The Island - P&S: Louisiana, Mississippi, Beaumont/Port Arthur, TX

[vl100butch]

Command Decisions
and a couple of offers that couldn't be refused
June, 1984

After the inauguration, the planners from the various locations got together and came up with some recommendations for the national leadership.

The Columbia and Nebraska folks were totally surprised to learn how much refining capability still existed in Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and Alabama. Close to three million barrels a day capacity fed by wells on and offshore. There was no fuel rationing within Gulf States Command. Salt and sugar, no problem they could provide by the ton.

The one shortage looked to be spices for the various hot sauces produced in Louisiana. The pepper crops were grown in southern Mexico or Central America. As trade routes were reopened, the hot sauce producers figured that they could reestablish contact with their growers.

The one thing General Barrow was adamant about was the reestablishment of a Marine Corps Recruit Depot. Camp Villere on the north shore of Lake Ponchatrain was made available by the Louisiana National Guard. He also wanted a nationwide recall of all Naval Science 3 and 4 level cadets on a Marine Corps commissioning track. MCRD Villere would be ready to receive recruits no later than 1 August 1984.

Command decisions announced as of 5 June 1984:

Gulf States Command area of operations will be from Texas to Florida. Western Tennessesee and Kentucky are added as well.

United States Great Plains Command established. Initially this unified command would include Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma.

First Priority-establishing rail, highway, and water lines of communication between Gulf States Command and Great Plains Command.

As a subset of the First Priority-get rail and water lines of communication established with Illinois and into Indiana and Ohio.

TO BE CONTINUED
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[Brky2020]

It would be interesting to see if there was a Northeastern Command, a South Atlantic/Southeast Command, a Western Command, etc.

Sounds like you're thinking about connecting Ohio and Indiana through the lines in Western Kentucky and Western Tennessee. If you've seen that famous map with all the fallout patterns, almost all of Kentucky is in red (not that the map is the final authority). So you'd be potentially shipping goods through a state with hellacious amounts of fallout.

 

[vl100butch]

It would be interesting to see if there was a Northeastern Command, a South Atlantic/Southeast Command, a Western Command, etc.

Sounds like you're thinking about connecting Ohio and Indiana through the lines in Western Kentucky and Western Tennessee. If you've seen that famous map with all the fallout patterns, almost all of Kentucky is in red (not that the map is the final authority). So you'd be potentially shipping goods through a state with hellacious amounts of fallout.

I'm thinking the western tip of Kentucky that borders with Illinois...Cairo was not hit in the exchange...take a good look at the railway maps, the line from Cairo to Jackson, TN is intact....Jackson took a hit, get that fixed and you have a rail line from Illinois clear down to New Orleans.....

Let me do some research on fallout decay rates.....

 

[Brky2020]

If things aren't too bad in Kentucky, and the state government has stayed intact (be it in Frankfort, or Lexington, or elsewhere), you could potentially have the coal mines in eastern Kentucky to help provide some kind of fuel...

 

[vl100butch]

If things aren't too bad in Kentucky, and the state government has stayed intact (be it in Frankfort, or Lexington, or elsewhere), you could potentially have the coal mines in eastern Kentucky to help provide some kind of fuel...

Central Kentucky got hammered....what do you think about east of Bluegrass Army Depot?

Personally, the scenario outlined by USNvet is what I feel is realistic....for those few Soviet boats that got anywhere the continental US.....one or two missiles then sunk.....

 

[Brky2020]

Central Kentucky got hammered....what do you think about east of Bluegrass Army Depot?

Personally, the scenario outlined by USNvet is what I feel is realistic....for those few Soviet boats that got anywhere the continental US.....one or two missiles then sunk.....

I assume you're talking about the depot outside of Richmond...not even those so-called official FEMA strike maps floating around the web had the Russians nuking anything in Eastern Kentucky...the only possible way I think that area gets strikes is if the Soviets decided to throw everything and the kitchen sink at CONUS and go after all of the natural resources....

 

[vl100butch]

A few notes and opinions before I start up again:

My take on FEMA is that they would have about the same reputation they did in the Gulf States and Great Plains area as they did in New Orleans OTL after Hurricane Katrina--Rome is going to be totally miffed that New Orleans has supplanted them. Not sure what the FEMA regional headquarters is for Nebraska, but I see the same thing happening there.

New Orleans is home to a number of Federal Government functions outside of the Department of Defense. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals is located there as well as a suboffice of the Federal Reserve. Word will get to them and to what extent they will participate in preparedness planning is yet to be determined.

There are railroads everywhere, and outside of the major target areas, they're intact....getting the connection from New Orleans into the Brazos Valley and into Illinois is going to be easier than you think...

The Mississippi/Missouri/Ohio Rivers--you won't be able to move a 50 barge tow totally up or down river, but by setting up pumping stations at the major obstacles, you can move fuel by barge....you can do the same thing with other stuff with a bunch of transloading....

There are several hundred boats available in Louisiana that would be suitable for establishing river patrols and moving small cargoes up and down the river. It would be fairly easy to build some small barges that could transport around 50,000 gallons of diesel....probably draw about 3 feet fully loaded...

AND I haven't gone into the issue of the surviving rotary wing assets from Ft Rucker and the Petroleum Helicopters Inc fleet....add in the survivors from Pensacola....there is LOT of stuff that made it through...

As far as the Klan and their breathern are concerned, the Marines are in charge and they aren't going to take any crap....David Duke is picking cotton at Angola...learning all about what it was like in the ante-bellum South...I have an idea for a scene where the Klan tries something and they end up being paraded through town in their robes...

 

[Dan]

...I have an idea for a scene where the Klan tries something and they end up being paraded through town in their robes...

Led in chains behins a deuce and a half desperately hoping what is being thrown at them is only mud?

 

[USN vet]

Hoping for more soon.

 

[vl100butch]

Author's note: a two hour operation ended up becoming six...two days in the hospital ended up as six...just ducky

Bugout bags in New Orleans
February 1984

New Orleans is a small town in that word of something unusual will get around rather quickly. When the JROTC instructors at Jesuit High School told their cadets to prepare a bugout bag to bring to school, word spread around the families of the students. Considering the makeup of the student body, local, state, and federal agencies in the New Orleans area started to put the pieces together on what was happening at the Naval Support Activity and Jackson Barracks.

The first of the outside agencies to contact the Hurricane Preparedness Group was the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. Since the head administrator was a retired Army officer, the judges directed him to make contact and get some background on exactly why some of their grandsons were being prepared for an emergency evacuation of New Orleans.
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[Archangel]

Author's note: a two hour operation ended up becoming six...two days in the hospital ended up as six...just ducky

Wish you a quick recovery from your latest surgery.

 

[vl100butch]

Getting Back to Work
June, 1984
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WWL Radio Excerpts from the first week of June, 1984.

In an announcement from the Mississippi Valley Divsion in Vicksburg, Lieutenant General Reid said that a task force would be heading upriver to open up the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio Rivers. People living upriver from Tunica, Mississippi should not be surprised if you start to see Navy riverine patrol boats performing reconnisance work.

"We know we won't be able to get the rivers open enough for a 50 barge tow, but we should be able to get critical supplies of fuel and food upriver"

In news from Beaumont, the Maritime Administration Reserve fleet is looking for anyone with experience working with steam powerplants. There are over 25 Victory ships in the Reserve Fleet there, and all can be put back into service with 60-90 days of work.

In railroad news, reconnisance work is underway to get a railroad working from Beaumont into the Brazos Valley and points north. Helicopters from Petroleum Helicopters, Inc. will be going along all railroad routes in this area to see if an undamaged connection exists. Army helicopters out of Tupelo will be doing the same thing on the Illinois Central lines out of Mississippi to extend communication northwards into Tenennessee, Kentucky, and Illinois as soon as possible.

Marine Forces Reserve Headquarters in New Orleans has put out a call for all third and fourth year Navy ROTC cadets on a Marine Corps commissioning track. Once enough cadets are assembled, a Basic School class will start at Camp Villere, Louisiana. Marine Corps Basic Training has already been announced for August at Camp Villere.

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[Archangel]

Keep it up, vl100butch!