alternatehistory.com

The first offsite was an invitation for the Marine Corps to hold a General Officer's meeting at Avery Island, Louisiana. Avery Island is home to the McIlhenny family and TABASCO sauce. The president of the company in 1983 was Brigadier General Walter S. McIlhenny, UCMCR (Ret), who was very well known for his support of the Marine Military Academy and other such endeavors. As the world situation deteriorated in 1983, several other offsites were held focusing on reserve forces and started to include the Navy and Coast Guard.

The critical offsite was held in September of 1983. In order to get all the people who needed to be there, Brig Gen McIlhenny visited Russell Long, who was the senior senator from Louisiana at that time, and had the Corps present a nuclear strike scenario for Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and Arkansas. As the briefing progressed, Senator Long became convinced that a contiguous area of Louisiana and Mississippi could survive and the two states needed to cooperate. He then called Trent Lott, his Mississippi counterpart and asked him to come over to his office on a matter of the utmost urgency.

After the briefing Senator Lott asked several questions, among them was what was the National Guard going to be doing? He was reminded that both Mississippi and Louisiana had enhanced brigades that would probably be gone from the states. The only National Guard elements from either state that could be available was the 159th Tactical Fighter Group out of New Orleans, which had the Gulf Coast air defense mission. At that point Brig Gen McIlhenny told the senators that the Navy, Marines and Coast Guard were working together on plans, but to make the plan effective they needed to bring in the Army and Air Force, in particular the Adjutant Generals of both states. Some political arm-twisting need to be applied through political channels to get the Adjutant Generals together to talk about joint planning.

Some other additions were rather serendipitous. While driving across the St. Claude Avenue bridge in New Orleans, one of the planners for the meeting saw a sign for the Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District. When he got to Jackson Barracks to speak with his Louisiana National Guard counterpart, he asked and learned that Corps had (and still has a large operation in New Orleans). After the September offsite, "Maybe we need to talk to them too", became the unofficial motto of the planners.
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