The Rag

  The addition of the armor units and the National Guard and army reserve infantry gave General Michaels a welcomed addition to his cavalry force, but they were still going to be outmanned by a more heavily armed federal force. If the militia took them on head to head on open ground, the best they could hope for was to do serious damage to the feds before having to retreat to escape complete destruction themselves. That was unlikely to happen, so Michaels had to come up with another plan, and he was helped by the Indian tribal chiefs. As was the case with many tribes, many members who had served in the military had been in the special forces as army rangers and Green Berets or in marine recon units, the Navy SEALs, or air force special operations teams.

  The federal force was gathered at a hastily constructed encampment just a few miles from the border of the counties controlled by the militia. This was designed to put the feds into a position to launch a quick decisive strike into militia territory that would lure the militia into a battle where it could be destroyed and clear the way for a continued advance into West Texas. Charlie Whitehawk was the Comanche chief, and he felt like he could form the tribe members who had special forces backgrounds into a cohesive unit that could penetrate the federal encampment and cause enough destruction to disrupt the federal force and open it to attack by the militia.

  This proposal provided Michaels with a way forward to do what he had hoped to do: put the federal force on the defensive instead of having to place his militia on the defensive. The plan had to be made and executed quickly because it was clear that the feds were preparing to make their move. The plan that was hastily drawn up was put into effect within forty-eight hours. A few hours after the sun went down on a cold desert night, the general moved his units quietly to within a mile of the federal base; and then several hours later, when the enemy troops had gone to sleep, Charlie Whitehawk led his special operations group consisting of thirty-seven men divided into four teams into the encampment. They took out the guards with the use of bows and arrows, or team members used their knives to silence the guards.

  The special operations soldiers then attached explosive devices to the treads of enemy tanks that could be remotely detonated. They also set up many claymore mines and IEDs that could also be remotely detonated. The special operations personnel then took hidden positions along the edge of the enemy camp and set up machine gun positions so they could detonate the explosives at the same time they placed direct automatic small arms weapons fire on the enemy encampment. When General Michaels received the radio transmission from Charlie Whitehawk that his mission had been a success, he ordered his 81mm mortar teams to move forward. Once in position, the mortars would initiate the attack by firing on the federal positions.

  The mortars opened fire at 3:00 a.m. and targeted the tents that housed the federal infantry. Scores of the infantry troops were killed or wounded in the initial assault, but the rest moved forward to support the tank crews who were running to mount their vehicles. They were decimated with the combined claymore mines and IEDs set off by Whitehawk’s teams and the heavy machine gunfire laid down by other members of his teams. Simultaneously, the explosives attached to the treads of the federal tanks were set off by the militia members, and many of the federal tanks were now useless.

  At this point, Michaels sent his own armor and infantry into the attack. The attack was swift and furious with the militia tanks concentrating their fire first on the undamaged enemy tanks. There were only five federal tanks that had been manned by their crews, and they never got a chance to open fire before they were destroyed. Some of the militia armor continued to concentrate on destroying the federal tanks while the rest supported the militia infantry moving in and putting heavy fire into the Iranian infantry; that initially was in a state of total confusion. The militia was inflicting heavy casualties on the Iranians, but their commanders were well trained and were organizing an effective defense. The problem for the militia was that they had one brigade of troops attacking three brigades of enemy infantry.

  The plan had never been to wipe out the Iranian infantry but to reduce the number of enemy tanks; do as much damage as possible to the infantry, transport, and equipment; and then withdraw before the militia infantry suffered heavy casualties of their own. The militia armor covered the infantry withdrawal, and the Iranians did not try to follow. They were too busy trying to care for their wounded and trying to salvage what was left of their encampment. The fact was that they would never go after the militia force because they were no longer capable of moving to effectively engage the West Texas militia. The Iranian infantry had suffered over seven hundred dead and wounded, and their armor was almost totally destroyed or disabled.

  The federal commander also had six attack helicopters at his disposal, but they were in a landing zone near the federal encampment, and two militia mortar teams supported by an infantry company had destroyed the choppers and killed the crews before they get ever get off the ground.

  Chapter XLVIII

  The combination of the disastrous federal defeats suffered in both East and West Texas forced the federal dictator Richard Thompson and his advisors to decide that they could no longer defend their positions in Texas or surrounding states, and so it was necessary to withdraw from the entire area that made up the new United States of America.

  However, the withdrawal might not be as easy as the feds planned. When Donnelly got word that the feds were withdrawing, he became concerned, as did Ray Thibodeaux, about the prisoners being held in federal detention centers in all the affected states. It was feared that the feds were perfectly capable of executing the thousands of prisoners prior to the federal withdrawal. Donnelly acted swiftly and decisively by composing a letter that was hand delivered by couriers to the federal commanders in each state.

  They were told that the withdrawal of the federal forces would not be contested by the militia if all prisoners in the detention centers were immediately released unharmed. Donnelly told them that if he received word that any prisoners were executed or an attempt was made to take them out of the centers where they were incarcerated and move them to a federally controlled state, the militias in the various states would launch massive attacks against the withdrawing federal troops. Once this information was received by Richard Thompson, he reluctantly ordered the release of all federal prisoners, so he could save what was left of his rapidly diminishing federal forces in these states.

  Now, all the Americans in eight states were free, and the newly constituted United States began to function as a free nation. George Michaels was elected president of the new country, and Donnelly used his militia to retake control of the major cities in Texas and other states. When the federal troops had retreated out of the states, their allies from the Mexican drug cartels had also left because they no longer had federal protection for their operations. However, there were still gangs operating in the cities, and they were given no quarter by the militia. They were hunted down and either killed or arrested. Civil authority was reestablished in the cities, counties, and states.

  The new United States government operated as it was supposed to under the original Constitution. It had limited powers that included providing for the national defense, but that defense force was comprised of state militias under the unified command of General Donnelly. The militia members were paid by the state governments, and the counties and towns continued to fund their own police and firefighters. The new national capitol was in Dallas, Texas, and President George Michaels was careful to maintain the sovereignty of the state and local governments. Matters like education, energy production, and health care were left to the state and local leaders to deal with.

  There were a lot of things still to be done. There was a vibrant free market economy operating in all the freed states, but there was no unified national currency yet established, and while the states had their local currencies, much of the economy was still based on the barter system. It was working because the vast majority of
the American people had learned their lesson. They knew that there was no such thing as a free lunch, particularly if it was to be provided by a centralized government that only provided free stuff to those who agreed to give up their souls to a dictatorial and corrupt government.

  Millions of Americans had died as a result of the actions of their own government, but those who had survived had done so on their own and with the help of their neighbors. They would never again vote for leaders who did not believe in the Constitution and the American dream. The problem for Richard Thompson and his dictatorship was that the withdrawal from eight states had not solved his problems. While the feds were able to maintain a strong presence in progressive states like California, Oregon, and Washington on the West Coast and New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania on the East Coast, they were stretched very thin in many other states.

  In other states in the West, Midwest, and South, the feds were not able to maintain control when confronted by strong and rapidly growing militias. General Donnelly had the full support of President Michaels in his efforts to liberate other American states from federal control. He put together more highly trained special operations teams that were sent to other states around the country to train their militias in the successful strategies and tactics that had led to the victories by the Texas militia.

  Within a year, states like Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, Colorado, North and South Dakota, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Indiana, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida had achieved their independence. The states had aligned themselves with the new national government headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and despite the danger and logistical difficulties managed in most cases to send senators and representatives to the new national Congress. President Thompson was painfully aware that he was rapidly losing control of his dictatorship. He no longer had the support of the Iranian and Syrian allies in the Middle East who had suffered heavy losses of men and equipment and had nothing more to gain by supporting his government. They also had their own problems to deal with since the Sunni and Shia Muslim conflicts had started up again.

  Even the Russians had backed out of supporting Thompson because they were facing an increasing problem of their own from Russian citizens who had once tasted freedom and were willing to fight to bring it back. This all left President Thompson with only one way to control the country: use nuclear weapons to destroy the strongholds of the Texas militia. However, under the direction of Thompson and previous progressive administrations, the US nuclear arsenal had been reduced to just a few nuclear armed missiles located mostly in Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma. These were states that had been liberated, and to keep the nuclear missiles out of the hands of the militia, their nuclear weapons had been disabled by the withdrawing federal troops. The only place solidly in control of the feds that had nuclear missiles was at an ultrasecret base in southern Illinois where there were four missiles that could be fired at Texas and its neighboring states.

  However, there would be a problem with the launch because even though the computers that controlled the arming and ultimate launching of the missiles were underground and had survived the EMP attack without damage, the Internet was gone. The failsafe system for the missiles provided for the actual launch codes to be sent from the White House directly to the launch computers located in the bases where the silos containing the missiles were housed. With the Internet down, the launch codes would have to be hand delivered to the missile sites.

  This would take some time to get this done, but it had to be handled very carefully with specially chosen men making the delivery. They would know that they would be signing the death warrant for thousands of their fellow countrymen and they were to make sure that there was no hesitation on the part of the men manning the missile site. The attack must take place as scheduled. The man in charge of this was one of Thompson’s most trusted officers, General Warren McDonald. The launch codes for the nuclear missiles were kept in a safe in the highly guarded office of General McDonald in the Pentagon.

  The codes were not kept in computer files because hackers had been able to penetrate government computers even before the EMP attacks. Since the attacks, even though the limited Internet was still used by the federal government in and around Washington DC, the security of the information stored on them was all suspect. So the codes were handwritten on sheets of paper kept in the safe. Only three people had the combination to it: Muhammed Salam, the president’s chief of staff; Admiral Jeremy Walton, head of the military Joints Chiefs of Staff; and General McDonald, in charge of the few remaining nuclear weapons.

  To take the codes to the missile silos and make sure that the attack was executed, McDonald picked ten of the most ruthless officers in his and other commands in the Pentagon; their past actions had convinced him that they would have no qualms about murdering massive numbers of Americans. They would be flown to Illinois in a Blackhawk helicopter accompanied by two Apache gunships for security. They would have the copy of the codes in a pouch in the Blackhawk. McDonald accompanied the team to Andrews Air Force base where they would take off on their mission. McDonald shook hands with each of the men and then watched as they boarded the Blackhawk and took off with their escort helicopters. One hour into the flight, the Blackhawk disintegrated in midair because of a massive explosion. Everyone onboard died instantly, and everything onboard was destroyed, including the nuclear missile launch codes.

  This was another disaster for the federal government, and as soon as Thompson received the reports, he tried to contact McDonald to get a new set of launch codes sent out. However, no one could find the general, so Thompson sent his chief of staff to access the safe in McDonald’s office and retrieve the codes. When he accessed the safe, Muhammed Salam found that it was empty except for a single sheet of paper with three words printed on it: “God Bless America.”

  Now there was no way to launch the nuclear weapons, and General McDonald could not be located despite an intensive search. As soon as he had seen the Blackhawk take off, he had gotten into his personal vehicle and headed to a safe house in Arlington, Virginia. He was accompanied by Army First Sergeant Aaron Williams who was in charge of the maintenance of all the helicopters at the airbase. He had planted the explosive device that had taken down the Blackhawk. At the safe house, General McDonald and Sergeant Williams made contact with leaders of the Virginia militia, an organization that both men had secretly belonged to for years.

  Chapter XLVIX

  With the threat of a nuclear attack eliminated, US president George Michaels and General Ben Donnelly could continue with their plan to use the extensive and growing militia forces under their command to take back the other states controlled by the criminal federal government and restore the United States of America as it had originally existed. It would be a long fight that would take years, but they were confident in their success because the Americans who had survived the onslaught of the federal dictatorship were united and determined to make it happen.

  President Michaels had one request for General Donnelly: he wanted to take the 9/11 flag that still flew over the veterans memorial in Canton and transfer it to the new US capitol in Dallas, where it would continue to be the ultimate symbol of American patriotism. Donnelly agreed but insisted that his militia still be allowed to use it to lead them into any major battle. Michaels understood, and a date was set for a formal ceremony when the flag would be lowered in Canton and transferred to Dallas.

  The night before the transfer was to happen, a small group of men met at the flagpole at the memorial. Present were Ray Thibodeaux, Jamie Donnelly, Frank Hansen, William Jackson, George Carson, Billy Jordan, Juan Gonzales, Samuel Bennett, William Travis, Jack Jameson, John McGee, Tim Johnson, and Jerry Calhoun. They had invited General Donnelly and his other sons to join them, but they declined because they felt that this was something this special group of men had to do on their own. They were the group that had escaped from the detention center in New
Orleans and had brought the 9/11 flag home.

  A strong East Texas wind was blowing on this cool spring night, so when Ray switched on the spotlights that were used to illuminate the flag when a ceremony was held at night, they saw that the flag was whipping straight out from the pole. It had miraculously survived the looting of the Marriott Hotel in New Orleans years before and the American militia battles that had followed. It remained completely intact, and its white and red stripes and blue field with fifty white stars stood out brilliantly. For several minutes, the gathered men just stared at their national banner in complete silence while each thought of the meaning of the flag and remembered their comrades in arms that had died fighting for it. They all thought of Jason Arnaud, the Coast Guard officer turned Mississippi River pilot who had been killed after taking them safely upriver during a dangerous hurricane, and all of them also remembered the individual new friends that they had made since that time who had died fighting by their sides.

  Then Ray called them to attention and ordered a hand salute. The men were so caught up in their own thoughts and memories at that point that they were oblivious to the fact that in the darkness all around them over a thousand of their fellow soldiers had gathered and had also come to attention and rendered a hand salute. They were saluting not only the flag but also the men who had brought it home. The men who had taken a simple piece of cloth that that had been discarded as a rag and now been returned as the proud symbol of a revitalized United States of America and had protected it as it led the United States militia into battle. The group included General Donnelly and his other two sons, who were also saluting Jamie, the son and brother they were very proud of.