Retribution (Soldier Up - Book Five 5) (6 page)

The Generals had arrived in Washington D.C at Dulles which was now operating at one-tenth its capacity and that was only been recently with the Air Force flying in from the Mid-West and West Coast.  The generals were met at the airport by several Humvees, which they boarded and whisked them away to the Pentagon.  They were scheduled to meet General Wallace within the hour to discuss the status of Fort Bragg.  General Wallace was well aware that the 3
rd
Infantry Regiment couldn’t defend the Capital or any other place on its own.  They would get what help there was from the Marines stationed around the city, but there weren’t many and the Navy as well.  However, there was no sizable combat force near and even though Fort Bragg was hundreds of miles away. Thanks to one Brigadier General Clayton and Lieutenant General Watkins they now had the means to maneuver those forces.

              The generals were dumbstruck with what they saw in the nation’s Capital; a once truly glorious city was for the most part in ruins.  There were very few people around and the infrastructure was crumbling from a lack of maintenance.  It was remarkable what had happened over a course of a year and how it affected the buildings that were near the Pentagon.  All the generals from Fort Bragg – the post Commander, 18
th
Airborne Corps Commander and 82
nd
Airborne Division Commander had been to the Pentagon many times over their careers.  In fact all of them had served there at one time or another.  There three-vehicle motorcade was the only thing on the road. Each man remembered the traffic was horrible almost all of the time on the beltway.  Now it was deserted; at least what vehicles there were on the road had been moved to the side of the road.  From what they had been told it was part of the Presidents back-to-work program for civilians.

              General Wallace’s aide-de-camp Colonel Essen met the officers in the underground garage.  The Colonel introduced himself and kindly asked the officers to follow him to the General’s conference room.  General Portson and the others followed the Colonel through the maze that was the Pentagon. It was eerie as many of the corridors and offices were dark and it was in the middle of the day.  They knew that the huge building wasn’t fully powered. They knew about the levels that were underground and how they did when the event hit.  The lower levels were supplied electricity like everyone else from the local utilities and then backup generators.  When the event hit, the utilities died and the backup generators didn’t start.  That’s all General Portson and the others really knew, but they all wondered what happened to those people that were down there when it happened.

              The three general officers entered the conference room where General Wallace was waiting for them.  “Good morning gentlemen,” General Wallace greeted them warmly. “It’s great to see all of you again.”

              General Portson stepped forward to shake hands, “It’s good to see you too Omar; it’s been a while.” General Portson said with a wide grin. 

              Lieutenant General Eric Townsend, the Commander of the 18
th
Airborne Corps stepped forward next, “It’s great to see you Omar. How are Trish and the kids?” General Townsend asked referring to General Wallace’s family.

              “They’re wonderful Eric and thank you for asking,” General Wallace replied. 

              Following General Townsend was Major General Tobias Welford, the Commander of the famed 82
nd
Airborne Division.  General Welford was personally picked by General Wallace to take over the 82
nd
when the then current commander had a heart attack and died while serving in Afghanistan. 

              “Tobias, it’s fantastic to see you again.” Clearly General Wallace was happy to see his protégé at least that’s what he considered him.  He wasn’t too far wrong either. General Welford did see General Wallace as his mentor and did want to become the Joint Chief at some point in his career.

              “Thank you sir; it’s great to see you alive and well also happy to hear the family is safe,” General Welford stated. 

              The conference room had several other members from Department of the Army, Department of the Air Force, the White House, 3
rd
Infantry Regiment and General Wallace’s own staff.  The briefing began by the representative from the 3
rd
Infantry Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Ester Perez.  It consisted of current operations in and around the DC metropolitan area as well as the train which was now sitting at Fort Bragg with the 3
rd
Infantry Regiments Commander.  She went on to state that he was leaving the area soon and would be returning to deal with the new situation.  When she stated the new situation she sparked an interest in the three officers from Fort Bragg.  General Portson asked what that new situation might be.  She replied that General Wallace will be speaking to it later on during the briefing.  Colonel Perez wrapped up her briefing. Next up were the three generals from Fort Bragg whom everyone had been waiting for.

              General Portson led off, giving his overall assessment of the post and a high level briefing on the units on post.  General Portson started off recounting the events after the EMP event and although they were never able to ascertain what truly happened, they were fairly sure that some cataclysmic event such as an EMP attack had happened.  With that knowledge and only that they moved forward.  From there he went over the securing of the post, getting headcounts of everyone on post, vehicle status, fuel, food, all of the information he would need to make decisions.  The post had been closed the first two weeks, only letting in active duty service members that had been off post at the time. 

              The General stated that he had ordered all communication and involvement with the outside community at the time for the first two weeks.  He admitted in that his decision regarding that was wrong. In hindsight, he should have known that local law enforcement was going to be ill-prepared to handle such a crisis.  He did state that there were some early efforts by the 82
nd
Airborne who sent out patrols against his orders to secure several of the big box stores near post. These proved to be successful, but he also admitted that they ended up needing Special Operations help to successfully execute those missions.  One of the larger issues that turned up during those excursions was that the soldiers had become too dependent on technology.  The missions were launched at night and they had no night vision equipment. It was evident that more training was needed to re-hone those skills where night vision was not going to be available.

              General Portson also went on to state that it was the first indication that the Special Operations people had working equipment that they didn’t.  Subsequent requests to SOF were pointless as they said they didn’t know what we were talking about General Portson stated.  He went on to say that they now know that SOF had underground facilities filled with equipment that worked and kept it to themselves.  After the first two weeks General Portson briefed it was evident that he had made a mistake in the order not to engage the community right away.  Refugees started to show up at the main gate. They were hearing gun fire day and night around the post.  Their initial investigation into their own resources showed that outside support would be needed if they were to last longer than eight months on our own. 

              The general continued: “At that time it was decided that we needed to secure retail establishments such as the rest of the big box stores, sporting goods, fuel, grocery stores and medical facilities.  However, by the time we got into action most of those types of facilities had already been looted.  The medical facilities around Fayetteville we were able to secure and support and still are.  We did end up finding alternate means of meeting our needs. .We found storage units all over town filled with items that people couldn’t get to any longer.  Granted, it didn’t belong to us and if the owners did ever show up again we left instructions on where it went and who to contact.  To date we haven’t heard from anyone. 

              “We also started to take on some of the gangs that were terrorizing the city and in most cases these were the same organizations that were hoarding the merchandise from the retail and medical establishments.  We were successful in ridding the majority of the area of the moderate to large gangs yet we still experience the so called militias attempting to move into the area.   We have pushed beyond the fort by fifty miles and have set up outposts to monitor said areas.” General Portson looked around the room to see if he still had their attention.  “Alright then, let me hand this off to General Townsend so he can discuss current operations that the 18
th
is involved in and answer your questions.”  With that, General Townsend stood and General Portson left the podium feeling like he just given birth.

              General Townsend stood at the podium for a moment collecting his thoughts; unlike General Portson he hadn’t made any notes to brief by.  “What we have here is a cluster fuck,” General Townsend said.  “We have a failure of leadership from the top down and I’m not only referring to General Portson and his admitted mistakes. We’ve all made them.  I can see even on our way in from the airport there has been a clear failure of leadership here as well.  With all due respect to our commander-in-chief it started there and propagated down as far as I can tell.  We have let the American people down; we’re better than this.  Thank God for the officers on the west coast and their forward thinking. If not them, I don’t believe we would be standing here right now.  Maybe at some point in the future, but not now.  We’ve taken far too long, over a year now, to get our collective shit together.” General Townsend looked around, noting that he was having the desired effect. Je could see jaws dropped and mouths hanging open, and his brief was more of a speech at this point.  “I can see that you’re all shocked.” General Townsend chuckled. “We have to be able to examine and acknowledge our mistakes so we can move forward.  I’m assuming that’s why we’re all here today to openly discuss where we’re at and create a plan to move forward. Alright then let me get right to the overall status of the 18
th
Airborne Corps …” From there General Townsend gave a brilliant overview of the Corp and its subordinate units, their status before and after the event.  He openly discussed his own mistakes as the leader of the Corps and his own arrogance in judgement the days and weeks following the event.

              He stated that he felt that although he and all of his officers and senior NCOs had gone through various EMP briefings in their careers, but no one really thought it would happen.  However, in many cases those same officers and Senior NCOs weren’t taught to think outside the box and weren’t aware of the science behind EMP as far was what may or may not work after an EMP attack.  Many of the presentations had conflicting messages about what would and wouldn’t work and where to find such items that would work.  Also, the military was designed to work from the top down, meaning that everyone followed the orders of their superior and if that superior had no clue what to do it affected everyone below them.  Months after the event he was meeting with enlisted personnel who asked why they didn’t try this or that which would in most cases turn out to be reasonable solutions.  General Townsend asked them why they didn’t bring up their ideas to the chain of command. They were blunt and told him they did, but no one wanted to listen.  Another leadership failure General Townsend pointed out. 

              General Townsend spent another thirty minutes reviewing the status of the 18
th
and berating his peers over the leadership failures.  Lastly, he added they still had a long way to go and they all needed to step up their games and think outside the box and listen to everyone’s idea.  With that, General Townsend introduced General Welford. He left the podium as General Welford took over.  “Well wasn’t that a real eye opener?” General Welford led with which garnered a few chuckles.  “General Townsend is correct; without a doubt we need to step it up like our counterparts on the West Coast.  How many have asked yourself why was the West Coast successful in regrouping and moving forward in a manner which we couldn’t?” General Welford asked the group and no one responded.  “Simple, the architect of the recovery back there was a Special Forces Officer who had gotten intense public and military training on what to expect and how to handle such an event.  Special Operations was also prepared for this and by their very nature in operations, they are all taught and trained to think of out-of-the-box solutions to a situation.  Their chain of command listens to their people and expects nothing less primarily because each one is considered the ultimate professional.”

              General Welford looked around the room to make sure he had everyone’s attention. “The Division has worked hand-in-hand with the 18
th
and the rest of Fort Bragg.  Yes it’s true that I ordered soldiers into Fayetteville to secure big box stores that were near post against orders.  If General Wallace wants to prosecute me for it, then so be it. I stand by my decision.  I also sent soldiers against orders to help what civilians we could early on and escort service members and some retirees onto post.  I was reprimanded by General Portson and then given his blessing on it as long as I was only using 82
nd
resources which I was.” General Wallace waved his hand signaling to General Welford, “No one is going to get prosecuted for anything or reprimanded. I applaud your initiative and wish we had more like you.  So let’s move on with the briefing and where we’re at with your division,” General Wallace said.