get a big one from the butcher.”
“Is it ok? Getting the kids together?”
“Unless you have some nefarious reason for it. Why, are you expecting trouble?”
“I’m always expecting trouble, it’s not a question of if, just what and when.”
“Any guess on what?”
“We have new passports with chips and the state drivers’ licenses have to conform to
federal standards. The government is getting too big for its britches. These past 8 years
under George W. Bush have made the government intrusion very evident. The sad
thing was he could get away with it under the name of national security and border pro-
tection.”
“But he’s leaving office.”
“Right, but what if Hillary wins? George has the power structure in place for her to im-
pose gun controls, and only God knows what else.”
“She can’t do that.”
“She can do it, believe me. The only question is whether or not she can get away with it.
The world has big problems, food production is way down and the population just keeps
growing. We never managed to settle the question of North Korea and Iran’s nuclear
programs. At the moment, there appear to be 10 countries with the bomb. We don’t
know if the Japanese are developing one or not, although they deny it. It’s against the
Constitution MacArthur shoved down their throat. Much of it was drafted by two senior
US Army officers with law degrees: Milo Rowell and Courtney Whitney.”
34
“Were you talking about Hillary or nuclear weapons?”
“Yes.”
“So, who are you voting for?”
“McCain.”
“Yeah, me too. I wonder who the kids will vote for.”
“Derek and Damon will vote for McCain. I don’t know about Lorrie, but Amy will vote for
Hillary.”
“How do you know?”
“I asked her one night in the fall of 2006 when we were sitting in the office.”
“I’ll call Lorrie and tell her to vote for John McCain and cancel out Amy’s vote.”
“It won’t make any difference, California always votes for a Democrat, or at least it
seems like it.”
“CBS is giving the election to Hilary and Fox is saying not to count McCain out yet.”
“How many states are left to count?”
“Only Ohio. Apparently whoever wins Ohio wins the election.”
“Have we seen this movie before?”
“Must have been 2004, in 2000, it was all about Florida. Bush carried Ohio in 2004.”
“Who carried Ohio in 1992 and 1996?”
“Clinton. That’s why it’s so hard to tell. I guess we’ll have to wait until Ohio finishes
counting their votes. The last time we had a moderate Republican President was Gerald
Ford. Unless the Democrats get 60 Senate seats, they will be a lame duck Senate for 2
more years.”
“Gary, there’s a lot of anger over Iraq and Bush thumbing his nose at the UN didn’t win
him any friends.”
35
“The UN doesn’t mean a thing. They failed to impose reasonable sanctions on Iran and
North Korea tested 2 more nukes, that last one was a fusion weapon. When Great Brit-
ain pulled out of Iraq, it became more of a lost cause. Besides, we lost our UN mandate
to be in Iraq and didn’t have much choice.”
We got tired of waiting for some indication of how Ohio would go and went the bed. Late
the next morning, the Ohio results were announced and John McCain conceded. Be-
lieve you me, if Ohio had gone the other way, the Supreme Court would have ended up
deciding another election, but McCain was gentleman. I said screw it and got on the
phone and ordered 2,000 rounds each of 7.62 and 5.56 plus 1,000 rounds each of
.45ACP and 9mm from a Texas dealer. He said it would only take two days for delivery.
I now wanted a Tac-50, but we didn’t have 9 grand for the rifle and scope and 2 grand
for ammo. I had used A.R.M.S. mounts to put the scope on the Super Match. By now, I
had 40 of the 20 round T-57 magazines and the set with the tape on them contained
Black Hill 175gr Match ammo.
None of our guns except for the Nazi .32 and that Sterling .22 had been acquired with-
out filling out the 4473s. If the new Administration wanted to implement a gun grab, it
would be easy, provided they could find them in the first place. One of the things I in-
tended to talk to Derek about was how to conceal the shelter entrance. I didn’t really
know how we could conceal the sliding panel entrance to the ramp. Because I’d made it
to 65, I could live another 20 years if I watched my health and took my meds.
Speaking of meds, both Sharon and I had, over the past couple of years, managed to
build up a one year reserve supply using the lost prescription dodge. She had decided
to take her Social Security at age 62, which meant she became eligible in 2009. I had to
wait for 2 years before Medicare kicked in because I was on disability; I hoped that
didn’t apply to people who retired. Not knowing what happened to the avian flu threat,
we also bought 25 cards of Tamiflu. Our little medical clinic in the shelter was fairly well
equipped; the only thing we really lacked was a doctor and nurse. We could handle up
to 4 people based on the number of beds and more based on the medicines. We had
settled on Act-Cel to stop blood loss; QuikClot worked but presented problems when the
doctor or medic tried to treat the wound.
Sharon baked a chicken for Thanksgiving and instead of watching football on the TV, I
spent the day in the shelter, rearranging, taping drywall seams and just getting ready for
Christmas. We’d been around getting used furniture for the bedrooms, mostly beds and
chests of drawers. We’d bought pre-hung doors and still had to have a carpenter install
them, I couldn’t get it right. I planned to sand the seams on Black Friday and begin to
slap on a coat of Navajo White. Hell, I’d even insulated the walls to keep the sound
down. I had to; I wasn’t going to carpet the floors. I had it all done by Sunday night, No-
vember 30th. I’d need to take the following week to recover. It had been sort of easy; I
used latex paint on everything, including the doors.
36
“What’s left to do?”
“Clean up, but that shouldn’t take long, I put down plastic and we can pull that up and
put the latches on the doors.”
“You forgot the furniture, Gary. We still have to move that into the bedrooms and set up
the beds.”
“Give me a few days to recover and I take care of that. You can help me move the box
springs and the mattresses. Did you buy some sheets and pillow cases?”
“You forgot mattress pads. Yes, I got it but it isn’t the top of the line stuff.”
“If you’ll wash it to get the sizing out, I’ll help you make the beds once we get it all set
up.”
Clinton and Obama were busy deciding on a cabinet but I didn’t pay much attention. To
tell the truth, I was re-reading Pax Americana and the Battle of Jakes. They were tales
of American insurgencies, forced on the people by a repressive government who
thought it knew what the people needed better than the people themselves. It was,
IMNSHO, just a matter of time before the Wicked Witch of the East pushed legislation
through Congress to require registration of all firearms and the seizure of anything re-
motely resembling a military firearm.
I knew they’d come looking for me, I was a Patron member of the NRA and had pur-
chased several firearms. Not wanting to look like we had anything to hide, we hadn’t
built castle walls around our 0.95 acres. The only firearm we kept in the house was the
little Sterling .22, let them take that. If Derek, Damon and I could figure out how to con-
ceal the entrance to the shelter, they’d never find the guns.
The idea I had to resist the feds came from the song that serves as the title to this
piece, Silent Running. We could fake it because we did all those stupid things they re-
quired, getting federally compliant state driver’s license or ID card, biometric passports
and so forth. I planned to draw the line if they insisted on inserting biometric chips in our
arms. The technology already existed, it was used to identify pets and wouldn’t take
much to adapt to human beings.
When I’d written about it before, I’d used a lame brained scheme of switching chips. Not
this time, if we got the chips, they’d come out the same day and maybe be held in place
with a piece of tape for times when we had no other choice. The government could en-
force a chip law easily, requiring you to have a chip to buy food and drugs. They might
go so far as denying you medical care unless you had the implant.
37
I concluded that those steel road plates would be a dead giveaway if the feds brought in
ground penetrating radar. I further concluded that for no more firearms than I had, they
wouldn’t bother. Hence, I stacked the firewood against the house over the ramp. After a
day of that, my back hurt so bad I called Damon and told him his father needed help. He
wanted to know with what and I told him moving firewood to conceal the ramp. I told him
I’d cover his gas and come up with something he wanted in exchange for the work. I
had in mind a 590A1.
He showed up the next day, must have driven straight through, and we ran out of fire-
wood before we had the ramp completely covered. Sharon ordered 5 cords of firewood
and Damon I went shopping. He wanted a Remington 870 Express combo, the one with
the 28” vent rib barrel and the 20” improved cylinder choke barrel with rifle sights. It
wasn’t as inexpensive as I thought it would be, but he was happy. At least he bought the
magazine extension, giving him 8 rounds in the magazine and one up the pipe. He
would have to get the magazine modified to use the extension, they added dimples or
something.
The other thing it allowed us to do was rotate some of the food in the freezer, that boy
can eat. When we were done with the firewood, we had 28 cords going completely
around the house. One cord was stacked on a frame covered with plywood and had
wheels allowing it to be move to access the ramp. He left and said he’d be back with the
kids’ right before Christmas.
By the 23rd of December we had a full house and/or shelter. It proved to be easier have
the sit down meals in the shelter, it had more space and the folding tables. It wasn’t tor-
nado or hurricane season and as far as I knew, Long Valley and Yellowstone weren’t
acting up. Mt. St. Helen’s was but we were a long way from there. On the day after
Christmas, I managed to get Damon, Derek and Amy to sit down with me to discuss
what I feared was coming.
“Happy Amy?”
“About what?”
“Hillary winning the election.”
“As a matter of fact, I am. She’ll get the country straightened out.”
“If by straighten out you mean a National Health Plan, the registration and eventual sei-
zure of all firearms, you’re right. Our free market economy is about to become a thing of
the past. I think one of her first steps will be to implant biometric data chips in every
American.”
“Bull.”
38
“Amy, no democracy survives forever,” Derek explained. “We’ve had a good run but it’s
about to end in its present form. Our present form is a Constitutional Representative
Republic, the oldest in the world. We have the most powerful military in the world and at
the moment are the only real superpower. Dad and I agree that’s about to change. As it
is, we’re pretty close to the end with the uniform state identity cards and biometric
Passports.”
“Amy, you may not recall, but one of Bill Clinton’s first moves as President was to put
Hillary in charge of coming up with a National Health Plan. In 1993 the President ap-
pointed his wife to head the Task Force on National Health Care Reform. The recom-
mendation of this task force, commonly called the Clinton healthcare plan nicknamed
“Hillarycare” by its opponents, failed to gain enough support to come to a floor vote in
either house of Congress, although both had Democratic majorities, and was aban-
doned in September, 1994. That will resurface and be the basis for the biometric chips,
no one needs do anything but show up for healthcare and they’ll read your chip.”
“Meanwhile, Amy, she’ll put full out gun registration through Congress and everyone will
be forced to register their guns. In every totalitarian society, like Nazi Germany, registra-
tion was always followed by seizure.”
“Amy, the problem isn’t the guns per se; it’s the criminals who use them. It’s sort of like I
write in my fiction stories, not a question of if, only a question of when and what.”
“Bull.”
That’s where the discussion ended; Amy had her mind made up and didn’t want to be
confused by the facts, as we saw them. She left and the boys and I began to make
plans for what we’d do when the government threw a handful of stuff into the fan. We
agreed to circle the wagons here in Paris because Sharon and I had the only shelter.
My program of buying a case of ammo every time I went shooting had a big dividend;
we could fight a couple of wars, should it come to that.

The kids all had to leave and get back home for work. They left before New Year’s. Da-
mon had his shotgun but no ammo, so I gave him a case each of slugs and 00 Buck.
Don’t ask me how she managed it, I really don’t know, but guess what Sharon bought
me for Christmas? Does the term Tac-50 ring a bell? It came complete with scope and
39
mount but no ammo or extra magazines beyond the two included with the purchase.
Derek said he’d see what he could do about some Raufoss, but that I shouldn’t hold my
breath. I ordered some Hornady 750gr A-MAX match ammo and 8 more mags. We
were in the poorhouse for a few weeks after that.
Hillary became the next President on January 20th and George headed for Paraguay.
According to media statements, it was just to check out the family’s new 100,000 acre
ranch. In her Inaugural Address Hillary touched on National Heath Care, Wars on Terror
and Social Security. She didn’t utter one word about firearms, but there were a few
statements on Crime Control. MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and PARSIN.
She waited until the Senate had confirmed her cabinet before she introduced legislation
for Hillarycare. It was basically the same plan the Congress had rejected years before
but this time it met with some degree of approval. She didn’t wait for Congress to ap-
prove Hillarycare; she went for the throat and introduced gun registration. I had long
since sold all of my guns at a gun show, something that would soon cease to exist. To
further the illusion, we bought compound bows and literally dozens of arrows, mostly
razor heads.
It wasn’t a very good illusion; I couldn’t even draw the bow I got. So, I went back and got
a standard fiberglass recurred bow with about a 35lb draw weight. I proved to be nearly
worthless with a bow no matter how hard I tried, so I went with a crossbow. It had a
cocking lever so you didn’t need to be strong to cock it. With this I actually got to the
point where I could hit a man sized silhouette out to about 30 yards.
If there was one saving point on the weapons in the shelter, it was the suppressors. I
bought the Jet suppressor for the Tac-50. What’s more, I knew that buying suppressors
would be like waiving a red flag that said, “Look at me, I have suppressed firearms!”
Don’t ask… I had to get money from the Trust fund to pay for it.
Most people don’t understand about suppressors, they think since you’re shooting su-
personic bullets, you can’t eliminate the noise. As far as it goes, that part is true, as the
bullet passes objects, the supersonic shockwave gives off a crack. That isn’t why a
sound suppressor is so important! It’s important because it completely hides the flash. If
it just happens to be whisper quiet on a .50 caliber rifle, that’s a bonus. The rule of
thumb is that it takes at least 2 shots to determine the direction the shot came from. A
suppressor can also be built so it doesn’t interfere with the functioning of semi-auto fire-
arms by using a Nielsen device.
Crossbow arrows are called bolts. Probably because when the Chinese invented the
crossbow, they shot cast iron bolts. My crossbow was a compound unit and similar if not
the same as Rambo’s. I didn’t have any of his explosive warheads; they were probably
just a stunt. Derek told me he thought they were just a special effect.
A few days before my 66th birthday, Derek called.
40
“Did you hear about that bill in Congress?”
“Which bill?”
“The firearms registration bill.”
“Doesn’t bother me, Derek. Of course if I had any guns, it would be very upsetting.”
“But…”
“Oh, I had some, but I sold them all at gun shows. Say, it’s my birthday on the 23rd, why
don’t you kids come and we’ll have a birthday party. I’ll call Damon and the girls.”
“That will be a pretty expensive slice of cake.”
“No it won’t, I’ll cover your gas. Can you get time off?”
“It’s not just me; Mary has to get time off too.”
Monday, March 23, 2009…
I had to practically threaten the kids to get them to come to Paris to celebrate my 66th
birthday. Hillary had signed the gun registration bill that morning and introduced the
amendment to the Hillarycare bill to require biometric chips. I was surprised when the
ACLU said they’d oppose the legislation, I thought they only hated Republicans. The
ACLU somehow forgot that their mission was to protect and defend the Bill of Rights.
Now they say:
The American system of government is founded on two counterbalancing principles:

that the majority of the people govern, through democratically elected representatives;
and that the power even of a democratic majority must be limited, to ensure individual
rights.
Majority power is limited by the Constitution’s Bill of Rights, which consists of the origi-
nal ten amendments ratified in 1791, plus the three post-Civil War amendments (the
13th, 14th and 15th) and the 19th Amendment (women’s suffrage), adopted in 1920.
The mission of the ACLU is to preserve all of these protections and guarantees:
● Your First Amendment rights-freedom of speech, association and assembly. Freedom

of the press, and freedom of religion supported by the strict separation of church and
state.
● Your right to equal protection under the law – equal treatment regardless of race, sex,
religion or national origin.
41
● Your right to due process – fair treatment by the government whenever the loss of
your liberty or property is at stake.
● Your right to privacy – freedom from unwarranted government intrusion into your per-
sonal and private affairs.
42
Desert loving in your eyes all the way

If I listen to your lies would you say
I’m a man without conviction, I’m a man who doesn’t know
How to sell a contradiction, you come and go, you come and go
CHORUS:
Karma karma karma karma karma chameleon

You come and go, you come and go
Loving would be easy if your colors were like my dream
Red gold and green, red gold and green
Don’t hear your wicked words every day

And you used to be so sweet, I heard you say
That my love was an addiction, when we cling our love is strong
When you go you’re gone forever, you string along, you string along
CHORUS
Every day is like survival

You’re my lover, not my rival
Every day is like survival
You’re my lover, not my rival
I’m a man without conviction, I’m a man who doesn’t know
How to sell a contradiction, you come and go, you come and go
CHORUS
CHORUS
CHORUS
We work also to extend rights to segments of our population that have traditionally been
denied their rights, including Native Americans and other people of color; lesbians, gay
men, bisexuals and transgendered people; women; mental-health patients; prisoners;
people with disabilities; and the poor.
You wouldn’t find them supporting the rights of Nazi’s to parade in Skokie Illinois any-
more. In 1977, the ACLU filed suit against the Village of Skokie, seeking an injunction
against the enforcement of three town ordinances outlawing Nazi parades and demon-
strations. Skokie, Illinois at the time had a majority population of Jews, totaling 40,000 of
70,000 citizens. A federal district court struck down the ordinances in a decision even-
tually affirmed by the US Supreme Court. The ACLU’s action in this case led to a rift be-
tween the Jewish Defense League and the ACLU. According to David Hamlin, executive
43
director of the Illinois ACLU, “...the Chicago office which chose to provide legal counsel
to neo-Nazis who have been planning to march in Skokie, has lost about 25% of its
membership and nearly one-third of its budget.” 30,000 ACLU members resigned in pro-
test.
The ACLU officially declares itself “neutral” on the issue of gun control, pointing to pre-
vious Supreme Court decisions such as United States v. Miller to argue that the 2nd
Amendment applies to the preservation or efficiency of a well-regulated militia, and that
“except for lawful police and military purposes, the possession of weapons by individu-
als is not constitutionally protected.”
Clearly they wouldn’t be fighting the gun registration law. When NRA attorneys asked
for a stay order until the Federal Court could examine the law, the Judge refused to is-
sue a stay order. And so it went all the way to the US Supreme Court, which in fact did
issue a stay order. Bush had packed the court and the vote was 5-4 in favor of the or-
der.
I’ll bet the ACLU loves Boy George.
The Monroe Doctrine states three major ideas, with one more added by President The-
odore Roosevelt. First, it conveys that European countries cannot colonize in any of the
Americas: North, Central, or South. Second, it enforces Washington’s rule of foreign
policy, in which the US will only be involved in European affairs if America’s rights are
disturbed. Third, the US will consider any attempt at colonization a threat to its national
security. Roosevelt added to the doctrine, and summed up his additions with the state-
ment, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.”
Hillary was about to thump us over the head with her big stick. At least she would when
she wasn’t riding it. What was wrong with Medicare part D? It saved me a ton of money,
enough that Sharon could buy the Tac-50. I figure Humana wouldn’t renew it, but they
did, they work on the overall profit not the money they lose on a single patient. Besides,
I always took generic drugs if they were available. The only difference was I didn’t have
a choice now. That was ok; we had a one year supply of all of our drugs. We’d done
that when I had expected WW III. We had pulled out of Afghanistan and Iraq, but I think
the Islamic fundamentalists were still angry with us. If they used even one WMD in the
US, all Americans would suffer.

44
The good old US of A had fallen on hard times by early 2009. The country was a mess
and you needed to look no further than the Halloween costumes the adult females were
wearing – French Maid outfits, sexy schoolgirl outfits, I could go on. No wonder the
Moral Majority was upset, many people’s values were in the toilet and when Hillary got
elected, she flushed it. I think the Bush family saw the handwriting on the wall and fig-
ured they’d be better off far away.
I saw the handwriting on the wall and the birthday party was just an excuse to circle the
wagons. We spent 2 days just finding and digging out those biometric chips you had to
have to get medical care, etc. It wasn’t widespread yet, but as a member of the Army
National Guard, Derek and his family had been implanted. Both Lorrie and Amy accept-
ed some amount of state aid out in Kalifornia and they were implanted too. Sharon and I
were on Social Security so, you guessed it, we were implanted – for all of 3 hours. Only
Damon escaped and I never figured that out. He was on Social Security Disability and
100% military retirement, for bi-polar disorder. He could pretend he didn’t remember the
appointment, but they’d get him the next time he showed up for a doctor’s appointment
to renew his prescriptions for his meds.
Thank God I had a 50cc bottle of 2% Lidocaine. It let us dig until we found the ~5mm
long capsule that contained the chip. The preferred location was the wrist, which al-
lowed you to waive your hand over the chip reader. The screen then displayed your pic-
ture, a full set of fingerprints and what I assumed was DNA data. The person using the
reader could push one button and moments later, they knew more about you than your
mother. We removed them, put in a stitch to close the wound and used clear tape to
tape the tiny capsule to the wrist.
“Do you have any doubt that the country is in the toilet?”
“I don’t see the problem with the chips, Dad, it makes everything so easy.”
“Amy, you can’t take a pee without the government knowing about it. Doesn’t it bother
you just a little bit that the government has taken over your whole life?”
“Why should it?”
“If George W. Bush had made the implants, you’d be screaming to high Heaven,
wouldn’t you?”
“Well, I guess.”
“Who was President when we got the biometric Passports and the uniform state drivers’
licenses? Bush. Hillary picked up where he left off and only made it worse. You haven’t
heard a single word in the media about the wiretaps and snooping that NSA was doing
since the election. Why is that; do you think it stopped?”
45
“But, Hillary opposed it.”
“She wasn’t President when she said that. Has she announced an end to the program?
Have they stopped working on the border fences?”
“I can answer that,” Derek replied. “The Congress voted to close the entire southern
border with a 2 layer fence and the northern border when that’s finished.”
“Are they keeping them out or us in?”
“The claim was it was being done to stop illegal immigration and drug trafficking.”
“Fair enough, do you believe that?”
“It hasn’t worked so far, the feds claim the street price of drugs is actually falling.”
“Does anyone in this room doubt that the country is going down the toilet?”
“Dad, I told you Democracies never last.”
“I know you did Derek. Damon, what do you think?”
“I wish I could have brought the kids. What I think I should do is go back to Britt, close
up my apartment and move down here.”
“You’ll have to keep it low key. Get a private mailbox in Paris and use that as an ad-
dress.”
“I already did when we were down here for Christmas.”
“Can you transfer to the Texas National Guard, Derek?”
“I checked, Dad. Detachment 1, 736th Maintenance Company is located in New Boston.

That’s just east of here, right?”
“New Boston? That’s about 70 miles east on US 82.”
“I’ll check and see if they have a position for a Staff Sergeant open.”
“What will Mary say about moving?”
“We won’t be that far from her folks, the same distance we are from you now.”
“How does her dad feel about what’s going on?”
46
“He’s angry. So far he’s refused to get the new Arkansas driver’s license and have the
chip implanted. They don’t have Passports.”
“Mark my words; one of these days, the US will adopt Internal Passports. You’ll have to
show them and quite possibly travel permits to cross state borders.”
“Bull, Dad, it will never happen.”
“So say you Amy. They’ll register most of the guns and then when the terrorists attack,
seize them. By then, most of the population will have those biometric chips implanted.
The government will have all the data they need stored in a massive computer system
and will begin to issue Internal Passports and travel documents. People like Mary’s Dad
who won’t go along with the system will end up in a government reeducation center.”
“You’re speculating.”
“You’re right, I am. Most of the serious changes to this country have occurred since I
was born. Not all, of course, but most. In many ways, it began when they came up with
the birth control pill. No longer hampered by the risk of pregnancy, women were free to
express their sexuality. The guys loved it and that didn’t help. That led to the summer of
love in San Francisco. You remember the song?”
If you’re going to San Francisco

Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you’re going to San Francisco
You’re gonna meet some gentle people there
For those who come to San Francisco

Summertime will be a love-in there
In the streets of San Francisco
Gentle people with flowers in their hair
All across the nation such a strange vibration

People in motion
There’s a whole generation with a new explanation
People in motion people in motion
For those who come to San Francisco

Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you come to San Francisco
If you come to San Francisco

“The lyrics were written by John Phillips of the Mamas and Papas.”
47
“What were you doing when the song came out?”
“I was attending Iowa State University. That was the fall I meant your brothers’ mother.
We got married the following spring. Hillary has Bush to thank for the power she has
now.
“Public Law 109-364, or the ‘John Warner Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year
2007’ (HR5122), which was signed by the commander in chief on October 17th, 2006,
in a private Oval Office ceremony, allows the President to declare a ‘public emergency’
and station troops anywhere in America and take control of state-based National Guard
units without the consent of the governor or local authorities, in order to ‘suppress public
disorder.’
“President Bush seized this unprecedented power on the very same day that he signed
the equally odious Military Commissions Act of 2006. In a sense, the two laws comple-
ment one another. One allows for torture and detention abroad, while the other seeks to
enforce acquiescence at home, preparing to order the military onto the streets of Ameri-
ca. Remember, the term for putting an area under military law enforcement control is
precise; the term is ‘martial law.’
“Section 1076 of the massive Authorization Act, which grants the Pentagon another
$500-plus-billion for its ill-advised adventures, is entitled, ‘Use of the Armed Forces in
Major Public Emergencies.’ Section 333, ‘Major public emergencies; interference with
State and Federal law’ states that ‘the President may employ the armed forces, includ-
ing the National Guard in Federal service, to restore public order and enforce the laws
of the United States when, as a result of a natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious
public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident, or other condition in any State or
possession of the United States, the President determines that domestic violence has
occurred to such an extent that the constituted authorities of the State or possession are
incapable of (“refuse” or “fail” in) maintaining public order, in order to suppress, in any
State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy.’
“For the President, ‘enforcement of the laws to restore public order’ means to comman-
deer guardsmen from any state, over the objections of local governmental, military and
local police entities; ship them off to another state; conscript them in a law enforcement
mode; and set them loose against “disorderly” citizenry – protesters, possibly, or those
who object to forced vaccinations and quarantines in the event of a bio-terror event.
“The law also facilitates militarized police round-ups and detention of protesters, so
called ‘illegal aliens,’ ‘potential terrorists’ and other ‘undesirables’ for detention in facili-
ties already contracted for and under construction by Halliburton. That’s right. Under the
cover of a trumped-up ‘immigration emergency’ and the frenzied militarization of the
southern border, detention camps are being constructed right under our noses, camps
designed for anyone who resists the foreign and domestic agenda of the administration.
48
“An article on ‘recent contract awards’ in a recent issue of the slick, insider “Journal of
Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International’ reported that ‘global engineering
and technical services powerhouse KBR [Kellogg, Brown & Root] announced in January
2006 that its Government and Infrastructure division was awarded an Indefinite Deliv-
ery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract to support US Immigration and Customs En-
forcement (ICE) facilities in the event of an emergency.’ ‘With a maximum total value of
$385 million over a five year term,’ the report notes, ‘the contract is to be executed by
the US Army Corps of Engineers,’ ‘for establishing temporary detention and processing
capabilities to augment existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) – in the
event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the US, or to support the rapid devel-
opment of new programs.’
“The report points out that ‘KBR is the engineering and construction subsidiary of Halli-
burton.’ So, in addition to authorizing another $532.8 billion for the Pentagon, including
a $70-billion ‘supplemental provision’ which covers the cost of the ongoing, made mili-
tary maneuvers in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other places, the new law, signed by the pres-
ident in a private White House ceremony, further collapses the historic divide between
the police and the military: a tell-tale sign of a rapidly consolidating police state in Amer-
ica, all accomplished amidst ongoing US imperial pretensions of global domination, sold
to an ‘emergency managed’ and seemingly willfully gullible public as a ‘global war on
terrorism.’
“Make no mistake about it: the de-facto repeal of the Posse Comitatus Act (PCA) is an
ominous assault on American democratic tradition and jurisprudence. The 1878 Act,
which reads, ‘Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized
by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or Air Force
as a Posse Comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or
imprisoned not more than two years, or both,’ is the only US criminal statute that out-
laws military operations directed against the American people under the cover of ‘law
enforcement.’ As such, it has been the best protection we’ve had against the power-
hungry intentions of an unscrupulous and reckless executive, an executive intent on us-
ing force to enforce its will.
“Unfortunately, the President dealt Posse Comitatus, along with American democracy, a
near fatal blow. Consequently, it will take an aroused citizenry to undo the damage
wrought by this horrendous act, part and parcel, as we have seen, of a long train of
abuses and outrages perpetrated by this authoritarian administration.
“Despite the unprecedented and shocking nature of this act, there has been no outcry in
the American media, and little reaction from our elected officials in Congress. On Sep-
tember 19th, a lone Senator, Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), noted that 2007’s Defense Au-
thorization Act contained a ‘widely opposed provision to allow the President more con-
trol over the National Guard [adopting] changes to the Insurrection Act, which will make
it easier for this or any future President to use the military to restore domestic order
without the consent of the nation’s governors.’
49
“Senator Leahy went on to stress that, ‘we certainly do not need to make it easier for
Presidents to declare martial law. Invoking the Insurrection Act and using the military for
law enforcement activities goes against some of the central tenets of our democracy.
One can easily envision governors and mayors in charge of an emergency having to
constantly look over their shoulders while someone who has never visited their commu-
nities gives the orders.’
“A few weeks later, on the 29th of September, Leahy entered into the Congressional
Record that he had ‘grave reservations about certain provisions of the fiscal Year 2007
Defense Authorization Bill Conference Report,’ the language of which, he said, ‘sub-
verts solid, longstanding Posse Comitatus statutes that limit the military’s involvement in
law enforcement, thereby making it easier for the President to declare martial law.’ This
had been ‘slipped in,’ Leahy said, ‘as a rider with little study,’ while ‘other congressional
committees with jurisdiction over these matters had no chance to comment, let alone
hold hearings on, these proposals.’
“In a telling bit of understatement, the Senator from Vermont noted that ‘the implications
of changing the (Posse Comitatus) Act are enormous.’ ‘There is good reason,’ he said,
‘for the constructive friction in existing law when it comes to martial law declarations.
Using the military for law enforcement goes against one of the founding tenets of our
democracy. We fail our Constitution, neglecting the rights of the States, when we make
it easier for the President to declare martial law and trample on local and state sover-
eignty.’
Senator Leahy’s final ruminations: ‘Since hearing word a couple of weeks ago that this
outcome was likely, I have wondered how Congress could have gotten to this point. It
seems the changes to the Insurrection Act have survived the Conference because the
Pentagon and the White House want it.’
“The historic and ominous re-writing of the Insurrection Act, accomplished in the dead of
night, which gives Bush the legal authority to declare martial law, is now an accom-
plished fact.
“The Pentagon, as one might expect, plays an even more direct role in martial law op-
erations. Title XIV of the new law, entitled, ‘Homeland Defense Technology Transfer
Legislative Provisions,’ authorizes ‘the Secretary of Defense to create a Homeland De-
fense Technology Transfer Consortium to improve the effectiveness of the Department
of Defense (DOD) processes for identifying and deploying relevant DOD technology to
federal, State, and local first responders.’
“In other words, the law facilitates the ‘transfer’ of the newest in so-called ‘crowd control’
technology and other weaponry designed to suppress dissent from the Pentagon to lo-
cal militarized police units. The new law builds on and further codifies earlier ‘technology
transfer’ agreements, specifically the 1995 DOD-Justice Department memorandum of
agreement achieved back during the Clinton-Reno regime.
50
“It had become clear that a critical mass of the American people had seen through the
lies of the Bush administration; with the President’s polls at an historic low, growing re-
sistance to the war Iraq, and the Democrats took back the Congress in mid-term elec-
tions, the Bush administration was on the ropes. And so it was particularly worrying that
President Bush had seen fit, at this juncture to, in effect, declare himself dictator.”
“See I told you Hillary wasn’t bad. Where did you find out about that?”
“A reader posted the article on The Frugal Squirrel Forum and I looked it up. Fortunate-
ly, he gave a link.”
“When was that?”
“Late October or early November of 2006, before the mid-term elections. That may have
been why all of a sudden, there wasn’t any doubt that Democrats would retake Con-
gress. Their margin was slim, so we had a do nothing Congress for 2 years. That wasn’t
unusual in and of itself, but look at what happened in 2008. Derek, I don’t suppose there
is any way you can get out of your National Guard commitment is there?”
“I reenlisted for 6 years in 2005.”
“It’s just like those magazines I bought. Someone read on one of the forums that I was
buying high capacity magazines and the parcel post shipments were intercepted. I
bought more and had them shipped to another friend and I met him in his home state
and hauled them back myself. Worse, the price had gone up since I made the first pur-
chase. At the time, I didn’t know we were moving to Texas.”
“So what happened to the magazines?”
“They probably went to the dead letter office and were subsequently given to the cops.”
“What did you get?”
“Ten 20-round T-57 magazines for my M1A and 5 30-round for Ron’s Kel-Tec SU-16.”
“How many the second time?”
“25 of each. I kept 20 of the M16 magazines and gave 5 to Ron. That’s why I have so
many magazines for my M1As.”
“I’m just glad you didn’t buy me a gun, Dad.”
“But Amy, I did. I didn’t give it to you because you’d just turn it in. I’d cry if I knew you’d
handed in a brand new Browning Hi-Power. Besides, I bought it in Texas and it has
standard 13-round magazines.”
51
“What kind of ammo?”
“I have a little of the Gold Dot and a lot of the Lawman FMJ ammo.”
“Amy, you have to make a decision. It will probably be the most important decision of
your life. You can quit your job and stay here or you can go back to the People’s Repub-
lik of Kalifornia. That’s going to be a separate decision for Lorrie and your mom is talk-
ing to her about it right now. Shall we go eat cake?”
“What flavor is it?”
“I only like one kind of cake, Devil’s Food. Devil’s-food cake is a rich, chocolate layer
cake. While it is often considered a counterpart to angel cake, the two cake types are
very different: aside from being chocolate-flavored, devil’s-food cake incorporates butter
(or a substitute) and far less egg. In fact, devil’s-food cake is more closely related to red
velvet cake, both in terms of history and preparation. The recipe for this cake was first
printed in 1905. It’s been described as follows: Devil’s food. A cake, muffin, or cookie
made with dark chocolate, so called because it is supposedly so rich and delicious that
it must be somewhat sinful, although the association is clearly made with humor. Its
dark color contrasted with the snowy white of angel-food cake, an earlier confection.
The first devil’s food recipe appeared in 1900, after which recipes and references be-
came frequent in cookbooks. The “red devil’s food cake,” given a reddish-brown color
by the mixture of coca and baking soda, is post-World War II version of the standard
devil’s food cake.”
“Give me a lecture, already.”
“Don’t ask a question if you don’t want a complete answer.”
“Hey, this isn’t a layer cake.”
“I know, it’s Joyce Leto’s recipe. Best Devil’s Food cake I’ve ever eaten.”
Derek laughed; he liked Devil’s Food cake, too.
52
Riders on the storm

Riders on the storm
Into this house we’re born
Into this world we’re thrown
Like a dog without a bone
An actor out alone
Riders on the storm
There’s a killer on the road

His brain is squirmin’ like a toad
Take a long holiday
Let your children play
If ya give this man a ride
Sweet memory will die
Killer on the road, yeah
Girl ya gotta love your man

Girl ya gotta love your man
Take him by the hand
Make him understand
The world on you depends
Our life will never end
Gotta love your man, yeah
Wow!
Riders on the storm

Riders on the storm
Into this house we’re born
Into this world we’re thrown
Like a dog without a bone
An actor out alone
Riders on the storm

Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm
Morrison died on 3Jul71, at age 27, and was found in his bathtub by Courson. Accord-
ing to Stephen Davis’ biography of Morrison, it was reported that he had dried blood
around his mouth and nose and large bruising on his chest. This suggests Morrison
53
might have died from a massive hemorrhage caused by tuberculosis. Many fans and
biographers have speculated that the cause of death was a drug overdose, but the offi-
cial report listed the cause of death as heart failure. No autopsy was performed because
the medical examiner, pursuant to French law, found no evidence of foul play. The lack
of an official autopsy left many questions unanswered and provided a fertile breeding
ground for speculation and rumor.
That song of Jim Morrison and the Doors seems so appropriate now that I think about it.
We were about to embark on a dangerous course. We took it for granted that something
would happen to let Hillary invoke the powers she’d inherited from Bush. As I said, it
wasn’t a question of if, just what and when. I wouldn’t put it past her to set off one of our
suitcase bombs, if push came to shove. The US had built 300 of the W32 Mod. 1 Y4
Atomic Demolition Munitions.
They claim: In the 1950s and 1960s, the US developed lightweight nuclear devices to
use in the interest of US national security. The W-54 Special Atomic Demolition Muni-
tion (SADM) was a Navy and Marines project that was demonstrated as feasible in the
mid-to-late 1960s, but was never used. The project, which involved a small nuclear
weapon, was designed to allow one individual to parachute from any type of aircraft car-
rying the weapon package that would be placed in a harbor or other strategic location
that could be accessed from the sea. Another parachutist without a weapon package
would follow the first parachutist to provide support as needed. The two-man team
would place the weapon package in an acceptable location, set the timer, and swim out
into the ocean where they would be retrieved by a submarine or other high-speed water
craft. The parachute jumps and the retrieval procedures were practiced extensively.
While the procedures were practiced extensively, SADM was never used. These types
of weapons are no longer in the stockpile.
I’m not big on Conspiracy Theories, but let me ask you a question. If they had them,
would they tell us? Admittedly, it can get confusing because of the wide open border
with Mexico. We had heard for years that terrorists had brought in nuclear weapons.
That was either true or a disinformation campaign. With that single claim, George W.
Bush could do so much and sign laws like the Military Commissions Act and the John
Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007. I ignored his antics, figuring Laura would
keep him in place. The reason was she was raised as a Methodist, just like I was. We
don’t usually get really worked up over anything. He also signed The Secure Fence Act.
In a way, I proved to be right; Bush wasn’t The Man Who Would Be King (Kipling). In
fact, he removed all of our troops from Afghanistan and Iraq, probably to prevent the
Democrats from claiming they did it. On the other hand, the entire family decided to go
ranching in Paraguay, go figure. Do you suppose he finally figured out what would hap-
pen to the country if Hillary won and had all those bills he’d signed into law could be
used against the American people? Thank God he signed the repeal. The MCA was
ruled unconstitutional.
54
It’s very difficult for me to imagine what it would really be like when the government
turns against the people. I can easily envision it happening, but it’s so hard to know
what will happen first. I assume the first thing they would do is build camps, in prepara-
tion of imprisoning people who didn’t follow the party line, ergo, refused to get the em-
bedded capsules. There are a large number of national Guardsmen (and women) who
wouldn’t tramp on our liberties; I have Derek in mind when I say that. Can you believe
the statement that Dubya made?
Who is the only American to be awarded the Congressional Medal for service in peace-
time? He also earned:
The Purple Heart,

The Bronze Star with V device,
The Air Force Commendation medal,
The Silver Star with oak leaf cluster,
The Legion of Merit with oak leaf cluster,
The Distinguished Service Medal,
The Distinguished Flying Cross with two clusters,
The Distinguished Unit Citation Emblem with one oak leaf cluster,
The Air Force Outstanding Unit Award, and
The Air Medal with ten clusters.
Let’s see, he commanded the 405th fighter wing out of the Philippines, flying 127 air-
support missions, and training bomber pilots. He flew 64 combat missions in World War
II. On one occasion he shot down a German jet from a prop plane. By war’s end he had
downed 13 enemy aircraft, five in a single day. You know now, right? He didn’t have
The Right Stuff. Never mind he helped design the Bell X-1 that he flew beyond the
sound barrier. A friend tells me he’s a frequent visitor at Beale AFB.
I was curious and looked up the John Warner bill. Here’s what section 333 actually
says:
SEC. 333. EXTENSION OF TEMPORARY AUTHORITY FOR CONTRACTOR PER-

FORMANCE OF SECURITY GUARD FUNCTIONS.
(a) EXTENSION AND LIMITATION ON TOTAL NUMBER OF CONTRACTORS.–

Section 332(c) of the Bob Stump National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year
2003 (Public Law 107314) is amended –
(1) by striking “September 30, 2007’’ both places it appears and inserting “September
30, 2009’’;
(2) by redesignating subsection (d) as subsection (e); and
(3) by inserting after subsection (c) the following new subsection (d):
“(d) LIMITATION.--The total number of personnel employed to perform security guard
functions under all contracts entered into pursuant to this section shall not exceed –
55
“(1) for fiscal year 2007, the total number of such personnel employed under such con-
tracts on October 1, 2006;
“(2) for fiscal year 2008, the number equal to 90 percent of the total number of such
personnel employed under such contracts on October 1, 2006; and
“(3) for fiscal year 2009, the number equal to 80 percent of the total number of such
personnel employed under such contracts on October 1, 2006.’’.
(b) REPORT ON CONTRACTOR PERFORMANCE OF SECURITY-GUARD FUNC-

TIONS. – Not later than February 1, 2007, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to the
Committee on Armed Services of the Senate and the Committee on Armed Services of
the House of Representatives a report on contractor performance of security guard
functions under section 332 of the Bob Stump National Defense Authorization Act for
Fiscal Year 2003 (Public Law 107-314). The report shall include the following:
(1) An explanation of progress made toward implementing each of the seven recom-
mendations in the Comptroller General report entitled “Contract Security Guards: Ar-
my’s Guard Program Requires Greater Oversight and Reassessment of Acquisition Ap-
proach’’ (GAO06284).
(2) An assessment, taking into consideration the observations made by the Comptroller
General on the report of the Department of Defense of November 2005 that is entitled
“Department of Defense Installation Security Guard Requirement Assessment and
Plan’’, of the following:
(A) The cost-effectiveness of using contractors rather than Department of Defense em-
ployees to perform security-guard functions.
(B) The performance of contractors employed as security guards compared with the
performance of military personnel who have served as security guards.
(C) Specific results of on-site visits made by officials designated by the Secretary of De-
fense to military installations using contractors to perform security-guard functions.
(c) CONTRACT LIMITATION. – No contract may be entered into under section 332 of
the Bob Stump National Defense Authorization
It wasn’t there, so I kept looking:
SEC. 1076. USE OF THE ARMED FORCES IN MAJOR PUBLIC EMERGENCIES.
(a) USE OF THE ARMED FORCES AUTHORIZED. –

(1) IN GENERAL.--Section 333 of title 10, United States Code, is amended to read as
follows:
“333. Major public emergencies; interference with State and Federal law
“(a) USE OF ARMED FORCES IN MAJOR PUBLIC EMERGENCIES. –
(1) The President may employ the armed forces, including the National Guard in Feder-
al service, to –
“(A) restore public order and enforce the laws of the United States when, as a result of a
natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or
incident, or other condition in any State or possession of the United States, the Presi-
dent determines that –
56
“(i) domestic violence has occurred to such an extent that the constituted authorities of
the State or possession are incapable of maintaining public order; and
“(ii) such violence results in a condition described in paragraph (2); or
“(B) suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or
conspiracy if such insurrection, violation, combination, or conspiracy results in a condi-
tion described in paragraph (2).
“(2) A condition described in this paragraph is a condition that –
“(A) so hinders the execution of the laws of a State or possession, as applicable, and of
the United States within that State or possession, that any part or class of its people is
deprived of a right, privilege, immunity, or protection named in the Constitution and se-
cured by law, and the constituted authorities of that State or possession are unable, fail,
or refuse to protect that right, privilege, or immunity, or to give that protection; or
“(B) opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the
course of justice under those laws.
“(3) In any situation covered by paragraph (1)(B), the State shall be considered to have
denied the equal protection of the laws secured by the Constitution.
“(b) NOTICE TO CONGRESS. – The President shall notify Congress of the determina-
tion to exercise the authority in subsection (a)(1)(A) as soon as practicable after the de-
termination and every 14 days thereafter during the duration of the exercise of that au-
thority.’’.
(2) PROCLAMATION TO DISPERSE.--Section 334 of such title is amended by inserting
“or those obstructing the enforcement of the laws’’ after “insurgents’’.
(3) HEADING AMENDMENT. – The heading of chapter 15 of such title is amended to
read as follows:
“CHAPTER 15--ENFORCEMENT OF THE LAWS TO RESTORE PUBLIC ORDER’’.
(4) CLERICAL AMENDMENTS.--(A) The tables of chapters at the beginning of subtitle
A of title 10, United States Code, and at the beginning of part I of such subtitle, are each
amended by striking the item relating to chapter 15 and inserting the following new item:
“15 Enforcement of the Laws to Restore Public Order ....................................... 331’’.
(B) The table of sections at the beginning of chapter 15 of such title is amended by strik-
ing the item relating to sections 333 and inserting the following new item:
“333. Major public emergencies; interference with State and Federal law.’’.
(b) PROVISION OF SUPPLIES, SERVICES, AND EQUIPMENT. –
(1) IN GENERAL. – Chapter 152 of such title is amended by adding at the end the fol-
lowing new section:
“2567. Supplies, services, and equipment: provision in major public emergencies
“(a) PROVISION AUTHORIZED. – In any situation in which the President determines to
exercise the authority in section 333(a)(1)(A) of this title, the President may direct the
Secretary of Defense to provide supplies, services, and equipment to persons affected
by the situation.
“(b) COVERED SUPPLIES, SERVICES, AND EQUIPMENT. – The supplies, services,
and equipment provided under this section may include food, water, utilities, bedding,
transportation, tentage, search and rescue, medical care, minor repairs, the removal of
debris, and other assistance necessary for the immediate preservation of life and prop-
erty.
57
“(c) LIMITATIONS. – (1) Supplies, services, and equipment may be provided under this
section–
“(A) only to the extent that the constituted authorities of the State or possession con-
cerned are unable to provide such supplies, services, and equipment, as the case may
be; and
“(B) only until such authorities, or other departments or agencies of the United States
charged with the provision of such supplies, services, and equipment, are able to pro-
vide such supplies, services, and equipment.
“(2) The Secretary may provide supplies, services, and equipment under this section
only to the extent that the Secretary determines that doing so will not interfere with mili-
tary preparedness or ongoing military operations or functions.
“(d) INAPPLICABILITY OF CERTAIN AUTHORITIES. – The provision of supplies, ser-
vices, or equipment under this section shall not be subject to the provisions of section
403(c) of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 USC
5170b(c)).’’.
(2) CLERICAL AMENDMENT. – The table of sections at the beginning of such chapter
is amended by adding at the end the following new item:
“2567. Supplies, services, and equipment: provision in major public emergencies’’.
(c) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.--Section 12304(c)(1) of such title is amended by

striking “No unit’’ and all that follows through “subsection (b),’’ and inserting “Except to
perform any of the functions authorized by chapter 15 or section 12406 of this title or
by subsection (b), no unit or member of a reserve component may be ordered to active
duty under this section’’.
It was true, but I made sure before I had teeth marks on my knees. We were screwed
and didn’t even get kissed. While Damon went home to get his things, Derek looked for
a job in the Paris area and Mary went back home with the kids to drive the school bus.
Derek checked with the Post Office in Paris and they had an opening. He could transfer
without any penalty. He stayed until the weekend and Mary and the kids came after him.
They went home and prepared to move into a rental unit in Paris.
Sharon had managed to talk Lorrie into staying. Lorrie called David and all he said was,
“Whatever.” I had plans, when Damon got here, I give him extra shells for his shotgun
and he could go after Lorrie’s things. He was just crazy enough to pull it off and not hurt
anyone. David would have to settle for sleeping with one woman until he could find a
new second one. The bedroom suite, the hutch and the dining room table were Lorrie’s.
Most everything else belonged to David or was joint property and Sharon and I could
replace anything that got left behind.
Amy was true to herself and returned to the PRK. She didn’t believe any part of our dis-
cussion. She wanted to take the Browning back with her, but I said it wasn’t going to
Kalifornia. She hardly spoke to me after that and I couldn’t wait for her to leave. I could
never figure out how Daddy’s little girl grew up to be such an asshole. She’d probably
say, “Like father, like daughter.”
58
When Damon returned, we were surprised to find he had the kids with him. Britney was
in 11th grade, Aaron in 9th and Eric in 7th. I asked Damon about it and he said, “I made
her an offer she couldn’t refuse.”
“If that’s the case, fill up your gas tank. Lorrie stayed and someone needs to go to
Palmdale and get her stuff. She has a master bedroom suite, a dining room table set
and a hutch. You can get extra ammo if you need it from the armory.”
“I’ll take Aaron, can you loan him something to shoot?”
“How about my California legal M1A?”
“You have any California legal magazines?”
“Only 3, but I have plenty of the California illegal ones.”
“We shouldn’t have trouble; we’d better not take those with us.”
“Aaron, take this backpack and put it under your seat. Don’t tell your Dad.”
“What’s in the bag, Grandpa?”
“Let’s just say that if you find yourself in a situation where you have to use the rifle I’m
loaning you, it’s ok to open the bag. It’s best that you don’t know before then, what you
don’t know can’t hurt you.”
I truly wish that what I told Aaron was true, but he didn’t need to know that the pack con-
tained 10 loaded 20-round magazines plus a pair of 140-round battle packs. He’d find
out only if he needed to know. Another reason I didn’t tell him was guilty knowledge. I
assumed that if he didn’t know what was in the pack, he wouldn’t act guilty and get
caught by the Kalifornia Border Patrol, aka Agricultural Inspectors. People only had until
July 1, 2009 to register their firearms. Furthermore, if they inspected the vehicle and
found the guns, both the shotgun and rifle were Kalifornia legal.
The Mesoamerican civilizations included the Incans (Peru-Chile), the Mayan (Yucatan)
and the Aztecs (Mexico City). Cortez defeated the Aztecs under Montezuma and Pizar-
ro defeated the Incans under Atahualpa. The Maya people never disappeared, neither
at the time of the Classic period decline or with the arrival of the Spanish conquista-
dores and the subsequent Spanish colonization of the Americas. The Maya remain in
contemporary Mesoamerican societies, and maintain a distinctive set of traditions and
beliefs, combined with more recent practices such as the almost total adoption of Ro-
man Catholicism. The Maya and their descendants form sizeable populations through-
out the region formerly occupied by the states of the ancient civilization. Many different
Mayan languages continue to be spoken as the primary language. Maybe their philoso-
59
phy was if you don’t fight, you can’t lose. I seemed to remember one of the Conquista-
dors having been killed by the natives by having melted gold poured down his throat to
satisfy his thirst for treasures. It took a while to figure out which one, his name was Ped-
ro de Valdivia, the conqueror of Chile. He wasn’t the only person to die in that manner.
“Did you have any trouble?”
“No, but I don’t think her junk was worth the gas. What was the idea of giving that pack
to Aaron, he opened on the way back and I almost had a heart attack.”
“I didn’t tell him what was inside so he wouldn’t flush if asked if he had any high capacity
magazines.”
“You might have given me a hint.”
“Sorry Damon, but I have no idea how good of liar you are. You’d better get the weap-
ons in the armory and empty those magazines. You can use the cartridges to load 10
empties. Remember, I sold all of my firearms at a gun show. I’ll go open the ramp for
you while you unload Lorrie’s stuff.”
“Here are the… how the hell did you do that?”
“Open the entrance to the ramp? We built a platform and stacked a cord of wood on top
of it. There are rollers on the bottom of the frame. It has a lock and unless you know
what it is, you can’t get it to move.”
“Will you show me?”
“Sure, let’s get the weapons downstairs and I show you how to lock it when we come
back up.”
“Now, all you have to do is push the platform back in place and insert this post. Give it a
quarter turn and it locks in place and the platform won’t move.”
“You seem to like secret rooms, Dad.”
“Well, I have created a few in my stories, but that keeps getting harder.”
“Did you figure out that new law yet?”
“Sort of. I think I know why it got passed and signed. That happened barely 15 months
after Hurricane Katrina. If you recall, there was a whole bunch of bad press because
Bush didn’t suspend Posse Comitatus and send soldiers into New Orleans as police-
60
man when the cops got shot at. I think they had their eyes on the good the law would do
and didn’t consider the possible abuses.”
“You taking his side? Do you like this new law?”
“I’m explaining what I believe they were thinking about, not excusing a law so full of po-
tential abuses.”
“You must believe someone will abuse that power.”
“I do. Long ago in a faraway time, people were talking about Hillary and her bringing in
the UN if she ever got elected.”
Amy was angry and didn’t talk to me the first full week she was in Texas. I decided to try
and break the ice by giving her the Browning. Either she was going to take it and learn
to shoot it or I was a dead man. I almost didn’t care; we had circled the wagons and
were just waiting for the shoe to drop.
The first clue that something was happening was when some of the military installations
on the BRAC 2005 list were kept open. KBR got the contract to erect fenced in ‘housing
areas’ but it didn’t make the news. I heard it on the ham net from a ham operator who
lived near one of the bases they were supposedly closing. He said something about
them bringing in those portable guard towers I written about several stories back.
“Do you know anything about the government setting up relocation camps?”
“Dad, I heard that people who aren’t going along with the embedded chip may be ar-
rested. But, it’s only supposed to last until they have their chip injected. The word was
they’d be released after.”
“Derek, it wouldn’t be the first time the government interred US citizens. When I was in
the Air Force at Lowry AFB, one of the guys in my barracks was a Japanese American
who had been interred during WW II. President Franklin Roosevelt authorized the in-
ternment with EO 9066, which allowed local military commanders to designate ‘military
areas’ as ‘exclusion zones’, from which ‘any or all persons may be excluded.’ Twelve
days later, this power was used to declare that all people of Japanese ancestry were
excluded from the entire Pacific coast, including all of California and most of Oregon
and Washington. In 1944, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the exclu-
sion, removal, and detention, arguing that it is permissible to curtail the civil rights of a
racial group when there is a ‘pressing public necessity.’
“Some compensation for property losses was paid in 1948, but most internees were un-
able to fully recover their losses. In 1988, President Reagan signed legislation which
apologized for the internment on behalf of the US government. The legislation stated
that government actions were based on ‘race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of
61
political leadership’, and beginning in 1990, the government paid reparations to surviv-
ing internees.”
“Dad, they wouldn’t do that,” Amy protested.
“Amy, they already did it. They could just as easily declare a Major National Emergency
and imprison Muslims, like they did in the Bruce Willis movie, The Siege. Or, they could
declare all illegal immigrants a threat to National Security constituting a Major National
Emergency and imprison up to 15 million people. Is it a stretch to think they would im-
prison people for not getting the biometric ID chips?”
“What about that border fence?”
“Amy, that’s just making the coyotes richer, it isn’t stopping immigration from south of
the border. To do that, the government would have to enact immigration reform and a
guest worker program.”
“It’s getting so you have to speak Spanish to get along in California, Dad.”
“That’s the problem with not having an official national language. Man, am I glad your
mother and I moved to Texas. The problem with illegals isn’t as bad up in this corner of
the state. I presume you know about the Aztlán Invasion?”
“What’s that?”
“It refers to the Méxicans from the area of México City who can trace their ancestry back
to the Aztecs. There are several groups that would like to, I think the term is Recon-
quista, take back the part of México that was ceded to the US.”
“But Dad that would start a war.”
“Not at first. It would start out with the local Hispanic population taking over a small town
or area and then expand. I’d imagine the government would stick its head in the sand
until the problem became very noticeable. Keep that in mind, Amy, when I point out that
there are nearly as many Muslims in the US are there are illegal Mexicans. You should
have driven down to Glendale when you were in Kalifornia.”
“Our old housing tract is down to about 5 non-Hispanic families.”
“What was the crime rate like?”
“Way up, about like St. Louis.”
“I’m not surprised.”
62
You know that it would be untrue

You know that I would be a liar
If I was to say to you
Girl, we couldn’t get much higher
Come on baby, light my fire

Try to set the night on fire
The time to hesitate is through

No time to wallow in the mire
Try now we can only lose
And our love become a funeral pyre

Try to set the night on fire, yeah
The time to hesitate is through

No time to wallow in the mire
Try now we can only lose
And our love become a funeral pyre

Try to set the night on fire, yeah
You know that it would be untrue

You know that I would be a liar
If I was to say to you
Girl, we couldn’t get much higher

More from the Doors? I didn’t like the group but I did like some of their music.
63
The first arrests came as a result of people not having the implanted ID chips. Initially
they were taken to a hospital and the chip implanted/reimplanted. People who removed
those chips were eventually rearrested and taken to an internment camp where they
were checked at every meal to make sure they still had their implants. We wore long
sleeves and hid the implants we had taped to our wrists. They scanned just fine and we
were getting by with it, for a while.
My main problem, something I’ve mentioned before, was my tape allergy. Even the hy-
poallergenic tape gave me a rash. On those rare instances that I had to leave home, I’d
tape on the ID chip and go. I’d generally just use a Band-Aid and a little Neosporin
crème to hold it in place and tell the doctor it was a scratch from one of the cats or dogs.
I got a tetanus shot out of my claim so it wasn’t all a bad thing.
Amy was the first one who got caught with the taped on chip and it was promptly reim-
planted and she was given a warning. At first, she didn’t even tell me and kept wearing
the tape. I suppose I’d have never found out except that one day she showed up without
the Band-Aid and I asked about it.
“I got caught, Dad. They reimplanted the chip and warned me that if I dug it out again, I
end up in a camp.”
“Ok, leave it in, for now. I don’t want to have to try and break you out of an internment
camp.”
In our case, the Domino Principle related to the implanted chips. The term originated
with President Dwight D. Eisenhower in a news conference.
The President’s News Conference of April 7, 1954
Robert Richards, Copley Press:
Mr. President, would you mind commenting on the strategic importance of Indochina to
the free world? I think there has been, across the country, some lack of understanding
on just what it means to us.
The President:
You have, of course, both the specific and the general when you talk about such things.
First of all, you have the specific value of a locality in its production of materials that the
world needs.
Then you have the possibility that many human beings pass under a dictatorship that is
inimical to the free world.
64
Finally, you have broader considerations that might follow what you would call the “fall-
ing domino” principle. You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one,
and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. So
you could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound influ-
ences.
Now, with respect to the first one, two of the items from this particular area that the
world uses are tin and tungsten. They are very important. There are others, of course,
the rubber plantations and so on.
Then with respect to more people passing under this domination, Asia, after all, has al-
ready lost some 450 million of its peoples to the Communist dictatorship, and we simply
can’t afford greater losses.
But when we come to the possible sequence of events, the loss of Indochina, of Burma,
of Thailand, of the Peninsula, and Indonesia following, now you begin to talk about are-
as that not only multiply the disadvantages that you would suffer through loss of materi-
als, sources of materials, but now you are talking really about millions and millions and
millions of people.
Finally, the geographical position achieved thereby does many things. It turns the so-
called island defensive chain of Japan, Formosa, of the Philippines and to the south-
ward; it moves in to threaten Australia and New Zealand.
It takes away, in its economic aspects, that region that Japan must have as a trading
area or Japan, in turn, will have only one place in the world to go – that is, toward the
Communist areas in order to live.
So, the possible consequences of the loss are just incalculable to the free world.
They made a movie by the same name starting Gene Hackman, it wasn’t well received.
The domino theory is based on three assumptions about alliance formation. The first
assumption claims that, because states are attracted to power and consistent demon-
strations of strength, the more powerful a coalition leader is and the more clearly and
reliably its power is projected, the more likely others are to align with it. It follows that a
decline in a coalition leader’s relative position causes defections – often to the rival side
– on the part of its allies and potential partners (the unaligned). The second assumption
claims that the more similar two or more states are ideologically, the more likely they
are to unite politically. Lastly, it is assumed that certain ideologies (on account of their
precepts) can render tight, insular coalition bonds as well as acute competition between
rivals.
With the above in mind, the domino theory unfolds as follows. Because states are at-
tracted to power and credibility, coalition leaders must regularly and effectively demon-
strate their strength as a means of retaining and attracting as many allies as possible. It
65
follows that signs of political and military weakness are correlated with defections and
alignment with opposing coalitions. According to the domino theory, even a single suc-
cessful display of superior force by one coalition can trigger a domino effect whereby
one state after another will choose to align with the stronger coalition (since states are
attracted to power and credibility). It stands to reason that if two or more coalitions are
battling for allies, the domino effect is a valuable (albeit risky) foreign policy instrument.
For instance, in regions of the world where states remain largely unaligned, the domino
theory predicts that even one ill-timed display of weakness by one coalition leader can
trigger the domino effect in which the unaligned states join the opposing side in succes-
sion. Likewise, just one robust display of strength by one coalition leader can cause un-
aligned states to link forces with it in opposition to others.
In strategic thinking about the domino theory, ideology often plays a leading role. Be-
cause ideologically similar states can easily unite according to the domino theory, coali-
tion leaders must pay particular attention to unaligned states in which ideologies are
battling for supremacy. Apparently, if a coalition leader, who supports one ideology over
others, displays weakness in its international engagements, the battling factions in una-
ligned states will naturally reject the losing ideology and possibly unite under one of its
more robust rivals. Once a state is united under one ideology, it will politically align with
other states like it. Clearly then, if an ideology underscores universal domination, it is
imperative that the coalition leaders, who will be negatively affected by its ascendancy,
never allow it to spread, especially by triggering the domino effect.
In point of fact, there was a ‘no questions asked’ principle that came out shortly after the
first camp began receiving internees. After Amy got caught, we discussed it as a family
and decided she should keep the chip implanted. Mary indicated that she’d nearly been
caught and the discussion turned to the possibility of our availing ourselves of the no
questions asked deal. The chips were implanted subcutaneously and could be easily
removed, if necessary. Derek and I were outvoted and we all went to have the chips re-
implanted. That really stuck in our craws.
“Well, there’s another fine mess you’ve gotten me into”.
“Buzz, the quote is ‘Well, here’s another nice mess you’ve gotten me into.’ I swear I told
you that before.”
“You probably wrote it in one of your stories, Dad.”
“Oh, I’m sure I did, kid.”
“When are you going to stop calling me kid? I’m 35 years old!”
“When I die.”
“Promise?”
66
“Nah, Derek, Dad is probably lying.”
“I call you kid too, Damon.”
“Sometimes I feel like a kid, but you’re the one who acts like a kid most often Dad.”
“Yeah right, who’s on first?”
“What’s on second, I Don’t Know is on third... we know Dad, Abbott and Costello.”
“The duo was voted the seventh greatest comedy act ever by fellow comedians and
comedy insiders, making them the most popular double act on the list. In the US and
Canada, the tradition was more popular in the earlier part of the 20th century with vau-
deville-derived acts such as Abbott and Costello, Burns and Allen, and Wheeler and
Woolsey, and continuing into the television age with Martin and Lewis, Bob and Ray,
the Smothers Brothers, Wayne and Shuster, Allen and Rossi, Burns and Schreiber,
Rowan and Martin, Nichols and May, and Cheech and Chong. Only Laurel and Hardy
made the Comedian’s Comedian List.”
Clowning around broke the tension we were all feeling after deciding to have those
darned chips reimplanted. I really wonder if Ike knew what he was getting us into by
supporting Diệm? Diệm was assassinated just 20 days before JFK. I won’t dwell on our
first Vietnam or the second they called Iraqi Freedom. Back to the point, who would
have thought that the president had noble motives when he signed the John Warner
Act? Perhaps when he realized the import of what he signed, he decided to retire to
Paraguay.
We went in one at a time to various doctors and clinics to have the chips reinserted, if
we all showed up at once, I have probably been held responsible and gone to a camp. I
was responsible, but didn’t like the idea of any American being imprisoned over some-
thing that was clearly unconstitutional. Now, get this:
● States Estimate Cost of Real ID Will Be $11 Billion. The National Conference of State
Legislatures released a report on the Real ID, which estimates that that the cost to the
states will be more than $11 billion over five years. The federal REAL ID Act creates na-
tional standards for issuing state drivers licenses and identification cards. States also
expressed concern regarding the application of the Drivers Privacy Protection Act to the
records retention and information sharing requirements of REAL ID.
● Privacy and Security Flaws Imperil Transit Worker ID Program. Security and privacy
problems have delayed the implementation of the Transportation Worker Identification
Credential program. TWIC is a Homeland Security program designed to screen the
backgrounds of and issue biometric ID cards to the nation’s 750,000 air, land and sea
transportation workers. TWIC implementation is being watched closely, as it has many
67
aspects similar to the REAL ID card. Real ID mandates federal requirements for state
driver’s licenses, and it requires state DMVs to verify identification documents, such as
birth certificates.
●State Committee Urges New Mexico to Ignore REAL ID Act. Members of the New
Mexico State Legislature’s Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee derided the RE-
AL ID Act, calling it de facto national ID, and urged the state to ignore the act. The
members said it was an unfunded mandate that would cost the state at least $13 million
to implement.
History
National ID cards have long been advocated as a means to enhance national security,
unmask potential terrorists, and guard against illegal immigrants. They are in use in
many countries around the world including most European countries, Hong Kong, Ma-
laysia, Singapore and Thailand. Currently, the United States and the United Kingdom
have continued to debate the merits of adopting national ID cards. The types of card,
their functions, and privacy safeguards vary widely.
Americans have rejected the idea of a national ID card. When the Social Security Num-
ber (SSN) was created in 1936, it was meant to be used only as an account number as-
sociated with the administration of the Social Security system. Though use of the SSN
has expanded considerably, it is not a universal identifier and efforts to make it one
have been consistently rejected. In 1971, the Social Security Administration task force
on the SSN rejected the extension of the Social Security Number to the status of an ID
card. In 1973, the Health, Education and Welfare Secretary’s Advisory Committee on
Automated Personal Data Systems concluded that a national identifier was not desira-
ble. In 1976, the Federal Advisory Committee on False Identification rejected the idea of
an identifier.
In 1977, the Carter Administration reiterated that the SSN was not to become an identi-
fier, and in 1981 the Reagan Administration stated that it was “explicitly opposed” to the
creation of a national ID card. The Clinton administration advocated a “Health Security
Card” in 1993 and assured the public that the card, issued to every American, would
have “full protection for privacy and confidentiality.” Still, the idea was rejected and the
health security card was never created. In 1999 Congress repealed a controversial pro-
vision in the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 which
gave authorization to include Social Security Numbers on driver’s licenses.
In response to the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, there has been renewed interest in
the creation of national ID cards. Soon after the attacks, Larry Ellison, head of Califor-
nia-based software company Oracle Corporation, called for the development of a na-
tional identification system and offered to donate the technology to make this possible.
He proposed ID cards with embedded digitized thumbprints and photographs of all legal
residents in the US. There was much public debate about the issue, and Congressional
68
hearings were held. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich testified that he “would not
institute a national ID card because you do get into civil liberties issues.”
When it created the Department of Homeland Security, Congress made clear in the en-
abling legislation that the agency could not create a national ID system. In September
2004, then-DHS Secretary Tom Ridge reiterated, “[t]he legislation that created the De-
partment of Homeland Security was very specific on the question of a national ID card.
They said there will be no national ID card.”
The public continues to debate the issue, and there have been many other proposals for
the creation of a national identification system, some through the standardization of
state driver’s licenses. The debate remains in the international spotlight – several na-
tions are considering implementing such systems. The US Congress recently passed
the Real ID Act of 2005, which mandates federal requirements for driver’s licenses. Crit-
ics argue that it would make driver’s licenses into de facto national IDs.
Yeah, right, there won’t be any National ID Card. We had biometric Passports, conform-
ing REAL ID cards and yesterday in the mail we got Internal Passports and travel doc-
uments. When I posted the first chapter, people wanted to know where the story was
going. I’ll answer that, to hell in a handcart. Now get this, the Internal Passport wasn’t a
substitute for a state driver’s license or ID card, it was just another layer. Two years af-
ter Tom Ridge said there would be no National ID Card, the Congress passed the REAL
ID Act of 2005. From what I’ve seen on the forums, there were a bunch of angry squir-
rels.
The only problem Hillary had was the lack of a Major Public Emergency. The ‘no ques-
tions asked’ provision worked too well. It would either take an earthquake, hurricane or
volcano in the natural realm or a terrorist act to let her make the declaration. As a fami-
ly, we were very much ready for anything that came down the pike, be it friend or foe. I
was dying to shoot my M1A rifles at something besides paper targets. I had a little of
that Raufoss, Derek had seen to it. To be perfectly honest, I wanted more, more and
more. Worse, his last two postings had been to Maintenance Companies, nowhere he
was likely to find it laying around.
“You know boys, when we lived in Kalifornia, I couldn’t get large capacity magazines
easily, but I did anyway. What in the name of God is so hard about finding me 1,200
rounds of Raufoss? It’s made here in the US by Winchester and others under license.”
“It’s an HEIAP round Dad, military only. You have ball, AP, and APIT, why do you need
HEIAP?”
“Because I want some?”
“I got you some, 120 rounds.”
69
“And I used 10 rounds sighting in the Tac-50. That only leaves me 110 rounds and I
have 10 magazines, I loaded half with ball, and the other half with Raufoss. The prob-
lem is I don’t have any Raufoss reloads. What’s more, the other ammo doesn’t shoot to
the same point of aim.”
“I know where they have it, but I can’t get any.”
“You do? Hmm, tell Damon where they have it and maybe he can work something out.”
“You mean steal it?”
“It runs in the family, you set a thief to catch a thief and I was a very good auditor. I’m
just happy it didn’t rub off on you. You tell him and then forget you told him. Like I said,
we’ll work something out.”
“We haven’t had any trouble so far, I don’t want any.”
“Can I help it we haven’t had a Major Public Emergency? If Broom Hillary thought she
could get away with it, she’d have declared one by now. I’m telling you, a nuclear weap-
on is going to be exploded on our soil. Odds are it will be one of ours and that will be all
the excuse she needs.”
“That’s nothing but a conspiracy theory.”
“Just because most of them are crap doesn’t mean they all are.”
Near as I could tell, Derek must have told Damon where he could find Raufoss ammo, I
ended up with just what I wanted, 1,200 rounds. That had to be grand theft – ammo,
they were probably $10 a round. Maybe not, but I’ll bet I could get $10 a round for them
at any gun show in the country. You know, match ammo runs as much as $5 a round.
All those stripes made the bullets look like candy canes. Although there are 3 Raufoss
rounds, the Mk 211 MP is the NM140. All three rounds have the same weight and ballis-
tic performance. Therefore they can be linked together with no adverse effect on the
ballistics. Furthermore the rounds can be delivered in the extremely accurate Grade A
configuration, making each an excellent choice as a sniper round. The ammo is rated at
915m/s or 3,002f/s.
Back on 10/31/06 Senator John Kerry said if you didn’t do well in school, you ended up
in Iraq. Boy did I write him a nasty. I explained that using his standards, my son de-
served 2 Purple Hearts but refused to accept them because he was a man. I went on to
suggest that he owed every man and woman in uniform an apology.
70
And no. I didn’t write Dubya a letter. At the time I assumed the John Warner Bill was in-
tended to deal with things like Katrina. It was only later when I thought about it that I got
nervous. I started my research and came up with a package that stripped us of most of
our rights under the Bill of Rights and other Amendments. Although the USA PATRIOT
Act II never passed Congress, much of it was later added to must pass pieces of legis-
lation. It was extreme, no doubt an overreaction to the times when it was first proposed.
We got lucky; Congress repealed the offensive provisions with the 2008 Defense Ap-
propriations Act.
I was prepared to give President Bush the benefit of the doubt and doubted he would
abuse the power given him in the Warner Bill. Many of the provisions had sunset claus-
es, but given a Democrat in the White House and Democratic control of Congress they
easily slipped an amendment to the Bill past everyone including the news media. I only
found out when I was reading another Bill researching a story. It just began to add up to
the unimaginable.
We interrupt this program with an Emergency Action System Message. Please stay
tuned for a message from the National Command Authority…
My fellow Americans,
Within the past hour, a nuclear weapon was ground burst in New York City. At this time,
we have no idea whether more weapons have been placed in large cities. For that rea-
son I am declaring a Major Public Emergency. Some units of the military and the Na-
tional Guard will be sent to New York to deal with the emergency and others may be
called if bombings occur in other cities. Please stay tuned to your local radio station for
further announcements.
There was a flash of light to the southwest.
“What the hell was that?”
“You saw it too?”
“A blind man would have seen it, what was it?”
“An explosion?”
“Obviously, but where?”
“It had to be a long ways off. Oh, there’s another one.”
71
“That was further west, but not by much. I think those were nuclear weapons. The first
one might have been Dallas and maybe the second one DFW or Ft. Worth. What direc-
tion is the wind coming from?”
“It’s out of the northwest.”
“I’ll go move the wood pile and you keep an eye on TV. If it was a nuclear weapon, we’ll
get another EAS message.”
It occurred to me that this was probably a terrorist attack, Broom Hillary wouldn’t need
to explode more weapons she’d already declared a Major Public Emergency. She’d
probably be saving weapons to use them on whoever was behind this. It had to be
those towelheads. When I started the story, I called them ragheads, a reader corrected
me. He was in Desert Storm, so he should know. A rose by any other name is… you
know the rest.
One minute I was wondering what Hillary would dream up to declare herself Queen and
the next moment some camel jockeys saved her the trouble. Did you see how fast she
declared a Major Public Emergency? I doubt she even knew how big the weapon was. It
took us several days to determine how big the North Korean blast had been. She said a
ground burst, right? I hope they didn’t set it off in Times Square; I like to watch the ball
drop on New Year’s Eve.
After I moved the platform and opened the shelter, I got my Loaded, pistol and Tac-
Force vest. I grabbed the CD V-715 and headed back upstairs. Unlike the TV show Jer-
icho, we wouldn’t be getting fallout 2 hours after the blast, even if the wind was in the
right direction, which it wasn’t.
I put the battery in the survey meter and turned it to the lowest setting. The ones that
Shane Connor includes in the package are well used, but currently certified. Sharon
complained that her NukAlert occasionally whistled; according to the instructions, it
chirped when radiation was present. I only had 12 CD V-742 dosimeters, enough for
Damon, Derek, Aaron and me with spares for any of the women who venture from the
shelter once it was buttoned up. That wouldn’t happen unless either the CD V-715 or
CD V-717 indicated radiation.
I told Sharon to keep listening to the TV and if any of the kids called, tell them to get to
our place ASAP. I went back to the shelter and put the battery in the dosimeter charger,
charged all dozen dosimeters and returned upstairs.
“Here clip this on, just in case. Maybe you should run into Paris and get Lorrie and Jef-
frey. Joshua should be at Lorrie’s. If he’s not, stop by school and pick him up. I’ll stay by
the phone and let you know if any of the kids call.”
“They won’t call.”
72
“Why not?”
“The phones are dead.”
“What about the cell phone?”
“I couldn’t get a tower.”
“Crap, the CB will reach that far, but I’m afraid we might get an EMP.”
“A who?”
“A what. An Electro Magnetic Pulse. If it were terrorists, all of the weapons would have
been ground bursts unless they took one up in an airplane. If it wasn’t terrorists, the en-
emy could explode a large nuclear weapon at very high altitude and take out most elec-
tronic devices in the entire county. That hasn’t happened yet because the TV still works.
Maybe a surge took the phones out, but if it did, they should be restored shortly. We still
have lights and I didn’t hear the generator running when I was in the shelter.”
“Did you check? That room is almost totally sound proofed.”
“I didn’t; do you want me to check?”
“Please.”
I went back to the shelter and checked; the generator was silent. I checked the automat-
ic transfer switch and manually started the generator. It started right up and the battery
had a full charge. After 15 minutes, I shut it down and returned upstairs.
“The generator is fine and I warmed it up so if we lose power, it should kick right in.”
“The phones are back. I called Lorrie and all of the kids are at her house. I’m leaving
now to pick them up.”
“Take your Browning and don’t forget your NukAlert. Anything else?”
“The EAS made a second broadcast while you were fooling around in the shelter. One
weapon was detonated at Love Field and the second at DFW. The one at DFW was an
air burst and they suspect it was in an aircraft.”
“Were there any other weapons detonated?”
“Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. They said to stay turned for more
announcements.”
73
“I’d better put it on Fox; I want to know what is really happening. It’s a shame O’Reilly
isn’t on this time of the day. I’ll probably get Shep Smith and have to listen to his trying
to make it sound worse than it is.”
Fox news wasn’t broadcasting; I forget that Studio B was in New York City. I ended up
on Headline News. It wasn’t quite as bad as CNN, in relative terms. This was a full-
fledged terrorist attack, 8 cities had been struck, some with multiple weapons. I guess
that explained Dallas. DFW is one of the major airports in the US, maybe not as im-
portant as Kennedy, O’Hare, Atlanta, Denver or LAX, but important.
I started putting pushpins in a map of the US. Paris isn’t Jericho, but they got some
things right on the TV show. That said, Denver is about 155 miles west of the Kansas
state line. If the radiation arrived in 2 hours, it was going about 80mph. Can you even
see a mushroom cloud from 155 miles? Maybe, Denver is uphill from Kansas. They
should have gotten one of our writers as a technical adviser.
She said Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Add New York and Dallas
to that list. Wait, that’s only 6 cities. I marked the 6 I knew about and waited for them to
repeat the list. Detroit doesn’t make a bit of sense, the population is significantly Muslim.
Not! In Detroit and the Metro area, there is a large Assyrian/Chaldean population and
the country’s largest concentration of Arab Americans resides in Dearborn. I checked…
30% of the population is Muslim.
The other two cities turned out to be Denver and Seattle. I’d never set off a nuke in Se-
attle. It’s near the Cascadian Subduction zone and that’s responsible for the Cascade
Range, some of which rumbles from time to time. No worries, Mt. St. Helens is well
south of Seattle.
“Did you get the kids?”
“And Lorrie, yes. What now?”
“I push pushpins in this map, it show the 8 cities they hit. The only place I put 2 pins was
Dallas, I don’t know about the rest. Did you’re NukAlert chirp?”
“No more than normal.”
“The little paper said, occasional chirps, even a few minutes of single chirps, should not
be cause for concern. Apparently it’s sensitive to rapid temperature changes and static
electricity.”
“Are you getting a reading on that Geiger Counter?”
“It’s not a Geiger Counter and no, no reading. None of the kids have called. Mary is
probably delivering kids home. I would have thought that Damon and Derek would have
been here by now.”
74
“Derek is probably waiting for Mary or went home to get their things. Damon is pulling in
now.”
In case you missed it, we weren’t northeast of Paris, but southwest, a little way off
Highway 19/24. Just far enough from the highway we shouldn’t attract attention. Derek
and Mary finally arrived about one hour later. We talked it over and decided to wait until
the radiation started to fall before we entered the shelter. Beats getting blasted into a
mine.
I suppose that I should point out that my preparations were more focused on fighting the
BATFE than on things like a flu outbreak or poison gas. My thinking was we could stay
in the shelter and be isolated from bacterial agents and poison gas. Besides, a good
gas mask cost around $400, more or less. We did have Tamiflu, in case of H5N1, but
some suggest that might not be the best choice. Well, any port in a storm.
“Have you been mobilized?”
“Haven’t heard an announcement on the radio, Dad. I don’t plan on reporting unless
they call us up. Don’t worry about it, we’re a Maintenance unit. They use Infantry units
to maintain order.”
“Did you hear that Madam President declared a Major Public Emergency?”
“Yeah, but from the look of your map, she was justified.”
“Only time will tell, Derek. The provisions of the law require her to notify Congress every
14 days as long as the declaration is in effect. Well, they didn’t hit Washington so may-
be she can do that. Hmm, why didn’t they hit Washington? Now, if I were behind an at-
tack like this, Washington would be my first target. A couple of bombs would kill so
many politicians and reporters the country could return to normal.”
“This country will never go back to what you call normal, Dad. You remind me of Ronnie
Millsap and his song, Lost in the Fifties Tonight.”
“Ronnie Millsap is an advanced class ham radio operator. His call sign is WB4KCG and
he lives in Nashville. Not long after the song came out, somebody made a joke claiming
he was checking his wallet. I liked the 50s; it was a far simpler time. People moved at a
steady pace. It’s not like today where everyone is running around like a chicken with its
head cutoff. It wasn’t perfect, far from it, but most of the time you had time to correct a
mistake before it affected hundreds of people. You could actually go to an emergency
room and get treated the same day they took you in. I had been transported to the ER
twice when we lived in Palmdale but only once was justified. You do remember the ABC
rule right?”
“Airway, breathing, circulation?”
75
“Right. If your brain doesn’t get oxygen in 4 minutes, you’ll probably die.”
“Is that is what is wrong with you?”
“Basically, yes. Do whatever you have to do to avoid getting diabetes. If you get it, it
may shrink those little blood vessels in your brain and the red corpuscles can’t get
through to feed oxygen to your brain. Once the brain goes, you turn into a survivalist.”
“I didn’t know you were deprived at oxygen at your birth.”
“Listen kid, you aren’t going to get through this without my help. Even with my help, we
may not make it, that’s going to depend on what the country does next.”
“Dad, the military is on full alert. They probably have been since the first bomb went off.
Did she say anything about retaliation?”
“Not in her statement. I don’t think Hillary would retaliate if she knew who was responsi-
ble for the bombs.”
“At least she didn’t appoint Les Aspin. Bill finally had to appoint a Republican, William
Cohen, as SecDef.”
“You don’t like any President, do you?”
“Not since Gerald Ford. Reagan was ok until he fired the PATCO strikers. Bush 1 did
pretty good, but stopped too soon. Clinton couldn’t afford a motel room and Bush 2
didn’t read all the bills he signed. To top it off, Hillary takes ugly pills. She’ll probably lis-
ten to Generals like Casey and we’ll have tanks in the main street of Paris.”
“Not likely, we don’t have that many tanks. I’m not sure we have enough vehicles in the
entire military to put one vehicle in every city.”
The term inalienable rights (or unalienable rights) refers to a set of human rights that are
said to be absolute, not awarded by human power, not transferable to another power,
and incapable of repudiation. Several different sets of inalienable rights have been sug-
gested by philosophers and politicians. Inalienable rights are defined as natural rights,
but natural rights are not required by definition to be inalienable.
The Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson, famously asserts:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are en-
dowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liber-
76
ty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted
among Men.
As a lawyer, future Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase argued before the Supreme Court in
the case of John Van Zandt, who had been charged with violating the Fugitive Slave
Act, that:
The law of the Creator, which invests every human being with an inalienable title to
freedom, cannot be repealed by any interior law which asserts that man is property.
Most authors assert that there is no such thing as an inalienable or natural right.
“Not even counting the M2s and M3s?”
“Not even counting the HMMWVs.”
“You think we won’t have troops in Paris?”
“They may drive through on their way to Dallas, but Paris is really off the beaten path.
Besides, that’s why the Interstate Highway System was created, to facilitate movement
of troops.”
“I know, kid, I remember when Ike created it. I liked Ike, until he got elected. It went
downhill from there.”
“What was wrong with Eisenhower?”
“I can’t remember. After Eisenhower left office his reputation declined, and he was seen
as having been a “do-nothing” President. This was partly because of the contrast be-
tween Eisenhower and his young activist successor, JFK, but also because of his reluc-
tance to support the civil rights movement to the degree that more liberal individuals
would have preferred or to stop McCarthyism, even though he opposed McCarthy’s tac-
tics and claims. Such omissions were held against him during the liberal climate of the
1960s and 1970s. Since that time, however, Eisenhower’s reputation has risen because
of his non-partisan nature, his wartime leadership, his action in Arkansas, his being the
last President to balance the budget (before the second Bill Clinton term), and an in-
creasing appreciation of how difficult it is today to maintain a prolonged peace. In recent
surveys of historians, Eisenhower often is ranked in the top 10 among all US Presi-
dents. Because of legal issues related to holding a military rank while in a civilian office,
Eisenhower resigned his permanent commission as General of the Army before enter-
ing the office of President of the United States. Upon completion of his Presidential
term, his commission on the retired list was reactivated and Eisenhower again was
commissioned a five-star general in the United States Army.”
77
Throughout his presidency, Eisenhower preached a doctrine of Dynamic Conservatism.
Although he maintained a conservative economic policy, he continued all the major New
Deal programs still in operation, especially Social Security. He expanded its programs
and rolled them into a new cabinet level agency, the Department of Health, Education
and Welfare, while extending benefits to an additional 10,000,000 million more workers.
His cabinet, consisting of several corporate executives and one labor leader, was
dubbed by one journalist, “Eight millionaires and a plumber.” Eisenhower was extremely
popular, winning his second term with 457 of the 530 votes in the Electoral College, and
57.6% of the popular vote.”
“Did you vote for him?”
“I was only 13 years old when he won his second term. In 1961, Eisenhower gave his
final televised speech from the Oval office. In his farewell speech to the nation, Eisen-
hower raised the issue of the Cold War and the role of the US armed forces. He de-
scribed the Cold War saying: We face a hostile ideology global in scope, atheistic in
character, ruthless in purpose and insidious in method... and warned about what he saw
as unjustified government spending proposals and continued with a warning that we
must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or un-
sought, by the military-industrial complex... Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry
can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense
with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”
“Who was the first Presidential Candidate you voted for?”
“Barry Goldwater.”
“Who?”
“Barry Goldwater, the guy that ran against LBJ. He lost to President Johnson by one of
the largest margins in the history of US Presidential elections. Goldwater disliked then-
Senate Majority Leader LBJ of Texas (who he said used every dirty trick in the bag),
and Nixon of California, whom he later called the most dishonest individual I have ever
met in my life. Goldwater showed a caustic wit that cost him popularity in the Republi-
can Party. Goldwater did his best to counter the Johnson attacks, criticizing the Johnson
administration for its perceived ethical lapses, and stating in a commercial that ...we, as
a nation, are not far from the kind of moral decay that has brought on the fall of other
nations and people...I say it is time to put conscience back in government. And by good
example, put it back in all walks of American life.”
“Did you ever vote for a Democrat?”
“Once, in a moment of weakness. But never for any important office.”
“Gary, the Geiger Counter is clicking.”
78
“What time is it?”
“1am.”
“Where is everybody?”
“They are sleeping in the shelter.”
“You two yard birds help and we’ll get the freezer to the shelter. There’s an appliance
caddy in the shed.”

I sometimes wonder what historians will say about our civilization. There are several
theories as to what caused the demise of the Moche civilization. Studies of ice cores
drilled from glaciers in the Andes reveal climatic catastrophe between 563 to 594 AD,
possibly a super El Niño, that resulted in 30 years of unrelenting rain and flooding fol-
lowed by 30 years of drought. This catastrophe would have disrupted the Moche way of
life and shattered their faith in their religion, which had promised stable weather through
sacrifices. Recent evidence uncovered by American Archeologist Tom Dillehay has
shown that Moche civilization survived beyond 650 AD, and later settlements are char-
acterized by fortifications and defensive works. Finding no evidence of foreign invasion,
this suggests that a period of unrest followed the climatic changes, as the Moche civili-
zation tore itself apart and fought over the remaining resources.
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
The reason I include that in my stories is primarily because it’s true. In fact, I have about
a dozen quotes that succinctly tell you the facts of life, and death. The Founding Fathers
wanted republicanism that would guarantee liberty, and most were afraid that a democ-
racy (which at this time meant direct democracy) would allow the voters at any time to
trample rights and liberties. That is, they saw democracy as mob rule that could be
shaped on the spot by a demagogue. Therefore they devised a written Constitution
which could only be amended by a supermajority, preserved competing sovereignties in
the constituent states, gave the control of the upper house (Senate) to the states, and
created an Electoral College comprising a small number of elites to select the president.
They set up a House of Representatives to represent the people. In practice the Elec-
toral College soon gave way to control by political parties during the First Party System.
Not expected by the founders was the emergence of the Supreme Court under John
Marshall as the final arbiter of the Constitution and indeed of all political rules. In 1776
79
most states required property ownership to vote, but most citizens owned farms in the
90% rural nation, so it was not a severe restriction, and was dropped state by state in
the early 19th century.
What I’m talking about is a form of government, not a political party. These days, we
use Republic and Democracy nearly interchangeably. A person can do that, if they are
explicit in defining our country as a Representative Republic and specifically, a Constitu-
tional Representative Republic. The second oldest Constitution in the World is that of
Poland. In representative democracies that are constitutional monarchies, like the Unit-
ed Kingdom, the monarch may be regarded as the head of state but the prime minister,
whose power derives directly or indirectly from elections, is head of government.
We weren’t really a global power until WW I. America’s policy of insisting on neutral

rights while also trying to broker a peace resulted in tensions with both Berlin and Lon-
don. When a German U-boat sank the Lusitania in 1915, a large passenger liner with
128 Americans aboard, Wilson vowed “America was too proud to fight,” and demanded
an end to attacks on passenger ships. Germany complied. Wilson tried to mediate a
compromise settlement; yet no compromise was discovered. Wilson also repeatedly
warned that America would not tolerate unrestricted submarine warfare because it vio-
lated America’s rights. Wilson was under great pressure from former president Teddy
Roosevelt, who denounced German “piracy” and Wilson’s cowardice.
In January 1917 the Germans announced they would resume unrestricted submarine
warfare. Berlin’s proposal to Mexico to join the war as Germany’s ally against the US
was exposed in February, angering American opinion. After German submarines at-
tacked several American merchant ships, sinking three, Wilson requested that Con-
gress declare war on Germany, which it did on 6Apr17. The House approved the war
resolution 373-50, the Senate 82-6, with opposition coming especially from German
American districts such as Wisconsin. The US declared war on Austria-Hungary in De-
cember 1917.
After the first war, we tried isolationism again. Our support of Britain during WW II took
the form of Lend-Lease. This program was a decisive step away from American isola-
tionism and towards international involvement since the end of WW I. In sharp contrast
to the American loans to the Allies in World War I, there were no provisions for postwar
repayments. Franklin Roosevelt, eager to assure public consent for this controversial
plan, explained to the public and the press that his plan was comparable to one neigh-
bor’s lending another a garden hose to put out a fire in his home. “What do I do in such
a crisis?” the President asked at a press conference. “I don’t say... ‘Neighbor, my gar-
den hose cost me $15; you have to pay me $15 for it.’ …I don’t want $15 – I want my
garden hose back after the fire is over.”
WW II completely ended US isolationism. I sometimes wish we’d thrown the UN out and
become Isolationist again. We can’t because we live in a nuclear world. The sign at the
end of Jericho said Rogue River 30-some miles. There is only one town named Rogue
80
River in the US and it’s in Oregon. It covers 1 square mile and has a population of about
2,000.
It had taken the radiation several hours to get to Paris. First the wind shifted from the
west and then from the southwest. About 9 hours later, 1am, Sharon noticed the CD V-
717 needle registering. She’d left the NukAlert on the table in the shelter. It was my fault
the freezer wasn’t in the shelter already, I was mostly flapping my jaw and lost track of
the time. It didn’t really matter, we weren’t getting much radiation to begin with and we
changed clothes and took quick showers. We got the Andair VA-150 running through
the filters. We hadn’t lost electricity yet, surprising me. The power came from a local co-
operative, maybe that’s why.
The Paris Police Department had about 50 officers and another 20 or so reserves. They
had ample time to move everyone to an appropriate shelter. I hadn’t seen the Sheriff’s
Department, but they’d seen the basement going in. In fact, just before the contractor
capped it, a Deputy stopped by to visit. He said it was strange to have a basement so
deep. I told him it was a bomb shelter and would have risers to support our double wide
and the space filled in with 8’ dirt. He asked about the protection factor and I told him 10
to the 6th power. For all I know, he reported that to the Lamar County Sheriff.
He was good, before he left he knew where we were from, Iowa via Kalifornia, who our
kids were and even how we’d managed to end up in Paris. He also pointed out, that
since we were new to Texas, that Texas didn’t permit open carry. If we wanted to carry,
we needed a CCW, but Texas was a shall issue state. We all had CCWs and knew the
list of places where you couldn’t carry a gun. Paris is about the size Palmdale was when
we moved there in ‘87, or perhaps a little smaller.
The radiation finally peaked at 875R. My Seven Ten Rule calculator said 100 days in
the shelter from the peak to get to 100mR. We weren’t short of anything including pets.
Derek was stuck with us, he didn’t have MOPP gear. No one else showed up requesting
admittance, another advantage of our location. We had time to eat, sleep, sharpen
knives, service the generators, and plan our exit strategy.
“When it’s down to 100mR, we can leave and check things out, boys. We’re going to
lose power soon, as soon as the Coop employees have to shelter. We can run the gen-
erator on our present fuel supply for months. Since I’m the oldest, I think I should go top
side and check things out. We’ll keep in touch with the CB and I’ll look for hot spots.
You can come up and we’ll use the fire pump to hose down the radiation and wash it
away from the house and buildings.”
“Chill out Dad, we still have 29 days to go.”
“Yeah but, what will we find when we get top side?”
81
“Sunshine, fresh air and room to move around. You’re paranoid.”
“Just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you. Don’t say any-
thing, not one word. We just had a Major Public Emergency. Hillary can issue an Execu-
tive Order that empowers the government to seize all firearms for the duration. If they
get away with that, it follows that the government will need to protect the people from
MZBs. If we let them get their foot in the door, they end up owing the house.”
“Do you know what a cliché is?”
“Yeah why?”
“You just used about 4 of them.”
“Bull. I’ve got 15 rifle magazines sitting in some dead letter office, rusting. Somebody
read my mail. I’m telling you, that isn’t right. People ship all kinds of legal and illegal
drugs in the mail every day and those packages don’t get intercepted. But no, you
spend $1,700 plus on a rifle and you can’t get a few magazines. The government is not
your friend. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you since we moved to Texas.”
“Are you sure we can’t leave yet?”
“The radiation level is 150mR, you can go out, but you can’t stay. Check that CD V-717
and see if I’m right about the radiation.”
“The battery is dead.”
“Put in a new one, we have 10 dozen.”
I was wrong, the radiation level was 135mR so we opened the blast door and the 3 of
us started up the ramp. We open the road plate cover, unlocked the wood pile and slid it
aside. It was a beautiful Texas day. The door was standing open, someone had been in
the house.
“Careful, someone could be in there.”
Damon and I let Derek go in first; he probably had the best reaction time. We followed
his lead and checked out the whole house. Someone had been there, the door to the
refrigerator was standing open, cupboard doors were open and some food on the floor,
some missing.
“There’s nobody here Dad.”
“I see. Let’s clean up the mess and throw the spoiled food away. I wouldn’t want Sharon
to see her kitchen looking like this.”
82
When the truth is found to be lies

and all the joys within you dies
don’t you want somebody to love
don’t you need somebody to love
wouldn’t you love somebody to love
you better find somebody to love
When the garden flowers baby are dead yes

and your mind is full of red
your eyes, I say your eyes may look like his

but in your head baby I’m afraid you don’t know where it is
tears are running ah running down your breast

and your friends baby they treat you like a guest
++++
That was from another protest group, Jefferson Airplane. It was a big hit for Grace Slick.
They performed the song on The Ed Sullivan Show. If you’ve seen the movie Apollo 13,
the song was playing in the background when Lovell told his wife they were now the
primary crew on Apollo 13.
At the Presidio, the Army base in San Francisco, a female MP was conducting her
rounds when she came across the officer’s club and the door had been forced open.
She went to investigate and was shot. The individuals who broke in got into their car
and drove and what followed was high speed chase that got both the Army MPs and the
San Francisco police involved, which ended badly for both. Jay Austin, a San Francisco
Police detective, is sent to investigate and he is met by Lt. Colonel Caldwell, who was
his commanding officer, when he was an MP on the Presidio. It seems that Austin tried
to arrest an Army officer but didn’t follow procedures and Caldwell didn’t support him.
83
And the murdered MP was Austin’s partner. A preliminary investigation casts suspicion
on the officer Austin tried to arrest. When Caldwell refuses to let Austin press him, Aus-
tin tries to go after him on his own but is killed. And Caldwell is not pleased cause, has
he forgotten that there was another man with him and why did they do all that? Austin
agrees to follow Caldwell’s lead.
Beau, John, and Digby Geste are three inseparable, adventurous brothers who have
been adopted into the wealthy household of Lady Brandon. When money in the upper-
crust household grows tight, Lady Brandon is forced to sell her most treasured jewel the
mighty “Blue Water” sapphire. The household gets it out for one final look, the lights go
out and it vanishes stolen by one of the brothers, no doubt. That night, Beau, Digby, and
John each “confess” and slip out, John leaving behind Isabel, whom he loves. They all
join the Foreign Legion, and Beau and Digby are split from John and put under the
command of the ruthless and sadistic Sergeant Markoff. Things begin to get hairy as the
rest of the Legionnaires plot a mutiny against Markoff, in the midst of an attack by Arab
hordes.
The attorney’s record claims:
● Bringing suit against the software giant Microsoft for violation of the Sherman Antitrust
Act.
● Prosecution resulting in the conviction of 21 of the Montana Freeman after an 81 day
armed standoff.
● Capture and conviction of the Unabomber.
● Capture and conviction of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols for the Oklahoma City
bombing.
● Capture and conviction resulting in life-sentences of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman and
4 conspirators for the World trade center bombing.
● Solving the Centennial Olympic Park bombing and other bombings committed by Eric
Rudolph.
● Capture and conviction of Mir Aimal Kasi for the CIA headquarters shootings.
They left off a couple, but the attorney only gets credit for one of them:
● Ruby Ridge
● Waco
Ruby Ridge predated her term in office. Janet Reno has Parkinson’s Disease and is ba-
sically retired. After her tenure as Attorney General and her unsuccessful gubernatorial
election bid (Florida), Reno tours the country giving speeches on topics relating to the
criminal justice system. For example, on March 31, 2006, she spoke at a criminology
conference held at the University of Pennsylvania. At this conference, she stated that
she believes that the education system in this country needs to be improved, as there is
a link between the quality of education and the crime rate. She also believes that too
84
much money has been diverted away from the juvenile court system and believes that
the government should find some way to make the juvenile courts work effectively so as
to prevent problems in troubled children and adolescents before these problems are ex-
acerbated by the time these adolescents reach adulthood.
“Didn’t you lock the door?”
“I guess not, I was trying to hurry. We never keep much in the pantry anyway, they
didn’t get much. We have everything they took in the shelter, it won’t take long to resup-
ply.”
“How long can we stay up here?”
“Maybe 3-4 hours. Let’s get the pump running and wash down any radiation left over. If
we can get a vehicle running, maybe we should go into town and see how they made
out. When you’re done cleaning up, I go tell Sharon they can come out for a couple of
hours.”
“Someone broke into the house.”
“What did they take?”
“Just a little food. They left the refrigerator door open, the boys cleaned out the spoiled
food. You’ll have to make a list of things that you need to resupply the pantry. We going
to finish washing down any leftover radiation and make a quick run into town if we can
any of the vehicles started. I guess I’d better take that emergency gadget in case the
batteries are dead.”
“Will they start?”
“We didn’t get EMP here as far as I know. Some people must be out and about, the
generator shut down so the REA is operating. You’d better take some firearms so you
can protect yourselves while we’re gone.”
We jumped the Daewoo’s battery and piled into the SUV after we finished washing
down the house and buildings. I checked my CD V-742 and it was barely registering. I
removed the lock and chain from the farm tank and topped off the tank before we left.
Ten minutes later, we were sitting at a police roadblock erected to block Highway 19/24.
‘‘Can I help you?”
“I don’t know officer, can you? We just spent 70 some days in a shelter and decided that
since the lights were back on we’d better come to town and check on everyone. We’re
reading about 135mR down at our place, is it the same here?”
85
“It a little lower, but not all that much. We’re running 4 hour shifts and sheltering after-
wards. What did you need?”
“We need to go to the Sheriff’s office and report a break in.”
“What was taken?”
“Only a little food.”
“Do you have more?”
“Yes, why?”
“You can file a report, but I doubt the Sheriff’s office will be able to investigate. We had
quite a few families bug out and some of them didn’t have much in the way of preps.
You aren’t the first people coming to Paris to report a break in.”
“How’s the food holding out?”
“It’s mostly gone. We got the electricity back up. If you want to come into town, you’ll
have to check your guns.”
“I guess we know what we needed to know officer. We’ll return home and continue to
shelter until the radiation level is below 100mR.”
“Can I get your names? The county is trying to put together a list of survivors.”
We gave him everyone’s names and our address. We asked when SBC would have the
phones back up. He said they were waiting on a replacement switching array and he
didn’t know how long it would take to find one.
“Let’s go home, Damon. We can’t stay out for more than 18 hours at this radiation level
and we probably picked up a little washing down the buildings.”
“Can we at least stay out long enough to cook something on the grill? I’ve got a bad
case of cabin fever.”
“As long as you don’t get more than 2.5R exposure, it’s ok. Everyone has taken their
KIO3. However, I think we’d better limit our exposure to about half of that, 1.25R.”
“How long is that?”
“About 10 hours.”
86
We had hamburger patties, hot dogs and buns in the freezer we’d taken to the shelter.
By the time we’d gotten home, Sharon and the girls had replaced the stolen food and
were almost done cleaning the house. The boys got the meat and buns and Sharon
started macaroni for a quick salad. We didn’t have all the ingredients for a deluxe maca-
roni salad, but that didn’t matter we just wanted to stay out of the shelter as long as
possible.
That policeman hadn’t said anything about the military and we didn’t see any military
vehicles in Paris. We hadn’t been all the way into town, so we couldn’t be sure if they
were there or not. According to ham radio, the Governor of Texas had declared the Dal-
las-Fort Worth-Arlington metropolitan area a disaster area. That’s a large area, almost
9,000mi². The cities of Dallas and Fort Worth are the anchor cities of the Metroplex. Dal-
las and its suburbs have one of the highest concentrations of corporate headquarters in
the United States. As such, one of the largest industries in the Dallas area is conducting
business.
From that point on, we were topside part of each day. We put the dosimeters on the
kids and watched their exposure. As soon as it looked like they had ~1.25R, they were
sent to the shelter. The scale on the CD V-742 goes from 0-200R, we were mostly
guessing. However, over a 4 day period, we could read 5R. If anything, we erred on the
low side, the kids were too young to need to worry about cancer. But then, they were
too young to worry about MBZs and federal troops, too.
“I guess I should have built a fence better than the one I did. Four stands of barbed wire
won’t keep anyone out. If it would, we wouldn’t have had the break in.”
“We checked everyone’s homes or apartments and emptied the refrigerators. When are
you going to let us go home?”
“When the radiation level is at or below 104mR. Until then, you can’t spend 24 hours
above the ground. Like I told you in the beginning, that won’t happen until 100 days
pass.”
“I’m going to have to borrow some groceries, Dad; I don’t have much food in the house.”
“Damon, Derek probably needs some too. I know for a fact that Amy doesn’t have
enough food for more than 3-4 days and Lorrie is probably short too. Get with Sharon
and work something out. Take plenty of potatoes, we must have 3 tons left.”
“Do you have what we eat?”
“We do if you eat what we like. The first rule in accumulating preparedness supplies is
to only buy and store what you eat. My 3 favorite foods are pepper steak with rice, chili
with rice and goulash. Sharon likes steaks, chicken, pork chops and pork steak. We
have some ham and a few roasts, beef and pork. I don’t know how many roasts we
have left, but we’ll share. I’ll bet you don’t have seeds or fertilizer either, right?”
87
“I don’t.”
“Me either. I don’t even have a can of spare gas.”
“For now, you can pull 2 drums from the shelter and share that with Amy. I suggest you
think about getting bicycles.”
The Battle of Normandy cost 29,000 American, 11,000 United Kingdom and 5,000 Ca-
nadian deaths and 106,000 American, 54,000 United Kingdom and 13,000 Canadian
wounded or missing. There were ~12,200 French Civilian dead and missing. Add to
that, 200,000 German dead, wounded or missing and another 200,000 surrendered.
Just based on the volume of MREs available on E-Bay, I’d be willing to venture a guess
that people didn’t much care for them. Buying those MREs off the net would have been
a mistake, you had no idea how they’d been handled since they’d been passed out.
Back a number of years ago when Derek was training at Ft. Irwin, I went to see him. He
mentioned that they were testing MREs that had reached their 5-year shelf life. More
than 50% of them were unfit to eat. If you buy new, factory fresh, MREs and properly
store them, they could last 5 years and beyond. If you buy new, factory fresh, beans
and rice, they will last 5 generations if properly stored – they’ve recovered food and
wine from the Pyramids.
We loaded half of all our magazines, just in case. Unless this somehow escalated into a
world war, our enemy could and would be our own government. This was the first real
opportunity that the Democrat Party had to show up the Bush Administration since Hur-
ricane Katrina. While the goal might be to make Bush look like a fool, some things are
easier said than done. Especially when you’re trying to deal with multiple nuclear weap-
ons detonated in at least 8 cities. Hey, maybe they could get Michael D. Brown to help; I
heard he was out of work.
“Ok, 88mR, everyone can go out and stay out. Did you give Sharon your lists of food
you’re going to need?”
“She said she’d take care of it Dad. What now?”
“I think I’ll put on a warm coat, get my rifle, go sit on the deck and wait for the Army to
show up.”
“Oh right,” Damon laughed. “You’ll sit out there until you catch cold and end up in the
hospital again. Have you always been paranoid?”
88
“Only since I was 5 years old, I can’t remember much before that. Not to change the
subject, but you’d better hope this doesn’t end up like the TV series, Jericho. CBS
makes all the survivalists in that look like the bad guys. If anyone actually believed that,
we’re going to be on the top of the list that the government will be looking for. We’re not
going to have to wait long, look.”
A USGI HMMWV was sitting at the gate. A gunner was manning a M2HB and a soldier
out of the back seat was trying to open the gate. It was held shut by a case harden
chain and a lock that the manufacturer claim couldn’t be broken. Right, a sledge ham-
mer or a cutting torch could defeat that lock and one round from that Ma Deuce would
totally destroy it.
“Derek, please go and talk to them. Show them your military ID card, maybe they’ll back
off.”
Meanwhile, I slid open a window and took a bead on the nose of the gunner. I doubted
the screen would even slow down the .308 caliber bullet. Derek had his military ID card
in his hand and approached them slowly. The guy quit fooling with the lock and drew
down on him with his M4. Aaron took the Loaded and set the red dot on that guy’s nose.
Derek handed the gate guy his ID card and stood there, hands raised. He slowly turned
around making a full circle so the soldier could see there wasn’t a handgun stuck in
Derek’s back waist band. Next, the soldier went to the right side of the HMMWV and
handed the ID card to the front seat passenger. The guy that came out was a Sergeant.
He walked up to Derek, handed back his ID card and Derek lowered his hands. They
launched into a conversation with lots of hand waiving and an occasional raised voice.
Eventually the Sergeant told his gunner to stand down. They left and Derek returned to
the house.
“So, what did he say?”
“He said they were taking a census. I told him we’d already reported in to the Lamar
County Sheriff’s office. He wanted to know if I’d been activated yet and I told him I
hadn’t gotten the word. Then he wanted to know how many people were here. I started
out by telling him 1 National Guardsman and 3 veterans, 1 Navy, 1 Air Force and 1 Ar-
my. He said they would check with the Sheriff and suggested I check with my unit to see
if I’d been activated.”
“Did you get a Sitrep?”
“They were Texas National Guard. The Governor ordered a census of all the area in
and around Dallas and all downwind communities. He said they were about half done
with the outlying communities. He also said that most of the Units of the Texas National
Guard have been activated to federal control, but to remain in Texas. The Governor al-
so activated the Texas State Guard. There is an order that looters will be shot on sight.
89
He said there hadn’t been much looting, so far. They’re working to distribute fuel and
food.”
“What about Dallas?”
“Two bombs, but we already knew that. One was ground burst near Love Field and the
other aloft near DFW International. No news there, we knew that. Unfortunately, I have
to get to New Boston, in uniform, and see if our unit has been activated.”
“Watch your six and keep your powder dry.”
That’s what I always told him when he headed off to active duty. The National Guard
had changed the rules on 1Aug07 concerning overseas deployment from 24 months
during a six year enlistment to not more than 24 months between overseas deploy-
ments. They hadn’t changed the rules for domestic deployment, which I knew of. If he
was activated, that would leave Damon, Mary and Me to keep an eye on things on the
home front. It shouldn’t be too bad; they all lived in Paris, which meant they’d have Po-
lice and Sheriff Protection.
“Gary, why do you have so many sniper rifles?”
“I like to hunt snipes?”
“Seriously. You started out with the Loaded M1A in Palmdale and fixed it up with the red
dot sight. Next, you got the Super Match with a pretty fancy scope. Finally you got a
Tac-50 with an even better scope. Tell the truth, you can hardly pick up the Tac-50.”
“I can pick it up, but I need support to fire it. It doesn’t really kick much more than a 12
gauge shotgun. I’ll admit that putting the suppressor on it wasn’t the best idea I ever had
because it increased the recoil. On the other hand, it is an excellent flashhider. The
suppressors on the other long weapons were added principally as flash suppressors
first and sound suppressors second. I never did get the handgun I really wanted, it was
too expensive.”
“What handgun did you really want, you never said?”
“The H&K USP Tactical. They are overpriced and there’s nothing wrong with my
PT1911. I finally see what Derek was talking about when he said the only time he fired
his weapon in Iraq was at the range.”
“Do you think you could actually shoot someone?”
“I could shoot the first person, but after that I don’t know. I’ve never shot anyone, so it’s
difficult to speculate how I’d react. You tell yourself that you could, but until it’s tested,
you never really know. It would be much harder shooting a soldier just doing his job
90
than it would be a gang banger. You know, Derek didn’t really say if the Army was for us
or against us.”
“Would the gate stop them?”
“Not really. If they had rammed it hard with the Hummer, they’d have come right though.
We need a castle, but we can’t build one. I plan to put all of the good weapons in the
shelter and put the log platform back in place. We’ll keep the shotgun and SR-556 up
here, if we have to lose any firearms, I’d rather lose those than the main battle rifles.”
“Hand guns?”
“Only the Sterling. They’ll go nuts looking for the guns on the 4473s, but if they get the
shotgun and 5.56, they might buy my story that I sold the rest at gun shows.”
“Not going to happen. You put all the guns in the shelter and we’ll go find a pair of off
the books rifles.”
“I’ll do it, but only leave them there if we can find either 5.56×45mm or 7.62×51mm cali-
ber weapons.”
“What’s so special about those calibers?”
“The ammunition we have is mostly in those calibers, NATO 5.56 or 7.62.”
“The shotgun isn’t a semi-auto.”
“If they get carried away seizing firearms, it won’t matter what a gun is. They take the
pump shotgun and the lever action .22. We might try to find a Remington model 700 or
Winchester model 70 in 7.62 NATO. They are bolt action and may qualify as sniper ri-
fles. I don’t think we should get 5.56 bolt actions.”
“Would we need to buy new scopes?”
“Probably, I wouldn’t want to use the scopes we have because they’re sighted in. We
could get by with something cheaper than what we have. I don’t know if we could find
Swarovski scopes these days anyway. The main thing would be to get the rifles in the
right caliber.”
“And the only difference between your rifles and the rifles you want to get is the action?”
“That’s right, my rifles are semi-auto.”
“Will a bullet from a M1A kill you any deader than the same bullet from a Remington?”
“Nope. Now you understand why I think the gun laws are so stupid.”
91
“Have they outlawed them yet?”
“Not that I know of. They look like military rifles because they’re based on the M14 we
used in the late 50s and early 60s. That’s why my loaded had a muzzle brake and the
Super Match had a National Match Flashhider. It doesn’t make any difference now with
the suppressors, but in Kalifornia, both rifles would be illegal.”
“I wonder if Palmdale got any fallout from LA?”
“And I wonder if Ron and Linda managed to get out of Palmdale. Did you hear how
many bombs went off in LA?”
“No, I didn’t. She told me that she didn’t know if they’d leave. Ron’s brother is in poor
health and his wife isn’t much better off. She also said her father would probably out live
her and her sister.”
“He’s not totally helpless, he bought the Kel-Tec and I got him 5 30-round magazines.
He kept buying 50 round boxes of .223 from Wal-Mart so I figure he’s in good shape.”
“How much did he have?”
“Six boxes. He has several bolt action rifles and an assortment of handguns locked
away in those guns safes he bought.”
“What did he think of your rifle?”
“He thought it was pretty heavy for someone in my shape to carry.”
“They’re back.”
“Who’s back?”
“The Army. You’d better go down to the gate and see what they want.”
“Take my rifle and cover me. All you have to do is put the red dot on the spot you want
the bullet to hit. The safety is the small thing at the front of the trigger guard. Push it
forward and the rifle is ready to go.”
“Help you?”
92
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down

Of the big lake they called ‘Gitche Gumee’
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty.
That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early.
The ship was the pride of the American side

Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most
With a crew and good captain well-seasoned
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
And later that night when the ship’s bell rang
Could it be the north wind they’d been feelin’?
The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound

And a wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the captain did too,
T’was the witch of November come stealin’.
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the Gales of November came slashin’.
When afternoon came it was freezin’ rain
In the face of a hurricane west wind.
When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck sayin’.

Fellas, it’s too rough to feed ya.
At Seven P.M. a main hatchway caved in, he said
Fellas, it’s been good t’know ya
The captain wired in he had water comin’ in
And the good ship and crew was in peril.
And later that night when his lights went outta sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
Does anyone know where the love of God goes

When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searches all say they’d have made Whitefish Bay
If they’d put fifteen more miles behind her.
They might have split up or they might have capsized;
May have broke deep and took water.
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters.
93
Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion.
Old Michigan steams like a young man’s dreams;
The islands and bays are for sportsmen.
And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her,
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the Gales of November remembered.
In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed,

In the Maritime Sailors’ Cathedral.
The church bell chimed till it rang twenty-nine times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call ‘Gitche Gumee’.
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early!
The ship went down in Lake Superior on November 10, 1975 with 29 men on board.
The bell was raised on July 4, 1995. Although the last vessel lost, and the largest, Fitz-
gerald is not alone on the bottom. The Great Lakes have a long history of nautical dis-
asters; nearly 6,000 shipwrecks occurred between 1878 and 1898 alone, with about a
quarter of those being listed as total losses. Some ships and crews simply vanished in
storms.
“We were here earlier.”
“I was watching you from the house.”
“Is your son still here?”
“The one you talked to?”
“Yes, the Staff Sergeant.”
“Sorry, he went home to change into his uniform and drove over to New Boston.”
“We checked and his unit isn’t there, they’ve been deployed.”
“When he doesn’t find them, he’ll either track them down or come back here. If you want
to check back later, I’ll be able to tell you more.”
“Can we wait?”
94
“In your Hummer? Sure that’s fine with me.”
“How about in your house?”
“What, you want to search the place?”
“No, but we wouldn’t mind getting in out of the cold and having a cup of coffee.”
“Ok, but you’ll have to wait until I tell my wife it’s ok.”
“Why, is she covering you with a shotgun?”
“Not exactly. She’s looking though a Burris Red Dot sight right at you.”
“Uh, we can wait in the Hummer.”
“Just let me let her know. You can jump the gate, can’t you?”
“What do they want?”
“They came back to see Derek. I told him where he went and the Sergeant asked if they
could wait inside. I told him they could, would you please make a pot of coffee and I’ll
waive them in?”
“Are you sure?”
“No, but I already said they could come in so make the coffee, please.”
I took the rifle and waived to the Sergeant. I saw the gunner clear the Ma Deuce and
grab his M-4. They hopped the gate and came up to the house.
“Is that the rifle?”
“Yes, are you familiar with the M1A?”
“We used M14s for drill a few times, but I’ve never fired one. Mind if I look at it?”
“Let me clear it.”
“That isn’t a USGI magazine, is it?”
“Chinese type 57. After McNamara ordered the M14 out of service, we sold the machin-
ery to the Republic of China.”
“This is a nice rifle, is it the Standard model?”
95
“It’s the Loaded model with an air-gauged medium weight match barrel, match sights
and match trigger.”
“Heavy, aren’t they?”
“Try handling one when you’re 66 years old.”
“I might just do that, but that won’t be for a while.”
“Can you tell us anything more about what happened?”
“I guess it won’t hurt. Terrorists detonated bombs in 8 major cities. Some cities, like Dal-
las, were hit by more than one weapon. I suppose you know about Dallas, right?”
“A ground burst at Love Field and an airborne weapon at DFW?”
“That’s right. New York and Los Angeles were also hit by two weapons each. In New
York, one went off in Times Square and the other near Central Park North. One bomb in
LA was detonated near the harbors and the other near downtown. The military has been
mobilized and most National Guard units activated. They couldn’t go into the cities right
away and I’m afraid without any warning, the casualties were very high.”
“Any idea who was behind it?”
“I don’t really know, but they’re working on it. Tell me, if you had to guess, who would
you choose?”
“Well, you said 8 cities and I counted 11 weapons. They probably weren’t suitcase
nukes, that wouldn’t have caused much damage. Let’s say they were in the 15-20kT
range, that would suggest…”
“Some of them were closer to 1mT. Those had to be hydrogen bombs.”
“How many big ones?”
“Five. The cities hit by single weapons were larger bombs. The only atom bombs were
the ones used in Dallas. The weapons used in New York and LA were about 500kT so
they were probably fusion weapons.”
“That should narrow it down, how many countries have hydrogen bombs?”
“Confirmed, tested fusion weapons? Five: the US, Russia, UK, France and China.”
“That narrows it down; the weapons had to come from either China or Russia.”
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“That’s the current thinking, although Russia had 10 times more weapons than China.
They may have some weapons unaccounted for besides those suitcase bombs.”
“It that fact or speculation?”
“A little of both. However, the scuttlebutt is that any large weapons that were sold to ter-
rorists didn’t come from the Russian government. They could have come from other mil-
itary officials or even the Russian Mafia.”
“But we don’t really know, do we?”
“As I told you, they’re working on it.”
“So why are you back here looking for my boy?”
“We pulled his records and he’s a qualified Abrams tank commander. We have more
vehicles than crews. We were ordered to contact him and see if he wanted to transfer to
a Cavalry unit.”
“I doubt you’d have to twist his arm. More coffee?”
“Please. The bathroom?”
“Oh, down the hall, next to last door on the right.”
“You fellas want something to eat?” Sharon asked. “It would take less than 30 minutes
to put together a pot of goulash.”
“Sure, sounds good.”
“So, Sergeant, what the deal with the declaration of a major public emergency and the
military being activated as law enforcement?”
“So far, we only have orders dealing with looters.”
“No orders to seize guns and put people in camps?”
“Some are going to camps, but primarily because they don’t have the embedded ID
chips. They’re being held until they can be identified and released unless they’re a mul-
tiple offender. We haven’t received any orders to seize weapons. I’m not sure many in
the military would go along with that, in a National Emergency everyone in the country is
a member of the militia. Are you talking about the Defense Appropriations Act of 2007?”
“Yeah, that lets Hillary suspend Posse Comitatus and Habeas Corpus.”
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“That was repealed. Do you know how many firearms are in private hands in this coun-
ty?”
“Yeah over 260 million. I was just curious; I have a bit more than that rifle I showed
you.”
“You seem the type that would have either a 9mm or .45ACP pistol, an assault rifle and
a personal defense shotgun.”
“And possibly more. Except for the rifle you’ve seen they’re all put up.”
“Feel free to dig them out, you’re pretty remote here and we don’t have enough people
to provide protection for every ranch in Texas.”
“I don’t suppose you have access to any Mk 211 MP rounds, do you?”
“You have a Barrett, don’t you?”
“I have a McMillan Tac-50; it’s perfectly legal.”
“Raufoss isn’t in civilian hands.”
“I know, but I’d sure like to have some more.”
“What do you have?”
“Ball, AP, APIT and Raufoss HEIAP.”
“I’ll keep it and mind, but I can’t promise anything.”
“Thanks. Say, if someone in your unit gets hurt and you’re close by, we can render
enough first aid to keep them going until you can arrange a medevac. Nothing fancy, IV
fluids, Art-Cel bandages, oxygen and a defibrillator.”
“That would be nice, we have a Medic, but he can only carry limited supplies.”
“Derek is at the gate. I guess maybe he gave up looking for his unit.”
“Tank Commander in a Cav unit? Where do I sign?”
“They’re only M1A1s.”
“The best one of the bunch for desert fighting. That’s the last unit I was trained on, per-
fect.”
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“Derek, eat some supper. You’ll have to let Mary know where you’re going to be. I
asked the Sergeant to see about getting me some Mk 211 MP ammo.”
“You’ll have to excuse my father, he seems to think he’s John Wayne.”
“Charles Bronson. I don’t like to ride horses.”
“Has he quoted Clint Eastwood to you yet?”
“Clint Eastwood? No, what’s that about, Dirty Harry?”
“Gunnery Sergeant Tom Highway from Heartbreak Ridge. Dad likes to remind people to
improvise, adapt and overcome.”
“Sgt. Ott, I’m going to see if I can get him that Raufoss; I’ve just got to see him trying to
handle the Tac-50.”
“Derek.”
“Sergeant Art Baker.”
“Dangerfield, Rodney,” I added. “I don’t get no respect. I played hide-and-seek, and they
wouldn’t even look for me.”
“It doesn’t sound like we need to hide the weapons in the shelter; maybe we should
bring them and a few cases of ammo up here and put it in my den. I sure wish I had
some stripper clips, it would make loading the magazines easier.”
“Do you need help bringing the weapons up?”
“I’m afraid I do. I have that cart to haul the stuff up on and the winches to pull it from
landing to landing. However, I can’t carry the cases to the cart by myself. I will also need
help when I get it to the deck, that ammo is heavy especially since I consolidated it to
1,260 rounds a case.”
You know the look your wife sometimes gives you when you ask her to help you do
something? Sharon had helped me once before, stacking the ammo in the shelter. We
loaded 2 cases of 7.62, 1 case of 5.56, 500-rounds of shotgun shells, 1 case each of
9mm and .45ACP and winched the cart between the platforms. Eventually, the ammo
was all stacked in the den and I went after the Super Match and shotgun. The last trip I
brought up the Tac-50 and then collapsed into a chair. I’m too old for this stuff.
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This wasn’t what I’d expected; sometimes the old crystal ball gets cloudy. With 100 days
to consider it in the shelter, I’d convinced myself that Broom Hillary would go for a gun
grab. It’s possible she had in the cities hit by the nukes. Sgt. Baker might not know
about the Dallas area, his unit was working outside of there. That only left a couple of
questions, who were the bad guys and where were they? We should have bought a lot
in town but I thought if people saw the shelter going in they’d know where to come when
TSHTF. It wasn’t a bad price for the 0.95 acres because it had water, septic, phone and
power lines to the property.
It was too remote for just the two of us to defend for very long. The phones might or
might not work, that would depend on whether or not the wires got cut. The Sheriff and
Police used the new high frequency radios and we couldn’t contact them on the Ken-
wood. Just thinking about it made my stomach hurt. Sharon pointed out that the walls
wouldn’t stop bullets.
“Then tell, me, what do you want to do? Live in the shelter? Get a place in town? Move
Damon out here? Every time I try one thing, you find the problems after the plan is im-
plemented. I’m will to do anything you say, but you have to decide, we can’t keep mov-
ing things around.”
I was po’d off more than I had been for a while. What would you do in the same situa-
tion? After 30+ years of marriage it seemed that I only thought I knew her. When it came
to the mundane, I did much better; however, when she began to consider our longevity,
I could always guess what she’d say. An example may clarify:
When she got her Fen Phen settlement, she had more on her plate than simply paying
off the bills. Specifically, she rented a 5-yard dumpster and she and the girls cleaned
out ½ the garage. That allowed them to install her new dryer and a new upright freezer.
I had my own list and gave it to her to combine with the one she had. After she returned
from Iowa, Amy and she installed additional shelves in the empty half of the garage and
began to stock them. She also budgeted 3 grand for me to spend on guns and ammo. I
bought my rifle, magazines and ammo and spent the rest at KI4U.
She was making trips to various stores and picking up a little at a time. One day she
came home with 1 case of diced tomatoes and 4 cases of green beans. When I
checked further, I discovered another 1½ cases of tomatoes and a case of Green Giant
Niblets. She did it her way instead of my way and the end result was the same. When
they took the poll on the forum, I could answer honestly that we could go for 100 days.
Not long after, we packed up and moved to Texas. Later, when TSHTF we were beyond
ready. Often, the simple foods are easier to prepare, especially during an emergency.
We bought what we ate and ate what we bought.
Her decision was to rent an apartment in Paris. We were only 10 minutes away from
home which meant we only need to take a few things to the furnished apartment. We
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had the cable connected so we had an internet connection and TV. Rather than get
phone service, we relied on her cell phone. We took the cart back to the basement and
grabbed full cases/cartons of the food and supplies we wanted and we moved the
weapons and ammo from the house to the apartment. How would you describe this,
bugging-in? We ended up going back to the house to get the things we overlooked in-
cluding a portable CB, the dosimeter charger and the CD V-715. I also brought our 7kw
generator and 5 jerry cans of gas.
I tracked down Sgt. Baker and told him our new address. He said he didn’t have what I
wanted but had a line on some and would get it when he could. The main problem was
justifying the Mk 211 MP for their Ma Deuce. He said that if he could get it, it would be
linked and I have strip the links. Derek’s Platoon Leader had made Derek his ‘wing-
man’. They were down in the Dallas area.
While Sharon felt better in Paris, I felt like we’d moved from the frying pan to the fire.
She took me to a Radio Shack and I picked up a Uniden BC246T 2500-Channel Trunk-
ing Radio Scanner I could wear it on my belt. The clerk programmed in the frequencies
the Sheriff and Police used. It also monitored some weather channels.
Because the attacks weren’t a full blown nuclear war, we didn’t have the resultant nu-
clear winter/summer. If anything, global warming was getting worse. For the first time in
recent memory, the only US Aircraft carrier that wasn’t at home here in America was the
carrier strike group stationed in Yokosuka. The Navy had shuffled carriers and it wasn’t
the George H.W. Bush, but CVN-68, the Nimitz. The world outlook wasn’t good.
North Korea stopped testing nuclear weapons and seemed to be concentrating on mak-
ing the Taepodong-2 missile fly; they’d tested 2 more of those. Russia vetoed the Reso-
lution put forth by the Security Council to halt Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. Israel
was still fighting Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Several world leaders had
died, Ariel Sharon, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter to name a few. Putin had been re-
placed in Russia but seemed to be pulling strings from behind the scene. Labor had a
close call in Great Britain, narrowly retaining the majority in Parliament. The country of-
fering the US the most aid in cleaning up the cities was China.
As we entered the last year of the first decade of the 21st Century our worst problem
wasn’t the Major Public Emergency caused by the terrorist attacks, it was the economy.
We had a fuel shortage, raising the price of gas; we had a worldwide food shortage
cause in part by the ongoing drought in Australia and poor crops in the Midwest. A buck
wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on and the most prominent currency in the world
was the Euro. The Euro now traded for $1.75, give or take. Compared to the Euro, the
price of gold was unchanged; here, it was up to $900 an ounce.
During her first year in office, Broom Hillary had managed to: declare the first Major
Public Emergency, push Hillarycare through Congress, require full registration of fire-
101
arms, forced full compliance with the embedded chip program and issued Internal
Passports and travel documents. Goals she failed to accomplish were Congressional
approval of embryonic stem cell research, approval of gay marriage and any change on
the Congressional position on abortion. So far, she couldn’t overcome the conservative
Christian voting bloc. Fox news ran a special covering the 8 cities that had been
bombed and raising the question, “Why hadn’t Washington been bombed?”
Around Thanksgiving Hillary reported to Congress that the Major Public Emergency was
over and she was restoring Posse Comitatus and Habeas Corpus. However, I’m getting
ahead of my story. During the spring and summer, we replaced the lower 2 stands of
barbed wire with pig wire overlain with chicken mesh and used the barbed wire to top
the fence with homemade concertina. We built a kennel and let the dogs run our acre-
age hopefully to keep away intruders. Missy would have barked first and then, lick them
to death.
We made daily trips to the acreage to tend to our garden; it was slightly bigger this year.
In late September faced with the rising prices and our fixed incomes, we moved back to
the house. It appeared that we weren’t going to be attacked by gangsters or MZBs. Be-
sides, Sgt. Baker had come up with ~1,200 rounds of Raufoss and I’d shown him I could
handle the Tac-50 out to 1,500 meters. I ignored the snickering. When Derek was re-
leased from active duty, he was sporting the fifth stripe, having made Sergeant First
Class. He had also permanently transferred back to an armor unit. Amy was working for
Lamar County and Damon and Lorrie helped with the garden and canning.
I sent my dosimeters and survey meters down to Gonzales to have them recalibrated
and refilled our supplies of KIO3 and Prussian Blue. The money we saved by closing the
apartment went into buying additional supplies of food. We were preparing for the worst
and hoping for the best. I had yet to fire a gun in self-defense or anger. I did however,
acquire a few new guns.
From Marlin, we got 2 1895 Cowboys in .45-70 and 2 1894 Cowboys in .45 Colt. From
Colt, we acquired all 3 of the SAAs, a 4¾”, a 5½” and a 7½”, case hardened frames and
all blued in .45 Colt. From Kirkpatrick Leather Company we acquired Laredoan rigs, a
crossdraw for me, and a single for her. She had room for extra cartridge loops, so we
added 18 for the .45-70.
I figured we’d have a problem if the US got into another war and went shopping for an
old Jeep. What we found was an old Jeep CJ-5. It needed a lot of work although it sort
of ran. I’m sure you know my thinking; we needed something that would run in the event
of an EMP. I’ll only quit preparing when I die. The Jeep needed the engine and trans-
mission rebuilt, brakes, some new wiring and a new radiator. While they were at it, I re-
placed the battery, added a Warn winch to the front and installed an auxiliary fuel tank.
The engine was a Perkins diesel. The vehicle needed a coat of paint, so I had it painted
OD flat. We also replaced the rag top with an OD canvas top. We ended up with a like-
new spare vehicle and I didn’t have a driver’s license.
102
I practiced driving around the acreage and got the driver’s license book in Paris. I
passed the written test the second time I took it and passed the driving test with a few
points to spare. I felt better getting my driver’s license back than I did when I first got it
at age 16. A Martin Luther King statement seems appropriate, Free at last, thank God
Almighty, I’m free at last. You know the speech, I mean, I Have A Dream:
And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every vil-
lage and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that
day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles,
Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old
Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!
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Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,

We’re finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.
Gotta get down to it

Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?
Gotta get down to it

Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?
Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,

We’re finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.
Neil Young, Ohio
How many million dead in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and the other cities? Some of
those people might have been protesting a war, if we had a war to protest, but we didn’t.
We now had an issue, who had bombed the US? Don’t ask the FBI or CIA, they aren’t
certain. According to an AP Ipso Poll, most Americans thought it was either Muslims or
North Koreans. If Detroit hadn’t been bombed, I’m sure the majority would have said
Muslims. Everybody was wrong, but we didn’t know that at Thanksgiving of 2010. The
ongoing efforts to rebuild New Orleans gave way to ongoing efforts to clean up 8 cities
and remove any radioactive waste so people could rebuild.
Hillary was on TV being criticized like Bush was after Katrina. All she could say was
what Bush had said, “These things take time and money.” Unfortunately for her, she
didn’t have Brownie to blame it on.
While Paris might be in tornado alley, tornadoes were a rare occurrence, and based on
a national weather service report, Paris was located in a 0.5 per 1,000 square mile per
year zone. Which translates into one per 1,000 square miles every other year. Contrary
104
to the popular concept, mobile homes aren’t tornado magnets. It has to do with their
construction and they don’t fare as well if they’re hit by a tornado.
As far as I know, there aren’t any volcanoes in Texas. In summary, Texas is a compo-
site of nature’s processes. Texas today is but one frame in a dynamic geological kalei-
doscope of changing rivers, subsiding basins, shifting beaches, uplifting mountains, and
eroding plateaus. The face of modern Texas is the link that connects its geologic past to
its inevitable future. Earthquakes?
The largest earthquake in Texas
Near Valentine, Texas

1931 08 16 11:40:22.3 UTC
Magnitude 5.80
Intensity VIII
In terms of magnitude and damage, this is the largest earthquake known to have oc-
curred in Texas. The most severe damage was reported at Valentine, where all build-
ings except wood-frame houses were damaged severely and all brick chimneys toppled
or were damaged. The schoolhouse, which consisted of one section of concrete blocks
and another section of bricks, was damaged so badly that it had to be rebuilt. Small
cracks formed in the schoolhouse yard. Some walls collapsed in adobe buildings, and
ceilings and partitions were damaged in wood-frame structures. Some concrete and
brick walls were cracked severely. One low wall, reinforced with concrete, was broken
and thrown down. Tombstones in a local cemetery were rotated. Damage to property
was reported from widely scattered points in Brewster, Jeff Davis, Culberson, and Pre-
sidio Counties. Landslides occurred in the Van Horn Mountains, southwest of Lobo; in
the Chisos Mountains, in the area of Big Bend; and farther northwest, near Pilares and
Porvenir. Landslides also occurred in the Guadalupe Mountains, near Carlsbad, New
Mexico, and slides of rock and dirt were reported near Picacho, New Mexico. Well water
and springs were muddied throughout the area. Also felt in parts of Oklahoma, New
Mexico, and in Chihuahua and Coahuila, Mexico.
Relax, a tornado is far more likely. Hurricanes? A hurricane would start to break up
once it hit the Gulf Coast. By the time it got to Paris, we’d get a heavy thunderstorm or
maybe that rare tornado. It didn’t appear that Hillary was going to start WW III so I was
more concerned about the weather. Between the garden and the money we didn’t
spend on the apartment, by Christmas the shelter was fully restocked and we were
ready for the next emergency/disaster. I was beginning to feel a bit long in the tooth at
67, about like I did back in 2003 when I really got sick. All the exercise helping Sharon
had given me a new lease on life. Sitting around after it began to get cold, wore me out.
I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to start another story or not. I had written several, all
variations on the same theme. I asked and Damon told me he wasn’t interested in fin-
ishing In Harm’s Way. I decided to talk to Derek about it.
105
“Hi, Dad, what’s up?”
“Inflation, unemployment, my blood pressure, my blood sugar and my level of boredom.

I wanted to talk to you about two things. First what was it like in Dallas; and two, what
can I do to keep from going stir crazy?”
“We didn’t really get into either of the ground zeros Dad, we had perimeter security. Dal-
las is big and there were two areas bombed.”
“I know, Love Field and DFW. I checked and the Dallas Metroplex covers about
9,000mi². What were you doing?”
“Patrols looking for looters.”
“Using tanks?”
“A couple of times it almost seemed like we were back in Baghdad. At least they didn’t
have IEDs. When we pointed the big gun at them, they almost always surrendered.”
“Why would you do that?”
“To use the coaxial machinegun. It would have been stupid to open the hatch and man
the 50. Our instructions were to let people with food and water go. Why would anyone
need a big screen TV?”
“I think those are crimes of opportunity. Thing is, in the Dallas area, some of that stuff
probably wouldn’t have worked because of the EMP from the detonation. How high was
the one over the airport?”
“About 2,000 feet. They said it was close to optimum altitude.”
“But you’re done, right? You don’t have to go back?”
“No, the Texas Defense force took over. I’ll be out in a year, I’m not planning on reenlist-
ing.”
“Funny, I figured you for a lifer.”
“I’d planned on it, Dad. Now, I don’t know. The military shouldn’t have police powers.”
“Say, did I tell you Sgt. Baker got me some Raufoss?”
“Really?”
“Yeah. It was belted, I had to strip it out of the links. I didn’t know they used Raufoss as
a belted ammo, isn’t it too expensive?”
106
“Beats me, I’ve never heard of it being belted. Standard combat mixed is 4 and 1. Usu-
ally ball and tracer for practice or AP and APIT for combat.”
“Anyway, we have about 2,500 rounds of .50 caliber ammo now. Did the government
ever figure out who was responsible for the attacks?”
“No one claimed credit Dad. It could have been North Korea, China, Muslim extremists
or some other actor that no one has thought of. Those were mostly hydrogen bombs. To
the best of my knowledge, only the big 5 have them. My guess would be that Russia
was the source of the weapons and they were purchased on the arms market.”
“Russia would never sell hydrogen bombs, Derek.”
“A general might. Russia and China a major arms exporters. It could have been Chavez
or Ortega, they both hate us. So does Cuba, for that matter.”
“Fidel is dead from cancer.”
“So what? The communists have a major foothold in the western Hemisphere.”
“The Cold War ended almost 20 years ago.”
“You claimed the Cold War never ended. Have you changed your mind?”
“About every 5 minutes, but not about that. It has changed character, however.”
“As long as we follow the Monroe Doctrine, it will always be us against them. The them
might change, but we’re still the target.”
Derek was thoroughly indoctrinated in my set of beliefs and Damon only slightly less so.
I guess you could call it an old family tradition. The main difference was that Derek had
seen it first hand in Korea, Kosovo, Iraq and now, Dallas. The country was beginning to
sing its swan song, it just didn’t know it. Lincoln had called it a government of the peo-
ple, by the people and for the people. Our country had been young then, only 87 years
old. Now we were 235+ years old and I believe we’d lost sight of the American Dream.
The power had slowly been transferred from the people to the government. As long as
we had a 2 party system consisting of the Democrats and Republicans, it wasn’t going
to change.
What the country really needed were moderate politicians. What it got was the far left
and the far right. It didn’t do to mix politics and religion, which was part of the reason for
the 1st Amendment. They made big deals out of little things and vice versa. With the
majority of the country Christian, why couldn’t they display the 10 Commandments on
107
the courthouse wall? Was there something wrong with the addition made to the Pledge
of Allegiance back in 1954? We can trust in God, but we can’t talk about it in school. We
can pass laws that take away our basic freedoms and if we don’t the President will issue
an Executive Order and do it anyway. Wait, we don’t have to, they already did it and the
President signed it into law.
Derek reminded me that Texas became a Republic in 1836 and didn’t become a state
until 9 years later in 1845. Texas used to be the biggest state and I don’t know about
the population; now, Texas is second to Alaska in area, and second to California in
population. The population was still over 22 million, even taking the deaths from the ter-
rorist attacks into account. What’s more Texas permitted machine guns, more or less. A
summary of the law said: It is unlawful to possess, manufacture, transport, repair or sell
a machine gun, explosive weapon, short-barreled firearm, or silencer. Federal registra-
tion of such an item under the National Firearms Act is a defense to this prohibition. I
hadn’t bothered to have the fine points of the law explained and only had those sup-
pressors.
We closed all the Civil Defense shelters a long time ago; By EO 12148, 20Jul79, retro-
active to 15Jul79, pursuant to Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978, effective 1Apr70.
While it existed, it coordinated and directed federal, state, and local civil defense pro-
gram activities, including fallout shelter; chemical, biological and radiological warfare
defense; emergency communications and warning systems; post-attack assistance and
damage assessment; preparedness planning; and government continuity. It had been
doing that in some fashion since it was created in 1950.
I suspected, rather than knew, that if the country fell apart Texas might become a Re-
public again. Sharon and I flew 3 flags, the US Flag, the Texas state Flag and a Gads-
den Flag. At 7am Central time, on Friday, December 7th the EAS system kicked in. The
Vice President stated that the United States was under a full nuclear attack. The num-
ber of incoming warheads exceeded our ABMs by 20 to 1. The missiles were 20
minutes out and everyone was advised to take cover in an underground shelter. I dug
out my Alamo Flag and added it to the other three. That’s the one that has 1824 printed
on it. The 1824 is a reference to the disabused Constitution of Mexico of 1824.
While Sharon called the kids, I opened the shelter. I added fresh batteries to the radio-
logical equipment and fired up the Kohler. With 10 minutes to spare, I started moving
things from the house to the shelter. I had the appliance cart strapped to the freezer,
food in the shelter and was moving the guns and ammo when Damon showed up with
his 3 kids and Lorrie and Jeffrey. We hadn’t closed the shelter when the warheads ar-
rived. I was upstairs, rifle in hand, waiting for Amy to show up with Audrey and Udell.
“Move it Amy, we’re going to get an EMP this time.”
Damon helped me move the woodpile and close the shelter cover. We buttoned up
about 10 minutes after the first warheads hit. The VP hadn’t said who was attacking, but
only one country has as many warheads as the US did. That’s why MAD worked for 40
108
years; we’d wipe each other out. 69 (three score and 9) years to the day after the Japa-
nese attack on Pearl Harbor, it happened again. I assume that Christmas was can-
celled.
The generator ran smoothly on the 50-50 diesel/biodiesel mix. One of the grandchildren
turned on the TV and checked every channel, there was nothing but snow. I made them
disconnect it from the cable, just in case; they could watch the movies a second time.
After the bombing in Dallas, many people in Paris started to get into preps, they didn’t
want to be caught flatfooted again. Frankly, that surprised me; most people think light-
ning never strikes twice. There had almost been a shortage of canning jars, lots of folks
planted liberty gardens and we sold the extra potatoes at the Farmers’ Market. We used
the money from the spuds to fill in our firewood pile.
By now, anyone who really wanted to know knew we had a bomb shelter. At least we
remembered to lock the house this time. Very few people knew where we lived. I usually
just told them yonder when they asked. The Southern language is easy to learn, but you
never forget.
“Did you put a new battery in the CD V-717?”
“Didn’t have time, there are batteries on the shelf. Just use those log sheets I printed
up, they’re on a clipboard.”
“Gary, I don’t have anything thawed out for supper.”
“Sharon, you have all day, put a roast or two in the crock pots. Or, if you like, just fix
Macaroni and cheese.”
“Grandpa, what’s this movie about?”
“What’s the title?”
“The Day After.”
“That’s the perfect movie to watch kids, it will show you what to expect when we get out
of this hole in the ground. It is the mid-1980s. An aggressive Soviet leadership orders
troops marched to the border of West Berlin, and then decides to invade West Germany
with multiple armored tank & troop divisions. In Lawrence, Kansas – on the border with
Missouri – a family is preparing for the wedding of their eldest daughter, and Dr. Oakes,
Jason Robards, is keeping busy in his role as chief of surgery in the small University
Hospital at Lawrence. These people go on with their daily lives but are drawn closer to
the possibility of a nuclear war, as the Russians use a nuclear ballistic missile against a
West German city, and then attack a US warship in the Persian Gulf. The Americans
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strike back by hitting a Soviet ship, and then the Russians hit NATO regional headquar-
ters with a nuclear warhead. People start creating makeshift fallout shelters in their
basements, but many are caught off guard when, 1 at a time, nuclear missiles are
launched from their silos along the Kansas – Missouri border. USAF officers then an-
nounce that 300+ ICBMs are inbound to the US, and 2 of them strike Kansas City, Mis-
souri. Many are killed outright, but still more must face the danger of radioactive fallout.
Now, the characters we follow are living in a barren, devastated world – devoid of elec-
tricity, safe drinking water, and food – and filled with radioactivity, starvation, and dis-
ease...in the horrific aftermath of The Day After...”
“Oh yuck, I don’t want to watch that.”
“Why don’t you put on The Day After Tomorrow? It doesn’t have any bombs.”
“What’s that about?”
“It’s a very bad movie about global climate change.”
“Grandpa, what’s going to happen?”
“We’ll blow them up and they’ll blow us up. Shortly after, the snow will begin to fall and
we’ll get snow butt deep on a 9’ Indian. We may be stuck here until the thaw. When it
warms up, it will be hotter than blue blazes.”
“It’s not the end of the word?”
“No, it’s the end of civilization as we know it.”
“Huh?”
“No more TV, no more phones and probably no more electricity. Most cars won’t run
and you won’t be able to go to the store if you need something for dinner. The good
news is that there probably won’t be any more world wars.”
“Why not?”
“People will be fighting locally for scarce resources, like food. Any military forces left will
be busy protecting the country. Think about it, it’s been 5 years and New Orleans isn’t
rebuilt. It’s been over a year and we haven’t finished cleaning up the cities the terrorists
bombed. They never finished the replacement for the World Trade Center. If logic holds,
the enemy took out every major city and every major airport in the country.”
Aaron was born in 1993; he had nothing to compare the current events with. Frankly
none of us did. Until the terrorist bombed the cities, a nuclear weapon hadn’t been used
in anger since 1945. Since 1948, the world’s hot spot had been the Middle East. There
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had been a war going on somewhere on the face of the planet my whole life and, that
doesn’t include the Cold War.
When a person thinks about it, it gives a whole new meaning to the movie, The Day the
Earth Stood Still. I rather doubt the words Klaatu barada nikto will bail us out this time.
With hundreds of billions of stars, the probability of another intelligent life form in the
Universe was about 100%. Whether they had visited Earth was pure speculation.
I like Aaron, he’s my bud. He sure knows how to ask questions, he can drive you crazy.
A few days into the new war he had a question, what did I do in the Air Force. What
could I say, I turned into an alcoholic? I was born that way and didn’t really start to drink
until I got to Lowry AFB. After graduating, I was assigned to Edwards AFB, to work at
the Rocket Site. We did many interesting things during the early sixties; those were the
days of the Atlas F and Titian missiles. While I was going to school at Lowry, they were
building Titian Missile Silos. The Titan II was in service from 1963 to 1987. The original
63 SAC missiles were distributed at the Vandenberg AFB training base (nine) plus three
rings of 18 missiles each surrounding Davis-Monthan AFB near Tucson, AZ, at Little
Rock AFB in Arkansas, and McConnell AFB in Wichita, KS.
There were many interesting schools at Lowry, one taught how to work on nuclear
weapons and another taught the Vulcan Cannon. I honestly wished I hadn’t done as
well on the entrance exams; maybe I could have gone to one of the other schools. At
the time, I didn’t know how lucky I was. I put in for Kirtland AFB; I wanted to work at the
Air Force Research Laboratory. Trying to answer his question, I sat and thought what
we did at the Rocket Site. Rockwell tested the F-1 engines there; they’re the engine
used on the first stage of the Saturn booster for the Apollo program. That was a civilian
project so I hadn’t worked on that.
This was hard, it was a long time ago and I couldn’t think of anything I’d worked on that
had directly become part of the space program. I told him to give me more time to think
about it, surely there was something I’d done that had been noteworthy. I figured it out
and the next chapter is what I told Aaron. It contains the history of the Air Force’s ICBM
program and you will see the little part I played in it. After I got out of the Air Force, I
went to college at Iowa State University where I eventually met Novie White. Novie was
in the AFROTC program and was stationed at Minot AFB, in a silo as a control officer
when he went on active duty. I was honored to be his best man at his wedding.
Bad things happen in 3s. We had a terrorist attack and WW III. The third event in this
little story is what happened after WW III. Do you still remember what Gen. Casey said
and the John Warner Bill? We had a left wing liberal in the White House and I can’t tell
you whether that was good or bad, it just was. The public beat Bush up over the failed
response to Hurricane Katrina and in response John Warner fixed it so the President
wouldn’t be so hampered the next time. I hadn’t read the article at Wiki when I wrote the
first 9½ chapters and maybe that’s why the story is wordy and wanders.
111
Miss Holland taught me to really read in 9th grade. Any individual who isn’t filled with
shock and awe at the power contained in section 1076 honestly deserves what he/she
gets. It was just such an emergency as the terrorist attacks or WW III that Warner must
have had in mind when t(he)y wrote the bill. Battle of Jakes and Pax Americana be
damned, it was legal now. Worse, the Russians gave Hillary the excuse she needed to
make herself Queen.
I wish I could have sweated bullets, more ammo would be better. We counted it, several
times. It wasn’t that we didn’t have plenty, we did; but who knew how long this thing
could last? By the time the air cleared and we were out of the shelter, I’d be 68, too old
for everything. I suppose you want a few details.
None of us ever got what you could call a weapons count. The list of cities looked lot
like the list of 100 largest cities in the US, maybe 150. Like Flight ER Doc or someone
has suggested, they hit a lot of airports. We figured that was to prevent the military from
using them. Edwards ABF has the largest landing strip in the world, Rogers Dry Lake. It
is also possible to land aircraft on Rosamond Dry Lake and Groom Lake. I’ll bet there
are places in the Bonneville Salt Flats you could land a plane too. We could only as-
sume that the Air Force had a plan to relocate aircraft to new locations in the event of
WW III.
The closest thing we had to a medical person was Derek, a Combat Lifesaver. He could
do a lot; we had a fair amount of medical supplies. If Aaron was right and this was TE-
OCAWKI, we’d be out salvaging immediately. I’ve told you 50 times now, you absolutely
have to salvage the things that you need. If you don’t, you wind up living without your
pills and wiping your bottom with the JC Penny catalog. If you take as many pills as I do,
you won’t live long without the meds. TEOTWAWKI seems improbable, but TEOCAWKI
doesn’t.
Maybe you tell yourself you wouldn’t want to live in a world like this, maybe. That’s con-
trary to human nature, don’t kid yourself. Besides, what about your family? Someone
has to look after the younger members of the family, at least until they’re old enough to
strike out on their own. Over your lifetime, you’ve accumulated a lot of information and
with the schools closed; it will be your obligation to share it with the children. If, by this
point, you’ve managed to keep them out of harm’s way, they will look to you for an-
swers. If you don’t have the answers, do the next best thing, fake it.
If you’re reading this that means that you know how to read and write, ergo, you’re lit-
erate. Kids don’t come that way; it’s going to be up to you. Yeah, they can be little mon-
sters, still… Another rule might help, spare the rod and spoil the child. The DCFS isn’t
around now to arrest you for spanking your kid, if they deserve it, but don’t go over-
board. These days, child abuse just might get you shot. I think people won’t be putting
up with things they used to be afraid to object to, a word to the wise.
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I’m not looking forward to leaving this shelter; I don’t believe we’re going to find a Brave
New World when we do. 1984, maybe.
There wasn’t a hue and cry when Casey made his statement. People complained about
the Military Commissions Act, but only one far left Democrat raised hell over the John
Warner Bill. People were focusing on the wrong thing, terrorists don’t have any rights;
they gave them up to become a terrorist. If you want to play word games, what exactly
is a military combatant? Trust me, if he/she has a rifle or RPG in his/her hand, they
qualify.
US Northern Command’s planning for catastrophic scenarios eventually may be used

by other commands and agencies, a senior Defense Department official said here earli-
er this week. Peter F. Verga, principal deputy to the assistant secretary of defense for
homeland defense, spoke during the 2006 Homeland Defense Symposium Oct. 3.
“While in execution, the (Hurricane) Katrina operations and all of the missions that have
been done by US Northern Command have been done magnificently,” Verga said in an
interview following his address. “We’ve identified shortcomings and are pre-planning for
those 15 national planning scenarios.”
Organizations at all levels of government use the national planning scenarios to help
identify critical tasks and capabilities that would be required in a coordinated effort to
manage major events. The scenarios include responses to terrorist attacks and natural
disasters. The scenarios were developed to implement Homeland Insecurity Presiden-
tial Directive 8, which establishes policies to strengthen preparedness to both prevent
and respond to significant incidents at the federal, state and local levels.
Verga said the burden of DOD planning for the scenarios will fall on NORTHCOM be-
cause the scenarios are domestic-based. US Pacific Command and US Southern
Command will have similar planning responsibilities for Hawaii and US territories in their
areas of responsibility, but Verga said they will probably be able to build on NORTH-
COM’s work, instead of doing the fundamental work.
“The strategic guidance statement that is about to come out specifically requires a de-
tailed level of planning for those 15 national planning scenarios,” he said.
Verga said the intent is for DOD to plan what capabilities it can bring to bear on those
situations. Other agencies are taking a similar look at what capabilities they can bring.
“It’s that synergy of all the departments coming together, having thought about the sce-
narios and the problems in the same structured manner, that should give us that coher-
ent detailed planning that the national response plan actually calls for,” Verga said. He
cited the implementation plan for the strategy for pandemic influenza and the national
implementation plan for the global war on terrorism as two examples of that synergy.
113
In Verga’s address to the symposium attendees, he praised DODs emphasis on a “cul-
ture of planning.”
“It really is getting other people in the departments and agencies to think about plan-
ning,” he said. “I see that as the challenge ahead.”
114
Revvin’ up your engine

Listen to her howlin’ roar
Metal under tension
Beggin’ you to touch and go
Highway to the Danger Zone

Right into the Danger Zone
Headin’ into twilight

Spreadin’ out her wings tonight
She got you jumpin’ off the deck
And shovin’ into overdrive

I’ll take you
You’ll never say hello to you

Until you get it on the red line overload
You’ll never know what you can do
Until you get it up as high as you can go
Out along the edges

Always where I burn to be
The further on the edge
The hotter the intensity

Gonna take you
“Aaron, let me tell you about the US missile program.”
“On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union successfully launched into orbit the world’s first
artificial satellite, Sputnik. Ham radio operators in the eastern United States turned their
dials to lower frequency bands and anxiously listened as the 184-pound Sputnik emitted
a mechanical ‘... beep... beep... beep...’ while passing overhead. Other radio operators
quickly recorded the broadcast and, within hours, Americans in their living rooms heard
Sputnik’s transmission via radio and television news flashes. The message seemed to
confirm America’s worst fears: the Soviets had technologically surpassed the United
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States and gained supremacy of outer space. The Soviet scientific community wasted
little time boasting about their apparent win. Immediately after the launch, one Musco-
vite scientist commented, ‘Americans design better automobile tailfins, but we design
the best intercontinental ballistic missiles and earth satellites.’ In the United States, one
headline proclaimed: ‘US Must Catch Up with Reds or We’re Dead.’
“In truth, the significance of the successful launching was not so much Sputnik, but the
huge Soviet rocket that hurled the satellite into space. With Sputnik, which is Russian
for ‘fellow traveler,’ the Soviets demonstrated the ability of their SS-6 launcher to propel
a missile toward a target thousands of miles away. Four years earlier, the Soviets ex-
ploded the H-bomb. Now, the frightening prospect of a Soviet missile delivering a nu-
clear bomb to an American city in less than an hour revived what some called a Pearl
Harbor atmosphere throughout the United States. At the urging of his military advisors
and under tremendous public pressure, President Dwight D. Eisenhower reluctantly ac-
celerated America’s ICBM program.
“The shock of Sputnik abruptly reversed what Air Force Secretary Donald Quarles had
characterized as America’s poor man’s approach to the ICBM program. Within six
months after Sputnik, the Nation’s space research and development budget mush-
roomed from an average half billion dollars a year to more than $10.5 billion. Much of
the money went to the development of the Minuteman missile. In 1958, Congress in-
creased the appropriation for Minuteman from $50 to $140 million. The following year,
Congress added two billion dollars to the Minuteman budget, to be spread out over the
next five years.
“Sputnik sparked the development and deployment of the Minuteman missile. But the
origins of the Minuteman missile program were deeply rooted in the years immediately
following World War II – when the world’s two superpowers began to engage in the spi-
raling arms race of the Cold War.
“On January 7, 1954, President Eisenhower delivered his first State of the Union ad-
dress to the Nation. After declaring that ‘American freedom is threatened so long as the
Communist conspiracy exists in its present scope, power and hostility’ the President
outlined his plans for defending the Nation against that threat. ‘We will not be aggres-
sors,’ he said, ‘but we... have and will maintain a massive capability to strike back.’ Ei-
senhower’s comments reflected the doctrinal basis behind much of America’s strategic
planning during the Cold War era. (It also proved that Ike should have listened to Pat-
ton.)
“President Eisenhower’s view of the Soviet Union was similar to one that had been ar-
ticulated nearly eight years earlier by George Kennan, a diplomat at the US embassy in
Moscow. Watching the Soviets surround themselves with a ‘buffer zone’ that included
much of Eastern Europe following World War II, Kennan had argued that these moves
resulted from a fanatical Soviet ‘expansionism’ that was ultimately bent on disrupting
American society, destroying the American way of life, and breaking the international
authority of America. The only way to deal with this threat, Kennan suggested, was for
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the United States to adopt a policy of ‘patient but firm and vigilant containment of Rus-
sian expansive tendencies.’
“Although good in theory, containment proved nearly impossible to put into practice. In
order to truly contain the pervasive Soviet threat, observed one top US official in 1954,
the Nation would need to prepare for combat ‘in the Arctic and in the tropics; in Asia, in
the near East and in Europe; by sea, by land, and by air.’ But while the Soviet Union
had mounted a massive effort to rebuild its army and replenish conventional weapons
after World War II, America had demobilized at a dizzying rate. Exploiting its position as
the sole possessor of the atomic bomb, the United States pursued what some observ-
ers called a ‘bargain-basement’ defense policy, using nuclear weapons as stand-ins for
foot soldiers. (Is that anything like a Peace Dividend?)
“Fiscally conservative, President Eisenhower also wanted to keep America’s atomic ar-
senal to the minimum amount necessary to deter Moscow. The President and his chief
economic advisor, Arthur H. Burns, believed that the Federal government needed to cut
spending, reduce taxes, and balance the budget in order to achieve steady economic
growth. Despite protests from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Eisenhower continually pressed
for large cuts in military spending, which consumed almost 70% of the national budget
at the time he took office in 1953.
“American military planners began developing ballistic missiles immediately after World
War II. But by the late 1940s, America’s missile program began to languish, largely be-
cause the Nation’s nuclear superiority seemed secure. In 1949, when the Soviet Union
developed its atomic bomb, America responded with an even more powerful weapon –
a thermonuclear device that used a small atomic trigger to initiate a fusion reaction in
hydrogen isotopes. Successfully tested in 1952, the H-bomb seemed to guarantee
America’s nuclear superiority. But in August 1953, the Soviets exploded their own H-
bomb, and many US military experts also believed that the Soviets could deliver their
new weapon via an ICBM. For the first time, the Soviets seemed poised to take the lead
in the arms race.
“Following the Soviet’s successful H-bomb test, two independent US organizations

reevaluated the strategic importance of ICBMs to national security. As Dr. Bruno Au-
genstein of the RAND Corporation observed, ‘If the Soviet Union beat the United States
in a race for the ICBM, the consequences would be catastrophic.’ An Air Force commit-
tee headed by Dr. John von Neumann, a Princeton University mathematics professor,
also assessed the arms race. Code-named the ‘Teapot Committee’, von Neumann’s
group investigated ‘the impact of the thermonuclear [bomb] on the development of stra-
tegic missiles and the possibility that the Soviet Union might be somewhat ahead of the
United States.’ In February 1954, RAND and the Teapot Committee released their re-
ports, both of which reached the same conclusion: recent advances in thermonuclear
technology made an ICBM practical. Furthermore, an ICBM ‘could be developed and
deployed early enough to counter the pending Soviet threat if exceptional talents, ade-
quate funds and new management techniques suited to the urgency of the situation
were authorized.’
117
“By May 1954, the Air Force had mapped out a development plan for the new weapon.
In June, Vice Chief of Staff General Thomas D. White ordered the Air Research and
Development Command ‘to proceed with the development of an ICBM at the highest
speed possible, limited only by the advancement of technology in the various fields con-
cerned.’ In July, the Air Force established a special project office to administer the pro-
gram. Based on the West Coast, the new agency was consequently called the Western
Development Division. Bernard A. Schriever, a 43-year-old brigadier general, headed
Western Development Division. The Air Force expected the newly-promoted young
general to place a fully operational ICBM weapon system into the hands of the Strategic
Air Command within six years. The Air Force considered Western Development Divi-
sion’s mission so important to national security that even its initials, WDD, were classi-
fied beyond top secret.
“On August 5, 1954, General Schriever and a small group of military officers converged
on an abandoned parochial school in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood to begin
their work. To avoid arousing the curiosity of nearby residents, the officers wore civilian
clothes. Journalist Roy Neal, who chronicled the development of the Minuteman missile
system, described what they found:
‘No sign identified the white schoolhouse as the Western Development Division. . . . The
windows were frosted and heavily barred. All outside doors, except one, were locked.
The only entrance was across a chain-link fenced parking lot. A security guard manned
the door... Some of the old-timers recall . . . the comment of the school boy who was
sauntering by the school building.
‘Eying the frosted glass and steel-barred windows, he said to a chum, “Boy am I glad I
don’t go to school here.’“
“In this inconspicuous but carefully secured setting, the hand-picked staff of the Western
Development Division began the effort to build an intercontinental ballistic missile.
“The Western Development Division staff began its work by reviving a missile project
that had originated shortly after World War II. In 1946, the Air Force had contracted with
the Convair Corporation to design a long-range ballistic missile called the MX-774. Like
many post-war missile projects, the MX-774 lost most of its government funding after
only one year. But, instead of dropping the project, Convair Corporation continued work-
ing on its own, steadily advancing the state of missile technology. In 1951, the Air Force
acknowledged these efforts by hiring the company to develop plans for a more ad-
vanced missile, called the Atlas.
“The Atlas was essentially a highly evolved version of the German V-2 missile, which
Germany had used against the Allies during the waning years of World War II. Like the
V-2, the Atlas was powered by rocket engines that burned a mixture of liquid fuel and
oxidizer. But while the V-2 had an effective range of only a few hundred miles, the Atlas
had to deliver its payload to a target more than 5,000 miles away. Convair Corporation
118
could have met this requirement by designing the Atlas as an enormous version of the
V-2. Instead, Convair’s engineers sought a more sophisticated solution. Realizing that a
missile’s range could be increased by reducing its weight, Convair equipped the Atlas
with an innovative, ultra-light airframe. Convair assembled the missile from rings of pa-
per-thin stainless steel, stacked together like stovepipes and welded at the seams to
form cylinders. The cylinders were then inflated with nitrogen gas to give the missile its
structural integrity.
“By 1954, the Atlas was the Nation’s most advanced ballistic missile. Nonetheless, the
missile was years away from production. No prototype had been flight tested, and some
skeptics feared that when Atlas’s powerful engines were fired for the first time, the mis-
sile’s thin-skinned airframe would buckle in on itself, leaving America’s hopes for an
ICBM lying on the launch pad like a gigantic ball of tin foil.
“General Schriever and his staff were aware of these concerns. So while they proceed-
ed with the Atlas program, they also looked for a backup. In October 1955, the Air Force
contracted with the Glenn L. Martin Company to produce a new ICBM called the Titan.
Like the Atlas, the Titan used liquid propellants, but its advanced two-stage design al-
lowed for a conventional, and more reliable, airframe.
“Still, America’s missile program was hampered by funding problems. In 1956, Air Force
Secretary Donald Quarles rejected the operational budget for the ICBM program, and
proposed the elimination of either Atlas or Titan, which he considered redundant. That
same year, the Air Force lost its most effective missile proponent when Assistant Secre-
tary Trevor Gardner, the ‘Missile Czar’, announced his retirement, citing continued cuts
to his missile research and development budgets. Undeterred by Gardner’s retirement,
Quarles’s austerity campaign continued into 1957 when the ballistic missile program
was slashed by $200 million. In July, the Eisenhower administration initiated even more
cost-saving measures, including cutting missile deliveries, lowering overtime rates, and
delaying payments to contractors.
“This frugal economic climate changed dramatically after Sputnik. In October 1957,
when the Soviet Union announced it had used a liquid-fueled ICBM to launch Sputnik
into orbit, American scientists and politicians feared a significant ‘missile gap’. Within
months, journalists and intelligence analysts began asserting that the Soviet missile
force could outnumber the American arsenal by as much as 16 to 1 by 1960. America’s
growing sense of insecurity was not lost on Soviet officials, who gleefully announced
that their factories were turning out missiles ‘like sausages’. Facing severe criticism for
allowing the United States to fall behind in the arms race, the Eisenhower administration
poured more money into its missile programs – increasing the Nation’s annual space
research and development budget by more than twenty-fold within six months after
Sputnik. The administration also highlighted the development of the Atlas and Titan
missiles. One government spokesperson noted that America’s missile program was be-
ing carefully designed, first to ‘attain perfection’, and then to ‘develop the ability to pro-
duce in volume once that perfection is achieved’.
119
“But America’s first-generation ICBMs were neither perfect nor mass-producible. A few
weeks after Sputnik, the Wall Street Journal observed that the weaknesses of America’s
ICBMs ‘are so profound that... generals are sure [the missiles] will be discarded alto-
gether after the first half-dozen years.’ Atlas and Titan were extraordinarily complex,
handcrafted machines, containing as many as 300,000 parts, each of which had to be
maintained in perfect operating condition. The liquid propellants that powered the mis-
siles’ engines were volatile and corrosive, and could not be placed in the fuel tanks until
immediately before launch. In addition, the missile crews needed as much as two hours
to fuel the missiles. Consequently, instead of being ‘stable weapons in a state of per-
manent readiness’, these ICBMs required ‘the desperate and constant attention accord-
ed a man receiving artificial respiration’. The missiles were not a ‘push button affair but
will require a highly-trained crew... several times as large as the largest bombing crew’.
Many of these problems could be solved, the Wall Street Journal suggested, by devel-
oping a simplified ‘second generation’ of missiles powered by solid-fuel rocket engines.
“A lot of work had been done on solids prior to the initiation of the ICBM program in
1954’, recalled General Schriever in a 1973 interview, ‘but there were a number of
things that ruled against using solids at that time’. Solid propellants in the mid-1950s
could not provide enough power to hurl a thermonuclear warhead across an ocean. Al-
so, solids were difficult to manufacture. They were hard to ignite, and there was no way
to control their combustion or direct their thrust after ignition. Given these constraints,
the Air Force believed that liquid-fueled missiles were ‘the only immediate way to go
ahead’. But the Air Force did not entirely abandon the concept of a solid-fuel missile. In
1956, Schriever reluctantly approved a low-level research program ‘aimed toward the
evolution of a high-thrust... solid-fuel rocket’. Schriever selected Colonel Edward Hall,
Chief of Propulsion Development for the Western Development Division, to head the
program. According to historian Robert Perry, Hall was a ‘near-fanatic’ about the poten-
tial of solid-fuel missiles.
“Colonel Edward Hall and his staff of engineers diligently researched their solid-fuel
missile program. Within two years, Hall’s group had solved most of the problems asso-
ciated with solid-fuel rocket engines. In August 1957, the Air Force asked Hall to devel-
op a medium-range, solid-fuel missile to be the land-based counterpart to the Navy’s
submarine-launched, solid-fuel Polaris. Within two weeks, Hall drew up specifications
for a remarkable new missile whose range could be varied by simply assembling its
three interchangeable propulsion stages in different combinations.
“The new missile, dubbed ‘Weapon System Q’, was ‘the first strategic weapon capable
of true mass production’, wrote Duke University historian George Reed. ‘To Hall, the
new missile was the perfect weapon for a defense policy characterized by minimum ex-
penditure and massive retaliation; and he urged that this be its chief selling point’. Sput-
nik made it easy for Colonel Hall to make the sale. A few days after the Sputnik launch,
Hall went to the Pentagon with General Schriever to build support for the new missile.
As they ascended the ranks of the military hierarchy, Hall refined his plans. By the end
of 1957, he determined that ‘the ICBM version of Weapon System Q would be a three-
stage, solid-fuel missile approximately 65 feet long, weighing approximately 65,000
120
pounds, and developing approximately 100,000-120,000 pounds of thrust at launch’.
The missile would be stored vertically in underground silos and ‘would accelerate so
quickly that it could fly through its exhaust flames and not be significantly damaged’.
“In February 1958, Hall and Schriever presented Weapon System Q to the Secretaries
of the Air Force and Defense. ‘We got approval… within 48 hours’, Schriever recalled.
The officers immediately renamed the project. On February 28, 1958, the New York
Times reported that the Air Force had been authorized ‘to produce an advanced type of
ballistic missile... called Minute Man’.
“By the end of March 1958, at least seven of the Nation’s foremost aircraft manufactur-
ers, including the Boeing Airplane Company, were competing to build the new missile.
Although Seattle-based Boeing had built many of the Nation’s largest strategic bomb-
ers, the company had virtually no experience with missiles. Still, Boeing mounted an all-
out effort to win the Minuteman contract, assigning more than 100 employees to work
on the project. When the Air Force selection board met to examine the proposals, one
top official recalled that “there was no question... that Boeing was the right company for
the job.” In October 1958, the US government contracted with Boeing to assemble and
test the new missile.
“During the next few months, the rest of the Minuteman missile team came into place.
The Thiokol Chemical Company of Brigham City, Utah, the Aerojet General Corporation
of Sacramento, California, and the Hercules Powder Company of Magna, Utah, all won
contracts to work on the missile’s propulsion stages. Minuteman’s guidance and control
systems went to the Autonetics Division of North American Aviation in Downey, Califor-
nia. The AVCO Corporation of Boston contracted to build the missile’s thermonuclear
warhead.
“Much of the development work for Minuteman took place in northern Utah. Thiokol and
Hercules already operated plants in the area and, within a few months, Boeing moved
into a new assembly plant that occupied 790 acres at Hill Air Force Base near Ogden.
By the beginning of 1960, Boeing’s Minuteman work force had grown to nearly 12,000,
as the company started to assemble the missiles. Time magazine reported that the de-
sert north of Salt Lake was ‘boiling’ with activity:
“Strange lights glare in the night, making the mountains shine, and a grumbling roar
rolls across the desert. By day enormous clouds of steam-white smoke billow up… and
drift over hills and valleys. Monstrous vehicles with curious burdens lumber along the
roads.
“All these strange goings-on mark the development of the Minuteman; the solid fuel
missile that its proponents confidently expect will ultimately replace the liquid fuel Atlas
as the US’s standard ICBM.
“According to journalist Roy Neal, the ICBM program created a new national industry:
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‘Tens of thousands of industrial and Air Force managers, engineers, and workers [had]
to be trained. New machine tools and test facilities [had to] come into being...’ These
efforts changed ‘the face of America, the make-up of the Armed Forces and the indus-
tries that support them’.
“At the end of 1960, the Air Force took the first Minuteman missile to Cape Canaveral,
Florida, for flight testing. The compact new missile was only six feet in diameter and 53
feet high – about half the size of a Titan. Minuteman’s three cylindrical, steel-cased pro-
pulsion stages were stacked one atop the other, with each stage slightly smaller in di-
ameter than the one beneath it. Each stage was filled with a rubbery mixture of fuel and
oxidizer, molded around a hollow, star-shaped core. The Minuteman’s guidance system
occupied a small compartment above the third stage. The ‘reentry vehicle’ at the tip was
identical to the nose-cone that would eventually contain a thermonuclear warhead.
“Following two aborted launch attempts, the Air Force successfully fired the first Min-
uteman missile at 11:00 am on February 1, 1961. Even the most experienced missile
watchers found it to be ‘a dazzling spectacle’. When the missile’s first-stage engine ig-
nited, there was a loud bang. Then the missile began to rise on a column of flame and
smoke. Unlike the Atlas or Titan missile, which one observer said left the ground ‘like a
fat man getting out of an easy chair’, the Minuteman missile ‘shot up like a skyrocket’.
The missile performed flawlessly. The three propulsion stages completed their burns on
schedule, then detached themselves and plummeted back to earth, while the unarmed
warhead hurled on toward its assigned destination. Twenty-five minutes after lift-off, the
reentry vehicle splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean squarely on target – 4,600 miles
away.
“From his office in Washington DC, Air Force Chief of Staff General Thomas D. White
described the launch as ‘one of the most significant steps this Nation has ever taken
toward gaining intercontinental missile supremacy’. An engineer who witnessed the
event put it another way: ‘Brother’, he said, ‘there goes the missile gap’.
“By the time the flight test took place, the Air Force was already planning for Minuteman
missile deployment. According to historian Jacob Neufeld, the Air Force conceptually
developed its ‘ideal’ ICBM base in 1955, during the early days of the Atlas program:
“The missile would be sited inside fixed, underground facilities; it was to have a quick
launch reaction; it was to be stored in a launching position; the launch site would require
minimal support; and the launch units were to be self-supporting for two weeks.
“Turning these ideas into reality, however, proved difficult. During the height of the ‘mis-
sile gap’ hysteria, the Air Force hastily activated the Nation’s first Atlas missiles at Van-
denberg Air Force Base in California. Here, the Air Force stored the missiles horizontal-
ly in ‘coffins’ – concrete-walled, above-ground enclosures. Before the missiles could be
fired, servicemen had to raise each missile vertically on a launch pad and add fuel. The
later Titan and Atlas F series missiles were stored upright in underground silos capped
with massive “clamshell” doors. But Air Force engineers were worried that vibrations
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from the rocket engines might shake the missiles apart before launch. As a result, the
Air Force equipped each silo with an elevator that raised the missile to the surface for
firing. Although the missiles were stored with their tanks full of fuel, workers still needed
to add volatile liquid oxygen right before launch.
“The Air Force took a major step toward achieving its ideal basing system in 1960 with
the development of Titan II, which used storable liquid propellants. The Air Force could
store Titan II missiles with fully-loaded propellant tanks, and fire them directly from un-
derground silos. Nonetheless, Titan II missiles still needed constant attention from an
on-site crew.
“When Minuteman was added to the Nation’s arsenal, America acquired its first truly
pushbutton – literally turn-key – missile system. Historian Ernest Schwiebert noted:
‘With the successful utilization of solid propellants, the Minuteman could hide in its lethal
lair like a shotgun shell, ready for instant firing. The operational launcher could be un-
manned, underground, and hardened to withstand the surface burst of a nuclear weap-
on. Each launcher housed a single weapon and the equipment necessary to support
and fire it, and required only periodic maintenance. The missiles could be fired ... at a
moment’s notice’.
“The Air Force wanted to deploy Minuteman as a single, immense, ‘missile farm’,
equipped with as many as 1,500 missiles. However, the Air Force soon determined that
‘for reasons of economy 150 launchers should be concentrated in a single area, when-
ever possible, and that no area should contain fewer than 50 missiles’.
“Consequently, the Air Force organized the Minuteman force into a series of administra-
tive units called ‘wings’, each comprised of three or four 50-missile squadrons. Each
squadron was further subdivided into five smaller units, called ‘flights’. A flight consisted
of a single, manned, launch control facility, linked to ten, unmanned, underground, mis-
sile silos. The silos were separated from the launch control facility and from each other
by a distance of several miles.
“The Air Force initially considered putting Minuteman missiles as far south as Georgia,
Texas, and Oklahoma. But when early models of Minuteman missiles fell short of their
intended 5,500-mile range, the Air Force selected sites in the northern part of the United
States, which was closer to the Soviet Union. In 1960, the Air Force decided to locate
the first Minuteman installation on the high plains around Great Falls, Montana, at
Malmstrom AFB. In the event of a nuclear accident or attack, the low population density
near Malmstrom AFB would minimize civilian casualties. In addition, the region offered
an established network of roads and, like much of the West, a large amount of easy-to-
acquire public land.
“The Air Force began constructing the Nation’s first Minuteman missile field on March
16, 1961. In the spring of 1962, the Associated Press reported that the Montana silos
were being ‘rushed to completion’, and that the first missiles, each loaded with ‘one
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megaton of death and destruction’, would be ready by late summer. Air Force crews
began lowering the weapons into the silos at the end of July, and Malmstrom AFB’s first
ten-missile flight was hurriedly activated on October 27, 1962, at the height of the Cu-
ban Missile Crisis.
“Military strategists began planning for a second Minuteman installation shortly after
work got underway at Malmstrom AFB. In June 1960, the Air Force was authorized to
add another 150 missiles to the Minuteman force. By early October, military strategists
had narrowed their search for a new site to three locations in North and South Dakota.
On January 5, 1961, US Senator Francis Case of South Dakota announced that Ells-
worth AFB would be the headquarters for the Nation’s second Minuteman deployment.
Located about 12 miles east of Rapid City, Ellsworth AFB was founded in 1941 as the
Rapid City Army Air Base. The Air Corps used the airfield to train B-17 bomber crews,
and Ellsworth eventually served as home base for many of America’s largest strategic
bombers. The base was also headquarters for a Titan I missile squadron.
“Although the Defense Department had not yet officially authorized the South Dakota
Minuteman installation, Senator Case wanted the land acquired immediately so there
would be ‘no loss of valuable time’ once the project was approved. Local ranchers did
not share Case’s sense of urgency. Fearing that the government might offer below-
market prices for their land, the ranchers established the Missile Area Landowners’ As-
sociation to negotiate fair prices. The association assured fellow citizens that its actions
would ‘not necessarily slow the national defense effort’.
“While real estate negotiations were underway, the South Dakota State Highway De-
partment spent $650,000 from the Federal Bureau of Public Roads to improve 327
miles of roads leading to the proposed missile sites. By June 1961, Boeing was busy
improving the infrastructure. Anticipating that the project would bring in more than 3,000
workers, the company raced to build mobile home camps and cafeterias near Wall,
Sturgis, Belle Fourche, and Union Center, as well as in Rapid City.
“By early summer, more than three-quarters of the local landowners agreed to give the
government access to their land. Once the sites were finalized, the Ralph M. Parsons
Company, an architectural and engineering firm from Los Angeles, prepared plans for
the Minuteman installation. The Air Force assigned responsibility for construction to the
US Army Corps of Engineers Ballistic Missile Construction Office. In July 1961, four of
the nation’s largest construction firms submitted bids for the project. The low bid came
from Peter Kiewit Sons Company of Omaha, whose estimate of $56,220,274 was nearly
$10 million below government projections.
“On September 10, 1961, the groundbreaking ceremony for Ellsworth AFB’s Minuteman
installations took place at Site L-6 near Bear Butte. The festivities started with a bang.
While the Sturgis High School band played, representatives from Boeing, Kiewit, the
Corps of Engineers, and Ellsworth AFB set off an explosive charge to begin the excava-
tion.
124
“Despite extreme cold, high winds, and heavy snowfall, construction proceeded at a fu-
rious pace through the winter of 1961-62. In mid-December, the Corps of Engineers told
reporters that ‘men are working seven days a week, three shifts a day on Minuteman
construction’. A Corps spokesman said that crews were ‘able to dig five silo emplace-
ments simultaneously. Each takes from four to ten days...’ The first squadron, near
Wall, was well underway, said the Corps, and work on the second squadron, near Union
Center, had already started. In February 1962, General Delmar Wilson told the Rapid
City Chamber of Commerce that despite an ongoing labor dispute between Peter Kiewit
Sons and the Ironworkers Union, South Dakota’s ICBM deployment suffered fewer work
stoppages than any missile program in the Nation. ‘We’re all out... to assure that our
way of life is maintained’, stated Wilson. ‘This missile project... is the number one pro-
ject in the country today. If this guy in Russia wants to start a show, we’ll be there to put
a hole in him to the best of our ability’.
“By early summer of 1963, the steel fabrication was finished at all 165 South Dakota
sites, and crews were completing the silos at the rate of one per day. On the last day of
June, the first 20 silos were turned over to the Strategic Air Command. On October 23,
the Nation’s second wing of Minuteman ICBMs was fully operational. The work was
completed nearly three weeks ahead of schedule.
“While the Ellsworth AFB sites were under construction, the Air Force was building sev-
eral other Minuteman installations. By the end of 1967, the Nation had 1,000 Minuteman
missiles on alert in six separate deployment areas located throughout the north-central
United States. In addition to the original installations at Malmstrom AFB and Ellsworth
AFB, Minuteman complexes were deployed at Minot AFB and Grand Forks AFB in
North Dakota, Whiteman AFB in Missouri, and F.E. Warren AFB in Wyoming. In addi-
tion, another squadron was established at Malmstrom AFB. At each installation the Air
Force continued to improve and refine the Minuteman operational system.
“Newly-elected President John F. Kennedy instigated one of the first significant im-
provements to the Minuteman weapon system. Soon after taking office in 1961, Kenne-
dy learned that even if he ordered a massive nuclear retaliation to a Soviet attack, a
portion of the Soviet’s long-range nuclear force would survive to strike again. As a con-
sequence, the Kennedy administration quickly abandoned the strategic policy of releas-
ing America’s entire nuclear arsenal in ‘one horrific spasm’. Instead of massive retalia-
tion, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara recommended a ‘flexible response’.
Should deterrence fail, McNamara proposed that America’s nuclear weapons be de-
ployed selectively. The first ICBMs would target enemy bombers and missile sites. The
remaining ICBMs would be held in reserve, for potential use against Soviet cities.
McNamara hoped that the threat to the civilian population would persuade the Soviet
Union to end the conflict. McNamara began retooling America’s nuclear forces, includ-
ing Minuteman, to reflect the new military strategy.
“However, Colonel Edward Hall and his engineers designed Minuteman to be a fast re-
acting, mass-attack weapon. Upon receiving the launch command, the officers at each
Minuteman facility had to fire all ten missiles under their control. A selective launch of
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fewer than ten missiles was impossible. In order to conform with the new defense strat-
egy, Air Force engineers had to redesign Minuteman’s launch control complex. Histori-
an Clyde Littlefield described the changes:
‘In order to conform to the new concept, engineering changes had to be made to allow a
combat crew in a control center to switch targets and to fire one or more missiles selec-
tively, conserving the remainder for later use.... Greater flexibility in targeting and firing
required a significant extension to the limited survival time [of each operational site].
The [original] Minuteman facility design did not provide for the protection of the power
supply.... At a control center, power generators were above the ground.... When and if
these generators stopped functioning, the operational potential of the system would be
reduced to only six hours. Revised strategic concepts required that the weapon survive
at least nine weeks after an initial enemy attack.
‘To meet this requirement, the Air Force put the generators in underground capsules
next to each launch control center. Although the Air Force considered incorporating
these generators into the Minuteman facilities at Ellsworth AFB, construction was al-
ready underway there, making the changes impractical. Consequently, the generator
capsules began with the third Minuteman deployment area at Minot AFB in North Dako-
ta’.
“By the time planning began for the final Minuteman deployment area, the Air Force had
developed a vastly improved version of the missile. Called Minuteman II, the new mis-
sile offered improved range, greater payload, more flexible targeting, and greater accu-
racy; leading one Air Force spokesperson to estimate that its ‘kill capacity’ was eight
times that of Minuteman I. Minuteman II was deployed first at Grand Forks AFB, North
Dakota. In September 1965, South Dakota Congressman E.Y. Berry announced that
the Ellsworth AFB facilities would also receive the new missile system. According to
Berry, Minuteman II would help Ellsworth AFB remain ‘one of the nation’s most im-
portant military installations’. In October 1971, Boeing began refitting the Ellsworth silos
to accommodate Minuteman II, and completed the project in March 1973.
“In May 1964, the Soviet Union displayed a battery of anti-ballistic missiles in Moscow’s
Red Square, prompting concern about the vulnerability of Minuteman I and II missiles.
The following year, the Air Force began to develop an even more advanced version of
the missile. By late summer of 1968, Minuteman III was ready for testing. Longer and
more powerful than its predecessors, Minuteman III offered an improved guidance sys-
tem that could be retargeted in minutes. But, according to the New York Times, the mis-
sile’s ‘most telling advantage’ lay in its ‘revolutionary new warhead: the MIRV, or multi-
ple independently targeted reentry vehicle’. The MIRV could deliver three hydrogen
bombs to widely scattered targets, a capability that would ‘render current and contem-
plated antimissile defense systems largely inadequate’, and ‘thrust the world into a new
era of weapons for mass destruction’.
“The Air Force deployed Minuteman III at Warren, Minot, Grand Forks, and Malmstrom
Air Force Bases, and extensively modified the Minuteman launchers at these locations
126
to accommodate the new missiles. Each launch tube was equipped with a new suspen-
sion system that could hold the missile absolutely motionless during the aftershocks of a
nuclear attack. The Air Force also installed a system of seals, filters, and surge arres-
tors designed to prevent electronic equipment from being damaged by the powerful
electromagnetic waves generated during nuclear explosions.
“In July 1975, when the last of the Nation’s 550 Minuteman III missiles was lowered into
its silo at Malmstrom AFB, Montana, only 450 Minutemen II remained in the American
arsenal – at Malmstrom, Ellsworth, and Whiteman Air Force Bases. This force structure
remained intact for nearly two more decades.
“The fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 marked the beginning of the end of the
Cold War. On July 31, 1991, President George Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorba-
chev signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which placed a limit on the
worldwide number of ICBMs and prescribed a process for their destruction. The treaty
coincided with the end of the Cold War, and the Air Force’s growing disenchantment
with the escalating costs of repairing and maintaining the Minuteman II system. On Sep-
tember 27, 1991, President Bush announced on national television his ‘plan for peace’.
As part of the plan, Bush called for ‘the withdrawal from alert, within 72 hours’, of all 450
Minuteman II missiles, including those at Ellsworth AFB.
“On December 3, 1991, an Air Force crew arrived to remove the first of Ellsworth AFB’s
150 Minuteman II missiles: Golf Two (G-2), a launch facility near Red Owl, about 60
miles northeast of Rapid City. The Rapid City Daily Journal reported on the crew’s pro-
gress.
“Disarmament began with snow shovels at dawn... as Airman 1st Class James Comfert
and his colleagues cleared the launch-door rail.... Six hours later, a Minuteman II inter-
continental ballistic missile was stored safely in its transporter/erector truck. G-2 was
just a high-tech hole in the ground.
“According to the Rapid City Daily Journal, the Minuteman deactivation process at Ells-
worth AFB would continue for at least three more years:
‘First, warheads and guidance systems [will be] removed. Then the missiles will be
pulled... The headframes of the missile silos will be destroyed and the tubes will be filled
with rubble. The launch control capsules will be buried under rubble and a thick con-
crete cap. The land and above-ground buildings at launch control centers will be sold.
‘Although all of the Minuteman II facilities at Ellsworth AFB were slated for demolition,
the Air Force, in conjunction with the National Park Service, selected two representative
sites – Launch Control Facility Delta One and Launch Facility Delta Nine – for possible
preservation as nationally significant icons of the Cold War. When the Minuteman II de-
activation is completed in the mid-1990s, these two Ellsworth AFB sites will be the only
remaining intact examples of the original Minuteman configuration.’“
127
“What did you do grandpa?”
“The first successful test fire of the third stage engine for the Minuteman III missile was
conducted on San Nicolas Island during 1964. Prior to that time, all of the nozzle throats
eroded. I worked on that engine with a piece of sandpaper.”
“Sandpaper?”
“Yes, sandpaper. We had to mount strain gauges on the engine case. I didn’t know at
the time that that case was made of titanium. It wasn’t machined smooth and the stain
gauges wouldn’t stick unless it was smooth. So, so for weeks on end, I sat the trailer
where they were storing the rocket motor and tried to sand smooth spots in titanium. I
must have succeeded; none of the stain gauges came loose when we fired the motor. I
don’t know if that was the final engine design that Morton Thiokol used, but that engine
or one very much like it, ended up on the Minuteman III missile. That’s what we
launched in retaliation to the attack, 450 Minuteman III missiles and a bunch of D-5s.”
“So let me get this right, you sanded the case of a Minuteman III 3rd stage engine?”
“That’s it, Aaron.”
“Was it important?”
“The case didn’t blow up so I don’t think so. That data would have only been used if the
titanium case failed.”
We spent another 100 days in the shelter and when it was time, we left. We had a few
arguments; the strain of two involuntary incarcerations was pretty tough on some. Derek
spent most of his time sharpening knives. Anyone need a shave?
“What’s the reading?”
“98mR. Be sure to wear a warm coat, it’s cold out there.”
128
Mm dooby do, dahm dahm, dahm do dahm ooby do

Dahm dahm, dahm do dahm, ooby do
Dahm dahm, dahm ooh dahm
Mm dooby do
(Come softly, darling)


(Come to me, sta-ay)
(You’re my ob-session)
(Forever and a da-ay)
I want, want you to kno-o-ow

I love, I love you so
Please hold, hold me so tight
All through, all through the night..
(Speak softly, darling)

(Hear what I sa-ay)
(I love you always)
(Always, always)
I’ve waited, waited so long

For your kisses and your love
Please come, come to me
From up, from up above

I need, need you so much
Wanna feel your wa-arm touch


129
I’ll leave it to you to figure it out. They were from Olympia, Washington, two gals and a
guy. They were the first to record Mr. Blue. One of the airmen in my unit, at Edwards
AFB, went to high school with them. (Come Softly)
“Houston, we have a problem.”
“What now?”
“The plates won’t slide back.”
“There’re a couple of propane torches in the utility room, try heating it.”
“Do you have more bottles of propane?”
“A case. If that’s not enough, I guess we’ll stay for a while.”
“Got it. That sheet of plywood with the stack of firewood on top won’t move.”
“Get a drill and drill a hole. Then take my saber saw and cut out a 3’ square section. Be
careful, the wood will probably fall in. Then you can put up the step ladder and crawl
out.”
I was a Star Trek fan and believe there was no such thing as a no win scenario. You’ll
see what I mean when we begin to deal with the aftermath of WW III. It took the better
part of the day to egress the shelter. Damon, Derek and Aaron took turns shoveling the
snow and I supervised. Once we were able to get into the house, we brought the ladies
upstairs and Sharon made a quick list of things to bring up from the shelter. We got fires
going in all 3 fireplaces to help warm the house. I didn’t want to burn anymore propane
than we had to.
“We need a snowmobile.”
“Damon, Derek says we need 3 snowmobiles.”
“Do they sell snowmobiles in Texas?”
“How the hell would I know, I’m from Iowa. I think they must, Paris gets snow from time
to time. How much snow is there?”
“About 3’.”
“I thought we’d get more than that. Do you think the Jeep would get through it?”
130
“I doubt it. It’s 8 miles to Paris and we don’t know if we would find a snowmobile if we
could get there. What do you want to do?”
“Have a cup of coffee, eat dinner and call it a day. We might find a dealer further north,
but without snowmobiles, we aren’t going anywhere. I know that none of us have skis or
snowshoes. Or, do you have a better idea?”
It was April before the roads were clear enough to get to Paris. The REA had managed
to get the power back on part time as a birthday present for me. It was on starting at
5pm for 4 hours. The phone wasn’t on and wasn’t expected to be restored for long dis-
tance, local calls might be up by spring. We needed biodiesel, snowmobiles (?), food;
let’s face it, we needed a miracle.
Four months had passed since the war, leaving us 8 months to find the things we need-
ed. Plus, the weather was changing, it was rapidly warming. We all worked to put in a
big garden using most of the available space. That done, we strung garden netting to
shade the plants from the very bright sun. Because I couldn’t get out and help the boys,
I stayed home and hoed the garden. That never ended, by the time I got to one end, it
was time to start over.
Meanwhile, they had the list of things we needed and places to go. For all my talk about
E-85, we didn’t have enough land to grow enough of any crop to turn into alcohol. In-
stead, they searched for diesel and gas. They also searched for the staples we couldn’t
produce and things like more toilet paper. Weapons weren’t on their list, but ammo was.
It seemed like where you find one, you often find the other. They were out looking one
day when the military, not the National Guard, the real live military, showed up asking
for our papers.
“Can’t you just waive that do-dad over our arm?”
“Oh, we will, after we see your papers.”
“You mean the federal approved state driver’s license?”
“I mean your Internal Passport and your travel papers plus you state driver’s license or
identity card.”
“Why?”
“To verify your identity and make sure your papers are in order.”
“And if I refuse?”
131
“Hey Sarge, we got another of them.”
“Got another what?”
“Patriot, right? You’ve got a closet full of guns, 20,000 rounds of ammo and enough
food and fuel to last at least a year.”
“I do not. I have what food is left in the house, no guns, no ammo and my generator ran
out of gas.”
“Where is your generator?”
“Traded to a guy for some food. It was just a little 7kw generator I bought at Costco in
Lancaster.”
“According to our records, you have several firearms.”
“I unloaded those at a gun show. Hang on and I’ll get my papers.”
“We have to see everyone who is living here.”
“Can you come in the house, it getting hot out?”
“Might just as well, we have to search your house.”
“Where’s your warrant?”
“Don’t need one; EO 14302 suspends the 4th Amendment to permit searches for fire-
arms. Did you fill out forms when you transferred the guns?”
“No.”
“Then we have to search.”
“Well, you’ve got guns and I don’t. I suppose that means I don’t have much choice.”
“You can refuse to let us search.”
“And?”
“We’ll arrest you and search anyway. Is everyone who lives here present?”
“My boys are out trying to trade some goods for more food and fuel.”
“I hope they didn’t go far, there are travel restrictions in effect.”
132
°
Since when did patriot become a dirty word? We were keeping just enough food in the
house for one day. All the guns and ammo, except for one, were in the shelter. Well,
that’s not true, Aaron went with Damon and Derek and they had their guns and Aaron
had my Super Match. Man, you ought to see that kid shoot! These guys were wearing
Interceptor Body Armor, my .32 would just bounce off. I played dumb, but we’d had a
radio call about 10 minutes before they’d shown up. It was in code, ‘Katie bar the door,
here come the Indians’, but I knew what it meant. If they knew how to move the fire-
wood, the weapons were on a tarp at the top of the ramp.
First they checked everyone’s papers and then they scanned the chips. Finally, they
searched the house and didn’t find a thing. I’m glad they didn’t check the circuit breaker;
Sharon had turned off the master breaker when they arrived. They put stamps on our
travel documents that said, “Valid in Lamar County Only”. They said we could check in
Paris if we needed to travel further, they consider a temporary extension to our travel
permits.
I can’t speak for you, but I was born in Kalifornia, raised in Iowa and never in my entire
68 years did I feel less like a citizen. I can remember when your driver’s license didn’t
have your picture on it, let alone conform to federal standards. I can remember when
the only time you needed a Passport was if you planned to travel to another country, not
county. Hell, I remember when you could have a whole house full of food, provided you
could afford it. Before it was over, I was red as a beet and thinking about my Nazi .32 in
my rear waistband.
“Sit down Gary, before you have a stroke.”
“Son-of-a-Bitch! Would you kids go finish weeding the garden?”
“Sure grandpa.”
“How is our meat supply? I’ll bet it is low, I’d better go hunting.”
“We have plenty of meat.”
“That’s ok; you wouldn’t want to eat anything I might shoot.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Like I said, I’m going hunting.”
“Hunting what?”
“Critters.”
133
Those troops were driving a regular Hummer (M1038), not one with armor. I went to the
shelter and got my rifle out of the armory, I assume you’ve been paying attention. I
could only carry 5 mags, but 25 rounds were enough for the critters. They were next
door, maybe ¼ mile away. I went across the road and walked the shoulder about ¼
mile. I slid back under cover and checked the silencer on my Tac-50. The primary way
troops locate your location is the sound of your shots. There were only 4 of them com-
pared to one of me. I had them outnumbered, they just didn’t know it. My first shot hit
the driver just below his Kraut Helmet. The Sergeant reached across the vehicle right
into my line of fire. I got him in the neck, just above his shoulders.
The third soldier was standing next to the Hummer, providing cover for that idiot who
said he’d arrest me. I took him center mass and he screamed, causing the first soldier
to turn back towards the Hummer. He tried to bring his M-4 up but I don’t think he knew
where I was. Just as the carbine hit his shoulder, I loosed my 4th round. Remind me to
thank Sgt. Baker for the Raufoss ammo.
There had been nobody home next door; apparently they’d gone to Paris. I struggled to
get the 4 dead soldiers into the Hummer. I made sure I had their guns and ammo before
I moved the dirt around to conceal the blood. When I got home, I unloaded all the guns,
magazines and ammo and asked Mary to follow me while I disposed of the Hummer. I
drove it about a mile from Paris and dumped it. Finally, I got in the car and we went
home. At least, I was over being angry.
When Damon, Derek and Aaron got home, I filled them in. I told them to go on into Paris
and get their papers stamped but not to take any guns with them, except for my Nazi
.32.
“Where are the guys you shot?”
“About a mile out of Paris in a regular Hummer? Yeah, they pissed me off. Remind me
the next time I go hunting to not take so many magazines. Forgive me for not getting up,
I’m bushed. Did you have any trouble in town?”
“No, they checked our papers and stamped our Travel Permits. They say…”
“Valid in Lamar County Only. How’d you make out today?”
“We located a gun store that hadn’t been ransacked and cleaned it out. We also located
a semi and trailer that was about half full. We parked it in the clearing down the road
and covered it with netting and rudimentary camouflage. The saddle tanks had about
180 gallons of diesel and the tank for the reefer another 60.”
“What was in the trailer?”
134
“It was a Wal-Mart truck, so a bit of everything. What we can’t use, we’ll take to Paris for
distribution. We’re in good shape on coffee, candy, batteries, assorted clothing and mis-
cellaneous food items.”
“We’d better unload it tonight, I have a feeling the military will be back soon trying to fol-
low the route their men took.”
“Why did you kill them?”
I went back over what happened, filling in the details I left out the first time. I made a
point to emphasize the behavior of the man I had talked with and the search. I told them
that he claimed there was an EO that allowed them to search a home without a warrant
looking for firearms. I also told them about the warning call we got and how we hid the
guns in the ramp. Finally, I detailed how I’d followed them and took them out.
“And you carried the rifle all the way to the neighbor’s place?”
“I was mad.”
“They’ll be back and really search this time.”
“Let ‘em, they won’t find anything. We obviously cooperated, we got the stamps and I
sent the 3 of you to town to get your documents verified and stamped. They had a list of
the guns I’d bought through dealers; I assume they collected the 4473s.”
“What about fingerprints?”
“I wore a pair of gardening gloves. The Tac-50 was on the list, I expected they come
here first. Their weapons and ammo are in the shelter. Derek, you’d better check them
out.”
“What did they have?”
“M4s. The Sergeant had an M9 too.”
“Why did you use the Tac-50?”
“Will a .308 penetrate an Interceptor Vest?”
“Good thinking, if a person can call what you did thinking. They’re going to hound us
now, especially since you had a Tac-50.”
“Sold it to a fella at a gun show. And no, I don’t have any paperwork to prove it. Search
all you want, it’s not here. You boys keep you’re weapons on the ramp, we might not be
warned the next time they show up. Oh, and don’t tell anyone you’re a Patriot, that’s a
dirty word now.”
135
°
They were here the next day. They asked about 1,000 questions and searched the
house and the buildings. They came up empty, but it was apparent they weren’t satis-
fied. I was waiting for them to slap cuffs on me when Derek showed the LT his military
ID and pointed out that I used a wheelchair and could hardly walk. I don’t know what all
Derek said but when he was done, that LT was looking at me and shaking his head. I’m
sure Derek added that I was senile, deaf, and didn’t have long to live because of all my
medical conditions that required medicine that we couldn’t get.
“What did you tell that guy?”
“Whatever it took. I also explained that Damon, Aaron and I weren’t here yesterday, but
we went to town and had our papers examined and stamped. The LT wanted to know
what happened to your guns and I told him that Sharon and you fell on hard times and
that you sold them off one by one at various gun shows to buy food.”
“That’s ironic, Derek. That’s exactly what happened to my first gun collection, except
that I sold them to gun dealers. I’d give anything to have that collection back.”
“Just hope they don’t find the guns we have.”
“There are people who know about the shelter. The contractor and his employees, the
plumber, electrician and a few others. You can’t have a structure built without somebody
knowing something about it. I didn’t have to record any building plans, but that contrac-
tor might have.”
“I don’t know about that Dad. I know that you’ll be on a list of suspected terrorists. The
LT told me that people who were formerly thought to be survivalists or patriots have
been identified and they’re keeping an eye on them. You were on the list because of all
that Patriot Fiction you wrote.”
“I never really wrote anything exciting. I got off on telling people how to prepare. I wasn’t
very good at writing action sequences.”
“How did you get started on preparedness?”
“I was always into preparedness, but most of my life I wasn’t very well prepared. That
didn’t really start until 2004 and it wasn’t until 2006 that we actually began to get ready.
You remember 2006, don’t you? You spent 9 months in Iraq and back home I was read-
ing the papers watching the world going to hell.”
“You were probably watching Jericho on TV, too.”
136
“Never missed an episode. Say was there really a private security firm named Blackwa-
ter?”
“There is, I checked out their website:”
“We have established a global presence and provide training and operational solutions
for the 21st century in support of security and peace, and freedom and democracy eve-
rywhere.
“We customize and execute solutions for our clients to help keep them at the level of
readiness required to meet today’s military, law enforcement, peacekeeping, and stabil-
ity operations challenges. We continually prove to be faster, better, cheaper, and more
efficient and effective than conventionally managed forces.
“Our customers include local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, the Depart-
ment of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and most other federal agencies,
multi-national corporations, non-governmental organizations, and friendly nations from
around the world.
“Whether you require training, operational, or policy solutions, Blackwater can help you
develop the right program for you to ensure success.
“We specialize in, but are not limited to:
● Basic and Advanced Law Enforcement and Military Training

● Design and Operation of Law Enforcement, Counterterrorism, and Military Training
Facilities
● Counterterrorism, Antiterrorism, and Force Protection Programs
● Humanitarian, Peacekeeping, and Stability Operations
● Military Transformation Programs
● High-threat Security Operations (Ambassadors, Generals, CEOs, etc.)
● High-value Asset Security and Threat Assessment
● Fixed and Rotary-wing Aviation Operations and Logistics Programs
● Training Doctrine and Policy Development
● Foreign Internal Defense Missions
● Security Sector Reform
“Blackwater USA was employed to assist the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts on the Gulf
Coast. According to a company press release, it provided airlift services, security ser-
vices, humanitarian support services, and logistics and transportation services. Unoffi-
cial reports claim that the company also provided law enforcement services, such as
securing neighborhoods and confronting criminals.”
“Here read this Dad; it’s the story of what Blackwater did in New Orleans.”
137
New Orleans – Every day, storm victims still line up at FEMA’s disaster relief centers.
Time has only fueled their frustration.
It’s been nearly a year since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, and huge swaths of
New Orleans remain in rubble. Red tape, mix-ups or dead ends can easily trigger a boil-
over.
The people who work for the Federal Emergency Management Agency usually catch
the wrath.
“Let me put it to you this way,” says Gary Marratta, one of the agency’s security coordi-
nators. “We used to go out in T-shirts with a big ‘FEMA’ across the back. We don’t do
that anymore – ever since this one guy told me, ‘You know, that space between the ‘E’
and the ‘M’ makes a pretty good target.’“
Blackwater USA protects FEMA’s Katrina staff – a contract that has cost taxpayers $73
million through the end of June, or about $243,000 a day.
Tony Yates runs the Blackwater security crew assigned to a disaster relief center set up
in the city’s downtown public library. FEMA’s workers at the library are mostly women –
local teachers recruited after the storm destroyed their schools. They hunch over rows
of laptops, interviewing applicants at long tables jammed between bookshelves. They’re
not accustomed to the kind of rage that can come their way.
“Sometimes they see it building in the person they’re talking to,” Yates says, “but they’re
too intimidated to call us over. So we keep an eye on body language.”
He also keeps an ear cocked for the code. This week, it’s “blue form.” If a worker raises
her voice and asks for one, a Blackwater guard strolls over and hovers. One look at his
sturdy presence – and the dull-black sheen of the 9 mm Glock on his hip – persuades
most tough customers to rein it in. Two to three times a month, Yates says, someone
leaves the library in handcuffs.
Mary Cornelius, the center’s director, looks up from her desk, watching as Yates makes
his quiet rounds.
“I can’t tell you what it means to have them here,” Cornelius says. “A lot of people are at
the end of their rope down here. We never know who’s going to walk in that door or
what they have in mind.”
For battle-hardened Blackwater, New Orleans appears to be gravy work – at least at

this point. It’s the tail end of a milestone mission: the private military company’s first
domestic deployment – an undertaking that, at its height, employed close to 600 of the
company’s contractors.
138
Blackwater’s men were among the first outsiders to reach the Gulf Coast after the cost-
liest hurricane in US history made landfall Aug. 29. The company’s quick response led
to a windfall of work, both government and commercial.
It also has affected the way disasters within the nation’s borders will be dealt with in the
future. Katrina woke Americans to the harsh fact that calamities can overwhelm even
the government, and rescue can be a long time coming. Some people girding for the
next one have already laid plans to hire their own deliverance from companies like
Blackwater.
At first, Blackwater’s arrival set off alarms in New Orleans. The company’s work in Iraq
has forged a soldier-of-fortune image, and nerves jangled when Blackwater’s comman-
do-types surfaced on the streets of Louisiana, outfitted with body armor and assault ri-
fles.
Concerned calls came in to Mark Smith, who works for Louisiana’s Department of
Homeland Security, part of the governor’s office.
“Everyone wanted to know what those Blackwater mercenaries were doing down here,”
Smith said.
Blackwater bristles at that reaction.
“This is not the occupation of Louisiana,” said Andy Veal, one of the company’s Katrina
zone supervisors. “This is Americans helping fellow Americans.”
It is also a potential plug for a hole in Blackwater’s business model. Private military
companies thrive on war – an icy fact that could gut the now-booming industry when or
if Iraq settles down.
Katrina offered Blackwater a chance to diversify into natural disasters. After the hurri-
cane, the company formed a new division of domestic operations. Seamus Flatley, a
retired Navy fighter pilot, is the division’s deputy director.
“Look, none of us loves the idea that devastation became a business opportunity,” Flat-
ley said. “It’s a distasteful fact, but it is what it is. Doctors, lawyers, funeral directors,
even newspapers – they all make a living off of bad things happening. So do we, be-
cause somebody’s got to handle it.”
America’s Gulf Coast is a long way from the troubled lands where Blackwater usually
plies its trade. But after Category 3 Katrina, the area resembled a war zone. Hundreds
were dead. Communities were destroyed. Law and order collapsed with the levees.
Residents were trapped by floodwaters. Rescuers were being shot at.
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“The scope of this thing – how big it was – was just too much for any organization,” said
Coast Guard Cmdr. Todd Campbell, who directed a large part of the rescue operations,
including the dramatic rooftop airlifts that had the nation glued to the TV.
“Every aircraft we had was committed,” Campbell said. “And it wasn’t enough. I couldn’t
find anyone who could give us more.”
Campbell didn’t know it, but a Blackwater crew was already beating its way toward Lou-
isiana in a just-purchased Super Puma helicopter.
Bill Mathews, Blackwater’s executive vice president, explained why the company head-
ed in before anyone called for help:
“We ran to the fire because it was burning.”
Campbell says Blackwater asked just one thing: that the Coast Guard cover the cost of
the Puma’s fuel. But what really impressed him was the crew’s attitude.
“Just the way they walked in,” Campbell said, “with confidence in their faces. They
weren’t rattled one bit by what was going on. They just listened to what we wanted and
went out and did it.”
Precisely what that was depends on who’s doing the recalling.
According to Gary Jackson, Blackwater’s president: “We were lifting people off of
housetops, off of small boats, to med-evacs – people that were sick and hurt.”
According to Campbell: “They offered to do rescues, but there were legal concerns.
What if someone got hurt? So we asked them not to engage in pulling people out. They
debriefed me at the end of every day, and no one ever mentioned doing any rescues. If
they were out there doing them, it was solely on their own.”
Campbell has no doubts about the rest of Blackwater’s help. For two weeks after the
storm, the Puma conducted survey flights and ferried 12 tons of water, food and sup-
plies to rescuers and stranded inhabitants.
“What they did was critical,” Campbell said. “I’ve never been in a position like that be-
fore, where I had to reach out to civilians for help. I couldn’t have asked for a better,
more professional response.”
In the midst of all that humanitarian work, the phones started ringing at company head-
quarters in Moyock, NC.
“The word got out,” Jackson said. “‘Blackwater’s in New Orleans.’ People started calling
us from the hotels: ‘Can you do this? Can you do that?’ We set up a 24-hour-a-day op-
erational center, and we started taking these commercial contracts.”
140
The first customer was a communications company that hired Blackwater to fetch 100 of
its employees who were stuck in flooded homes. Because a state of emergency had
been declared, Blackwater could bypass Louisiana licensing requirements. Boats, wad-
ers and other gear were loaded on a company cargo plane. A convoy of SUVs rolled out
of Moyock.
Within 18 hours, Jackson said, Blackwater had 135 men on the ground. They were out-
fitted for battle, complete with helmets, flak vests, pistols, batons and M-4 carbines, ca-
pable of firing 900 rounds per minute.
“Yes, we looked a little heavy-handed coming in,” Jackson said, “but it was because of
the Intel that we received.”
Exaggerated or not, Jackson said, reports coming out of New Orleans indicated the
place was in anarchy, with armed looters roaming the city and outlaws preying on the
populace.
“We did a risk assessment and decided we’re going to send guys in there for real,” he
said.
Jackson said Blackwater re-established order in the city’/ most famous area: “We got
guys into the French Quarter … and we basically secured it.”
His claim rubs some the wrong way.
“There may be some braggadocio involved there,” said Lt. Lawrence McCleary of the
Louisiana State Police. “If they were securing a hotel or something down there, that’s
one thing, but locals secured the French Quarter.”
Maj. Ed Bush of the Louisiana National Guard said: “Every group wants to kind of thump
their chest a little bit, but just think about it. We live here. Seems kind of naïve to think
Blackwater beat us to the French Quarter.
“But you know what? I’m not interested in getting into a pissing match over it – not with
someone who came down here and really helped. It’s safe to say they were among the
first to arrive.”
Whatever the sequence of events, in those first days after the storm, Blackwater’s client
list exploded.
Blackwater says it has not fired a single shot since arriving in Louisiana. The company’s
contractors heard plenty of gunfire, though. None, they say, was aimed at them.
“We’d be on one street going to a house for extraction and on the next street over we’d
hear ‘bang-bang-bang,’“ Veal said. “Then the Blackhawks would swarm in. It was kind
141
of surreal, that all that was happening in this country. Americans were floating by dead
in the street and there was no time to do anything about it. We had to focus on the liv-
ing. It was like something you’d see in the Third World.”
Veal says Blackwater rescued plenty of nonpaying folks along with the paying ones.
“Once you came across someone, you just couldn’t leave them there,” he said.
Clients were signing up quickly. Blackwater won’t name them or reveal what it charged.
It will only say that the jobs called for a laundry list of duties.
Blackwater contractors stood guard over fuel shipments, generators, transmitters, rail-
road cars, stores, hotels, banks, museums, landmarks, industrial sites, power plants
and a temporary morgue set up in Baton Rouge. They escorted CEOs, insurance ad-
justers, technicians and repair crews. They watched over high-dollar homes and con-
ducted “asset retrieval”. They plucked priceless paintings off walls and fetched precious
gems from abandoned bedrooms.
“It was hot and miserable,” Veal said. “We were all sleeping in tents. The bugs just ate
you alive.”
One week after the storm, Blackwater landed a contract with the Federal Protective
Service, the agency that provides security at federal buildings and watches over FEMA
when its workers deploy. The rate, according to a copy of the contract obtained from the
Department of Homeland Insecurity: $950 per day for every man the company supplied.
Dennis O’Connor, a spokesman for the Federal Protective Service, said the magnitude
of the disaster left the agency with little choice: “We don’t have enough people to handle
something like this ourselves, and the local security companies were devastated. Who-
ever we awarded the contract to had to be totally self-sustaining. Everything down there
was wiped out.”
Blackwater had the mind-set for dealing with such hardships. The company set up its
own camps, equipped with shower trailers, dining tents, post offices, barber shops,
laundry facilities, armories and mechanic shops. Contractors from across the country
poured into Moyock, where they were outfitted with tactical gear and sent south.
The Federal Protective Service contract gave Blackwater more impact in the hurricane
zone. While contractors were not deputized – a fact that left them with no official law en-
forcement powers – their formidable presence was now spread across the city.
“They helped us keep the bubble afloat,” said the National Guard’s Bush. “At first, they
occupied their battle space and we occupied ours, but as the weeks trickled on and the
Guard guys from other states started going home, Blackwater stepped in to fill the void.”
The transition worried some locals, Bush said.
142
“I think it was the fact that they were civilians more than anything else,” he said. “So we
walked the ground together for a while, until everyone got more comfortable. We turned
over some pretty big areas to them.”
Less than a month after Katrina battered the Gulf Coast, Hurricane Rita delivered a
second blow, coming ashore just to the west.
Federal Protective Service expanded its contract and Blackwater rushed toward Rita.
“At one time,” Jackson said, “we were spread across 500 miles, from Texas to Missis-
sippi.”
The commercial work has dried up. So has the need for military-style action. The com-
bat look has softened to tan polo shirts and sidearms. Tents have been replaced with
hotel rooms. Dinner is served on china. FEMA is the main reason Blackwater is still
here.
Roughly 100 contractors are all that remain. They’re split between New Orleans, Baton
Rouge and a few scattered outposts. They work 12-hour shifts, often seven days a
week, standing guard at FEMA sites. They’re paid around $300 a day, which means
they can earn up to $9,000 a month.
Most are former law enforcement officers. They hired on after the storm, when special-
ops types were no longer required and Blackwater made the shift to a long-term pres-
ence.
“Law enforcement is better suited for this kind of job,” Blackwater’s Flatley says.
“They’re used to dealing with the public – with Americans. They’re trained to defuse
things, not escalate them.”
There are harder-core guys, who rotate between stints in Iraq and New Orleans.
“You wouldn’t really call this a vacation,” Flatley says, “but they are able to recharge
here between tours overseas.”
When it comes to hiring, the stakes are high. Everybody carries a gun, and one hothead
making the wrong call could ruin the company’s image and derail a lucrative future in
the disaster business. Of the 1,600 contractors Blackwater has cycled through the Gulf
Coast, Flatley says, around three dozen have been sent home for various infractions –
none criminal.
“It can be as small as unprofessional behavior, partying too much or even just a bad at-
titude,” he says. “We can’t afford to put up with any of it. At that point, my only question
is, ‘Do you prefer an aisle or a window seat?’“
State and local police say they know of no arrests of Blackwater contractors in their ar-
ea, but that does not stop the talk. Rumors had Blackwater commandeering apartments,
shooting bad guys and conspiring with the government to hide corpses.
143
The company says there is no truth to such stories. Tommy Potter, a former police of-
ficer from Franklin, is the company’s area manager for New Orleans. He shakes his
head at the rumors.
“Look,” he says, “people swore that there were alligators walking down the streets. How
does that stuff get started? Who knows?”
The Blackwater men admit that, in the early days, they bumped heads a bit with local
police, who resented all the out-of-town guns. They’ll volunteer that someone slashed
all four tires on a company SUV. At the library, Yates confesses he was in one real
knock-down, drag-out – with a large woman who leaped on him and wouldn’t quit.
Kathleen Young runs the Chateau Le-Moyne, a French Quarter hotel. She thinks
Blackwater’s mere presence stops trouble in its tracks. Young’s hotel chain hired the
company the day after Katrina.
“I didn’t know that,” she says, “and I was scared to death coming back into the Quarter
after the storm. Looters were everywhere. Windows were smashed out. There were no
police.
“And then I got here, and there were two Blackwater guys camped out in my lobby.
Nothing was touched. They stayed with me for weeks, and I never saw anyone chal-
lenge them.”
Young was so impressed; she struck a deal with Blackwater to house more of its men.
At one point, contractors occupied nearly half of her 171-room hotel. The number has
dwindled, but her lobby, at any given time, is still full of men carrying guns.
Young has also put Blackwater on retainer.
“If something like this ever happens again,” she says, “I want them in here before the
storm.”
Blackwater isn’t content to wait around for Mother Nature to strike again. It’s busy scour-
ing the far corners of the world for more business.
“Hmm. Well, I never heard of them. I guess I wasn’t paying as good attention to the
news as I thought I was. I got an email from a friend about Blackwater after that Jericho
episode, but didn’t bother to look it up.”
“They’re all trained up to what amounts to the level of Special Forces. They’re merce-
naries, flat out.”
“I’ll be damned.”
144
Outside my window
You’re walkin’ by with someone new (outside my window)
Outside my window
The way I used to walk with you (outside my window)
Smilin’ while you’re walkin’, laughin’ while you’re talkin’

Happy as can be (happy, happy, happy)
With your arm around him, you’re so glad you found him
You never once look up to see me
Inside my window
I’m just as sad as I can be (inside my window)
Inside my window
I’m wishin’ you’d come back to me (inside my window)
Some day if you’re lonely and you want me only

Here’s what to do (what should I do?)
Call me, my darlin’ (darlin’)
Outside my window (window)
And I’ll come runnin’ (runnin’) to you
(Outside my window)
(Outside my window)
ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh
ooh-ooh
Did you figure out who the group was? They’re names are Gary Troxel, Gretchen Chris-
topher and Barbara Ellis. The name of the group was The Fleetwood’s. They’re about
my age.
Blackwater sometimes dressed like the military and you couldn’t tell them from regular
soldiers. Had Hillary had FEMA hire Blackwater to clean up this mess? The guys I shot
weren’t Blackwater, I’d have never got the drop on them, regardless of how careful I’d
been. Like I told Derek, I’d never heard the name.
At a lecture the other day they were playing an old news video of Lt. Col. Oliver North
testifying at the Iran-Contra hearings during the Reagan Administration.
There was Ollie in front of God and Country getting the third degree, but what he said
was stunning!
145
He was being drilled by a senator; “Did you not recently spend close to $60,000 for a
home security system?”
Ollie replied, “Yes, I did, Sir.”
The senator continued, trying to get a laugh out of the audience “Isn’t that just a little
excessive?”
“No, sir,” continued Ollie.
“No? And why not?” the senator asked.
“Because the lives of my family and I were threatened, sir.”
“Threatened? By whom?” the senator questioned.
“By a terrorist, sir” Ollie answered.
“Terrorist? What terrorist could possibly scare you that much?”
“His name is Osama bin Laden, sir” Ollie replied.
At this point the senator tried to repeat the name, but couldn’t pronounce it, which most
people back then probably couldn’t. A couple of people laughed at the attempt. Then
the senator continued. Why are you so afraid of this man?” the senator asked.
“Because, sir, he is the most evil person alive that I know of,” Ollie answered.
“And what do you recommend we do about him?” asked the senator.
“Well, sir, if it was up to me, I would recommend that an assassin team be formed to
eliminate him and his men from the face of the earth.”
The senator disagreed with this approach, and that was all that was shown of the clip.
By the way, that senator was Al Gore!
Also:
Terrorist pilot Mohammad Atta blew up a bus in Israel in 1986. The Israelis captured,
tried and imprisoned him. As part of the Oslo agreement with the Palestinians in 1993,
Israel had to agree to release so-called “political prisoners.”
However, the Israelis would not release any with blood on their hands. The American
President at the time, Bill Clinton, and his Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, “in-
sisted” that all prisoners be released.
146
Thus Mohammad Atta was freed and eventually thanked the US by flying an airplane
into Tower One of the World Trade Center. This was reported by many of the American
TV networks at the time that the terrorists were first identified. It was censored in the US
from all later reports. If you agree that the American public should be made aware of
this fact, pass this on.
The real question burning in my mind was, ‘Did Hillary hire Blackwater to clean up this
mess?’ The President of the US has discretionary funds, LBJ and Nixon used them for
their ‘alternate’ White Houses, one in Johnson City and the other in San Clemente.
There was a stink in the media about those funds in either the 70s or 80s. Maybe Con-
gress eliminated them, if they had, I missed that too. I figured they probably hadn’t and
Broom Hillary had tons of money. After all, she was Commander in Chief of the military
unit that guarded Ft. Knox, she could probably pay in gold. The Commander in Chief
commanded West Point, too.
Gold coins are minted at West Point. Today sole production of the entire American Ea-
gle series proof and uncirculated bullion coins in gold, silver and platinum is located at
West Point, along with all gold commemorative and a few silver commemorative coins.
All commemoratives from West Point are struck with the “W” mint mark. Beginning in
2006, the West Point Mint also made all American Buffalo gold bullion coins. The West
Point Mint still acts as a gold bullion depository, and silver is kept on site only in quanti-
ties to meet minting demands. They minted 22 carat and 24 carat gold coins (the gold
Buffalo nickel was 1 ounce of pure gold).
They did come back and searched more than once, apparently they didn’t have the
building plans or none had been filed. Every time they showed up, I expected to be led
away in handcuffs. Man, I had to really act dumb and my condition seemed to worsen
because of the lack of meds. Actually, I was hoeing the garden building my strength.
The boys continued their shopping trips and while they didn’t bring back much, it was
more than enough for us and sometimes they had stuff to take into Paris and trade for
things they couldn’t find.
There was in fact, a conflict of laws.
The Disaster Recovery Personal Protection Act of 2006 is a United States Federal law
that prohibits funding from the Department of Homeland Insecurity to be put towards the
confiscation of legally possessed firearms during a disaster.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Eddie Compass ordered police and National
Guard units to confiscate firearms from citizens who remained in the area.
The NRA and GOA filed a lawsuit against the city of New Orleans to place an emergen-
cy injunction forbidding such seizures from continuing. The injunction was granted.
147
“Remember New Orleans” became a rallying cry for a drive by the gun rights movement
to enact legislation in their home states forbidding what happened in New Orleans from
happening in their home states.
S Amdt 4615 to HR 5441: To prohibit the confiscation of a firearm during an emergency

or major disaster if the possession of such firearm is not prohibited under Federal or
State Law.
Congressman Bobby Jindal sponsored the house version of the bill. Senator David Vit-
ter sponsored the Senate version of the legislation which was known as the Vitter
Amendment.
The Vitter Amendment passed the US Senate 84 ayes to 16 nays.
The amendment was signed into law by President George W. Bush as part of the 2007
DHI appropriations bill on September 30, 2006.
The new law the Congress passed ignored the Vitter Amendment. Hillary ignored the
Vitter Amendment when she ordered the gun grab. I felt I was within my right to ignore
the order to seize my guns and hence, I told everyone I sold them at gun shows. As a
Patron/Life member of the NRA, I fully supported their interpretation of the Second
Amendment. Apparently, I wasn’t the only person who resisted the effort of the govern-
ment to grab guns. There were a bunch of those bushy tailed squirrels around and I ra-
ther doubt they’d give up their guns. Not all of them lived in Kalifornia and even if they
did, they probably ignored unjust laws.
Madam Hillary just slit her own throat and didn’t even feel the pain. There are about 260
million guns in the US. People who own guns won’t give them up without a fight if they
worked long and hard to get the money to buy the guns in the first place. They’ll give up
the ammo, one bullet at a time. That damned UN was trying hard to take away our gun
rights.
The international gun prohibition lobbies and their United Nations allies insist that there
is no personal right of self-defense – that people should be forced to rely exclusively on
the government for protection. The prohibitionists also insist that there is no human right
for people to possess the means of self-defense, such as firearms.
But what are people supposed to do when the government itself starts killing citizens?
The genocide in Darfur, Sudan, is the direct result of the types of gun laws that the
United Nations is trying to impose throughout the entire world. Millions of people have
already died because of such laws, and millions more will die unless the UN is stopped.
Like Iran today and Afghanistan under the Taliban, Sudan is ruled by a totalitarian Is-
lamic government. The current regime, which calls itself the National Islamic Front, took
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power in a military coup in 1989 and immediately began imposing Islamic law through-
out the country and perpetrating genocide.
The first victims were the inhabitants of the Nuba Mountains of central Sudan. Accord-
ing to Gregory Stanton of Genocide Watch, “The Nuba were grouped into ‘Peace Vil-
lages’, where their women were systematically raped by Arab men, their children stolen
to serve as slaves and at least 100,000 people ‘disappeared’, never to be seen again.”
The next targets were the Africans of south Sudan, who are mainly Christians or Ani-
mists. The most recent genocide victims are the people of Darfur, a Texas-sized region
in western Sudan.
The Darfuris are Muslims, but like the majority of Sudan’s population, they are black Af-
ricans, in contrast to the Arabs who control the government.
The foundation of Sudan’s genocide is, as with almost every other genocide in world
history, the disarmament of intended victims.
In Sudan, it is virtually impossible for an average citizen to lawfully possess the means
for self-defense. According to the national gun control statutes, a gun licensee must be
over 30 years of age, must have a specified social and economic status and must be
examined physically by a doctor. Women have even more difficulty meeting these re-
quirements because of social and occupational limitations.
There are additional restrictions on the amount of ammunition one may possess, mak-
ing it nearly impossible for a law-abiding gun owner to achieve proficiency with firearms.
A handgun owner, for example, can only purchase 15 rounds of ammunition a year. The
penalties for violation of Sudan’s firearms laws are severe and can include capital pun-
ishment.
The practical application of the gun laws is different. If you are someone the govern-
ment wants to slaughter – such as one of the black Africans of central, southern and
western Sudan – then you are absolutely forbidden to possess a firearm. A US Depart-
ment of State document notes: “After President Bashir seized power in 1989, the new
government disarmed non-Arab ethnic groups but allowed politically loyal Arab allies to
keep their weapons.”
On the other hand, if you’re an Arab who wants to kill blacks, then Sudan’s gun control
laws are awfully loose. In Darfur, there has been a long rivalry between camel-riding Ar-
ab nomads and black African pastoralists. The Arabs consider blacks to be racially infe-
rior and fit only for slavery. In Darfur Rising, the International Crisis Group explains:
“Beginning in the mid-1980s, successive governments in Khartoum inflamed matters by

supporting and arming Arab tribes, in part to prevent the southern rebels from gaining a
foothold in the region … Arabs formed militias, burned African villages and killed thou-
149
sands. Africans in turn formed self-defense groups, members of which eventually be-
came the first Darfur insurgents to appear in 2003.”
The report states that what provoked the black Africans to rise up against the Khartoum
tyranny was “the government’s failure to enforce the terms of a tribal peace agreement
requiring nomads of Arab background to pay blood money for killing dozens of
Zaghawas [one of the African tribes in Darfur], including prominent tribal chiefs.”
Likewise, Peter Verney, of the London-based Sudan Update, writes that the government
armed the Arabs “while removing the weapons of the farmers, the Fur, Masalit and
Zaghawa.”
He points out that the disarmament of the black Africans has been enforced ruthlessly:
“Since 2001, Darfur has been governed under central government decree, with special
courts to try people suspected of illegal possession or smuggling of weapons … The
security forces have misused these powers for arbitrary and indefinite detention.”
While the blacks there are forbidden to possess arms, the Arabs are given arms by the
government – five or six guns per person, according to Amnesty International. The Ar-
abs are then formed into terrorist gangs known as Janjaweed (literally, “evil men on
horseback” or “devil on a horse”).
You can be confident that when handing out rifles to Arab terrorists, the Sudan govern-
ment does not follow its law that anyone who wants a gun must undergo a medical ex-
amination.
As a result of tyrannical oppression, there are armed rebel groups in the Sudanese
genocide regions. That these resistance groups had been able to acquire weapons ille-
gally was a great affront to the United Nations and the gun prohibition lobbies, who de-
nounce any form of gun possession by “non-state actors.” A “non-state actor” is any
person or group whose arms possession is not approved by the government. Good ex-
amples include the Sudanese who were fighting the genocide in their own country, the
Jews in the Warsaw ghetto and the American revolutionaries.
The Sudanese resistance movements, although able to acquire some arms for their
own operations, did not have the resources to protect the many isolated villages in the
vast nation.
So, with black villagers disarmed (thanks to Sudan’s strict gun laws) and Arab gangs
well-armed (thanks to the government), the stage was set for genocide.
In south Sudan, the genocide program has killed 2.2 million victims and driven 4.5 mil-
lion from their homes. Those not killed have often been sold into slavery. Rape has
been extensively used as an instrument of state terror.
150
In Darfur, according to Smith College professor Eric Reeves, the leading US scholar on
Sudan genocide, the Janjaweed have caused the deaths of up to 450,000 black Suda-
nese. The Janjanweed have also raped untold thousands and have forced over 2 million
black Sudanese into refugee camps.
Notably, the majority of villages bombed were villages where there were no armed re-
bels. Thus, the destruction of the villages should be seen not as an overzealous form of
counter-insurgency warfare, but rather as a deliberate attempt to destroy an entire soci-
ety. The ethnic cleansing of Darfur has been so thorough that, literally, there are no vil-
lages left to burn.
The displaced villagers live in squalid refugee camps in Sudan or in neighboring Chad,
where mortality rates from disease and malnutrition are very high. The UN is, incredibly,
pushing for these camps to be turned into “safe areas” under the control of the Suda-
nese military.
The special representative of the UN secretary-general who signed the “safe areas”
plan was Jon Pronk, who in 1995 was in charge of the “safe areas” scheme in Bosnia.
There, Serbs murdered thousands of Bosnians while Dutch “peacekeepers” stood idle.
The Sudanese victims are generally unarmed. Amnesty International reported the testi-
mony of a villager who complained: “None of us had arms and we were not able to re-
sist the attack.” One under-armed villager lamented: “I tried to take my spear to protect
my family, but they threatened me with a gun, so I stopped. The six Arabs then raped
my daughter in front of me, my wife and my other children.”
In cases when the villagers were able to resist, the cost to the marauders rose. Human
Rights Watch reported that “some of Kudun’s residents mobilized to protect themselves,
and fifteen of the attackers were reportedly killed.”
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review asked a US State Department official why there were no
reports of the Darfur victims fighting back. “Some do defend themselves,” he explained.
But he added that the perpetrators have helicopters and automatic rifles, whereas the
victims have only machetes.
Darfur is one of those places where the government has implemented the Rebecca Pe-
ters principle that crime victims should not use arms to protect themselves. The Sudan
Organization Against Torture (a human rights group based in London) reported on
March 20 about an incident that took place on March 7:
Two men “in military uniforms attacked four girls from Seraif idp [refugee] camp, Hay
AlGeer, West Nyala, Southern Darfur. The girls were attacked whilst collecting firewood
outside the camp at 11:30. During the attack, one of the men assaulted one of the girls
and attempted to rape her. The armed man touched the girl’s breasts and attempted to
forcefully remove her underwear. When she resisted, the man began to beat her. In de-
fense she grabbed a knife that she had been using to cut the firewood and stabbed the
attacker in the stomach.
151
“Following the stabbing, the girls managed to escape and returned to Seraif camp
where they reported the incident to police officers inside the camp. The police refused to
file the case.”
One of the rapists later died from a knife wound. “Following the news of the death, the
officers immediately arrested the four girls inside the camp on suspicion of murder.”
They face execution by hanging. The girls are: Amouna Mohamed Ahmed (age 17),
Fayza Ismail Abaker (16), Houda Ismail Abdel Rahman (17), and Zahra Adam Abdella
(17).
Under intense pressure from President Bush, the Khartoum government signed a
cease-fire treaty for south Sudan in late 2004. The government has promised that in
2010, the south Sudanese will be able to vote on a referendum for independence. In
May of this year, the Khartoum government and the Darfur rebels signed a treaty, the
Abuja Accord, which was supposed to stop the Darfur genocide.
But Reeves argues that there is no evidence that the Islamic tyrants intend to stop their
destruction of the people of Darfur. To believe that Sudan will obey the treaties it has
signed is to ignore the fact that in 2003, Sudan ratified the International Convention on
the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide–and then went right on com-
mitting genocide in Darfur. Reeves predicts that hundreds of thousands more Darfuris
will die, while the United Nations continues to fail to act in any way that actually protects
the victims or hinders the genocidaires.
One reason for UN inaction is that the Chinese, Russians and French – each of whom
have Security Council veto power – are determined to protect their own lucrative com-
mercial and oil development relations with Sudan’s tyrants.
Because the international community has utterly failed to protect the Darfuris, they have
every moral right to protect themselves. The United Nations, however, is hard at work to
make sure that genocide victims in Sudan, and anywhere else in Africa, will not be able
to resist.
Sudan is covered by an UN-backed treaty called “The Nairobi Protocol for the Preven-
tion, Control and Reduction of Small Arms and Light Weapons in the Great Lakes Re-
gion and the Horn of Africa.” The protocol was signed in 2004 by representatives of Bu-
rundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda,
Seychelles, Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania.
The protocol requires universal gun registration, complete prohibition of all civilian-
owned semi-automatic rifles, and “heavy minimum sentences for … the carrying of unli-
censed small arms,” as well as programs to encourage citizens to surrender their guns,
widespread searches for firearms, educational programs to discourage gun ownership
and other policies to disarm the public.
152
In other words, the UN is successfully pushing for gun control even in East African na-
tions with current genocides: Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ethiopia.
Several other countries subject to the Nairobi Protocol, such as Rwanda and Uganda,
have recent histories of genocide against disarmed victims. Quite plainly, the UN be-
lieves that even resisting an actual genocide in progress is not a sufficient reason for
someone to want to own a gun.
A similar disarmament project is being pushed by the United Nations in the South Afri-
can Development Community (SADC). Two of the SADC nations–Zimbabwe and Con-
go–are also the sites of current genocide.
Even more extreme UN gun prohibitions – a total ban on firearms imports for civilian
use – are being imposed in the Economic Community of West African States (ECO-
WAS). Among the ECOWAS states are the Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire) and Guinea. Ac-
cording to Genocide Watch, Ivory Coast has entered the final pre-genocide phase of
“preparation”.
In Guinea, the National Alliance for Democracy and Development warns that, “There is
a looming Rwanda-type genocide …”
The gun prohibition lobbies have so thoroughly penetrated the United Nations that at
the UN anti-gun conference, held last month in New York City, gun prohibition lobby
staff actually served as delegates from various governments.
The prohibition lobbies and their UN allies will tell you that people never need guns for
protection – not for protection from rapists, and not for protection from genocidaires.
Governments and the United Nations will protect everyone – they promise.
The tragedy of disarmed victims in Sudan, and all over Africa, shows the deadly false-
ness of the prohibitionist promise. For decades, genocidal tyrants have slaughtered mil-
lions of Africans while the rest of the world has stood idle. Now, the United Nations has
become objectively complicit in genocide, by trying to ensure that never again will any-
one targeted for genocide be able to use a firearm to save himself or his family.
(44 nations have signed the UN Protocol, they’re mostly terrorist nations.) Ron Paul
says:
The point about discussing the genocides? The more things change, the more they stay
the same… remember the Holocaust?
The gun control movement in America has lost momentum in recent years, as evi-
denced by the Democratic Party’s conspicuous silence on the issue in the 2000 and
2002 elections. In the midst of declining public support for new gun laws, more and
more states have adopted concealed-carry programs. The September 11th terrorist at-
tacks only made matters worse for gun control advocates, as millions of Americans
were starkly reminded that we cannot rely on government to protect us from criminals.
153
Perhaps the biggest threat to gun rights in America today comes not from domestic
lawmakers, but from abroad. Even as support for gun control wanes at home, globalist
bureaucrats are working to override national sovereignty and craft international gun
laws.
For more than a decade the United Nations has waged a campaign to undermine Sec-
ond Amendment rights in America. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has called on
members of the Security Council to address the “easy availability” of small arms and
light weapons, by which he means all privately owned firearms. In response, the Securi-
ty Council released a report calling for a comprehensive program of worldwide gun con-
trol, a report that admonishes the US and praises the restrictive gun laws of Red China
and France! Meanwhile, this past June the UN held a conference with the silly title
“Week of Action against Small Arms”.
It’s no surprise that UN bureaucrats, who are predominantly European and third-world
socialists, want to impose gun control worldwide. After all, these are the people who
placed a huge anti-gun statue on American soil at UN headquarters in New York.
They believe in global government, and armed people could stand in the way of their
goals. They certainly don’t care about our Constitution or the Second Amendment. But
the conflict between the UN position on private ownership of firearms and our Second
Amendment cannot be reconciled. How can we as a nation justify our membership in an
organization that is actively hostile to one of our most fundamental constitutional rights?
What if the UN decided that free speech was too inflammatory and should be restricted?
Would we discard the First Amendment to comply with the UN agenda?
Contrary to UN propaganda, gun control makes people demonstrably less safe, as any
honest examination of criminal statistics reveals. In his book More Guns, Less Crime,
scholar John Lott demolishes the myth that gun control reduces crime. On the contrary,
Lott shows that cities with strict gun control – like Washington DC – experience higher
rates of murder and violent crime. Gun control simply endangers law-abiding people by
disarming them.
More importantly, however, gun control often serves as a gateway to tyranny. Tyrants
from Hitler to Mao to Stalin have sought to disarm their own citizens, for the simple rea-
son that unarmed people are easier to control. Our Founders, having just expelled the
British army, knew that the right to bear arms serves as the guardian of every other
right. This is the principle so often ignored by both sides in the gun control debate. Only
armed citizens can resist tyrannical government.
Congressman Ron Paul of Texas (14th District) enjoys a national reputation as the
premier advocate for liberty in politics today. Dr. Paul is the leading spokesman in
Washington for limited constitutional government, low taxes, free markets, and a return
to sound monetary policies based on commodity-backed currency. He is known among
both his colleagues in Congress and his constituents for his consistent voting record in
the House of Representatives: Dr. Paul never votes for legislation unless the proposed
154
measure is expressly authorized by the Constitution. In the words of former Treasury
Secretary William Simon, Dr. Paul is the “one exception to the Gang of 535” on Capitol
Hill. And yes, he got reelected.
155
Our guardian star lost all its glow

The day that I lost you
It lost all its glitter the day you said “no”
And its grey skies turned to blue
Like him I am doubtful

That your love is true
So if you decide to call on me
Ask for Mr. Blue
I’m Mr. Blue

When you say you love me
Then prove it by goin’ out on the sly
Provin’ your love is untrue
Call me Mr. Blue
I’m Mr. Blue

When you say you’re sorry
Then turn around headed for the lights of town
Hurtin’ me through and through
Call me Mr. Blue
I sleep alone each night

Wait by the phone each night
But you don’t call
And I won’t hurt my pride
Call me mister
I won’t tell you

When you paint the town
A bright red to turn it upside down
I’m painting it too
But I’m painting it blue
I sleep alone each night

Wait by the phone each night
But you don’t call
And I won’t hurt my pride
Call me mister....
I won’t tell you

When you paint the town
A bright red to turn it upside down
I’m painting it too
156
But I’m painting it blue
Call me Mr. Blue
Call me Mister Blue
I suppose the reason Hillary won in 2008 was that people were still angry over the war
on terror. Bill started it when he refused take out Osama bin Laden. But, we all know
who got blamed for it, George W. Bush. Oliver North had been right, but Al Gore was
concerned with eventually becoming President. And, when he didn’t, he cried foul. US
Sen. George Allen, R-Va., decided against seeking a recount in his close race with
Democrat Jim Webb. If it had gone the other way, would Webb have insisted on a re-
count?
James Henry “Jim” Webb, Jr. is a veteran Marine, author and politician. Now a Demo-
crat, Webb served in the Republican administration of Ronald Reagan. Webb graduated
from the US Naval Academy and was a member of the Marine Corps until 1972. Webb
was an infantry officer and is highly decorated for his service in the Vietnam War. Webb
earned a Navy Cross, the second highest decoration in the Navy and Marine Corps for
heroism in Vietnam. Webb also earned the Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, and two Pur-
ple Hearts. During his four years with the Reagan administration, Webb served as the
first Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs and as Secretary of the Navy.
Webb wrote the story and was the executive producer for the 2000 movie ‘Rules of En-
gagement’, which starred Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson. In October 2006,
while commenting on the need to break away from stereotypical movie villains, Webb
stated, “[e]very movie needs a villain. Towel-heads and rednecks – of which I am one...,
became the easy villains in so many movies out there.”
I hadn’t given much, if any, thought to killing those soldiers, I was very angry at the time.
Later, I realized that some of them might have had families and it started to eat at me.
My stomach started to hurt and I began to wake up at night with my guts on fire. At first I
tried taking a couple of Pepcid AC at bedtime, but that didn’t work, I just got up later, still
with my gut on fire. Next I tried taking an extra Prevacid with my evening meds, but all
that did was extend the time it took for me to wake up. Finally, I took a Prevacid with my
evening meds and 2 Pepcid AC at bedtime. That worked, but I was waking up more
tired than I had been when I went to bed.
“Dad, you’re suffering from guilt. It seems to me you did what you had to do. The
Prevacid is getting hard to find and you’ve gone through a one year supply in six
months. What’s eating you, killing the soldiers?”
“Derek, I was angry and acted without thinking. Hell, I don’t know where I got the
strength to carry the rifle as far as I did. I also think that I’m getting more depressed over
157
this. It’s not like I was defending myself or my family, I tracked them down and mur-
dered them.”
“If you think that way, you’re not going to get over it or see the necessity of what you
did. Do you think they would have hesitated to seize any firearms they found? Would
they have arrested you and thrown you in a camp? You, of all people, shouldn’t feel
guilty. Would you hesitate to kill a snake that was about to strike? I know you and you’re
answer is, ‘Hell no’. Those soldiers weren’t soldiers anyway, according to the Lamar
County Sheriff’s office they were mercs who worked for Blackwater. They would have
taken your guns and arrested you, but more than likely, they’d have kept that Tac-50 of
yours.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“Think about this, some of the people in Paris are organizing a local militia. They’re tired
of the heavy handedness. Damon and I are joining them and you’d be perfect to run our
communications.”
“What heavy handedness?”
“Anyone caught with a gun has had them seized and they’ve been moved to a camp.”
“What camp?”
“It’s a tent city they erected near Cox Airport.”
“Who are they putting in the camps?”
“Whole families. Everyone in the home where the guns were found. The arrests have
fallen off as people wised up and began to hide their guns. The main problem is EO
14302. They only managed to get 6 of the Supreme Court Justices out of Washington
and if the case makes it that far, they could be evenly divided. The President can nomi-
nate replacements, but first they have to get Congress back together so the Senate can
Advise and Consent. Article II, Section 2, clause 2, provides that the President of the
United States ‘shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate,
shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consults, Judges of the Su-
preme Court, and all other Officers of the United States...’.”
Years ago they made a movie titled Advise and Consent, based on a book by the same
name. The book’s theme is based loosely on the Alger Hiss and David Lilienthal contro-
versies. It starred, among others, Henry Fonda, Charles Laughton, Don Murray, Walter
Pidgeon, Peter Lawford, Gene Tierney, Franchot Tone, Lew Ayres and Burgess Mere-
dith. One discourse:
“What I did was for the good of the country.”
158
“Fortunately our country always manages to survive patriots like you.”
I was a while getting over what I did. The goon squad showing up every few days to
search the house and buildings probably helped. I couldn’t understand why they simply
didn’t arrest me. Why harass my family and me? Maybe if they pushed hard enough I’d
lose my cool and give it away? As the saying goes, I may have been born yesterday,
but I’ve been downtown playing with the big kids all day. I was getting so good at the
senile act I began to believe it myself.
I used my cane as a prop when I went to hoe the garden. I didn’t need it, but it sure
supported the image of how feeble I was. All the time, I was building a few grams of
muscle, or that Loaded M1A had been on a diet. When the goons showed up, I’d further
the illusion by hoeing a part of the garden I’d already hoed, ignoring parts full of weeds.
I suddenly became deaf in both ears and only understood people when they faced me. I
had the dumb look and, ‘Huh?’ down pat. About the time we started canning, they finally
gave up, but not before saying they’d be back for their share of our food.
In truth, I did have mobility problems, my legs were bad and getting worse from the neu-
ropathy. But, we finally ran out of cigarettes and that helped immensely. There was a
two week period without any conversation while I detoxed. Contrary to rumors, the food
didn’t taste any better and I wasn’t any happier, but I did wheeze less. Meanwhile, as
soon as the jars came out of the canner and sealed, they were lugged to the shelter.
When we ran out of jars, we used Ziploc freezer bags and froze the rest.
The garden did well; we had 4 large bags of onions and about 40 gunny sacks of pota-
toes. While there was still a Farmers Market in Paris, you were taxed 50% of your pro-
duce by the military. We heard about it long before we had stuff to take to town and opt-
ed not to go. The boys would take a little in the truck and go door to door trading for
things we needed. In late September, I got out Derek’s chain saw and told him we
needed firewood. I pointed to the empty spaces around the house and told him they
needed filling up.
“Dad, Lincoln freed the slaves.”
“Derek, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, the 13th Amendment to the
Constitution freed the slaves. Which state was the last to ratify the 13th Amendment
and in what year?”
“How would I know something like that?”
“I suppose you wouldn’t, you thought Lincoln freed the slaves. Mississippi, 1995. That
doesn’t change the fact that we need firewood. We’re getting low enough on propane
159
that I’m not going to run the furnace this year. If you can find more propane fine, we’ll
use it; meanwhile we’d better replace the firewood we’ve burned. I don’t suppose you
boys have seen an old wood burning kitchen stoves anywhere have you?”
“We haven’t looked.”
“Maybe you’d better start looking. We can hang the clothes to dry, use the fireplaces to
heat and if we have a wood stove we can get by without propane.”
“What about the hot water heater?”
We have 2 choices, an electric water heater or heating water in/on the stove. The dryer
in the shelter is electric so we can swap it out, if necessary. You might try to find one of
those demand units that runs on electricity like I used in the shelter. I really don’t want to
strip the shelter entirely; we could always need it again.”
“Oh, right, for WW IV.”
“Because of a tornado, a super volcano, or just because we need to hide out for a
while.”
“Do you know how paranoid that sounds? Yeah, I know, just because you’re paranoid…
Anyway how much wood?”
“You can measure the length and divided by 8 to get the number of cords. Or, you can
just fill in the holes.”
Sometimes you just have to know when to lie down and give up. Did you see the movie
titled Twilight’s Last Gleaming with Burt Lancaster? Burt had 2 chances to make it work,
slim and none. Worse, he had Richard Widmark on the other side as a SAC General
determined to get him out of the silo at any cost. Didn’t Charles Durning remind you of
Jimmy Carter? You can try to blackmail the government, but you won’t get away with it
no matter how noble the cause. Would the government ever tell the truth? Put your .45
to your head and pull the trigger, that’s more likely to succeed.
At the moment, I knew just about how Burt felt sitting in that silo. If we pushed this to the
point it became a revolution, the government would call it an insurrection and we’d be
playing with the big boys. Insurrection is the act or an instance of open revolt against
civil authority or a constituted government. The American Revolution was an insurrec-
tion against King George III. The Americans created a political ideology called “republi-
canism”, which was widespread in the colonies by 1775. It was influenced greatly by the
Radical Whigs or “country party” in Britain, whose critique of British government empha-
sized that corruption was to be feared. The colonists associated the “court” with luxury
and inherited aristocracy, which Americans increasingly condemned. Corruption was
160
the greatest possible evil, and civic virtue required men to put civic goals ahead of their
personal desires. A second stream of thought growing in significance was the liberalism
of John Locke, including his theory of the “social contract”. It implied the natural right of
the people to overthrow their leaders, should those leaders betray the agreements im-
plicit in the sovereign-follower relationship.
My family wouldn’t be the ones to start an insurrection, but if one came up, who’s to say
about our participation? The good Lord knows we had what it would take to pitch right in
and help. I hate to bring it up again, but the idea that patriot was a dirty word was irritat-
ing. From what I read on the forums right before and after the 2006 elections, there
were many people who said they’d fight for their gun rights. I can remember a conversa-
tion I had with Ron about then. We agreed that we were either going to have a terrorist
event or an insurrection. The politicians had been whittling, cutting our rights to the
quick. Hmm, I wonder how he’s doing? He liked the mags I got him for his SU-16 and I
think I had him talked into buying a couple of cases of M855. He had another new rifle
too, a Winchester model 70 in .338 Winchester. Both that and his .375 H&H were
scoped, although Ron didn’t hunt.
He told me he had at least a dozen boxes of ammo for each rifle but was pretty short on
pistol ammo. He wouldn’t be taking this laying down. Although Ron was raised in Kali-
fornia, he was born in Brownsville, Texas; that’s a long way from Paris. We had several
long discussions before I left Palmdale discussing what we were going to do when
TSHTF. He bemoaned the fact that he didn’t have a basement or shelter and if
Palmdale got nuked. He said they’d have about enough time to bend over and kiss their
butts goodbye. Near as I could tell, Russia hadn’t nuked Palmdale, they just blew the
stuffing out of EAFB.
He had our number and address, although with long distance out he’d have to get Paris
before he could reach me. Meanwhile I had to run communications for the new local mi-
litia. We decided to use 2 meters and the CB radios. I used the Kenwood for 2 meters
and a scanner to monitor the multiple frequencies. This was a lot easier to do when I
was in high school.
As I understood the plan, the local militia would raise hell in the three county AO. The
leaders of the militia designated Lamar, Red River and Bowie Counties as their AO.
They were convinced that authorities would be looking for them in Red River County. I
figured the authorities would be looking for them in all 3 Counties. The Red River Army
Depot and Lone Star Ammunition Plant were located east of New Boston in Bowie
County. In BRAC 2005, the DOD wanted to close RRAD, but the Commission didn’t
agree. Lone Star next door loads, assembles, and packs primers, fuzes, grenades,
boosters, bursters, detonators, and tracers, as well as ammunition items ranging from
mortars to 155-mm projectiles. The contractor is Day & Zimmerman, Inc. Other tenants
of the facility include Arkansas Hardwood and American Dehydrated Foods. In BRAC
2005, the DOD recommended closure of Lone Star it and RRAD stayed open.
161
Lone Star had a test facility where they tested munitions and disposed of production
that failed quality control. Our people went looking, hoping to find usable explosives the
cleanup people had missed. I heard they had manufactured M67s there; it would have
been nice to find a few cases of those sitting around. What the hell, we could always
pretend to be Clint Eastwood and use dynamite.
There were two ways to approach this and they discussed both. The first, a full frontal
assault, was set aside in favor of the second approach, a guerilla type operation con-
sisting primarily of harassment. Some of these good old boys had done a little time in
SE Asia and they offered to share what some guy named Charlie taught them. I ex-
plained that in one of my earlier stories.
Fourth Generation war is guerilla warfare more than “terrorism.” Terrorism is an enemy
special operation, a single tactical action designed to have direct operational or strategic
effect. Because targets that have such direct operational or strategic effect are few and
are usually well-protected, terrorism normally plays a minor role in Fourth Generation
conflicts – though when it does occur the effects can be wide-ranging.
Most of what Marines will face in Fourth Generation situations is guerilla warfare. Here,
lessons from past guerilla wars, especially Vietnam, remain relevant on the tactical lev-
el. Perhaps the most important lesson is that to defeat guerillas, we have to become
better at their own game than they are. When Colonel David Hackworth commanded a
battalion in the Vietnam War, he called this “out-guerilla’ing the guerilla,” or “out-g’ing
the G.” In his memoirs, About Face, he wrote,
“We would no longer be the counterinsurgents who, like actors on a well-lit stage, gave
all their secrets away to an unseen, silent and ever-watchful (insurgent) audience in a
darkened theater. Instead we would approach the battlefield and the war as our enemy
approached it, and in so doing begin to out-guerilla the guerilla – “out-G the G,”, as I
hammered it again and again into the men of the Hardcore (battalion) – and win.”
What was it George Patton said in the movie, “Rommel, you magnificent SOB, I read
your book.” Thanks to a Marine, we knew we had to “out-G the G.” I had all the Army
Field Manuals on my computer, most anyway. That gave us their tactics and we could
throw in a little Gunny Highway and improvise, adapt, overcome.
“Derek, if your bunch comes in contact with them, try and capture some SINCGARS.
We need one to listen in on them and several more to reprogram so we have secure
communications too. You can reprogram can’t you?”
“I can but Damon can too. He can also repair them if we can get the parts.”
“In that case, find me a pair of antennas and he can mount them on the same pole.”
We checked and the largest pole we could find was a 100’ Douglas Fir pole treated with
creosote. I consulted a source and learned we needed to put 11’ of the pole in the
162
ground. Damon managed to get a lineman from the REA to install the 2 SINCGARS an-
tennas and the antenna for the HF, Tri-band, CB and business band radios. The dis-
tance to the horizon is the square root of 13 times the height in meters. The antennas
were roughly 27 meters off the ground suggesting the line of sight was 19km. That
didn’t allow for the height of the receiving antenna so the range was much more than
11+ miles.
In general terms, HF is up to 30mhz, VHF is 30mhz to 300mhz and UHF is > 300mhz.
That means that CB radios, ~27mhz, are HF radios. Before the war, the FCC had all but
given up on regulating CB. We got the REA guy back and had him install a Starduster
on a 39’ mast attached to the top of the utility pole. With linear amps and the full whip
antennas we could communicate all the way to Texarkana with ease. We operated the
radios out of band, on the high side, where almost nobody else was talking. Ain’t tech-
nology wonderful? At least I know what lyric to include in the next chapter…
“Uh, mister, that mast won’t hold up in a strong wind.”
“Why not, it’s a Radio Shack mast? They haven’t sold them for years but it really doesn’t
have much weight on it. Did you attach it to the pole real good?”
“Well yeah, it won’t come off the pole. But…”
“How much do I owe ya?”
“Oh, nothin, it’s for the militia, right?”
“What militia?” I asked with a wink.
“All you guys are going to do is succeed in getting the feds to come down on us hard.
Y’all know that, doncha?”
“Aw hell, they’re regular visitors out here. I used to have some firearms before I sold ‘em
at the gun shows and don’t have no paperwork to prove it.”
“Seems like lotsa folks sold their firearms at gun shows.”
“Some had them stolen and so forth.”
“Why do you need a CB antenna that’s 125’ off the ground?”
“I like to listen to channel 19.”
“Almost nobody uses CB these days except the truckers. Ain’t no trucks running.”
“Just in case, I guess. Anyway, thank you kindly, I got to get back to my chores.”
163
°
Man, I needed Ronald McDonald here. He had about a dozen old AM CB radios in his
garage in Palmdale. Well, he had our address, he probably either go to Robert’s or
come here.
Uh, Breaker One-Nine, this here’s the Ronald McDonald

You got a copy on me Gar-Bear? C’mon
“Hey asshole, where are you?”
“I’m lookin at a poor copy of the Eiffel Tower.”
“How the hell are you?”
“I’m all plugged up and feel like crap, but Robert and Johnny both died and Lyn said we
ought to go to Paris. I think she meant France, but you can’t get there from here.”
“Hang on, I’ll drive to town and see you in 10 minutes.”
“Drive? You get caught driving without a license; they’ll impound your car.”
“It’s a Jeep and I have a Texas driver’s license.”
“You heal up?”
“Not really, no. I’ll be right there.”
“Hey uglier than me.”
“Nobody is uglier than you asshole. Hi, Linda.”
“Is Sharon ok?”
“She at home working on a quilt. Ron, did you bring your box of CBs?”
“I sold them before we moved to Cedar Hill.”
“Crap, we really needed ‘em.”
“Whatcha got goin?”
“We’re gonna out-G the G.”
“Say what?”
164
“You said you knew about Blackwater?”
“I did 5 years ago. What do they have to do with anything?”
“I’ll tell ya when we get to the house. What’s in the trailer?”
“Everything we own.”
“Did you stop by the Sheriff’s office and show them your travel documents?”
“Ain’t this a bitch! Didn’t have to, they got us on the way inta town.”
“Follow me.”
Fifteen minutes later we were sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee. It was the same
table we had in Palmdale but the chairs were new.
“How did you get permission to travel all the way from Cedar Hill to Paris?”
“We didn’t. I’ve got some stuff on my laptop you ought to get a kick out of. For instance,
blank, pre-signed Travel Documents that you just fill in and print.”
“Maybe I can give you something back you can use.”
“For instance?”
“Meds. The boys have been cleaning out drug stores. We have a little salvage operation
going.”
165
Uh, Breaker One-Nine, this here’s the Rubber Duck

You got a copy on me Pig-Pen? C’mon
Uh, yeah 10-4 Pig Pen, fer sure, fer sure

By golly it’s clean clear to Flag-Town, C’mon
Uh, yeah, that’s a big 10-4 Pig-Pen,

Yeah, we definitely got us the front door good buddy,
Mercy sakes alive, looks like we got us a convoy
Was the dark of the moon, on the sixth of June

In a Kenworth, pullin’ logs
Cabover Pete with a reefer on
And a Jimmy haulin’ hogs
We ‘as headin’ fer bear on I-One-Oh
‘Bout a mile outta Shaky-Town
I sez Pig-Pen, this here’s the Rubber Duck
An’ I’m about to put the hammer on down
Cause we gotta little ol’ convoy, rockin’ through the night

Yeah we gotta little ol’ convoy, ain’t she a beautiful sight?
Come on an’ join our convoy, ain’t nothin’ gonna git in our way
We’re gonna roll this truckin’ convoy, cross the USA
Convoy... Convoy...
Uh, breaker Pig-Pen, this here’s The Duck

Uh, you wanna back off them hogs
10-4, ‘bout five mile or so, 10-roger
Them hogs is gittin’ in-tense up here
By the time we got into Tulsa-Town

We had eighty-five trucks in all
But they’s a road block up on the clover leaf
An’ them bears ‘as wall to wall
Yeah them smokies ‘as thick as bugs on a bumper
They even had a bear-in-the-air
I sez callin’ all trucks, this here’s The Duck
We about to go a huntin’ bear
Cause we gotta great big convoy, rockin’ through the night

Yeah we gotta great big convoy, ain’t she a beautiful sight?
Convoy... Convoy...
166
Uh, you wanna give me a 10-9 on that Pig-Pen?
Uh, negatory Pig-Pen, yer still too close
Yeah, them hogs is startin’ close up my sinuses
Mercy sakes, you better back off another ten
Well we rolled up interstate fourty-four

Like a rocket sled on rails
We tore up all a our swindle sheets
An’ left ‘em settin’ on the scales
By the time we hit that Chi-Town
Them bears was a gittin’ smart
They’d brought up some reinforcements
From the Illinois National Guard
There ‘as armored cars, and tanks, and Jeeps
An’ rigs of every size
Yeah them chicken coops ‘as full a bears
An’ choppers filled the skies
Well we shot the line, an’ we went for broke
With a thousand screamin’ trucks
And eleven long-haired friends of Jesus
In a chartreusse microbus
Hey Sod Buster, listen

You wanna put that microbus in behind the suicide jockey?
Yeah, he’s haulin dynamite
He needs all the help he can git
Well we laid a strip fer the Jersey Shore

An’ prepared to cross the line
I could see the bridge ‘as lined with bears
But I didn’t have a doggone dime
I sez Pig-Pen, this here’s the Rubber Duck
We just ain’t a gonna pay no toll
So we crashed the gate doin’ ninety-eight
I sez, let them truckers roll, 10-4
Cause we gotta mighty convoy, rockin’ through the night

Yeah we gotta mighty convoy, ain’t she a beautiful sight?
Convoy... Convoy...
Uh, 10-4 Pig-Pen, what’s yer 20?

Omaha?!
Well they oughta know what to do with them hogs out there fer sure
167
Well mercy sakes alive good buddy
We gonna back on outta here
So keep the bugs off yer glass
An’ the bears off yer... tail
We gonna catch ya on the flip-flop
This here’s the Rubber Duck on the side
We gone
Bye, Bye...
“Do you know what I take?”
“The only thing I know is that Linda takes Prevacid. However, we’ll go down to the shel-
ter and Derek can go through the boxes and pull out what you take.”
“What shelter?”
“It’s below the house, Ron. I did all the stuff I did in my stories and even hid the en-
trance. I got in trouble with the law and they seem to come by a couple times a week to
search for my guns. I’ve been doing my feeble, senile bit ever since. Sometimes I think I
believe it myself.”
“What did you do?”
“I got very angry when they showed up demanding all of our papers and searched the
house looking for my guns. Four soldiers got killed that day by somebody using a .50
caliber rifle and I once had a Tac-50 registered to me.”
“Once?”
“Well, the story is that I sold all my guns at gun shows to get money for food.”
“Strange, all of mine were stolen.”
“File a police report?”
“Sure did.”
“Where did you hide them?”
“In Robert’s gun safes. Where did you hide yours?”
“In the shelter. Let’s go down there and get you some meds.”
168
“So, you turn and pull up on this pipe and the woodpile swings away like this. There you
go, the ramp entrance to the shelter.”
“Are you going to close it back up?”
“Yeah, you never know when the goon squad is going to show up.”
“What’s that noise?”
“My kids all sleep down here. I’ve got them all, Lorrie, Damon, Derek and Amy plus our
grandchildren.”
“Where’s Missy?”
“Buried behind the house. She had a good life, but finally went blind and her diabetes
was pretty bad. She died.”
“This is a long ramp.”
“It goes three quarters the way around the house. That’s the reason you saw firewood
piled around the house, to keep the feds from using ground penetrating radar.”
“Does it work?”
“I don’t know, they’ve never used it here. Tell Derek what you take and he’ll tell which
box to look in.”
“Big.”
“Same size as the house. Derek, Ron needs some pills.”
Ron had a list, not his usual thing to do, and gave the list to Derek. I showed Ron my
ham shack and the utility room. Finally, I showed him our gun collection.
“I got Sharon one of the SR-556s with the piston. She also has a Mini-14, some cowboy
guns and when she carries, she uses a Hi-Power.”
“Are those M4s?”
“I recovered those from the 4 soldiers I shot.”
“Where are the machineguns?”
“Don’t have any except for the 4 M4s. The militia unit in town is fighting a 4th generation
war, out-guerilla-ing the guerillas. They travel pretty light.”
169
“So, they were right, you shot the soldiers.”
“Yeah, they were right. I just got very angry Ron and my adrenalin got flowing. I humped
that damn Tac-50 a quarter mile, found some cover and took ‘em out in 4 shots. They
weren’t so far away that I had to worry about anything except hitting them. Derek got me
some Raufoss and another Sergeant got me more. Altogether, I have over 2,300 rounds
of Mk 211 MP ammo. It’s HEIAP and can take out about everything except a tank.”
“You murdered them?”
“I sure as hell didn’t ask them to surrender first. Not my finest moment, oh well.”
“And, if I get this right, they suspect you but don’t have enough proof to arrest you.”
“That sums it up nicely.”
“How much is the reward?”
“Not enough to cover the cost of your funeral.”
“When I die, I want to be buried face down, Gar-Bear. I want a tombstone shaper like an
arrow placed right above my Ass. They can engrave it, ‘kiss it’. So, when are you going
to let me shoot your big rifle?”
“As soon as I get one. Sold mine at a gun show to get money for food, remember? You
can shoot yours any ol’ time you want. Be careful though, if they recovered any portion
of the bullets, the barrel in your rifle will match the recovered bullets and you wind up
hanging from an old oak tree.”
“I’ll be careful. Which ammo do I use?”
“Use the ball and adjust the zero. When you done, use one mag of the Raufoss and re-
zero the rifle.”
“I didn’t plan on shooting more than one magazine.”
“Use the Raufoss, it right on the money and the scope is tuned to it.”
“I thought you told me Barrett said not to use a suppressor on the rifle.”
“I did and he did. Funny thing though, several companies built suppressors for the M82.
We have an operation coming up soon, feel like helping me out?”
“What’s your role?”
170
“I sit right here and coordinate communications. I could use someone to watch my back.
You could take one of those M4s if you want. Say, how did you get your rifles halfway
across the county?”
“That was the first thing we loaded. We left the guns safes in Cedar Hill. Then again, I
never had as much ammo as you.”
We’ll get the boys to unload your trailer. Linda and you can stay with us in the house for
now. What do you want for a home?”
“I sorta like the look of yours.”
“It taken. If you can fix the boys up with travel permits, maybe they could find a new
Beacon Hill or the Entertainer Series sitting on a lot somewhere. We can share this
basement.”
“Ron, here are the pills. I gave you all we had of what you and your wife use, except for
the Prevacid, I substituted Nexium, it’s the same difference and Dad won’t take purple
pills.”
“Derek, set aside one of the M4s for Ron to use. He said he wanted to test fire the Tac-
50, so let him use one mag of Raufoss.”
“I’d feel better Gar-Bear with my guns in the shelter. That rifle doesn’t kick as bad as my
.338 or .375. I gave Damon, Derek and Aaron travel papers good for the entire state of
Texas. I’m originally from Texas, you know.”
“Bull, you were 10 days old when your family moved to Kalifornia. What happened to
your kids?”
“Brenda got married and they were living in Bakersfield. Last I knew Kevin and Scott
were in prison. Jennifer is still in Ft. Smith and Paula and her husband were in Ohio.
How did you manage to get yours all in one place?”
“Back on my 66th birthday, I insisted they all come here for birthday cake. I sat them
down and explained the new facts of life. They’d just passed the Gun Registration Act of
2009. Long story short, I encouraged them all to move here.”
“It was about then that Robert died. I think that Johnny mourned herself to death, we
buried them both in 2009. We were ok for a while; I took your advice and stocked up
some. Robert had done the same thing, so we had enough food for a couple of years.
He had that range in his basement and I used it to keep my handguns skills good.”
171
“You know, we dug those biometric chips out, but later decided to have them put back
in. I don’t get out much; ever since I had that little run-in with the law, I’ve been laying
low. I have everyone convinced I’m a feeble old deaf cripple who can’t get around with-
out the wheelchair. I work in the garden, hoeing. If the law shows up, I start hoeing the
same place I’ve already hoed. They probably think I have Alzheimer’s.”
“What’s the deal on this operation you talked about?”
“The DOD wanted to close the Red River Army Depot in BRAC 2005. The Commission
decided not to because of the vehicle maintenance they were doing. They did close the
Lone Star Ammo Plant next door however and moved the manufacturing to various new
locations, some of it to Iowa. We found out that they’re storing some munitions and ex-
plosives in the bunkers at RRAD to supply the Blackwater people. However, Blackwater
isn’t in charge of security there, that’s another contactor. We’re going to raid the place
and properly equip ourselves so we can go up against the government.”
“What’s my job?”
“You’re going to cover my six. We installed a remote antenna switch that cuts the feeds
to the antennas with the push of a button. Being down here, I won’t know what’s going
on topside. If the feds show up, you push the button. That will light a red light in the
basement and I’ll quit transmitting before I blow up the transmitters. The relay has a
built in delay circuit of ten seconds, to allow me time to shut down. The control is that
Stanley Garage Door Opener on the shelf by the antenna switches.”
“That’s it?”
“No, then you sit yourself down at the radio shack in the house and fiddle with the CB
radio. It only has 4 watts and can barely reach to town. You play dumb and tell them
you were talking to Damon and Derek who are out trading. If they say anything, you
start complaining about the asshole who was walking all over your signal. If they ask
where I am, tell them the boys let me ride along to get some fresh air.”
Some of the folks in Paris had worked at either the RRAD or Lone Star at one time and
they knew the lay of the land. They were more than a little certain they could bypass
any security. I know that I don’t have to remind you, but they were going to be out-G the
G.
The US military has a problem and is reluctant to admit it. They are so dependent on
technology, a good old fashioned insurgency is something they have trouble handling.
One would have thought that the Viet Cong would have taught us something. They did,
but that was 40 or more years ago. It seems like in the 21st Century, we’d forgotten the
lesson. An insurgent is: a person who revolts against civil authority or an established
government; especially: a rebel not recognized as a belligerent. An insurgency is: Rising
in revolt against established authority, especially a government.
172
It’s very hard to fight an insurgency as we proved 200+ years ago. We had it proven to
us in Vietnam and again in Iraq. That must be why the government implemented the
draconian measures they did like the implanted ID chips, the travel documents and the
Internal Passports. A person could forge papers, Ronald McDonald proved that. The
hard part was getting the paper, but he had a couple of reams. In order for a person to
beat something like an implanted chip, they needed multiple registered identities. That
took more planning than we had time for. I considered that in a previous story (they’re
actually planning exercises).
Has anyone been paying attention to our government in the 21st Century? Osama
struck the WTC and the Pentagon. That was a sad day for more reasons than ~3,000
people dying, it gave impetus to the USA PATRIOT Act, and there went some of our lib-
erties. The government’s idea of protecting us was to take away some of our rights.
USA PATRIOT Act II didn’t pass, but many parts of it were in fact later enacted. They
did it in pieces and somewhere you probably find what they did all outlined on a piece of
paper.
You know, friends, I did my part. Long before the government came up with biometric
Passports, long before the government came up with uniform state driver’s licenses, I
wrote about it. My point is, don’t blame me, I long ago said that knowledge is power
(Scientia est Presencia). Your problem was you thought I was just some nut case in
Palmdale. If you had biometric Passports and uniform state driver’s licenses, you had a
back door National Identity Card. I remember pundits saying they’d never have them.
Right, like you had a choice.
With the people like we have leading our government and in positions of power, it
seems inevitable that one of two things will happen. If they win, it will be 1984. Other-
wise, the people will have enough and revolt. I’m not suggesting it, it would be sedition:
Conduct or language inciting rebellion against the authority of a state. All I’m doing is
reporting what I see in my crystal ball. Some suggest that the population lacks the
gumption to revolt. They could be right.

Utopian fiction is the creation of an ideal world as the setting for a novel. Dystopian fic-
tion is the opposite: creation of a nightmare world, where utopian ideals have been sub-
verted. Both are commonly found in science fiction writing. Along with Aldous Huxley’s
Brave New World, 1984 is among the most famous and cited works of dystopian fiction
in literature. 1984 tells the story of Winston Smith and his attempt to rebel against the
173
totalitarian state in which he lives. Brave New World, published in 1932, was first in-
tended as a dystopian novel by Aldous Huxley. Set in London in the 26th century, the
novel anticipates developments in reproductive technology, biological engineering, and
hypnopædia that combine to change society. There were other books of the genre,
Fahrenheit 451 and Animal Farm.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are en-
dowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liber-
ty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted
among Men, deriving their just Powers from the consent of the governed, – That when-
ever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the
People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on
such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most like-
ly to affect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments
long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly
all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are
sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accus-
tomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same
Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is
their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new guards for their future se-
curity. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of
Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our
sacred Honor.
That’s just food for thought, it was written in 1776. I like that part that says, ‘That when-
ever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the
People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government’. Understand, there
wasn’t anything wrong with our Constitutional Republic; it was the politicians that admin-
istered it. Can we change that at the ballot box? No we can’t, there are too many people
dependent on the government; we don’t stand a chance. Besides, since WW III, we ha-
ven’t had any elections. There were enough armed ‘unarmed’ citizens that gangs
weren’t a problem.
I’m the type of guy who sometimes lets my principles get in the way of life. An example
might be the TV show, The West Wing. I enjoyed the show but Martin Sheen had to
open his anti-American mouth and I had to quit watching it. Susan Sarandon did the
same thing and I refused to watch anything she was in. I didn’t buy the complete set of
M*A*S*H episodes because Mike Farrell was in it.
No one showed up while the militia was running the operation at RRAD. When I got the
all clear, I went up to the house to join Ron.
“Is it over?”
“They got in and out without being discovered, a former Force Recon guy was in
charge.”
174
“What did you do?”
“Listened, mostly. They did pretty well; Blackwater had a fair amount of stuff stored
there.”
“For instance?”
“M72 LAW rockets, M67 hand grenades plus 7.62 and 5.56 ammo. It’s that new stuff,
M993 and M995. It’s the new armor piercing ammo that the Army tested against BRDM-
2 vehicles.”
“What no SS-109?”
“Yes, they got standard NATO M855 too. If you’ll excuse me, I have to paste together
another chapter for a story I’m writing.”
“Is that how you write all of your stories, cut and paste?”
“I cut and paste things I find interesting yes, but then I have to string all that junk togeth-
er to make it into a story. When I find some good stuff, I save it in my resources section
and use it later, when I can. Sometimes I include lyrics to song I like, if they fit in.
175
I came to town to search for gold

And I brought with me a memory
And I seem to hear the nightly cry
Go hanging your dream on the hanging tree
Your dreams of love that could never be
Hang your faith of dream on the hanging tree
I search for gold and I found my gold

And I found the girl who love just me
And I wish that I could love her too
But I left my heart on the hanging tree
I left my heart with the memory
And the faith of dream on the hanging tree
Now there’ll meant who grave my gold

And man to take my gold for me
When a man is gone, he needs no gold
So they carried me to the hanging tree
To join my dream and memory
Yes they carried me to the hanging tree
To really live you must almost die

And it happen just that way with me
They took for gold and set me free
And I walk away from the hanging tree
I walk away from the hanging tree
And my own true love
She’ll walk with me
That’s when I knew that the hanging tree
Was a tree of life new life for me
A tree of hope new hope for me
A tree of love new love for me
The hanging tree, the hanging tree
The hanging tree
God, how I miss Marty Robbins!
Time to Feed the Hogs Yet?

by Henry Bowman - 05.08.01
Let me try to answer the title question with as much brevity as I can muster: Yes!
176
“Henry!”, you gasp, “what are you saying? You can get your butt in a king-sized sling
talking like that!”
Really? I don’t think so. I think it sorta depends on how you define “Hogs”. If you define
“hogs” as any version of one or more persons who come at you without justification and
with the intention of placing your life or liberty in jeopardy, then I think you’re on pretty
safe ground. Unless, of course, you can find a statute in your local jurisdiction that for-
bids the defending of your own life, or the lives of those around you. Midnight raids con-
ducted at the wrong address due to bureaucratic bungling, or involving warrants based
on knowingly false evidence, or in direct contravention of the US Constitution qualify as
examples of without justification.
But what if those coming at you are from the Government? To which I think the proper
answer is quite simply that if they are acting as described, then by definition they are not
from the government. “Governments are instituted among men, deriving their JUST
powers from the consent of the governed.” If someone you know and who alleges to be
your friend, and who you’ve known for many years as a friend, adopts a course of action
which causes you great harm, and if this person does this without any provocation or
justification, then he has by his own hand redefined himself to something other than
“friend”. He may in fact have redefined himself to the 180-degree position of “enemy”.
We must always remember that “by their fruits shall ye know them”. Or, to put it another
and more contemporary way, it doesn’t matter how “official” the usurper my claim to be,
“if it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck.”
I am indebted to the JPFO web page for the following citation, which will no doubt be
familiar to some of you. It is from the rabbinical commentaries in the Talmud and relates
to the right (or even the duty, one could argue) to defend oneself from harm. It is brief
and to the point: “If someone comes to kill you, arise quickly and kill him.” Any who think
this sentiment ambiguous must surely be the product of government education.
Shortly after I adopted my current nom de plume I wrote a short speech which I intend-
ed to recite at my front door if and when the occasion called for it. Perhaps it is time to
put it out in front again, for the edification of the newer readers and the memory jogging
of some of the older ones.
“Before you take one step into my home, young officer (or deputy) __________, I have
a statement to make which you need to hear.
“I am fifty-nine years old; I have no wife, no children, and little or no prospects for the
future. My daily routine might best be described by the vernacular expression, ‘keepin’
on just to keep on keepin’ on’. I work. I pay taxes. I vote. I delude myself that these
things make a difference somehow. My life has been, like most, a seemingly pointless
progression of ups and downs, with maybe a few more downs than most. Maybe not. I
have owned guns all my life, since the age of seven, and have received considerable
training, both formal and informal, in their use. I have been a peace officer on three oc-
casions and a state-licensed private investigator as well. In all my years of gun owner-
177
ship, I have pointed a gun at another human being on only one occasion, the result of
which was the saving of a life without the gun being fired. All of my guns collectively
have not killed as many people as Ted Kennedy’s car.
“In any event, my situation and yours are almost certainly different in many ways. I sus-
pect you have a family, perhaps a mortgage, and dreams for the future. This puts you in
a position to make a life-altering decision. You can turn around, go back to the station
house, and tell your watch commander that I presented you with satisfactory evidence
of my having sold my firearms to an FFL dealer in another jurisdiction. Your other
choice is for you and I to die today, right here and right now in this doorway, because I
will not live a life of servile subjugation to the state. If I am to be stripped of even one of
my ‘inalienable’ rights, then I have no rights at all, including the right to life.
“Oh, one more thing: I hope that your police training has made you observant enough to
notice that at no time since my opening my door to you have you been able to see both
of my hands. That being said, it’s your call.”
Obviously, the above was meant to apply to a situation created by mandatory firearms
confiscation, and not to a shadowy figure in full ninja garb coming down your hallway in
the middle of the night. Still, the mindset in both situations should be the same.
Our law in this land of the less-than-free is based on the Common Law of England. Both
we and the English have strayed far from the path, and could both benefit by a return to
much of it. While addressing the British House of Commons on the subject of the right
to privacy and need to protect life, liberty and property, William Pitt warned:
The poorest man may, in his cottage, bid defiance to all the forces of the Crown. It may
be frail, its roof may shake; the wind may blow through it; the storm may enter; the rain
may enter; but the King of England may not enter; all his force dares not cross the
threshold of that ruined tenement.
It is past time for the people of this country to relearn this fundamental truth, and long
past the time for the government to be reminded of it . . . by any means necessary.
Henry Bowman
The Henry Bowman Brigade

by Henry Bowman - Posted: 08.09.00
In response to an increasing number of requests for information about the Brigade, I of-
fer the following. Only a little reading between the lines will be necessary.
The Henry Bowman Brigade takes its name from the lead character in the novel Unin-
tended Consequences by John Ross. If you have not as yet read this magnum opus, do
so at the earliest opportunity. Don’t borrow the book from a friend; buy your own copy.
Not only will you want to own it after you’ve finished reading it for the first time, but au-
178
thors of Mr. Ross’ caliber (pun intended) need to be supported in every way possible. I
should add that the concept for the Brigade is mine alone. John Ross is not in any way
connected with it, although his involvement would certainly be welcome at any time.
The Mission Statement is my own creation also. I personally believe that there is noth-
ing in it that Henry might not have written himself. In fact, it is because I feel such a per-
sonal affinity for this character that I have taken his name for my ‘nom de plume’.
As I have indicated in previous writings for various web pages, there are no require-
ments for membership other than sharing a common set of values as indicated in the
Mission Statement (see below). Wallet ID cards, shoulder patches, window decals, etc.
are specifically to be avoided. If anyone approaches you with any of these items for
sale, you should go to condition yellow.
As I conceive the Brigade, its greatest strength lies in its anonymity, in the same way
that a few people carrying concealed makes everybody safer, because the “bad guys”
don’t know exactly WHO is carrying. If you find that you’re in tune with the values of the
Brigade, simply start signing your submitted materials to any and all publishers (web
pages such as this one, letters to the Editor of your local paper, etc.) with the honorific
“Member, the Henry Bowman Brigade”. (See earlier submissions to this web page by
John Galt and Henrietta Bowman.) Let the anti-gun wackos go nuts trying to track down
our little bit of smoke on the wind!
The ultimate purpose of the Brigade is to serve as a “fifth column”, only this time on the
side of the land being occupied, ...our land. As I’ve recently stated in a short note to an-
other Brigade member, the forces of evil will never be able to know for certain who
stands against them when the SHTF. But they WILL know that anyone who appears to
be a hard-working, tax-paying, country-loving, flag-saluting citizen MIGHT be a member
of the Brigade. This should give them cause to reflect; as Dr. Samuel Johnson once re-
marked, “the prospect of one’s imminent demise focuses the mind wonderfully.”
To repeat, the strength of this group lies in its lack of structure. There is no chain of
command, no management tree. When your house is on fire, you don’t need someone
from a higher place in an artificial pecking order to tell you to get the hell out of the
building!
Henry Bowman
Mission Statement of the Henry Bowman Brigade
The Henry Bowman Brigade consists of a small group of people nationwide that has
collectively reached its outrage tolerance limit with regard to the state of affairs in our
country, the corruption of our government, and the degradation of our citizenry.
We have come together to say “no more; this far and no further” to those who would de-
stroy our great nation and the values which gave it birth. We have come together to
179
pledge ourselves and all that we have to reversing the many destructive trends evident
today in our schools, public institutions, governmental divisions and the fabric of social
intercourse in our society.
We have come together to say that we will pay any price, including the highest price, to
make our country again into what it used to be, because we would rather die on our feet
than live on our knees, perish rather than live as slaves.
Finally, we have come together to warn those who would hold cheap our values, our es-
tates and our lives. They will be judged by their own standard, and measured with their
own yardstick. We will repay eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
and life for life.
God Bless the United States of America

Long Live the Republic
Unintended Consequences, by John Ross
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be stocking this new site with recommendations I’d wanted
to make en masse somewhere... and this is the place. I’ve already mentioned Boston’s
Gun Bible in my opening salvo, so I’d be remiss not to follow up immediately with John
Ross’ Unintended Consequences.
I’ve never used this comparison with any other work, but I’m not the first to call it “the
Atlas Shrugged of the gun freedom movement”. As a matter of fact, Vin Suprynowizc is
quoted saying so himself on the book’s dustcover: “A modern novel of liberty to rival
Rand’s Atlas Shrugged... a masterwork.” So, there you go... I stand in good company
making such a bold comparison.
I should add that our own Dr. Edgar Suter proclaims on the same dustcover: “The most
important work of fiction I have read in over a decade.” There, I’ve shamelessly dropped
friends’ names to bolster my own already heady feelings about this work.
At 862 pages of small type on large pages, the novel rivals Rand’s word count. Some
people are put off by that, but I’m one of those people who loves this kind of Big Ameri-
can Novel. I’m also one who really likes the fact that it’s what I’ve heard described as “a
technical manual masquerading as a novel”. It’s not masquerading as such, it’s blatantly
such. Like Atlas Shrugged, it’s an epic novel of ideas, sweeping a century’s history seen
through the lens of the gun rights movement. The technical manual characterization is a
true one, and a big selling point: it’s an in-depth crash course in gun culture, combat
mindset, and the care & feeding of personal arms.
The centerpiece narrative of this work is the plight, flight, and fight of protagonist Henry
Bowman, a self-made millionaire geologist cum petroleum prospector consultant who
finds himself on the victim end of the BATF stick. Much of the book’s early plotline,
however, is taken up in historical narrative, a great deal of which is a compelling drama-
180
tization of the events of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, as well as another narrative sur-
rounding the events leading up to the pivotal 1939 US v. Miller decision.
This is not a book for the faint of heart. It’s not a limped-wristed attempt to justify private
gun ownership from the “sporting arms” angle favored by the national NRA. It’s a full-
blooded celebration of the fundamental human, civil, and constitutionally protected indi-
vidual right, the right to self-defense.
The Sierra Times began its news and information service in January 19, 2000. Our duty
is to provide news, commentary and analysis of current event from a realistic viewpoint.
Opinions, editorials and message boards are given wider latitude, and do not necessari-
ly reflect the views or opinions of the Sierra Times as a whole.
Many people who see the word “Sierra” may jump to the conclusion that this news or-
ganization is somehow affiliated with the “Sierra Club”, a well-known “environmentalist”
political lobbying outfit. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. The Sierra Times is not
affiliated with the Sierra Club whatsoever, nor do we share their concerns.
The Sierra Times was given its name because, at the time of its conception, it was to be
based in Tonopah, Nevada, near the Sierra Nevada mountain range. It began in
Pahrump, Nevada, 60 miles (100km) due west of Las Vegas, nestled near the southern
tip of the Sierra Nevada’s. We are now located in the Finger Lakes region of New York.
As for our political leanings, when you figure that out, let us know. The Sierra Times is
not affiliated with any political party. We consider ourselves independent, yet we have
been labeled left-wing, right-wing, and everything in between. We try, whenever possi-
ble, to be fair in our news reporting, giving both sides of an issue the opportunity to be
heard. This goes especially for our editorial commentaries.
Zealots, on the other hand, get little tolerance here. We find ‘extremism’ on either side
to harm the overall debate. The lone exception is regarding the Constitution of the Unit-
ed States, where we must in fact admit that we are extremists in defending it.
We consider ourselves and our readers “Real Americans”. However, we have and will
never provide a definition of a “Real American”. We leave that decision up to the read-
ers. Our audience also consists of Real Canadians, Real Europeans, Real Australians,
some Real Asians, and Real human beings from all over the world.
The Sierra Times attempts to fill the voids left by state-sponsored and other controlled
media.
Our primary focus began with western land right issues, which is where it shall remain.
We at the Sierra Times believe that agriculture and the harvesting of our natural re-
sources are paramount to our nation’s economic, social and political health. We also
181
believe that those who privately own those resources are the in a position to manage
them in the best interests of the environment as a whole. But most important, we be-
lieve humans are part of the environment, and until scientific evidence proves other-
wise, all other animals remain subservient to humans unless they are granted the power
to vote and gain the ability to pay taxes.
The Sierra Times is also a place where many of the injustices against Americans are
reported, while covered in few other places. This includes our own articles, wire stories,
special features, and commentary. In the case of western (or any other) issues, we en-
courage citizens to report abuses of power or policy in any form. It will get a fair airing
here.
Other than that, The Sierra Times has 10 more amended principles and guidelines we
try to follow, and which could best be described as our ‘mission statement’. It is a pretty
good testimony to our governing principles. They are provided below.
Amendment I Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or

prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press;
or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a
redress of grievances.
Amendment II A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state,

the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
Amendment III No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the
consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
Amendment IV The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers,
and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no
warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and
particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Amendment V No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous

crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in
the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public
danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy
of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against him-
self, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall pri-
vate property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Amendment VI In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy
and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have
been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be
informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses
against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to
have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
182
Amendment VII In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed
twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury,
shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the
rules of the common law.
Amendment VIII Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor
cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
Amendment IX The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be con-
strued to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Amendment X The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor
prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
We hope this helps explain who and what we are.
Sincerely,
J.J. Johnson Founder - The Sierra Times
An Internet Publication for Real Americans
(defunct 2003)
There something awfully familiar about the Mission Statement of the Sierra Times. I’m
sure it will come to me.
From: World Defense Review

Published 15 Jul 05
Ethics in the war against terrorism
By Richard “Rogue Warrior” Marcinko
Special to World Defense Review
This is either the most opportune – or the worst – time for me to express my personal
views on “ethics” within the framework of the “War on Terrorism.” As most of you know,
the SEAL community has just suffered its worst loss of teammates, warriors, lovers and
family members since World War II. Although nothing unethical occurred during the op-
eration in Afghanistan that cost a total of 19 special operations warriors (11 SEALS and
8 US Army personnel) that I’m aware of today; it never-the-less is a dramatic loss.
This is the time of the year that the east coast SEALs hold their annual reunion (week-
end of 15 July) at Little Creek, Virginia and the west coast SEALs at Coronado, Califor-
nia in August. The memorial services have been conducted and there will continue to be
183
heavy hearts during this usual period of bonding and reflecting on the joys of accom-
plishment and team spirit. All members of the community are certainly recognizing the
reality of the War on Terrorism.
A reference book that I use regularly in my preparation for speeches and the writing of
now 14 Rogue Warrior books is Warriors’ Words: A Dictionary of Military Quotations by
Peter G. Tsouras. The book covers warriors’ words from Sersostris III to Schwarzkopf -
1871 BC to AD 1991. For some reason the term “ethics” does not appear as a category.
Does that infer that ethics does not have a role in war? In a general war of historical
value I would say, it does.
In the past, wars were fought to bring damage upon the enemy; today terrorism inflicts
mayhem on innocent civilians; including women and children. Even the conduct of ter-
rorism has changed its tactical application from hijacking planes for a political message
to suicide bombings that are designed to change our life pattern and cripple our econo-
mies.
My Webster’s dictionary defines “ethics” as: “1. The study of standards of conduct and
moral judgment; moral philosophy. 2. A treatise on this study. 3. The system or code of
morals of a particular person, religion, group, professionals, etc.”
By this definition, I would have to logically think that radical Muslim terrorists fall in here
categorically as a “person,” a “religion,” and a “group;” and as intelligence has provided,
some are also occupational “professionals.”
Frankly, I do not find their tactics very “ethical” within our accepted terms and defini-
tions.
That is KEY: I said our terms, definitions, logic, standards, values etc. How rude and
crude of me to think that my (our) views are the ones that universally are accepted.
When I use the word “war” instead of “ethics” I can go back to my book of quotes and
share some words of wisdom from Naval warriors of another era.
“Where evil is mighty and defiant, the obligation to use force – that is war – arises.” –
Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan, Naval Strategy, 1911. (note: not 9/11. But close if
you speed read.)
When I read, listen, view the liberals attack on the activities at GITMO prison, or Abu
Ghraib detention centers, I wonder when they lost the realization that this is war, and
these centers are designed to stop the hated enemy from inflicting more damage and in
that process collect intelligence on what they know, do, will do, were supposed to do,
and why they are willing to die for their beliefs that are so much different than ours.
Remember: we go to war to protect the way we LIVE. They go to war to DIE!!! It is the
same critics that were screaming that we weren’t conducting the war fast enough; we
184
didn’t have good intelligence, etc. Please reflect on this: The prisoners in Abu Ghraib
and GITMO have better living conditions than our troops fighting the war on terrorism.
In my “Red Cell” mentality, if I were a terrorist and needed a break; I’d get caught, go to
the R&R center (we call a prison or detention center), and rest for a while so that when I
was released I would be ready to kick ass again and I would have studied the hated en-
emy (us) in our enclaves.
Now this goes against my logic. If I can save one warriors’ life by making a terrorist “un-
comfortable,” then that makes perfect logic to me.
FACE REALITY please.
Admiral James B. Stockdale – who I had the pleasure to serve under at the Pentagon,
and was another warrior who recently died – was a Naval aviator shot down over North
Vietnam and suffered years of brutal imprisonment; his ordeal made him an advocate of
the power of moral and ethical leadership.
In an article “Educating Leaders” (Washington Quarterly, Winter 1983), he offered:
“Integrity is one of those words that many people keep in that desk drawer labeled ‘too
hard.’ It is not a topic for the dinner table or the cocktail party. When supported with ed-
ucation, one’s integrity can give a person something to rely on when rules and principles
seem to waver, and when faced with a hard choice of right and wrong. To urge people
to develop it is not a statement of piety but of practical advice anyone who has lived in
an intense extortion environment [a POW] realizes that the most potent weapon an ad-
versary can bring to bear is manipulation, the manipulation of a prey’s shame. A clear
conscience is one’s only protection.”
The referred-to “manipulation” is what has been practiced at our detention centers; not
out-and-out physical torture like he and Senator John McCain suffered. Let’s not forget
the treatment of our Blackwater contractors who were killed, beheaded, dragged
through the streets and made a spectacle of by terrorists. Let’s not forget the Iraqi secu-
rity forces, politicians, clergy and most of all innocent women and children they continue
to kill on a daily basis by their bombings. Let’s not forget the train bombings in Spain
and more recently the train and bus bombings in London. These were civilians whose
only fault was that their governments were “coalition partners,” and they did not adhere
to the “proper beliefs.”
Is this an application of ethics in the War Against Terrorism? IS ETHICS A ONE-WAY

STREET?
This is not a war to “win or lose,” but one to keep at bay. The Middle Eastern and Asian
clock runs different than ours. They have patience to wait us out and attack when they
are ready or when it is convenient. We, on the other hand, revolve around a 23-minute
clock. It’s a TV show. We see all our problems – social and other – portrayed, drama-
185
tized, and solved within 23 minutes or maybe as long as 46 minutes. We have no “stay-
ing power.” We are “results oriented,” and we leave the mundane on the cutting room
floor for somebody else to resolve. Our national policy is – and has been – to engage
the enemy “over there” so that we do not suffer collateral damage here at home.
In nautical verbiage, the best anti-swimmer tactic is to keep him out of the water. Keep
the terrorists out of our country and for those cells already here (and they are), keep
them off-balance and unsure of themselves and their targets. With the popularity of Re-
ality TV, I don’t understand why the general population in this country can’t accept that
this is a war without rules, without flags, without borders, without uniforms, and without
our values or logic.
THIS IS A LONG TERM WAR.
In closing, I offer a quote from General George S. Patton, Jr. (from a diary entry on 15
April 1943): “War is very simple, direct, and ruthless. It takes a simple, direct, and ruth-
less man to wage war.”
Commander Richard Marcinko (US Navy, ret.) is the founder and first commanding of-
ficer of SEAL Team Six (a counterterrorist force, which has been reconstituted as Naval
Special Warfare Development Group) and RED CELL (a SEAL unit tasked with testing
Naval security forces throughout the world). Commander Marcinko is also the author of
numerous books, including The New York Times best-seller, Rogue Warrior. His latest
work, Vengeance, is said to be “a thriller ripped from tomorrow’s headlines.”
Authors Note: The reference to the SEAL loss isn’t the event that happened after SEAL
Team 6 killed bin Laden.
186
“When does the action begin? When does the first shoe drop?”
In chapter 7 TSHTF the first time. People didn’t stop and think, TSHTF when Bush
signed the John Warner Bill. The reality was we’d always have major public emergen-
cies in one form or another. The weather was responsible for some of those, mother
earth and her hot center for a few more and a person could never discount the effect of
global warming.
They said it would take to the end of the 21st century for the sea level to rise to a level
where coasts were threatened. They said the Gulf Stream wouldn’t sink any time soon.
They are guessing. Who cares about global warming when the government only repre-
sents itself? It’s going to tell us what is good for us and what isn’t. If I was paranoid
when I was 5, I’m positively psychotic now.
Ron likes to take a different view. He says in the long-term it will all even out. He’s
probably right, but we have to get from the short-term first. My ulcers never totally
healed because I worry too much. I worried that sooner or later, someone would figure
out we had a shelter under the house.
The boys found a Beacon Hill, plan D, sitting on a lot. It was, in every way, identical to
our home. I got the contractor out to put in risers so Ron and Linda’s new home could
be firmly attached to the ground. It took a week to get the risers in and another week to
assemble the home. The final stage was moving their things into their new home. A few
days later, the feds showed up and wanted to search the place.
“Take a chill pill Ronald you’re going to have a heart attack.”
“Son-of-a-bitch! Have you been putting up with this for long?”
“Ever since I took out those 4 soldiers. They’ve tapered off some, thanks to my antics. I
have a spare hoe if you need it.”
“For 2¢, I’d take ‘em on.”
“You’re free to join the Resistance. We’re small and the only thing we’ve done so far is
secure better munitions. All you have to say is that you’re in and I’ll sponsor you.”
“I’m in. Where can I get a set of radios like what you have?”
“You can take the set in our house; most of my radios are in the shelter. What do you
want to do for the Resistance?”
“Anything they’ll let me do.”
187
“Are you familiar with explosives?”
“Nope.”
“Me either. Have you ever shot an M4 carbine?”
“Nope.”
“Me either. On this last operation, I ended up doing nothing but listening to the radios, I
felt like I got left out.”
“You were left out? Man, I was sitting in your house with a garage door opener, waiting
for the feds to show up.”
“I’m beginning to think they aren’t military but Blackwater. There’s no way to tell of
course, except from their attitude. I can’t believe the military would run that roughshod
on the populace. Besides, did you notice their guns?”
“MP-5SD?”
“Nope, UMP-45s with suppressors. And, they all had the same weapons except for their
sniper. I think they call those troop carriers the Grizzly. It will stop any ammo up to and
including .50 caliber. Those weren’t USGI vehicles.”
“How do you stop them?”
“I doubt they could stand up to LAWs. I didn’t hear how many they got, but if it’s enough,
maybe you and I can each get a case. There are 5 to a case, in case you’re wondering.”
“What about that new ammo you were talking about?”
“The M993 and the M995? It was tested against the Russian BRDM-2, but I doubt it was
tested against the Grizzly. The BRDM-2 series, with maximum armor of 14 mm, can be
penetrated by artillery fragments and .50 caliber machine gun fire. Its tires are not pro-
tected by armor and are particularly vulnerable to puncture from fire of all kinds. Russia
built those in the 60s. I think their latest vehicle is called the BTR-T aka BMP-4.”
I had no idea whether my Raufoss ammo would penetrate the hull of a Grizzly and
frankly, the risk of finding out was too great. The vehicle had several firing ports plus
various guns up top in roof mounted turrets: Light Machine Gun, Heavy Machine Gun,
Grenade Launching Machine Gun and TOW missiles. Why would a private security firm
build an armored vehicle with TOW missiles? One man had strong opinions on our
fighting vehicles.
188
“Dad, we have an operation coming up and we’re shorthanded. Could Ron and you
help?”
“Do you mean with the radios or on the operation?”
“On the operation. You can give Aaron your Loaded M1A and Ron can use the Super
Match. We need cover in the form of a couple of snipers. You wouldn’t be on the front
line, but close to it.”
“Would I have to carry the Tac-50 very far?”
“On second thought, you take the Super Match and let Ron use the Tac-50.”
“I’ll talk to him; he’s been itching for action. Say, did you get enough LAWs that Ron I
can each have a case?”
“I put 2 cases in the armory. Do you know how to use them?”
“Nope, but I have Army FM 3-23.25, I’ll read up on them. 2 cardboard cases or 2 wood
cases?”
“2 wood cases, each containing 3 cardboard cases. Each case holds…”
“Five rockets. Yeah, I know, I read up on the LAW rockets. Tyne Daly doesn’t know
much about them, you know.”
“Huh?”
“Never mind. It was The Enforcer, Dirty Harry number 3. I’ll talk to Ron and see if he
wants in.”
“Let me know soon, the operation is tomorrow.”
“Is Ron here?”
“He taking a nap.”
“Wake him up; he’ll want to hear this.”
“Gee, I don’t know, he…”
“HEY ASSHOLE, WAKEUP!”
“What do you want uglier than me?”
“Want to go on a mission?”
189
“When?”
“Tomorrow. They need snipers to back them up.”
“My rifles are hunting rifles, not sniper rifles.”
“You can use the Tac-50 and I’ll use the Super Match. By the way, we have LAW rock-
ets, one case each.”
“How many is that?’
“15 each. I’ll replace the ball ammo with Raufoss and you can take all 10 magazines. I
don’t think we’ll get close, maybe 1,000 meters. Derek said they needed someone to
cover their back.”
“What time?”
“We leave at midnight. I’ll put the MUNS night scopes on the rifles. You’d better get
some more sleep, I come back around 11pm.”
“I’m awake now, asshole.”
I headed to the shelter to get our gear together, add the night sights and unpack some
LAW rockets. When I’d finished, I went upstairs to get something to eat.
“I wasn’t planning on supper for a while Gary.”
I’ll settle for anything, Ron and I are going out on a mission tonight. I have to pick him
up later.”
“Do you want a sandwich or something more substantial?”
“Could you fix me a box of macaroni and cheese?”
“Anything else?”
“Not that I can think of.”
“I can fix you green beans, sliced bread or…”
“I said no. You know the word, right? Capital N lower case o. It means I don’t want any-
thing else. Just the macaroni and cheese, please.”
190
“Where Ron and you going?”
“I don’t know, Derek didn’t tell me.”
“Is it dangerous?”
“It could be, but it will be dark and we’ll be about 1,000 meters from the action. We’re
going to provide sniper fire to cover their backs.”
“Is it dangerous?”
“There always an element of danger, Sharon. A rock could come out from behind the
sun and smack us on the head. Someone with a machinegun could spray our position.
We could get in an auto accident on our way to save the world. Ron could have a heart
attack or I could get hypoglycemia.”
“Maybe you had better stay home.”
“I gave my word so I can’t stay home. We probably won’t even fire a gun; Derek spent a
year in Iraq and never had to fire his.”
“Which rifle are you taking?”
“I was going to take the Super Match, but Aaron didn’t bring it back. I think I’ll take my
Loaded, it’s almost as accurate.”
“Ron taking the Tac-50?”
“That’s what Derek suggested, it’s pretty heavy and 10 magazines of ammo must weigh
a ton.”
“How many magazines are you taking?”
“One in the rifle, eight in my vest and a bandoleer with another 10 mags. I’ll leave it in
the Jeep unless I need it.”
“You be careful, you’re too old to be doing things like this.”
“I know, I thought he’d want us to monitor the radios. We probably won’t be able to see
much except for the night vision scopes I put on the rifles. I had to sight the scope; it’s
the one I got for the Super Match. I loaded the mags with Black Hills Match and Ron
has Raufoss.”
“What are you talking about, bullets?”
“Yes. Well, actually the kind of ammo we’re going to be using.”
191
“When are leaving?”
“I have to pick Ron up at 11, which should give me time for a nap. Could you wake me
at 10?”
“Sure, I’ll still be up.”
“Gary, it’s 10:15.”
“Man, I hope you have some strong coffee, I was out like a light. I’ll run through the
shower to wake up, could you bring me a cup?”
“What is there left to do?”
“Pick up Ron and leave. I’d better call him and make sure he’s awake.”
If I had wanted Sharon to wake me up at 10:15, I’d have said 10:15 and not 10:00. I’d
learned long ago to add up to a half hour to the time I really wanted to get up. Ron had
been up for 20 minutes. I rushed through the shower, had a cup, used the bathroom
again and when I was properly dressed, walked over to Ron’s.
“Ready to go partner? Everything you need is in the Jeep. I even put in 2 M4s and a
bag of mags, just in case.”
“Whatever.”
The full moon allowed us to drive without headlights, It would have been far better if we
had night vision goggles, but we didn’t. Derek provided AN/PVS-27 MUNS night vision,
the best, and it was available to both the military and civilians but was expensive, cost-
ing more than the Tac-50 rifle.
To prevent us from getting lost, they sort of stuck us in the middle of the small convoy.
When we got to where we were going, Cox Field, I realized my first mistake. That airport
was lit up brighter than day, we needed the day scopes. That was easy we dismounted
the night scope mounted in front of the day scope.
“I think sometimes that paranoia is a good thing. Now that I know where the operation
is, I’m glad I brought 2 cartons of LAWs rockets. We’d better hurry; they’re getting set
up now.”
We weren’t short of guns, I had my M1A, an M4 and the PT1911 .45. Ron had my Tac-
50, an M4 and his .41 magnum SA Ruger. We had more ammo than we’d probably
need. They had Cox Field lit up bright as day, with roving patrols in vehicles and on foot.
The vehicles could have been those Grizzlies I mentioned, I’d only seen one picture, 5
years before.
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°
One of the ARNG critical readiness requirements is small arms and crew-served weap-
ons modernization. With the advent of Army Transformation to Units of Action (UA’s) the
ARNG has currently documented shortfall of 3,377 Mk19’s. Operational requirements
resulting from the GWOT have resulted in extensive unit-to-unit transfers of Mk19’s to
deploying units. M2 .50 caliber machine guns and operational barrels are also in short
supply. As the primary suppressive weapon for CS and CSS any shortage of these
weapons is critical.
The RDD validates an ARNG requirement by 2005 for 9,159 Mk19’s at a cost of $15.5k
each. On hand are 5,782 Mk19’s, the majority of which are deployed. Fielding to fill the
previous ARNG requirement was completed in 2003 and the new increased require-
ment has not yet been programmed. The Mk19 UFR is 3,377 and may increase as
ARNG modularity above UA level is documented.
Funding the Mk19 will give National Guard Soldiers the same capability as Active Army
Forces to deploy and operate with maximum effectiveness on all fronts of the Global
War on Terror. It greatly contributes to their ability to rapidly defend themselves with
high volume, suppressive fire in adverse conditions. Failure to fund the Mk19 will in-
crease soldier risk and the costs of pre-deployment cross-leveling, which also degrades
the ARNG’s ability to train for and execute both its federal and state missions.
The original plans to replace obsolete, but numerous .50 caliber (12.7mm) Browning
M2HB heavy machine guns in the US service listed the 25mm XM307 OCSW weapon
as a successor to the 80+ years old Browning. But the delays in the development of the
highly expensive and sophisticated OCSW led to the conclusion that the US Forces do
need something new, and at least as effective as old “Ma Deuce” (M2HB) right now. So
in 2000 US military requested a lightweight, .50 caliber machine gun to supplement old
M2HBs until the arrival of the much more effective 25mm XM307 OCSW system. The
XM312 “lightweight heavy machine gun” is based on the 25mm XM307, but without its
comprehensive and expensive explosive ammo and fire control it is much cheaper and
could be finalized much faster.
The XM312 will be one of the lightest (if not lightest of all) .50 caliber (12.7mm) machine
guns on the market. This advantage, which will make it two-men portable, comes at the
cost of decreased cyclic rate of fire, which is more than 2 times lower, than on other .50
caliber guns. This will make this gun strictly anti-ground weapon, because this low rate
of fire will make it ineffective against fast-moving targets like helicopters and low-flying
aircrafts. The practical rate of fire, however, is quoted to be no less than of M2HB,
around 40 rounds per minute. XM312 also should be no less (if not more) accurate than
the M2HB. (The XM307/XM312 programs were cancelled.)
Have I ever told you the Army is going to improve itself to the point where it can’t func-
tion?
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°
Blackwater wasn’t hampered by such foolishness. They picked systems that worked,
like the M2HB and the Mk19. I had followed up on them after I’d learned about them
and they were mostly SOCOM troops, our very best and they earned more working for a
private contractor. There for a while, they only worked for FEMA. They simply didn’t
know who they were up against, the dynamic duo from Palmdale.
I heard a command in my radio, “Go.” I nudged Ron and told him to pick a target, I’d do
the same. My day scope for my M1A was that Burris red dot sight with a 3MOA dot. It
was less than worthless at 1,000 meters so I settled for providing suppressing fire.
Ronald set the sight on the Tac-50 for 1,000 meters and began to pick them off, one by
one. He was a pretty good shot for an old fart. He concentrated on the people in the
towers on the near side of Cox Field (PRX).
I wasn’t so sure this was a good idea, freeing the people from the camp. It meant we’d
have to produce more food, find more weapons and ammo and just hope they’d built up
enough resentment at the feds that they’d join the militia. One would have thought that
Ron and I were far enough from the action to avoid return fire. Both the M1A and Tac-
50 had the good flashhiders (suppressors) a Surefire FA762S and a Jet, so I was sure
they couldn’t see us. Neither of us was firing fast enough to heat the cans to the point
they’d show up on infrared. The only thing I came up with, after we got home, was that
one of those Blackwater people was aware they were being sniped at and decided to
rake the ridge we were on.
He started just below the top of the ridge and walked that Ma Deuce across and then
moved a row higher and went back across. About the third time, we realized what was
happening and ducked. If we’d been 2 seconds slower, we’d be pushing up daisies. The
4th pass put slugs in our positions, or should I say where we had been seconds earlier.
The gunner made a 5th pass ventilating the air and then somebody from down below,
shot him.
“That was close.”
“Too close. I’d rather write about it than do it.”
“Gar, we’re too old for this chit.”
“Amen. Next time, I’ll loan them the rifles and you and I will stay home. Are you ok? You
didn’t get hit did you?”
“It wasn’t for lack of trying. No. I’m ok. I don’t see anyone else left to shoot.”
“We’d better wait until someone calls us on the radio and tells us to stand down. Of
course, that doesn’t mean we have to shoot anymore. I don’t want to anyway, I loaded
194
my magazines with Black Hills Match and all I have is a Burris red dot sight. Hell, I could
have used that South African surplus.”
“Why didn’t you load half the mags with surplus and half with match ammo?”
“I was counting on Aaron returning my rifle and once I got going, I guess I didn’t know
when to stop. From now on, I’ll do that, load 10 each and all I’ll have to do is switch
bandoleers.”
“Where did you find bandoleers that would hold loaded 20-round magazines?”
“I didn’t find them, I made pattern and asked Sharon to make me a couple. She also
made those 6 magazine bandoleers for the Tac-50. I sure wish I had one that the day I
went hunting.”
“How did you manage to carry 5 magazines?”
“One in each back pocket, 2 in my waist band and one in the rifle. I damned near
walked out of my pants. Thank God I could drive back, I was exhausted by the time I
lugged that stuff a quarter mile. A round goes about ⅓ of a pound.”
“Target secure; stand down.”
“Roger. Well, Ronald, let’s start humping the stuff back to the Jeep. It should be easier,
you’re carrying less ammo. I’ll get a paper bag and police the brass.”
“You know someone who can reload .50 caliber ammo?”
“No, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t someone who can. I even save the Berdan primed
South African; it can be reloaded, it just harder replacing the primer.”
I’m guessing it was about 4am when we got home. We put the weapons in the shelter
and headed off to bed. Tried? I was tired before we left, now I was closer to paralyzed. I
stripped off my clothes and fell into bed. The next thing I knew, Sharon was standing by
the bed holding a cup.
“What time is it?”
“1pm. You sawed about a cord of wood.”
“Honey, I have a headache, could you get me a pill?”
“What do you want?”
“2 Norco.”
195
°
I liked the ‘ines’, caffeine and nicotine. While I can give you 100 reasons not to use ei-
ther, there was one reason why I did, because I wanted to. That was the last OP Ron
and I ever went out on. I did get my Super Match back from Aaron, after the OP went
down. I got it all sighted back in. They set up another radio system in Paris. After freeing
the hostages from the camp, we figured the military would be back in force; they said
they’d be back but they never came.
Paris hadn’t been directly touched by either terrorist attack or the war. Other than fallout
and some heavy handedness by the feds, or their minions, we were in fair shape. As far
as I knew, we didn’t have some guy with a storage building filled with weapons. It hadn’t
mattered, he hadn’t passed them out on Jericho either. We were in the same state we
were in 2007. This country has survived terrorist attacks before but, we’d never had
WW III before.
And, we found more Marlboros and KOOLs.
196





Can you hear me running (can you hear me calling you?)

(Can you hear me) hear me calling you?
(Can you hear me running) hear me running babe?
(Can you hear me running) hear me running?
Calling you, calling you
In 2012, the US was a far different county; the politicians had come out of the closet, so
to speak. In most cases, it was all about power; they had it and intended to keep it.
2010 should have been an off election year and 2012 was Presidential election year; it
197
didn’t happen, the excuse being the voting machines were destroyed, there was trouble
getting paper ballots printed and they didn’t want any hanging chads. The government
had worked with Clear Channel Communications, or someone, and had restored radio.
It had a new format, mostly propaganda interspersed with the news. Local news was
accurate, national news was anybody’s guess.
With federally approved driver’s licenses, Internal Passports, travel documents and the
embedded chip anyone who wanted to know who you were didn’t really need to ask;
with one waive of a wand, they knew your whole life history. The business about asking
for ID and papers resembled something out of a bad B movie. I hadn’t blamed anyone
who gave up the information about who we were, a person could run, but they couldn’t
hide.
The government eased the new system in, little by little, starting with Dubya. He had the
excuses, 9/11, Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom and the continuing terrorist threat.
The problem with the Border Fence Act was it didn’t fence in our entire border. Our bor-
der was 12,034 km long, including: Canada 8,893 km (including 2,477 km with Alaska)
and Mexico 3,141 km. We really needed to fund 3,141km + (8,893-2,477km) =
9,557km. What’s more, we needed to fund it 20 years ago. If they got rid of all that fed-
eral aid 20 years ago, people would have worked or starved.
The idea of having papers was wholly unconstitutional, beyond having an External
Passport and a state ID card. The biometric chips didn’t accomplish anything; terrorists
bought the machines from the same manufacturers the government used. A person
didn’t have to go to the DMV to get a state ID card or driver’s license, they just cost
more. They were authentic, right down to the imbedded holographic image. Just don’t
get stopped by a cop. And, after the war, even that wasn’t a problem.
A global thermonuclear war does more than blow up buildings and kill people, it chang-
es governments and the rules they operate by. It also changes the survivors; just like
there are damn few atheists in foxholes, there aren’t so many liberals around when the
government has proven it can’t protect the people or keep making their entitlement
payments. If the government couldn’t guarantee utilities or motor fuel, how could they
make entitlement payments? That was hard, Ron and Linda, Sharon and I were all on
retirement and Damon got disability. Or, should I say we used to?
Social Security money was supposed to be separate from the government money. Re-
member Gomer Pyle? Surprise, surprise, surprise Sgt. Carter (he died of a heart attack
in ‘74). Except the government borrowed some. It wasn’t supposed to be a problem. In
truth, it probably wasn’t, no matter where Social Security had the money invested, it
would have been gone.
Our home was paid for, but it probably wouldn’t have mattered. The stores couldn’t col-
lect sales taxes because they had no goods to sell. Everything available was now trad-
ed at the Farmer’s Market. Property taxes piled up uncollected, few if any people had
198
the money to pay them. They couldn’t impose an income tax without causing a taxpayer
revolt.
People didn’t stop and think about the effect Hurricane Katrina had on Texas hospitality.
Katrina redistributed New Orleans’ population across the southern United States. Hou-
ston, had an increase of 35,000 people; Mobile, gained over 24,000; Baton Rouge, over
15,000; and Hammond received over 10,000, nearly doubling its size. Even Chicago got
some, about 6,000. In the wake of Katrina in August 2005, Houston provided shelter to
more than 150,000 people from New Orleans in various facilities around the city, includ-
ing about 24,000 who were sheltered in the infrequently-used Astrodome stadium.
You knew Houston got hit; it was the fourth largest city in the US. We were in between
the space shuttle and the new Orion. Prior to receiving its current name Orion was
known as the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV). Each F-1 engine produced 1,500,000 lbf
(6.7 MN) of thrust. The new RS-68 engine produced 650,000 lbf (2.9 MN), but it had 2 5
section solid booster rockets. The space shuttle used the same rocket with 4 sections.
Lots of people had probably missed that, but I followed the space program as close as I
followed the fall of the nation. I guess we weren’t going to the Moon or Mars now, were
we?
I watched the program on the History Channel back before we’d moved from Palmdale
to Paris. The show was titled, World War III? Beyond Lebanon. It examined whether the
Muslim extremists would format WW III. I’d always maintained that, for all of its postur-
ing, it could be Russia. My second guess had been China, but considering the number
of places attacked, China didn’t have enough weapons. Iran was only interested in at-
tacking Israel, but I don’t know how that came out, and neither did Ronald.
“Gar-Bear, did you ever figure we’d both end up in Texas hoeing gardens?”
“Ronald, I never figured on Texas, especially a town named Paris. What I can’t figure
out is why the government hasn’t been back? The only thought that comes to mind is
that that camp was run by FEMA contractors.”
“Blackwater?”
“Or someone very much like them. If those vehicles we saw were Grizzlies, then the
contractor had to be Blackwater. I understood they said they’d be back. If that’s really
the case where are they? Who the hell was that Robert Hawkins character in the Jeri-
cho TV series? You know that black guy with all the survivalist equipment.”
“He had to be a spook.”
199
“I figured as much. He had a case of M-16s or something. Say, I’m giving some thought
to using the SR-556 in the future. As much as I like the M1A, especially the Super
Match, it’s just getting too much to carry.”
“Can I have it?”
“Have what?”
“That Super Match of yours.”
“What are you, nuts? First you wanted my Tac-50. I let you use it. Now you want my
Super Match? You’re the guy with the .375 H&H magnum and the Winchester .338
magnum. They both have scopes, why do you want my Super Match?”
“I was just trying to see if I could really piss you off.”
“I don’t get angry, I get even, remember? I’ll keep the Super Match as my backup and if
you really need a sniper rifle, I’ll loan you the Tac-50 and some Raufoss. You know
what; we never fired any of those LAWs because the range was too far. Now that pisses
me off big time, I always wanted to fire a rocket.”
“We might still get the chance, Gar-Bear, Blackwater or the military could always come
back. It doesn’t have to be Blackwater, it could be Crescent Security Group or one of a
few dozen firms the government used.”
“You know what? I never really wanted to be a soldier. I never wanted to do any more
than defend the home place. So far, all that has amounted to defending it against weeds
in the garden. I don’t have a castle, not even a Castlebrook barn. What I really need is a
drink.”
“I always told you I’d buy you your first one.”
“But not the second?”
“Nope. How long do you have?”
“I guess it’s 12 years. Crap, you must be coming up on twenty on the third of April.”
“I am, but who’s counting? I never figured I’d live long enough to get twenty.”
“Well, that calls for a drink, coffee?”
“I brought my own sweet and low.”
“Are there any cars coming?”
200
“I don’t think so why?”
“Do you see that butterfly down by the gate?”
“Barely, why?”
“I’ll bet I can hit it.”
“How much will you bet?”
“Nothing, my dad lost a nice rifle that way.”
Most days, that’s the way it went. We were either sitting on the patio drinking coffee or
in the garden murdering weeds. Our lives weren’t like a box of chocolates, we always
knew what we were going to get. We took time out every Saturday morning to put a few
magazines though our guns, just in case.
Thank God we weren’t depending on the generators anymore. The REA had the power
up and running and that let us listen to the radio. I missed the Country western music,
but this was some form of public radio. They had the news at the top and bottom of the
hour and propaganda in between. Sometimes, the times between the top and bottom of
the hour were nothing but empty air time. I decided to grow a beard, but cut it off when it
began to itch.
Ron and I had good relationships with our hoes and you can take that any way you want
to. Considering our age, we mostly leaned on them. I longed for a tiller to do between
the rows and couldn’t find one, despite looking several times. Damon and Derek had
gone crazy; I swore they’d wear my chainsaw out. Our 28 cords of wood surrounding
the house had become 56. Ron had the same amount as we did. They were selling ex-
tra wood and some of our produce at the Farmer’s Market in Paris. Working together,
we kept the shelves full and occasionally got more ammo, usually reloads. Using re-
loads can be very risky, it depends on whether the person reloading knows his/her
business, has the right components and has their dies set up right.
Hillary wasn’t headed to Paris, the best decision she ever made. The Air Force had put
up a new type of GPS about 4-6 years before; they were supposed to be resistant to
EMP, jamming and have an extended life. Not that we needed GPS, we didn’t go any-
where. The Gulfstream relied on GPS, among other things, to get to its destination.
They left Colorado headed for Arkansas and we didn’t have a clue, there hadn’t been
anything on the radio.
“Look at that.”
“Look at what?”
201
“That’s a contrail.”
“That’s a long ways from here Ronald, it must be a military flight; the airlines went out of
business.”
“That’s the first one I’ve seen since the war.”
“It probably took them that long to get a plane to fly. Must be somebody important to
merit a jet.”
“You want to swap hoes?”
“Why? I’m just getting used to the one I have.”
“Mine’s dull. Let’s take a break and I’ll put a file to it.”
“You file that many more times and you won’t have much hoe left. I guess we could take
it into Paris and have a new sickle blade welded on (Warren hoe, not a draw hoe or a
Dutch hoe).”
“Gar-Bear, who do you think was in that plane?”
“How should I know? John McCain, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry? If it’s a Democrat, may-
be we’ll get lucky and it will crash.”
“Look at that. More contrails, it must have a fighter escort.”
“Get your hoe and let’s go to town.”
“Did you hear?”
“Hear what? Ron and I saw 5 jets fly by a while back. They were way up north, so we
couldn’t have heard them. We just came to town to get his hoe repaired.”
“Break the handle?”
“Wore out the blade. I figured to get a new sickle blade welded on and we could grind it
to shape.”
“Why don’t you just get a new hoe?”
“There’s nothing wrong with the handle, it just needs a new blade.”
202
“Whatever. Dad, I don’t know anything about any airplanes. You said you saw con-
trails?”
“At first there was just one, possibly a twin engine aircraft. Later Ron pointed out that 4
more single contrails joined the first. I know both piston and jet aircraft can produce con-
trails, but as fast as the planes moved across the sky, my money is on jets.”
“I’ll pass it along and you can get back to your ho’s.”
“I don’t like the way you said that, it’s hoes with an ‘e’, not the other kind. I think you
should consider raising the alert level from guarded to elevated.”
“Because you saw 5 planes?”
“Exactly. I couldn’t tell the heading, but it was close to east. If Broom Hillary went to
ground, my money would be on her hiding out at either Cheyenne Mountain or Hollo-
man AFB. We’re close to done cleaning up since the war; it’s about time for her to ap-
pear.”
“If she were still alive, why wouldn’t she have made herself known before now?”
“Nobody said she was stupid. She could assert that national security concerns kept her
wherever she was hiding. Ron told me that the government wouldn’t have to depend on
only Blackwater; he mentioned a company named Crescent Security. He said the gov-
ernment probably had a couple of dozen firms on their payroll.”
“That’s right, Dad, there were several contractors in Iraq. The ratio of contractors to mili-
tary was 1:10, compared to 1:50 during Desert Storm. The top 20 companies in 2004
were:
1. KBR (Halliburton), Houston, Texas: $11.431 billion

2. Parsons Corp., Pasadena, Calif.: $5.286 billion
3. Fluor Corp., Aliso Viejo, Calif.: $3.755 billion
4. Washington Group International, Arlington, Va.: $3.133 billion
5. Shaw Group/Shaw Engineering and Infrastructure, Baton Rouge, La.: $3.051 billion
6. Bechtel Group Inc., San Francisco, Calif.: $2, 830 billion
7. Perini Corporation, Framingham, Mass.: $2.525 billion
8. Contrack International Inc., Arlington, Va.: $2.325 billion
9. Tetra Tech Inc., Pasadena, Calif.: $1.542 billion
10. USA Environmental Inc., Tampa, Fla. $1,542 billion
11. CH2M Hill, Englewood, Colo.: $1.529 billion
12. American International Contractors, Inc. $1.5 billion
13. Odebrect-Austin $1.5 billion
14. Zapata Engineering, Charlotte, N.C.: $1.479 billion
15. Environmental Chemical Corporation, Burlingame, Calif.: $1.475 billion
16. Explosive Ordnance Technologies Inc., Rumson, N.J.: $1.475 billion
203
17. Stanley Baker Hill, LLC, Muscatine, Iowa: $1.2 billion
18. International American Products, Irmo, S.C.: $628 million
19. Research Triangle Institute, North Carolina: $466 million
20. Titan Corporation, San Diego, Calif.: $402 million
Other companies included: Louis Berger Group, BearingPoint, Creative Associates In-
ternational Inc., Chemonics International Inc., Harris Corporation, Readiness Manage-
ment Support LC, DynCorp (Computer Sciences Corp.), Lucent Technologies and EOD
Technology Inc., Blackwater Security Consulting, General Electric, Detection Monitoring
Technologies and Sealift Inc. There were more, but I forget the names.”
“So, governments’ train them and then they go to work in the private sector?”
“They can make several hundred dollars a day.”
“I guess I should have done more research on the subject, I didn’t realize that the gov-
ernment hired that many security contractors.”
“Oh, they weren’t all security contractors, some were rebuilding infrastructure, some
provided transportation and other services. KBR ran our chow hall.”
“Was the food good?”
“Not really, I’d only rate it fair. I’ll recommend a higher security level based on the air-
planes, but we won’t maintain it long, people have to work to eat.”
“We’ll get out the sniper rifles and dust them off, just in case you need us for an OP.”
“Do you still practice every week?”
“Of course, you never know when a MZB is going to show up. I’ll let you in on a secret,
Ron carries an M4 and I carry my SR-556. The sniper rifles are so heavy, we can’t carry
them anymore. We have a table on the patio so we can shoot from a rest.”
“What so you shoot?”
“From the rest? Ron shoots the Tac-50 and I shoot the Super Match.”
“What about patrols?”
“I suppose we could patrol, as long as we didn’t go more than 100 yards.”
“That’s not even a good start.”
204
“Remember us? We’re SENIOR CITIZENS! You want patrols, you provide the people.
You just wait, kid, one of these days you’ll get old too. That patrol crap is just fine for the
younger set, but we get tired swapping out magazines.”
“How do you handle that?”
“We fill all our magazines and stack them on the table. When we run out, it’s time to
quit.”
“You don’t have any idea what’s going on, do you?”
“Sure I do, the sun comes up in the east and sets in the west. That’s the way it always
has been and should continue until…”
“Until what?”
“Clarence’s rock come from behind the sun and destroys the planet.”
“I wonder how’s he’s doing?”
“I wonder if he’s still alive.”
“We are; why shouldn’t he be?”
“He could be, provided he’s learned Spanish.”
“Why would you say that?”
“I sort figure that Mexico has taken over Kalifornia by now so they have somewhere to
put their illegal immigrants.”
“They’re hard on illegal immigrants.”
“Only on people going into Mexico, not on people leaving.”
“Let them have it, they’ll get rid of Feinstein and Boxer.”
“Somebody must vote for them, they keep getting reelected, just like scum rising to the
top of the pond.”
“The last election we had was in 2008.”
“That’s right, I forgot. What was I doing?”
“You were stacking magazines on the table.”
205
“That’s right; I took a break because I was tired.”
“If someone mounts any kind of serious attack on us, we’re probably done for. It
wouldn’t matter if we both had a Ma Deuce, Gary. We’re going to give a whole new
meaning to spray and pray.”
“I’ll leave the praying to you Ron; I’ll concentrate on remembering how to insert the
magazines. I lined them all up with the bullets pointing forward, I think I can remember.”
“How much of that is real and how much is an act?”
“Bat? I don’t see a bat. If we get down to defending ourselves with baseball bats, we’re
really in trouble. That was embarrassing.”
“What was embarrassing?”
“When I got corrected on one story and found out you have to set the head spacing on a
Ma Deuce every time you change the barrel.”
“What did you say in the story?”
“I assumed it was like the M240 with preset head space. You not only have to set the
spacing, you have to set the timing. Now I’ve mostly got it figured out and we only have
one problem.”
“Yeah, we don’t have a Ma Deuce.”
“We have the Tac-50 and it shoots all but the SLAP ammo, we should be good.”
“One minute you can’t remember your first name and the next you know all the details.
Are you getting senile?”
“I suspect Alzheimer’s. If I don’t go to a doctor, we won’t know for sure and I won’t turn
into Ronnie Ray-gun.”
“You worry me.”
“Can’t tell when I’m serious and when I’m acting?”
“I suppose.”
“If you see me insert a magazine with the bullets pointing to the rear, I have a problem.
It wouldn’t be any fun if I was serious all of the time.”
“Say, I meant to ask you, did you get stripper clips and a charger to reload the maga-
zines quickly?”
206
“Wait a minute, something is wrong here.”
“What’s wrong?”
“This is page 207 and it should be chapter 21, not chapter 19.”
“Maybe you had a couple of longer chapters.”
“Must be, I hate it when it does that. And no, I don’t have stripper clips for the 7.62 or
.50 caliber ammo. That’s one reason I have so many magazines, I have to load them by
hand and it maybe take 2-3 minutes to reload a single mag.”
“And you have 25 mags for the M1A and 25 for the M16s?”
“I have 30½, a day after I wrote in a story the post office seized the mags, they came in
the mail. I gave you 5 and still have 25 for the M4s and 40½ for the M1A.”
“How can you have ½ a magazine?”
“It’s that 10 round Kalifornia legal magazine. Anyway, I gave Aaron 10 so I still have
30½.”
“How often do you empty them?”
“I keep 70 percent of them loaded and 30 percent unloaded. Every day I empty 3 and
reload 3. That gives the springs 3 days of rest after 7 days of compression. I told Aaron
to do the same thing. If we’re expecting trouble, I load the 3 20 round and the 10 round
magazine. In the meantime, to keep them straight, I keep them in 3 groups of 10.”
“Do you the same with the M16 magazines?”
“Yeah, I have 25 so I have 3 groups of 8. I keep six loaded in each group and 2 empty.”
“I took some of the extra mags you took off those soldiers and just kept them all load-
ed.”
“You might want to start rotating them. The 5.56 that Derek gets is on 10 round strippers
and he had the adapter.”
“What about the Tac-50?”
“I think we’ll load 5 magazines each with A-MAX and Raufoss.”
“Ok.”
207
Ron and I got our second wind, something we needed after hauling the rifles, ammo
and magazines to the patio table. We raised the umbrella for shade and Sharon brought
us a pitcher of Ron’s favorite, iced tea. While we were sitting there, 4 HETs pulled up.
Derek got out of the cab of the first tractor and came to the patio.
“Playing soldier again?”
“We have orders, Dad. We’re on our way to Little Rock to provide security for a VIP.”
“Who?”
“They didn’t tell us. They’re sending a full troop of tanks with reloads and extra fuel.
Must be someone important to send 5 Platoons.”
“We’ve got your six, Derek,” Ron growled. “How far is it from here to Little Rock?”
“About 230 miles, Ron. We’ll take 82 into Texarkana and pick up I-30 to Little Rock. We
figure about 6 hours.”
“We can’t cover your six at that distance, but we’ll guard the home front. What’s your
brother doing?”
“His Guinea Pig is having babies.”
“Nothing new about that. Say, does this have anything to do with those jets we saw ear-
lier?”
“It could, but we weren’t briefed on that.”
“If you run into Hillary, smack her in the chops for me. I, for one, am digging out that mi-
crochip and it ain’t going back in. I heard on the ham net that people are doing that be-
cause most of the scanners don’t work and the infrastructure to verify your identity is
down.”
“You might be able to do that Dad; I’ll see what I can find out in Little Rock. Maintain a
watch on SINCGARS channel 1501.”
“Do you have the latest disc? We might need to reprogram the radio.”
“I burned a copy for you, I knew you’d ask. You’ll have to reprogram the Spearheads so
they conform to the SINCGARS.”
“Ron, let’s go to the shelter and get the radios reprogrammed. I ain’t happy with this de-
velopment. Sharon and Linda are going to have to hoe the garden; we have more im-
portant things to do.”
208
“You’d worry if you heard a rumor that North Korea had a bomb that actually worked.”
“I’m going to take a couple of Pepcid; my stomach is giving me fits.”
“Maybe if you ate something besides beans all the time, you stomach wouldn’t bother
you.”
“Beans are a good source of vegetable protein. What do you think, should we pass out
radios to everyone?”
“How many do you have?”
“I have the SINCGARS in the shelter, the one at your house plus 18 of the Spearheads.
We can tap into the cable coming down from the light pole and hook up your
SINCGARS if you don’t mind.”
“I only mind when I’m threatened. Fine by me, we can pass out 9 and leave 9 on the
charger. How long before you done reprogramming them?”
“I’m done; it doesn’t take long with the program on the computer.”
“Do you plan to keep watch all night?”
“I don’t know, I think we should but can you take half the shifts?”
“Gar, if you’re willing to stay up until midnight, I’ll take the midnight to 6am shift.”
“It’s probably foolish, Ron, but I can’t shake the feeling I have that something is wrong.
Who would have enough clout to move a tank Company all the way to Little Rock? That
crosses a state line; it has to be someone with federal authority. Why did I think to tell
him, if he saw Hillary to smack her in the chops?”
“Are you really going to take out the microchip?”
“I was going to let Sharon do it, we’ve done it once before. They form a small capsule of
skin or something around them that make it easy to find them. Sort like those things
they injected into pets to ID them.”
“Same technology?”
“Probably, except it would store more information. You’ve seen the information that
came up on the scanner immediately: picture, fingerprints, historical information and a
20 point DNA scan.”
209
“Well, they never used the DNA Scan, Gary. It was probably there just in case there
was any question as to your identity. I don’t see how that could happen, what with a
state ID, Internal passport and travel documents. Those travel documents didn’t mean
much, not if I could get them on my computer and print off papers for anywhere you
wanted to go.”
“Do you remember the day you took me to High Desert Storm to pick up my first M1A? I
can remember telling you we were in serious trouble. It seems like a lifetime ago. Many
of the laws the Democrats used against us were already law, signed by Dubya.”
“Did he ever come back from Paraguay?”
“I don’t know; there was nothing on the news.”
“Why do you bother listening to the news? They haven’t said anything new for two
years.”
“Will you watch for a while? I’m going to ask Sharon to take this chip out.”
“Won’t that hurt?”
“No, I have some 2% Lidocaine. It numbs up good and she can get it out and butterfly it
closed before it wears off.”
It was like our country had been invaded by outsiders who were making us do things no
right thinking person would ever consider. They were doing it under color of authority.
That was a clear violation of the Title 42 The Public Health and Welfare, Chapter 21
Civil Rights, §1983. It provided: Every person who, under color of any statute, ordi-
nance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Colum-
bia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person
within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities
secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at
law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress, except that in any action
brought against a judicial officer for an act or omission taken in such officer’s judicial
capacity, injunctive relief shall not be granted unless a declaratory decree was violated
or declaratory relief was unavailable. For the purposes of this section, any Act of Con-
gress applicable exclusively to the District of Columbia shall be considered to be a stat-
ute of the District of Columbia.
That’s the statute LEOs were sued under when they beat up a handcuffed suspect in an
elevator. Most attorneys loved to bring an action under §1983, they went on and on and
when the government finally settled, the fees were enormous. In just such a case, my
younger brother collected $64,000 in fees representing a fella two Floyd County Depu-
ties worked over in the elevator between the basement and the 3rd floor where the jail
210
was located. The Deputies and the suspect were white, race had nothing to do with it;
we all have Civil Rights.
In times past, the subject of National ID cards had been floated on the forum. Most said
they wouldn’t get them. It seemed to me a person had 2 choices: get the papers and ID
chip and work underground like the French Resistance did in WW II; or, defy them and if
you were lucky end up in a camp. That also suggested that if you weren’t lucky or really
resisted, you end up pushing up daisies.
Where was the greater good served? Would your death or being in a camp do anything
to stop them? Spit in one hand and wish in the other – see which hand fills the fastest. A
couple of old farts like Ron and me were perfect to undermine the government’s effort,
most people looked at us and laughed. I got the most, shuffling along on the days I
didn’t use my wheelchair. It reminds me of a saying from long ago, it’s not the size of
the dog in the fight… it’s the size of the fight in the dog.
Even more in our favor was his bad heart and my diabetes. Medical tests had estab-
lished that my left hand and right foot bordered on 75% or number while my right hand
and left foot were better, only 30% numb. I somehow managed to fail most vision tests,
except for my Texas driver’s license, and I was mostly deaf in my right ear. What people
didn’t realize was that my vision was 20/20 in my left eye and 20/25 in my right eye; I
used reading glasses but could read without them if I squinted.
Age generally gives you one thing you often lack when you’re younger, patience. Per-
haps that’s why the military selects older people to be snipers. We distributed weapons
to Linda and Sharon and took to spending time in Paris keeping an eye out for anything
unusual. Plus, the armory contained a few boxes of things that more properly belonged
in the hand of Engineers, C-4, Det Cord and those det cords with a blasting cap, a short
length of fuze and the little cap you pulled to get the igniter going ala the M115A2 pull
cord and fuse lighter. I didn’t know if they were called igniters or detonators, but they
worked regardless of what I called them.
We them left in the armory because as far as we knew, no one had tumbled to the shel-
ter. I hadn’t seen the Deputy who knew about it in 3 years or more. The contractor had
moved on to Dallas and for all I knew, he could be dead. His explanation at the time
was that Dallas-Ft. Worth would take a lot of rebuilding. We took the Jeep and spent the
days in Paris and night taking turns standing guard. We weren’t the only old men sitting
on a bench in Paris, there were several more, some I recognized from the raid on Cox
Field. Then one evening, Ron and I had a visitor. He was one of the older men we’d
seen in town and asked if we had a few minute to talk.
“I suppose, say didn’t I see you at Cox Field the night of the raid?”
“Could be, I was there, but I didn’t see the two of you.”
211
“We were the snipers. Ron had the Tac-50 and I had my M1A. It didn’t have the right
sights; I don’t think I was very effective. He got a few though.”
“We’ve seen you in town the last few days and wondered what the two of you were up
to.”
“Not much,” Ron replied, “Just getting the lay of the land.”
“Did you see anything unusual?”
“Several people from the raid at Cox. A couple of those Chevy Suburban’s with the
black tinted windows. Nothing of major interest.”
“Were those your sniper rifles on the patio table?”
“Yeah, I had my other M1A with the Burris red dot sight. I don’t know if I hit anyone or
not.”
“Have the two of you heard about the resistance movement?”
“Heard about the militia, haven’t heard about the resistance.”
“There are some folks in the area who are a little long in the tooth to actively participate
in the militia. Doesn’t mean they don’t know how to fight, just that they aren’t spring
chickens. Most of us were born in the 40s and some are boomers. Several fought in
‘Nam. Lots of skill there, it’s a shame to see it go to waste. Most people just ignore us,
allowing us to do pretty much what we want. So far, all we’ve done is scout out the
camp at Cox Field for the militia. Want me to go on?”
“I’m a Vietnam era vet, but I never saw combat. Ron here was 4-F because he lost his
eye when he was 10. Don’t suppose that counts much in the way of bona fides, we’re
both fair to middling shots. I’d like to hear more, please.”
“We’ve collected some explosives, mixed some ANFO and most have either the M1A or
the AR-15. We’ve been hearing rumors that the government is coming out of hiding and
is planning to reassert itself. The word is that the Dems remain in charge and plan to
use the military to re-implement the pre-war controls.”
“I just had my wife dig that damned chip out. Nine-tenths of what they’re doing is uncon-
stitutional; it will be a sad day for America if they try a comeback. I wear it in a nitro bot-
tle on a chain around my neck, sort like a badge of honor.”
“We all have the chips removed. Tape didn’t work well to hold them in place so we
came up with a substitute. It’s a rubber like plastic that can be colored to match your
skin. Most of us have the chip on the back of our hand and can peel it off in a second or
212
two. Another thing, for operational security, we all use a nom de guerre, you can call me
Ray.”
“I sometimes go by Tom. Ron sometimes answers to Ronald McDonald.”
“Would Mac be ok?”
“If we decide to join, it would,” Ron replied. “What would you want us to do?”
“I don’t suppose you have any dynamite or blasting caps?”
“We don’t know how to use explosives, but we have initiators, Det cord and some C-4.
There are also 15 LAWs rockets.”
“Who has the son in the Army?”
“I do, Texas National Guard. They sent him to Little Rock for some reason. We’re wait-
ing to hear from him on our SINCGARS radio.”
“What else do you have that you shouldn’t?”
“You ask a lot of questions Ray, why should we tell you?”
“From the looks of the stripes on the .50 caliber ammo, I’d guess it’s Raufoss, right?
Those weren’t sewer pipes on the front of those rifles, so they must be suppressors.”
“We picked up a few M4s along the way. Not enough to share, but enough for us. Ray, I
asked what you expected us to do. I don’t recall hearing an answer.”
“Mac, we could use a couple of snipers to cover our backs. Tom can you hit a target
with the M1A at 600 yards?”
“I can with day scope. The range is the same on the MUNS.”
“What about you and your Tac-50, Mac?”
“That’s my Tac-50, Ray. My partner shoots it because it’s too heavy for me to carry. He
did a good job at Cox Field at 1,000 meters. He has a couple of elephant guns.”
“An English .375 H&H magnum and a Winchester model 70 in .338 Winchester mag-
num.”
“Scoped?”
213
“Yeah, but no suppressors.”
“Do you have any single action revolvers?”
“I have 3 plus a several Marlin Cowboys. Why?”
“For appearances we wear single action revolvers, makes people think we aren’t well
armed. You’ll need CCWs to open carry in town.”
I could see his point, with a single action Colt revolver you had only six chances to hit
the target. After that, you’d be busy reloading and vulnerable. Ron didn’t have any sin-
gle action revolvers, I figured to let him use Sharon’s with the 5½” barrel. We could cut a
foot off the belt and put in new holes so it would fit his waist. I could let Ron use Sha-
ron’s 1895 Cowboy. I planned on getting Rambo III back from Mary; just because I
wasn’t Jim Bowie didn’t mean I couldn’t act the part.
The group, which they simply called The Resistance, had about 35 members. Everyone
had grey hair or was bald. Individually, no one would have given any member of the
group a second glace, except to take note of the cowboy hats and cowboy guns. This
was Texas and the standard cover was a Stetson or a Resistol. Everyone wore jeans
and the slimmer fellows, western cut shirts. The rest of us usually wore long sleeved
blue work shirts. We had yellow rain slickers for rainy weather and those heavy Dusters
for winter weather. Our in between weather coats were the dusters with the liners re-
moved.
There was a Bubba, a Beau and even a Chato. Tom, Mac and Ray were unusual in that
they were ordinary names. There wasn’t a secret handshake and any of that foolish-
ness, just a tip of the hat, with your off hand. On most days, you’d find us sitting on a
bench in town, guarding the Eiffel Tower. We pick up pieces of conversations and try to
put it altogether when we got together before supper.
I only had 18 Spearhead radios, enough to outfit half the group. I told Damon, I’d appre-
ciate it if he looked around some; I needed another 2 dozen Spearhead radios. I’m sure
that if I hadn’t specified radio, we would have ended up with 24 razor sharp large arrow-
heads.
About a week after he left, I got a call from Derek. Little Rock was a mess. The VIP
turned out to be none other than the President and no, he hadn’t slapped her, hadn’t
even gotten close. I asked about the rumors that she was re-implementing those pre-
war controls and his reply was, “It’s a good thing you don’t have any semi-automatics.”
A substantial share of the handguns, rifles and shotguns in the country are semi-autos.
There had to be 200,000 plus Springfield Armory M1As. There were literally millions of
semi-auto handguns, not many of them Saturday Night Specials. Same song, different
214
day. Perhaps the theory was they could seize the guns and destroy them before the
case made it to the firmly-packed Bush Supreme Court.
“We may start this, but I don’t know that we’ll live to finish it.”
“Bull, we’re going to live forever. You just keep telling yourself that Ron, and we’ll be
around long enough to maybe make a difference.”
“Right, like anyone who read your stories actually took time to prepare.”
“Some did, they were talking about additional solar panels and all sorts of things. I sup-
pose in my own way, I was the John-the Baptist of preparations. He ran around saying,
“Prepare ye the way of the Lord,” and I wrote and gave them ideas and sources for
things they’d need when TSHFT. I might have been preaching to the choir, but if I just
made them think, it was worth it.”
“How come it took you so long to follow your own advice?”
“The same reason as most folks, the lack of money. Look how much I spent in my little
buying craze in 2006, $3,000 and that didn’t include food, fuel or the generator.”
“I still don’t understand why you insisted on a M1A. The rifle is heavy and it’s all you can
do to carry it.”
“The bullet weighs 3 times as much as the .223 bullet, hence has more knockdown
power. The heavier rifle absorbs more recoil. It may not have been the idea weapon for
the jungles of Vietnam, but IMHO, it was the best rifle we ever had. It was essentially
the Garand rifle with many of the deficiencies of the Garand overcome. Heavy is the
M82 or Tac-50 at 30 plus pounds plus ammo.
“The United States Marine Corps Designated Marksman Rifle is a semi-automatic gas-
operated rifle chambered for the 7.62×51mm NATO cartridge. It is a modified and ac-
curized variant of the M14 built and utilized solely by the USMC.
“The rifle is currently issued with M118LR 175-grain ammunition. The basic DMR (i.e.
without secondary sight, magazine, sling, basic issue items, cleaning gear, suppressor,
and bipod) weighs 11 pounds or less. The DMR design allows the sight mount, barrel,
bolt, and other key assemblies to be repaired/replaced at the third echelon maintenance
level. All DMRs are built at the Precision Weapons Shop at Quantico.
“The most notable difference between the traditional M14 pattern rifle and the DMR is
the addition of an olive drab McMillan Tactical M2A fiberglass rifle stock on the DMR.
This particular stock features a pistol grip and a buttstock with adjustable saddle cheek
piece. The DMR also features a 22” (~56 cm) match grade stainless steel barrel, which,
215
in profile, is noticeably wider than the original GI-spec barrel. These barrels are supplied
by two major contractors, Krieger Barrels, Inc. and Mike Rock Rifle Barrels, Inc. The rifle
is also equipped with a simple rail mounting system built by GG&G Armament Arizona
which allows for the attachment of any optic system compatible with the MIL-STD-1913
rail (this would include a huge variety of military riflescopes and imaging devices, most
notably the TS-30.xx series dayscope and the AN/PVS-10 or AN/PVS-17 night vision
riflescopes; DMRs have been used in combination with Leupold Mark 4 10x scopes,
along with Unertl 10x M40 scopes). DMRs utilize the traditional M14 muzzle device;
however, since deployment in Afghanistan in 2001, some DMRs have also been
equipped with OPS, Inc. 2-port muzzle brake, threaded and collared to accept an OPS,
Inc. 12th model muzzle brake suppressor sound attenuation device. If it’s good enough
for the Corps, it’s good enough for me. Except for the stock and barrel, my Super Match
is the same rifle as the M-21.”
“It does shoot well.”
“It has the 22”, 1 turn in 10 inch twist, right hand Douglas Carbon Heavy Match barrel.
That’s the standard barrel on the M-25. The Swarovski scope is tuned to the 175 grain
bullets, the M118LR.”
“Black Hills 175 grain match. Black Hills .308 168 and 175 grain BTHP match ammuni-
tion became the new standard for accuracy. It was used and recommended by builders
of long range precision rifles including FN, Sigarms, G.A. Precision, Robar, Armalite,
DPMS, McMillan Brothers, Accuracy International, Iron Brigade Armory, Texas Brigade
Armory and Landtec.”
“That’s not what you use in your other M1A.”
“It has a different barrel twist, 1 turn in 11”, right hand, six-groove chrome moly national
match air gauged premium barrel. I used 147 grain South African surplus ammo in it,
the Black Hills 168 grain BTHP match or the 165 grain BTSP. The primary problem with
the Black Hills ammo was the cost. Plus I screwed up and didn’t put a scope on it.”
“Be still my heart, Gar-Bear admitted to a mistake.”
“Under standard daylight conditions, the Burris is a good sight, but it’s not a 1,000 yard
or meter sight.”
“Still…”
216
Addressing a Harvard University audience on 18Nov06, Army Gen. John Abizaid com-
pared the rise of militant ideologies such as the force driving al Qaeda to the rise of fas-
cism in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s and said: “If we don’t have guts enough to con-
front this ideology today, we’ll go through World War Three tomorrow.”
If not stopped, said the general, “extremists would gain an advantage to gain a safe ha-
ven, to develop weapons of mass destruction, to develop a national place from which to
operate. And I think that the dangers associated with that are just too great to compre-
hend.”
He was right, but it wasn’t exactly tomorrow. It had taken a while to occur and hadn’t
happened until the government, through a series of carefully orchestrated laws, had
stripped us of our rights. I hate in my heart to compare what happened in the US to
what had happened in Nazi Germany… If you made it to this point in my little story,
you’ve read the laws. I didn’t include the USA PATRIOT Act, but it made it into some of
my other tomes. Was this the government of the people, by the people and for the peo-
ple that Lincoln had talked about at Gettysburg? The problem was some people dis-
counted other people like Sarah Brady and thought the NRA was perverse. Baa, baa,
sheeple.
In June 1940, Charles de Gaulle addressed the people of France from London. He
called on the French people to continue the fight against the Germans, saying Quoi qu’il
arrive, la flamme de la résistance française ne doit pas s’éteindre et ne s’éteindra pas”
(whatever happens, the flame of French resistance must not be extinguished and will
not be extinguished). This message hit hard in occupied France but initially it was less
well received in Vichy France. Regardless of what many thought of the Vichy govern-
ment, the area they controlled was run by French people. However, when the Vichy
government began to openly collaborate with the Germans, attitudes hardened.
The French Resistance movement is an umbrella term which covers numerous anti-
German resistance movements that were based within France. There were resistance
movements that took direct orders from the Special Operations Executive, the com-
munist resistance, groups loyal to de Gaulle, regional resistance movements that want-
ed independence, etc. In the north, the target was simply the Germans while in the
south the Vichy government was a target as well as the Germans. The first resistance
movements were in the north, such as the OCM (Organisation Civile et Militaire) and by
the end of 1940, six underground newspapers were being regularly printed in the north.
In May 1941, the first SOE agent was dropped into northern France to assist the work of
the resistance.
In addition, there were Belgian, Polish and Dutch resistance networks that cooperated
to defeat the Germans. Various groups organized in both occupied France and unoccu-
pied Vichy France. Many of them were former soldiers who had escaped from the Ger-
217
mans or joined the resistance when they were released from prison camps. They hid
weapons in preparation to fight again.
Others were former socialists and communists who had fled the Gestapo. Many of them
hid in the forested regions, especially in the unoccupied zone. They joined together to
form marquis bands and began to plan attacks against the occupation forces. Some
groups also had Spanish members who had fought in the Republican side of the Span-
ish Civil War. Even some 1,000 Germans, which had to leave Germany because they
were communists, Jews or political opponents, fought for the resistance.
Because of the political complexities of France, the resistance movement got off to a
difficult start. However, by June 1941, the resistance movement had become more or-
ganized and its work against the Germans increased accordingly. Two dates are im-
portant in explaining the work of the resistance movement in France.
On June 22nd 1941, all the communist groups within France joined forces to create one
group. This simple act greatly increased its potency. On November 11th 1942, German
forces occupied the whole of France. This meant that the whole country was occupied
and the attitude of the north quickly transferred itself to the south.
The German attack on Russia – Operation Barbarossa (invasion of Russia) – led to

many French communists joining the resistance movement. Politics took a back seat
and the French communists gained a reputation for being aggressive and successful
resistance fighters. Many French people joined as the support for Vichy quickly waned.
Many in the south were angered by the compulsory labor service that had been brought
in. But the treatment of the Jews was a major cause of resentment towards the Vichy
government and many joined the resistance as a means of fighting against a policy that
the vast majority found abhorrent.
The German occupation authorities did not hesitate to employ brutal means in order to
subdue the French population. The risks were high for those involved in resistance and
also for those surrounding them, since the Germans soon established practices of retal-
iation against innocents to punish anti-German activity.
● The German military authorities would execute guerrillas and suspected guerrillas.
● They would take hostages from among the general population to be executed in the
event of resistance activity, executing several French people for a single German death.
Sometimes, the hostages were taken from the same group as the presumed resistance
fighters or saboteurs (e.g. railroad workers for railroad sabotage); a large number were
among those accused by the Germans of being communists. Others, perhaps, were
merely unlucky. The Gestapo and the SS tortured suspected guerrillas and sent them to
concentration camps. Threats would also be made on the relatives of captured guerril-
las; for instance, the Gestapo might threaten parents with torturing their children or
sending off their daughters to be sex slaves in a military brothel.
218
● Occasionally, German troops would engage in massacres, such as the destruction of
Oradour-sur-Glane where an entire village was razed and the population killed for re-
sistance activities in the vicinity.
In addition, the Vichy Regime had established paramilitary groups (presumably consid-
ered part of the Vichy security forces), such as the Milice, in order to fight the Re-
sistance. These groups, collaborating closely with the Nazis, were very brutal and did
not hesitate to use methods such as torture.
Milice sounds a whole lot like Military Police. There were many survivors in the country
that would trade his/her loyalty to the Constitution for extra food or special favors. When
they spoke, you could hear the baa, baa in the background. Do you think for a minute
that the sheeple won’t turn on the patriots? Remember, patriot is a bad word and has
been since chapter 12. It denotes someone loyal to the Constitution and not the gov-
ernment. Probably a person with a closet full of guns and ammo, a shelter and maybe a
CD V-715. They may even have drugs like, gasp, Potassium Iodate. What’s the world
coming to? They probably don’t have any heroin, speed, coke, hash or marijuana, but a
drug is a drug. Well, some of them may have a bottle of Vicodin ES or Norco; you’d bet-
ter watch out for them, they’re addicts.
On the other hand, the US has a lot of veterans, some of whom saw combat. These
people aren’t likely to lay down to the government having risked their lives to keep the
country free. Better, the military taught them to shoot weapons and possibly some tac-
tics. It seems to me there are 3 forms of resistance: open resistance as in a militia unit,
closed resistance as in the case of the marquis and finally closed resistance from peo-
ple on the inside, say someone like Derek.
The French and other resistance movements served to disrupt the Germans, they
couldn’t stop them. If a marquis was to blow up the rails, those were French rails, not
German.
Mentioning Potassium Iodate reminded me of the various products contained in radioac-

tive fallout. A person takes KI or KIO3 to load the thyroid glands and keep the radioac-
tive iodine out. What do you take to eliminate problems with radioactive cesium and
thallium? I’m glad you asked, when I brought the subject up with my doctor, he either
didn’t know the answer or didn’t want to tell me. The answer is to take medical grade
Prussian Blue (Radiogardase) in sufficient quantity that it can combine with the cesium
(Cs-137) and thallium (Tl-201) and it can be eliminated in the stool. Follow the cautions,
precautions, etc. Typical adult dose is 500mg TID for 30 days. You are advised to only
take it when advised to do so by competent medical authority. Thing is, they probably
won’t have much, if any, Prussian Blue, raising the question, how do you take it? You
can if you have your own supply.
219
Prussian Blue traps radioactive cesium and thallium (mainly Tl-201) in the intestines
and keeps them from being re-absorbed by the body.
The radioactive materials then move through the intestines and are excreted (passed) in
bowel movements, ergo, you’ll have blue poop for 30 days. Prussian Blue reduces the
biological half-life of cesium from about 110 days to about 30 days.
Prussian Blue reduces the biological half-life of thallium from about 8 days to about 3
days. Because Prussian Blue reduces the time that radioactive cesium and thallium stay
in the body, it helps limit the amount of time the body is exposed to radiation.
“In the TV show, Jericho, they didn’t blow the bridge.”
“Ron, that was a TV show, not real life. Ray says they’re going to blow overpasses and
bridges on US 82 east and west plus 271 north, 19 south and 271 southeast. That won’t
slow us down, but it might keep the feds out.”
“Fat chance, they have helicopters.”
“One of those stories, either Battle of Jakes or Pax American had someone shooting
down a chopper with a .50 caliber rifle. IIRC, a sniper put a round into a chopper full of
blue hats somewhere in Colorado.”
“Maybe if it wasn’t an attack helicopter, if it hovered and wasn’t too far off. That’s a lot of
maybes.”
“You’re just saying that because you can’t hit a chopper with the Tac-50 rifle.”
“I’ll show you, by God!”
There are various ways to motivate people including making them angry. Most likely if a
chopper came in, it would land somewhere in Paris, Cox Field being a ways out of town.
(I guess I should have left out the chapter recounting the history of the US ICBM pro-
gram. I thought it would be interesting being we’re so close to finally using the weapons.
There is a point to my stories.) Ron screwed up and probably had God mad at him; one
shouldn’t swear an oath in the name of God. “You shall not make wrongful use of the
name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.”
This commandment is to never take the name of God in a vain, pointless or insincere
oath.
People probably were wondering if I’d ever get to the point. It’s right here --> .
220
Let me ask you a question, when did they begin to call it the Revolutionary War? The
English no doubt called it the War of Insurrection. We also called it the American War of
Independence. The revolutionary era began in 1763, when Britain defeated France in
the French and Indian War and the military threat to the colonies from France ended.
Britain imposed a series of taxes which the colonists thought were illegal. After protests
in Boston the British sent combat troops, the Americans trained militiamen and fighting
began in 1775. The climax of the Revolution came in 1776, with the signing of the Dec-
laration of Independence. The end of the Revolutionary War is marked by the Treaty of
Paris in 1783, with the recognition of the United States as an independent nation. I
asked because I want to know, not to teach a lesson.
...These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot
will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country: but he that stands it NOW de-
serves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily con-
quered. Yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glo-
rious the triumph.
“Who was that?”
“Thomas Paine. He was with Washington when he wrote that.”
“I don’t understand why Patriot has become a dirty word.”
“I think it’s because the term has been associated with survivalists and everyone knows
what a bad rap survivalists get. I quit using the term survivalist and began to talk about
being into preparedness. It has nothing to do with being a Patriot. Say, there goes an-
other Suburban with the blacked out windows. I’ll put it on the net. Heads up fellas, this
is Tom, the feds are here, again.”
The response was a series of clicks in the earpiece/bone conducting mike.
“This is Bubba, we got them here.”
“This is Chato; they’re stopping at City Hall.”
“That guy takes his name from the Bronson movie, Chatos’s Land.”
“Wasn’t he a native American survival expert?”
“Someone commented on the Internet Movie Database that the movie appeared to be
based on the Apache Kid.”
“Who was he?”
“I looked him up on DesertUser.com. They said:”
221
“The Kid was born in the 1860s, possibly a White Mountain Apache, and his family set-
tled at Globe, Arizona Territory, in 1868. His name, Haskay-bay-nay-natyl (“the tall man
destined to come to a mysterious end”), was too much for the citizens of Globe, who
called him “Kid.” The Kid learned English, worked at odd jobs in town, and was soon be-
friended by the famous scout, Al Sieber. In 1881, the Kid enlisted in the Indian Scouts,
probably at Hackberry, Arizona Territory, and showed such aptitude for the job he was
made sergeant, eventually rising to the rank of first sergeant within two years.
“The Geronimo Campaign of 1885-1886 found Kid in Mexico early in 1885 with Sieber,
and when the Chief of Scouts was recalled in the fall, Kid rode with him back to San
Carlos. He re-enlisted with Lt. Crawford’s call for one hundred scouts for Mexican duty,
and went south in late 1885. In the Mexican town of Huasabas, on the Bavispe River,
Kid nearly lost his life as the result of a drunken riot in which he had been a participant.
Rather than see Kid shot by a Mexican firing squad, the Alcalde fined him twenty dol-
lars, and the Army sent him back to San Carlos.
“It was during Kid’s eighth enlistment in the scouts, which began April 11, 1887, that he
found himself in a situation that would lead to a court-martial, imprisonment, a civil trial,
a new sentence, escape, and life as a fugitive. The course of the disastrous events un-
folded, as did so many among the Apaches, with the brewing of tiswin, a beverage
made of fermented fruit or corn. Brewing tiswin was illegal on the reservation, but with
the agent, Captain Pierce, and Al Sieber both gone on business, the time seemed aus-
picious for a tiswin soiree. Kid had been left in charge of both the scouts and the jail, but
before he and the scouts could get to the camp where the tiswin was flowing freely, two
men were dead.
“One of the dead was Kid’s father, Togo-de-Chuz, and the other was the man who had
killed him, Gon-Zizzie. Kid’s friends had killed Gon-Zizzie, but the blood-price did not
satisfy Kid; he and his scouts went to Gon-Zizzie’s brother’s place, and there Kid killed
the brother, Rip. Kid and his scouts then returned to his father’s camp, where they
joined the others in drinking tizwin. The drunk lasted several days, and finally, perhaps
filled with remorse and certainly hung-over, the scouts made their way back to San Car-
los to face both Sieber and Captain Pierce.
“Kid and his scouts arrived at San Carlos on June 1, 1887, and found that neither
Sieber nor Pierce was in a mood to deal generously with them. A crowd of Indians,
some armed, had gathered to witness the punishment, and when Captain Pierce or-
dered the scouts to disarm themselves, Kid was the first to comply. The scouts’ firearms
were laid on a table near Sieber’s tent, and Pierce ordered Kid and the others to the
guardhouse to be locked up until further action could be decided upon. They were about
to comply when a shot was fired from the crowd, and soon the firing became wide-
spread.
“In the melee that followed, the disarmed Kid fled, Sieber’s tent was shredded by bul-
lets, and a massive .45-70 bullet smashed Sieber’s left ankle, crippling him for life. It
has never been determined who fired the shot that struck Sieber, but it is known that
222
neither Kid nor the four scouts ordered to the guardhouse with him did the shooting.
They ran for cover, managed to secure horses, and with perhaps a dozen other Apach-
es fled for wilderness. The Army reacted swiftly, and soon two troops of the Fourth
Cavalry were following the fugitives up the banks of the San Carlos River.
“Telegrams were sent from San Carlos to San Francisco, Headquarters Division of the
Pacific, and to Washington, D.C., as the Territories braced for another Apache out-
break. Territorial newspapers in Arizona and New Mexico were quick to pick up the sto-
ry, and the Army began to feel the heat of irate editorials. For two weeks the errant
Apaches led the cavalry a good chase, until, aided by Indian scouts, Kid and his band
was located high in the Rincon Mountains. The troopers surprised the Indians and cap-
tured their mounts, saddles, and equipment. Kid and his followers escaped into the
rocky canyons and ravines, but faced the prospect of survival without horses while
pressure from the Army increased daily.
“After some negotiation, Kid got a message to General Miles stating that if the Army
would recall the cavalry he and his band would surrender. Miles called off further pur-
suit, and on June 22, eight of Kid’s band gave themselves up. Kid and seven others sur-
rendered on June 25. Miles decided to try Kid and four others by a general court-
martial, despite the fact that they did not, in all probability, understand the charges
pending against them.
“The trial was concluded, and to no one’s surprise the men were found guilty of mutiny
and desertion, and each was sentenced to death by firing squad. General Miles, upset
with the verdict, ordered the court to reconsider its sentence. The court reconvened on
August 3 and the convicted men were resentenced to life in prison. Miles, still not satis-
fied, reduced the sentence to ten years. The sentence began with the men in the San
Carlos guardhouse until such time as the Army decided where to send them. The Army
decided, on January 23, 1888, to send the prisoners to Alcatraz Island, California, rather
than Fort Leavenworth Military Prison. Taken to Alcatraz under heavy guard, the five
began what was to be a brief incarceration.
“In reviewing the trial, the Judge Advocate General’s office had become convinced that
prejudice existed among the officers on the court-martial, thus precluding a fair trial. On
October 13, 1888, Secretary of War William C. Endicott authorized the remission of the
remainder of the sentences of the five prisoners, and by November they were back at
San Carlos. Meanwhile, the Indian Rights Association, concerned that the incarceration
of Apaches as federal inmates in state prisons was the result of federal usurpation of
territorial jurisdiction, had sued on behalf of two incarcerated Apaches. The court
agreed to the release not only of the two named in the suit, but to the release of all the
Apaches held as federal prisoners in Illinois and Ohio. Eleven murderers were to be re-
turned to San Carlos as free men, and the outrage in the Southwest was immeasurable.
“By the middle of October 1889, Sheriff Glenn Reynolds of Gila County had arrest war-
rants for most of the freed Apaches, and among them was Apache Kid. The trial of Kid
and three others for assault to commit murder in the wounding of Al Sieber was set for
223
October 25, 1889. The four were found guilty, and on October 30, each was sentenced
to seven years in the Territorial Prison at Yuma. On November 1, along with five other
prisoners, they began what was to have been a stagecoach journey to incarceration in a
prison notorious for its brutal living conditions, a prison aptly called Hell-Hole.
“The journey was to have been a two-day trip by stage from Globe to Casa Grande and
from there by rail to Yuma. Sheriff Reynolds chose a deputy, W. A. Hunkeydory
Holmes, as guard, and Gene Middleton, the stagecoach owner, as driver. All three were
armed. Except for Kid and Hos-cal-te, considered to be the most dangerous and shack-
led at both wrists and ankles, the Apaches were shackled by twos, leaving each man
with a free hand. A Mexican horse thief, Jesus Avott, was unshackled.
“On the second day, after a night at Riverside, the coach had to make a steep ascent at
Kelvin Grade, and all prisoners but Kid and Hos-cal-te were put out to walk. As the
coach made the grade and disappeared from view, the prisoners over-powered Reyn-
olds and Holmes. Holmes died of fright, and Reynolds was killed with Holmes’ rifle.
Middleton was also shot and horribly wounded with Holmes’ rifle, but survived. The
prisoners unlocked their shackles with keys taken from the dead bodies of Holmes and
Reynolds and disappeared into a developing snowstorm. Jesus Avott cut a horse loose
and rode into nearby Florence with the grim news.
“By a strange course of events, Apache Kid was no longer an admired and honored
scout, but a fugitive with a price of five thousand dollars on his head. It was widely be-
lieved that Kid used the San Simon Valley in Arizona and Skeleton Canyon in New Mex-
ico as his avenue for travel to and from Old Mexico. Into the 1920s and 1930s, rumors
circulated along the border that Kid had been seen, men had talked to him, and he was
alive on a ranch in Sonora and on and on. Who knows? We need men like Chato on our
side.”
“Roger, how many?”
“Four, all armed.”
“Vests?”
“Roger. They’re holding papers and really look like they’re on a mission.”
“Attitude?”
“Angry? Mad? Can’t tell.”
“I… hold on a second.”
“What are you doing home?”
224
“You wouldn’t believe what they wanted. They wanted us to seize sporting firearms. We
left their tanks sitting and piled into two of the tractors and came home.”
“You deserted?”
“More like resisted an illegal order, Dad. We brought one M1000 trailer and it’s loaded.”
“Where did you stash it?”
“At your house. I changed in civies and joined you.”
“We have feds at City Hall; could they be looking for you?”
“Could be, if they radioed ahead. They’d probably send CID.”
“So how many of you came?”
“The entire Troop, including the Captain.”
“Were you ordered to leave?”
“It was a group decision.”
“This is Tom. Mac and I are leaving.”
“Rog, what’s up?”
“Not on the air. Come to our place.”
“Rog.”
Author’s Note: This is a new approach for me so bear with me. The premise has re-
volved into an over the hill group of Patriots sticking it to the government via a Re-
sistance movement loosely tailored after the French marquis. The third bad thing is
happening even as I write; the government is becoming self-centered and ignoring the
Supreme Law of the Land. To the extent we can, we’re going to give them an attitude
adjustment. Unfortunately, they’ve given themselves the authority to do whatever they
want.
“How much does that trailer hold?”
225
“Up to 140 tons, Dad. It’s not loaded that heavy, not with the things we were able to get.
I’m familiar with the things you like and we have a bit of everything. We raided the Engi-
neering Company for explosives, went through a forward supply base and got weapons,
ammo, and most of the things you like to use in your stories.”
“How would you know what weapons I like?”
“I skimmed several of those stories. You’re partial to mines, grenades, LAW rockets,
medium and heavy machineguns and the Mk19. You’d rather starve than eat MREs and
your favorite rifle is the M14 and its derivatives. Moreover, you like your weapons sup-
pressed and lean towards the Surefire Suppressor because of their long life. We have
all of that and more.”
“Which rifle?”
“It seems you prefer the A2 as a backup weapon.”
“Handgun?”
“That PT1911 .45 comes as close to your perfect weapon as anything I could find.”
“I like the H&H USP Tactical with suppressor.”
“Sorry, we couldn’t get those, would you settle for a few MP5SD1?”
“I suppose you could twist my arm. Where is everything, the trailer is empty?”
“It’s standing room only in the shelter.”
“I don’t suppose you got us any fuel?”
“A double bottomed commercial rig of JP-8.”
“So you’re wanted not only for desertion but grand theft?”
“No, at the moment we’re classified as AWOL.”
“Sniper rifles?”
“Four. The M-24SWS built by Remington. We have a few thousand rounds of M118LR.”
“Any Raufoss?”
“Yes, 2,400 rounds. I thought about it and the barrel life of a Tac-50 is probably 5,000
rounds. With the ammo you have, you now have more ammo than barrel life.”
226
Do you have any idea how much ordinance you can stack on a HETS? The weight limit
is 140 tons, tanks are heavy. They ditched the M1000 and M1070 up near Cox Field.
Derek said as soon as they had an inventory, they’d pass out equipment to the Re-
sistance. I explained that for appearances sake, we were armed with traditional weap-
ons ala cowboy guns. I also mentioned I’d borrowed Sharon’s 1895 Cowboy so Ron
could have a rifle. He asked if he could join the Resistance and I told him in 30 years
when he had grey hair.
We also discussed in a little more detail his unit’s desertion. He thought that, consider-
ing the number of units leaving, they probably wouldn’t come looking. It appeared that
the feds at City Hall was unrelated to their departure. His Troop had discussed it on the
way back and thought they might become a unit within the Paris Militia. I pointed out
they would have been more effective if they brought their tanks. He thought not, sug-
gesting this would be a 4th generation war.
The militia tried to merge the Resistance into their group and what can only be de-
scribed as a cat fight broke out. We were old and not able to keep up with the young
people. We also had one quality they lacked, patience. We were far better suited for sit-
ting in town guarding the Eiffel Tower with our ears open. Besides, the militia wasn’t well
organized, containing several factions or cliques. We didn’t have Preacher or Dane to
bring order to that group.
Ron and I saw to it that the Resistance had first dibs on the arms and munitions. Re-
sistance members came to the shelter and took what they could use. The remainder
was slowly doled out to the militia with Derek’s Troop at the top of the pecking order.
The Troop Commander, a Captain, tried to bring some organization to the militia, and
failed. The militia members, no doubt Patriots to the core, seemed to think the militia
was some sort of Democracy and they had to vote on everything.
“They were better organized when they attacked Cox Field.”
“I’d have to agree with that Ron, they had a single purpose. Now they have half a dozen
cliques and each has a different agenda.”
“I, for one, am glad we’re not part of that. Now this Resistance is more suited to our dis-
position. It would appear that we’re pretty good at gathering intelligence. Folks think
we’re a bunch of old men living a second childhood. I doubt most of them ever heard
that WW II slogan, Loose Lips Sink Ships.”
“Hey, I read a Blog on the subject:”
During World War II, when there was less division in this country, we understood the
price of indiscretion. During this war, fought by our Greatest Generation, the public not
only shared the worries of our armed forces, but shared their devotion to duty and coun-
227
try. During the Second World War, possibly the most remembered saying of the day
was “Loose Lips Sink Ships”. For those who might be too young to remember that we
once guided our nations tongue, knowing that such guidance was a personal responsi-
bility to the protection of our troops, here is a reproduction of the Defense Department’s
guidance on written and spoken communication for those at, and returning from, The
Front:
“1. Don’t write military information of Army units – their location, strength, matériel, or
equipment.
2. Don’t write of military installations.
3. Don’t write of transportation facilities.
4. Don’t write of convoys, their routes, ports (including ports of embarkation and disem-
barkation), time en route, naval protection, or war incidents occurring en route.
5. Don’t disclose movements of ships, naval or merchant, troops, or aircraft.
6. Don’t mention plans and forecasts or orders for future operations, whether known or
just your guess.
7. Don’t write about the effect of enemy operations.
8. Don’t tell of any casualty until released by proper authority (The Adjutant General)
and then only by using the full name of the casualty.
9. Don’t attempt to formulate or use a code system, cipher, or shorthand, or any other
means to conceal the true meaning of your letter. Violations of this regulation will result
in severe punishment.
10. Don’t give your location in any way except as authorized by proper authority. Be
sure nothing you write about discloses a more specific location than the one authorized.
SILENCE MEANS SECURITY – If violation of protective measures is serious within writ-

ten communications it is disastrous in conversations. Protect your conversation as you
do your letters, and be even more careful. A harmful letter can be nullified by censor-
ship; loose talk is direct delivery to the enemy.
If you come home during war your lips must remain sealed and your written hand must
be guided by self-imposed censorship. This takes guts. Have you got them or do you
want your buddies and your country to pay the price for your showing off. You’ve faced
the battle front; it’s little enough to ask you to face this ‘home front.’ “
Those who were a part of the Greatest Generation will remember Tokyo Rose, the voice
of Imperial Japan. Tokyo Rose broadcast daily the news of deprivation and suffering at
228
home. Rosie would tell our troops how bad things were for the families of soldiers
abroad. Tokyo Rose reminded our troops each and every day how much they were
missed at home, reminded our troops each and every day of the death of their com-
rades, and the dreadful cost in life and treasure that war with Japan brought.
Today, each day the broadcast media focuses national attention “like a laser beam” on
the death of every soldier, the loss of every father, son, daughter or mother of this land.
Every single day the world is informed of the location of our troops, their troop strength,
the beginning of every single operation. Even before soldiers in the field have filed their
after-action report, the news has told the world at large of the success or failure of the
operation, where it took place, and how many American soldiers fell, and what enemy
assets were destroyed.
This kind of information is called “open source intelligence”. And with the so-called
“openness” of modern American society, one can discover more about American troop
disposition, strength and morale from the American press than the Soviet Union could
have determined throughout the Cold War by the best of tradecraft.
There are members of Congress that believe that the way to support our troops is to
condemn the mission, condemn their leadership, criticize their preparedness, criticize
the effect of their labors, and investigate their every action. These same politicians wail
and moan that this war is “Bush’s quagmire, this generation’s Viet Nam”. They believe
that from a comfortable, clean, air-conditioned office in Washington, they are better able
to manage the war than the footsore, battle weary soldiers and leaders in the theater of
action. Frankly, that would be the way that Lyndon Johnson fought the Viet Nam war, by
remote control, from Washington. These politicians claim to “support our troops”, and
believe that by claiming the mantle of “patriotism” they are above reproach.
“Sounds to me like that guy didn’t like reporters.”
“Ronald, the only people that like reporters are their children, they’re too young to know
better. You don’t find many reporters like Jennie Lerner anymore (the reporter in Deep
Impact – Téa Leoni). They all claim the people have a right to know and if it hurts the
country, it’s the administration’s fault.”
Senator John Kerry

304 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Dear Senator Kerry:
We are still laughing over here in Iraq at your joke about the troops being dumb. We do
recognize that you are a lot smarter than we are because you were able to get out of
229
combat in three months. This is why we are seeking your advice. Please give us guid-
ance.
1.) Where is the least painful area on the body to inflict a wound?
2.) Does it have to bleed or will a scratch do?
3.) Where do you get the forms to fill out recommending yourself for a Purple Heart?
4.) Do you need a witness? If so, how much does that cost?
5.) Are three Purple Hearts still good for a trip home?
6.) What is a realistic period of time in which to acquire these wounds? Less than three
months sounds a little suspicious even to us.
Thanks for your help and keep the jokes coming.
Just a dumb G.I.
“I agree. Of course, if reporters don’t leak it, it will just be a Congressional Aide. Hey
there’s that Suburban again.”
“Don’t say anything; see if the others pick it up.”
“This is Ray, Suburban at 3:00. Tom, you awake?”
“We were wondering who would notice it first. Tom out.”
“This is Chato, they’re at City Hall, again.”
“Chato, Tom. Got a spud with you?”
“Tom, Chato. Why?”
“Stick it up their exhaust pipe.”
“Roger, I’ll get one.”
When the men came out, the Suburban wouldn’t start, too much back pressure. They
fooled around with it for a while and finally called a tow truck. An exhaust brake uses a
vacuum operated butterfly in the exhaust stream, which acts like a potato up the ex-
haust pipe to build backpressure against the engine. This backpressure produces con-
siderable braking power.
How many times do I have to tell you? Don’t believe anything you see in the movies or
on TV. Movies and TV shows are written by Hollywood scriptwriters. For scriptwriters,
reality is basically a plot device.
230
Stuffing a potato or anything short of a hand grenade up a car’s tailpipe won’t make it
blow up. But it will keep the car from running. If exhaust gases can’t escape, the engine
can’t “breathe,” so it dies.
Think about it. When a car’s cylinders move up and down, they pull fuel and air in and
push exhaust gases out. If the tailpipe is blocked, the exhaust can’t go anywhere and
stays put in the cylinders, preventing fresh stuff from entering. No fresh stuff = no com-
bustion = no transportation.
It also means no unintended explosions, which maybe is why street gangs haven’t
picked up on it. Thank God.
They towed the Suburban to a repair shop and the frustrated agents were milling
around and talking on satellite phones. Chato must have stuck the spud way up the ex-
haust, the mechanic missed it. However, he quickly diagnosed the problem and used a
torch to cut the exhaust pipe, eliminating the back pressure and allowing the engine to
start. He got a replacement tailpipe from the muffler shop and installed it. Elapsed time,
2 hours, cost, $250; and no, he didn’t take government credit cards.
“I’ll bet they’re pissed.”
“This is Mac, feds leaving town, pedal to the metal.”
“This is Ray, we shoulda blown those bridges. Which way did they go?”
“This is Tom, southeast on 271.”
“Ain’t nothin that way until they get to Tyler. Call it a day and meet up at Tom’s at the
usual time.”
“Fellas, we got to blow those bridges. Tom, how’s our supply of explosives?”
“If someone knows how to use them, probably more than enough. That’s about all there
is in the armory.”
“Chato, you’re our explosives expert, do we have enough to close the highways?”
“Six times over, Ray. It will take 2-3 nights to get them all in place. We could leave a
man at each location to detonate them on command.”
“Will they be able to replace them easily?”
“The military would have to bring in bridging equipment to do that. It depends on how
important restoring the highways is. A couple of days if they’re important and maybe
never if they’re not.”
231
“If we blow them, can we still get around?”
“Have to use back roads. Off hand, I’d say yes. Eventually, the government can use
choppers and plot a path around them too.”
“Tom, give Chato whatever he needs, we have to bring those bridges down. Yeah Bub-
ba, what is it?”
“The militia is gonna be pissed if we don’t check with them first.”
“The militia? Hell, except for the attack on Cox Field, they haven’t done anything. Don’t
worry about the militia.”
Chato spent 3 nights planting the explosives. On Thursday morning when he’d finished
up, he showed up at my door.
“Tom, you have the tallest antenna, can you give the word?”
“You do it, Chato, use my radio.”
“This is Chato. It’s time. On my mark. Mark, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.”
The only explosion we could hear from our place was the one on route 19. Chato would
have to wait until later in the day when all the men reported in to learn if all the bridges
were down. I went back to bed; it wasn’t time to get up yet.
“Chato came by around oh-dark-thirty and used my radio to give the command to blow
the bridges.”
“Are they down?”
“Won’t know until we get to Paris.”
We drove into town and got set up on our bench.
“This is Tom, any word?”
“This Ray, the operations were successful, but all the patients died.”
That evening, we all got together with local maps to plot courses around all the downed
bridges. Someone suggested we could go one step further using farming equipment like
self-propelled combines, to block some of the roads. It was by no means foolproof, but it
could slow the feds down more if they decided to come back. Something was up, two
232
days later the feds had US 82 open both ways. That said a lot, but it didn’t tell us what
was going on. We continued our ‘patrols’ sitting on the benches in town.
“This is Chato. I just spoke with a Deputy and the feds have arrests warrants for that en-
tire tank Troop.”
“This is Tom, what charge?”
“Desertion in the face of the enemy.”
“Ron, we’re ‘the enemy’. Derek said they just refused to seize sporting arms. What do
you think the chances are we could get close enough to Broom Hillary if we went to Lit-
tle Rock?”
“Close enough to do what?”
“Shoot the witch.”
“Gar-Bear, we’d only get one shot and it would be a long one, maybe 2,000 meters.
Wouldn’t matter if we hit her or missed, the Secret Service would be on us like stink on
chit. The government would get us and take your Tac-50 and your Super Match.”
“It was just a thought. No way we could get away with it? I killed about 24 President’s in
my stories and never got caught.”
“Went Hollywood? Shame on you. Life’s a whole lot different than Hollywood. About the
only way we’d have to get away with something like that would be to shoot down a heli-
copter that she was in. Remember what I told you, it would have to be hovering and I’d
have to get damned lucky.”
“You know what we need?”
“What?”
“A Stinger missile.”
“Where are you going to get one of those?”
“DAMON!”
“What?”
“I need 2 Stinger missiles.”
“Dad, the people in Hell need ice water, I’ll have to serve them first.”
233
“Would it help if I could find out where Stinger missiles are stored?”
“Oh, that’s different. Aaron will help, will 2 be enough?”
“Get all that you can get. If I can locate an Avenger, it will have 8 missiles and possibly
reloads. Ron and I want to go hunting.”
“Hunting for what?”
“Critters.”
“Do you suppose that if we get 25 without being caught, we’ll get an Oscar?”
“You really worry me at times, Gar-Bear.”
“Ronald, you worry too much. First, we have to get the missiles. Second, we have to
figure out how to fire them. Third, we have to figure out how to aim them. By the time we
get it all figured out, they’ll probably be past their shelf life.”
A Vietnam era vet couldn’t really help us; the Stinger wasn’t introduced until 1983 when
it was first used in combat in Grenada. We then provided Stinger missiles to the muja-
hedeen and the system proved very effective against first line Soviet combat aircraft in
Afghanistan. According to a comprehensive 1999 study, some of the estimated 900 to
1,200 Stingers delivered to Afghanistan in the 1980s were diverted while en route
through Pakistan. Use of the Stinger is covered by Army FM 44-18. The DOD, in a cost
cutting effort, eliminated spending for the RCM-block II missiles and upgraded the RCM-
block I missiles to block II. We had over 10,000 in inventory. I told Damon to be sure
and get a copy of the FM when he got the missiles.
“How’d you make out?”
“With the information I got from Derek, I narrowed it down to a couple of places. We
were lucky; we found some the first place we looked. I’m glad I didn’t take that chip out;
we got stopped and scanned several times, but those forged travel documents worked.
Once they saw the travel permit good was statewide, they treated us like Royalty.”
“Did they explain that?”
“I overheard one man to another, FEMA.”
“Then FEMA employees have statewide papers?”
“Apparently.”
234
“You didn’t have to show a FEMA ID?”
“Uh-uh, the moment they saw the travel orders I was the King of England.”
It was the crack in the china; the government had just lost and didn’t even know it. We
had a record of doing that, once in Vietnam and once in Iraq. We didn’t lose in Afghani-
stan because NATO took over and lost it for us. That reminds me of a saying I learned
in college, in all the towns and all the cities, there are no statues to Committees. Hillary
was listening to her advisers, just like Lyndon did. Who had kicked our butt in Vietnam
and Iraq? I-n-s-u-r-g-e-n-t-s! Who kicked Israel’s butt? I-n-s-u-r-g-e-n-t-s! What’s anoth-
er name for The Resistance? T-h-e I-n-s-u-r-g-e-n-t-s!
I never drink coffee from a cracked cup, call me crazy. At the very least, there’s germs
in that crack and at the worst, the cup will break when you put coffee in it. I’m better,
when I was a kid; I had to have a clean glass to get a drink of water.
This story is over except for the blood and gore. I generally leave that to others to tell
about, I’m a preparedness freak. Unfortunately, that would leave the reader hanging,
wondering what happen to Hillary and those Stinger missiles. When the Stinger was first
ready for the field, they found it would only hit 30% of the targets instead of the 60%
they expected. They got a roll of duct tape… anyway they fixed them. The missiles Da-
mon got were the 4th generation missile, the RCM-block II. They didn’t miss much, es-
pecially if you had a full dial tone before you launched it.
With the bridges blown and many of the side roads blocked, the feds were in a pickle.
The solution this time wasn’t a massive bombing raid, they used the railroad. Paris has
two lines, one runs east-west and the other north-south. We hadn’t figured on anyone
with FEMA being old enough to have seen The Wild Bunch starring William Holden. An
interesting fact about the movie was that they fired more blanks making the film than
real bullets were fired in the Mexican Revolution (90,000).
“Railroads use bridges too, Tom. We’ll just get Chato to blow those up, too.”
“Fine, but I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if we don’t end up seeing the 101st Air Cav.”
“You have mines, right? We could mine Cox Field.”
“All we have are M-18 Claymores. The minute one of those goes off, they’ll start looking
for the trip wires. I wish we had some M16 Bouncing Betties. I couldn’t get any because
under current policy the M16 mine is only used on the Korean peninsula.”
“Don’t you use a trip wire with those?” Ron asked.
“You can, you don’t have to.”
“I thought landmines were outlawed.”
235
“That’s why they were developing self-disarming mines. The M16s are left over from Vi-
etnam, right Ray?”
“Nasty piece of work, that one. The ones I hated were the booby traps made by putting
a grenade in a can and having it pulled out with a trip wire.”
“Sharon’s brother did 3 tours. He got hurt real bad with one of those punji stick traps.
Damned near lost his leg.”
“We had good teachers in Charlie; kids these days don’t have any idea what it was like.
Reckon we’re going to have to teach ‘em.”
“Remember, we want casualties, not necessarily fatalities. Takes 3-4 men to help one
injured person.”
“I’ll get Chato and we’ll get the explosives.”
Ray was bound and determined to eliminate every way into Paris. Chato had blown the
replacement bridges and they had more up in 3-4 days. I figured they had to bring the
replacements further. The question became who has more? Do we have more explo-
sives than they have bridges? The reason they wanted to get into Paris was to search
for explosives. We’d been careful and few knew of the shelter.
The answer to the question may be found if you’ve seen Force 10 from Navarone. It’s
not the quantity of explosives you use, it’s how you use them. Want to knock down a
bridge? Blow up a dam using stolen TNT from German mines and the rush of water will
take down the bridge. The bad guy in that movie also played Jaws in the James Bond
movies (Richard Kiel).
People who have the skills to take down a highway bridge are more than qualified to
take down a railroad bridge. Chato brought the bridges down just like SSgt. Dusty Miller
brought down the dam and FEMA was stumped. The AVLB is an organic engineer as-
set that travels with maneuvering armored and mechanized infantry formations and can
quickly gap up to 15 meters for 70 MLC vehicles. The assault launcher can launch the
bridge without exposing bridge personnel to enemy fire and can retrieve the bridge from
either end. The Wolverine will eventually replace the AVLB. The Wolverine will consist
of an M1 series Abrams tank chassis modified to transport, launch, and retrieve a MLC
70 bridge. The bridge will be capable of spanning at least a 24-meter gap. The problem
with the MLC 70 bridge is that it doesn’t have rails.
That could cause major problems.
236
(Note: I wrote this on Thanksgiving. On 12/3/06 there was an interesting program about
volcanoes on the History Channel.)
The study by a team of economists and maritime security experts notes that the nation’s
361 seaports together handle 40 percent of US international trade. The report says an
attack on a major port could cause serious disruptions through the US economy.
“There is an over-emphasis on prevention of an attack at a port, and perhaps not

enough emphasis on what happens in response to an attack on the port,” said Jon
Haveman, a contributing author and co-editor of the report. He says a key theme
emerges in the study of port security.
The report says recovery plans should focus on reducing economic panic and restoring
supply chains. Haveman says the government needs better ways to prioritize shipments
to get essential goods moving.
Essential shipments might include car parts heading for San Francisco, where a major
auto plant – a joint venture between General Motors and Toyota – produces hundreds
of thousands of vehicles a year.
The report says if terrorists were to blow up highway and rail bridges at the joint ports of
Los Angeles and Long Beach, the attack could eliminate half of the ports’ capacity and
lead to an economic loss of $45 billion. Haveman calls that a serious toll, but says it is
one that the US economy can handle.
He says advance planning is difficult. At the Los Angeles-Long Beach port, it involves
coordinating 15 separate government agencies. But he says advance planning is es-
sential.
“That makes fundamental sense in its own right, and it also makes sense as a deterrent,
because if we can eliminate the economic consequences of an attack or substantially
reduce them, then we’re less likely to have the attack in the first place,” he said.
He says the goal of terrorists is to disrupt the economy, and that preparations to limit the
impact of an attack will decrease the risk of having one.
Now you should see what I mean. Taking out highway bridges doesn’t have nearly the
impact of taking out a rail bridge (unless it’s in Yugoslavia). The road and railroads were
the only avenues of transportation and while if might seem that we were cutting off our
noses to spite our face, the truth was, it made it nearly impossible for the feds to confis-
cate food and transport it elsewhere. I had resumed my previous role of monitoring ra-
dios in the shelter with Ron covering my six.
237
There were suggestions and even a few outright statements indicating Paris wasn’t the
only community denying food to the feds. While the Resistance gathered information,
the militia used it and FEMA trucks seemed to be very accident prone. We’d thought
we’d have to do it ourselves, but that Captain and his troopers finally gained control of
the militia and began to carry out missions.
Several military commanders refused to accept orders that put them in direct conflict
with the citizenry. Perhaps in a desperate effort to draw support, the administration an-
nounced on national radio that the President planned to tour the country, starting with
the major cities.
“She going for her voting base, trying to calm down the liberals,” Ron suggested.
“If there are any of them left, partner, she’s 3 years late and broke besides. When was
the last time you paid taxes? Her only hope would be to reconstitute Congress and
move us back to the gold standard. Worse, she using FEMA and hired contractors to
manage the recovery. Chato got those railroad bridges down; they won’t be up for a
while. Haven’t seen many black Suburban’s recently, have you?”
“Let’s be fair here, Gar-Bear, she no more than took office and we had those terrorist
attacks. Before we could clean up from those, TSHTF.”
“Yeah, right. Dubya took office on 1/20 and 9/11 happened less than 9 months later.
The only difference I can see is the scale. Worse, in 2009, the new Democratic Con-
gress made the change to the Insurrection Act permanent. Our Founding Fathers’ must
be turning over in their graves.”
“It wasn’t a bad run, though.”
“Partner it’s not over yet, I’ve been listening to the radio net. There are some who aren’t
taking this lying down. I’ve heard of several new organizations, The New Sons of Liber-
ty, The Sons of Dixie and even a reconstituted Michigan Militia. There’s an outfit from
San Antonio that calls themselves’ Travis’s Army. The Resistance is smaller, but we’re
doing our part.”
“Is she coming here?”
“To Paris? Man I doubt it. She might go to Dallas, but there’s no reason for her to come
here.”
“I guess I’d better fire up my computer and print up travel permits.”
“I didn’t figure you’d want any part of that.”
238
“As old as we are, what difference does it make? Did you get the Stringer missile fig-
ured out?”
“I think so; we’ve been able to disable the IFF accessory.”
“I was wondering about that. As I understood it, they were designed to not shoot down
our planes.”
“It’s a separate unit that plugs into the launcher. Damon figured out a work around. It
doesn’t care if you’re a friend or foe; it locks on and blows you outta the sky.”
“How are we gonna know which plane she’s on?”
“By the call sign and monitoring Air Traffic Control. We’ll only get one chance; we’d bet-
ter use 2 missiles.”
“I wonder if they’ll let us have home visits after 25 years?”
“I don’t want any false bravado here, but if we get caught, I won’t let them take me
alive.”
“When is she coming?”
“According to the radio, in about 3 weeks.”
“They land into the wind, so we’ll get on that end of the runway. Maybe 2 miles out, the
plane will be low and well within range.”
“Are you going to be able to hold that, it’s pretty heavy?”
“You’re wearing your latex gloves, right?”
“Answer my question.”
“I’ve got it; or maybe it’s got me. Yeah I’m ok, have you been monitoring ATC?”
“Air Force One is on Final.”
“Get ready, here it comes.”
“I got tone, firing.”
“Me, too. Let’s get the hell outta here Ronald.”
239
“Hit! It’s going down.”
“I said let’s go. After you’ve killed a couple of dozen Presidents’ it seems to lose its
glow.”
Tim McVeigh was able to plant the bomb and escape, it’s not as hard as you think. It’s
the staying uncaught that’s hard. We hadn’t left a clue, just two empty missile launchers.
If there were any fingerprints on them, they sure weren’t ours. We zipped up the road in
the Jeep, bound for Paris. We made it home in less than 2 hours.
“Where have you been?”
“Ron and I went for a ride. We wanted to see if we could trade for more ammo.”
“Did you have your radio on?”
“No, what’s up?”
“The President was coming into Dallas and terrorists shot down the plane.”
“That’s strange; we haven’t had a terrorist event since before the war. Was anybody
hurt?”
“The plane plowed into a field short of the runway and burned. No survivors.”
“So she’s dead?”
“No. she was the backseat in one of the F/A-18s they were using as fighter escort.”
“Who was on the plane that got shot down?”
“Reporters.”
Close, but no cigar. Second best just isn’t the same.
“What’s her next stop?”
“Colorado Springs. They said she’s returning to Cheyenne Mountain.”
“Well, did they catch the terrorists?”
“Apparently, they don’t have a clue.”
240
A person can’t run a country from a hole in the ground/mountain. The insurrection slow-
ly grew until it had spread to every state but New York and California. Libertarians and
Populists replaced Republicans and Democrats on the local, and later, state levels.
Populism is a political philosophy or rhetorical style that holds that the common person’s
interests are oppressed or hindered by the elite in society, and that the instruments of
the state need to be grasped from this self-serving elite and used for the benefit and ad-
vancement of the people as a whole. Hence a populist is one who is perceived to craft
his or her rhetoric as appeals to the economic, social, and common sense concerns of
average people. Most scholarship on populism since 1980 has discussed it as a rhetori-
cal style that can be used to promote a variety of political ideologies. Leaders of populist
movements in recent decades have claimed to have been on both the left and the right
(Canovan, Kazin, Betz) of the political spectrum, while some populists claim to be nei-
ther “left wing,” “centrist” nor “right wing.”
Libertarianism is a political philosophy advocating that individuals should be free to do

whatever they wish with their person or property, as long as they do not infringe on the
same liberty of others. There are two types of libertarians. One type holds as a funda-
mental maxim that all human interaction should be voluntary and consensual. They
maintain that the initiation of force against another person or his property, with “force”
meaning the use of physical force, the threat of it, or the commission of fraud against
someone who has not initiated physical force, threat, or fraud, is a violation of that prin-
ciple (many of these are individual anarchists or anarcho-capitalists).
The other type comes from a consequentialist or utilitarian standpoint. Instead of having
moral prohibitions against initiation of force, these support a limited government that
engages in the minimum amount of initiatory force (such as levying taxes to provide
some public goods such as defense and roads, as well as some minimal regulation),
because they believe it to be necessary to ensure maximum individual freedom (these
are minarchists). Libertarians do not oppose force used in response to initiatory aggres-
sions such as violence, fraud or trespassing. Libertarians favor an ethic of self-
responsibility and strongly oppose the welfare state, because they believe forcing
someone to provide aid to others is ethically wrong, ultimately counter-productive, or
both. Libertarians also strongly oppose conscription because they believe no one
should be forced to fight a war they don’t support (and, ideally, many would like it to be
left to individual decision as to which war, if any, to fund).
The NTSB issued a report saying the crash of Air Force One was occasioned by cata-
strophic engine failure. The report made no statement with regard to the cause of the
engine failure. I can only assume that they didn’t want to embarrass the FBI like had
happened with TWA Flight 800. In so doing, Ron and I were denied our moment of glo-
ry. Beats the hell out of a prison cell.
241
Elections were finally held in 2014 and a 3rd party, the Libertarians took the White
House and the Populists took Congress. Good, right? Bzzz. The Libertarians and Popu-
lists may sound alike, but they’re as different as day and night. We didn’t vote in the
elections, this wasn’t the same country it had been when we were born in the early
1940s. Besides, I’d sworn I never vote Libertarian. However, both parties seem to favor
less government instead of more – it’s called Laissez Faire, ergo, hands off by the gov-
ernment.
For my part, I had always wanted to outlive my father, even if it were only for a single
day. He made it to 78½. As for Ron’s part, I’m convinced that he worried himself to
death over his health concerns. Linda always said that he wasn’t half as sick as he
thought he was. By the time I got to know him, Ron was pretty much a law and order
sort of guy. Initially, he was opposed to those 30-round magazines I got him, citing the
fact that they were illegal. Strangely, that didn’t keep him from taking them, but at the
time, I never knew if he took them out of the boxes they came in.
For years I’d wanted to live in California. Starting with Prop 13, it became Kalifornia.
Then a couple of things happened, the school shooting in Stockton and the murder of
Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. All of a sudden, the stores selling
assault weapons in Los Angeles began to disappear. The multiple murders at Stockton
received national news coverage and spurred calls for regulation of semi-automatic
weapons. In Kalifornia, measures were taken to first define and then ban assault weap-
ons, resulting in the Roberti-Roos Assault Weapons Act.
On the Federal level, Congress struggled with a way to ban weapons like Purdy’s mili-
tary-style semi-automatic rifle without also including semi-automatic hunting rifles. In the
end, Congress defined “assault weapons” as semi-automatic weapons with certain mili-
tary-style secondary features such as flashhiders, bayonet lugs, and pistol grips. These
were banned in the Federal assault weapons ban, enacted in 1994, which expired in
2004. President George H. W. Bush signed an executive order banning importation of
assault weapons in 1989. President Bill Clinton signed another executive order in 1994
which banned importation of most firearms and ammunition from China.
To punctuate the complexity of the issue, neither California’s Roberti-Roos Assault

Weapons Act nor the Federal Assault Weapons Ban would have prevented Purdy from
legally purchasing the weapon he used to commit his crime.
The first school massacre occurred in Michigan. The Bath School disaster was a series
of bombings in Bath Township, Michigan, on 18May27, which killed 45 people and in-
jured 58. Most of the victims were children in second to sixth grades attending the Bath
Consolidated School. The bombings constituted the deadliest act of mass murder in a
school in US history, claiming more than three times as many victims as the Columbine
High School massacre. The perpetrator was school board member Andrew Kehoe, who
was upset by a property tax that had been levied to fund the construction of the school
building. He blamed the additional tax for financial hardships which led to foreclosure
242
proceedings against his farm. These events apparently provoked Kehoe to plan his at-
tack.
On the morning of 18May, Kehoe first killed his wife and then set his farm buildings on
fire. As fire fighters arrived at the farm, an explosion devastated the north wing of the
school building, killing many of the people inside. Kehoe used a detonator to ignite dy-
namite and hundreds of pounds of pyrotol which he had secretly planted inside the
school over the course of many months. As rescuers started gathering at the school,
Kehoe drove up, stopped, and detonated a bomb inside his shrapnel-filled vehicle, kill-
ing himself and the school superintendent and killing and injuring several others. During
the rescue efforts, searchers discovered an additional 500 pounds of unexploded dy-
namite and pyrotol planted throughout the basement of the school’s south wing. Why
didn’t that lead to a dynamite ban? Probably because people could still think for them-
selves in 1927.
Between the Bath Massacre and the Stockton Massacre, there were at least seven ad-
ditional massacres, including the Texas Tower. The first occurred in 1959, 32 years af-
ter Bath. I’ve always wonder how the guns fired themselves. China has had its own
string of school massacres, but they haven’t banned knives.
In the US, it’s supposed to be harder to buy fertilizer because of ANFO bombs. You re-
member when the ABC network bought hundreds of pounds of fertilizer and stored it in
Washington to make a point back in September of ‘06? With virtually no questions
asked, an undercover ABC News team was able to purchase a half ton of one of the
world’s most dangerous bomb-making materials and move it into a storage shed only a
few miles from the White House and the US Capitol.
Despite its use in the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building, there are still no
federal laws restricting the purchase of ammonium nitrate, a chemical fertilizer, widely
sold at farm supply stores.
The ABC News undercover team made the purchases, in cash, at farm supply stores in
North Carolina and Virginia and were never once asked for any valid ID.
Legislation requiring buyers of ammonium nitrate to be registered by the federal gov-

ernment have been blocked by the agricultural industry, according to the Chairman of
the House Homeland Security Committee, Congressman Pete King (R-NY).
The results of the ABC News investigation are “a wake-up call that the American people
and the Congress needs,” King said. A law requiring sellers to record purchases has
passed King’s committee and is awaiting a vote by the full House.
For some reason, Chato preferred plastique. The 1995-1996 USMC Ground Ammuni-
tion War Material Requirements (WMR) Study resulted in a 51% increase to the Combat
Requirement for Demolition Kits, M183, (DoD Identification Code (DODIC) M757). The
Demolition charge M183 is used primarily in breaching obstacles or demolition of large
243
structures where large charges are required (Satchel Charge). The charge assembly
M183 consists of 16 block demolition charges M112, four priming assemblies and carry-
ing case M85. Each Priming assembly consists of a five-foot length of detonating cord
assembled with two detonating cord clips and capped at each end with a booster. The
components of the assembly are issued in the carrying case. The demolition charge
M112 is a rectangular block of Composition C-4 approximately 2 inches by 1.5 inches
and 11 inches long, weighing 1.25 Lbs. When the charge is detonated, the explosive is
converted into compressed gas. The gas exerts pressure in the form of a shock wave,
which demolishes the target by cutting, breaching, or cratering.
However, the Demolition Munition, Concrete Penetrating, HE: M150, also known as the
Penetrating Augmented Munition (PAM) is a lightweight, man portable demolition device
being developed for the Special Operations Forces. A compact 33 inches long and
weighing approximately 42 lbs. PAM can be emplaced by a single person to defeat rein-
forced concrete bridge piers, walls, and abutments. The munition can be carried in a
rucksack or strapped to load-bearing equipment without interfering with the soldier’s
ability to walk, climb, or rappel. In addition, it can be initiated by any standard military
detonation device.
I finally managed to clean all that crap out of our shelter so if TSHTF again, we could
use it. I hate clutter and it got so a person could only walk through the shelter sideways.
With a degree of normalcy restored, I tried to accomplish 2 things: teach Sharon how to
use her own computer; and, explain the function of the vast array of survival equipment
I had accumulated. The generator would handle itself if we lost power and one of the
boys could service it with the accumulated supplies.
I kept my little Nazi .32 auto and the loaded M1A. The remainder of the guns were di-
vided up among the kids. (Derek got the chainsaw.) The feds, much to my surprise,
never found that shelter, no matter how much they looked. Of course, that ended in ‘15
with the change in government.
In the end, we made it through another one, thanks in great part to being prepared. If
you aren’t prepared for whatever is coming, today would be a good time to start.
Politically, I’d probably die a Republican but it didn’t mean I’d never vote for a good
Democratic candidate. I was really impressed with Obama when he was on Fox news.
Might need more seasoning before they run him. My crystal ball tells me not to count
out McCain as a one term President in ‘08, but it’s just a glass ball. If that happened, I
think Obama would sweep the ‘12 election, but what do I know? Getting an education
doesn’t automatically make a person liberal. It does sometimes aid with understanding
other people. I think the radical Muslims are out to get us and God help us if they get
WMDs.
Was I dreaming? Check this out:
244
Dear Friend,
Blackwater is bidding on the contract NSW/NSO solicitation N00140-07-R-0001.

We are looking for professional, motivated, in shape, and enthusiastic individuals to
meet the required qualifications listed below.
Personnel Qualifications
1. Mentors will have served at least 8 years in the SEAL, Diver or Navy Special Opera-
tions Communities.
2. Mentors will maintain an exemplary level of physical fitness and professional de-
meanor.
3. Mentors will maintain the personnel, organization, and administrative control needed
to ensure that the work is done properly and on time.
4. The work history of each contractor employee must contain experience directly relat-
ed to the task and functions needed to perform under this contract.
5. The Government reserves the right, at any time, to request work histories on any con-
tractor or employee.
Every NRD shall have one (1) Mentor assigned. For each, NRD, the Mentor shall be
assigned to the city indicated below.
Atlanta, GA, North Chicago, IL, Dallas, TX, Denver, CO, Houston, TX, Jacksonville, FL,
Los Angeles, CA, Miami, FL, Tampa, FL, Detroit, MI, Minneapolis, MN, Nashville, TN,
Burlington, VT, Lafayette, LA, New Orleans, LA, East Meadow, NY, Columbus, OH, Be-
thesda, MD, Phoenix, AZ, Pittsburgh, PA, Portland, OR, New Bern, NC, St. Louis, MO,
Kansas City, MO, Memphis, TN, Norfolk, VA, San Diego, CA, San Antonio, TX, Sacra-
mento, CA, Bremerton/Bangor, WA, Raleigh, NC or Richmond, VA.
If you or someone you know is interested, please fax the enclosed letter of intent to
(252) 435-6388. We appreciate your time and consideration. Any questions should be
directed to Ray Horst.
Thank you,
Gary Jackson (CW04 Ret. SEAL)
(That’s a real recruiting letter.)
I searched and I could not find Opportunity Number: N00140-07-R-0001 I did learn that
NSW/NSO translated into Naval Special Warfare/Naval Special Operations and the N
means Navy and finally that the R means Administrative. I thing they were looking for
SEAL Mentors, to place all over the country. We need SEAL Mentors in Burlington and
Denver? Is Burlington anywhere near Jericho?
245
Russia’s Air Force commander said Wednesday he considers nuclear missile launches
by terrorists or ‘rogue states’ to be a genuine threat. “Increasingly probable and danger-
ous for the US, Russia and European countries are single or multiple missile strikes
from third countries, known as rogue states, countries with unstable, non-democratic
regimes, or terrorist organizations with access to missile technology,” Vladimir Mikhailov
said.
Mikhailov said accidental launches were also possible.
“Although accidental launches of missiles with nuclear warheads have not occurred in
the history of nuclear missile technology, this does not mean they will not occur in the
future, given the growing spread of nuclear missiles,” he said.
Mikhailov also said terrorist organizations and the countries harboring them would not
be deterred by the threat of a retaliatory strike, which has acted as a constraint for Rus-
sia and the United States, the world’s largest nuclear powers.
“The objective of terrorists is to attract as much attention to their attacks as possible,” he

said.
Retaliation against a missile strike is also fraught with massive civilian casualties and
destruction, the commander said, referring to recent warfare between Israel and Leba-
non.
Mikhailov warned that missile technology will be increasingly popular in 21st century
conflicts due to its combat capability and relatively small size.
International non-proliferation efforts have been facing difficulties in recent years.
North Korea said it conducted its first nuclear test on October 9, which could make it the
ninth country known to have nuclear weapons, along with the US, Russia, France, Chi-
na, Britain, India, Pakistan, and Israel, the latter three being de-facto nuclear powers.
The secretive Communist state is already under UN sanctions over the move, while Iran
faces sanctions over its defiance to halt uranium enrichment. The Islamic Republic has
been in at center of an international nuclear dispute, suspected of pursuing nuclear
weapons under the guise of a civilian energy program.
Russia has taken a moderate position in both disputes, acknowledging the countries’
right to peaceful nuclear power under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but voicing
concerns over their unwillingness to ease the international suspicions.
Who attacked the US, Russians? I thought it was them, maybe I was wrong.
246
November 22, 2006 – Citizens of the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Bermuda will
be required to present a passport to enter the United States when arriving by air from
any part of the Western Hemisphere beginning January 23, 2007 as part of the Western
Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI).
“The ability to misuse travel documents to enter this country opens the door for a terror-
ist to carry out an attack.” said Secretary Michael Chertoff. “This initiative strengthens
our border security by designating verifiable secure documents that may be used at our
air ports of entry.”
Papers please!
Where do I stand on the issues of our day?
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for
which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
I trust in God.
The first President, Washington, added the words, “So help me God,” to the oath of of-
fice. He said in his goodbye address that the basic laws of morality can be found in reli-
gion. I believe the basic laws of morality are:
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt... You shall have no
other gods before Me.
You shall not make for yourself an idol.
You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God...
Remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy.
Honor your father and your mother.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.
247
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house.
In the case: EVERSON v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF EWING TP., 330US1 (1947),

Justice Hugo Black, a devote anti-Catholic, issued a ruling that began our slow slide into
perdition. The current court includes 5 Catholic’s. Justice Black, relied on a phase from
a letter written by Thomas Jefferson in his decision. In the words of Jefferson, the
clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect ‘a wall of separa-
tion between Church and State.’ Reynolds v. United States, 98US at page 164.
The reference is to a letter Jefferson wrote to a Baptist group where he first cited the 1st
amendment and added after a comma, and therefore erects ‘a wall of separation be-
tween Church and State. It was taken out of context and quoted. That case is the basis
for all subsequent cases and the basis for removing ‘under God’ from the Pledge of Al-
legiance and removal of the Ten Commandments from the courthouse.
Think about it, it arose because someone objected using taxpayer dollars to bus catho-
lic children to catholic school with taxpayer dollars. What they overlooked was the fact
that some of those taxpayer dollars came from Catholic’s. Under the same theory, they
couldn’t use catholic taxpayer dollars to bus non-Catholic children to a non-Catholic
school.
Several countries have mandatory conscription:
Austria, Belarus, Bermuda, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, China (PRC), Croatia, Cyprus, Den-
mark, Egypt, Eritrea, Finland, Germany, Greece, Iran, Israel, South Korea, Lebanon,
Malaysia, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro, Singapore, Swe-
den, Switzerland, Taiwan (ROC), Turkey, Ukraine and Venezuela.
Rep. Charles Rangel wants to reinstitute the draft. I like the idea, and think it should be
applied equally to men and women. A person should have 2 choices: 3 years in the mili-
tary or 6 years in the Peace Corps. People who complete their conscription can apply
for citizenship. I believe that would solve two problems: our military would be large
enough to handle a war; and, it would reduce illegal aliens.
When the NRA gave me a chance to up my membership from Endowment to Patron for
only $250, I did it. I considered it to just to be an expensive jacket. The NRA is the num-
ber ONE organization trying to keep our rights under the 2nd Amendment.
I believe that George Bush got lost in the fog. Robert McNamara’s Book, The Fog of
War, is what I’m referring to. An Academy Award winning film, The Fog of War: Eleven
Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara listed the following lessons:
1. Empathize with your enemy.

2. Rationality will not save us.
3. There’s something beyond one’s self.
4. Maximize efficiency.
248
5. Proportionality should be a guideline in war.
6. Get the data.
7. Belief and seeing are both often wrong.
8. Be prepared to reexamine your reasoning.
9. In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil.
10. Never say never.
11. You can’t change human nature.
These were written as a companion to the film and are included in the Special Features
of the DVD:
1. The human race will not eliminate war in this century but we can reduce war, the level
of killing, by adhering to the principles of a just war, in particular of proportionality.
2. The indefinite combinations of human fallibility and nuclear weapons will lead to the
destruction of nations.
3. We are the most powerful nation in the world – economically, politically, and militarily
– and we are likely to remain so for decades ahead. But we are not omniscient. If we
cannot persuade other nations with similar interests and similar values of the merits of
the proposed use of that power, we should not proceed unilaterally except in the unlike-
ly requirement to defend the continental US, Alaska and Hawaii.
4. Moral principles are often ambiguous guides to foreign policy and defense policy, but
surely we can agree that we should establish as a major goal of US foreign policy and,
indeed, of foreign policy across the globe: the avoidance in this century of the carnage –
160 million dead – caused by conflict in the 20th century.
5. We, the richest nation in the world, have failed in our responsibility to our own poor
and to the disadvantaged across the world to help them advance their welfare in the
most fundamental terms of nutrition, literacy, health, and employment.
6. Corporate executives must recognize there is no contradiction between a soft heart
and a hard head. Of course, they have responsibilities to their employees, their custom-
ers and to society as a whole.
7. President Kennedy believed a primary responsibility of a president – indeed “the”
primary responsibility of a president – is to keep the nation out of war, if at all possible.
8. War is a blunt instrument by which to settle disputes between or within nations, and
economic sanctions are rarely effective. Therefore, we should build a system of juris-
prudence based on the International Court – that the US has refused to support – which
would hold individuals responsible for crimes against humanity.
9. If we are to deal effectively with terrorists across the globe, we must develop a sense
of empathy – I don’t mean “sympathy” but rather “understanding” to counter their at-
tacks on us and the Western World.
10. One of the greatest dangers we face today is the risk of mass destruction as a result
of the breakdown of the Non-Proliferation Regime. We – the US – are contributing to
that breakdown.
Our approach to Iraq was wrong; we should have listened to Colin Powell. The real
problem was we couldn’t conduct the war the way Powell wanted, our military was too
small. As I understand it, Powell would have used massive force, at least 400,000
249
troops. The questions posed by the Powell Doctrine, which should be answered affirma-
tively before military action, are:
1. Is a vital national security interest threatened?

2. Do we have a clear attainable objective?
3. Have the risks and costs been fully and frankly analyzed?
4. Have all other non-violent policy means been fully exhausted?
5. Is there a plausible exit strategy to avoid endless entanglement?
6. Have the consequences of our action been fully considered?
7. Is the action supported by the American people?
8. Do we have genuine broad international support?
The fifth point of the Doctrine is normally interpreted to mean that the US should not get
involved in peacekeeping or nation-building exercises. Powell expanded upon the Doc-
trine, asserting that when a nation is engaging in war, every resource and tool should be
used to achieve overwhelming force against the enemy, minimizing US casualties and
ending the conflict quickly by forcing the weaker force to capitulate. This is well in line
with Western military strategy dating at least from Carl von Clausewitz’s On War. How-
ever, in the context of the Just War theory, the doctrine of overwhelming force may vio-
late the principle of proportionality.
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has joined the list of prominent figures speaking
out bluntly against Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s handling of the war in Iraq.
Addressing the annual conference of the National School Board Association in Chicago
on Saturday, Powell said: “We made some serious mistakes in the immediate aftermath
of the fall of Baghdad.
“We didn’t have enough troops on the ground. We didn’t impose our will. And as a re-
sult, an insurgency got started and... got out of control.”
Powell was behind failed US efforts to get the United Nations Security Council to en-
dorse a resolution for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. After retiring in 2005, he expressed an-
ger that the intelligence he presented at the time turned out to be largely incorrect, the
New York Sun reports.
Since returning to private life, Powell has devoted much of his time to the Colin Powell
Policy Center at the City College of New York, his alma mater.
A number of Powell’s old colleagues have already gone on the record voicing their con-
cerns about the war in Iraq.
On April 2, the former general in charge of Central Command, Anthony Zinni, called on
Rumsfeld to resign because of a “series of disastrous mistakes.”
250
Former Lt. General Greg Newbold, who resigned from the military in 2002 in large part
due to his opposition to the Iraq war, writes in this week’s issue of Time magazine that
the conflict is “an unnecessary war” and calls for, “as a first step, replacing Rumsfeld
and many others unwilling to change their approach.”
In mid-March, a third retired general, Paul Eaton – who was in charge of training Iraqi
troops – wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Times also calling on Rumsfeld to re-
sign.
The neoconservative Weekly Standard first called on Rumsfeld to step aside in 2005
because of his decision to run the occupation of Iraq with what the Standard maintains
were too few troops.
But Thomas Donnelly, a Defense expert at the American Enterprise Institute, said on
Monday that Rumsfeld is not likely to resign.
“I think Rumsfeld has a constituency of one, but that one happens to be the president,”
he said. “I don’t sense at all that the White House is feeling any pressure to make a
change.”
Rumsfeld resigned and Dubya nominated Gates. Gates wanted to bomb Ortega. In
1984, Robert Gates, then the No. 2 CIA official, advocated US airstrikes against Nicara-
gua’s pro-Cuban government to reverse what he described as an ineffective US strate-
gy to deal with communist advances in Central America, previously classified docu-
ments say.
Gates, President George W. Bush’s nominee to be defense secretary, said the United
States could no longer justify what he described as “halfhearted” attempts to contain
Nicaragua’s Sandinista government, according to documents released Friday by the
National Security Archive, a private research group.
In a memo to CIA Director William Casey dated Dec. 14, 1984, Gates said his proposed
air strikes would be designed “to destroy a considerable portion of Nicaragua’s military
buildup” and be focused on tanks and helicopters.
He also recommended that the United States prevent delivery to the Sandinistas of
such weapons in the future. The administration, he said, should make clear that a US
invasion of the country was not contemplated.
The target of Gates’ anxieties Nicaragua’s leftist president, Daniel Ortega.
Ironically, Gates’ nomination to succeed Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was an-
nounced just days after Ortega capped off a surprise political comeback by winning
election as Nicaraguan president after three previous bids were rejected by the voters.
251
Ortega has recast himself as a moderate, assuring Nicaraguans that his Marxist-
Leninist days are over.
Gates saw a calamitous situation in Central America in December 1984. Congress had
ordered a halt to US support for the Contra rebels, leaving Ortega free, as Gates saw it,
to establish Nicaragua as a “permanent and well-armed” ally of the Soviet Union and
Cuba.
He said the United States should acknowledge that the existence of a Marxist-Leninist
regime in Nicaragua closely allied to Moscow and Havana “is unacceptable to the Unit-
ed States and that the United States will do everything its power short of invasion to put
that regime out.”
In addition to air strikes, he recommended withdrawal of US recognition of the Nicara-

guan government and recognition of a Nicaraguan government in exile that would be
entitled to US military support.
Economic sanctions should be considered, “perhaps even including a quarantine,”

Gates wrote.
His proposals were never adopted but the administration attempted to circumvent the
Contra aid ban by secretly funneling money to the rebels that had been obtained
through arms sales to Iran. Democrat says they will question Gates during his Senate
confirmation about his knowledge of the Iran-Contra scandal, which erupted two years
after he sent his memo to Casey.
Gates’ grim prediction in the memo of disaster in Central America did not come to pass.
Congress renewed aid to the Contras in 1986. In February 1990, Nicaraguans dealt a
blow to the Soviet Union and Cuba by voting Ortega out of office. And within two years,
the Soviet Union had disappeared.
Washington Post – Sunday, June 4, 2006
On Monday, June 19, about 4,000 government workers representing more than 50 fed-
eral agencies from the State Department to the Commodity Futures Trading Commis-
sion will say goodbye to their families and set off for dozens of classified emergency fa-
cilities stretching from the Maryland and Virginia suburbs to the foothills of the Alleghe-
nies. They will take to the bunkers in an “evacuation” that my sources describe as the
largest “continuity of government” exercise ever conducted, a drill intended to prepare
the US government for an event even more catastrophic than the Sept. 11, 2001, at-
tacks.
The exercise is the latest manifestation of an obsession with government survival that
has been a hallmark of the Bush administration since 9/11, a focus of enormous and
often absurd time, money and effort that has come to echo the worst follies of the Cold
War. The vast secret operation has updated the duck-and-cover scenarios of the 1950s
252
with state-of-the-art technology – alerts and updates delivered by pager and PDA, wire-
less priority service, video teleconferencing, remote backups – to ensure that “essential”
government functions continue undisrupted should a terrorist’s nuclear bomb go off in
downtown Washington.
But for all the BlackBerry culture, the outcome is still old-fashioned black and white:
We’ve spent hundreds of millions of dollars on alternate facilities, data warehouses and
communications, yet no one can really foretell what would happen to the leadership and
functioning of the federal government in a catastrophe.
After 9/11, The Washington Post reported that President Bush had set up a shadow
government of about 100 senior civilian managers to live and work outside Washington
on a rotating basis to ensure the continuity of national security. Since then, a program
once focused on presidential succession and civilian control of US nuclear weapons has
been expanded to encompass the entire government. From the Department of Educa-
tion to the Small Business Administration to the National Archives, every department
and agency is now required to plan for continuity outside Washington.
Yet according to scores of documents I’ve obtained and interviews with half a dozen
sources, there’s no greater confidence today that essential services would be main-
tained in a disaster. And no one really knows how an evacuation would even be physi-
cally possible.
Moreover, since 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, the definition of what constitutes an “es-
sential” government function has been expanded so ridiculously beyond core national
security functions – do we really need patent and trademark processing in the middle of
a nuclear holocaust? – that the term has become meaningless. The intent of the gov-
ernment effort may be laudable, even necessary, but a hyper-centralized approach
based on the Cold War model of evacuations and bunkering makes it practically worth-
less.
That the continuity program is so poorly conceived, and poorly run, should come as no
surprise. That’s because the same Federal Emergency Management Agency that failed
New Orleans after Katrina, an agency that a Senate investigating committee has pro-
nounced “in shambles and beyond repair,” is in charge of this enormous effort to plan
for the US government’s survival.
Continuity programs began in the early 1950s, when the threat of nuclear war moved
the administration of President Harry S. Truman to begin planning for emergency gov-
ernment functions and civil defense. Evacuation bunkers were built, and an incredibly
complex and secretive shadow government program was created.
At its height, the grand era of continuity boasted the fully operational Mount Weather, a
civilian bunker built along the crest of Virginia’s Blue Ridge, to which most agency
heads would evacuate; the Greenbrier hotel complex and bunker in West Virginia,
where Congress would shelter; and Raven Rock, or Site R, a national security bunker
253
bored into granite along the Pennsylvania-Maryland border near Camp David, where
the Joint Chiefs of Staff would command a protracted nuclear war. Special communica-
tions networks were built, and evacuation and succession procedures were practiced
continually.
When the Soviet Union crumbled, the program became a Cold War curiosity: Then-
Defense Secretary Dick Cheney ordered Raven Rock into caretaker status in 1991. The
Greenbrier bunker was shuttered and a 30-year-old special access program was de-
classified three years later.
Then came the terrorist attacks of the mid-1990s and the looming Y2K rollover, and
suddenly continuity wasn’t only for nuclear war anymore. On Oct. 21, 1998, President
Bill Clinton signed Presidential Decision Directive 67, “Enduring Constitutional Govern-
ment and Continuity of Government Operations.” No longer would only the very few elite
leaders responsible for national security be covered. Instead, every single government
department and agency was directed to see to it that they could resume critical func-
tions within 12 hours of a warning, and keep their operations running at emergency fa-
cilities for up to 30 days. FEMA was put in charge of this broad new program.
On 9/11, the program was put to the test – and failed. Not on the national security side:
Vice President Cheney and others in the national security leadership were smoothly
whisked away from the capital following procedures overseen by the Pentagon and the
White House Military Office. But like the mass of Washingtonians, officials from other
agencies found themselves virtually on their own, unsure of where to go or what to do,
or whom to contact for the answers.
In the aftermath, the federal government was told to reinvigorate its continuity efforts.
Bush approved lines of succession for civil agencies. Cabinet departments and agen-
cies were assigned specific emergency responsibilities. FEMA issued new prepared-
ness guidelines and oversaw training. A National Capital Region continuity working
group established in 1999, comprising six White House groups, 15 departments and 61
agencies, met to coordinate.
But all the frenetic activity did not produce a government prepared for the worst. A year
after 9/11, and almost three years after the deadline set in Clinton’s 1998 directive, the
Government Accounting Office evaluated 38 agencies and found that not one had ad-
dressed all the issues it had been ordered to. A 2004 GAO audit of 34 government con-
tinuity-of-operations plans found total confusion on the question of essential functions.
One unnamed organization listed 399 such functions. A department included providing
“speeches and articles for the Secretary and Deputy Secretary” among its essential du-
ties, while neglecting many of its central programs.
The confusion and absurdity have continued, according to documents I’ve collected
over the past few years. In June 2004, FEMA told federal agencies that essential ser-
vices in a catastrophe would include not only such obvious ones as electric power gen-
eration and disaster relief but also patent and trademark processing, student aid and
254
passport processing. A month earlier, FEMA had told states and local communities that
library services should be counted as essential along with fire protection and law en-
forcement.
None of this can be heartening to Americans who want to believe that in a crisis, their
government can distinguish between what is truly essential and what isn’t – and provide
it.
Just two years ago, an exercise called Forward Challenge ‘04 pointed up the danger of
making everyone and everything essential: Barely an hour after agencies were due to
arrive at their relocation sites, the Office of Management and Budget asked the reconsti-
tuted government to identify emergency funding requirements.
As one after-action report for the exercise later put it in a classic case of understate-
ment: “It was not clear... whether this would be a realistic request at that stage of an
emergency.”
This year’s exercise, Forward Challenge ‘06, will be the third major interagency continui-
ty exercise since 9/11. Larger than Forward Challenge ‘04 and the Pinnacle exercise
held last year, it requires 31 departments and agencies (including FEMA) to relocate.
Fifty to 60 are expected to take part.
According to government sources, the exercise will test the newly created continuity of
government alert conditions – called COGCONs – that emulate the DEFCONs of the
national security community. Forward Challenge will begin with a series of alerts via
BlackBerry and pager to key officials. It will test COGCON 1, the highest level of pre-
paredness, in which each department and agency is required to have at least one per-
son in its chain of command and sufficient staffing at alternate operating facilities to per-
form essential functions.
Though key White House officials and military leadership would be relocated via the
Pentagon’s Joint Emergency Evacuation Program (JEEP), the civilians are on their own
to make it to their designated evacuation points.
But fear not: Each organization’s COOP, or continuity of operations plan, details the
best routes to the emergency locations. The plans even spell out what evacuees should
take with them (recommended items: a combination lock, a flashlight, two towels and a
small box of washing powder).
Can such an exercise, announced well in advance, hope to re-create any of the ten-
sions and fears of a real crisis? How do you simulate the experience of driving through
blazing, radiated, panic-stricken streets to emergency bunker sites miles away?
As the Energy Department stated in its review of Forward Challenge ‘04, “a method
needs to be devised to realistically test the ability of... federal offices to relocate to their
255
COOP sites using a scenario that simulates... the monumental challenges that would be
involved in evacuating the city.”
With its new plans and procedures, Washington may think it has thought of everything
to save itself. Forward Challenge will no doubt be deemed a success, and officials will
pronounce the continuity-of-government project sound. There will be lessons to be
learned that will justify more millions of dollars and more work in the infinite effort to
guarantee order out of chaos.
But the main defect – a bunker mentality that considers too many people and too many
jobs “essential” – will remain unchallenged.
++++
I divided up my guns because I thought it was over. I forgot; the Opry ain’t over until the
fat lady sings. I was in the same position I’d been before TSHTF. Not quite, I still had
the shelter, fully stocked, and most of my survival supplies. My crystal ball must have
had a crack in it, Ron was gone and Linda was thinking about leaving to see if she could
track down her kids. She told Sharon that since they hadn’t bought the house, she’d put
their things in storage in Paris and come back for them later.
That’s where we got to the strip my gears and call me shiftless part; she gave me all of
Ron’s guns. I was standing there with my chin on the ground just staring when she told
me that. I snapped out of it quickly and proceeded to haul them all to armory in the shel-
ter; it had been looking a bit on the bare side.
A few days later Derek and Damon helped Linda mover her things into the storage bin
and Derek came with me to the shelter to check out stuff she’d given me.
“.375 H&H magnum? You shoot that and it will knock you flat on your ass.”
“Ron told me that the Winchester .338 was worse.”
“I thought you passed out the guns because you were dying.”
“I passed out the guns because the doc told me my labs didn’t look good, I’m anemic
again. The last time that happened my ulcers were bleeding and it didn’t look good.”
“What did you do to heal them?”
“I took Carafate and Prevacid. The gastroenterologist said if I had problems I could take
Prevacid BID, however, I’d have to see a doc to get a prescription for Carafate and he’d
probably wouldn’t prescribe it without another gastric endoscopy.”
“How about doubling up the Prevacid and using something like Maalox?”
256
“I don’t think so; the doc said that Carafate is used to heal the ulcers.”
“Then get some.”
257
I hadn’t checked the supplies the boys had gathered when they’d cleaned out the phar-
macies, I guess I should have. When I looked, I found enough Carafate to last me for 2
months, the recommended treatment period. I also doubled up on my Prevacid, we
weren’t short on that. I waited 2 months and got another CBC. My blood was back in the
normal ranges so I finished off the Carafate and cut the Prevacid back to QD.
Derek and Mary moved into the house Linda had vacated and I found all of my guns
back in the armory. My only problem now was bringing the ammunition levels up to lev-
els I always recommended, 2,000 rounds per handgun and 5,000 rounds per rifle. With
the price of .375 H&H and .338 Winchester running about $4 a round, I thought better of
the quantity and decided to settle for 2 or 3 200-round cases of each, probably a lifetime
supply for both Derek and me. In fact, the logical thing to do was to buy case lots of
ammo, preferably from the same lot instead of worrying about the number of rounds.
We’d probably end up ammo poor, e.g., spend so much on ammo we ran out of money.
The cities that had been bombed were, for the most part, total losses. Rather than fun-
nel good money trying to clean them up and rebuild them, the feds announced they’d
build new cities in the general area of the former city, thereby saving the cost of the
cleanup. I tended to end my stories before the country was rebuilt; it was more focused
on preparations.
“Hey Sharon, what year is it?”
“2015, why?”
“I wanted to know and guess I forgot. Time really flies when you’re not having fun. Did
you hear that stuff on the news, the feds are going to build new cities, not clean up the
old ones.”
“Yes, I heard, why?”
“I remember reading a story when I was a kid. It was about a fella you first took to be an
Indian going into a city years after a nuclear war. I figured out the city was New York
from the description. It was called, By the Waters of Babylon, and I found it on the inter-
net and copied it. Let me read you a paragraph, it’s interesting.”
The north and the west and the south are good hunting ground, but it is forbidden to go
east. It is forbidden to go to any of the Dead Places except to search for metal and then
he who touches the metal must be a priest or the son of a priest. Afterwards, both the
man and the metal must be purified. These are the rules and the laws; they are well
made. It is forbidden to cross the great river and look upon the place that was the Place
of the Gods – this is most strictly forbidden. We do not even say its name though we
258
know its name. It is there that spirits live, and demons – it is there that there are the
ashes of the Great Burning. These things are forbidden – they have been forbidden
since the beginning of time.
“Why does that sound familiar?”
“The title is taken by the Bible, Psalm 137. By the waters, the waters of Babylon,
we sat down and wept, and wept for thee, Zion. We remember, we remember, we re-
member thee, Zion.”
“Getting your house in order for when you die?”
“It’s too late for that; I committed a sin when I killed those 4 guys from Blackwater.”
“Thou shall not kill?”
“No, it actually says, Thou shall not murder. They pissed me of so I tracked them down
and murdered them.”
“Are you sure they were Blackwater and not soldiers?”
“Yeah the uniforms weren’t quite standard USGI.”
“And why do you think you won’t go to Heaven?”
“Ask Moses, he couldn’t go to the Promised Land because he killed an Egyptian guard.”
“How do you remember that story, was it a novel?”
“No, about 2 pages long. It was my first exposure to Science Fiction, although it might
also qualify as Fantasy. It was written in 1937 by Stephen Vincent Benét. I didn’t know
that when I first read it, I automatically thought of a nuclear war.”
At about the time our original 13 states adopted their new constitution, in the year 1787,
Alexander Tyler (a Scottish history professor at The University of Edinburgh) had this to
say about The Fall of The Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior.
A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form

of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover
that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that mo-
ment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits
from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to
loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship.
259
The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has
been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed
through the following sequence:
From Bondage to spiritual faith;

From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage.
Sir Alex Fraser Tytler (1742-1813), Scottish jurist, historian and professor of Universal
History at Edinburgh University. From a collection of lectures 1801, as cited in A Dic-
tionary of Quotations, 1989.
Ezekiel 16:49: “Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters
had arrogance, abundant food, and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and
needy.”
“What’s the date?”
“I told you, 2015.”
“No, I mean the day and month.”
“March 22, 2015.”
“What are you getting me for a birthday present?”
“How about a devil’s food cake?”
“Coffee frosting?”
“If you insist.”
“Fine, don’t frost it for all I care.”
“I thought you liked creamed cheese frosting.”
“I do, but I like coffee better.”
“You have a letter from the bank.”
260
2015? The good news was the bank in Iowa was still there and our checking account
was full of money. I knew that they hadn’t put all of the trust money in the stock market.
The portion they had hadn’t disappeared, completely. Some of the corporations were
making a comeback. Trust Fund managers are probably the most conservative people
in the world when it comes to making investments. They have an obligation to protect
the principal. It had been 4 years plus since World War III. If you were paying attention,
that happened on December 7, 2010, 69 years after Pearl Harbor.
“We’re rich!”
“How rich?”
“Real rich, Iowa resumed paying the pension and the bank had at least one-third of the
trust in CDs. The letter says we have over $70,000 in our checking and savings ac-
counts. Matt says they transferred money from checking to savings once the checking
account balance went over $15,000. Whoop dee do, they paid 1½% interest.”
“What else does the letter say?”
“He wants to know if we want to write checks or drive to Charles City and pick up cash.”
“Why don’t you tell him to wire transfer the money to our Paris account? It would be
cheaper than driving there and we’d have the money sooner.”
“Good idea, it took the letter 49 days to get here.”
I drove to town in my Jeep and went to the bank. I showed the letter to the manager and
asked if he could arrange for a wire transfer to our Paris account. Residential phone
service really wasn’t up to par, but the bank had long distance. He called the number in
the letter and asked to speak to Matt. Then he explained that I wanted to arrange a wire
transfer of the funds. Matt asked to speak to me to confirm the transaction and agree to
the wire transfer fee. I told him to wire the balance in both accounts, less any minimum
balance.
“Mr. Ott, the money will be available tomorrow. Thank you.”
“What, I can’t have any now?”
“Not until the money posts to your account. Cash withdrawals are limited to $1,000 per
day.”
My next stop was the gun store to order the ammo I mentioned. What the hell, I ordered
2 cases each for the big rifles and at least 1 case for each pistol. The guy said I’d have
to pay in advance. I explained that I had just received a wire transfer and the money
wouldn’t be available until the next day. He said he’d hold the check one day and when
261
it cleared the bank, order the ammo. I asked how long and he said a week to 10 days. It
was frustrating, to say the least. They have your money but won’t let you have it and
they want your money before they’ll order your goods. Will a Stinger take out a gun
shop? Life hadn’t changed much in the intervening years.
Most of Ron’s handguns were .357 magnum. Thank God that was available in a 500
round case. I prefer the 158 grain bullets and divided the ammo between SJHP and
SJSP. I also had to buy 9mm, .38 Special and .41 magnum. All of his rifles except for
the 2 elephant guns were 5.56×45mm (.223). The only brand of ammo still available in
civilian calibers in quantity was Winchester.
“Well?”
“They transferred the money, it will be available tomorrow. I ordered ammo and we can
go shopping and fill in the shelves in the shelter.”
“Did you buy ammo for all of the rifles Linda gave you?”
“A little, yes. Not like my M1As, I didn’t; I keep a few thousand rounds for them.”
“Did you ever finish off that South African ammo you bought when you bought the first
M1A?”
“Not yet, but I’m working on it.”
“I still don’t see why you need so many guns.”
“For a while, dear. Sometimes I need a light rifle and I use the SR-556. Sometimes I
need a heavy rifle and use one of the M1As. Once in a while, I need a real sniper rifle
and go with the Super Match or the Tac-50. I didn’t buy those elephant guns Ron had,
but it doesn’t make sense to have them and not have ammo for them.”
“How much did you buy?”
“Two boxes for each rifle and one box for each handgun.”
“What size box?”
“You’re going to burn the soup.”
“No, I’m not and don’t change the subject.”
“A case sized box.”
262
“That’s not as large as a military case, is it?”
“No dear (but it costs a lot more). A military case is 1,000 rounds, these were 200 round
cases.”
“Why only one case per handgun?”
“Large cases, 500 rounds.”
“Well ok, as long as you kept it within reason.”
“Gee, thanks. Did you put milk in the soup?”
“I fixed it both ways, water for you and milk for me.”
It should be obvious by now that she made tomato soup. The can says add water, but
she likes cream of tomato soup and adds milk. I hate it and refuse to eat it when she
does that. She won’t eat it if it’s made with water. She had baked the cake while I was
gone; so after lunch, I made the coffee frosting. It’s nothing more than chocolate butter
crème frosting that you use hot coffee in as the liquid. I was very happy she didn’t ask
how much a case of ammo cost. I didn’t fool her for long, she balances the checkbook.
By then, it was my birthday and she couldn’t get mad at me on my birthday, right?
“How many cans of coffee?”
“I just got 6.”
“6 cans or 6 trays?”
“Trays. But, that’s only 36 cans.”
“I didn’t realize we were that low on coffee.”
“I checked, we were very low.”
“I’m not disputing you; I just ask cans or trays.”
Do you go through that with your wife? After I pull the 2 boxes bit with the ammo, I sup-
pose the question was reasonable. We were low on coffee, but not really that low, I just
wanted to load up on it while we had the money. There were several things we had
some of, but more would be better, just in case. You know how it is with people who are
preparedness oriented; it’s easier to say a box than a case. So what if the box contains
6 8 pound bags of elbow macaroni? It doesn’t spoil, you know.
263
For less than I spent on ammo, we filled the larder and then some. For the first years
after the war, if you didn’t have it or couldn’t grow it, you often went without. It had got-
ten to the point where we only had coffee with meals, even with the salvage operation.
Towards the end, we were drinking French Market, I loved it; they hated it. I suspected I
could have gotten 12 trays of Folgers and Sharon wouldn’t have objected. Our storage
in the shelter didn’t have a lot of different products, but it did have a lot of each one we
had. Like I told you, buy what you eat and eat what you buy. When it’s on sale, buy
more.
“What next?”
“I think we’d better load up on supplies for the generator, 3-4 drums of oil, a couple cas-
es of filters and top off all the tanks.”
“Does it need to be serviced?”
“I’m not sure, call someone and have it checked over. The average life on a diesel en-
gine without a rebuild it 13-30 thousand hours, provided you keep the unit serviced.”
About 10 days after my birthday, I took Damon and we picked up my ammo. The guy
said it had been harder to get than he thought, but everything I wanted came in. He had
2 extra cases of .357 magnum if I wanted them. I was going to say no when I spied a
Marlin 1894C in the rack. It’s a nice little carbine in .357 magnum, perfect for Sharon.
Right after the war, the price of gold and silver had gone through the roof, running on
average, $2,000 and $40 an ounce respectively. It had slowly come down because the
government hadn’t gone back to the gold standard. It was being discussed in Congress
with a price ranging anywhere from $750 an ounce to $1,250 an ounce and a ratio be-
tween the price of gold and silver set at 50:1. When we’d finished our spending spree,
we discussed converting some of the remaining money to gold and silver coins. At the
moment, word was the Congress was leaning toward $750 and that brought the price
down.
“I just don’t know Gary; you always claimed bad things happened in 3s. We had the ter-
rorist attacks, the war and then the government problems. That’s 3, right? How much do
you want to tie up in precious metal?”
“How about $40,000?”
“What can you get for that?”
“I checked and the out the door price of gold is $800 an ounce. That’s 50 ounces, but I
thought we’d get most of it in smaller denominations, 0.5, 0.25 and 0.1 ounce gold coins
and 1 ounce silver coins.”
264
“Will that leave us any spending money?”
“About 10 grand plus whatever there is in the Iowa accounts.”
“Do what you think best.”
“What are you doing?”
“Leaning on my hoe, Derek. I’m too old for this stuff. What’s new?”
“We’re all working, I’m at the post office and Mary is driving bus. Amy works for the
Sheriff’s department and Lorrie watches the kids. Sharon said you bought some gold.”
“Yeah, I bought 12 ounces of each of the 4 gold denominations plus spent the rest on
one ounce silver coins. I don’t know if it was a good investment or not, that will depend
on Congress.”
“They put us back on the gold standard.”
“When?”
“The President signed the bill today, effective June 1st.”
“At what price?”
“$1,000 an ounce on gold, $20 on silver.”
“Hot damn, we just made 25% on my investment, as of June 1st. Here, you hoe for a
while and I’ll watch.”
“Why don’t you go in the house and I’ll finish up for you?”
“Thanks. I’ll plant my butt in that lawn chair. We planted for the entire family.”
“I noticed you had the shelter full of food again, I don’t know why you do it.”
“I was talking to some of the members of the Resistance, Ray and Chato and a couple
of others. They’re doing the same thing.”
“Why?”
“Because, they don’t think the third shoe has dropped.”
265
“How do they figure?”
“They say the government troubles started before the war and were part of the overall
damage caused by the war.”
“So, what’s the third shoe?”
“Ray and Chato favor the New Madrid Fault letting loose, some others said Yellowstone
is way over due and one guy insisted we’ll have an ice age.”
“What do you think?”
“I think my crystal ball is cracked. Whatever happens, it had better hurry, at my age, I
won’t have to worry about it for long. Think about it, La Palma could slide into the sea
and the tsunami would wipe out the east coast. The Cascadian subduction zone could
slip and wipe out most of the west coast. Yellowstone could blow up again and cover
half the US with ash. Either the San Andreas or New Madrid Faults could let loose with
a big one. From the weather, I doubt we’re going to have to worry about another ice age
for a while.”
“I thought you said that Alaska was the most active area.”
“Historically, it has been. But, they’re interrelated. Yellowstone had a swarm after an
earthquake somewhere else. There isn’t any rule that I know of that says several of
them couldn’t happen at once.”
“What do you mean?”
“Let’s say Cascadia let loose. What’s to prevent that from triggering a response on the
San Andreas? What to prevent the both of them from triggering Long Valley and/or Yel-
lowstone? If that happened, the New Madrid could go. There’s just no definable cause
and effect relationship that anyone has ever proven. If there was, they’d be able to pre-
dict earthquakes. At the moment, the best they can do is anticipating them from seismic
swarms. A rock could slam into planet Earth and trigger them all at once.”
“How?”
“You’ve heard of the Ring of Fire? 90% of the world’s earthquakes and 81% of the
world’s largest earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire. The next most seismic region
(5–6% of earthquakes and 17% of the world’s largest earthquakes) is the Alpide belt
which extends from Java to Sumatra through the Himalayas, the Mediterranean, and
out into the Atlantic. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is the third most prominent earthquake
belt.”
“Is La Palma part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge?”
266
“No, it’s in the Canary Islands, off the African coast.”
“Damon, grab a hoe and give Derek a hand.”
“I might grab a hoe, but I won’t share her.”
“Watch your mouth.”
“Sorry. So, what were the two of you talking about?”
“The end of the world, what else?”
“I thought that already happened, twice.”
“Bad things happen in 3s, Damon.”
“Yeah, but, we’ve had 3, the terrorist attacks, the war and the aftermath.”
“Dad doesn’t agree with that bro.”
“Is that right?”
“That’s right, Damon, I don’t agree with that. What’s more I’m not sure I’m happy with
the new government. I’m old, so what do I know? I know that every time we get some-
thing good, the government screws it up. For example, the M14 rifle. For example, the
Spruance class destroyer. Biggest destroyer ever built by this country. They decommis-
sioned the last one in 2005. Damn fine ship, one of them was only 20 years old.”
“They’re still around Dad.”
“Yeah, sure, as part of somebody’s car.”
“You’re wrong.”
“I might be a little short on being right, but I’m never wrong.”
“I know that one, In Harm’s Way.”
“Speaking of which, when are you going to finish your half of the story?”
267
Get out from that kitchen

and rattle those pots and pans,
Get out from that kitchen
and rattle those pots and pans.
Well, roll my breakfast,
‘cause I’m a hungry man.
I said Shake rattle and roll,

I said Shake rattle and roll;
Well you never do nothin’
to save your doggone soul.
Wearin’ those dresses,

your hair done up so right
Wearin’ those dresses,
your hair done up so right;
You look so warm,
but your heart is cold as ice.

I’m like a one-eyed cat,

peepin’ in a sea-food store,
I’m like a one-eyed cat,
peepin’ in a sea-food store;
I can look at you,
till you don’t love me no more.
I believe you’re doin’ me wrong

and now I know,
I believe you’re doin’ me wrong
and now I know;
The more I work,
the faster my money goes.

268
Shake rattle and rolllllllllllllllllllll
“Never, too soon?”
“You wasted a perfectly good title, Damon.”
“Maybe, but your wrong about the Spruance, there are still 22 of them afloat and in ser-
vice, you just know it by a different name. The Ticonderoga class guided missile cruiser
is a Spruance class destroyer, using the same highly successful hull and propulsion but
incorporating the Aegis Mk 7 weapon system (SPY-1 series phased-array radar, four
missile illuminator radars, Mk 26 or Mk 41 missile-launch system, etc.). Bow bulwarks
were required to keep decks dry, as draft was increased about three feet over that of
the original Spruance design. No fin stabilization is fitted. CG 49 and later have lighter
tripod after masts. Kevlar armor is incorporated over vital spaces. These ships have suf-
ficient stability margin to operate at up to 10,200 tons full load. CG 47 and 48 carry a
small amount of lead ballast, but later units do not. Carry two 1,632 lb anchors, with 180
fathoms of chain to the bow anchor and 135 fathoms to the starboard anchor.
“The Ticonderoga class was initially designated as a Guided Missile Destroyer (DDG),
but was redesignated as a Guided Missile Cruiser (CG) on 01 January 1980. Units are
named for battles and campaigns (except for CG 51, named for a former Secretary of
Defense and of the Navy). The ships are capable of carrying their formidable array of
weapons and electronic equipment at high speeds over long ranges. They measure 567
feet from bow to stern, have a beam of 55 feet and displace 9,600 tons. Powered by
four gas turbine engines, which develop more than 80,000 horsepower, AEGIS cruisers
are capable of reaching speeds in excess of 30 knots. Two controllable, reversible pitch
propellers and twin rudders add flexibility and maneuverability.”
“How many did they build?”
“27, 5 have been retired, including Ticonderoga, Yorktown, Vincennes, Valley Forge
and Thomas S. Gates.”
“You don’t have a real Navy unless you have Battleships.”
“A CG equipped with Tomahawks is far more powerful than an Iowa class battleship.”
“Sez you. What they ought to do is take the #2 turret off one of the other ships and put it
on the Iowa to replace her damaged turret. They could put her in dry dock, refinish the
269
hull and re-commission her. There nothing wrong with the ship that a good overhaul
couldn’t fix.”
“They won’t do that, the cost of operating these ships, the labor-intensive manning, and
the more modern, more powerful cruisers and destroyers of today’s Navy led to their
final decommissioning.”
“Fine, have it your way. A battleship can’t protect us against our worst enemy anyway.”
“Why not?”
“Our worst enemy is the planet. That’s what Derek and I were talking about. A geologist
at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, has come up with evidence our planet
practices recycling on a grand scale. Writing in the prestigious British science journal
Nature, geological sciences professor Claude Herzberg offered new evidence that parts
of the Earth’s crust that long ago dove hundreds or thousands of kilometers into the
Earth’s interior have resurfaced in the hot lava flow of Hawaiian volcanoes.”
“This concept has been a big issue in the earth sciences,” Herzberg said. While it had
been proposed earlier by some geologists, the profession hasn’t embraced it because
evidence until now remained sketchy. “Many geologists felt that when Earth’s crust was
forced deep into the mantle, a process called subduction, it would simply stay there.”
Herzberg claims to have found telltale chemical evidence at Mauna Kea that pieces of
this submerged crust have been forced up through plumes and now make up most of
this volcano’s lava flow. “The low calcium in the Hawaiian magma pegs it as crust that
had melted and been forced to the surface,” he said. The calcium levels in traditional
magma, which comes from melting the Earth’s mantle layer below the crust, are much
higher.
Herzberg said his research doesn’t stop in Hawaii and that his chemical findings will be
useful in understanding the makeup and action of other volcanoes around the world.
These findings extend beyond calcium and include sulfur, along with isotopes of the
heavier elements hafnium and lead that are tracers for clays and other materials that
originated close to the surface prior to subduction.
“Chemical patterns we’ve found elsewhere used to be puzzles but are now starting to
make sense,” he said.
Still, the big island of Hawaii remains the prime site for uncovering the secrets of volcan-
ic action, as it has the largest volcanoes on Earth and is the most productive in terms of
lava outpouring. Herzberg believes the information he’s uncovered about magma chem-
istry might one day help scientists predict eruptions, as different chemical abundances
show up at different times in the volcanoes’ eruption cycles.
“We could all end up being recycled.”
270
“There aren’t any volcanoes around here, are there?”
“No, but there are enough in New Mexico, including one Supervolcano. Valle Grande,
known to geologists as the Valles Caldera and the Jemez Caldera, is a scenic area in
the Jemez Mountains of northern New Mexico. That’s north of Albuquerque. The Jemez
Volcanic Field, including the calderas, lies above the intersection of the Rio Grande Rift,
which runs north-south through New Mexico, and the Jemez Lineament, which extends
from southeastern Arizona northeast to the westernmost part of Oklahoma. The volcan-
ic activity is related to the tectonic movements along this intersection. They haven’t
erupted for over 2,000 years.”
“If that’s the case they shouldn’t be a problem Dad.”
“I tend to agree, unless something sets them off in some sort of chain reaction. This was
what we were discussing when you came, a chain reaction. A man doesn’t know when
that might happen, so I plan to stay prepared.”
We had elected a new government in the fall of the previous year, 2014, but the people
who ran for office were, after all, still politicians. It’s easy to describe the average politi-
cian, degree in law, might not be power hungry, but adapts. They’re beholding to the
people, or companies, that put them in office. Not to the average Joe Blow, like you and
me, but to a select few. They campaign on term limits and then serve 30 years in Con-
gress. As it was in the beginning, it is now and ever shall be, world without end. At least,
that’s what the minister said every Sunday.
Some said we were loaded for bear, think elephants. The only reason Ron didn’t have a
.458 Winchester was that there wasn’t a used one available. The round puts out about 2
tons of energy at the muzzle and is most often loaded with solids. I didn’t need one; I
had the Tac-50 with even more energy and recoil management. The only thing was a
fella needed Gunkid’s wheelbarrow to carry it.
Long story short, we got through the summer of ‘15 in pretty good shape. Must have
canned close to 300 quarts of green beans, pints of beets, dug several tons of spuds
and added another freezer just to hold the food we froze. We could get almost anything
we wanted at the Paris Farmer’s Market, even rice from a fella from Louisiana. I gave
Damon some money and sent him to New Mexico; we needed some really nice chili
peppers. He went to Hatch, for the chili festival. He had to go through Roswell to get
there.
I don’t know what he did over there, besides buy chilies, but before he got home, TS
began to HTF, again. I wasn’t too worried, he took his shotgun. The first indication we
had that anything was wrong was an announcement, claiming that Yellowstone was ex-
periencing an earthquake swarm. It must have been significant, the Governors of Wyo-
271
ming, Montana and Idaho ordered evacuations of an area covering over 70,000 square
miles (150 mile radius). The following day, they upped the radius to 250 miles, in Wyo-
ming only.
“What took you so long?”
“I met this hot little number and…”
“Did you hear about Yellowstone?”
“Did they move it? What? Don’t tell me it’s going to blow!”
“Ok.”
“Ok, what?”
“I won’t tell you. They ordered total evacuations within a 150 mile radius and 250 mile
radius within Wyoming. I checked and VEI-8 volcanic events have included eruptions at
the following locations (Estimates of the volume of erupted material are given in paren-
theses):
● Lake Taupo, North Island, New Zealand - 26,500 years ago (1,170 km³)
● Lake Toba, Sumatra, Indonesia - 75,000 years ago (2,800 km³)
● Yellowstone Caldera, Wyoming, US - 2.2 million years ago (2,500 km³) and 640,000
years ago (1,000 km³)
● La Garita Caldera, Colorado, US - 27 million years ago (5,000 km³)
The Lake Toba eruption plunged the Earth into a volcanic winter, eradicating an esti-
mated 60% of the human population, and was responsible for the formation of sulfuric
acid in the atmosphere and the Millennial Ice Age.
Many other super massive eruptions have also occurred in the geological past. Those
listed below measured 7 on the VEI scale. Most of these were larger than Tambora’s
eruption in 1815, which was the largest eruption in recorded history:
● Aira Caldera, Kyūshū, Japan - 22,000 years ago (110 km³)

● Aso, Kyūshū, Japan - four large explosive eruptions between 300,000 to 80,000 years
ago (Total volume 600 km³)
● Kikai Caldera, Ryūkhū Islands, Japan - 6,300 years ago (150 km³ (bulk volume))
● Lake Taupo, North Island, New Zealand - 181 AD (100 km³)
● Long Valley Caldera, California, US - 760,000 years ago (600 km³)
● Valle Grande, New Mexico, US - 1.12 million years ago (~600 km³)
● Bruneau-Jarbridge, Idaho, US - 10-12 million years ago (>250 km³)”
“You looked that up.”
272
“Yes, I did. I’m good at looking things up. I figure that about half of the major eruptions
happened in our country.”
“So, did it erupt?”
“Hasn’t yet, it’s just swarming. I figure that if they expanded the evacuation area, it must
be getting worse.”
“How long will that go on?”
“In that BBC program, it didn’t take long at all, 15 minutes or so. How the hell should I
know? If it’s like before, the swarming will die off and that will be the end of it. If not, it
could be like the Mesa Falls eruption all the way up to and exceeding the Huckleberry
Ridge eruption that was about 10 times larger. That Colorado eruption was twice the
size of the largest they had at Yellowstone, 5,000km³.”
“When will we know?”
“When it happens and not one minute sooner, Damon. The crust is moving to the west
over the hot spot, making the hot spot to seem to be moving east. The hot spot has
been in the same place for millions of years and there is a path of calderas beginning in
Idaho and moving east. The odds are the new caldera, if there is an eruption, will be to
the northeast, maybe in Montana or on the border of Wyoming and Montana.”
“Did any of the ash from the previous eruptions reach Texas?”
“And beyond… the Lava Creek eruption made it to Louisiana.”
“So, if it were bigger, say on the order of 5,000km³, it would reach all the way to the east
coast?”
“I suppose that it’s possible. That paper I have on my computer discussing Yellowstone
says another major eruption, a Supervolcano if you will, would change life on earth.
1816 was the year without a summer, caused by the eruption of Mt. Tambora in Indone-
sia in 1815.”
The swarming seemed to die down and the Governors allowed people to return to their
homes. Yellowstone continued to experience double the normal number of small earth-
quakes, more than 6,000 a month. On average that was about 200 a day that were
large enough to measure, ergo, greater than 1 on the Richter scale. I think a lot of peo-
ple kept their cars packed, just in case. The USGS issued daily announcements, updat-
ing the public, again, just in case. It had started in September and by January the mag-
nitudes seemed to increase, slightly.
273
It was like the boy who cried ‘Wolf’ when the Governors issued the second evacuation
order, far fewer people left. Many people took a wait and see attitude. Then the YVO,
represented by Jacob B. Lowenstern, issued an eruption warning. You remember Low-
enstern from the program, Supervolcano, right. That’s the guy that said it would never
happen. Now people jumped into their cars and headed to the gas stations. The lines
were very long, surprised? I wasn’t surprised nor was I particularly worried. Even if Yel-
lowstone let loose with a mega eruption, Paris was reasonably safe.
The boys’ uncle Jesse lived in Casper, Wyoming. Do you know where that is? A
smartass, like the late Ron would say, the same place it’s always been. It’s on I-25,
about 280 miles north of Denver. Jesse and Lorraine traveled a lot in their younger
days, but Jesse (born in ‘46-nickname Sonny) was a bit skeptical about leaving too
soon and they left in their motor home at about as late as a person could leave and still
make it. The two of them headed down to Cheyenne and picked up I-80 and headed
towards Jerry’s place in Ames.
The boys had kept in touch with both of their uncles and Derek got a call from Lorraine
on his cell phone, about the time Yellowstone let loose, to say that they were in
Kearney, Nebraska, west of Omaha. They were out of the immediate danger zone, but
had a way to go to get to Jerry and Doreen’s. In the middle of their conversation, Lor-
raine’s phone cut out.
“Where were they?”
“Kearney.”
“They should be ok. How fast was Sonny driving?”
“Like a bat out of hell.”
“How were they on gas?”
“She said they’d have to stop in Omaha and fill up, but they should be ok.”
“He won’t find a station in Omaha with any electricity, Derek.”
“He won’t have to, they have several cans of gas. Sonny would give Lorraine an AR and
she would cover him while he tops off. I doubt they’d do it in Omaha now. More likely
they pulled off as soon as her phone cut out. You know how Uncle Sonny is.”
“Still as prudent as he always was?”
“More. He picked up a pair of suppressed A2s right before the war.”
M16s?”
274
“Yep.”
“He paid through the nose for those.”
“Less than you think, Dad. Remember, he used to live in Trinidad. He had a friend from
down there who opened a class III operation in the Casper area. He told me they were
pretty close.”
“I wish I’d known that.”
“How many times do I have to tell you, burst and full auto are only really used if you get
ambushed by an overwhelming force?”
“You ought to get in touch with your Uncle Jerry and suggest the whole family come
down here until the worst is over.”
“They wouldn’t come, but thanks for offering.”
From time to time, the USGS changes how they classify alerts. They now have a uni-
versal alert system.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) has adopted a common system nationwide for
characterizing the level of unrest and eruptive activity at volcanoes. The new volcano
alert-level system is now used by the Alaska Volcano Observatory, the Cascades Vol-
cano Observatory, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, the Long Valley Observatory,
and the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.
Under the new system, the USGS ranks the level of activity at a US volcano using the
terms “Normal”, for typical volcanic activity in a non-eruptive phase; “Advisory”, for ele-
vated unrest; “Watch”, for escalating unrest or a minor eruption underway that poses
limited hazards; and, “Warning”, if a highly hazardous eruption is underway or imminent
(Table 1). These levels reflect conditions at a volcano and the expected or ongoing
hazardous volcanic phenomena. When an alert level is assigned by an observatory, ac-
companying text will give a fuller explanation of the observed phenomena and clarify
hazard implications to affected groups.
Table 1. SUMMARY OF VOLCANIC ALERT LEVELS
NORMAL – Typical background activity of a volcano in a non-eruptive state

After a change from a higher level: Volcanic activity considered to have ceased, and
volcano reverted to its normal, non-eruptive state.
ADVISORY – Elevated unrest above known background activity
275
After a change from a higher level: Volcanic activity has decreased significantly but con-
tinues to be closely monitored for possible renewed increase.
WATCH – Heightened/escalating unrest with increased potential for eruptive activity

(timeframe variable) OR a minor eruption underway that poses limited hazards.
WARNING – Highly hazardous eruption underway or imminent.
As part of the alert-level system, color codes (Green, Yellow, Orange, Red) are used to
provide succinct information about volcanic-ash hazards to the aviation sector (Table 2).
Volcanic activity threatens safe air travel when finely pulverized, glassy, abrasive vol-
canic material is explosively erupted into the atmosphere and dispersed as airborne
clouds in flight paths of jet aircraft. The color codes are in accord with recommended
ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) procedures to help pilots, dispatchers,
and air-traffic controllers who are planning or executing flights over broad regions of the
globe quickly ascertain the status of numerous volcanoes and determine if continued
attention, re-routing, or extra fuel is warranted.
Table 2. AVIATION COLOR CODES
GREEN – Volcano is in normal, non-eruptive state.

or, after a change from a higher level: Volcanic activity considered to have ceased, and
volcano reverted to its normal, non-eruptive state.
YELLOW – Volcano is exhibiting signs of elevated unrest above known background

levels.
or, after a change from a higher level: Volcanic activity has decreased significantly but
continues to be closely monitored for possible renewed increase.
ORANGE – Volcano is exhibiting heightened unrest with increased likelihood of erup-

tion,
or, Volcanic eruption underway with no or minor ash emission [specify ash-plume height
if possible].
RED – Eruption is forecast to be imminent with significant emission of ash into the at-
mosphere likely.
or, Eruption is underway with significant emission of ash into the atmosphere [specify
ash-plume height if possible].
My thinking on the subject of alert codes was that someone had been reading Patriot
Fiction stories, thereby realizing that the system was totally screwed up. We had 5 vol-
cano observatories and, at one time, 5 different systems. The Discovery Channel had
something to do with that, they ran that mega disasters series.
No doubt if Yellowstone did go, we’d hear it. When Krakatau blew up, they heard the
boom 3000 miles away on the island of Rodrigues near Mauritius. In the years before
276
the 1883 eruption, seismic activity around the volcano was intense, with some earth-
quakes felt as far distant as Australia. Beginning 20May83, three months before the fi-
nal explosion, steam venting began to occur regularly from Perboewatan, the northern
of the island’s three cones. Eruptions of ash reached an altitude of 6 km (20,000 ft) and
explosions could be heard in Batavia (Jakarta) 160 km (100 miles) away. Activity died
down by the end of May. Also, to help the eruption along, water seeped into the magma
chamber and created large amounts of steam and smoke. On 27Aug, the volcano en-
tered the final cataclysmic stage of its eruption. Four enormous explosions took place at
5:30 am, 6:42 am, 8:20 am, and 10:02 am. The worst and loudest of these was the last
explosion. Each was accompanied by very large tsunamis believed to have been over
100ft high in places.
The eruption produced erratic weather and spectacular sunsets throughout the world for
many months afterwards, as a result of sunlight reflected from suspended dust particles
ejected by the volcano high into Earth’s atmosphere. This worldwide volcanic dust veil
acted as a solar radiation filter, reducing the amount of sunlight reaching the surface of
the earth. In the year following the eruption, global temperatures were lowered by as
much as 1.2° Celsius on average. Weather patterns continued to be chaotic for years,
and temperatures did not return to normal until 1888. British artist William Ashcroft
made thousands of color sketches of the red sunsets half-way around the world from
Krakatoa in the years after the eruption. In 2004, researchers proposed the idea that the
blood-red sky shown in Edvard Munch’s famous 1893 painting The Scream is also an
accurate depiction of the sky over Norway after the eruption. Munch said: “suddenly the
sky turned blood red... I stood there shaking with fear and felt an endless scream pass-
ing through nature.” Also a so called blue moon had been seen for two years as a result
of the eruption.
Krakatau had a VEI of 6 and put out 10km³ of ash, about 2½ times as much as Mt. St.
Helens (VEI 5) put out in 1980. The VEI scale is logarithmic, making a VEI 8 1,000
times more powerful than a VEI 5. Tambora, the volcano that caused the year without
summer put out 5 times as much ash as Krakatau and had a VEI of 7. In the BBC movie
Supervolcano, Yellowstone didn’t let go all at once, it happened in segments with the
number of vents increasing until it finally let loose.
277
Lowenstern raised the alert level from Advisory to Watch. (I wonder if he sent his wife to
London, too?) The aviation code went to Orange and DHS followed suit. All this time I
thought their alert level was only related to the possibility of terrorist attacks!
What commercial aviation there was, there wasn’t much – the airlines had been forced
to merge after the war, ended up rerouting flight paths to avoid flying within 500 miles of
Yellowstone. Sharon said we’d better go to the store and I agreed, I decided to start
smoking again; I missed my legs going numb. Hell I could barely walk anyway and the
boys both still smoked; worse, my COPD hadn’t improved, I had nothing to lose; no one
lives forever.
Really Ready’s website was up and running so I decided to download all the information
they had on volcanoes and include it in my story.
A volcano is a vent through which molten rock escapes to the earth’s surface. When
pressure from gases within the molten rock becomes too great, an eruption occurs.
Eruptions can be quiet or explosive. There may be lava flows, flattened landscapes,
poisonous gases, and flying rock and ash.
Because of their intense heat, lava flows are great fire hazards. Lava flows destroy eve-
rything in their path, but most move slowly enough that people can move out of the way.
Fresh volcanic ash, made of pulverized rock, can be abrasive, acidic, gritty, gassy, and
odorous. While not immediately dangerous to most adults, the acidic gas and ash can
cause lung damage to small infants, to older adults, and to those suffering from severe
respiratory illnesses. Volcanic ash also can damage machinery, including engines and
electrical equipment. Ash accumulations mixed with water become heavy and can col-
lapse roofs.
Volcanic eruptions can be accompanied by other natural hazards, including earth-

quakes, mudflows and flash floods, rock falls and landslides, acid rain, fire, and (under
special conditions) tsunamis. Active volcanoes in the U.S. are found mainly in Hawaii,
Alaska, and the Pacific Northwest.
Take Protective Measures
Before a Volcanic Eruption:
● Add a pair of goggles and disposable breathing mask for each member of the family
to your disaster supply kit.
● Stay away from active volcano sites.
During a Volcanic Eruption:
278
The following are guidelines for what to do if a volcano erupts in your area:
● Evacuate immediately from the volcano area to avoid flying debris, hot gases, lateral
blast, and lava flow.
● Be aware of mudflows. The danger from a mudflow increases near stream channels
and with prolonged heavy rains. Mudflows can move faster than you can walk or run.
Look upstream before crossing a bridge, and do not cross the bridge if mudflow is ap-
proaching.
● Avoid river valleys and low-lying areas.
Protection from Falling Ash:
● Wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants.
● Use goggles and war eyeglasses instead of contact lenses.
● Use a dust mask or hold a damp cloth over your face to help with breathing.
● Stay away from areas downwind from the volcano to avoid volcanic ash.
● Stay indoors until the ash has settled unless there is a danger of the roof collapsing.
● Close doors, windows, and all ventilation in the house (chimney vents, furnaces, air
conditioners, fans, and other vents.
● Clear heavy ash from flat or low-pitched roofs and rain gutters.
● Avoid running car or truck engines. Driving can stir up volcanic ash that can clog en-
gines, damage moving parts, and stall vehicles.
● Avoid driving in heavy ash fall unless absolutely required. If you have to drive, keep
speed down to 35 MPH or slower.
After a Volcanic Eruption:
Follow the instructions for recovering from a disaster in Part 5.
Knowledge Check:
Read the scenario and answer the question. Check your responses with the answer
key.
Scenario:
279
About an hour after the eruption of Mount St. Helens, ash began to fall in Yakima, a city
in eastern Washington. The ash fall was so extensive and it became so dark that lights
were turned on all day. It took 10 weeks to haul away the ash from Yakima’s streets,
sidewalks, and roofs.
Assume you were a resident of Yakima during this time. What would you need to pro-
tect yourself when going outside?
Hell, I had more information on my computer! All we could do was prepare, if it hap-
pened, it happened, if not, so much the better. These were the first warnings they’d had
at Yellowstone, but they were perhaps the most significant. I doubted it would until
Derek got that call from Lorraine. Moments later, we heard the distant boom. The ash
would be carried by the wind, the same as radioactive fallout, we had plenty of time,
Yellowstone was about 1,100 miles away on a heading of 314°. The average wind
speed in the US is 10-15mph and the usual heading is ~90°.
As storm systems moved across the country, ash could be blown in our direction. It
would either be on the back of a low or the front of a high pressure area. Perhaps some-
thing as massive as the eruption could create its own weather.
End Day was a docu-drama produced by the BBC and airing on the National Geograph-
ic Channel that depicts various doomsday scenarios. The documentary followed Dr.
Howell, a scientist, as he traveled from his hotel room in London, England to his labora-
tory in New York City, and showed how each scenario affected his journey as well as
those around him, with various experts providing commentary on that specific disaster
as it unfolds. The following description of the program was released by the BBC:
“Imagine waking up to the last day on Earth...”
“Inspired by the predictions of scientists, End Day creates apocalyptic scenarios that go
beyond reality. In a single hour, explore five different fictional disasters, from a giant
tsunami hitting New York to a deadly meteorite strike on Berlin.”
Below are the various catastrophes depicted in the order they occur in the film:
Mega-tsunami – In this scenario, a volcanic eruption on the island of La Palma triggered

a massive landslide wherein a sizeable portion of the island collapsed into the sea,
causing a massive mega-tsunami to race across the Atlantic ocean and strike the east
coast of the US, completely inundating New York City.
Killer Asteroid – This scenario begins with a mysterious ‘missile attack’ in a remote area
somewhere in the Middle East. The ‘missiles’ are soon revealed to be small asteroid
fragments, the advance guard of a much larger asteroid on a collision course with Earth.
280
The asteroid is located and an attempt is made to destroy it using nuclear ICBMs. The
attempt fails, resulting in the asteroid being broken into hundreds of smaller pieces
which then impact and obliterate Berlin.
Global pandemic – In this scenario, a virus similar to SARS or H5N1 is unleashed,

wreaking havoc as it spreads at a phenomenal rate throughout Europe, the UK, and
North America, prompting many countries to enact martial law and close their borders in
a frantic attempt to contain the spread of the disease.
Strange matter – This scenario is the only one wherein Dr. Howell reaches his laborato-
ry unhindered. Upon arrival, he and his colleagues initiate a highly controversial experi-
ment using the world’s largest particle accelerator. The experiment quickly goes out of
control, resulting in the creation of a new type of matter called a strangelet, which be-
gins to consume and destroy all matter around it.
All original official sources cite 5 different scenarios including a giant volcanic explosion,
but the volcanic explosion segment was not aired during its first airing on the National
Geographic Channel for unknown reasons and all references on the National Geo-
graphic website to it has been removed as of June 2006. Only the other 4 scenarios
have been aired on NGC. However the BBC website still references to the Supervolca-
no. Each of the five shows, including Supervolcano, were intended to depict an Extinc-
tion Level Event (ELE). We all know about her because of Jenny Lerner and Deep Im-
pact, Alan Rittenhouse’s (James Cromwell) bimbo was Ele.
They did air Supervolcano, but as a separate 2 hour film plus expert commentary after,
including, you guessed it, Jacob B. Lowenstern. I could be wrong but I heard the Narra-
tor say something about 5,000km³ of magma/ash. That’s what must have happened to
my crystal ball, Tom Brokaw dropped it.
Precursors to volcanic eruptions include strong earthquake swarms and rapid ground
deformation, and typically take place days to weeks before an actual eruption. Scientists
at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO) closely monitor the Yellowstone region
for such precursors. They expect that the buildup to larger eruptions would include in-
tense precursory activity (far exceeding background levels) at multiple spots within the
Yellowstone volcano. As at many caldera systems around the world, small earthquakes,
ground uplift and subsidence, and gas releases at Yellowstone are commonplace
events and do not reflect impending eruptions.
In addition to increased earthquake activity, active monitoring would detect significant

changes in gas chemistry, thermal features, and uplift and/or deformation. Given the
currently deployed system of multiple seismic monitors, gas surveys and deformation
analyses in place in Yellowstone, we would know well in advance of a pending large
eruption. – Lisa Morgan, Research Geologist
281
You know about the Lake, right? How it’s been uplifting since the ‘80s? If you look at a
map of Yellowstone, you’ll notice that it’s on the east side of the park. They must have
known something, they warned the Governors. I heard FEMA was running around trying
to buy up MREs. They should try E-Bay, they’ll find leftovers from New Orleans.
“Are we going to have to get into that damned shelter of yours?”
“Not if you don’t want to, no. Catch me a few cups of ash, if you would.”
“I don’t think I could stand to stay down there for another 100 days.”
“I said you didn’t have to, Sharon. Do what you want, you usually do.”
I can say that because after being married to her for a jillion years, I know how she is.
They used to call it Neurotic, but the new term is Codependent. She’d do like she had
the other 2 times, get into the shelter and try to make everyone as miserable as she
was. Besides, who said we had to get into the shelter anyway? We were 1,100 miles
SSE from Yellowstone. You did notice that it was MY shelter when she didn’t want to
enter, right?
“Are we going to get in the shelter, Dad?”
“Et tu, Derek?”
“Huh?”
“Sharon just asked. We aren’t 150 miles downwind of Mt. St. Helen’s. I read that we
might only get a few centimeters of ash.”
“Do you know how much that is?”
“Not really, but there are 2.54cm to the inch. Besides, it’s too soon to tell how much ash
will come out, it’s still erupting.”
“How long will that go on?”
“Until it stops?”
“Do you always give answers that are totally correct, even if they don’t say anything?”
“I try. You know, I’m getting tired, I’m not sure I have another disaster in me.”
“It doesn’t matter, Dad, you have one whether you want it or not.”
“I miss Ronald.”
282
“You’ll see him soon enough, don’t be in a rush.”
“Well, you’re in charge this time. I think I’ll sit it out. Ronald always said, be careful what
you wish for, God has a sense of humor.”
According to the news, a low pressure area was being pushed east by a high pressure
area. About a week later, the sky began to darken. That ash was gritty, and sharp. With
little other choice, we went down into the shelter and closed it up. We put our last sets
of filters in the ANDAIR AV-150s. Fortunately, we still had electricity and hopefully
wouldn’t need the generator. I took the opportunity to charge the battery in my wheel-
chair and strapped on my cowboy guns.
“Come and go breath, I’m too tired to help.”
“Did you say something?”
“I said come and go breath I’m too tired to help.”
“We have the air filters going, that should help.”
“As soon as I finish this smoke, I think I’ll fire up that oxygen concentrator.”
“Does it still work?”
“It did the last time I used it.”
“When was that?”
“I think that was back in ‘09. It was the day after my 66th birthday.”
“Why did you need it then?”
“I caught a cold.”
“Is that the last cold you had?”
“No, but it was the last one I had where I forgot to take Vitamin C.”
“Wake up Dad, it’s time to leave.”
“Is the ash gone?”
“No, but it has stopped falling.”
283
“How much did we get?”
“About 10cm, roughly 4”. We shoveled a path for your wheelchair.”
“I think I’ll go off the oxygen and have a smoke. How long have I been sleeping?”
“Since we came into the shelter. You’ve gotten up once in a while to eat, go to the john
and have another smoke, but you’ve slept about 20 hours a day.”
“Is my chair charged?”
“Yes sir, we’ve kept it topped off.”
“I’ll just hit the john and get my guns. Whew, I’m a little light headed. Could someone
get me a cup of coffee, please.”
“You’d better check your blood sugar, you could be hypoglycemic.”
“Put the tester on the table next to my coffee. Give me one of those orange ReliOn glu-
cose tablets.”
“I hate pricking my fingers, but I still did it, every time someone said my sugar was too
low.”
“Hmm, I’ll take another tablet, could someone fix me a peanut butter sandwich?”
“What was it?”
“Not too bad, 54.”
“That too low.”
“I know, but peanut butter will fix it right up.”
It did explain my being light headed. I also had a Snickers Almond candy bar. After all of
that, I rechecked my blood sugar, it was 78. I had my smoke and headed topside. I’d
forgotten to ask the time, it was 6am and cold as a witch’s you know what. The sun was
just rising and there must still be ash in the air, the sunrise was red. Derek brought up
the oxygen concentrator and I turned it on, I still didn’t feel 100%.
284
Silent Running – Epilog
An old cowpoke went riding out

One dark and windy day,
Upon a ridge he rested as
He went along his way,
When all at once a mighty herd
Of red eyed cows he saw,
A-plowin’ through the ragged skies
And up a cloudy draw.
Yippee-yi-ya, yippee-yi-yo,
Ghost herd in the sky.
Their brands were still on fire and

Their hooves were made of steel,
Their horns were black and shiny and
Their hot breath he could feel,
A bolt of fear shot through him as
He looked up in the sky,
For he saw the riders comin’ hard
And he heard their mournful cry:
Ghost riders in the sky.
Their faces gaunt, their eyes were blurred,

Their shirts all soaked with sweat,
They’re riding hard to catch that herd,
But they ain’t caught ‘em yet,
‘cause they’ve got to ride forever on
That range up in the sky,
On horses snortin’ fire, as
They ride on hear their cry:
Ghost riders in the sky.
The cowpokes loped on past him and

He heard one call his name,
If you want to save your soul from hell
A-riding on our range,
Then, cowboy, change your ways today,
Or with us you will ride,
A-trying to catch the devil’s herd
Across these endless skies.
285
Ghost riders in the sky
Written by Stan Jones, c. 1949, and recorded originally by Vaughan Monroe (later by
Johnny Cash)
“Hey, partner, how did you end up chasing the herd?”
“I guess I didn’t change my ways, Ron. It must have been when I shot those 4 Blackwa-
ter guys. Never figured this would happen. You been doing this long?”
“Ever since. Linda gave you my guns, huh?”
“She did. I bought 2 cases of ammo for each of the rifles and a case of ammo for each
of the handguns.”
“What’s that you have for guns?”
“I hadn’t noticed. It looks like I have my 2 Colt revolvers and my Marlin Cowboy rifle. Did
Linda ever find the kids?”
“Brenda was in Bakersfield and Kevin is up ahead riding line.”
“Hey, I’m sorry about that. No blinding white light, huh?”
“No, but you’re among friends. I’ve got some good news and some bad news, what do
you want to hear first?”
“Tell me the good news.”
“This only lasts an eternity.”
“And the bad news?”
“Your horse is named Salina.”
Ghost riders in the sky
Every time you hear the song from now on, you’ll know the names of three of the riders
and one of the horses.
© 2011, Gary D. Ott
286

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Silent Running – Chapter 1

Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground)

Take the children and yourself

There’s a gun and ammunition

Can you hear me, can you hear me running?

Swear allegiance to the flag

Can you hear me, can you hear me running?

Can you hear me running (can you hear me calling you?)

“What about that FN FAL you talked about getting me?”

“Thanks. What’s this nonsense about Gen. Franks?”

The definition of a Weapon of Mass Destruction includes: nuclear weapons, chemical

“How do you get there?”

“Go to Flagstaff and turn left.”

“Where are we?”

“Yeah, got that, where in Arizona?”

“North of Flagstaff on highway Alt 89.”

“Alt 89? We must be getting close to Fredonia.”

“If you blink, you’ll probably miss it.”

“I wish we could live near them.”

“I will not live in a town where the humidity is 98% at midnight.”

“What about Texas?”

“Paris is located at 33°39’45N, 95°39’52”W (33.662508, -95.547692). According to the

Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk,

you’re stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive.

Feel the city breakin’ and everybody shakin’,

you’re stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive.

Feel the city breakin’ and everybody shakin’,

Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk,

you’re stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive.

Feel the city breakin’ and everybody shakin’,

“I guess we could go look.”

“I’ll find it on the map.”

“Where will we be?”

“You don’t want to go to Dallas, do you?”

“Texas was part of the Confederacy, weren’t they?”

“Why do you think that, Gary?”

“Maybe it will be better in Texas.”

“Maybe, but I wouldn’t count on it, Sharon.”

“What does your crystal ball tell you now?”

“What was he doing?”

“Why didn’t he tell you?”

“He said that he didn’t want me to worry.”

“But you worried anyway.”

“Did he get the extra stripe?”

“What about him getting sent back overseas?”

“EO 11049 assigns emergency preparedness function to federal departments and

“We’re here, where is the Eiffel Tower?”

“It’s northeast of here, about 7,800km.”

“No it’s not, it’s right over there.”

“Do you want to live in town or out in the country?”

“How much ground beef do we have?”

“But, my teeth get tired.”

“Gary, there’s no room in the freezer for more ground beef.”

“Fine, buy a second freezer.”

“Wouldn’t the meat freezer burn?”

“Not if we double wrap and it vacuum pack it.”

“What utility room?”

“Oh, the room with the generator, washer and dryer.”

“You’re going to buy another washer and dryer?”

“Yep, but it can be bottom of the line as far as I’m concerned.”