Friday, October 15, 2021

It Spreads

(U.S. Army National Guard Photo by Sgt. Jeremy Bratt)

"Bertram."

Rear Admiral Theodore Bertram, U.S. Navy retired, still answered his phone the same way he had when he had been Commander, Submarine Force Atlantic (COMSUBLANT), his last job in the Navy. His relief from that post had been swift and unexpected, he had disagreed with his superiors on one too many occasions for their tastes. They desired a more compliant officer in that position, and they got one. But that had been three years ago.

"Sir, this is Colonel Jeffrey Tanaka, USMC, I'm..."

"I know who you are Colonel. Why are you bothering me?"

"Hold for the CNO, Sir."

Bertram held the phone away from him for a moment and stared at the receiver (he despised cell phones). What the Hell is going on here? He knew that Tanaka was the guy who had taken over the Pentagon, what the Hell was the CNO doing with that guy? He remembered Harry Fairchild from Ballston Spa, brilliant guy but very corporate. Academy guy, bled Navy blue and gold. Why was he with this, this, Marine rebel?

"Ted?"

"Admiral..."

"We need to get the Colonel here in touch with the New York State Adjutant General, guy named..."

"Allan Jones, I know him. Why?"

"Look Ted, this isn't a secure line and..."

Bertram sat up straight in his chair, "Holy shit, does this have anything to do with those visitors getting mugged?"

Fairchild was confused for a moment, then it hit him, Bertram had heard about the attack on the Chinese peacekeepers. "Yup, you know about that?"

"Yes, I do. Call this number..." Bertram recited a phone number.

"Is that..." Before Fairchild could finish his question, Bertram had hung up.


Major General Allan Jones was driving west on I-90. He wasn't quite sure where he was going just yet, but he couldn't stay in Albany. Not since he'd tipped off the Guard units he considered loyal to an anticipated Chinese action to seize the assets of all of the Guard units in New York. They had had some success, but a number of units, more than Jones had expected, had resisted. One unit had actually hit back at the Chinese.

He had thoughts of heading up towards Fort Drum, but he expected the Chinese might be there in force. The bastards hadn't entered every state along the northern border, but they had penetrated deeply into New York, no doubt thinking they were entering friendly territory. Like many not familiar with the Empire State, once you got away from the big cities, folks were pretty conservative. Right now, they were also pretty mad.

He nearly jumped out of the driver's seat when his cell phone rang, very few people had his number.

"Yeah."

"Hello, I'm calling from the Pentagon, seems we have a mutual friend. Guy named Ted, bit of a bobblehead."

Jones had to think hard, then it hit him, they called submariners bubbleheads, didn't they? So "bobblehead" might be enough to confuse someone listening in who might not be familiar with Navy slang. He barely was, if it wasn't for Ted Bertram...

Holy crap, the Pentagon, Ted had served with the current CNO didn't he, before he was forced to retire?

"It's fair to call him that, when he was a child he was kind of a goofball." Jones hoped the guy on the other end was who he thought, hoped, it was.

"Yeah, got himself in a few hairy situations before he grew up."

Jones realized that he had to wrap this up, so he just jumped right in with both feet. "What can I do for you Sir, you with the rebels now?"

"Kind of, I have a Marine here wants to talk with you."

Bingo, Alan Jones thought, I might be in touch with someone outside the state who still believes.


After a few moments, Tanaka broke the connection. "It's true."

"What is Sir" SFC Levine asked his boss.

"F**cking Guard unit hit a Chinese base, killed 'em all. Apparently there are a few small units in upstate New York giving the Chinese fits. One of the Air Guard Bases, Hancock Field outside Syracuse, is free and clear of Chinese units as well. Some of the locals actually bushwhacked a Chinese convoy and drove 'em off. Hancock operates drones, they jumped in and killed a bunch of Chinese 'peacekeepers.' I guess the Chinese are operating without any air support. Seems the Canadians promised them help, but decided against it when the riots in Ottawa started up." Tanaka felt the first stirrings of hope that they could actually pull this off.

"This is good news. Any Air Force guys in the building we can trust?" SFC Levine asked.

Admiral Fairchild jumped in, "Air Force Vice Chief of Staff. Flew A-10s back in the day, damned near been fired three times since he got the job. Can't stand his chief, chief can't stand him, but he's got some powerful friends in Congress."

MACS Janet Sorge had been busy on her computer during all of this, suddenly she turned and said, "Colonel, there are four A-10s at Hancock right now. They were on a cross country when the FAA shut down all air traffic. Worth a shot?"

"Outstanding Senior Chief, let's get that Air Force guy up here, ASAP."


Frank Teller felt good about having his office back with none of those damned "peacekeepers" hovering about. As the winter wore on and no Chinese response to the destruction of their compound had been forthcoming, a lot of the townsfolk were starting to get complacent. Until Jack Bishop had gone on a scouting trip to Albany.

That city was in chaos, over half of the state legislature had voted in favor of a resolution condemning the Chinese occupation of a number of towns and strategic points in the northern part of the state. The governor, Manhattan-born and bred, had ordered the arrest of a number of the political leaders of the legislature.

Last night, according to Bishop, the governor had been assassinated on his way to a political fundraiser hosted by the Chinese military "advisor" to the governor. In reality that man was the real power in the state capital, or had been. He had gone to the site where the governor and his wife had been gunned down.

He fell to an assassin's bullet fired from a nearby rooftop. Bombs had gone off all around the venue for the fundraiser, sowing noise and confusion. Though there were a sizeable number of Chinese troops in the vicinity, in the chaos that had been unable to find the sniper who had brought down their general. But they did manage to gun down a number of innocent bystanders.

The city was now torn by rioting and gunfire. The Chinese had had to stop patrolling as the casualties they were taking were becoming serious. Though the peacekeepers, most called them the occupiers, expected reinforcements from Canada, they had never shown up.

"What do you think is going on in our neighbor to the north Jack?"

"Same as here, open rebellion to the bastards who think we're subjects, not citizens. Rumor has it that the Canadian Armed Forces are attacking, and defeating, the Chinese in Canada. The reds we have here, kill them and they're not getting replaced."

Sheriff Teller shook his head, "From what I'm hearing over the law enforcement channels that are still open, no one is in charge in Washington. The President hasn't been seen outside the White House in days, some Marine colonel has taken over the Pentagon, and Congress are apparently surrounded on Capitol Hill."

"Serves most of the bastards right," Jack grunted, "What about the Vice President?"

"Yeah, odd that, reports are that a Marine helicopter crashed into the Potomac last Saturday, no survivors. Oddly enough, no wreckage either." Teller related.

"So?"

"The helicopter was Marine Two."

"Damn!"

"Yeah, things are what you'd call confused."



40 comments:

  1. Still hanging in Sarge, count me as slightly confused also.

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    1. Revolutions tend to be confusing. Heck, real life can be confusing these days, who speaks truth, who's lying? Hard to tell.

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    2. Real revolutions are not cute waifs crying and people singing like that stupid musical. Real revolutions are more like, well, the not-so-nice part of La Marseillaise (French Nat. Anthem) which is all about blood running in the streets and other not nice things.

      Funny thing is, revolutions often achieve victory because of the sheer chaos of the situation, as long as the various revolting groups spend more time shooting the non-revolting people than spend shooting other revolting people.

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  2. Oh for this to be reality!

    But do they dare touch those who FUND the evil???

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    1. There was an attack in Albany at a gala celebrating the ChiCom Warlord the powers-that-be tried to put in charge of free men. Sarge gave no description of the casualties of the bombings, just that the Chinese Commander got gacked by a sniper. I am sure lots of the gliteratta and other funders of progressivism fell.

      And open warfare in Albany? How many of THOSE people's houses were burned or looted or destroyed, how many of THOSE people ended up on the wrong end of the knife, the rod, the gun? OAFS tends to paint a big picture with a very sparse brush sometimes.

      And then he drops the whole "Patience" thingy like we're all a bunch of 4 year olds....

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    2. Sometimes I let your minds fill in the blanks.

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  3. I find myself..... smiling.... Thank you Sarge.

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  4. getting more interesting, but it doesn't sound like what I'd heard about Chinese soldiers from guys who came back from frozen Chosen.
    Not that I'm complaining in any way, mind you! And I understand this is taking place place 70/90 years later; lot of changes can take place in all that time.

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    1. The average Chinese soldier these days is very different from his '50s counterpart.

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    2. The average Chinese soldier these days hasn't basically grown up either during the times of the Warlords or the struggle between the Nationalists and the Communists or during the Japanese invasion or the Soviet invasion.

      Modern ChiCom Soldiers? They got slapped and beat to death in hand-to-hand combat with India. Vietnam handed them their arses wholesale. They do not have a very good history of winning. Like none. And we only see the urban educated soldiers that the ChiComs want us to see. Most ChiCom forces are like those used in Tiananmen Square, more used to putting down internal dissidence than warfighting.

      Hopefully.

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    3. In Korea the Chinese were vets who'd fought the Japanese and the in their civil war, experience matters.

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    4. Rob - Experience is a thing, a big thing.

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  5. In reality, the job of being a "peacekeeper" where one is neither wanted nor felt by the majority of the population to be needed (especially if propping up an unpopular regime) leads to this sort of thing every time (in earlier times, we would have just called it "occupation"). The other balance - although one wonders how it works in a dictatorship - is that those Chinese casualties are also connected to real people back home as well, people who will have questions (perhaps not voiced out loud) of their government and why their boys are dying so far from home.

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    1. Peacekeeper vs occupier, spy vs intelligence agent, terrorist vs freedom fighter, it all depends on one's perspective. Not to mention ideological leanings.

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    2. It was one thing to lose all those troops during the Korean War when families had excess children to lose. Nowadays? When Red China is falling apart under the One Child Rule?

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    3. And the "peacekeepers" are pretty thin on the ground. There are reserves in Canada, which their progs let in (in this story anyway) but it seems the Canadian people aren't in step with their masters. The Chinese (in the story anyway) are mired in the Great White Up with no easy way out.

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  6. What an uplifting story, love it, and I'm not confused. Viet Nam era Air Force guy, 43151c, Crew Chief, 105's and 102's.

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    1. Thanks Tree Mike! (FWIW, I've never met a confused Crew Chief, Hell, their whole job is taking care of a complex aircraft, no room for confusion!)

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    2. I never met one either guys. Don’t forget you also had to drag the pilot(s) away from all of the photo ops around the bombs and missiles and show them where the ladder was!

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  7. There is this thinking that the services can be turned against each other (by those who've not served) as if they're fingers. Those people (who are quick to wave their middle finger at veterans) have no understanding of the concept of fist -- or of comrades.

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    1. The services, as my father described, are like Scotland or hillfolk. Squabbling and backstabbing and beating each other while scrabbling for what food is on the table. Until they are all threatened, then they unite. And go back to squabbling and backstabbing and beating each other once the overall threat is reduced.

      A simplistic outlook of a very complex situation, of course. But there is truth in it.

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  8. Hah. The VP took a bath, sounds like the Marines did a Pinochet Airlines. No wreckage... Hmmmmm..

    Congress surrounded and besieged. Wonder how the eneMedia is spinning that?

    And, yes, the common dirt people would rise up against threats once a tipping point is reached. And the common dirt people will liberally apply the hurt on all perceived enemies (using the word 'liberally' correctly.) Lots of local prog bastiges gonna end up as collateral damage, the teachers pushing bullscat in the schools, the local 'Moms demand Action' ladies, anyone with the wrong bumper sticker on their car. The breakage will be bad.

    And funny, the FedGov just declared the local PTA mom is a domestic terrorist. Way to push the stupidity, Garland, proving that keeping that fathead out of the Supreme Court was the right thing to do.

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    1. The government is doubling down on their fascist antics as of late. Folks are starting to stand up and notice.

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  9. Oh, and glad your Muse is back. Hope she stays for a while. Very engrossing story.

    I had a friend from New York (state) who said that it would be a great state if they could just get rid of The City and Albany.

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  10. Here, there's Minneapolis (most of the wealth of Hennepin County) and St. Paul (most of the gov't, in Ramsey County.) Surrounded by five other counties, one of which is Dakota, where we live. A quarter-century ago, when we bought, tkis was "xurbia". Now we're 99% developed. :( Not what we wanted. Should have gone 50-75 miles from city center, not 25. Ah well.

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  11. Love the propitious gift of 4 Hogs. Hopefully someone can find something meaningful to hang on them. At least they "might" have gun ammo aboard ("weight and balance" don'tcha know)
    Boat Guy

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    1. I think it's safe to say that those birds will make an appearance.

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  12. There is a freshly painted Osprey on a NAS somewhere, whose low viz paint job does not match it's interior, and has a duplicate BuNo, and Modex?

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Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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