A.T.Hagan
Inactive
Day Eighty four - Saturday, June 16th, 2001 - 7:00 a.m.
<strong>Day Eighty four
Saturday, June 16th, 2001 - 7:00 a.m.</strong>
Made it to Big Pine Key by noon Thursday without much incident. This string of islands is beginning to look much like they did before the Overseas Railroad and later the U.S. 1 highway were built to connect them to the mainland - largely empty. When the nukes went off and central electrical power was lost the aquaduct stretching from Dade county to Key West ran dry and there isn't enough naturally occurring freshwater down here to sustain the population that existed here pre-war. Slowly at first and then somewhat faster later on folks began moving out heading to the mainland where water could be found. The hardier types stayed on until the Cubans invaded and then many of them were forced to flee as well. Excluding military personnel there's probably not a thousand people left from Key Largo to Key West when there used to be thousands in Key West alone. Even in the two days we've been here several have passed through the checkpoints heading north.
When we reached Big Pine I detailed the 1st company C.O. to recon the islands reachable by road in the local area to find a usable structure for an HQ and I continued southwards with 2nd company down to Key West. It's been over ten years since I was last here and even in August the whole area was terribly crowded with cars and people everywhere. Now the place is desolate. I'm not really sure why the governor is spending the resources he is on manning the Keys, there's not a lot left that's worth much beyond the buildings. What the original inhabitants didn't take with them when they fled, the Cubans stole and took back home. Perhaps he's feeling sensitive about the perception of abandoning territory. Whatever the reason, we're here and are getting down to business.
There's still a couple of hundred hardy souls living in the group of keys collectively known as Key West and they are more or less successfully coping. Their homes have rain cisterns, they're gardening, fish extensively and they have redomesticated some of the island's chicken flock. Just before the war the poultry that ran wild here had grown in numbers large enough to constitute a nuisance (even made the news) which I attributed to the general nuttiness that South Florida had sunk to these last several decades. I didn't spend much time personally covering the key, but more or less cruised through to get an overall impression. Besides the commercial tourist crap that had all but covered the place there used to be quite a lot of historical interest sites and several museums. The buildings are all still there but most of what was in them is gone, particularly the Hemingway house where even the fixtures are missing. I decided not to waste more time playing tourist and got back up the road. Stopped by Boca Chica to inspect the naval air station and decided it would do for the lower keys headquarters. We'll have to clean up and do some minor repairs but the structures are basically sound and we can get aircraft or watercraft in without problems. Having seen both places now I decided to headquarters at Boca Chica rather than Big Pine. The few miles difference in location should not make that much of a difference and the radio towers at the air station would be useful for our purposes. The station is also more defensible against attack and has hardened structures in case we have to hunker down in a hurricane.
I met with 1st and 2nd company commanders and we altered our plans accordingly. We're putting a platoon on the north side of the Seven Mile Bridge to cover Marathon, Duck and Long keys and the remaining three platoons will cover Big Pine, Boca Chica and Key West. Corporal Carter thinks he can modify the remaining antennas and cabling on the radio towers at Boca so that we can use them with our gear and with their height we should have no problems talking all the way to the Colonel in Miami/Ft. Lauderdale as well as 3rd company on Key Largo and the two squads over to Flamingo. Using a different frequency and antenna type we shouldn't have any problem hitting Tallahassee either. With everyone assigned we began assessing the remaining communications assets in the islands and canvassing the population to see who might be useful. The idea is to use as many folks as we can convince to participate to serve as coast watchers like was done in the Pacific during the Second World War. Any boats or aircraft that are spotted will be radioed in here to Boca Chica and plotted as to course, type and description of craft and destination, if known. Any that look to land will be met by the local reaction force. If they're legitimate we'll leave them be, if they're not we'll take them into custody for trial - if they survive the contact.
Before I even made it back from Key West 3rd company made their first hostile contact at Islamorada and shot up a boat with six Hispanic males, presumably Cubans all of whom were armed with military weaponry. When hailed over a megaphone before landing they fired on the hailer so the machine gunner opened up on them. I find this encouraging. With any luck we'll whack a couple dozen or so of these pirates and word will get around that the business just ain't what it used to be and they'll stay home so that we can get home before August rolls around and the hurricane season really heats up.
Friday was spent surveying and speaking with the locals. Mostly they're original Conchs (folks born in the Keys) who've been here for about ever and a sprinkling of die-hards from elsewhere. Maybe a third or so have military experience but we seem to be finding enough to start training the reaction teams and spotters. There's enough unused radio towers and other structures of sufficient height that we can set up observation posts to cover all of the keys connected by road and most of those that are on the outer edges that aren't with the exception of the furthest out. Only a few of the keys without road connections have any significant structures on them so they're not areas I'm much concerned with. The spotters and radio people are being brought here to the naval air station for training and familiarization while the reaction teams are being taught more or less on the spot by the personnel stationed there. Given that the raiders have mostly been coming in the early morning hours when they can approach under cover of darkness I don't know how much good the spotters will be but we're going to try it.
I also had all the usable boats that could be located inventoried and noted as to location and who owned them. There weren't many, the Cubans had stolen most of what was here but I'm not comfortable having to depend solely on the long thin ribbon of the U.S. 1 highway bridge stretching from the mainland to the end of the line at Key West. We may need them for recon as well. As soon as we can locate what there is available we'll work out deals with the owners for the use of their craft.
As part of his tinkering Carter ran two long dipole antennas to hook up to the Sony. One is oriented north-south and the second is east-west and I can select which antenna I want by throwing a switch. Both are about sixty feet off the ground and they make an incredible difference in reception. Sat in on the unit poker game for a while then decided to go feed my Sony addiction. Shortwave radio listening isn't interactive like the Internet used to be but it's still fascinating.
The staph epidemic in Central Russia is slowly making its way south and east. Ukraine has many cases reported now as does Uzbekistan and news ones are reported in Belarus and Moldova. Romania, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary are reported to be sealing their borders with shoot to kill orders for anyone trying to cross. Possibly that will work but with current conditions as they are over there now I don't have much faith it will. The newly reconstituted Voice of America gave a CDC report that there may be an animal vector to spreading the disease and if that's true then chances are that no border sealing is going to work. New cases are also reported in Turkmenistan but communications from there are very bad so it's difficult to know what the situation is. Iran is reported to be moving all population at least ten kilometers away from the border and have also instituted shoot-to-kill orders for anyone attempting to cross. Death toll so far has been in the tens of thousands and may be in the hundreds of thousands given that communications with many areas is difficult or impossible.
The Grand National Council is still talking and issuing statements that don't amount to much. There does seem to be a consensus forming slowly about revamping the Federal government but very little in the way of details has been forthcoming. No new military actions in the NorthWestern Confederacy have occurred but I don't think it will be much longer before something breaks. Both the Canadian and U.S. governments are going to have to do something about the situation in British Columbia and Alaska if they want to maintain control over much of the rest of what they have.
The Mexican Army has taken power in Mexico City now with a General Antonio Pedro Gonzalez as top man. No reports as to the whereabouts of the former civilian government. He states that as soon as the situation in the capital has been brought under control the Mexican Army is going to move south to crush the rebellion in Chiapas. I suppose he may feel that the Indians in the southern end of the nation will be easier to cope with than the U.S. Army in the northern end. The border situation he did not mention at all. We now seem to have control of every city and town on the Mexican side of the border for some fifty miles and are consolidating the entirety of the Baja peninsula. Still having a problem with bandits and raiders crossing the border into the States.
A Ham out of Hawaii reports that a Japanese radio station has reported continued fighting along the Russian/Chinese border with the use of at least one tactical nuclear weapon. Getting news out of eastern Asia about what's going on between Russia and China has been very difficult. With the staph epidemic spreading across Central Russia and now into European Russia I imagine that Russia is going to have difficulty sustaining fighting in the east. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.
The tropical storm that ran into Haiti and the Dominican Republic largely tore itself apart on the mountains but has continued on in a generally western course and is now over Cuba. Windspeed is negligible but Cuban stations report intense rainfall and mudslides. I wish them the joy of it.
Scattered and isolated cases of dysentery, typhoid and cholera are being reported across the Southern and Central U.S. now in the areas of surviving high population density. Local authorities are working to educate the citizenry about expedient sanitation to bring it under control. Everyone is having a common problem in coping because of the lack of medicine to treat the diseases. Mostly the best that can be done is to teach people about making electrolyte solutions to keep the patient properly hydrated until the disease has run its course and how not to reinfect themselves by using proper waste and water treatment methods. Antibiotics are hard to come by but (so far) sodium and potassium salts are not.
War having ridden across the face of the planet already it's now the turn of the remaining Horsemen, Pestilence and Famine, to work their will with Death being the constant companion of all three.
<strong>Day Eighty four
Saturday, June 16th, 2001 - 7:00 a.m.</strong>
Made it to Big Pine Key by noon Thursday without much incident. This string of islands is beginning to look much like they did before the Overseas Railroad and later the U.S. 1 highway were built to connect them to the mainland - largely empty. When the nukes went off and central electrical power was lost the aquaduct stretching from Dade county to Key West ran dry and there isn't enough naturally occurring freshwater down here to sustain the population that existed here pre-war. Slowly at first and then somewhat faster later on folks began moving out heading to the mainland where water could be found. The hardier types stayed on until the Cubans invaded and then many of them were forced to flee as well. Excluding military personnel there's probably not a thousand people left from Key Largo to Key West when there used to be thousands in Key West alone. Even in the two days we've been here several have passed through the checkpoints heading north.
When we reached Big Pine I detailed the 1st company C.O. to recon the islands reachable by road in the local area to find a usable structure for an HQ and I continued southwards with 2nd company down to Key West. It's been over ten years since I was last here and even in August the whole area was terribly crowded with cars and people everywhere. Now the place is desolate. I'm not really sure why the governor is spending the resources he is on manning the Keys, there's not a lot left that's worth much beyond the buildings. What the original inhabitants didn't take with them when they fled, the Cubans stole and took back home. Perhaps he's feeling sensitive about the perception of abandoning territory. Whatever the reason, we're here and are getting down to business.
There's still a couple of hundred hardy souls living in the group of keys collectively known as Key West and they are more or less successfully coping. Their homes have rain cisterns, they're gardening, fish extensively and they have redomesticated some of the island's chicken flock. Just before the war the poultry that ran wild here had grown in numbers large enough to constitute a nuisance (even made the news) which I attributed to the general nuttiness that South Florida had sunk to these last several decades. I didn't spend much time personally covering the key, but more or less cruised through to get an overall impression. Besides the commercial tourist crap that had all but covered the place there used to be quite a lot of historical interest sites and several museums. The buildings are all still there but most of what was in them is gone, particularly the Hemingway house where even the fixtures are missing. I decided not to waste more time playing tourist and got back up the road. Stopped by Boca Chica to inspect the naval air station and decided it would do for the lower keys headquarters. We'll have to clean up and do some minor repairs but the structures are basically sound and we can get aircraft or watercraft in without problems. Having seen both places now I decided to headquarters at Boca Chica rather than Big Pine. The few miles difference in location should not make that much of a difference and the radio towers at the air station would be useful for our purposes. The station is also more defensible against attack and has hardened structures in case we have to hunker down in a hurricane.
I met with 1st and 2nd company commanders and we altered our plans accordingly. We're putting a platoon on the north side of the Seven Mile Bridge to cover Marathon, Duck and Long keys and the remaining three platoons will cover Big Pine, Boca Chica and Key West. Corporal Carter thinks he can modify the remaining antennas and cabling on the radio towers at Boca so that we can use them with our gear and with their height we should have no problems talking all the way to the Colonel in Miami/Ft. Lauderdale as well as 3rd company on Key Largo and the two squads over to Flamingo. Using a different frequency and antenna type we shouldn't have any problem hitting Tallahassee either. With everyone assigned we began assessing the remaining communications assets in the islands and canvassing the population to see who might be useful. The idea is to use as many folks as we can convince to participate to serve as coast watchers like was done in the Pacific during the Second World War. Any boats or aircraft that are spotted will be radioed in here to Boca Chica and plotted as to course, type and description of craft and destination, if known. Any that look to land will be met by the local reaction force. If they're legitimate we'll leave them be, if they're not we'll take them into custody for trial - if they survive the contact.
Before I even made it back from Key West 3rd company made their first hostile contact at Islamorada and shot up a boat with six Hispanic males, presumably Cubans all of whom were armed with military weaponry. When hailed over a megaphone before landing they fired on the hailer so the machine gunner opened up on them. I find this encouraging. With any luck we'll whack a couple dozen or so of these pirates and word will get around that the business just ain't what it used to be and they'll stay home so that we can get home before August rolls around and the hurricane season really heats up.
Friday was spent surveying and speaking with the locals. Mostly they're original Conchs (folks born in the Keys) who've been here for about ever and a sprinkling of die-hards from elsewhere. Maybe a third or so have military experience but we seem to be finding enough to start training the reaction teams and spotters. There's enough unused radio towers and other structures of sufficient height that we can set up observation posts to cover all of the keys connected by road and most of those that are on the outer edges that aren't with the exception of the furthest out. Only a few of the keys without road connections have any significant structures on them so they're not areas I'm much concerned with. The spotters and radio people are being brought here to the naval air station for training and familiarization while the reaction teams are being taught more or less on the spot by the personnel stationed there. Given that the raiders have mostly been coming in the early morning hours when they can approach under cover of darkness I don't know how much good the spotters will be but we're going to try it.
I also had all the usable boats that could be located inventoried and noted as to location and who owned them. There weren't many, the Cubans had stolen most of what was here but I'm not comfortable having to depend solely on the long thin ribbon of the U.S. 1 highway bridge stretching from the mainland to the end of the line at Key West. We may need them for recon as well. As soon as we can locate what there is available we'll work out deals with the owners for the use of their craft.
As part of his tinkering Carter ran two long dipole antennas to hook up to the Sony. One is oriented north-south and the second is east-west and I can select which antenna I want by throwing a switch. Both are about sixty feet off the ground and they make an incredible difference in reception. Sat in on the unit poker game for a while then decided to go feed my Sony addiction. Shortwave radio listening isn't interactive like the Internet used to be but it's still fascinating.
The staph epidemic in Central Russia is slowly making its way south and east. Ukraine has many cases reported now as does Uzbekistan and news ones are reported in Belarus and Moldova. Romania, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary are reported to be sealing their borders with shoot to kill orders for anyone trying to cross. Possibly that will work but with current conditions as they are over there now I don't have much faith it will. The newly reconstituted Voice of America gave a CDC report that there may be an animal vector to spreading the disease and if that's true then chances are that no border sealing is going to work. New cases are also reported in Turkmenistan but communications from there are very bad so it's difficult to know what the situation is. Iran is reported to be moving all population at least ten kilometers away from the border and have also instituted shoot-to-kill orders for anyone attempting to cross. Death toll so far has been in the tens of thousands and may be in the hundreds of thousands given that communications with many areas is difficult or impossible.
The Grand National Council is still talking and issuing statements that don't amount to much. There does seem to be a consensus forming slowly about revamping the Federal government but very little in the way of details has been forthcoming. No new military actions in the NorthWestern Confederacy have occurred but I don't think it will be much longer before something breaks. Both the Canadian and U.S. governments are going to have to do something about the situation in British Columbia and Alaska if they want to maintain control over much of the rest of what they have.
The Mexican Army has taken power in Mexico City now with a General Antonio Pedro Gonzalez as top man. No reports as to the whereabouts of the former civilian government. He states that as soon as the situation in the capital has been brought under control the Mexican Army is going to move south to crush the rebellion in Chiapas. I suppose he may feel that the Indians in the southern end of the nation will be easier to cope with than the U.S. Army in the northern end. The border situation he did not mention at all. We now seem to have control of every city and town on the Mexican side of the border for some fifty miles and are consolidating the entirety of the Baja peninsula. Still having a problem with bandits and raiders crossing the border into the States.
A Ham out of Hawaii reports that a Japanese radio station has reported continued fighting along the Russian/Chinese border with the use of at least one tactical nuclear weapon. Getting news out of eastern Asia about what's going on between Russia and China has been very difficult. With the staph epidemic spreading across Central Russia and now into European Russia I imagine that Russia is going to have difficulty sustaining fighting in the east. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.
The tropical storm that ran into Haiti and the Dominican Republic largely tore itself apart on the mountains but has continued on in a generally western course and is now over Cuba. Windspeed is negligible but Cuban stations report intense rainfall and mudslides. I wish them the joy of it.
Scattered and isolated cases of dysentery, typhoid and cholera are being reported across the Southern and Central U.S. now in the areas of surviving high population density. Local authorities are working to educate the citizenry about expedient sanitation to bring it under control. Everyone is having a common problem in coping because of the lack of medicine to treat the diseases. Mostly the best that can be done is to teach people about making electrolyte solutions to keep the patient properly hydrated until the disease has run its course and how not to reinfect themselves by using proper waste and water treatment methods. Antibiotics are hard to come by but (so far) sodium and potassium salts are not.
War having ridden across the face of the planet already it's now the turn of the remaining Horsemen, Pestilence and Famine, to work their will with Death being the constant companion of all three.
