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Praetorium Honoris

Tuesday, July 9, 2024

Road Trip!

Chapman went back to her quarters and grabbed her personal cellphone, she found the number she was looking for and called it. (See The Last Gasp of the Defeated?)

"Hi, Clint, it's Beth, Beth Chapman ..." she blushed almost immediately, Master Gunnery Sergeant Clint Azarian always seemed to be able to come up with something to have that effect on her. She had known him for a long time, theirs was a father-daughter relationship, she respected the man and, more importantly, trusted him.

"Don't you wish, old man." she fired back at Azarian.

Choe and Jackson shared a look, both wished they could hear the other end of the conversation. Chapman set her phone down.

"Clint, I've got you on speakerphone, I'm with Captain Alex Choe, I think you might know him, and Captain Leroy Jackson of the Maryland State Police. Anything you can share with me, you can share with them. You okay with that?"

"Sure, Cuddles."

Chapman blushed again, she should have known that Azarian would remember her first callsign, given to her during rescue training in Chesapeake Bay as a Midshipman. The Middies had been taken out, by boat, late in the evening, then left in the bay. The scenario postulated that they were downed aviators awaiting a morning rescue. Fortunately it was high summer, nevertheless that night had been a struggle.

When they had been picked up by a helicopter, again simulating a combat rescue, Azarian had been aboard, he had been a Staff Sergeant at the time. When Chapman was handed a blanket to warm herself up, she immediately rolled herself into the fetal position and hugged that blanket to herself as if her life depended on it.

When they had landed, she handed the blanket back to Azarian.

"Thank you, Staff Sergeant!" she had barked in the appropriate military manner.

Azarian had grinned and said, "No problem ... Cuddles."

The nickname had stuck and had been her callsign all throughout flight training.

She quickly explained what was going on, how she and Choe had come to be where they were, she started to tell Azarian where they were, he quickly told her that that was a bad idea. She understood immediately, talking to Azarian, she quickly regained her equilibrium and started to behave like the professional she was, not some frightened schoolgirl.

'Listen Ma'am, I'm at 8th and I, no secret about that."

Chapman realized things were about to get serious when Azarian called her "ma'am."

"We shot old Iron Butt¹, had to, the dumb sumbitch thought to use U.S. Marines as revolutionaries. We don't do that, not any more at any rate. Our battalion commander held a quick drumhead court martial, then we took the old goat out onto the parade ground and shot him. F**ker shit his pants on the way to the wall." Azarian sounded disgusted.

"Master Guns, this is Captain Jackson, Maryland State Police, word has it that you have an Admiral Washington in custody, Thomas Washington. Have you talked to ..."

"The Admiral passed away last night," Azarian said in a flat voice, "but yeah, we talked to him, he spilled his guts before he, uh, passed."

"I see." was all Jackson could manage.

Azarian stopped for a bit, the Cumberland end of the conversation heard papers rustling in the background then the keys of a computer keyboard clicking.

"Ma'am, the guy with you, is that Captain Alexander NMI² Choe? Works out of the Pentagon? Can't be too many Choes over there." Azarian pronounced it "Choy."

"There's one other, Master Gunny, a Colonel Samantha Choe, she's on the Army side of the house. I am the Choe your looking for."

"Alright, Cap'n Jackson, you guys got an email address? I've got some paperwork for Cap'n Choe," he pronounced it correctly this time, "and Sir, you ain't a captain no more."

Choe looked crestfallen, Jackson gave Azarian the email address, then they broke the connection. Jackson went to one of the computer terminals in the office, typed in a few commands, then a nearby printer began to whir.

Before ringing off, Chapman asked Azarian if the former SecDef was in control of any Air Force units.

"Ma'am, he's in charge of the three guys that fled Raven Rock with him, sumbitch isn't the SecDef any more. He's on the run somewhere in Pennsylvania, the President put a price on his head, three million bucks, dead or alive. It's open season on traitors in the Keystone State!"

Chapman laughed, severed the connection then turned to Choe, her heart nearly broke at the look on her old captain's face.

Choe was wondering what would happen next. Should he run? Should he surrender himself to Fate? He looked up when he heard Jackson sing out, "Well, hot damn!"

Jackson crossed the room and handed Choe a two page document. Choe looked at it and relief surged through him.

"What is it, Sir?" Chapman asked, her voice soft and tentative.

"Master Guns was right, the man's not a captain anymore, President Nakagawa pushed his promotion date up."

Thrusting his hand out to Choe, Jackson said, "Congratulations, Rear Admiral Choe. I've got orders to get you to Martinsburg, ASAP."

Picking up a phone nearby, Jackson turned his back on Choe and Chapman, who were in the process of hugging, and made the necessary arrangements.

Choe was almost speechless, but he managed to say, "How am I supposed to get to Martinsburg, Cap'n Jackson?"

"I've got one of my guys putting that together now, fortunately we have five armored vehicles, I suppose in case the Chinese invade Pennsylvania, but we've got 'em. My email said to take every precaution as there are rumored to be militia-type units wandering the backwoods, nobody knows whose side they're on. So it's an armored convoy."

After checking things on Jackson's computer, there were really three main routes to Martinsburg -

Source
Chapman was looking at the map, "Lots of rugged terrain out there with damned few north-south connecting roads. Going by 68 would be the fastest ..."

Jackson chimed in, "And the most obvious."

Choe leaned in, "This route to the south, the terrain looks nasty, like Beth said," he paused, "Do you guys have an organic helo?"

Jackson looked puzzled for a moment, then he realized what Choe was asking, "Yes Sir, Admiral. Barracks C has it's own chopper, it's over the river at the regional airport. We have an aircrew for it as well, two pilots."

"What's the aircraft type?" Chapman asked.

Jackson answered quickly, "AgustaWestland AW-139. Dang near new."

Chapman nodded and looked at Choe, "Admiral, I propose we put the convoy together and take this route," she pointed at the southerly route, "if it's okay with the Captain here," she nodded at Jackson, "I'd like to be up in that helo, I'll be your scout."

"Why don't we just take the helo to Martinsburg?" Choe asked.

Jackson answered the question, "Some of those militia units have Stingers, Admiral."

He turned to Chapman, "I can't vouch for your safety up there, Ma'am, but you've been in combat, my guys have not. Can you still fly?"

"Yes Sir, I'm checked out in a number of helicopters, the AW-139 is one of them."

"Care to fly left seat?³ You know, just in case?"

Chapman grinned, "I thought you'd never ask."




¹ The former Marine Commandant's nickname, not meant to be flattering.
² No Middle Initial, a very military way of accounting for not having a middle name, most military paperwork expects people to have three names, so, "NMI" so that no blanks would be left on the form. As most do have three names, or did back in the day, it's fairly rare to see "NMI" but not unusual.
³ In a helicopter the copilot flies in the left seat, unlike fixed wing aircraft where the copilot sits in the right seat.

42 comments:

  1. Things are shaking out across the swamp, traitors getting the quick heave-ho. Rear Admiral Choe has some terrain to journey across Sarge, time to roll the dice.

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    1. Yeah, what and who are out there, whose side is anyone on? All things to consider while heading to Site B.

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  2. Love the story, glad it is continuing,
    But one note on Note#3 - "copilot flies in the left seat, unlike fixed wing aircraft where the copilot sits in the left seat."
    sentence currently states the copilot sits left seat in both rotor and fixed wing.

    MSG Grumpy

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  3. Two convoys, one north, one south, then the hippy VW van with Choe, taking the gazillion backroads between those two obvious routes.

    Trust the Master Gunny to not pass up a chance to gig the officer he knew "back in the day." He must respect the hell out of her to do that. Azarian...an Armenian Master Gunny? One squared away, no nonsense guy. Take a bullet for you or slit your throat, depending on what circumstances require. And never say, "Armenian? Isn't that like Turk?" Unless you're feeling suicidal.

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    1. Limited assets will prevent that course of action.

      I have a number of Armenian friends. No, not Turks, I, for one, do remember the Armenian genocide.

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    2. I once heard someone ask a person of Armenian descent if Armenian was like Turk. Guy was literally shaking with anger when he drew himself up and said, "I'm ARMENIAN! In the old country I could kill you for saying that!" The look he gave the questioner was one of, "I will flay the skin off of you starting at the soles of your feet. Then I'll get mean."

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    3. He has already slit one throat.

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    4. Who might that be? Not Azarian, that's certain.

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  4. "Comrade IronButt has "taken ill...", as they would have said in the Former Soviet Union.

    Great writing as always, Sarge.

    (As it turned out turned the long drive we had in Turkey, I did some reading up on the Armenian Genocide. Truly horrifying.)

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    1. Thanks, TB!

      (FWIW, Armenians have long memories.)

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    2. As horrible as the Holomodor. And people wonder why the Ukrainians have a hatred of all things Russia.

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    3. Russian Disorder Syndrome is hard to cure.

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    4. I don't think there is a cure.

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    5. Good to see some people remember the Holodomor. "You mean Holocaust. " "No. I mean Holodomor. Death by starvation. Inflicted on the Ukrainian people by the Socialist Soviet Union." "Really? Why have I never heard of it?" "My guess is pro-communist sympathy in our education industry doesn't want people to know about the evils of it."

      I've noticed over the last decade estimates of victims keeps being revised downwards. I used to see most estimates between 10 million and 13 million. Then the consensus went to about 7 million.

      Now I'm seeing mostly 2.5 million to 3 million.

      I'll stick with the higher numbers.

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    6. They're closer to the truth.

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    7. The Holodomor occurred in a society that was agricultural. Military theft of food was a evil crime.

      America has a massive population that some 90% plus has No Clue where food comes from. Just a well-known for perhaps a week hurricane CREATES a food shortage.

      And that's with massive support being pushed into the "Disaster ".


      NOW PICTURE a nation wide event like Cyberwarfare and such.

      No banking, no communication and no grid for existing food or fuel.

      We'd have a nation wide Holodomor.

      The Ukrainians that survived the Holodomor hid food from the soldiers and non family members.

      A civil war would also create a mass starvation event.

      Got trusted family and trusted friends. A garden, safe water and ability to repair shelters.

      Our "Civilization " depends upon many systems working well.

      I've said SHTF happens when EMS and the power line men cannot safely do their job.

      Michael

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    8. How did we get off on this topic?

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    9. Civil wars, Insurrection and what often happens to the "uninvolved " folks when civilizations systems get damaged .

      Holodore 2.0

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    10. Okay, that's it. Comments are being turned off for this post.

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  5. Good story, nice touch on the way they dealt with the traitors and no confusion on the good guys/bad guys.

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  6. Pity the Admiral died. There are people who would know how to get even more information out of him.

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    1. It's rather easy to break people and have them spill their guts. The secret, of course, is having the ability to rapidly verify the gut spilling and then requestion the subject. Of course, this is using methods that aren't very humane and not cruel and unusual. Amazing how quickly people break when you hammer nails into their kneecaps. And if the goal is to extract info only, not keep the subject alive much longer than the questioning, well, not going to describe how many disgusting and horrible ways to torture a human.

      It's something, torture that is, that we don't like to do as a people. Which, come to think of it, is a pretty darned good thing.

      But take the veneer of civilization and humanity away and, well, it's easy for a civilized person to be barbaric. Very barbaric.

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    2. Civilization is a thin veneer.

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  7. Helo bubbas left vs right seat- I did not know that. Once again I am enlightened while being entertained.
    Good choice to use armored vehicles out there. Lots of deer in them thar hills- never know when a Bambi might be feeling suicidal. ;-)
    John Blackshoe

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  8. You are in territory that I'm fairly familiar with. I live just North of Pittsburgh and visit my Sister in Maryland SE of DC. I don't like the PA Turnpike and the 495 Beltway, so I've gotten inventive with my routes.

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    1. I've never been on the PA Turnpike (and from the sounds of it I don't want to) but am familiar with the 495 Beltway. Ya gotta be inventive.

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    2. PA Turnpike is usually very well maintained, and less truck traffic than I-80/I-68. Also relatively few bears providing "protection" and paying the toll seems to work as a gratuity granting immunity for a slightly heavy foot. (Not guaranteed, but my perception.) And, with EZ-Pass it is really convenient and you don't realize how much it is costing. Plus, with EZ Pass it is a lower toll than posted rates. However, a lot of toll roads are getting rid of toll booths and cash payments. If you don't have an accepted EZ pass type devices, then they "toll by mail" with outrageous surcharges. Fortunately, just about everything east of the Mississippi works with EZ pass. Kansas does NOT, nor Colorado.
      JB

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    3. I got onboard with EZ-Pass shortly after we started making a lot of trips to Maryland. It's really convenient.

      I crossed Pennsylvania in December of 1991 as we drove home to Vermont from Nebraska. Christmas leave before heading off to Germany and my 7+ year NATO assignment. Seemed to be a dead deer every couple of miles.

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  9. Hmmm. How to move safely in a civil uprising. Stealth. Speed. Security. Chose two only, not all three. And a convoy will attract the attention of everyone no matter what vehicles are involved. Light armored vehicles with a helo spotter? That's going to attract everything out there. And being in the middle of a civil uprising, it's very hard to tell the players apart.

    Quite the conundrum you've thought up.

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    1. Bear in mind it's a very low key uprising, many of the rebel wannabes have gone home. Word that the government is not screwing around spreads quickly.

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    2. Selco wrote about his year of living in a civil uprising (Balkan war), there are lot's of things to think about from his tale of survival.
      I value the thoughts of someone who actually did what they are talking about....

      https://ia801005.us.archive.org/34/items/TheSHTFAnthologySelco/The%20SHTF%20Anthology%20-%20Selco.pdf

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    3. The war in the Balkans was far nastier than what we have in this story. I haven't gone into much detail but for the most part the conflict is centered around the Washington DC area with some events taking place in rural Maryland (in the west) and in Virginia, primarily on the Eastern Shore.

      But yeah, Balkans was nasty and Mr. Begovic has some excellent insight into what went on there.

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    4. The war in the Balkans, I think more properly the WARS in the Balkans, have lots of layers going back close to 800, maybe 1000, years. A stew of race, religion, clans, and modern politics. Serbian Orthodox still commemorate the Battle of Kosovo. That's the one around 1385. Long memories in that neck of the woods.

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  10. I think I'd still prefer the helo- they can't have scouts on the ground everywhere and the routes are infinite. Taking the roads allows some spotter to just call ahead on the route.

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    1. We shall see, details are forthcoming, but (so far) this has been a rather low intensity conflict.

      Personally I'd go by helo.

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