The New Crusades – Chapter 1

Judaism’s High Holy Days start with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and con-
clude 10 days later with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, and the religion’s holiest
day.

On September 15, 2006, in the venue of a scholarly dissertation on Faith and Reason in
Bavaria, the ecumenically sensitive Pope Benedict XVI quoted Byzantine emperor Ma-
nuel II as saying to a Persian cleric in 1391, Show me just what Mohammed brought
that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his com-
mand to spread by the sword the faith he preached.

It was, as some later observed, the defining moment when The New Crusades began. A
traditional numbering scheme for the crusades gives us nine during the 11th to 13th
centuries, as well as other smaller crusades that are mostly contemporaneous and un-
numbered. There were frequent “minor” crusades throughout this period, not only in
Palestine, but also in the Iberian Peninsula and central Europe, against not only Mus-
lims, but also Christian heretics and personal enemies of the Papacy or other powerful
monarchs. Such “crusades” continued into the 16th century, until the Renaissance and
Reformation when the political and religious climate of Europe was significantly different
than that of the Middle Ages.

In the world of Islam, it was called The Final Jihad. It was difference than all of the pre-
vious Crusades, if was fought on the enemy’s soil, not in Muslim lands. Around the time
of the Pope’s statement, the news was focused on America’s Hiroshima. That talk
wasn’t new, read this:

August 9, 2005

The Fuses Are Lit: America’s Hiroshima!

Don Boys, Ph.D.

Hitler ordered his general, Dietrich von Choltitz, to blow up and burn Paris since the city
was about to fall to Allied forces that were advancing rapidly in the suburbs. However,
as the German general wrestled with his conscience, Hitler screamed into the general’s
abandoned phone, “Is Paris burning? Is Paris burning?” No, Paris did not burn.

Another maniac is calling from a cave in Afghanistan, “Is America burning? Is America
burning?” That man is Osama bin Laden, a Muslim maniac with a mission. Muslim ter-
rorists have plans to destroy America. The humiliated Russians drove their tanks out of
Afghanistan in 1989, and within two years, the Soviet Empire was history! That historic
success in humiliating the Soviet Empire encouraged Muslim terrorists to destroy Amer-
ica, the “Great Satan”.

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Muslim terrorists have deployed nuclear weapons into the US and are ready to explode
them any day, some say within 30 days! As many as ten major US cities could be in
rubble and flames any day with a Muslim terrorist shouting into a cell phone: “Yes,
America is burning. America is burning.”

In recent weeks Washington has been abuzz about Osama bin Laden’s “American Hi-
roshima,” a plan whereby at least seven nuclear bombs were carried across the Mexi-
can-US border by Central American street-gang members. Those “suitcase” bombs are
now hidden in the US and when detonated will kill at least four million Americans and
millions more will die of radiation exposure. Uncle bin wants two million of those deaths
to be US children! Ah, yes, a peaceful religion.

As reported by Joseph Farah in the intelligence report G2 Bulletin, “top US government

officials are contemplating what they consider to be an inevitable and much bigger as-
sault on America – one likely to kill millions, destroy the economy and fundamentally al-
ter the course of history.” This plan was in the works years before the September 11 at-
tack!

Will the terrorists explode many bombs simultaneously in various major cities or maybe
hit three or four cities, then threaten to explode other bombs unless the American gov-
ernment surrenders to Islam and accepts Islamic rule? If Americans see a major city in
rubble with thousands of charred bodies lying in the streets, would there be desires for
surrender or revenge? I suggest that every Muslim in America would have a target on
his back and some Americans would consider any Middle Eastern person as fair game
to be taken out.

I suggest that US politicians get serious about terror today and be honest about what is
ahead of us. They should be telling us to prepare for disaster: food, water, bomb shel-
ters, escape routes, etc. Peaceful Muslims must also get serious today, and report
known terrorists in their circles, vigorously condemn the killers, and wave the American
flag as they sing, “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy.” But frankly, it is too late to close the
barn door since the horses are galloping down the road. We have been soft rather than
sensible; weak rather than wise; mild rather than militant; and relaxed rather than reso-
lute. When the bombs explode, all bets are off. A reign of terror may ensue, and the
America we know will be gone forever.

Talk show hosts have asked me if my message causes people to panic, and I always
reply that I am trying to make people be awake and aware without being alarmed. How-
ever, at this time in the crisis, maybe it is time to be alarmed! No, not irresponsible, out
of control panic. Just the everyday kind of alarm that makes your blood run hot, your
adrenaline flow, your hands sweat profusely and your mouth as dry as an oil well I in-
vested in.

In a few days or weeks, everyone who has not prepared for disaster will panic. I would
like for you to realize that you may have already waited too long to properly prepare,
and if you wait much longer, it will be too late to buy gold, guns, and groceries. Every-

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one will rush for the doors at the same time, and you and your family will be crushed.
The name of the game will be survival, only survival. Forget the job since it will be gone.
Your Social Security or pension check? Don’t count on it. Protection from local authori-
ties? Probably not. You will be on your own.

If you awaken tomorrow morning and discover that five or six major US cities have been
bombed and millions are dead with millions more exposed to radiation, you will under-
stand that you have witnessed the demise of a once-great nation. Those with an under-
standing of history will also realize that we are for sure in a Hundred Years’ War be-
tween Muslims and the rest of the world. Muslims have known this for decades.

If US officials are wrong and there is no danger from terrorists and Islam is a peaceful
religion hijacked by a few terrorists then breathe a sigh of relief, thank God for His mer-
cy and continue with your life. However, if you are wrong (and US officials are right),
you and your family will be cold, hungry, and dependent on others to provide for your
basic needs. Is it wise to take such an unnecessary risk?

Some people do not want to recognize the problem because they are dreamers, others
are delusional, and still others are deniers! The dreamer does not want his life to be to-
tally upset (who does?), so he blithely walks through life without looking at reality.
Dreamers are so much happier in their dream world. After all, in dreamland they don’t
have any problems, don’t have to make difficult decisions, and are always feel warm
and fuzzy. There is no confrontation, conflict, or combat. So why wake up? I would like
this message to be a fire bell in the night to awaken them from their slumber.

The delusional cannot be helped. They will not even consider the possibility that the
world is going to undergo an incredible change very soon. They think by not wanting
something to happen, it will not happen. They are wrong. Furthermore, hand wringing
won’t do any good either!

Then there are the deniers. These people have made up their minds that God would
never permit America to go down. We are so special, so strong, and so supreme. So
stupid.

So I have some practical suggestions for the approaching disaster. The power may be
off for long periods of time so you may not have lights, heat, or refrigeration. Water may
not be pumped into your home, and phones may not work, even cell phones since the
towers may be destroyed. Elevators may not work; same with trains, subways, and traf-
fic lights. Banks will fold as will insurance companies and major corporations. Don’t
count on your job being there or your investments, even guaranteed investments. When
governments teeter on the edge of collapse, there are no guarantees. Well, you get the
idea that you won’t have a nice day!

While no one on the face of the earth can say for sure how bad it is going to be, it will be
bad, and Proverbs tells us that the prudent man looks ahead, sees the danger, and
plans for it. The fool goes on and must suffer for his folly. So pray and hope for the best

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and prepare for the worst. After all, you don’t have to believe the worst is going to hap-
pen to prepare for it! Your fire insurance policy is an example of that. You don’t really
expect a fire but you have insurance, don’t you?

I don’t want to be melodramatic but knowing that politicians have a tendency to over-
react I see ominous days ahead. If our cities are in flames, jobs are gone, people are
hungry, hospitals are full, funeral homes are open 24 hours, banks are closed, major
corporations are bankrupt, government checks are no longer being mailed, citizens are
angry, hungry, and scared then we can expect officials to continue to do stupid things,
only quicker. Martial law may be the norm in disaster areas. We have never heard the
chilling march of highly polished jackboots on deserted and darken streets; however,
the Constitution may be put in a velvet box for the duration, and America may only be a
goose-step away from goon squads.

You are not responsible for what government does but you are responsible for what you
do. Moreover, you have control over your money. Make decisions today based upon
what officials tell us will happen tomorrow. When cities are burning everyone will try to
cash in his chips, and you will have to stand in line, a very long line. When everyone
wants out of the market at the same time, most people are crushed. That is what hap-
pens when a crowd of people runs for the exit at the same time. Only the first few usual-
ly make it without being crushed in the stampede, and that stampede will be worldwide.
If the US market plummets with the destruction of our major cities then the tsunami will
swamp the markets of the world. That means worldwide depression.

Young stockbrokers who have never worked at any other job tell you that the market is
not vulnerable as it was in the early 1930s. “We now have government controls in place.
Don’t worry. Keep investing. The old rule has been repealed: what goes up does not
have to come down. Just make out your check to the XYZ Investing Co. and we’ll take
care of you.” The average investment counsel is like a small boy standing waist deep in
gasoline flicking a cigarette lighter. He does not know how volatile the world markets are
and how they respond to US markets.

A good rule to follow concerning getting out of the stock market is that it is better to be a
year early than a day late. Don’t be greedy. Take your profits and run. Pay off your
house and car and purchase “things” that will be useful such as tools, guns, ammuni-
tion, food, etc. Think of what you might need if society closes down. You should pur-
chase non-electric tools and make sure they are quality goods since they may have to
last.

You should start putting aside small bills as well as quarters for the crash. While no one
knows how long the money will be good, all societies must have a medium of exchange.
US money will probably be good but do not count on ATMs, banks, or credit cards.

Look for other ways to do things. Be innovative and inventive. Get rid of unimportant
and nonessentials from your life. Have a massive yard sale and sell things you have not
used in years. Keep in mind those things that could be used for barter, but non-

4
essentials will not have much demand. Now is the time to sell your baseball cards,
beanie babies, cabbage patch dolls, and other collectibles.

The waters may be calm today but that does not mean there are no crocodiles in the
water! Get out of the water now and prepare for a difficult tomorrow! The fuse is burning
and the clock is ticking!

If America’s cities are destroyed by Muslim terrorists, then it could be very ugly for a few
months (or years) and you should prepare for the worst. Your children should be aware
of the possibilities but get them ready without scaring them to death! After all, there is
no doubt that their lives will change forever. Don’t let this hit them in the face tomorrow
morning. Carefully get them ready. Let them know that this disaster is no surprise to
God. God did not look down recently and say, “Oops.” He has watched this coming on
for many years and is permitting man to put himself in a “fine mess.”

Teach the children that they will have to assume more responsibilities around the
house. (You should have been training them from earliest days.) Discuss some of the
things they can do to help in surviving and thriving after such an attack on the American
“Empire.” Let them know that children all over the world will have to grow up a little
quicker than in the past. They should learn to take care of their own rooms, clean out
the garage so you can store some food there; learn to care for the garden, to butcher
rabbits, turkeys and clean fish. Let them know that they are an important part of the
family unit. (Again, I hope they already know that.)

Teach them to respect, understand, and care for guns. They should know how to hunt
and clean game before they need to do so for survival. Children are children, so plan for
long nights without much to do. Purchase books, games, puzzles, and videos (although
televisions and VCRs may not work in some areas, so wean them away from television
now). Get involved in some of their games and read to the very young.

Purchase school materials for them while they are still available. The public school sys-
tem and many Christian schools will probably fold in some disaster areas. Prepare for
such possibilities, and be sure to purchase Teacher’s Editions or answer keys.

When hard times come, do not wear gold jewelry or expensive clothes or drive large
cars. Such people will be targets in an age of envy (generated by non-thinking liberals
for fifty years). Even decent people will be jealous of your apparent “good fortune.”
Translation: you prepared and they did not!

Go to discount stores today, yes today, and purchase toilet paper, sugar, salt, pepper,
ammunition, seeds, packaged and canned food, various spices, nails/screws, small
tools, tape, knives and batteries. Then you should buy a little silver and a little gold. A
few boxes of No-Rad (potassium iodide anti-radiation tablets) will be more valuable than
gold if you are in a contaminated area. Get a supply today.

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Following are some items that should be in your home: Extra pair of eye glasses or con-
tact lenses, needles and thread, plastic sheeting, medicine dropper, matches, flashlight
and batteries, aluminum foil, disposable baby bottle liners, toilet paper, sanitary napkins,
insect repellent, toothpaste and toothbrushes, shampoo, candles, lamp oil, battery op-
erated smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detectors. You also need paper cups, plates,
and plastic utensils, baby needs, diapers (cloth), household bleach, Lysol, large and
small plastic trash bags, deodorant, good shovel, garden rake, good hoe, hatchet, hack
saw and extra blades, ammunition (can be used for bartering as well as protection), dish
washing soap, bath soap, laundry soap, contraceptives, tools for repairs, kits to repair
flat tires on various vehicles (also an air pump), assorted nails and screws, solder, lead,
oil for autos and tractors, portable AM-FM radio, flashlights with plenty of batteries, duct
tape, mouse traps, lime, shoe laces, rubber gloves, WD-40 or similar product, extra set
of tires and sparkplugs, and computer paper and ink (in event we have power).

You may not have drinking water for a while so plan to treat your water from the roof or
from a lake or pond. You can boil water for ten minutes and while it will kill the bugs, it
will not help the taste much. However, you can add Kool Aid, Tang, or other mix to im-
prove the taste. It will also help the taste if you pour the water (after it has cooled) back
and forth from different containers.

You could always use household bleach to treat your water if the bleach contains a
5.25% solution of the chlorine compound sodium hypochlorite. It may warn, “Not for
personal use,” but that can be disregarded (according to FEMA) if sodium hypochlorite
is the only active ingredient. Purchase the brand that has no additives such as per-
fumes, soaps, etc. It takes 8 drops of bleach per gallon of clear water; 16 drops per gal-
lon of cloudy water; ½ teaspoon per 5 gallons of clear water and I teaspoon per 5 gal-
lons of cloudy water to make water drinkable.

After adding the bleach to water, thoroughly mix by stirring then let stand for at least 30
minutes. Remember that iodine and bleach do not purify water but do make it safer by
neutralizing harmful bacteria.

You can collect water at your downspout, your swimming pool, waterbed, back of com-
mode, lake, ditch, river, etc. You can even drag towels across the grass early in the
morning and collect enough water to keep you alive!

You can purchase products that will treat drinkable water and keep it drinkable for about
5 years without using any other chemicals. It is tasteless and can be purchased through
various outlets. Don’t use milk jugs to store water since they will not withstand long time
storage; however, plastic soda bottles can be safely used after a thorough cleaning with
very hot water. Metal cans are not the best storage containers for water since the metal
affects the taste. They may also rust.

Politicians always end a speech by saying, “God bless America,” but God has blessed
America but America has not blessed God by reacting in a proper fashion. Hence, the

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coming judgment brought to you by the followers of that “peaceful religion” of Islam. Get
prepared as the fuse burns.

Is it possible for us to repent and return to greatness, or must we ride the toboggan slide
to the garbage heap of history? We will soon know the answer to that question.

Copyright 2005, Don Boys, Ph.D.

(Dr. Don Boys is a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives, author of
13 books, frequent guest on television and radio talk shows, and wrote columns for USA
Today for 8 years His book, ISLAM: America’s Trojan Horse! was published last year.)

Did you notice the date on that piece? August 9, 2005, it most certainly isn’t if, but only
when. The new approach will be to use people already in the places they’re going to at-
tack with names like Smith and Jones, or maybe Martinez. On July 26, 2005, Barbara J.
Stock wrote:

Reports are slowly filtering out about a plan by Islamics to detonate several nuclear
bombs around the continental United States. Osama bin Laden has lovingly named this
attack “America’s Hiroshima.” His logic for giving his plan this name is that the United
States is the only world power to use an atomic weapon against an enemy and based
on that, it is legal and within Islamic law for him to use such weapons against the Amer-
ican people.

According to reports obtained from captured al Qaeda agents and documents they were
carrying, several nuclear devices may have been brought across the Mexican border
with the help of the MS-13 gang and are already in position for use. All that is needed is
the word from al Qaeda to detonate them. The plan is to kill at least four million Ameri-
cans in an instant. Osama has insisted that the bombs be placed in such a manner that
at least two million of the dead are children. The “Day of Islam,” bin Laden believes, will
be the day America surrenders to Islam.

The number of weapons has been in dispute. The Saudis claim that there may be as
many as 70 bombs within the American border and the Russians say 40 bombs is more
likely, and still others say there are as few as seven. What does not seem to be in ques-
tion is that the bombs are here and the clock is ticking.

The smaller number is more feasible for many reasons. Nuclear bombs are not simple
grenades, and they need constant and diligent maintenance. Each bomb is carefully
cared for much like a mother hen tends to her eggs. It would be difficult for Islamic ter-
rorists to keep 70 nuclear bombs functioning properly.

Then there is the secrecy matter to consider. Seventy bombs would need 70 groups of
men to service the bombs and keep them in good repair. That is a lot of people to keep
such a secret. Someone would spend an hour too long in a bar and let this secret slip

7
out. In these times, someone bragging that he has a nuclear bomb in his basement
would be noticed.

Last but not least is the fact that seven nuclear bombs might not be missed for some
time, especially in the former Soviet Union. But 70 nuclear bombs vanishing would most
certainly be noticed, even in the chaos of a corrupt Russia. It should also be noted that
there are American teams in Russia assisting them to dismantle and maintain the Rus-
sian nuclear arsenal. Our men there would be able to report instantly if any were miss-
ing. Add to that the sheer size of a single, multiple war-head nuclear bomb and it be-
comes obvious that it is unlikely that bin Laden has been able to obtain one of them.
Moving such a thing about without being seen would be nearly impossible.

This leaves the Russian “suitcase nukes” and some of those do seem to be missing.
American authorities have known about these small nuclear bombs for some time. Alt-
hough the Russian government tried to deny them, pictures have surfaced and the Rus-
sians could no longer claim that these portable bombs were just a dream that never
came to fruition. We now know that several of these small, tactical, nuclear bombs are
missing and these handy, easy-to-carry bombs are ideal for bin Laden’s plans. Greedy
and suddenly out-of-work Russian nuclear scientists were probably easy prey for the
money bin Laden may have waved in front of them.

The possible target cities listed are: New York City, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Chicago,
Miami, Washington DC, and Boston. Surely, more than four million people would die if
all seven of these large cities were struck simultaneously. This leads one to wonder if
perhaps bin Laden plans on using only four bombs in the first wave.

Would bin Laden then demand that the United States surrender to Islam? Would he use
the threat of the three remaining bombs to try and force the American people to accept
Islam and abandon the Constitution? That is the ultimate goal of Islam as stated by the
Council on American/Islamic Relations. Would bin Laden wait a day or two and deto-
nate the remaining bombs just for the pure joy of killing? Only he knows.

It is said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. The last na-
tion that thought it had gained the upper hand against the United States was Japan. Af-
ter a very successful attack which destroyed much of America’s naval fleet, a sober
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto is said to have related to his crew that all Japan had suc-
ceeded in doing was awakening a sleeping giant and filling it with a terrible resolve.
Yamamoto knew Americans and he understood the American mindset because he had
lived and gone to school in the United States. In his heart, he knew that once Americans
were angered and determined, Japan would lose the war it had started. Yamamoto was
right.

It seems that Islam has not learned from history. Recently, the term “Muslim Nation” has
been used on Islamic sites and in Islamic newspapers. Islam has no country. Islamics
believe the world is their country and because young Muslims have been taught the en-
tire world is the “Muslim Nation,” many have no loyalty to any true country.

8
Would a nuclear attack on America cause confusion, panic, and chaos? Of course, it
would. But as every television screen played the images of a great city like Chicago ly-
ing in ruins and Americans saw the charred bodies of fellow Americans lying in the
streets, the rage would be unlike anything the world has ever witnessed. Muslims in
America would be overwhelmed in a heartbeat. American rage would reach across the
world to the farthest corner and there is no one that would dare to try and stop us. Sane
people would be too wise to interfere and truth be known, the world would wish America
success because they know they would be next if we fail.

Islamic attacks around the world are on the rise and Islam feels bold and untouchable.
Muslims who truly denounce this activity have little time left to stop their warlike fellow-
Muslims. Trying to denounce radical Islam after a nuclear attack would be far too late.
The time is now. It is Islam’s responsibility to rise up and stop the terrorists in its midst
and stop the insanity.

If the killing continues, the civilized world will rise up with America and that will be the
end of the Islamic dream of world domination. It could well be the end of Islam.

I believe that Muslims may curse the name of bin Laden. It may well be the last thing
many Muslims ever do. Islamics are constantly issuing warnings and threats to the
world. They speak of blood running in the streets. That blood may well be their own. I
hope that Islamics will listen to this one warning from an average American: “Muslims
must stop radical Islam now because time is short and the nuclear fuse has been lit.
Once the bomb goes off it will be too late.”

Both of those pieces were written over a year ago and it hasn’t happened, yet. Want to
know more? This is a fairly conservative website and the writers see the handwriting on
the wall, chronwatch dot com.

The Medieval Crusades were fought using the weapons of the times: swords, knives,
spears, bows and arrows. While folks, The Times They Are a Changing. These days we
have dumb bombs, smart bombs, missiles, airplanes, ships the size of 3½ football fields
and nuclear weapons. All nuclear weapons consist of two components: conventional
explosives and radioactive material. However, there are two distinct classes of nuclear
weapons, dirty bombs and true nuclear bombs.

The former mix radioactive material in with the explosives and contaminate a small ar-
ea. The latter use explosives to create a nuclear explosion, fission. If the necessary ex-
tra ingredients are built into the nuclear bomb, the fission causes fusion and you have a
hydrogen bomb. The fusion creates extra neutrons and enhances the fission, producing
a fission-fusion-fission bomb. In all likelihood if bombs are detonated on American soil,
they will be ground bursts and produce large amounts of fallout.

I am not a nuclear scientist and only know what I read, but then, I read a lot. Last night I
watched Supervolcano for the umpteenth time. The head of Homeland Insecurity didn’t

9
want to alarm the public and rather than giving the American people the truth; he did
what was politically expedient and basically forced the head of the Yellowstone Volcano
Observatory into supporting his position. He told the public to be prepared, just in case,
with 3 days of food and water. Apparently he forgot about Katrina.

Most Americans wouldn’t be affected by 7 nuclear weapons being exploded around the
US, not directly. Indirectly, we’re screwed. The government would like go into crisis
mode and people like me wouldn’t get their disability payments. I paid in more than 2½
times the amount required to qualify for the payments and no, I don’t have a guilty con-
science taking the money.

It would be just my luck that while we’re waiting for the settlement check to clear the
bank so we can finish off our preparations, ‘they’ will attack, ergo, the glass is half emp-
ty. I’d prefer to think the glass is half full and the attack will only come after we’ve com-
pleted what preparations we’re going to make. If you’ve read my stories, you know that
I’m against gun laws and only consider them ‘a challenge’. Can’t say that I’ve ever bro-
ken any even though I reside in the People’s Republic of Kalifornia. A person never
knows who might be reading the stories.

Like most people, if it comes to that, I’ll have to shelter in place. If I had unlimited mon-
ey, I’d do several things: move back to the US, buy a shelter from USS plus a second to
stock with food. I’d buy a diesel powered pickup and a diesel fueled generator for the
shelter. I’d also put in a large tank and stock it with B-100, pure biodiesel, if I had unlim-
ited money. Like many Americans, we don’t have unlimited sources of funds. They say
that gas may hit $2 a gallon, but as of 9/1/06, it’s about $3 a gallon in Kalifornia.

They may be right, gas may hit $2 a gallon, in places like Iowa, but it will never happen
here. And, all of the above assumes we make it through Ramadan. Eating, drinking,
smoking and sexual intercourse are not allowed between dawn, and sunset. During
Ramadan, Muslims are also expected to put more effort into following the teachings of
Islam by refraining from violence, anger, envy, greed, lust, angry and sarcastic retorts,
and gossip. People are meant to try to get along with each other better than they nor-
mally might. All obscene and irreligious sights and sounds are to be avoided. Purity of
both thought and action is important. The fast is an exacting act of deep personal wor-
ship in which Muslims seek a raised level of closeness to God. The act of fasting is said
to redirect the heart away from worldly activities, its purpose being to cleanse the inner
soul and free it from harm.

Muhammad gave various injunctions to his forces during his time and adopted attitudes
toward the conduct of war which can be summarized as:

● No killing of innocents (Non-combatants i.e. Women, children, monks)

● No wanton destruction of livestock, animals, orchards, trees and wells.

Islam prohibits surprise attacks and invasions. The Qur’an states, If thou fearest treach-
ery from any group, throw back (their covenant) to them, (so as to be) on equal terms:

10
for Allah loveth not the treacherous. This verse is interpreted to mean that Muslims must
make a proper declaration of war prior to taking military action against transgressing
enemies. This rule is not binding if the adversary has already started the war. “‘No pris-
oner should be put to the sword is a very clear and unequivocal instruction given by the
Prophet...’ The Prophet has prohibited the killing of anyone who is tied or is in captivity.’”

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 The New Crusades – Chapter 2

The Cover Story from Time said:

The first message was routine enough: A “Prepare to Deploy” order sent through naval
communications channels to a submarine, an Aegis-class cruiser, two minesweepers
and two mine hunters. The orders didn’t actually command the ships out of port; they
just said to be ready to move by Oct. 1. But inside the Navy those messages generated
more buzz than usual last week when a second request, from the Chief of Naval Opera-
tions (CNO), asked for fresh eyes on long-standing US plans to blockade two Iranian oil
ports on the Persian Gulf. The CNO had asked for a rundown on how a blockade of
those strategic targets might work. When he didn’t like the analysis he received, he or-
dered his troops to work the lash up once again.

What’s going on? The two orders offered tantalizing clues. There are only a few places
in the world where minesweepers top the list of US naval requirements. And every sail-
or, petroleum engineer and hedge-fund manager knows the name of the most im-
portant: the Strait of Hormuz, the 20-mile-wide bottleneck in the Persian Gulf through
which roughly 40% of the world’s oil needs to pass each day. Coupled with the CNO’s
request for a blockade review, a deployment of minesweepers to the west coast of Iran
would seem to suggest that a much discussed – but until now largely theoretical –
prospect has become real: that the US may be preparing for war with Iran.

No one knows whether – let alone when – a military confrontation with Tehran will come
to pass. The fact that admirals are reviewing plans for blockades is hardly proof of their
intentions. The US military routinely makes plans for scores of scenarios, the vast ma-
jority of which will never be put into practice. “Planners always plan,” says a Pentagon
official. Asked about the orders, a second official said only that the Navy is stepping up
its “listening and learning” in the Persian Gulf but nothing more – a prudent step, he
added, after Iran tested surface-to-ship missiles there in August during a two-week mili-
tary exercise. And yet from the State Department to the White House to the highest
reaches of the military command, there is a growing sense that a showdown with Iran –
over its suspected quest for nuclear weapons, its threats against Israel and its bid for
dominance of the world’s richest oil region – may be impossible to avoid. The chief of
the US Central Command (Centcom), General John Abizaid, has called a commanders
conference for later this month in the Persian Gulf – sessions he holds at least quarterly
– and Iran is on the agenda.

On its face, of course, the notion of a war with Iran seems absurd. By any rational
measure, the last thing the US can afford is another war. Two unfinished wars – one on
Iran’s eastern border, the other on its western flank – are daily depleting America’s
treasury and overworked armed forces. Most of Washington’s allies in those adventures
have made it clear they will not join another gamble overseas. What’s more, the Bush
team, led by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, has done more diplomatic spade-
work on Iran than on any other project in its 5½ years in office. For more than 18
months, Rice has kept the Administration’s hardline faction at bay while leading a coali-

12
tion that includes four other members of the UN Security Council and is trying to force
Tehran to halt its suspicious nuclear ambitions. Even Iran’s former President, Moham-
med Khatami, was in Washington this month calling for a “dialogue” between the two
nations.

But superpowers don’t always get to choose their enemies or the timing of their confron-
tations. The fact that all sides would risk losing so much in armed conflict doesn’t mean
they won’t stumble into one anyway. And for all the good arguments against any war
now, much less this one, there are just as many indications that a genuine, eyeball-to-
eyeball crisis between the US and Iran may be looming, and sooner than many realize.
“At the moment,” says Ali Ansari, a top Iran authority at London’s Chatham House, a
foreign-policy think tank, “we are headed for conflict.”

So what would it look like? Interviews with dozens of experts and government officials in
Washington, Tehran and elsewhere in the Middle East paint a sobering picture: military
action against Iran’s nuclear facilities would have a decent chance of succeeding, but at
a staggering cost. And therein lays the excruciating calculus facing the US and its allies:
Is the cost of confronting Iran greater than the dangers of living with a nuclear Iran? And
can anything short of war persuade Tehran’s fundamentalist regime to give up its dan-
gerous game?

Road To War

The crisis with Iran has been years in the making. Over the past decade, Iran has ac-
quired many of the pieces, parts and plants needed to make a nuclear device. Although
Iranian officials insist that Iran’s ambitions are limited to nuclear energy, the regime has
asserted its right to develop nuclear power and enrich uranium that could be used in
bombs as an end in itself – a symbol of sovereign pride, not to mention a useful prop for
politicking. Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has crisscrossed the country in re-
cent months making Iran’s right to a nuclear program a national cause and trying to so-
lidify his base of hardline support in the Revolutionary Guards. The nuclear program is
popular with average Iranians and the elites as well. “Iranian leaders have this sense of
past glory, this belief that Iran should play a lofty role in the world,” says Nasser Hadian,
professor of political science at Tehran University.

But the nuclear program isn’t Washington’s only worry about Iran. While stoking nation-
alism at home, Tehran has dramatically consolidated its reach in the region. Since the
1979 Islamic revolution, Iran has sponsored terrorist groups in a handful of countries,
but its backing of Hezbollah, the militant group that took Lebanon to war with Israel this
summer, seems to be changing the Middle East balance of power. There is circumstan-
tial evidence that Iran ordered Hezbollah to provoke this summer’s war, in part to
demonstrate that Tehran can stir up big trouble if pushed to the brink. The precise ex-
tent of coordination between Hezbollah and Tehran is unknown. But no longer in dis-
pute after the standoff in July is Iran’s ability to project power right up to the borders of
Israel. It is no coincidence that the talk in Washington about what to do with Iran be-

13
come more focused after Hezbollah fought the Israeli army to a virtual standstill this
summer.

And yet the West has been unable to compel Iran to comply with its demands. Despite
all the work Rice has put into her coalition, diplomatic efforts are moving too slowly,
some believe, to stop the Iranians before they acquire the makings of a nuclear device.
And Iran has played its hand shrewdly so far. Tehran took weeks to reply to a formal
proposal from the UN Security Council calling on a halt to uranium enrichment. When it
did, its official response was a mosaic of half-steps, conditions and boilerplate that sug-
gested Tehran has little intention of backing down. “The Iranians,” says a Western dip-
lomat in Washington, “are very able negotiators.” That doesn’t make war inevitable.

But at some point the US and its allies may have to confront the ultimate choice. The
Bush Administration has said it won’t tolerate Iran having a nuclear weapon. Once it
does, the regime will have the capacity to carry out Ahmadinejad’s threats to eliminate
Israel. And in practical terms, the US would have to consider military action long before
Iran had an actual bomb. In military circles, there is a debate about where – and when –
to draw that line. US Intelligence Chief John Negroponte told Time in April that Iran is
five years away from having a nuclear weapon. But some nonproliferation experts worry
about a different moment: when Iran is able to enrich enough uranium to fuel a bomb –
a point that comes well before engineers actually assemble a nuclear device. Many be-
lieve that is when a country becomes a nuclear power. That red line, experts say, could
be just a year away.

Would An Attack Work?

The answer is yes and no.

No one is talking about a ground invasion of Iran. Too many US troops are tied down
elsewhere to make it possible, and besides, it isn’t necessary. If the US goal is simply to
stunt Iran’s nuclear program, it can be done better and more safely by air. An attack lim-
ited to Iran’s nuclear facilities would nonetheless require a massive campaign. Experts
say that Iran has between 18 and 30 nuclear-related facilities. The sites are dispersed
around the country – some in the open, some cloaked in the guise of conventional fac-
tories, some buried deep underground.

A Pentagon official says that among the known sites there are 1,500 different “aim
points,” which means the campaign could well require the involvement of almost every
type of aircraft in the US arsenal: Stealth bombers and fighters, B-1Bs and B-2s, as well
as F-15s and F-16s operating from land and F/A-18s from aircraft carriers.

GPS-guided munitions and laser-targeted bombs – sighted by satellite, spotter aircraft

and unmanned vehicles – would do most of the bunker busting. But because many of
the targets are hardened under several feet of reinforced concrete, most would have to
be hit over and over to ensure that they were destroyed or sufficiently damaged. The
US would have to mount the usual aerial ballet, refueling tankers as well as search-and-

14
rescue helicopters in case pilots were shot down by Iran’s aging but possibly still effec-
tive air defenses. US submarines and ships could launch cruise missiles as well, but
their warheads are generally too small to do much damage to reinforced concrete –and
might be used for secondary targets. An operation of that size would hardly be surgical.
Many sites are in highly populated areas, so civilian casualties would be a certainty.
Whatever the order of battle, US strikes would have a lasting impression on Iran’s rul-
ers. US officials believe that a campaign of several days, involving hundreds or even
thousands of sorties, could set back Iran’s nuclear program by two to three years.

Hit hard enough, some believe, Iranians might develop second thoughts about their
government’s designs as a regional nuclear power. Some US foes of Iran’s regime be-
lieve that the crisis of legitimacy that the ruling clerics would face in the wake of a US
attack could trigger their downfall, although others are convinced it would unite the pop-
ulation with the government in anti-American rage.

But it is also likely that the US could carry out a massive attack and still leave Iran with
some part of its nuclear program intact. It’s possible that US warplanes could destroy
every known nuclear site – while Tehran’s nuclear wizards, operating at other, undis-
covered sites even deeper underground, continued their work. “We don’t know where it
all is,” said a White House official, “so we can’t get it all.”

What Would Come Next?

No one who has spent any time thinking about an attack on Iran doubts that a US oper-
ation would reap a whirlwind. The only mystery is what kind. “It’s not a question of
whether we can do a strike or not and whether the strike could be effective,” says retired
Marine General Anthony Zinni. “It certainly would be, to some degree. But are you pre-
pared for all that follows?”

Retired Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner, who taught strategy at the National War Col-
lege, has been conducting a mock US-Iran war game for American policymakers for the
past five years. Virtually every time he runs the game, Gardiner says, a similar night-
mare scenario unfolds: the US attack, no matter how successful, spawns a variety of
asymmetrical retaliations by Tehran. First comes terrorism: Iran’s initial reaction to air
strikes might be to authorize a Hezbollah attack on Israel, in order to draw Israel into the
war and rally public support at home.

Next, Iran might try to foment as much mayhem as possible inside the two nations on its
flanks, Afghanistan and Iraq, where more than 160,000 US troops hold a tenuous grip
on local populations. Iran has already dabbled in partnership with warlords in western
Afghanistan, where US military authority has never been strong; it would be a small step
to lend aid to Taliban forces gaining strength in the south. Meanwhile, Tehran has links
to the main factions in Iraq, which would welcome a boost in money and weapons, if just
to strengthen their hand against rivals. Analysts generally believe that Iran could in a
short time orchestrate a dramatic increase in the number and severity of attacks on US

15
troops in Iraq. As Syed Ayad, a secular Shi’ite cleric and Iraqi Member of Parliament
says, “America owns the sky of Iraq with their Apaches, but Iran owns the ground.”

Next, there is oil. The Persian Gulf, a traffic jam on good days, would become a parking
lot. Iran could plant mines and launch dozens of armed boats into the bottleneck, chok-
ing off the shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz and causing a massive disruption of
oil-tanker traffic. A low-key Iranian mining operation in 1987 forced the US to reflag Ku-
waiti oil tankers and escort them, in slow-moving files of one and two, up and down the
Persian Gulf. A more intense operation would probably send oil prices soaring above
$100 per bbl. – which may explain why the Navy wants to be sure its small fleet of
minesweepers is ready to go into action at a moment’s notice. It is unlikely that Iran
would turn off its own oil spigot or halt its exports through pipelines overland, but it could
direct its proxies in Iraq and Saudi Arabia to attack pipelines, wells and shipment points
inside those countries, further choking supply and driving up prices.

That kind of retaliation could quickly transform a relatively limited US mission in Iran into
a much more complicated one involving regime change. An Iran determined to use all
its available weapons to counterattack the US and its allies would present a challenge
to American prestige that no Commander in Chief would be likely to tolerate for long.

Zinni, for one, believes an attack on Iran could eventually lead to US troops on the
ground. “You’ve got to be careful with your assumptions,” he says. “In Iraq, the assump-
tion was that it would be a liberation, not an occupation. You’ve got to be prepared for
the worst case, and the worst case involving Iran takes you down to boots on the
ground.” All that, he says, makes an attack on Iran a “dumb idea.” Abizaid, the current
Centcom boss, chose his words carefully last May. “Look, any war with a country that is
as big as Iran, that has a terrorist capability along its borders, that has a missile capabil-
ity that is external to its own borders and that has the ability to affect the world’s oil mar-
kets is something that everyone needs to contemplate with a great degree of clarity.”

Can It Be Stopped?

Given the chaos that a war might unleash, what options does the world have to avoid it?
One approach would be for the US to accept Iran as a nuclear power and learn to live
with an Iranian bomb, focusing its efforts on deterrence rather than pre-emption. The
risk is that a nuclear-armed Iran would use its regional primacy to become the dominant
foreign power in Iraq, threaten Israel and make it harder for Washington to exert its will
in the region. And it could provoke Sunni countries in the region, like Saudi Arabia and
Egypt, to start nuclear programs of their own to contain rising Shi’ite power.

Those equally unappetizing prospects – war or a new arms race in the Middle East –
explain why the White House is kicking up its efforts to resolve the Iran problem before
it gets that far. Washington is doing everything it can to make Iran think twice about its
ongoing game of stonewall. It is a measure of the Administration’s unity on Iran that
confrontationalists like Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld have lately not wandered off the rhetorical reservation. Everyone has been

16
careful – for now – to stick to Rice’s diplomatic emphasis. “Nobody is considering a mili-
tary option at this point,” says an Administration official. “We’re trying to prevent a situa-
tion in which the President finds himself having to decide between a nuclear-armed Iran
or going to war. The best hope of avoiding that dilemma is hard-nosed diplomacy, one
that has serious consequences.”

Rice continues to try for that. This week in New York City, she will push her partners to
get behind a new sanctions resolution that would ban Iranian imports of dual-use tech-
nologies, like parts for its centrifuge cascades for uranium enrichment, and bar travel
overseas by certain government officials. The next step would be restrictions on gov-
ernment purchases of computer software and hardware, office supplies, tires and auto
parts – steps Russia and China have signaled some reluctance to endorse. But even
Rice’s advisers don’t believe that Iran can be persuaded to completely abandon its am-
bitions. Instead, they hope to tie Iran up in a series of suspensions, delays and negotia-
tions until a more pragmatic faction of leadership in Tehran gains the upper hand.

At the moment, that sounds as much like a prayer as a strategy. A former CIA director,
asked not long ago whether a moderate faction will ever emerge in Tehran, quipped, “I
don’t think I’ve ever met an Iranian moderate – not at the top of the government, any-
way.” But if sanctions don’t work, what might? Outside the Administration, a growing
group of foreign-policy hands from both parties have called on the US to bring Tehran
into direct negotiations in the hope of striking a grand bargain. Under that formula, the
US might offer Iran some security guarantees – such as forswearing efforts to topple
Iran’s theocratic regime – in exchange for Iran’s agreeing to open its facilities to interna-
tional inspectors and abandon weapons-related projects. It would be painful for any US
Administration to recognize the legitimacy of a regime that sponsors terrorism and calls
for Israel’s destruction – but the time may come when that’s the only bargaining chip
short of war the US has left. And still that may not be enough. “[The Iranians] would give
up nuclear power if they truly believed the US would accept Iran as it is,” says a univer-
sity professor in Tehran who asked not to be identified. “But the mistrust runs too deep
for them to believe that is possible.”

Such distrust runs both ways and is getting deeper. Unless the US, its allies and Iran
can find a way to make diplomacy work, the whispers of blockades and minesweepers
in the Persian Gulf may soon be drowned out by the cries of war. And if the US has
learned anything over the past five years, it’s that war in the Middle East rarely goes ac-
cording to plan. – Reported by Brian Bennett/Baghdad, James Graff/Paris, Scott Mac-
Leod/Cairo, J.F.O. McAllister/London, Tim McGirk/Jerusalem, Azadeh Moaveni/Tehran
and Mike Allen, Sally B. Donnelly, Elaine Shannon, Mark Thompson, Douglas Waller,
Michael Weisskopf and Adam Zagorin/Washington

It would appear that the radical Muslims are as selective in their reading of the Qur’an
as some of us are in our reading of the Bible. I need some help here, can anyone give
the chapter and verse in the New Testament that says we can shove Christianity down
people throats? I do know for a fact that it says, “As ye sow, so also shall ye reap.”

17
As far as I am personally concerned, if those countries want a fundamentalist Islamic
government, they can have it. But then, I’m a Methodist and we’re very tolerant when it
comes to religion. While not a creedal church, most Methodists do affirm the doctrines
in the form of the Apostles and Nicene Creeds. In devotional terms, these confessions
are said to embrace the biblical witness to God’s activity in creation, encompass God’s
gracious self-involvement in the dramas of history, and anticipate the consummation of
God’s reign. Excerpts from Wesley’s Covenant prayer:

...Christ has many services to be done. Some are easy, others are difficult. Some bring
honor, others bring reproach. Some are suitable to our natural inclinations and temporal
interests, others are contrary to both... Yet the power to do all these things is given to us
in Christ, who strengthens us.

...I am no longer my own but yours. Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you
will; put me to doing, put me to suffering; let me be employed for you or laid aside for
you, exalted for you or brought low for you; let me be full, let me be empty, let me have
all things, let me have nothing; I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to your pleas-
ure and disposal...

From its beginnings in England, Methodism laid emphasis on social service and educa-
tion. Numerous originally Methodist institutions of higher education were founded in the
United States in the early half of the 19th century, and today altogether there are about
twenty universities and colleges named as “Methodist” or “Wesleyan” still in existence,
several in, gasp, Iowa.

You can take the young man off the farm, but you can never take the farm out of the
young man. There’s no way I could ever go home, you know. I’m far too liberal for the
tastes of folks in Floyd County, Iowa. I’m certain that the majority of firearms in my
hometown are .22 rifles and 12 gauge shotguns. The round(s) in the pipe(s) of the shot-
gun is (are) probably loaded with rock salt.

One friend suggested I might like living in Fredonia, Arizona. He said to emphasize that
I was an Iowan and not a Kalifornian. I checked the place out:

Population (year 2000): 1,036. Estimated population in July 2005: 1,051 (+1.4%
change)
Males: 529 (51.1%), Females: 507 (48.9%)
Coconino County
Zip code: 86022
Median resident age: 35.2 years
Median household income: $30,288 (year 2000)
Median house value: $77,900 (year 2000)
Races in Fredonia:
White Non-Hispanic (84.8%)

18
American Indian (12.5%)
Hispanic (1.4%)
Two or more races (1.4%)
Black (1.1%)
Ancestries: English (25.5%), United States (12.7%), German (8.1%), Irish (7.7%), Dan-
ish (5.7%), Scottish (3.1%).
Elevation: 4672 feet
Land area: 7.4 square miles

The wife said the town was too small. I didn’t agree, it sounded pretty good to me. Near
as I could tell, the largest nearby city was Kanab, Utah. Locals refer to Kanab as “Little
Hollywood” due to its history as a filming location for western movies. I thought at first it
was because of Monument Valley. Wrong, Monument Valley is on the Navajo Reserva-
tion on Highway 163 right at the border.

“Can I speak to Ron?”

“Hang on.”

“Hey Gar-bear, what’s up?”

“I wanted to ask you a question; just how serious are you about moving to Cedar Hill?”

“We’d like to but we can’t afford to. Linda’s dad is hanging on to life like he owns it; I’ve
told you that before. He will outlive us all. Why?”

“A friend suggested that it might be a good time to get out of the PRK. He suggested a
small town in northern Arizona, Fredonia. It’s just south of the Utah border and a very
small town, around 1,000. It would only be a hop, skip and jump to Cedar Hill from
there. I could take 89 out of Kanab south to 160 and 160 into Durango.”

“I heard this before, how serious are you?”

“As a heart attack. My only problem is talking Sharon into it.”

“What’s her problem?”

“Small town.”

“So what?”

“Well, I think she’s also worried that if we move, Amy won’t have a place to live.”

“What do you say?”

19
“Well, I’ve had enough of Amy to last a lifetime. She never even speaks to me unless I
speak to her first.”

“I can empathize; we have John, Kevin and Brenda living with us. What do you think
you will do?”

“Sharon and I talked about going through all the junk we’ve saved and getting rid of it.
To the extent we could convert it into cash; we could use the cash to buy things we real-
ly need, like a generator.”

“I suppose I should buy one too. Say, did you ever buy that rifle you wanted?”

“I’m ¾ the way there, all I need now is the rifle. I have everything else I wanted. This is
an open line, I can’t tell you, I’d have to show you.”

“What are you going to do about the rifle?”

“I called Santa Fe Gun Galleria and they have 3 in stock.”

“Figures, that’s the highest priced gun store in the Antelope Valley. You aren’t going to
buy from them are you?”

“A bird in hand is worth two in the bush, I just might.”

“What does he have?”

“A Loaded with the synthetic stock. The MSRP is $1,688. I might get out the door for
$1,900 including tax and background check. Then, I’ll have to cool my heels for a while
until she says I can have a handgun.”

“That’s a lot of money for a rifle.”

“It sure is, I should have bought one years ago and never should have sold off my gun
collection. How about you, have you gotten any new guns?”

“Can’t afford to, but I have enough anyway.”

“So, tell me, what were your plans if you had the money to move?”

“Pay off the Palmdale house and keep it for the kids to live in. Buy a home near Robert
in Cedar Hill and stock it with new furniture.”

“I’m going to work on mama, next month we get a big check from Iowa. I’d like to get
that rifle while he has it in stock.”

“What would you do for a handgun?”

20
“I have the .32 auto, I’ll make do.”

“That will be $1,852.26. Ok?”

“No thanks, it’s a bit steep.”

“We carry extra magazines.”

“I’m afraid that’s all the money I have at the moment, I’ll have to come back.”

“You do know that we also sell gold and silver coins, don’t you?”

“I’ll keep it in mind.”

Sandy Storm’s out the door price would have been the 90% of MSRP and while she
didn’t have one in stock, she guaranteed delivery by the day the waiting period was up
so I bought it from her and saved a bunch. Sharon was going to Iowa to visit her sister
and I figured my luck would have the check come in while she was gone. She was leav-
ing October 10th and would be coming home the 25th, the month of Ramadan. So, I
pressed her to let me buy the rifle. The next week was the longest week of my life, since
the last one.

September 17, 2006 was Constitution Day at the DoD, they offered a course on the
Constitution and a certificate. I passed but didn’t get a perfect score. They did the liberal
thing when it came to the 2nd Amendment, calling it controversial. If you think it’s con-
troversial, vote for Hillary, you deserve her. A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to
the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be
infringed. It’s that comma thing.

The Second Amendment, as passed by the House and Senate and later ratified by the
States, reads:

A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the
People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

21
 The New Crusades – Chapter 3

The hand-written copy of the Bill of Rights which hangs in the National Archives had
slightly different capitalization and punctuation inserted by William Lambert, the scribe
who prepared it. This copy reads:

A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the
people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Both versions are commonly used by “official” Government publications.

A part of the Antifederalist belief was that if “the whole body of people is armed” they
can defend against the risk of tyranny from a standing army. Counterpoint to this belief
can be seen with Federalist Noah Webster who wrote that military force must be made
strong enough to resist rebellion of the people but that it must also be subject to Con-
gress which derives its source of power from the people:

Another source of power in government is a military force. But this, to be efficient, must
be superior to any force that exists among the people, or which they can command: for
otherwise this force would be annihilated, on the first exercise of acts of oppression. Be-
fore a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every
country in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the
sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior
to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States.

A military force, at the command of Congress, can execute no laws, but such as the
people perceive to be just and constitutional; for they will possess the power, and jeal-
ousy will instantly inspire the inclination, to resist the execution of a law which appears
to them unjust and oppressive. In spite of all the nominal powers, vested in Congress by
the constitution, were the system once adopted in its fullest latitude, still the actual exer-
cise of them would be frequently interrupted by popular jealousy. I am bold to say, that
ten just and constitutional measures would be resisted, where one unjust or oppressive
law would be enforced. The powers vested in Congress are little more than nominal;
nay real power cannot be vested in them, nor in anybody, but in the people. The source
of power is in the people of this country, and cannot for ages, and probably never will,
be removed.

Federalists, on the other hand, believed that federal government must be trusted and
that the army and the militias “ought certainly to be under the regulation and at the dis-
posal” of federal government. This belief was well stated by Alexander Hamilton:

The power of regulating the militia, and of commanding its services in times of insurrec-
tion and invasion are natural incidents to the duties of superintending the common de-
fense, and of watching over the internal peace of the Confederacy

22
Reaching a compromise between these widely disparate positions was not easy, but
none-the-less, a compromise was negotiated with the result being the Second Amend-
ment.

Orrin Hatch says:

They argue that the Second Amendment’s words “right of the people” mean “a right of
the state” – apparently overlooking the impact of those same words when used in the
First and Fourth Amendments. The “right of the people” to assemble or to be free from
unreasonable searches and seizures is not contested as an individual guarantee. Still
they ignore consistency and claim that the right to “bear arms” relates only to military
uses. This not only violates a consistent constitutional reading of “right of the people”
but also ignores that the second amendment protects a right to “keep” arms.

“When our ancestors forged a land “conceived in liberty”, they did so with musket and
rifle. When they reacted to attempts to dissolve their free institutions, and established
their identity as a free nation, they did so as a nation of armed freemen. When they
sought to record forever a guarantee of their rights, they devoted one full amendment
out of ten to nothing but the protection of their right to keep and bear arms against gov-
ernmental interference. Under my chairmanship the Subcommittee on the Constitution
will concern itself with a proper recognition of, and respect for, this right most valued by
free men.”

In 2001, the fifth Circuit ruled that:

There are numerous instances of the phrase “bear arms” being used to describe a civil-
ian’s carrying of arms. Early constitutional provisions or declarations of rights in at least
some ten different states speak of the right of the “people” [or “citizen” or “citizens”] “to
bear arms in defense of themselves [or “himself”] and the state,” or equivalent words,
thus indisputably reflecting that under common usage “bear arms” was in no sense re-
stricted to bearing arms in military service.

Hey, I have my mind made up on this and it’s not open to discussion. I don’t care how
YOU interpret the law; it’s how I interpret it that matters. Anyway, Aim Surplus had
South African for $187 plus shipping ($42 per box) for 980 rounds so I bought 1,960
rounds. And, ten more magazines from Ammoman, shipped to Arkansas.

This story is about the actions of a few radical Muslims and the damage they did to the
country, not about the right to keep and bear arms. I am a very polite citizen; I’ll leave it
to you to guess why. What’s more, I don’t drive because I don’t have a license, not be-
cause I don’t know how to.

Amy doesn’t really like to cook, especially not for me. With Sharon gone for 2 weeks, I
figured I’d be on my own or eating a lot of McDonalds. I counted the boxes of macaroni

23
and cheese, I wouldn’t go hungry. Just to make sure, I asked her to buy another bundle
of the stuff. I was in good shape for her trip; I had my dog and my new rifle.

Ramadan is estimated to begin on 9/24/06 and end on 10/23/06. We’d be halfway

through it before she left and it would be over by the time she returned. The check came
the day after she left, on the 11th. It required her signature because it represented a set-
tlement and had the usual disclaimer printed on the back. Her car was here, she took
the shuttle to LAX. Sister Shirley had her dog, Brita, operated on and she had her cata-
racts taken out and new lens inserted. Talk about a pampered dog!

I sort of like peas with my macaroni and cheese. The day Sharon left, Amy called and
wanted to know if I wanted a double cheeseburger and fries. I told her, “No thank you, I
have macaroni and cheese plus peas. She didn’t say anything when she got home, I
think that made her angry. Sharon makes runny macaroni and cheese and Amy makes
it so thick it’s hard to eat and the cheese isn’t thoroughly blended. Unlike the ladies in
my life, I had an MBA and could read the directions on the side of the box. The peas
were even easier, a little water, a saucepan and peas in 5 minutes; drain water, add
butter and eat.

After a week I had concluded that I couldn’t wipe the bluing off the rifle with my silicon
gun cloth and I was tired to macaroni. I soaked 4 cups of beans and when they were
cooked, added onion, browned hamburger and a dash of garlic. A couple of cans of
diced tomatoes, tomato paste, chili powder and time gave me enough chili for a week. I
told Amy to help herself but only because I knew she didn’t like chili.

It was getting late in the game if they were going to strike America during Ramadan.
However, the specific threat was to attack coalition forces in Afghanistan during Rama-
dan, not the US. Regardless, they achieved their objective; they don’t call them terror-
ists on a whim. Being privy to a few analyses by people to analyze these situations for a
living didn’t hurt. Some of that information was labeled, ‘You didn’t receive this email’,
so I can’t repeat the contents here.

Sharon was due back in just a few days and knowing her, she didn’t buy flight insur-
ance. I have never liked to fly and always bought flight insurance. They might get me,
but for sure, they’d pay. Included in my hobby of reading were the reports of the NTSB.
While near misses occur too often we have very few mid-air collisions in commercial
aviation. Not since that one over the Grand Canyon that many of you are too young to
remember. On the morning of Saturday, June 30, 1956, United Flight 718 collided with
TWA Flight 2 over the eastern end of the Grand Canyon. Since the accident involved
two of the largest commercial aircraft then in service – a Lockheed Super Constellation,
and a Douglas DC-7 – it resulted in the greatest loss of life, by far, in any accident of the
time. The enormity of the loss gave impetus to a major improvement in air traffic control
with the formation of the Federal Aviation Administration (replacing the CAA) and the
widespread use of collision avoidance radar on commercial aircraft. They’ll use any ex-
cuse to create another federal agency.

24
The quest continued over the weekend to pinpoint the source of E. coli bacteria that has
tainted fresh or packaged spinach, even as some consumer groups called for greater
federal authority to regulate farming practices.

She called and I told her that her check came but the bank wouldn’t deposit it without
her signature. Meanwhile I worked over my lists. The next firearm was to be a .45acp.
I’m a fair shot with a handgun and always have been, but I’ll never enter any shooting
matches. She couldn’t remember if the check was for 26.4 or 24.6 and the difference
would be all it took to make me feel whole.

By the time she got home, I was bordering on desperation. She had a lot of shopping to
do when Saturday the 28th came. For starters, she could buy the freezer and generator.
I’d talked to Chris about buying used drums and had even found valves and vents on
the internet. I concluded I wouldn’t need a drum rack unless I went to 4 drums. Chris
even offered to drive me and the drums to the gas station to get them filled and to use
his engine crane to unload them. I ordered a bottle of PRI-G off the web, there was that
much in the account, plus my disability check came in the 25th. I also had a suspicion of
when the attacks would occur, if at all. Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving in the
United States is historically one of the busiest retail shopping days of the year. Many
consider it the “official” beginning to the holiday season. Most retailers would open very
early.

I was going nuts using that as the deadline to get our preparations completed. I even
went through boxes in the garage and cleared 3 set of shelves to hold the food on Sha-
ron’s list. I was adding things, too. Like a couple of gallons of dial soap, 6 more cans of
coffee, she only had 24, 24 bars of Irish Spring and even a pair of work boots from Wal-
ly World.

I had the same pair of work boots from 1968 until about 2004. After my feet went bad,
she asked me, “Will you ever wear these again?” I said yes, but later couldn’t find the
boots. Darn, they were just getting broken in and all they needed was a new set of
heels. In order to buy a handgun in Kalifornia, you need to take a written test that costs
$25. I got the book when I bought the rifle and began memorizing, it was harder than
you think. I’m sure that one of these days they’ll add a safety class that costs $100.

Speaking of English, a foreign language in Kalifornia, one is supposed to only put one
subject in a paragraph. I always figured, why waste the space?

“Have a good time in Iowa?”

“Charlene almost drove me to drink.”

“And, the good news?”

25
“She came home a week early. Did you decide where to put those drums of gas?”

“At the back edge of the lawn, 30’ from the house.”

“Did you stabilize them?”

“You bet and we have enough stabilizer left over for another drum plus.”

“Do you really think the Muslims will explode a nuclear weapon in the US?”

“They claim that the materials are already here. Talk is that they plan to hit 7 cities, New
York City, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Chicago, Miami, Washington DC, and Boston.”

“Who said that?”

“Some woman named Stock.”

“What’s on the list today?”

“Take my test and order the .45 pistol. Go to Harbor Freight and pick up the generator.
Sears delivers tomorrow and then we’ll have to go to Costco and stock the freezer. Did
you see I cleaned some shelves in the garage?”

“Anything else?”

“I don’t expect The Package until tomorrow. It has a Nukalert for your keychain. It chirps
if there is radiation in the air. You know, I was talking to Ronald McDonald last month
about moving out of Dodge to someplace safe.”

“What did he say?”

“They can’t afford to move until she gets her inheritance. I mentioned Fredonia, Arizona
to him and said your biggest complaint was that it was a small town. What we should do
is junk all but our best furniture and paint the inside of the house. If you hold some
money back, we can install new carpet and put the house on the market. We could
probably find a mobile home dealer there and move into a trailer park as last resort.”

“What about rental units?”

“I checked and if there are any available, the rents are low, less than our house pay-
ment.”

“But it’s so small. The churches are probably all Mormon.”

“There’s a Lutheran Church, 4 Stake Centers, 2 Catholic Churches and 2 other church-
es. What’s the difference, we don’t go to church anyway.”

26
“I’ll think about it.”

I called before going in to take the handgun test. I’d changed my mind from the hi-
capacity SA M1911 to the Taurus PT-1911B. Illegal in California, surprise, surprise.
Saved me $25. Sent Derek a check with instructions. He bought it and tried to ship it
and got the package back. Plan B and he got it back again. Plan C, hold until #1 son
comes to visit and he can transport it. Worked great except Derek forgot to pack the
slide stop. Pretty hard to assemble a PT1911 w/o a slide stop.

That sounded a whole lot like no to me. I sat down at my computer and checked the
Threat level; it was orange. So, I called Sandy and asked her when the rifle would be in.
She assured me it would be here by the time the waiting period was up. That’s 15 days
in Kalifornia for any gun, even though the Brady Bill was superseded. If you were actu-
ally buying a gun for unlawful purposes, what good would 15 days do? They claim it
eliminates crimes of passion. I don’t know about that, I stay mad for a very long time.

I asked if Charlene was coming for Thanksgiving, we’d tell her we’d eat at noon and
plan on 2-3pm. She usually gets lost coming to our house. Apparently Geoff and his girl-
friend were there, she was planning Thanksgiving and we were invited. We did that one
year, thanks but no thanks. I think that’s why she eats out a lot.

The elections were over and the Republican Party held onto Congress by the slimmest
of margins. Another 2 years wasted. The Senate ganged up on Bush and there would
be no reinterpretation of the Geneva Convention. However, they were considering build-
ing more border fence on our southern border. Talk about close the barn door after the
horse runs away, those bombs, if indeed there were any, were already here. The thefts
of explosives continued to rise too; the BATFE was having a field day.

The arrest and search of Sherman’s residence culminated a five-month investigation by

the Trinity County Sheriff’s Department and ATF. Sherman is an illegal alien prohibited
from possessing firearms, and was alleged to have several firearms and illegal explo-
sives devices. Sherman was transported to Sacramento for his initial appearance in
federal court today.

“As a team, ATF and the Trinity County Sheriff’s Department worked diligently and after
careful planning, were able to take Mr. Sherman into custody without incident,” ATF San
Francisco Special Agent in Charge Stephen K. Martin said. “The illegal possession of
firearms and explosives will not be tolerated by law enforcement in Northern California.”
Unless you grow Marijuana.

US Attorney Roper said, “Today is a landmark day. Through our coordinated efforts,
hard work and ingenuity, all of us here today were able to make a great thing happen.
We’ve transformed a criminal’s business into a resource that all of law enforcement can

27
use to ultimately apprehend more criminals just like him.” Roper continued, “I want to
thank all the federal, state and local officials, including the ATF, the Texas Department
of Public Safety Narcotics Service and the Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office. This is an-
other clear example of the success of Project Safe Neighborhoods.” They failed to re-
veal what trumped up charge they used on the man to steal his land (drug charge).

Time for a song:

Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,

With the cross of Jesus going on before.
Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe;
Forward into battle see His banners go!

Refrain
Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before.

At the sign of triumph Satan’s host doth flee;

On then, Christian soldiers, on to victory!
Hell’s foundations quiver at the shout of praise;
Brothers lift your voices, loud your anthems raise.

Refrain

Like a mighty army moves the church of God;

Brothers, we are treading where the saints have trod.
We are not divided, all one body we,
One in hope and doctrine, one in charity.

Refrain

What the saints established that I hold for true.

What the saints believed, that I believe too.
Long as earth endureth, men the faith will hold,
Kingdoms, nations, empires, in destruction rolled.

Refrain

Crowns and thrones may perish, kingdoms rise and wane,

But the church of Jesus constant will remain.
Gates of hell can never against that church prevail;
We have Christ’s own promise, and that cannot fail.

Refrain

28
Onward then, ye people, join our happy throng,
Blend with ours your voices in the triumph song.
Glory, laud and honor unto Christ the King,
This through countless ages men and angels sing.

Refrain

The theme is taken from references in the New Testament to the Christian being a sol-
dier for Christ, for example II Timothy 2:3 (KJV): “Thou shalt endure hardness, as a
good soldier of Jesus Christ.” With a word change – replacing as to with off to – this
might become the next Battle Hymn of the Republic.

It’s tempting, at times, to use some less than politically correct terms with regard to the
Muslims in our midst. If they’ve actually gone through the process and become a citizen,
I say welcome aboard, if they haven’t, they can get they butts back where they belong
and that ain’t here. Muslims in a minority aren’t a problem, usually. However, these days
with feelings running high, they live here at their own risk. You don’t need 1,000 cell
phones to blow up a bridge, you only need 2. All of the people arrested in the buying
spree were later released. Maybe they were planning on shipping them overseas for
use by the Taliban and the insurgents, you never know.

Anyway, we all know that Iran runs 7-11 indirectly. Actually, the company is a Japanese
conglomerate. In November of 2005, Seven & I Holdings Co. completed the purchase of
7-Eleven, Inc., turning the American publicly-traded conglomerate into a publicly-traded
Japanese conglomerate. Seven-Eleven Japan is itself a subsidiary of Seven & I Hold-
ings, which also owns the Japanese Denny’s chain of restaurants and Ito-Yokado. 7-
Eleven has become a target of criticism and boycott threats because of its ties to Citgo,
whose non-franchised stations are run by PDVSA, the Venezuelan state oil company,
which is in turn partially controlled by the Venezuelan government, currently headed by
Hugo Chávez.

It is necessary secretly-and urgently-to prepare for terror. And on Tuesday we will de-
cide whether it will be through the SNK or otherwise.

What terrorist said that, bin Laden? Castro? Ché? Nope, it was Lenin. One view is that
asymmetric warfare is synonymous with terrorism. Terrorism is sometimes used as a
tactic by the weaker side in an asymmetric conflict. Asymmetric warfare is sometimes
called terrorism by those wishing to deny the political aims of their weaker opponents
and to exploit the pejorative connotations of the word. Likewise, occupying powers often
label partisans “terrorists” as part of propaganda campaigns to maintain support in the
occupying power’s home country, and to win over the occupied people so as to cut off
the partisans’ principal support base. This is the root of the phrase One man’s terrorist
is another man’s freedom fighter.

29
The phrase as stated “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” first written
by Gerald Seymour in his 1975 book Harry’s Game. It has been repeated by such nota-
bles as Pat Buchanan (http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5873.htm)

The other view is that asymmetric warfare is not synonymous with terrorism, even
though terrorism is sometimes used as a tactic by the weaker side. It is typical, in an
asymmetric conflict, for the stronger side to accuse the weaker side as being bandits,
pillagers or terrorists. These accusations are usually part of propaganda campaigns,
although they are sometimes true. In fact we could say that terrorism is more likely to be
synonymous with war itself, as causing fear to the enemy is always an advantage,
whether this means simply banging your shield and yelling voices or killing thousands of
civilians.

The war between the mujahedeen and the Red Army during the Soviet invasion of Af-
ghanistan was a classic asymmetric war. The aid given by the US to the mujahedeen
during the war was only covert at the tactical level; the Reagan Administration was only
too pleased to be able to tell the world that it was helping the freedom-loving people of
Afghanistan. Of all the proxy wars fought by the USA against the USSR during the Cold
War this was the most cost effective and politically successful, as it was the USSR’s
most humiliating military defeat, and that defeat was a contributing factor to the implo-
sion of the Soviet Union.

Three distinct periods have existed in the Western scholarship of the Cold War: the tra-
ditionalist, the revisionist, and the post-revisionist. The end of the Cold War opened
many of the archives of the Communist states, providing documentation which has in-
creased the support for the traditionalist position. Gaddis has written that Stalin’s “au-
thoritarian, paranoid and narcissistic predisposition” locked the Cold War into place.
“Stalin alone pursued personal security by depriving everyone else of it: no Western
leader relied on terror to the extent that he did. He alone had transformed his country
into an extension of himself: no Western leader could have succeeded at such a feat
and none attempted it. He alone saw war and revolution as acceptable means with
which to pursue ultimate ends: no Western leader associated violence with progress to
the extent that he did.”

The State of Israel also represents a unique fusion of European and Middle Eastern
traits, but because of geographic continuity with the Levant and a majority population
that is predominantly Middle Eastern (including Sephardic Jews, Sabras, Israeli Arabs),
it perhaps shares more similarities with its neighbors than is readily apparent from me-
dia coverage. To prevent confusion, I’ll avoid discussing the Druze.

Black Friday, 2006 would be the 24th of November. One failing of my stories is that most
of the events occur on holidays. 2/26/93 was a Friday, 4/19/95 was a Wednesday and
9/11/01 was a Tuesday. Why not on a weekend or a holiday? People generally aren’t

30
out and about on weekends or holidays unless they’re attending sporting events or fire-
works displays, etc. That’s why I was fixated on Black Friday. I presumed that if terror-
ists did attack, they’d want people concentrated in shopping centers and so on. Was I
right? I’m writing the story, what do you think? They should do it on a Monday, both that
and Thursday haven’t been used yet.

A second thing to think about is with the information Ms. Stock gave, the 7 listed cities
might be on alert, or maybe not, since Ramadan was over. Let’s talk this over. New
York City, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Chicago, Miami, Washington DC, and Boston were
the 7 cities. New York is always on Red Alert and people in Las Vegas and Los Angeles
are never on alert. I guess that leaves Chicago, Miami, Washington and Boston. Nah,
eliminate Washington, they always on alert too, except when ABC stored ANFO in their
fair city. Chicago, Miami and Boston are left. It would be pretty cold in Chicago and Bos-
ton on black Friday but they’re used to the cold. Miami would be filling with New York
Jews looking for warm weather.

Strange, I thought that the New York Jews always moved to Florida when they retire.
However, the Jewish population only comes in at 4%. Being in a constant state of alert
has its drawbacks; you sometimes lose your edge, especially when 5 years has passed
with no further attacks. “A majority of the people of the United States have lived all of
their lives under emergency rule. For 40 years, freedoms and governmental procedures
guaranteed by the Constitution have, in varying degrees, been abridged by laws
brought into force by states of national emergency. The problem of how a constitutional
democracy reacts to great crises, however, far antedates the Great Depression. As a
philosophical issue, its origins reach back to the Greek city-states and the Roman Re-
public. And, in the United States, actions taken by the Government in times of great cri-
ses have - from, at least, the Civil War - in important ways, shaped the present phe-
nomenon of a permanent state of national emergency.” (Since March 9, 1933, the Unit-
ed States has been in a state of declared national emergency.)

When the Southern states walked out of Congress on March 27, 1861, the quorum to
conduct business under the Constitution was lost. The only votes that Congress could
lawfully take, under Parliamentary Law, were those to set the time to reconvene, take a
vote to get a quorum, and vote to adjourn and set a date, time, and place to reconvene
at a later time, but instead, Congress abandoned the House and Senate without setting
a date to reconvene. Under the parliamentary law of Congress, when this happened,
Congress became sine die (pronounced see-na dee-a; literally “without day”) and thus
when Congress adjourned sine die, it ceased to exist as a lawful deliberative body, and
the only lawful, constitutional power that could declare war was no longer lawful, or in
session.

The Southern states, by virtue of their secession from the Union, also ceased to exist
sine die, and some state legislatures in the Northern bloc also adjourned sine die, and
thus, all the states which were parties to creating the Constitution ceased to exist. Pres-
ident Lincoln executed the first executive order written by any President on April 15,
1861, Executive order 1, and the nation has been ruled by the President under execu-

31
tive order ever since. When Congress eventually did reconvene, it was reconvened un-
der the military authority of the Commander-in-Chief and not by Rules of Order for Par-
liamentary bodies or by Constitutional Law; placing the American people under martial
rule ever since that national emergency declared by President Lincoln. The Constitution
for the United States of America temporarily ceased to be the law of the land, and the
President, Congress, and the Courts unlawfully presumed that they were free to remake
the nation in their own image, whereas, lawfully, no constitutional provisions were in
place which afforded power to any of the actions which were taken which presumed to
place the nation under the new form of control.

(That would be interesting if it were true. EO 1 created a court system in Louisiana, EO

1A dealt with AWOL soldiers and EO 2 dealt with illegal immigrants.)

32
 The New Crusades – Chapter 4

Hmm, the South walked out and they call it the War of Northern Aggression. I’m con-
fused now, but that’s nothing new. Will we call the terrorist attacks the War of Muslim
Aggression? Whatever we call it, I think it has to be one of those lose-lose situations.
There are 2.1 billion Christians, 1.4 billion Muslims, 1.1 billion secular, 0.9 billion Hindus
and so it goes down to 500,000 Scientologists.

Ingersoll said, “Is there a God? I do not know. Is man immortal? I do not know. One
thing I do know, and that is that neither hope, nor fear, belief, nor denial, can change the
fact. It is as it is, and it will be as it must be. We can be as honest as we are ignorant. If
we are, when asked what is beyond the horizon of the known, we must say that we do
not know.” Ingersoll was an Illinois lawyer and politician who evolved into a well-known
and sought-after orator in 19th century America, and who has been referred to as the
“Great Agnostic.”

Well now, 5∕6 of the population of the world believes in some kind of God. Islam and
Christianity both believe in the same God, which accounts for about 3.5 billion people or
more than half the world’s population. People, I just want to say, you know, can we all
get along? If Christians and Muslims go at it, it will involve more than half the world’s
population, are you convinced now it will be World War III? Osama is convinced. Newt
is convinced. But, are YOU convinced?

From the viewpoint of Muslims, the Great Crusades never ended. Never mind Saladin
kicked butt and took names. Saladin or Salah al-Din (Salah ad-Din being an honorific
that means The Righteousness of the Faith in Arabic) was a 12th century Kurdish Mus-
lim warrior from Tikrit, in present day northern Iraq, who founded the Ayyubid dynasty of
Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Mecca Hejaz and Diyar Bakr. He was renowned in both the
Muslim and Christian worlds for his leadership and military prowess tempered by his
chivalry and merciful nature, during his war against the Crusaders.

Horse hockey! Two days after the Battle of Hattin, Saladin ordered the execution of all
prisoners of the military orders by beheading. According to Imad al-Din, Saladin
watched the executions “with a glad face.” The execution of prisoners at Hattin was not
the first by Saladin. On 29 August 1179, Saladin captured the castle at Bait al-Ahazon
and approximately 700 prisoners were executed. Some upon his orders and others by
his men on their own blood lust.

Soon Saladin had taken back almost every Crusader city. Saladin initially was unwilling
to grant terms of quarter to the occupants of Jerusalem until Balian of Ibelin threatened
to kill every Muslim in the city, estimated between 3,000 to 5,000, and to destroy Islam’s
holy shrines of the Dome of the Rock and the Aqsa Mosque if quarter wasn’t given. Sal-
adin consulted his council and these terms were accepted. Ransom was to be paid for
each Frank in the city whether man, woman, or child. Saladin generously allowed many
to leave without having the required amount for ransom. According to Imad al-Din, ap-

33
proximately 7,000 men and 8,000 women could not make their ransom and were taken
into slavery.

I’d better get busy sharpening Rambo III, there’s some heads that may need to be re-
moved. Maybe one version of the Golden Rule says, “Do unto others as they do unto
you.” Wait, there’s more:

A rolling stone gathers no moss.

A stitch in time saves nine.
Nature abhors a vacuum.
Every man has a price.
Consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.
All’s well that ends well.
He who lives by the sword shall die by the sword.
A penny saved is a penny earned.
He who laughs last laughs best.
History repeats itself.
A word to the wise is sufficient
Beauty is skin deep. (and ugly is to the core)
Pride comes before destruction.
It’s an ill wind that brings no good.
A man and his money are soon parted.
Age goes before beauty.
[Cast not your] Pearls before swine.
He who dances pays the fiddler.
The good die young.
You can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear. (My father liked that one, using it to refer
to me.)
And last, but not least, Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re
gonna get.
On the other hand ANFO isn’t like a box of chocolates. Because you always know what
you’re gonna get.

The Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission (WMDC) released a 231-page report

that presents recommendations for how to move the nonproliferation and disarmament
agenda forward. If implemented, the recommendations would have significant effect on
the pace of nuclear disarmament and the efforts to curtail proliferation of weapons of
mass destruction. Unfortunately, the WMDC report does not present ideas for how to
break the current deadlock but instead acknowledges that implementation of its com-
mendations may have to wait until “there is a greater general readiness to return to a
cooperative multilateral system in the sphere of arms control and disarmament.”

34
Surprisingly, the report does not recommend that Israel, India and Pakistan join the non-
proliferation treaty, although their absence is said to hurt the regime. Instead, the coun-
tries are urged to join a number of other initiatives such as the Comprehensive test Ban
Treaty.

The Commission’s report uses the World Nuclear Forces overview co-produced by the
Federation of American Scientists (FAS) for the SIPRI Yearbook to describe the status
of existing nuclear arsenals.

The Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission (WMDC) was established in 2003 by

the Swedish Government acting on a proposal by then United Nations Under-Secretary-
General Jayantha Dhanapala (Sri Lanka) to present realistic proposals aimed at the
greatest possible reduction of the dangers of weapons of mass destruction. The Com-
mission is chaired by Hans Blix, the former Executive Chairman of the UN Monitoring,
Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), and includes among others Wil-
liam J. Perry, former US Secretary of Defense, Jayantha Dhanapala, the former UN
Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, and Alexei G. Arbatov of the Russian
Academy of Sciences.

The Federation of American Scientists has all sorts of calculators for those of you who
didn’t live in one of those cities. I have a copy of the report in my subdirectory of other
useless pdf files from the FAS.

So much for my crystal ball, they blew up New York City, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Chi-
cago, Miami, Washington DC and Boston, but they did do it on Black Friday. Those
weren’t any suitcase bombs either, according to the radio and TV, the average yield
was ~10kT and all 7 were ground bursts. IIRC, I did the retaliation bit in the last story
and that didn’t work out too hot. At least the lights didn’t go out, yet. And, I had the roll of
plastic and duct tape the shelter in place video recommended. So while the girls were
busy taping the windows and doors shut, I moved the generator and 3 drums of gas into
the garage and ran a piece of flexible metal ducting underneath the garage door so we
didn’t get gassed.

Amy was home sick, she said, and the kids weren’t in day care so the wagons were al-
ready circled. I drug the kerosene and Coleman fuel and stoves out from the shed and
added them to the garage. I also stuffed blankets under the garage door as per the vid-
eo and poured water on them until they were wet. A good friend had given me the video
and I watched it a couple of times.

As they were finishing up, I added batteries to everything in The Package that needed
them and set the survey meter on low. Next, I charged the dosimeters and we were as
ready as we could be. Except, we were in Palmdale and not Fredonia. I rigged 2 of our
super-duper 3M furnace filters in a window to let in some air, sealing around them with

35
plastic and duct tape. They claim to catch pollen, I sure hope they work. Finally, I
passed out the Iodate.

“The generator and the camp stoves are in the garage if we need them. The external
part for the CD V-717 is outside the house and we have the CD V-715 in here. Amy,
take Patti the roll of plastic and some duct tape and tell her what we did. We only have a
little bit of time left before we get fallout.”

“Dad, the wind is out of the north.”

“Take your time. Sharon, call Lorrie and see if she wants to come over here. If not, we
can give her some KIO3. We aren’t nearly prepared as I would like to be, we’re short on
guns, ammo, protection from radiation and a whole list of things.”

“We have some money, can you buy some things on short notice?”

“Damn Kalifornia laws make buying guns next to impossible on short notice. The kinds
and amounts of ammo I’d want aren’t easy to come by. It would also mean dealing with
that guy at Santa Fe Gun Galleria and I’ll bet his prices just doubled. I think he’s a sur-
vivalist and the store supports his preparations.”

“The wind is supposed to change to the west tomorrow. I don’t believe we’d see any
fallout before then. Get in the car, we can pay cash for some stuff and use the debit
card for some more.”

I’d have never thought she offer to drive me to buy guns and ammo. We headed to Big
Five and bought ammo on the debit card. They sold shotguns and the guy behind the
counter said the instacheck was up and running. The terms were cash only and he laid
the 4473 on the counter. I dug out my CA ID card and started to fill in the form. When I
had it done he took it and left. The gun was laying in the box on the counter. When he
came back he was all grins.

“You’re good. That’s $356.35. We’re going to close up this evening and I’m not sure
when we’ll reopen. You’d better take that with you, do you have enough 00?”

“Didn’t see any.”

“We keep it behind the counter, but all we have left is Remington 12 pellet. It’s $162.50
a case plus tax.”

“I’ll take a case, got any slugs?”

“Same price.”

“Got a case?”

36
“Cash or debit card?”

“Debit.”

Glad we started there, Big Five is quite affordable. The CD V-715 still wasn’t clicking
and I told Sharon that we should take a chance on Santa Fe being open. I’d better ex-
plain why. He has a rack with about 8 Mini-14 rifles, some blued, some stainless and
two that were Parkerized. Never saw one that was Parkerized before and Ruger doesn’t
show them on the website.

“How much is left on the debit card?”

“About $650 and before you ask, I have about $350 in cash.”

“Are you open?”

“Not for long, someone bombed LA.”

“Yeah and 6 other cities. Do you have any of the Mini-14’s left?”

“Five, 2 stainless and 3 blued. “$825 for the stainless and $775 for the blued.”

“Say, I think the war has started, are you going to be here in 5 days so I can pick up my
rifle?”

“You mean the one you bought when you bought when you were looking at the M1A?
What did you do, forget it? It’s still on layaway unless you don’t want it. Otherwise the
balance is $840. I have 10 & 20 round factory magazines; you’re a cop, right?”

“Uh, right.”

“Thought so. I can let you have them for $25 each.”

“I have $650 on the debit card and $350 in cash and I need ammo. Would you take a
check on Wells Fargo for the ammo?”

“I’ll take a check for the difference and if the bank doesn’t open, you can come back and
redeem it, I have your address in the records and on the 4473. How many magazines?”

“Seven.”

“Ok, (775 +7(25)+200)*1.0825 equals $1,245. I’ll need your ID card, debit card, $350 in
cash and a check for $245.”

37
He left the same time we did, but he was loading weapons into the back of his camper
topped pickup. We scurried home although there still wasn’t any radiation. We still had
power too. Miracles do happen.

About Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans:

Ongoing investigation

Meanwhile, Memorial is awaiting the results of an ongoing investigation of three area

hospitals by State Attorney General Charles Foti over allegations that critically ill pa-
tients were euthanized during the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina at Memorial.

Although Campanini emphasized that “Memorial and Tenet are not targets of the inves-
tigation,” physicians working as independent contractors at Memorial may be implicated.

“We are assisting with the investigation,” said Campanini. “It doesn’t mean we’re
cleared ... but we have been informed from inside the attorney general’s office that we
are not targets.” Spokeswoman Kris Wartelle in Foti’s office confirmed physicians work-
ing at Memorial are being investigated but Memorial itself is not.

Wartelle also said the other two area hospitals are under investigation but those allega-
tions do not include euthanasia. Lindy Boggs Medical Center on North Jefferson Davis
Parkway is under investigation but Wartelle would not disclose the third facility.

The investigation’s damage to Memorial’s reputation has yet to be determined.

“The worst thing you can have is what’s happening now – a pending investigation. You
just have to wait it out. If you do something else, it demonstrates anxiety.”

Kristie Kuhl, vice president of communications for Makovsky and Co., a New York-
based public relations agency specializing in the health care industry, said Memorial
should be able to regain patient confidence regardless of the outcome of the investiga-
tion.

“People say Americans have short memories. I disagree – we just are willing to forgive if
someone wants to make amends,” she said. “Even if the investigation proves that noth-
ing inappropriate occurred, (the staff at Memorial) will have to be proving themselves
every day.”

I think that’s Bull…that the attorney general is accusing the lady doctor and 2 or 3 nurs-
es of killing their patients. I wasn’t there and don’t know the full story. I believe in my
heart that the medical staff at Memorial did the best they could under the circumstanc-
es. Hell. Let’s charge Brownie with murder while we’re at it.

38
And again, I sorry if my comment in my previous story offended anyone.

BTW, my ghost died in the last story so I had to hire a new ghostwriter. Dick and Dave
were working on the 24th, down below. Chris had the day off and Lance and Elvia were
out of town. Ron and Linda had spent Thanksgiving weekend with her dad and were
stuck in Newport Beach. And, I hadn’t learned any Spanish since the last story. What’s
more, it isn’t that far to the Muslims living in LA. I even have a problem with Dr. J, he’s
mad at Bush and calling him a liar. I suspect it’s because he’s originally from Iran. I ha-
ven’t had a doctor with anything but a foreign name in years. They are, however, very
good doctors.

Update: I finally found out why my doctors are mostly foreigners. We sent all of our doc-
tors to Vietnam and the foreign doctors came here and set up great practices. I’m here
to tell you that my ‘foreign’ doctors are head and shoulders above my American doctors.
My personal doctor is an Iranian, the neurosurgeon who repaired my spine is an Iranian,
the surgeon who did my Whipple Procedure is Pilipino.

The concept of sheltering in place assumes you don’t have access to a basement. To
do it, you’ll need a stack of bath towels, a roll of plastic sheeting and a few rows of duct
tape. You seal all windows and doors with plastic and duct tape with a wet towel at the
bottom to allow air exchange. You then shelter in the center of your home. You also
begin the KIO3 immediately and take it for at least 14 days.

If you get a lot of fallout, you may get some radiation exposure but hopefully not a fatal
dose. The KIO3 is very important and MedicalCorps.org has it for a reasonable price as
does Frugal. The plastic will keep the radioactive particles out of your home. KI4U has
KI and it’s a little more expensive. I was asked where I got the CO2 scrubber and the
answer is USS, they sell them. If you have at least 100ft² per person, you may not need
one. Contact Sharon Packer for details.

My next advice is, if you live in Kalifornia, MOVE BACK TO THE US. Kalifornia has ~38
million people, very restrictive laws plus border guards on all border portals except the
Mexican border. Surely you’ve seen The Grapes of Wrath. One other point before the
ghost writer resumes, all of the medical information I offer has generally been written by
medical professionals or is based on my own experience, I take a lot of pills.

The premise in this story is that the Crusades resume, this time on European and Amer-
ican soil. It’s possible, if somewhat unlikely. Offhand, I assume the other side, especially
in Kalifornia, is better armed than we are.

“Did you get Patti squared away?”

39
“Yes, she’s got the house sealed and gave me a radio and a charger stand. She says
she only has enough food for a couple of weeks and couldn’t get into any of the grocery
stores because of the lines. She hasn’t heard from Chris and the phone lines to Holly-
wood are down.”

“If we do get radiation, I have 2 of those cheap plastic ponchos and dust masks. We
should be able to work something out. Your mother and I made out good at the two
guns stores so you might want to take her my .22 auto. On second thought, I’ll take it
and show her how to use it. Are we sealed up?”

“Un huh.”

“The Coriolis effect caused by the rotation of the Earth is responsible for the direction of
rotation of low pressure areas. In general, lows flow counterclockwise in the Northern
hemisphere and high pressure areas clockwise. If we’re on the front edge of a low, the
winds are out of the south and out of the north on the back edge; and, if we’re on the
front edge of a high they’re out of the north and the back edge out of the south. I hope
we don’t lose TV, channel 3 can keep us up on the weather.”

“What happens now?”

“That depends on chaos theory which I never understood it, so I can’t really tell you. If
the winds shift, we could get a dose of radiation. If we lose utilities, we can generate
electricity for the appliances and cook on the Coleman stoves, we’ve done it before.
We’re about 75 miles line of sight from downtown LA. The average wind speed is about
10-15 miles per hour and is higher in the afternoon than the morning. Meanwhile we
stay inside and watch the survey meters. We should fill the bathtub in case we lose wa-
ter. There are two new trash cans in the garage we can also fill with water. I checked
and the internet is down, probably because it connects through LA.”

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Among a people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist. – Edmund Burke

Yes I watched the movie Tears of the Sun, twice. One of the actresses in the movie was
the daughter of the former Prime Minister of Ghana. Anyway, the wind direction slowly
changed from the north to the west. According to the fallout monitor on FAS.org, we
were far enough north of LA that a west wind would produce any fallout in Palmdale.
That assumed a 10kT bomb, with a 10mT bomb, all bets were off. According to the cal-
culator, we’d get ~25REM. That tunnel they found in San Diego was certainly big
enough to pass a 10mT bomb through. I found it curious that it had a concrete floor.
Read the news!

The papers had extensive coverage in September about the Ramadan Threat. It was
clear that Islam wasn’t just angry with Christianity. They threatened to attack the entire

40
world and convert us. I hoped I had enough ammo, I don’t plan to convert to anything,
forgive me, but I like being a Methodist. The 1st Amendment to the Constitution guaran-
tees: Freedom of speech, religion, press, petition and assembly. Geraldo is lucky, I can’t
see 600 yards.

“Are we clicking yet?”

“No, maybe we won’t get any radiation, Dad.”

“Maybe not, but that doesn’t keep me from being pissed. The internet is down; I have a
RIGHT to surf the world wide web.”

“No, that’s a privilege.”

“It’s wrong that I can’t and the opposite of wrong is right, so I have a right.”

With that kind of logic, I could sell ice cubes to Eskimos. It didn’t matter, I hate spinach.
What can you do to prevent E. coli O157:H7 infection?

Cook all ground beef and hamburger thoroughly. Because ground beef can turn brown
before disease-causing bacteria are killed, use a digital instant-read meat thermometer
to ensure thorough cooking. Ground beef should be cooked until a thermometer insert-
ed into several parts of the patty, including the thickest part, reads at least 160º F. Per-
sons who cook ground beef without using a thermometer can decrease their risk of ill-
ness by not eating ground beef patties that are still pink in the middle.

If you are served an undercooked hamburger or other ground beef product in a restau-
rant, send it back for further cooking. You may want to ask for a new bun and a clean
plate, too.

Avoid spreading harmful bacteria in your kitchen. Keep raw meat separate from ready-
to-eat foods. Wash hands, counters, and utensils with hot soapy water after they touch
raw meat. Never place cooked hamburgers or ground beef on the unwashed plate that
held raw patties. Wash meat thermometers in between tests of patties that require fur-
ther cooking.

Drink only pasteurized milk, juice, or cider. Commercial juice with an extended shelf-life
that is sold at room temperature (e.g. juice in cardboard boxes, vacuum sealed juice in
glass containers) has been pasteurized, although this is generally not indicated on the
label. Juice concentrates are also heated sufficiently to kill pathogens.

Wash fruits and vegetables thoroughly, especially those that will not be cooked. Chil-
dren under 5 years of age, immunocompromised persons, and the elderly should avoid
eating alfalfa sprouts until their safety can be assured. Methods to decontaminate alfalfa
seeds and sprouts are being investigated.

41
Drink municipal water that has been treated with chlorine or other effective disinfectants.
Avoid swallowing lake or pool water while swimming.

Make sure that persons with diarrhea, especially children, wash their hands carefully
with soap after bowel movements to reduce the risk of spreading infection, and that per-
sons wash hands after changing soiled diapers. Anyone with a diarrheal illness should
avoid swimming in public pools or lakes, sharing baths with others, and preparing food
for others. It’s a bacteria folks, Dial Anti-bacterial soap works; use it to wash your hands.

I spent my time loading magazines. 20 round magazines for the M1A and Mini-14 and 8
round magazines for the PT1911 .45. For the duration, I seceded from Kalifornia, I just
didn’t tell anyone. I decided that I’d only load 00 in the shotgun meaning you could point
it and didn’t have to aim it.

We didn’t get out and had no idea of who had made it home. The radio cracked and
Chris said that Dave was home but he hadn’t seen Dick or Lance and Elvia. I asked him
if they were ok and he said that they were getting low on food. I told him that there
wasn’t any noticeable radiation so he should come over and get what he needed, I’d
open the garage door.

42
 The New Crusades – Chapter 5

“Cripes, you really stocked up.”

“Sharon got that money and we were very tired of not having a choice about what we
eat, Chris. She bought the freezer and stocked it plus put two carloads of food on the
shelves.”

“Looks more like two pickup loads.”

“They used Amy’s SUV and folded the seats down. Do you know what you need?”

“Patti gave me a list. Apparently Sharon showed her what you had.”

“Help yourself and replace it when you can, I have a bad feeling about this.”

“What do you mean?”

“In the minds of some Muslims, the Crusades never ended even though they basically
won. Anyone who doesn’t adopt Islam is an infidel. I don’t see how we can retaliate
against terrorists, only the sponsoring nations. If it was al Qaeda, they may not have
had any sponsors, hence there’s no one to punish. We have a lot of Muslims in this
country and some of them might be willing to answer a call to Jihad. If I were you, I’d
buy a couple of firearms, just in case.”

“You know better than that, I wouldn’t dare have firearms with Daniel around.”

“Sure you could, lock them in a cabinet. You have to buy a lock for the guns when you
buy them to prevent children from using them. Sharon and I went shopping the day of
the attacks and got very lucky. All I need now is a .22 rifle.”

Palmdale hadn’t shut down for long. When it became apparent that the bomb in LA was
too small to produce significant fallout this far away, business firms began to reopen.
When Santa Fe was open I went to check on the check.

“You didn’t have any trouble with the check did you?”

“No. It cleared once that bank was open. What can I do for you today?”

“I’d like a .22 rifle. I don’t really care for the 10/22, what do you have in lever action?”

“Marlin 39A is the only lever action .22 I have, $399.”

“Ok, give me the 4473.”

“How much ammo do you need?”

43
“About 20 bricks, I’ll buy that at Wal-Mart.”

“How did the Mini-14 work out?”

“Haven’t fired it. I have a source for different magazines made by PMI and may get
some of those.”

“Their 30 round magazines are pretty good. I used to carry them way back when.”

“You don’t carry them now for cops?”

“I didn’t say that. Oh, that’s right, I sold you the genuine Ruger 20 round mags didn’t I?”

“You did. How much for the 30 round mags?”

“Steel or polymer?”

“Steel.”

“$35, each.”

“Do you have 14?”

“Do you have $490, cash?”

“The wife gave me enough to buy a rifle, the .22 ammo and magazines if I could find
them, I can pay cash.”

“$962.34.”

“Do you have another case of .223?”

“Yep. Your total is $1,178.84.”

“Damn. Ok. Sharon, would you please pay the man?”

“Why do you need 14 30 round magazines?”

“The vest holds 12 plus one in the rifle and one in the stock magazine holder.”

“What about those magazines you already have?”

“They’re backups.”

“Why didn’t you buy more magazines for the M1A from Ammoman?”

44
“Shh. I asked you if you had $325 but you didn’t.”

“I have South African 7.62. $325 a case.”

“How many rounds?”

“1,260, 9 battle packs in the can. That would come to $1,530.66 I have some of those
T57 mags, you know.”

“How much?”

“$15 each. Want some?”

“Ten?”

“$1,693.03.”

I figured he probably bought them the same place I bought mine. Strange, it was a sell-
er’s market and he wasn’t particularly gouging. I had started out to buy a .22 rifle and
had spent almost $1,700 and still didn’t have 20 bricks of .22LR. I also needed red dot
sights for the Mini-14 and the M1A. I figured that would have to wait. Not. Sharon was in
a spending mood; she bought 2 Bushnell 73-0135 trophy riflescopes and had Sandy in-
stall them. She also bought 10 bricks of hyper velocity, 5 bricks of high velocity solid
point and 5 bricks of high velocity hollow point. When she was done, she looked me in
the eye and said one word, “Enough.”

When Costco opened back up, Patti and Sharon went shopping. Patti replaced every-
thing Chris had taken and Sharon replaced everything we had used, on the first trip.
They went back and each reloaded the SUVs, Patti has a Saturn SUV. I was busy clear-
ing more shelves in the garage. What I would have rather been doing was excavating
under the slab and installing shoring, lots of shoring.

When I had the shelves empty, Sharon proceeded to refill them. Let me tell you fellas,
once you get your wife converted, watch out, she may go nuts!

“Clear 2 more shelves, please.”

“Two shelf assemblies or two shelves?”

“Two shelves, Patti and I are going to run over to Smart and Final.”

Yeah, right, I cleared two shelf assemblies; I needed someplace to store the ammo too.
I sort of assumed I had enough under the circumstances, 4,140 rounds of 7.62, 2,000
rounds of 5.56, 500 rounds of 12 gauge, 10,000 rounds of .22LR and 1,000 rounds of

45
Gold Dot .45, 230gr 1,000 rounds of Lawman 230gr plus 4 boxes of leftover .32 auto
from the previous story.

Derek had called and wanted to know if I needed to be rescued. I told him we were fine
unless he wanted to help me undermine the slab. He declined, stating that he expected
to be called up at any moment for Homeland Security.

“You’re a little late, kid, the terrorists already attacked.”

“Hey, I just got home, don’t blame me Dad. This isn’t over by a long shot. What about
that rifle you talked about buying me?”

“I’ll ask Sharon to send you a check, did you get the job with the Post Office in Mountain
Home?”

“Yep. If you’ll send the price of the rifle, I handle the rest.”

“I’ll ask her to round it to $1,200. Try to buy some of the South African surplus, if you
can find it. I have 27 battle packs plus what’s in the magazines.”

“What are you using for sights?”

“Bushnell 73-0135 trophy riflescope. They have red dot, green dot and 4 types of cross
hairs.”

“Have you actually sighted the rifles in?”

“No, but I’ll do it soon.”

“What is the situation in Palmdale?”

“You’re not coming for Christmas?”

“We are if I’m not activated. I’ll have to let you know.”

“Good, I have a bunch of knives for you to sharpen.”

“It’s good to know I’m good for something.”

“I didn’t mean it that way. I’m letting you take Rambo III back with you. I only need 2
hunting knives sharpened.”

“What?”

“Rambo I and my Explorer.”

46
“Do you think SeaWorld will still be open, we have free tickets?”

“I have no idea, check their website. I don’t have internet because it goes through LA.”

“Anheuser-Busch provided free tickets. Throughout 2006, members of the military and
as many as three direct dependents may enter any one of Anheuser-Busch’s SeaWorld,
Busch Gardens or Sesame Place parks with a single-day complimentary admission.”

“Let me know what you find out, ok? I may try to get someone to help me dig under that
slab, I haven’t decided. If we won’t get attacked again with nuclear weapons, I may not.
What do you think, are we going to get attacked again?”

“I don’t know Dad. Are there any Muslims in your area?”

“Are you trying to be funny? Southern Kalifornia has a huge Muslim population and Los
Angeles has the third largest Jewish population in the US. It depends on who you ask,
there are anywhere from 1 million to 10 million Muslims in the US and anywhere from 6
million to 10 million Jews.”

Medscape just put out a warning about NSAIDs and COX-2 Inhibitors. Yes, that includ-
ed Celecoxib oral (Celebrex). I warned you when they said Vioxx was bad for you.
Celebrex doubles your chance for a heart attack.

B’nai Elim (Sons of the Mighty) is a Jewish organization founded in 2006 by the former
leadership of Rabbi Meir Kahane’s Jewish Defense League. This group is a Kahanist
organization. B’nai Elim has 35 active chapters in the US. The Jewish Defense League
(JDL) is a militant Jewish organization whose goal is to protect Jewish people and prop-
erty from anti-Semitism. The FBI considers the organization to be a “right-wing terrorist
group.” So, you see, we have someone on OUR side.

On 12Dec01, Irv Rubin, JDL International Chairman, and Earl Krugel, a member of the
organization, were charged with conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism. Authorities
claimed that the two planned attacks on Arab-American Congressman Darrell Issa’s of-
fice, and on the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City, Kalifornia.

Rubin maintained that he was innocent, and was reportedly eager to wage a vigorous
court battle in his defense. On 4Nov02, at the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in
Los Angeles, Kalifornia, Rubin fell 18 feet to the concrete floor below. He was in a coma
for 10 days before dying on 13Nov. The incident has been ruled a suicide, though some
of Rubin’s supporters have alleged murder.

47
On 4Feb03, Earl Krugel pled guilty to conspiracy and weapons charges stemming from
the terrorist plot, and was expected to serve up to 20 years in prison. He was murdered
by another inmate while at the Federal Correctional Institution in north Phoenix, Arizona
on 4Nov05.

I planned to keep that in mind if we had trouble with anyone who jockeyed camels. I
didn’t have their number, but it was probably in Beverly Hills. It’s stupid, you know, I told
you about the article I read: Three Faiths, One God: Judaism, Christianity, Islam. The
article discussed the TV Special broadcast on Public TV, but I can’t remember where I
read it, that was 2 stories back and a bit before the world went to hell.

We had a war on our hands, a war not on terror but on terrorists and they were operat-
ing in Europe and the US. Maybe they brought their bombs into the US through the tun-
nel that was found in San Diego, who needs a tunnel with a concrete floor 6’ wide and
12’ high just to haul drugs? I’d heard from someone that it had been verified that at least
one bomb and the operator were in the US. Did Osama really expect us to convert to
Islam to avoid the bomb? It wouldn’t have matter if we did switch, al Qaeda killed a
whole lot of Muslims in Iraq.

By the 24th of November when they bombed us, they had bombed major cities all over
the world, but not with the nuclear bombs. Those were special and they saved what
they had for us. Sure they did damage, you could use the blast mapper on FAS.org and
see the effects of 10kT bombs on the cities where they were set off. I couldn’t because I
didn’t have internet. Back on Monday, September 25th, I went to a higher speed con-
nection which guaranteed a download rate of 1.5mbs. Did you ever know the phone
company to give discounts if you didn’t have service? Me neither.

“Did we get much from Iowa this month?”

“A fair amount, but I spent it buying groceries and getting caught up on bills. Why? What
do you want to buy now?”

“Ammo.”

“You have enough ammo. You haven’t even sighted in the guns.”

“I was waiting for Ron and Linda to get back.”

“If they were coming back, they’d be back by now. You’re going to have to find someone
else to take you shooting.”

“Can I take the car and drive over there?”

“No, you don’t have a license. I’ll drive if you give me a few minutes to finish what I’m
doing.”

48
“What are you doing?”

“Making homemade noodles, we’re going to have beef and noodles for supper. I got a
cutter at Smart and Final. I have to let them dry a little before I cut them up, I’ll take you
then.”

“I’ll be in the office.”

I was sitting at my computer when the phone rang. It didn’t dawn on me that we might
have internet service back, but the line than rang was line 2, the internet line. I an-
swered the phone because I had the only phone in the house that could access that
line.

“This is AT&T. We calling to tell you your internet connection is restored.”

It was a recording or I’d have given them a few piece of my mind. I checked the router
and all the lights were red. I unplugged the router and waited 60 seconds before I
plugged it in. Two minutes later, I had an internet connection. I immediately checked my
mail, I had 20 messages and 433 pieces of junk mail in my Bulk folder. I went through
them 25 messages one at a time, sometimes mail with attachments gets routed to the
Bulk mail folder. I ended up with 15 messages in the bulk folder that were real mail and I
clicked on Outlook Express to download the 35 messages.

“Gar-Bear,

We’re stuck in Newport and won’t be back until after Christmas.

Ron”

“Sharon, I don’t have to go, Ron and Linda won’t be back until after Christmas.”

“How do you know?”

“I got an email. He said they were stuck in Newport.”

“If you’ve got mail, I’ve got mail.”

“Just don’t download any junk mail, you’ll get a virus and I don’t know if Symantec is
online to download the latest virus table.”

The reason she was making noodles was because they had eggs on sale 3 18-count
trays of large eggs for $5. I assume she wanted to use some of them up before they got
old. She had a chuck roast, cut into chunks, simmering on the stove. She’d rolled the
noodles thin, but when they hit the hot water, they’d thicken. Herb’s Aunt Lottie had
taught her how to make egg noodles. I told her I’d go inventory the food in the garage
and see if she missed anything.

49
My thought at the time was those 10 million Muslims in the US might not all be good
Americans and there was enough of them that they could start a guerilla war. Medicare
will only buy you one wheelchair and since I had one there was no way I could order a
combat (tactical) wheelchair from Kansas. You thought I was making a joke? No way,
they build one that will haul 600 pounds. While I was in the garage going through the
food, it occurred to me that I didn’t have to sight the rifle in, they were bore sighted and
would only require minor adjustments, assuming she’d done the bore sighting right.

In all likelihood, I’d never leave the housing tract and that meant the range would be un-
der 200 meters. I could adjust the sight on the fly. I was fairly sure I could make the ad-
justments if I had to fire the rifles. It might not matter anyway, if the barrel on the Mini-14
got hot, it generally lost accuracy.

On Friday, December 15th, Lance and Elvia came home. I walked over and asked if
he’d been caught in LA by the bombing.

“Actually we were on vacation on November 24th.”

“We collected your papers, they’re in the usual place on top of the china cabinet. We
didn’t lose power so you shouldn’t have lost any food.”

“I put in a residential standby generator, Gary, I wasn’t worried about that. I come over
for the papers later.”

“Buy a new firearm?”

“I bought a couple, the civilian versions of the M14 and M16. We were in Flagstaff. The
guns you can buy over there are very different what you can buy here.”

“I know. Did you get the regular military magazines?”

“I got 10 for each rifle and some military surplus ammo. Do you know anything about the
South African surplus?”

“I have over 4,000 rounds, it’s supposed to be the best. Did you get the Radway 5.56?”

“Yes, that’s what the guy in the store recommended. He also recommended Gold Dot
124gr +P for my 9mm pistol.”

“We haven’t had any trouble yet, but I’ve been keeping an eye on the neighborhood.
When you were in Vietnam, did you cross train on Soviet weapons?”

50
“We had to. I was an A Team Leader for a while and my weapons specialist insisted we
learn the weapons the Viet Cong and NVA were using.”

“When you come by to pick up you papers, I’ll show you what I have and we can dis-
cuss the guerilla war I think the Muslims might wage.”

“They didn’t deliver papers for a few days until they were sure we wouldn’t get any radi-
ation up here. Come see my new firearms.”

“Where do you keep them?”

“In my office. I have the M1A the same as you bought plus a Mini-14, a shotgun and two
pistols.”

“Where did you get the 20 round magazines for the rifle?”

“10 came from New Jersey and 10 from a store here in Palmdale, he thought I was a
cop.”

“I see both 20 and 30 round magazines for your .223.”

“Yeah, the 20 round were manufactured by Ruger and the 30 round by PMI. I put red
dot sights on them.”

“Where did you get those?”

“High Desert Storm, on Avenue Q just west of 20th St. on the north side of the street.”

“Did you sight them in?”

“No, I was waiting for Ron to get back.”

“Where do you go?”

“Angeles Crest Highway, there are several locations there, but the Forest Service
closed the ranges.”

“Let me have the gun store install the sights and we’ll go shoot and fine turn them. Are
the grocery stores open?”

“Most of them but Sharon said they were pretty well picked over. What kind of generator
did you buy?”

“Onan RS 20000 with a 200 amp transfer switch.”

“Natural gas or propane?”

51
“Propane, I put in a 1,000 gallon tank and bought jets for all of the appliances.”

“All we have is a 7kw portable that runs on gas.”

“Do you have spare gas?”

“3 drums.

There is a historically fairly predictable pattern to the unfolding strategies and views of
great wars. They often start with a morally ambiguous view of the enemy, a more limited
conception of the war’s magnitude and a restrained application of violent tactics.

Eventually, moral clarity is obtained, war objectives expand – often to grandiosity, and
tactics become ferocious. For example at the start of our Civil War in 1861 at the Battle
of First Manassas, spectators came out by carriage with picnic lunches to observe the
event. By 1865, Gen. Sherman executed a campaign of civilian terror and matériel
obliteration in his march to the sea. Likewise, the war started with the purpose of saving
the union, but morally expanded to end slavery – north and south.

World War II started out in Europe first with the phony war and mutual thoughts of a ne-
gotiated peace, then with careful bombing (Hitler initially ordered that London not be
bombed) and ended with the firebombing of Dresden and Tokyo and the atomic oblite-
ration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Even during his war on the Jews, as late as 1940,
Hitler was thinking of deporting German Jews to Madagascar, and ended in rounding up
Jews throughout Europe and perpetrating genocide in industrially designed death
camps (although some historians believe the Madagascar plan may always have been
a subterfuge for the Final Solution.)

Today, the West’s struggle to resist radical Islamic aggression (both cultural and terror-
istic) is still in that early phase of moral confusion and limited tactics. Thus we continue
to debate the ethical merits of minor intrusions into American civil liberties (such as NSA
surveillance of some phone calls from foreign suspects), and even serious and patriotic
men such as Sen. John McCain and Gen. Colin Powell challenge the need to permit
psychologically rough – but nonviolent – interrogation of captured terrorists.

But there are some signs that the early stage of moral confusion is beginning to give
way to greater clarity. Last week, two towering intellects – Pope Benedict XVI and Hen-
ry Kissinger – began to offer clarity. On Tuesday the pope gave his now famous, but still
misunderstood, lecture at the University of Regensburg, and on Wednesday Mr. Kissin-
ger published in The Washington Post a half page seminal article on the risk of civiliza-
tional war.

Any fair and careful reading of the pope’s lecture must conclude that it was not an inad-
vertent insult to Islam. Rather it was a firm assertion that the Judeo-Christian God acts
in accordance with reason (In the beginning was the logos – word and reason.), and

52
thus Christians and Jews can undertake a rational debate about the morality of vio-
lence. He quotes, now famously, Emperor Manuel II’s assertion in 1391 that Islam
spreads its faith through violence – which, he says, is unreasonable and incompatible
with the nature of God. He then cites an 11th-century Arab Muslim theologian, Ibn
Hazn, who argued that Allah is transcendent of reason.

After criticizing secular Christians for not giving reason its proper place in understanding
faith and God, he concludes his lecture by again quoting the Byzantine Emperor Manuel
II on his same criticism of Islam. Then the pope finishes his lecture with the following
words: “It is to this great logos, to this breadth of reason, that we invite our partners in
the dialogue of cultures. To rediscover it constantly is the great task of the university.”

In other words, he is inviting Islam to explain whether its God is like ours – inherently
understandable by reason (and thus, is their God opposed to violence, as ours is?)

He was also, I strongly suspect, speaking to his own flock, both to return to proper
Christianity and to consider the nature of Islam. And, I suspect, the pope did not inad-
vertently quote the now inflammatory passage. If he had not included that quote, the
world would not now be debating his lecture. While the pope surely did not want to see
violence, he just as surely wanted to engage the world in this vital search for clarity.

While not the pope, Mr. Kissinger is the world’s premier practitioner and scholar of real
politic. So, it is consequential that in his article last week he warned the world that “we
are witnessing a carefully conceived assault, not isolated terrorist attacks, on the inter-
national system of respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity. The creation of organ-
izations such as Hezbollah and al Qaeda symbolizes the fact that transnational loyalties
are replacing national ones. The driving force behind this challenge is the jihadist con-
viction that it is the existing order that is illegitimate.”

He went on to warn that “The debate sparked by the Iraq war over American rashness
vs. European escapism is dwarfed by what the world now faces...the common danger of
a wider war merging into a war of civilizations against the backdrop of a nuclear-armed
Middle East...We now know that we face the imperative of building a new world order or
potential global catastrophe.”

These are shocking words coming from the verbally impeccably careful diplomatist.

So, within 24 hours the pope raises the question whether Islam is inherently violent and
unreasonable, while Henry Kissinger warns of a possibly emerging nuclear clash of civi-
lizations.

Moral clarity, anyone? New World Order?

53
 The New Crusades – Chapter 6

The US invasion of Iraq was among the “dumbest moves of all time” that ranks with the
Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor and the German invasion of Russia, billionaire
philanthropist Ted Turner said Tuesday. That was the pot calling the kettle black; Turner
is the ex-husband of Hanoi Jane. The founder of CNN and unabashed internationalist
also defended the right of Iran to have nuclear weapons and the effectiveness of the
United Nations and, in a jocular mood, advocated banning men from elective office
worldwide in a Reuters Newsmaker appearance.

Negotiations Must Go Beyond the Nuclear Threat to Broader Issues

By Henry A. Kissinger

The world’s attention is focused on the fighting in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, but the
context leads inevitably back to Iran. Unfortunately, the diplomacy dealing with that is-
sue is constantly outstripped by events. While explosives are raining on Lebanese and
Israeli towns and Israel reclaims portions of Gaza, the proposal to Iran in May by the so-
called Six (the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China) for
negotiations on its nuclear weapons program still awaits an answer. It’s possible that
Tehran reads the almost pleading tone of some communications addressed to it as a
sign of weakness and irresolution. Or perhaps the violence in Lebanon has produced
second thoughts among the mullahs about the risks of courting and triggering crisis.
However the tea leaves are read, the current Near Eastern upheaval could become a
turning point. Iran may come to appreciate the law of unintended consequences. For
their part, the Six can no longer avoid dealing with the twin challenges that Iran poses.
On the one hand, the quest for nuclear weapons represents Iran’s reach for modernity
via the power symbol of the modern state; at the same time, this claim is put forward by
a fervent kind of religious extremism that has kept the Muslim Middle East unmodern-
ized for centuries. This conundrum can be solved without conflict only if Iran adopts a
modernism consistent with international order and a view of Islam compatible with
peaceful coexistence.

Heretofore the Six have been vague about their response to an Iranian refusal to nego-
tiate, except for unspecific threats of sanctions through the United Nations Security
Council. But if a deadlock between strained forbearance by the Six and taunting invec-
tive from the Iranian president leads to de facto acquiescence in the Iranian nuclear
program, prospects for multilateral international order will dim everywhere. If the perma-
nent members of the Security Council plus Germany are unable jointly to achieve goals
to which they have publicly committed themselves, every country, especially those
composing the Six, will face growing threats, be they increased domestic pressure from
radical Islamic groups, terrorist acts or the nearly inevitable conflagrations sparked by
the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

The analogy of such a disaster is not Munich, when the democracies yielded the Ger-
man-speaking part of Czechoslovakia to Hitler, but the response when Mussolini invad-
ed Abyssinia. At Munich, the democracies thought that Hitler’s demands were essential-

54
ly justified by the principle of self-determination; they were repelled mostly by his meth-
ods. In the Abyssinian crisis, the nature of the challenge was uncontested. By a vast
majority, the League of Nations voted to treat the Italian adventure as aggression and to
impose sanctions. But they recoiled before the consequences of their insight and reject-
ed an oil embargo, which Italy would have been unable to overcome. The league never
recovered from that debacle. If the six-nation forums dealing with Iran and North Korea
suffer comparable failures, the consequence will be a world of unchecked proliferation,
not controlled by either governing principles or functioning institutions.

A modern, strong, peaceful Iran could become a pillar of stability and progress in the
region. This cannot happen unless Iran’s leaders decide whether they are representing
a cause or a nation – whether their basic motivation is crusading or international coop-
eration. The goal of the diplomacy of the Six should be to oblige Iran to confront this
choice.

Diplomacy never operates in a vacuum. It persuades not by the eloquence of its practi-
tioners but by assembling a balance of incentives and risks. Clausewitz’s famous dictum
that war is a continuation of diplomacy by other means defines both the challenge and
the limits of diplomacy. War can impose submission; diplomacy needs to evoke con-
sensus. Military success enables the victor in war to prescribe, at least for an interim
period. Diplomatic success occurs when the principal parties are substantially satisfied;
it creates – or should strive to create – common purposes, at least regarding the subject
matter of the negotiation; otherwise no agreement lasts very long. The risk of war lies in
exceeding objective limits; the bane of diplomacy is to substitute process for purpose.
Diplomacy should not be confused with glibness. It is not an oratorical but a conceptual
exercise. When it postures for domestic audiences, radical challenges are encouraged
rather than overcome.

It is often asserted that what is needed in relation to Iran is a diplomacy comparable to

that which, in the 1970s, moved China from hostility to cooperation with the United
States. But China was not persuaded by skillful diplomacy to enter this process. Rather,
China was brought, by a decade of escalating conflict with the Soviet Union, to a convic-
tion that the threat to its security came less from capitalist America than from the grow-
ing concentration of Soviet forces on its northern borders. Clashes of Soviet and Chi-
nese military forces along the Ussuri River accelerated Beijing’s retreat from the Soviet
alliance.

The contribution of American diplomacy was to understand the significance of these

events and to act on that knowledge. The Nixon administration did not convince China
that it needed to change its priorities. Its role was to convince China that implementing
its strategic necessities was safe and would enhance China’s long-term prospects. It did
so by concentrating the diplomatic dialogue on fundamental geopolitical objectives,
while keeping some contentious items in abeyance. The Shanghai Communique of
1972, the first Sino-US communique, symbolized this process. Contrary to established
usage, it listed a series of continuing disagreements as a prelude to the key common

55
objective of preventing hegemonic aspirations of unnamed third parties – clearly imply-
ing the Soviet Union.

The challenge of the Iranian negotiation is far more complex. For two years before the
opening to China, the two sides had engaged in subtle, reciprocal, symbolic and diplo-
matic actions to convey their intentions. In the process, they had tacitly achieved a par-
allel understanding of the international situation, and China opted for seeking to live in a
cooperative world.

Nothing like that has occurred between Iran and the United States. There is not even an
approximation of a comparable world view. Iran has reacted to the American offer to en-
ter negotiations with taunts, and has inflamed tensions in the region. Even if the Hezbol-
lah raids from Lebanon into Israel and the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers were not
planned in Tehran, they would not have occurred had their perpetrators thought them
inconsistent with Iranian strategy. In short, Iran has not yet made the choice of the world
it seeks – or it has made the wrong choice from the point of view of international stabil-
ity. The crisis in Lebanon could mark a watershed if it confers a sense of urgency to the
diplomacy of the Six and a note of realism to the attitudes in Tehran.

Up to now Iran has been playing for time. The mullahs apparently seek to accumulate
as much nuclear capability as possible so that, even were they to suspend enrichment,
they would be in a position to use the threat of resuming their weapons effort as a
means to enhance their clout in the region.

Given the pace of technology, patience can easily turn into evasion. The Six will have to
decide how serious they will be in insisting on their convictions. Specifically, the Six will
have to be prepared to act decisively before the process of technology makes the objec-
tive of stopping uranium enrichment irrelevant. Well before that point is reached, sanc-
tions will have to be agreed on. To be effective, they must be comprehensive; halfheart-
ed, symbolic measures combine the disadvantage of every course of action. Interallied
consultations must avoid the hesitation that the League of Nations conveyed over Abys-
sinia. We must learn from the North Korean negotiations not to engage in a process in-
volving long pauses to settle disagreements within the administration and within the ne-
gotiating group, while the other side adds to its nuclear potential. There is equal need,
on the part of America’s partners, for decisions permitting them to pursue a parallel
course.

A suspension of enrichment of uranium should not be the end of the process. A next
step should be the elaboration of a global system of nuclear enrichment to take place in
designated centers around the world under international control – as proposed for Iran
by Russia. This would ease implications of discrimination against Iran and establish a
pattern for the development of nuclear energy without a crisis with each entrant into the
nuclear field.

President Bush has announced America’s willingness to participate in the discussions of

the Six with Iran to prevent emergence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program. But it

56
will not be possible to draw a line between nuclear negotiations and a comprehensive
review of Iran’s overall relations to the rest of the world.

The legacy of the hostage crisis, the decades of isolation and the messianic aspect of
the Iranian regime represent huge obstacles to such a diplomacy. If Tehran insists on
combining the Persian imperial tradition with contemporary Islamic fervor, then a colli-
sion with America – and, indeed, with its negotiating partners of the Six – is unavoida-
ble. Iran simply cannot be permitted to fulfill a dream of imperial rule in a region of such
importance to the rest of the world.

At the same time, an Iran concentrating on the development of the talents of its people
and the resources of its country should have nothing to fear from the United States.
Hard as it is to imagine that Iran, under its present president, will participate in an effort
that would require it to abandon its terrorist activities or its support for such instruments
as Hezbollah, the recognition of this fact should emerge from the process of negotiation
rather than being the basis for a refusal to negotiate. Such an approach would imply the
redefinition of the objective of regime change, providing an opportunity for a genuine
change in direction by Iran, whoever is in power.

It is important to express such a policy in precise objectives capable of transparent veri-

fication. A geopolitical dialogue is not a substitute for an early solution of the nuclear en-
richment crisis. That must be addressed separately, rapidly and firmly. But a great deal
depends on whether a strong stand on that issue is understood as the first step in the
broader invitation to Iran to return to the wider world.

In the end, the United States must be prepared to vindicate its efforts to prevent an Ira-
nian nuclear weapons program. For that reason, America has an obligation to explore
every honorable alternative.

Let’s be honest here, all they needed was an excuse. They didn’t even need patience; it
didn’t take long for someone to stick their foot in their mouth. A few cartoons were
enough for media attention for weeks and got more people killed, usually Muslims. Newt
was right in agreeing with Osama, this most certainly was WW III. After the Mid-term
elections last month, I started to get the impression that George might order troop re-
ductions. At this point in time, he really was a lame duck president, though technically
not for 2 more years.

I guess they’re going to have to put New Orleans on hold; we have 7 cities that need to
be cleaned up. No doubt, they’d use the military and civilian contractors to do that. But
wait, most of our military is overseas. I’ll bet George will overrule Donald and bring them
home. What we really need is a good dose of isolationism. We could seal our borders
and issue weapons to the JDL and B’nai Elim and let them solve our problem.

57
Reading that piece by Henry put me off; it was dryer than a box of soda crackers. Henry
has a long list of bona fides:

● National Security Council

● Council on Foreign Relations
● Trilateral Commission
● Blindenberg Group
● Bohemian Grove
● Realism in international relations
● Realpolitik

I’ll take ‘Bombs Away’ LeMay any day over Henry. That list is all about the New World
Order. I’m just naturally a pacifist, heehee. Note to self: Add carton of salt to first aid kit
so you can render first aid to the people you have to shoot. Did I tell you we have
~600,000 Persians in the US?

One thing I can’t tell you is when the Muslims started hating the Jews. It must go way
back, was it before or after WW II? One Answer: The primary cause of the hostility has
a modern origin. After World War II, when the United Nations gave a portion of the land
of Israel to the Jewish people, the land was at that time primarily inhabited by Arabs (the
Palestinians). Most Arabs protested vehemently against the nation of Israel occupying
that land. Arab nations united and attacked Israel in an attempt to wipe them out of the
land – but they were utterly defeated by Israel. Ever since, there has been great hostility
between Israel and its Arab neighbors. If you look on a map, Israel has one tiny little
sliver of land and is surrounded by much larger Arab nations, i.e. Jordan, Syria, Saudi
Arabia, Iraq, and Egypt. Arabs will tell you they’re not anti-Semitic but rather anti-Zionist.

Then the question comes up about whether our invading Iraq caused people to be
against us. It’s a difficult question to answer and no doubt our presence there did in-
flame passions. Maybe they didn’t want a democracy to begin with, did you ever think
about that? Lots of people don’t want democracy. I’ve always taken the position that it
was a mistake to export it in the first place. But then, I just some crackpot in the PRK, so
don’t listen to me. I’m not all that bright anyway, living on the San Andreas Fault.

So here we sit in the aftermath of 7 terrorist attacks wondering what to do next. More
precisely, we were wondering what would happen next. When you got right down to the
quick, there were only 2 veterans I knew of in the housing tract, Lance and me. Lance,
quite on his own had gotten into being prepared. I knew that they had more money than
we had and could do more than we could, that wasn’t the issue. Lance had been in
combat while I hadn’t. Like most people who had, he didn’t like to talk about it. If he was
a Green Beret, he was well trained and an officer to boot.

58
Therefore, if someone were to attack the housing tract, he’d be in charge, whether he
wanted to be in charge or not. In addition to the two of us, the most likely person I knew
in the tract who might use a firearm to defend us would be Dick. After that came Dave
and I didn’t know about him. Chris was the back of the pack, a total liberal in so many
ways. We had talked and he knew how to use firearms, the question had to be would
he.

Lance came over empty handed and asked if I wanted to go shooting. Man, did I ever. I
wanted to fine tune the red dot sights on the rifles and the more I thought about it, the
more I decided I wanted them sighted in for 150 yards. I can handle metrics, but I was
raised on the English measurement and I have trouble switching. 150 yards was ~137
meters, the conversion factors are 0.9144 from yards to meters and 1.0936 from meters
to yards. Right or wrong, that was going to be my standard setting for this set of circum-
stances.

“What range are you going to sight in for?”

“150 yards.”

“I thought I’d sight in for 250 yards.”

“Your eyes are better than mine, Lance. I should be about dead on for the entrance to
the housing tract or even maybe a little over.”

“I’ll follow your lead then, I hadn’t thought about it. Which weapons are you going to
sight in?”

“My M1A and my Mini-14. I should shoot all of them just to see how they shoot though,
would that be ok?”

“I don’t want to spend more than an hour on the range. I wouldn’t want to have to fight
with one of those rangers.”

“I was hoping to sight them each in with as few as 5 shots. After, I thought I’d finish off
the magazine just to be sure I had them where I wanted them.”

“Do you have a couple pieces of cardboard, say 3’ square?”

“I have the new mattress boxes from the grandkids new mattresses.”

“Perfect, we take my pickup and cut them up when we get there.”

To be perfectly honest, I assumed Lance had some experience with the M14 in Vi-
etnam. Any help I needed with my new rifle should be available. When we arrived at an
old shooting range, we cut the targets and he drew an X on them. He paced out 150
paces and held the target up with a couple of 2”x2” stakes. He went first and in 3 shots

59
he had his M1A sighted in. Three shots later, his AR15 was sighted in. He fired a few
more shots with each rifle to confirm his settings then went to change the targets.

“Your turn.”

I took the M1A and managed somehow to get into a prone position. I put the red dot on
the spot where the X crossed and fired one shot.

“3” low and 3” left.”

I cranked in a correction and fired a second shot.

“1” left and 1” low, add one click of elevation and 2 clicks of windage.”

My second shot was very close to the X. I fired the remainder of the magazine and de-
cided it was as good as it could get, the problem wasn’t the sight, but the shooter. While
I put the M1A back in the case and got out the Mini-14, Lance changed the targets.
When he got back, I fired 3 rounds from the Mini-14.

“Up one notch in elevation and left 2 notches.”

I made the exact adjustment he recommended and put the next 3 shots in the area of
the X about a 2 minute group. That was good as far as I was concerned and I suggest-
ed we move up to 100 yards and I’d try the .22. I was close enough so we moved up to
25 yards and tried my shotgun with the 12-pellet 00 buck. It was close enough for gov-
ernment work and we moved to 7 yards to try the .45.

“Could you make me a dot in a clean spot?”

“Hang on… How’s that?”

“Perfect, thanks.”

I fired 9 rounds and you wouldn’t have been on the receiving end.

“Not bad, Gary. Do you shoot handguns often?”

“Not in 10 years.”

“Are we ready to leave?”

“Are you done?”

“Yes, are you?”

“I suppose we’d better get out of here before the Ranger shows up, huh?”

60
“Right, quickly.”

After we got back home, we sat down and cleaned the guns first. Then, I went home
and reloaded the magazines I’d used.

“Is everything sighted in?”

“Yes. The big rifles for 150 yards, the .22 for 100 yards and the shotgun works fine at 25
yards, but closer is better.”

“How do you see the sights?”

“Turn them on, put the red dot right where you want the bullet to go and squeeze the
trigger. You keep the Mini-14 handy but unloaded. There’s one magazine in the butt
stock pouch.”

“What about a handgun?”

“Do you want the .32?”

“Sure.”

“Sharon, Palmdale is kind of an out of the way place even though the population is over
130,000. Odds favor our never needing to use the firearms.”

“If that’s the case, why were we out after the attack buying guns?”

“Better to have them and not need them than to need them and not have them. Are we
totally squared away on food?”

“I’d say about 6 months’ worth and as we get more money and the food is available, I’ll
keep everything topped off.”

“Lance and Elvia have a big residential standby generator.”

“How big?”

“RS 20000, a big one. They put in a 1,000 gallon tank of propane and he got jets for all
of their appliances so I assume that’s the hot water heater, furnace, dryer and kitchen
stove.”

“And I suppose you want to put in the same thing.”

61
“Yes and no. Their home is bigger than ours. I would like to put in an RS 15000, if we
could.”

“How much?”

“About $10 grand. I know we don’t have the money but with all of my medical instru-
ments, I thought maybe Matt could talk the trust into buying one so I wouldn’t have to go
without my nebulizer, oxygen, CPAP and recharging my wheelchair.”

“If you can talk him into it, I say go for it. I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you.”

“Matt, Gary Ott. No, we didn’t get any radiation. Well, I need to put in a standby genera-
tor because of my medical conditions. An Onan RS 15000. The price I found was
$9,480 plus another 866.25 for an installation kit and probably some more to get it in-
stalled by a licensed electrician. Oh, my neighbor has one because of his medical con-
ditions and he has a 1,000 gallon propane tank. Altogether. Gee I don’t know, what
does propane cost? $12,500? Yes that should be enough; do you think the trust will ap-
prove it? We have large Jewish and Muslim populations in Los Angeles, so I don’t know
if we’ll have trouble or not. Well, I can get by for a brief time without the oxygen and I
only use the nebulizer 4 times a day. Both Sharon and I have CPAPs and I’ve had the
wheelchair for over a year now. Yes, I’ll see about getting some bottled oxygen too. You
will, thanks.”

You should have seen Dr. J face when I told him I wanted prescriptions for both
Doxycycline and Ciprofloxacin. First he wanted to know why and I explained about An-
thrax. He said I didn’t need both drugs for Anthrax and so I mentioned Typhoid. He said
I didn’t need both. I said I wanted both, 100 of each. He grumbled but he wrote the pre-
scriptions. He then cautioned me about Doxy. Like Tetracycline, it had an absolute 1
year shelf life. I filled in the blank refill line and now had an Rx for 600 of each of both
Doxy and Cipro. It was the only way I could think to get 600 of each pill. I had Sharon
checked the Iowa account every day until we had the money. I couldn’t get a RS 15000
because they were on backorder but only for two weeks. We went ahead and put in
1,000 gallons of paid for propane. They delivered and installed the RS 15000. It’s just a
good thing it was less expensive than some of the others because the installation fee
was beyond belief.

All we needed now was a piece of 1” road plate for my office window about 4’ wide and
9’5” long. You should have heard Dr. J the next month when I told him I mislaid the RX
he wrote. He really began to fuss when I handed him my empty Hydrocodone bottle and
told him I like that refilled and 2 refills. You have to understand, I had really pissed him
off back in August of 2006 when I’d mentioned Bush and he’d gone off about what a liar
Bush was. I made it a point to never bring the subject up again. But, we had 300 each of
Doxy and Cipro and were working on having 600 of each. If the US were attacked
again, it could be anything, nuclear, biological or chemical.

62
Biological and chemical weapons were the poor man’s nuclear weapon. Next month I
planned to ask him for a prescription for 1 case of 500ml bags of Ringer’s and 24 IV
sets. I could take a class at AV College to learn how to establish an IV. I checked and
they had a class starting that had an opening for 2 more people. I signed Amy and me
up. They started you out in a class and then you went to an artificial arm and finally you
got to do the real thing, I did Amy and she did me. Ouch,

Earlier, when we went to see Dr. J, I took him both Amy and my certificates and asked
him for an Rx for Ringer’s. He went me one better; I got prescriptions for a case each of
Ringer’s, D5W and Normal Saline. He also wrote a prescription for a defibrillator before
I even asked. It was for one of the automatic external ones that even an idiot could op-
erate. I also asked him to call Air Care Medical and tell them I needed a 10 liter oxygen
concentrator instead of the 5 liter machine. I didn’t know if they were open or not, but
Northridge was open so I assumed Van Nuys was too.

63
 The New Crusades – Chapter 7

We had to leave the guns in the car and it made me pretty uneasy going into his office,
most of his patients were Persians. While he had his prescription pad out, I asked him
to write me prescriptions for all of my drugs and all of Sharon’s drugs and give us 11 re-
fills, just in case. He had to write 2 separate prescriptions for Xanax, the longest the
prescription is good is 6 months. He didn’t like it, but he did it. I had a hole card, if he
wouldn’t, I could see his partner, Dr. E and he’d write anything, or he had so far. I didn’t
abuse that, I never knew when I might need something special.

I am not a doctor and have nothing more than first aid training in the military back in
1961, except for the class I took at AV College on how to establish an IV and the class I
took on CRP about 25 years ago. My drug abuse training only helped me to know a little
about drugs. I signed Amy up for the CPR class at the College; it was either a 4 hour or
8 hour class. I figured what the hell and signed her up for 8 hour class. It turned out to
be a smart decision, they also coved the AED.

We got a call from Air Care that said my new oxygen concentrator was in; I played
dumb, “What new oxygen concentrator?”

“Your doctor prescribed a 10 liter machine.”

“He did, when?”

“Last week, didn’t he tell you?”

“Nope, but whatever you say.”

The medical supplies were delivered the same week, 3 cases of IV solutions and 100 IV
sets (60 drops/ml). On top of that, there were 100 of the IV catheter sets in 2 sizes.
They were 75 18 gauge and 25 22 gauge, I guess the smaller ones were for the kids.
The stuff wasn’t cheap, $1.95 per catheter and $2.29 each for the IV sets. The solutions
were probably the cheapest part of the purchase. The defibrillator ran anywhere from
$890 to over $3,000. We went with the Defibtech LifeLine AED and bought extra batter-
ies and pads. The pediatric pads had a built in device to limit the shock for younger pa-
tients. I came with other accessories and a CD so we could learn to use that particular
machine. You didn’t even need an Rx if you bought from that store, they included an Rx.

Normal Saline is plain salt water that’s the same concentration as your blood. D5W is
5% sugar solution and provides nourishment and Ringer’s is a solution that will preserve
muscle tissue with its various electrolytes or whatever. There are several other IV solu-
tions, but I was using the KISS principle. If the LA County Paramedics only carried
Normal Saline, we were better equipped than they were. By the time they got there we
could at least have an IV established. We also had to buy flush for the IVs, pre-filled sy-
ringes containing normal saline. It sure does get complicated.

64
I wanted a 10 liter machine because of something that happened a couple of years
back. I asked the Air Care Serviceman for masks rather cannulas. He said no, use of
masks required a minimum oxygen flow of 6 liters. I got around that with the new ma-
chine, which I set to deliver 2 liters, the same as my old one.

And, why would we need the stuff if we could get Paramedics to housing tract? I’ll an-
swer that, it takes them time to get there, too much time. If someone went into defib,
they could die before the paramedics got there. We could zap them and start them on
Ringer’s and let the Paramedics do the tough stuff like Lidocaine, Sodium Bicarbonate
and all the tough stuff. We could even put someone on 10 liters of oxygen, that’s what
they had me on when I ended up in the hospital with a breathing problem. Man, when
you have a heart attack, they give you all kinds of drugs, but with oxygen, a defibrillator,
IV solutions and aspirin, we could get a head start. Besides, what if the Muslims showed
up and started shooting? (See, I got it back to the title)

Ronald finally showed up around December 28th and he looked like he needed a drink.
If he needed one, he had booze at his house, I didn’t keep any. Well, Sharon would
sometimes buys a six pack of beer or a four pack of wine, but when she did, I ignored
her. Neither one constituted more than a good start.

Sharon’s check cleared so I assumed that Derek bought the Austrian FAL rifle. I also
assumed he’d call me but he hadn’t so I sent him an email. His reply was short and to
the point, Got it and some of the $5 magazines, thanks. I sent an email and asked if he
would buy Damon a shotgun. If he said he would, I write a check and clear it with the
boss later. They could work out the logistics of getting the shotgun from Gassville to
Britt.

“Hey asshole, how are you doing?”

“God, you’re ugly. We had a terrible time getting back. It was a ground burst, there’s
fallout everywhere.”

“We didn’t get any here.”

“I noticed. Still have power, too.”

“Lost the internet for a while, I went into withdrawal. We’re all set in case you have a
heart attack, got one of those AEDs, IV solutions and Amy is current on her CPR.”

“If it happens, just let me go. After spending a month with her dad, I’m ready. Man did
you go shopping or what?”

“You didn’t see my new generator. I’m convinced and maybe Sharon is too, that we’re in
for a whole lot of trouble. Those nukes were just the first step in the New Crusades. This

65
time the Muslims are going to fight it in Europe and here on our soil. Those radicals
have them all fired up and they’re convinced we’re either going to convert or die.”

“Convert to Islam?”

“Yeah. I could convert to LDS. I could convert to Catholic, but I’ll never be a Muslim.”

“What about Baptist?”

“Now you’re going too far.”

“What do you have against the Baptists?”

“Nothing, I just don’t want to be one.”

“What the hell is that?”

“Road plate. I asked Chris where I could get some and Matt and he brought it and in-
stalled it.”

“Are the stores open, we don’t have a lot of food in the house?”

“They’re open, but I don’t know how much food they have, people have been stocking
up.”

“What did you buy for a generator?”

“Onan RS15000. They were on backorder, but only for 2 weeks. I put in 1,000-gallons of
propane, and if I figured it right, it burns anywhere from 1.2 to 2.4gph.”

“So you have anywhere from 400 to 800 hours of run time?”

“Yes, but it won’t support our air conditioner in the summer if it comes to that. Sharon
doubled the size of the air conditioner when she replaced the furnace to 5 tons. I don’t
know that it’s more efficient like it’s supposed to be but it keeps the house cold.”

“But Gar-Bear, 400 hours is only 16 days at full power and a month at minimum power.”

“The lights are never out for very long, Ron.”

“Yeah but, you told me that you might have to shelter for 2,401 hours and even at mini-
mum power, you’d need at least a 3,000 gallon propane tank.”

“You said I was crazy to want a 3,000-gallon propane tank, remember?”

“I did, didn’t I? Maybe I was wrong. What made you buy a big generator?”

66
“My neighbor across the street has an RS 20000 and a 1,000-gallon tank.”

“Is he a crackpot like you?”

“He was a Green Beret in Vietnam. Does that make him crazy?”

“I don’t know him, is he?”

“Not hardly. They were on vacation in Arizona when the terrorists attacked. When he
came back, he had a M1A and a Bushmaster A3. I didn’t know it, but Elvia and he had
put in that generator. I think they’re pretty well prepared. He helped me get my rifles
sighted in.”

“How would you fill that big of tank if you could get one?”

“I’d rent the tank the same as we are now. Maybe they could put in the new tank first
and transfer the 900 gallons we have into it. It’s running about a buck seventy nine the
last I heard. We could add about 500 gallons at a time until we reached 2,700 gallons.
That would probably take about 3-4 months. What are you going to do?”

“I’ll have to talk to Lyn. You’re talking about a lot of money there. We have to buy the
food, too. How big is your freezer?”

“About 21ft³. You can fill it from Costco if they have the meat in stock. For sure you can
put a half of beef and some pork and chicken in it.”

“Are you still on natural gas?”

“Yes, but like Lance, I bought jets to convert the appliances. I asked Dick if he could do
it and he said it wouldn’t be a problem. He could do it for you, if you needed. I also have
the kit to convert the generator to natural gas, just in case.”

“What’s in those pails?”

“Staples. Three kinds of beans, rice, egg noodles, macaroni, spaghetti, sugar, flour and
so forth. A couple of them contain popcorn.”

“Do you have enough coffee?”

“Not really. If it were up to me, we’d have 52 cans of coffee. I was lucky to get Sharon to
agree to buy 30 cans, she only wanted 24. We stocked up on toilet paper too. We have
12 bundles of 30 rolls each. I had to cheat on cigarettes; I’ve been buying 6 cartons a
month and hiding the leftovers. She says I smoke too much, but she doesn’t know I
have accumulated about 20 cartons. I won’t be happy until I get it up to a year’s supply.

67
You guys had better sit down and have a long talk about this partner. I honestly believe
the Muslims have brought the war to our shores.”

“I suppose you want me to stock up on ammo too.”

“What would it hurt? Properly stored, ammo keeps for years. If you had read my stories,
you’d know this and I wouldn’t have to preach to you. At least Lyn and you have a 6
month supply of drugs.”

“I got so many samples I had to throw some away, they were expired.”

“They were probably still good, Ron. You store them in the cupboard under good condi-
tions. Don’t believe those expiration dates, they assume you store them under less than
ideal conditions. Did you check with a pharmacy to find out if they were still good?”

“I don’t know about these things like you do.”

“There are some you can’t store, but they are few and far between. Epinephrine and tet-
racycline are good examples of drugs with a short shelf life. Many drugs stored under
reasonable conditions retain 90 percent of their potency for at least five years after the
expiration date on the label, and sometimes much longer. The Pentagon did a study
and they found that manufacturers use conservative expiration dates. About 85 percent
of the Pentagon’s drug stockpile remained good after the expiration date, and shelf-life
program extended their expiration dates by an average of 57 months, according to the
FDA. Among them were everyday antibiotics like tetracycline and penicillin; the tranquil-
izer Valium (diazepam); and the ulcer drug, Tagamet (cimetidine). One batch of the an-
tibiotic Cipro (ciprofloxacin) was good 13 years after the expiration date.”

“I don’t have time to research all of that stuff.”

“Make friends with a pharmacist, Ron. If you get a good one, he or she can be your best
friend. I have insulin I bought a year ago and it doesn’t begin to go bad until you open
the bottle. Lots of drugs are like that. Nitroglycerine is like that, the short shelf life pri-
marily applies to when it’s opened. I’ve accumulated a one year supply of Prevacid by
getting a free 60 day supply every time I visit Dr. Patel. I did the same thing with Diovan
HCT and Actos. Dr. J gave me samples of Avandaryl and I kept filling my prescriptions
for Amaryl and Actos.”

“What are you short on?”

“Zoloft and Plavix, but I have Ecotrin. With Derek home from the sandbox, I may cut
back on the Zoloft anyway and start saving up on it.”

“Does it work?”

68
“Do you mean does it keep me from being depressed? Not really. I figure I can cut it
back to 50mg and build up a supply over time. Once I get a full year supply, I’ll raise the
dosage back up to 100mg.”

“Man, I wouldn’t mess around with my drugs if I were you.”

“You aren’t me partner.”

Ron and I didn’t agree on everything. He did know a lot about propane, he’d designed
industrial installations when he’d worked for AmeriGas. If he said I needed a 3,000-
gallon tank, I needed a 3,000 gallon tank. I sure hoped he took my advice about stock-
ing up on food and drugs. He really needed to put in a residential standby generator too;
he had a CPAP and a few other medical appliances. It was like I said about firearms,
would you prefer to have a firearm and not need it or to need a firearm and not have it?

Derek and Mary had visited during November and returned home before TSHTF. I
hadn’t seen him for a while before he went to the sandbox, but I think it aged him. It also
made him more willing to get into preparedness. We did what we could to help in that
regard; getting him the FAL rifle he wanted. If he’d driven instead of flying, I sure we
could have done more. We couldn’t send food back with them, for example. I could
send him a check when we had the money so he could buy some of the surplus ammo.
He was fussy about that and I’m not sure what he ended up with.

Frugal said the South African was some of the finest military surplus but wouldn’t sell to
Kalifornia residents. I found another source, but couldn’t quite match the price. Then
when the terrorists set off the bombs, I found mama to be in a good mood and we’d
done some buying. I had the guns I wanted, more or less. That means I wanted more,
not less, but I had the basic armory. My gut was telling me we’d need it. My gut told me
many things and it wasn’t always right, but it had a good track record except when it
came to ulcers. I blame Dr. J for the ulcers; he put me on aspirin instead of Ecotrin. I
also blamed myself because I knew better.

Religious fanatics, regardless of what name they give their jealous god, invariably have
one thing in common: no sense of humor. Particularly about themselves. It’s hard to im-
agine Torquemada taking a joke well.

Today’s Islamists seem to have not even a sense of irony. They fail to see the richness
of the following sequence. The pope makes a reference to a 14th-century Byzantine
emperor’s remark about Islam imposing itself by the sword, and to protest this linking of
Islam and violence:

● In the West Bank and Gaza, Muslims attack seven churches.

● In London, the ever-dependable radical Anjem Choudary tells demonstrators at
Westminster Cathedral that the pope is now condemned to death.

69
● In Mogadishu, Somali religious leader Abubukar Hassan Malin calls on Muslims to
“hunt down” the pope. The pope not being quite at hand, they do the next best thing:
shoot dead, execution-style, an Italian nun who worked in a children’s hospital.

“How dare you say Islam is a violent religion? I’ll kill you for it” is not exactly the best
way to go about refuting the charge. But of course, refuting is not the point here. The
point is intimidation.

First Salman Rushdie. Then the false Newsweek report about Koran-flushing at Guan-
tanamo Bay. Then the Danish cartoons. And now a line from a scholarly disquisition on
rationalism and faith given in German at a German university by the pope.

And the intimidation succeeds: politicians bowing and scraping to the mob over the car-
toons; Saturday’s craven New York Times editorial telling the pope to apologize; the
plague of self-censorship about anything remotely controversial about Islam – this in a
culture in which a half-naked pop star blithely stages a mock crucifixion as the highlight
of her latest concert tour. (Madonna)

In today’s world, religious sensitivity is a one-way street. The rules of the road are en-
forced by Islamic mobs and abjectly followed by Western media, politicians and reli-
gious leaders.

The fact is that all three monotheistic religions have in their long histories wielded the
sword. The Book of Joshua is knee-deep in blood. The real Hanukkah story, so absurd-
ly twinned (by calendric accident) with the Christian festival of peace, is about a savage
insurgency and civil war.

Christianity more than matched that lurid history with the Crusades, an ecumenical
blood bath that began with the slaughter of Jews in the Rhineland, a kind of preseason
warm-up to the featured massacres to come against the Muslims, with the sacking of
the capital of Byzantium (the Fourth Crusade) thrown in for good measure.

And Islam, of course, spread with great speed from Arabia across the Mediterranean
and into Europe. It was not all benign persuasion. After all, what were Islamic armies
doing at Poitiers in 732 and the gates of Vienna in 1683? Tourism?

However, the inconvenient truth is that after centuries of religious wars, Christendom
long ago gave it up. It is a simple and undeniable fact that the violent purveyors of mon-
otheistic religion today are self-proclaimed warriors for Islam who shout “God is great”
as they slit the throats of infidels – such as those of the flight crews on Sept. 11, 2001 –
and are then celebrated as heroes and martyrs.

Just one month ago, two journalists were kidnapped in Gaza and were released only
after their forced conversion to Islam. Where were the protests in the Islamic world at
that act – rather than the charge – of forced conversion?

70
Where is the protest over the constant stream of vilification of Christianity and Judaism
issuing from the official newspapers, mosques and religious authorities of Arab nations?
When Sheik Atiyyah Saqr issues a fatwa declaring Jews “apes and pigs”? When Sheik
Abd al-Aziz Fawzan al-Fawzan, professor of Islamic law, says on Saudi TV that “some-
one who denies Allah, worships Christ, son of Mary, and claims that God is one-third of
a trinity. . . . Don’t you hate the faith of such a polytheist?”

Where are the demonstrations, where are the parliamentary resolutions, where are the
demands for retraction when the Mufti Sheik Ali Gum’a incites readers of al-Ahram, the
Egyptian government daily, against “the true and hideous face of the blood-suckers . . .
who prepare [Passover] matzos from human blood”?

The pope gives offense and the Mujaheddin al-Shura Council in Iraq declares that it “will
break up the cross, spill the liquor and impose the ‘jizya’ [head] tax; then the only thing
acceptable is conversion or the sword.” This to protest the accusation that Islam might
be spread by the sword.

As I said. No sense of irony. – Charles Krauthammer (Washington Post) Of course be-

sides being a conservative commentator Charles is an MD and Jewish.

I was trying to think of any reason that might cause Muslims to come to Palmdale. I
wasn’t having much luck, we didn’t have anything they’d want unless they simply want-
ed to try and kill some people. This was the wrong place to try that, I doubt that anyone
in the AV turned in weapons when Kalifornia passed the laws outlawing all of the fun
guns. However, if you’re familiar with the area, Palmdale gets its power via several high-
lines. South of Palmdale, they were everywhere and it wouldn’t take much to bring one
of the towers down. In turn, that might cause a cascade effect, taking out other power
sources. In the summer, but not in the winter. In the winter, all it would do is cut power
to the AV.

I also wondered if I went house to house in our tract how many hand grenades I could
find. Some of my neighbors might be legal, but for sure others were not. A person could
tell, they took major steps to avoid any contact with the Sheriff’s Department. But wait,
all of these folks were Mexicans, weren’t they? Perhaps a Spanish speaker would know,
but I don’t speak Spanish and have no reason to learn. Who cared where they were
from? As long as there were no MS-13 tattoos, Say, do you know the difference be-
tween Arabic and Farsi? Farsi is Indo-European language family and the Arabic is Afro-
Asiatic language family. There are more Arabic speakers than there are Farsi speakers.

Maybe I could get Catherine Bell to teach me. She was Isabella Rossellini’s nude body
double in Death Becomes Her. Watch the sales of that DVD jump. My favorite Isabella
Rossellini movie is White Nights and that has nothing to do with the new crusade. We
eased into 2007, holding our breaths. Ron must have laid it on thick with Linda, they
had 2 new freezers in their garage and a Kohler 50RZGB-RES because their house had

71
a 200 amp service. They also had a pair of 3,000-gallon propane tanks and they had
filled them.

I figured she must have hit her daddy up for the money. She probably told him that if
TSHTF he could come to their house. If she did, she was lying; Ron would never stand
still for that. I sort guessed her daddy would outlive George Burns. If I guessed right,
one freezer was filled with those frozen meals ala Marie Callender and the other with tri-
tip steak. Sharon and I had a bit of a disagreement when we were discussing our food
supplies. She bought 3 8-pound bags of macaroni and I told her it was a good start. I
wanted enough to fill a pail and have a bag left over. She was the steak lover and I liked
ground beef.

Something is nagging… Oh, I remember, it had to do with the prison west of Lancaster.
The facility was designed to hold 200 Class I inmates and 1,000 class IV inmates. The
paper said that it currently housed 296 Class I and 3,889 Class IV, a total of 4,185.
Class IV is maximum security. Security at the prison is provided by an electric fence,
10,000 volts or something like that. The prison must have backup power, we get a fair
number of brownouts and blackouts here in the Valley. What I was thinking was one
sure way to raise havoc in the Valley would be to somehow cause a release of prison-
ers.

I really don’t know what made me think of that, our problem was terrorists, apparently
Muslim terrorists. Just this week, the Sheriff’s Department announced an increase in the
number of Deputies assigned to the Lancaster and Palmdale Sheriff’s Substations. I
can’t see we really needed the Deputies, we haven’t had any trouble. We had the usual
shooting of guns on New Year’s Eve, it happens every year. Sometimes they arrest
someone, but not frequently. If they’re going to celebrate, they should really use fire-
works.

The date? It’s Monday and the second Holiday in 2007, Martin Luther King Day. I’d love
to comment on not celebrating Lincoln’s birthday, but maybe some other story. Late in
the afternoon, CBS new broke in with breaking news, there was some kind of disturb-
ance in Santa Barbara. You’ve seen these reporters, they don’t need any facts, they just
guess until someone calls the station and corrects them. I’ve always felt sorry for the
callers, they really get the 3rd degree, worse than anything we ever did to al Qaeda
prisoners in those secret overseas prisons.

It was finally sorted out, an immigrant family, Muslims, tried to buy 2 bags of fertilizer for
their garden. The store owner, suspecting they were terrorists called the cops. The hot
headed son waiting in the car confronted the store owner and the store owner pulled a
gun. The kid yelled something in Arabic and went for the owner, who killed him. Rioting
later broke out after the police questioned the family and let them go. A companion pro-
test arose in Glendale. Arnold had to call out the National Guard. It was just a typical
winter day. Gardening in January? Not really, it was a one-day pre-season sale with
50% off.

72
The small incident in Santa Barbara refused to go away. Feelings were running high in
the southland to begin with and neither side wanted to be the first one to back off. We
decided to cancel further visits to Northridge to see Dr. J.

Based on the circumference, depth and other factors, a conclusion was reached that the
bomb that was detonated only yielded ~3kT. Most of the San Fernando Valley had been
spared fallout because the wind had been out of the north. Ron and Linda had been
lucky, the wind slowly moved from being out of the north to being out of the west. New-
port Beach had been spared significant radiation. He took a long circuitous route home,
avoiding the areas of fallout.

“Have you been watching TV?”

“Gar-Bear, there’s nothing else to do.”

“What’s your take on the riots?”

“Escalating.”

“I agree, I don’t like it. You and I have been to the prison on panels; do you know how
overcrowded that prison is?”

“How much?”

“They have 4 times as many Max prisoners as the place was designed for.”

“Level 4?”

“Yes sir, it was designed for 1,000 but is just under 4,000.”

73
 The New Crusades – Chapter 8

“Not to change the subject, but Linda and I are done preparing. I put in the Kohler
50RES, 6,000 gallons of propane storage, and we have about 3-4 months of food on
the shelf.”

“I don’t suppose you bought a real rifle, did you?”

“Do you mean a military rifle? I thought about buying a Mauser from Mitchell’s but de-
cided against it, I’m gun poor anyway. My hunting rifles will be just fine.”

“Didn’t buy anything from them?”

“Well… yes I did, they sell coach guns, the kind that have hammers. I bought one of
those.”

“Do you have enough 12 gauge ammo?”

“I bought some 8-pellet tactical 00.”

“Afraid you’ll bruise your shoulder?”

“It’s what I could find, Sandy had it on sale. What do you use?”

“Remington Express Magnum 12-pellet 00.”

“I’ll bet that chit kicks.”

“Probably, but I should have bought 3” Remington Express Magnum 15-pellet 00.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“I have more shots with the 2¾” shells.”

“Like we’ll every need to shoot our guns.”

“I have a theory on that, want to hear it?”

“Will it take long?”

“It’s like this, Ron, we have a whole lot of Jews and Muslims in LA. They don’t like each
other. On top of that, we have about 80 jillion illegals from south of the border. I figure
the illegals will join up with the Muslims in hopes or restoring the nation of Aztlán. Their
first step would be to break all of their compañeros out of the prisons. The prisons are
primarily designed to keep people in, not to keep people out.”

74
July 14, 2006: The F-35 (recently named the Lightning II) is due to enter service soon.
While the F-22 is widely seen as the ultimate air-to-air machine, the F-35 is described
as a multi-role aircraft. How does the F-35 compare in the air-to-air mission against like-
ly competitors like the French Rafale, the Swedish Gripen, and the multi-national Eu-
rofighter?

The Rafale, Gripen, and Eurofighter are all in service or expected to enter service in
2006. All of them boast some of the best electronics suites ever to appear in combat
aircraft. All have top speeds approaching 2,000 kilometers an hour. All three aircraft car-
ry excellent beyond-visual-range missiles (like the Mica, AMRAAM, and Meteor). All are
highly maneuverable. But will they be better than the F-35 in a fight?

The answer, surprisingly, is probably not. The F-35 has one big advantage over these
three fighters from Europe. Its radar signature is very small – as is the case with the F-
117 and F-22. Given that its speed is comparable to the European jets, and its AESA
radar is at least as good as the European systems, this “invisibility” is a decisive ad-
vantage. The best weapons in the world are useless if they cannot see their targets.

The F-35 will be able to see the Rafale, Gripen, and Eurofighter long before it can be
seen itself. The first rule of air combat may be “speed is life”, but the second rule is “lose
the sight, lose the fight”. In the 21st century, sight includes radar. It is very likely that the
only warning the F-35 may give of its presence will be when its radar has locked on to
one of the European fighters. By that point, the F-35 is already close to launching its
AMRAAMs.

This is probably the major reason for the United States Air Force’s future dominance of
the air. Even its second-best fighter will probably be able to best the front-line designs of
other western nations in a “paper” fight based on specifications and capabilities. When
the level of training American pilots get is added to the mix, the F-35’s advantage be-
comes staggering. One other factor to consider is that the United States Air Force plans
to have 1,763 F-35s on inventory (the Marine Corps and Navy variants would add an-
other 780 F-35s to the mix). If the Rafale is built to a planned force level of 292, and the
Saudi order for the Eurofighter goes through, the combined Gripen, Rafale, and Eu-
rofighter production runs will total 1,262, meaning there will be two F-35s for every one
of the advanced European fighters. – Harold C. Hutchison

Living next door to plant 42 allows me to observe most of our military aircraft. The
greatest bomber they ever built was the B-52. The greatest bomber they never built was
the B-1A. The B-1B cost about $200 million each, we should have built 100 of them.

Primary Function: Long-range, multi-role, heavy bomber

Builder: Rockwell International, North American Aircraft
Operations Air Frame and Integration: Offensive avionics, Boeing Military Airplane; de-
fensive avionics, AIL Division

75
Power Plant: Four General Electric F-101 GE-100 turbofan engine with afterburner
Thrust: 30,000-plus pounds (13,500-plus kilograms) with afterburner, per engine
Length: 150.2 feet
Wingspan: 136.7 feet extended forward – 78.2 feet swept aft
Height: 33.6 feet
Weights: Design Maximum Takeoff: 389,800 lbs – Design Maximum Ramp: 395,000 lbs
– Maximum Landing: 350,000 lbs
Speed: Max Speed: at 500 ft. (750 mph) – Max Speed: Mach 2.0 at 50,000 feet (1,320
mph) – Cruise speed: at 50,000 ft (648 mph)
Range: 5,300 miles unrefueled
Ceiling: Over 30,000 feet (9,000 meters)
Crew: Four (aircraft commander, pilot, offensive systems officer and defensive systems
officer)
Armament: 115,000 lbs – 24 AGM-69B SRAM (200kT); conventional bombs – 75,000
lbs internal plus 40,000 lbs external 32 SRAM
Date Deployed: Cancelled 1977
Unit Cost:
Inventory: none – 4 built, 2 crashed and 2 on display

This was turning out like that new TV show, Jericho. The bomb was exploded a ways off
and we didn’t get much, if any, radiation. I’d folded the plastic back up and marked it
with a black marker in case we needed to use it again. To reiterate: WMDs include bio-
logical weapons and chemical weapons. How hard can it be to make nerve gas, Hitler
figured it out and he was crazy.

Tabun was originally developed as a pesticide in Germany in 1936. Tabun is a man-

made chemical warfare agent classified as a nerve agent. Nerve agents are the most
toxic and rapidly acting of the known chemical warfare agents. They are similar to pesti-
cides (insect killers) called organophosphates in terms of how they work and what kinds
of harmful effects they cause. However, nerve agents are much more potent than or-
ganophosphate pesticides. Tabun is a clear, colorless, tasteless liquid with a faint fruity
odor. Tabun can become a vapor if heated.

Sarin originally was developed in 1938 in Germany as a pesticide. Sarin is a human-

made chemical warfare agent classified as a nerve agent. Nerve agents are the most
toxic and rapidly acting of the known chemical warfare agents. They are similar to cer-
tain kinds of pesticides (insect killers) called organophosphates in terms of how they
work and what kind of harmful effects they cause. However, nerve agents are much
more potent than organophosphate pesticides.

Soman was originally developed as an insecticide in Germany in 1944. Soman is a hu-

man-made chemical warfare agent classified as a nerve agent. Nerve agents are the
most toxic and rapidly acting of the known chemical warfare agents. They are similar to
pesticides (insect killers) called organophosphates in terms of how they work and the

76
kinds of harmful effects they cause. However, nerve agents are much more potent than
organophosphate pesticides. Chemical weapons are divided into 3 schedules

Schedule I

Sarin
Soman
Tabun
VE, VG, VM and VX
Sulfur Mustard gasses
Lewisites
Nitrogen Mustard gasses
Saxitoxin
Ricin

Schedule II

Amiton
PFIB
BZ

Schedule III

Phosgene
Cyanogen Chloride
Hydrogen Cyanide
Phosphorus Pentachloride
Trimethyl phosphate
Triethyl phosphite
Dimethyl phosphate
Diethyl phosphate
Sulfur monochloride
Sulfur dichloride
Thionyl chloride
Ethyldiethanolamine
Methuldiethanolamine
Trithanolamine

There is one more and it’s not covered by the Chemical Weapons Treaties: Novichok
agents. As a nerve agent, Novichok agents inhibit the enzyme cholinesterase, prevent-
ing the normal breakdown of acetylcholine. The big difference with Novichok is that
there is, allegedly, more permanent damage done, even when given a nerve agent anti-
dote. Abrin 1/75 the strength of Ricin and it comes from the Black-eyed Susan.

Nerve agents have an extremely rapid effect. If medical methods of treatment are to
serve any purpose, they must be introduced immediately. In many countries, the armed

77
forces have access to an auto-injector containing antidotes to nerve agents. It is so
simple to use that the soldier can easily give himself or another person an intra-
muscular injection.

The various nerve agents cause poisoning which are more or less easy to treat with ox-
imes. From this standpoint, VX and sarin are the easiest to treat and all oximes used
increase the chances of surviving poisoning with these nerve agents. Obidoxime is the
most effective against tabun poisoning but also HI-6 has a positive effect. Soman caus-
es the most difficultly treated poisoning and can only be treated with HI-6.

Soman poisoning is complicated by the inhibited enzyme going through an “ageing”

process. Following the ageing the enzyme cannot be reactivated by any oxime. It is
possible that HI-6 has some further positive antidote effect in addition to its reactivating
ability.

The other active component in the auto-injector is atropine. Atropine is the classical an-
tidote in cases of poisoning by organo-phosphorus compounds. It is a medication which
relieves the symptoms but does not attack the cause of the injury. Atropine becomes
bound to the receptors for acetylcholine, which are present in the cholinergic synapse.
When acetylcholine is bound, the signal is transmitted but if atropine has become bound
to the receptor, then no such transmission takes place. Atropine thus gives protection
against the excess of acetylcholine which results from inhibition of acetylcholinesterase.
Atropine has effects only within certain parts of the cholinergic nervous system.

There are two types of acetylcholine receptors, the nicotinic which are found, e.g., in the
skeletal muscles, and the muscarinic, which are found in, e.g., smooth muscles, glands
and the central nervous system. Atropine blocks the muscarinic receptors. Atropine and
oxime may therefore be considered to complement each other and the two antidotes
also have a synergetic effect, i.e., they boost each other.

An additional auto-injector can be given to victims of nerve agents if their situation does
not improve within ten minutes. Subsequently, the victim should be treated by qualified
medical staff who should initially inject additional atropine and an anti-convulsant drug,
diazepam. In cases of severe poisoning by nerve agents, large doses of atropine
(grammes) may be required. The level of operational acetylcholinesterase is gradually
restored by the body’s own production but this process requires at least two weeks.
During this period, and possibly also later, the victim may require medical care not only
for mental disorders such as difficulty in sleeping, amnesia, difficulties in concentrating,
and anxiety, but also for muscular weakness. Mental problems may also occur after
long exposure to extremely low concentrations to nerve agents.

There are also medical antidotes which can be taken preventively. These antidotes are
taken as tablets and used when ordered in connection with maximum C-preparedness.
One of the tablets contains a carbamate, pyridostigmine, as active ingredient.

78
Pyridostigmine inhibits acetylcholinesterase and protects the enzyme against inhibitory
effects of nerve agents. The dose is low and leads to about 25 per cent inhibition. The
pyridostigmine-inhibited enzyme is continuously released to active state and thereby
can reasonably effectively maintain the transfer of nerve impulses despite injury caused
by nerve agents. The effect is restricted to the peripheral cholinergic nervous system
since the substance does not enter the brain.

Pyridostigmine does not cause any side effects since there is a large excess of enzyme
in the cholinergic synapse. In actual fact, 1-2 per cent of functional enzyme is sufficient
to have a functioning synapse. This explains why carbamate pretreatment has such
good effect.

Pretreatment with carbamate should be combined with oxime therapy (the auto-injector)
after the poisoning in order to provide maximum effect. This combination reduces the
toxic effects of all nerve agents.

A diazepam tablet is also generally given as a pretreatment, primarily affecting the cen-
tral nervous system. Diazepam strengthens the effect of other nerve agent antidotes.
There will be better prospects of survival and less injury. Diazepam also provides pro-
tection against permanent brain damage which may result from heavy exposure to
nerve agents.

Pretreatment has best effect if a warning system is available and operative, since the
tablets need about 30 min. to have effect after being swallowed. The best protective ef-
fect is achieved after about two hours, which is followed by decreasing efficacy. If the
situation so requires, treatment can be repeated at eight-hourly intervals for some days.
The tablets should not be taken once nerve agent injury has occurred. Admittedly, diaz-
epam has a positive effect but pyridostigmine at that stage will aggravate the injury.

I have a copy of the Combat Lifesaver manuals. Chapter 14 covers nerve gas injuries:

PERFORM FIRST AID FOR A NERVE AGENT INJURY

TASK
Identify the procedures for treating a nerve agent casualty.

CONDITIONS
Given multiple choice examination items pertaining to nerve agent poisoning, treatment,
and decontamination.

STANDARD
Score 70 or more points on the 100-point written examination.

REFERENCES
STP 21-1-SMCT, Soldier’s Manual of Common Tasks: Skill Level 1.
FM 21-11, First Aid for Soldiers.

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FM 8-285, Treatment of Chemical Agent Casualties and Conventional Military Chemical
Injuries.

14-1. INTRODUCTION
Nerve agents are among the deadliest of the chemical agents. Nerve agents can enter
the body by inhalation, by ingestion, and through the skin and eyes. Nerve agents are
absorbed rapidly and the effects are felt immediately upon entry into the body. A soldier
showing signs of mild nerve agent poisoning will normally be able to administer his own
Mark I (atropine and 2-PAM chloride). A soldier showing signs of moderate to severe
nerve agent poisoning will not be able to help himself and requires assistance. Your first
priority, however, is to ensure that you yourself are adequately protected before assist-
ing any nerve agent casualty. You cannot adequately help the casualty if you are also
overcome by the nerve agent.

14-2. TAKE PROTECTIVE MEASURES

Anytime you believe that you have been exposed to a chemical agent, your first action
should be to take adequately protective measures against the agent. Put on your
protective mask immediately and give the alarm. If you have signs and symptoms of
mild nerve agent poisoning (unexplained runny nose, sudden headache, dizziness,
drooling, tightness in the chest, muscular twitching, stomach cramps, nausea, and/or
reduced vision), administer one set of nerve agent autoinjectors to yourself and decon-
taminate exposed skin. Put on the rest of your protective clothing. Now you are pre-
pared to accomplish your mission and to give aid to casualties as your mission allows.

14-3. IDENTIFY SIGNS OF SEVERE NERVE AGENT POISONING

A casualty may progress from mild to moderate to severe nerve agent poisoning rapidly.
Signs of severe nerve agent poisoning include:
●Strange and confused behavior.
●Coughing, wheezing, and gurgling sounds while breathing.
●Difficulty in breathing.
●Severely pinpointed pupils.
●Red eyes with tears present.
●Severe difficulty in seeing.
●Vomiting.
●Severe muscular twitching and general weakness.
●Loss of bladder and bowel control.
●Decrease in heart rate (pulse).
●Convulsions.
●Paralysis.
●Unconsciousness.
●Respiratory arrest (no breathing).

A Combat Lifesavers bag contains 5 doses of Atropine and 5 doses of Diazepam, it’s on
the test. Go figure, they tell you in the book to administer 3 doses to the patient and 1 to
yourself. If we get a nerve gas attack, I guess we’ll put up the plastic sheeting and pray.

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In my Air Force days, they also talked about BAL (British Anti-Lewisite) injections. I
found out its name is Dimercaprol. Developed secretly as an antidote for Lewisite, the
now-obsolete arsenic-based chemical warfare agent. Today, it is used medically in
treatment of arsenic, mercury, lead and other heavy metal poisoning. In addition, it is
used for the treatment of Wilson’s disease, a genetic disorder in which the body tends to
retain copper. Dimercaprol is itself toxic, with a narrow therapeutic index and a tendency
to concentrate arsenic in some organs. Other drawbacks include the need to administer
it by painful IM injection.

Chemical warfare is different from the use of conventional weapons or nuclear weapons
because the destructive effects of chemical weapons are not primarily due to any explo-
sive force. The offensive use of living organisms (such as anthrax) is considered to be
biological warfare rather than chemical warfare; the use of nonliving toxic products pro-
duced by living organisms (e.g., toxins such as botulinum toxin, ricin, or saxitoxin –
shellfish toxin) is considered chemical warfare under the provisions of the CWC. Under
this Convention, any toxic chemical, regardless of its origin, is considered as a chemical
weapon unless it is used for purposes that are not prohibited (an important legal defini-
tion, known as the General Purpose Criterion). Tetrodotoxin is the almost always fatal
fish toxin and there isn’t any antidote I know about.

We heard a lot about anthrax after the WTC on 9/11 and a little bit about Ricin. But, I’m
telling you these terrorists will use anything they can make. Over in Tokyo, terrorists
used Sarin gas in a subway station killing 12 people and seriously injuring 54 on
20Mar95. Most chemical weapons that use Sarin are binary weapons.

This move cannot be ruled out, he said to Reuters and International Herald Tribune, de-
spite the chasm between the Sunni Muslim al Qaeda and Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah.

Counter-terror sources had uncovered the presence of active al Qaeda cells in Leba-
non, located mainly in Palestinian refugee camps in Tripoli in the north and Sidon in the
south. Hezbollah’s military operations commander Imad Mughniyeh brokered a new op-
erational pact between his organization and al Qaeda with Tehran’s blessing. Sectarian
differences between the Shiite Hezbollah and predominantly Sunni Muslim Palestinians
have never barred their cooperation in Gaza and the West Bank. Since 1993, Mughni-
yeh, who is close to Iranian ruler Ali Khamenei, has liaised between Iran and the al
Qaeda leadership. Great the Shi’a and Sunni got together and are ganging up on us.
There wasn’t any proof either way that Osama was dead, six months after the report in
the French newspaper.

It wasn’t all that long ago that Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi wasn’t our friend. IIRC,
Libya had terrorist training camps. Throughout the 1970s, his regime was implicated in
subversion and terrorist activities in both Arab and non-Arab countries. By the mid-
1980s, he was widely regarded in the West as the principal financier of international ter-
rorism. Reportedly, Gaddafi was a major financier of the “Black September Movement”
which perpetrated the Munich massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics, and was ac-
cused by the US of being responsible for direct control of the 1986 Berlin discotheque

81
bombing that killed three people and wounded more than 200, of which a substantial
number were US servicemen. He is also said to have paid “Carlos the Jackal” to kidnap
and then release a number of the Saudi Arabian and Iranian oil ministers. Ilich Ramírez
Sánchez is a Venezuelan-born mercenary. He is commonly referred to as Carlos (a
nom de guerre) or the Jackal (a press nickname) or Carlos the Jackal.

After a three year joint investigation by the Scottish Dumfries and Galloway and the US
FBI, during which 15,000 witness statements were taken, indictments for murder were
issued on 13Nov91, against Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence
officer and the head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines (LAA), and Al Amin Khalifa Fhi-
mah, the LAA station manager in Luga Airport, Malta for bombing Pan Am Flight 103.

UN sanctions against Libya and protracted negotiations with the Libyan leader Colonel
Gaddafi secured the handover of the accused on 5Apr99 to Scottish police in the Neth-
erlands, chosen as a neutral venue. On 31Jan01, Megrahi was convicted of murder by
a panel of three Scottish judges, and sentenced to 27 years in prison. Fhimah was ac-
quitted. Megrahi’s appeal against his conviction was refused on 14Mar02, and his appli-
cation to the European Court of Human Rights was declared inadmissible in July 2003.
On 23Sep03 Megrahi applied to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission
(SCCRC) for his conviction to be reviewed, and for his case to be referred back to the
High Court for a fresh appeal. He is serving his sentence in Greenock prison near Glas-
gow, where he continues to profess his innocence.

For you conspiracy theorists, On 5Dec98, the FAA issued a security bulletin saying that,
on 5Dec, a man with an Arabic accent had telephoned the US Embassy in Helsinki, and
had told them that a Pan Am flight from Frankfurt to the United States would be blown
up within the next two weeks by someone associated with the Abu Nidal Organization.
He said a Finnish woman would carry the bomb on board as an unwitting courier. The
caller was off by only two days.

On 13Dec, the warning was posted on bulletin boards in the US Embassy in Moscow,
and eventually distributed to the entire American community there, including journalists
and businessmen, as a result of which a number of people allegedly booked on carriers
other than Pan Am, leaving seats empty on PA103 that were later sold cheaply in so-
called “bucket shops”. PA103 investigators subsequently said the telephone warning
had been a hoax and a chilling coincidence. It had to be a conspiracy after all; George
H. W. Bush was President at the time. If Bill Clinton had been President, it couldn’t have
been a Conspiracy. His only crime was being married to the Ice Queen aka the Wicked
Witch of the East. Clinton gets blamed for the WTC bombing, Ruby Ridge, Oklahoma
City, Waco and the two US Embassy bombings. George Jr. has to hurry up to catch Bill,
counting Monica, the score is 7 to 4, 9/11, Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom and Katri-
na. Don’t you feel safer? I don’t know who to blame Somalia on, Sr. sent us in and Bill
pulled us out. We could blame it on the Blackhawk’s for not being bulletproof.

82
We’ve been at war with Islam since the first crusade. Those folks have very long memo-
ries. At one time in history, the hot song was, “Hail Britannia, Britannia rules the waves.”
That was at the height of British Imperialism and the height of the British Empire. The
UK has slipped to number 2, today the song should be, “Hail the US, the US rules the
waves.” And yes, Virginia, we’re very Imperialistic, everyone says so. We export, gasp,
Democracy. We don’t have enough at home, and still we give it away, or is that shove it
down their throats? I have strong feelings on the subject, I favor isolationism and darn
good border fences.

Just to show us how much they appreciated it, they gave us 7 presents on Black Friday.
Dubya was out of town, down in Crawford. Dick was in the White House and they
moved him into the White House bunker or whatever they have there. Congress was in
recess, it was Thanksgiving weekend. However, I heard on the radio, they got Hillary up
in New York. Not that it was worth it, but it removed the sting.

Our half of the world is run by the Trilateral Commission, the Round Table having fallen
out of favor (they’re still around, they have a website). They’re power brokers and we
have the Rockefeller family to thank for that.

Military wise, we’ve fielded the F-22 Raptor, a very good jet but expensive. We’re about
to field the F-35 Lighting II. If we’re the power in the world, why is there still an Arms
Race? They should start building M14s and give the soldiers vitamins. While they’re at
it, maybe they could adapt the muzzle break from the BM-59 and give us a really good
rifle. We could have an M14 with semi auto and 3 round burst. It they put a decent syn-
thetic stock on it; it would be the cats whisker.

My M1A has the McMillan fiberglass stock, some claim it chips. Maybe with hard use,
but it doesn’t get much use here in Moon Shadows. Meanwhile, after everything settled
down, I gave Sharon a box of Chocolates and a Butler Creek folding stock for Valen-
tine’s Day. For her birthday, 12 February, I put a flashhider on the Mini-14 and bought
her See’s Candy. Her box of See’s Candy wasn’t like the stuff in the Forrest Gump mov-
ie; it was 2 pounds of marzipan. The other box was a 1 pound box of See’s Dark Choco-
late Assortment.

“Dad, check out the TV.”

“What’s up?”

83
 The New Crusades – Chapter 9

“There’s a riot at the prison in Lancaster.”

“That’s nice, wouldn’t be the first time they went to lockdown. You watch it and let me
know if anything bad happens.”

I didn’t have No-Rad either. My friend Russ was the Executive Officer of a company that
sold KIO3 at only a little over their cost. If you want KIO3, go there, I did. When he heard
I was hawking another brand, he scolded me. I didn’t blame him one bit, Medical Corps
is the best because Frugal sells it too!

Perhaps the simplest solution to the problem in Iraq would have been to pull out and let
them have their civil war, not that I favor pullout. We could have come home and got our
equipment ready for the war with Iran. The company that does the uparmoring of the
HMMWVs can crank out 1,000 Hummers a month. If they’d add the cage from the
Stryker, that would solve the RPG problem. The Army was concerned about the Rocket
Propelled Grenade threat, the enemy’s weapon of choice. So two new types of armor
have been installed on the vehicles. The most obvious add-on to the discerning eye is
called slat armor. It resembles a “bird cage” that will add three feet to the Stryker’s
width. The slat armor installed on the Stryker’s resembles a big catcher’s mask that
wraps around the vehicle. The armor is basically a grill of wire mesh that will cause the
RPG to detonate away from the vehicle. Plans are in the works to add another type of
armor package to the inventory. That add-on armor is called “reactive armor.” Essential-
ly that armor explodes when an RPG or other anti-tank round hits it. It’s already on M-2
Bradley fighting vehicles.

And that the situation on Valentine’s Day, 2007. We’ve exported Democracy to the Ar-
abs and they’ve exported 7 nuclear weapons to us. That somehow doesn’t seem like an
even trade, oh well. I wonder what else they exported, biological or chemical weapons?
If they’d used those nukes more effectively, they could have brought the country to its
knees. Had it been me, I’d have put one of the bombs at Diablo Canyon and a second
at San Onofre. A third one at Hoover Dam would have all but eliminated Kalifornia’s
electrical supply and more than 10% of the US population lives in Kalifornia. I’ve been to
Boston and let me tell you, there’s nothing in Boston worth bombing, except people and
baked beans.

They were lessons to be learned from the 34-Day war, I wonder if we got the message.
Hezbollah wiped out a lot of the Israeli tanks using anti-tank missiles. That Israeli tank is
supposed to be Sierra Hotel. Some smart terrorist could have loaded the back half of a
semi-trailer with Russian anti-tank missiles and the front half with fertilizer, defeating the
explosive sniffing dogs at the Mexican border.

The bird flu was running rampant in Indonesia and they had discovered infected birds
on our east coast. The bird flu threat was still around; it just didn’t get much attention in
the media. From the terrorist viewpoint, the nuclear weapon packed in a Ryder Rental

84
and detonated in a city was the perfect choice; there wasn’t any evidence for the ATF to
sift through. Chuck told me that he thought the problem would be typhoid fever and that
Doxy wouldn’t cut it, we had to have Cipro. That’s the reason I stocked up on it and
doxy. I also had 21 cards of Tamiflu, enough for my entire family. I mailed 5 to Derek, 4
to Damon and gave 3 to Amy. I kept 2 for us and gave the other 7 to Lorrie. We were
about as ready as we could get, although, I’d love to have 21 Combat lifesaver bags.

“Gar-Bear, are you watching TV?”

“No, there’s nothing on that interests me.”

“You didn’t hear about the riot at the prison?”

“I heard, I told Amy to watch TV and let me know if anything bad happened.”

“‘They got out.”

“Who got out?”

“The inmates. They shorted out the fence and got out.”

“I don’t think so, Ron, they have over 800 staff at the prison.”

“True, but they only have about 250 per shift.”

“Chit.”

“You can say that again.”

“Chit.”

“What are we going to do now?”

“You come here, Ron, we have a fence around our housing tract.”

“How many does that make defending the housing tract?”

“Three, Lance, me and you.”

“I’ll bring Brenda, I’m sure she’d like to kill someone.”

“I’ve got the Min-14, I can give to someone. I’d better get off the phone with you and call
Lorrie. Sharon will have to go after her and get her here; she doesn’t have much protec-
tion where she lives.”

85
“I’ll be there in 5 minutes.”

“Right, Ron, see you in an hour.”

“Lance, you’d better get your weapons, there’s been a prison break.”

“You know if we moved our vehicles to the front of the tract, we could block the road. I’ll
move our two cars.”

“Ok, when Sharon gets back with Lorrie, I’ll ask her to park the Daewoo up there.”

“We’ll need 2 more cars.”

“Ron is coming so we only really need one.”

“I’ll move Dave’s pickup to the front.”

“How?”

“He gave me a spare key.”

“We don’t have enough people, Lance, we have 3 sides open, the west, north and east.”

“Odds are they won’t even come near here. How many people did they have at the pris-
on?”

“Over 4,000.”

“Most likely they’ll either run or hit Lancaster first and try to get their hands on guns.”

“The Gun Shop has anywhere from 6-9 employees working at all times. They’ll have to
work hard to break in there.”

“That’s just down from the Sheriff’s substation, right?”

“About a block.”

“If they do come here, it won’t be for a while.”

Russ mentioned the blue safety gloves in response to my chapter 21 of my previous

story. You don’t have to buy them from him, but you’ll know what you’re looking for. We
keep 4 gallons of Clorox on hand at all times, it’s an inexpensive disinfectant.

86
°

“Do you have a gas mask, Lance?”

“Why would I need one?”

“Maybe they stole tear gas from the guards.”

“No I don’t have a gas mask, do you?”

“Sure, several. Did you know they passed out gas masks at the Pentagon back in
2003?”

“What kind?”

“The masks distributed were the Quick Escape 2000 Hood Masks, which provide the
wearer about 60 minutes of protection from airborne toxins. There is no respirator or ox-
ygen tank. The $150 mask is essentially a filtration unit, designed to temporarily protect
individuals until they can be evacuated or quarantined.”

“Where did you get them?”

“Safer America, they sell all kinds of protective stuff.”

“What did you use when you worked at the Rocket Site?”

“Distance. We tried to never get near the chemicals. When the others did, they usually
wore Scott Air-Paks. I have the filters too, but once you open them, they have a limited
life. You should be able to hold your breath long enough to open the filter and screw it
on.”

“Good filters?”

“The latest and the greatest for these Advantage 3100 masks. Put the filter on the left
side so you can still shoot your rifle.”

“I’m not going to put the mask on until I see some people, Gary. When I do put it on, I’ll
have the filter installed.”

Lance was lucky, you sometimes had to buy the filters separate from the masks and I
bought 24 filters, about $1,000 worth. They were a universal NATO 40mm filter and fit
most gas masks. They came in a six-pack for $249.50 from a different vendor. Safer
America included a filter with their gas masks but I wanted the MSA Optifilter. Everyone
gets a dose of tear gas in boot camp, but not everyone is a fumble bum who gets lost in
the hut filled with CS gas.

87
“Alright, I’m here, where are the cons?”

“So far we only have one, Ron, you.”

“Gas masks?”

“Don’t you have one?”

“Why would I want one?”

“I think you’ll take a large and Brenda can get by with a medium. Don’t install the filter
until the desperadoes come.”

“Having an Eagles moment?”

“Something. To tell you the truth, I rather be standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona
than behind a barricade of cars and trucks in Palmdale.”

“Do you hear the sirens? It sounds to me like every cop within 50 miles is coming here
code 3.”

“They’re not coming here, Ron. I think they’re headed to Lancaster.”

“Yeah, that would make sense.”

“You’re Ron? Gary didn’t introduce us.”

“Sorry, Ron, Lance, Lance, Ron.”

“What kind of rifle is that?”

“It’s my .375 H&H magnum. I brought that and my 41. magnum revolver. Brenda has a
.223 rifle with a scope and a .38.”

“What kind of ammo do you use in the rifle?”

“Winchester 300 grain, the failsafe stuff, it’s hollow point.”

An only child alone and wild

A cabinet maker’s son
His hands were meant for different work
And his heart was known to none
He left his home and went his lone and solitary way
And he gave to me a gift

88
I know I never can repay

A quiet man of music

Denied a simpler fate
He tried to be a soldier once
But his music wouldn’t wait
He earned his love thru’ discipline
A thundering velvet hand
His gentle means of sculpting souls
Took me years to understand

The leader of the band

Is tired and his eyes are growing old
But his blood runs thru’ my instrument
And his song is in my soul
My life has been a poor attempt to imitate the man
I’m just a living legacy
To the leader of the band

My brother’s lives were different

For they heard another call
One went to Chicago and the other to St. Paul
And I’m in Colorado
When I’m not in some hotel
Living out this life I’ve chose
And come to know so well

I thank you for the music

And your stories of the road
I thank you for the freedom
When it came my time to go
I thank you for the kindness
And the times when you got tough
And papa I don’t think I said
“I love you” near enough

The leader of the band

Is tired and his eyes are growing old
But his blood runs thru’ my instrument
And his song is in my soul
My life has been a poor attempt to imitate the man
I’m just a living legacy
To the leader of the band
I am the living legacy
To the leader of the band

89
●Originally written and performed by Dan Fogelberg (born Daniel Grayling Fogelberg on
8/13/51 in Peoria Illinois)
●The song was written as a tribute to Dan’s father Lawrence (Larry) Fogelberg, who
started as the director of a military battalion band in Detroit, and who left the military and
went to Peoria Illinois, where he was a high school band director for the next 31 years.
●When Dan dropped out of college to pursue music full time, his father gave grudging
permission, with the proviso that should things not work out Dan would return to school.
●Thus, the line in the song “I thank you for the freedom, when it came my time to go”.
●The song went to #9 on the top 40 charts, and hit #1 on the adult contemporary charts
in 1981
●A popular parent dance at weddings

Now you know what I was doing on the day I posted chapter 21 to the board, surviving.

Judge Richard L. Bohanon was in his office, a block away from the Alfred P. Murrah
Federal Building in Oklahoma City, when a truck bomb exploded on April 19, 1995, kill-
ing 168 people. On Sept. 11, 2001, he was in New York on a temporary assignment in
an office near the World Trade Center towers.

“Somehow, I was spared twice,” Bohanon told The Oklahoman. “I was put in peril, but I
was never harmed.”

Bohanon, 71, said that even now, he struggles with his emotions when he considers the
enormity of the two events.

Military and counter-insurgency experts are calling for a new set of ethics for the US
armed forces, a report says.

The Sunday Times of London said the experts allege the current “creed” for the US mili-
tary encourages violence over rational thought and that with the heated situation in the
Middle East, a more constructive “ethos” would be more appropriate.

The “Warrior Ethos” now used in training has a US Marine say in part, “I stand ready to
deploy, engage and destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close com-
bat.”

The future crises that relate to Iraq and Afghanistan “will be a struggle for hearts and
minds,” retired Marine Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold, said. “We’re in a different environ-
ment now and that requires different techniques”

Newbold is a former Pentagon director of operations.

90
During the Vietnam War, US troops clung to the “Soldier’s Creed,” which focused on a
soldier’s duty to avoid disgracing the uniform or the country in any way, the Times said,
a concept that experts like Newfold believe should be infused again into the US military.

“A strategic corporal can have a lot more impact on the course of the war than a gen-
eral, so it’s critical that soldiers and Marines appreciate the consequences of their ac-
tions,” Newbold told the newspaper. “The old Soldier’s Creed came down to ‘doing the
right thing.’ I like that.”

It takes a tsunami of optimism to think that an armistice, let alone peace, will flow over
the Middle East any time soon. There are 21 Arab countries in the area but none can
underwrite a guarantee of an end to the war against Israel by Hamas, Hezbollah or any
other identifiable Arab terrorist group. As for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud
Abbas, his Fatah TV station encourages suicide attacks against what they call Jewish
“monkeys and pigs.”

And while that oh so moderate spokesman for peace in the Middle East, Mahmoud Ab-
bas, is busy glad-handing and sweet-talking his willing audiences, a sermon by a prom-
inent sheik, Ismail al-Radouan, broadcast on Mr. Abbas’ Palestinian Authority television
begins like this: “When the shahid [martyr] meets his maker, all his sins are forgiven
from the first gush of blood. He is exempted from the torments of the grave; he sees his
place in paradise, he is shielded from the great shock and marries 72 dark-eyed vir-
gins.” Hard to compete with such an offer.

“I don’t believe any elephants escaped from the zoo, Ron.”

“If any bad guys show up, I’ll shoot the cars and blow up their engines.”

“I think you might be able to do that. Gary, how long do you want to hang out here?”

“I don’t know, I’m getting cold. Why don’t you go home and call the Sheriff’s Department
in Palmdale, Amy is working dispatch?”

“Ok, that shouldn’t take long. You cover the front and I’ll find out what is going on.”

“Ask Sharon for the number.”

“I already have it, Gary.”

I’m sure hoped he didn’t dial 911, I didn’t know for sure that that would get him Amy.
Lance was gone about 5 minutes and came back smiling and had his rifle slung. I took
that to mean that this fiasco was over. Ron pulled his car forward and I moved our car
back to the house. I was sure Sharon had coffee on and invited everyone to our house

91
for a cup. Sitting at the table, we got to visiting about the kinds of disease that a person
could pick up when they travel. I don’t go anywhere but the subject was interesting.

African sleeping sickness (African trypanosomiasis)

AIDS/HIV
Altitude illness
Amebiasis
BSE (mad cow disease) and nvCJD
Campylobacter infections
Changas’ disease (American trypanosomiasis)
Chicken pox
Chikungunya fever
Cholera
Coccidioidomycosis
Cryptosporidiosis (Cryptoaporidium infection)
Dengue fever
Diarrhea
Diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis
E. Coli
Encephalitis
Filariasis
Giardiasis (Giardia infection)
Hantavirus
Head lice
Hepatitis
Histoplasmosis
Influenze
Legionellosis
Leishmaniasis (Leishmania infection)
Leptospirosis
Lyme disease
Malaria
Measles, mumps and rubella (MMR)
Meningitis
Norovirus infection (Norwalk-like virus infection)
Onchocerciasis (river blindness)
Plague
Poliomyelitis
Rabies
Rickettsial infections
Rota virus
Salmonellosis (Salmonella infection)
SARS
Scabies
Schistosomiasis
STDs

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Shingellosis (Shingella infection)
Smallpox
Streptococcus pneumoniae (Pneumococcal) disease
TB
Typhoid fever
Typhus fevers
Vibrio parahaemolytyicus
Viral hemorrhagic fevers (Ebola, Lassa, Marburg, Rift Valley)
West Nile virus
Yellow fever

Believe them when they tell you not to drink the water! Many of those diseases are as-
sociated with Africa. Need I point out that we get visitors from Africa? Let me repeat the
advice, keep several gallons of Clorox or some brand of liquid bleach on hand. What
are you going to do if the water goes bad or more likely gets cut off? You can’t drink the
water from your swimming pool because it’s full of chemicals. If you don’t live in Kalifor-
nia, maybe a Berkey filter is in order, they’re illegal here.

“Hey Amy, did they get them all?”

“I don’t really know, they’re doing a head count of the ones they rounded up, Dad. From
what I heard they got most of them. Some may have headed out so they won’t know for
a while.”

“What about the fence? Is that still down?”

“They just shorted it out, it’s being repaired. Right now they have about 5-600 law en-
forcement officers making a sweep trying to find stragglers. There must be cops from 20
jurisdictions, CHP, LA and Kern County Deputies and a few from San Bernardino. The
prison called in all three shifts of correctional officers but none of the level I prisoners
escaped so all they’re dealing with level IV offenders. The Lieutenant said patrols in
Lancaster and Palmdale would be increased until everyone was accounted for.”

“Do we need to keep the tract entrance blocked off and post a guard?”

“I wouldn’t, the patrol officers might misunderstand and one of you would end up getting
shot.”

“What about Johnny Jones, is he still in Palmdale?”

“No, he made Lieutenant and moved to LA with his new wife.”

“We were shorthanded and didn’t have enough people to protect the tract; is there any-
thing we can do about that?”

93
 The New Crusades – Chapter 10

“I’m not sure; most of the inmates looking for trouble were rounded up. The Lieutenant
and Captain think the rest are on the run. I’ll call you from work tomorrow and let you
know what the final figures are, as soon as they’re available.”

“I’d, er we’d, be grateful Amy. It will give us one less thing to be concerned about. Any
word on any more terrorist strikes?”

“Nothing you don’t know already, overall the country is at orange with select areas at
red. I heard an unconfirmed rumor that Arnold may activate the State Defense Force,
but that’s not a very large organization, under 1,000. We don’t get any information on
military preparations, although Edwards is locked down and Plant 42 brought in addi-
tional guards.”

“You mom worked there for a while, that’s a civilian guard force at Plant 42 isn’t it?”

“Yes. You’ve noticed how many of the entrances have been shut down over the past 3
years and we heard that it’s getting even tighter.”

“Any news on the people responsible for the bombings?”

That’s being handled by the FBI Dad; we’ll be the last to hear. I’ve got to get to bed; I’m
pulling a double shift tomorrow. Could I get a sleeping pill from you?”

“I have Benadryl and Xanax, neither of which is a sleeping pill. Help yourself; they’re on
the shelf in the office.”

“Dad, we have the preliminary count: none of the level I inmates broke out. 3,500 of the
level IV inmates broke out and so far they captured about 3,200. In addition 77 of them
were killed and another 113 weren’t, leaving about 110 unaccounted for. The security
fence has been repaired and the prison is running about 1½ shifts ATM. The Captain
suggested the missing men are avoiding contact with anyone.”

“Any Muslims in the bunch?”

“Strange you should ask, most of them were either MS-13 or Muslims convicted of seri-
ous crimes.”

That figured, the level I inmates were housed outside of the fence and were mostly
short timers waiting to released back into the community. The missing inmates could be
anywhere from Nevada, Arizona or even Mexico. I’d personally put my money on Glen-
dale and Burbank, they could hide and they’d go unnoticed for years.

94
“Anything else?”

“There was an armory break in but we don’t know if it’s related. They got weapons, but
very little ammo. Sorry, I have to go.”

Could it be that these Hispanic and Arab prisoners have joined together in a concerted
action? If they had, we’d first learn about it when they did something more public, like
rob a bank or hit a firearms distributor. Between the excitement of the day before, the
possibility of a gang arming itself for God knows what and the general situation in
southern Kalifornia, several of us would be sleeping very light tonight, assuming we
could get to sleep.

I had a scanner tuned to the police bands in the AV and spent most of the day after the
break monitoring the police calls. It’s much easier to get the frequencies when your
youngest daughter is a Sheriff’s Dispatcher. She spent a few minutes programming the
scanner for me. In situations like this, I hadn’t experience many, paranoia was very easy
to come by.

If MS-13, a national organization involved in among other things, the drug trade and the
Muslim extremists joined together, we could be out numbered, in terms of sheer fire-
power if nothing else. I spent at least 2 hours patching up minor but repairable breaches
in our ADT security system and revived our security codes with everyone at the house.
We had 2 codes, the last 4 digits of both Sharon’s my home phone numbers the day we
graduated from high school. There was only one minor difference in the numbers and
as long as they kept the phones up we could summon aid by the time the smoke
cleared.

Alarms systems are very popular in Palmdale, Lance, Ron and I each had one with ours
being the most extensive. We even had a tamper switch on the outside phone box and
only lacked a carbon monoxide detector. Sharon made the call and they’d come tomor-
row and upgrade the system with the new detector. With a home security system you
can create away zones and home zones. The difference in our case involved which in-
ternal door were allowed to be open or had to remain closed. If we hadn’t had pets,
we’d even have included motion detectors.

The upside to having 3 dogs was that anyone who walked by on the sidewalk caused all
3 dogs to bark to the point you had to threaten them to get them to shut up.

“Ron, what do you think, can we build a shelter under the patio?”

“Gar, it would be easier to remove a section of the slab and start over. If you’re asking I
think I’d take out the slab next to your kitchen sliding door and make that our shelter.”

“How would you go about that?”

95
“Have them jackhammer out that section of slab, install walls and cover it back over. It
looks like you have about 1,000ft² sheltered. You’ll have to dig around those 4 support
posts, but any good contractor could handle that.”

“Are you going to do something similar?”

“Can’t. We have that big pool in our back yard and I doubt there’s enough free space to
put in a shelter.”

“Have you thought about that small shelter Shelter4U sells?”

“Who?”

“It’s an outfit in Texas, Ron. The shelter is preassembled and you have space for a hole
large enough to hold it. IIRC, they keep them on hand and if you ordered one, it should
be here by the time you got the hole dug.”

“I’ll have to check with the boss. Question, are you talking a bomb shelter or storm shel-
ter?”

“It’s a small bomb shelter, but that’s the difference, it much cheaper than a safe room.
The shelter you suggested I build would be small, we’d be packed in there like sardines.
To make it a true bomb shelter, I’d need an air filtration system, blast valve and blast
cover. I’m not sure we have the money.”

“I know what you mean. Can’t you come up with some kind of song and dance to get
that trust fund of yours to buy it?”

“I don’t know, they already put out 12 grand for the standby generator. Did the prison
break make national news?”

“It even made the UK Guardian and the London Times.”

“I guess I could get contractor out here to give us an estimate. The most the bank can
say is no. Say, on another subject, when are you going to buy some military style rifles.
You have enough, but they’re all hunting rifles.”

“What are you suggesting?”

“Unload a couple of those hunting rifles and get an M1A and maybe a Mini-14.”

“Handguns too?”

“What you have is just fine provided you have enough ammo.”

96
“Where did you get the high capacity magazines?”

“I had them shipped to Arkansas and forwarded. You could have the shipped to Robert
and he could forward them to you.”

“What model did you buy?”

“The Loaded with the medium weight match barrel and synthetic stock.”

“Where’d you get it?”

“From Sandy. Santa Fe is expensive but at least he had them in stock.”

“Lyn gets the rent check in a week or so, maybe I’ll look into it. Are you thinking more
attacks?”

“Of the nuclear variety? I doubt it. If I were you, I stock up on Tamiflu, Cipro and Doxy.
I’d add a couple of gallons of anti-bacterial Dial, some bleach and some of those N-95
or N-100 masks. I’ll give you the addresses for MedicalCorps.org, Radmeters4U and a
couple sources for the South African surplus. I doubt you could get food from Walton
under the circumstances, so you’re going to have to buy food at Costco, Sam’s Club
and Smart and Final.”

“I’ll have to think about it.”

“Ok. Say, how good of friends are you with those folks at AmeriGas?”

“I know a couple of them, why?”

“Do you think you could talk them into renting me another propane tank?”

“I think it depends on what they have in stock. I can ask. Can you afford to pay for a
fill?”

“Everything we discussed depends on whether or not I can charm the Trust out of re-
leasing more money.”

“How are you going to get your wheelchair into the shelter?”

“I won’t, I won’t need it in that small of a space.”

“What’s your situation on drugs?”

“I have a six months’ supply on all but 2 of them. I can substitute aspirin for the Plavix
but will need an Rx for the Zoloft. How about you?”

97
“We have 6 to 9 months of everything.”

“Did you get signed up for Medicare part D?”

“Finally, yes. I took your advice and went with Humana. How’s that work?”

“They take the premiums directly from Medicare. ATM I’m about 4-5 thousand ahead of
what the drug would have cost me without the insurance.”

“And, you have what, about 6 months’ supply of food?”

“Give or take. You have more meat with 2 freezers. I wouldn’t mind having a chest type,
but it would be my luck to get tainted meat and die of E coli.”

“Did you ever buy Ham radios?”

“I borrowed a walkie talkie from Chris and put in a scanner, but I don’t have a radio.”

“Think you’ll have any luck with the bank?”

“I doubt it, the only disaster they’ve had in the last century was the tornado in ‘68.”

“Gary, phone.”

“Who is it?”

“Matt.”

“Gary…Matt. In view of the situation in the country, the bank has moved several the
trust investments. At the moment we have all of the funds in CDs. I heard you had that
attack out there and a prison break. I thought I’d better check with you before we com-
mit the money to other long term investments and see if you have any special needs.”

“Matt, they caught all but 100 or so of the escaped inmates. However, we were just talk-
ing about some improvements to improve our situation. First, we’ve considered a
1,000ft² shelter. Second, I’m short on some of my drugs and they’re expensive. I was
going to get a contractors estimate and call you. My best guess on the shelter is about
$20,000. There’s concrete work and equipment plus an increase in our propane supply.”

“We don’t have much time, Gary. What’s your best guess on everything?”

“I just don’t know, in addition to the shelter maybe another $10,000.”

“Thirty? Are you sure that’s enough? The primary purpose of the trust is to provide for
your health and welfare. What do you have for transportation?”

98
“An old high mileage Daewoo sedan.”

“People back here are moving to diesels, don’t you think you should too? The trust
committee authorized up to fifty thousand. With the accumulated capital gains, that will
still leave the trust at the original level of six hundred. I’ll transfer the fifty to your ac-
count. We won’t be able to advance anything other than income for at least a year.”

“Ok, thanks, that’s a big relief. Are you having trouble in Iowa too?”

“Not yet, thank God. Did you ever think of moving out of California?”

“Not over 6 times a day.”

“What did he want?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you dear. I’m not dreaming am I?”

“What?”

“They’re transferring 50 to our account. He wants us to use the money for a shelter and
a used diesel pickup.”

“Bull. You don’t need to lie, you can tell me.”

“If I’m lying, may I drop dead on the spot.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“We’re going to need a list of meds that we don’t have a 6 month supply of. I’ll have to
find a contractor to break up a portion of the slab and install walls, supports and recover
it. I’ll have to contact Sharon Packer and get an ANDAIR AV-150, CO2 scrubber and
two of their horizontal blast doors. After all I’ve written about their shelter in my stories,
she’s not likely to believe me. I’ve got to do something for Russ too, considering all he’s
done for us. Start making a list beginning with a 25ft³ chest type freezer and whatever it
will take to fill it. Figure about thirty total on a shelter and twenty for a vehicle and spare
fuel. We’ll replace the kitchen sliding door and windows with walls and use the bedroom
sliding glass door. Work on it, I’ve got to get back to Ron and finish our conversation.”

“You look like you’re about to bust a seam, what was that all about?”

“The bank in Iowa called. They have some concerns about our situation here and the
trust committee is transferring money to our account so we can provide for my health
and welfare, can you believe that?”

99
“You’re kidding.”

“I’m not sure I believe it myself, partner. But I’m going to spend the money before they
change their minds.”

“No chit? You aren’t putting me on?”

“We’ll know tomorrow, Sharon can check the account online. If it’s true, I’ll have to
spend the morning on the phone making arrangements.”

“Well?”

“It’s there just like he said.”

“Did you work on a list?”

“Yes, the freezer will run either $650 or $750.”

“Let me check online to see what’s in stock”

“Well?’’

“It figures, the expensive model. I ordered it online for home delivery. We’ll have it on
hand when they build the shelter, it will have to be installed before they cover the shel-
ter. I’ll have to call Utah next on the air filter, blast valves and horizontal blast hatches.
Could you look in the yellow pages for a contractor?”

“Ok. Use the other line to call Utah.”

“Could I speak to Sharon Packer please? Oh hi, this is Gary Ott in Palmdale, I also go
by Tom. Yes I really exist and I want to place an order. I need a 3 bar horizontal blast
hatch and an AV-150 air filter system with 3 bar blast valves. No, I’m putting in a con-
crete shelter about of 1,500ft². We’re knocking out a portion of our slab and replacing it
with the shelter, but you’re the only supplier I know of for the ANDAIR systems. No, 4
weeks will be fine, we haven’t found a contractor for the shelter yet and he will have to
pull permits. One blast door will be enough, if it gets blocked we tunnel out of the place.
We will probably just build bunk beds and use electrical appliances. I’ve already ordered
a 25ft³ freezer and have a Onan RS 15000 propane generator and a 7kw manual back-
up. Do I get a discount for all the advertising I’ve given you? I didn’t think so but it never
hurts to ask. Thanks Sharon, my email is gdott@sbcglobal.net and Russ has it if you
forget. Oh, the shelter will be 15’ deep. Thanks.”

100
“Sharon, the air filter is $5,200 plus $550 extra for the heavier valves. The blast hatch is
$2,500 and she needs a 50% deposit, but I think we should just pay the full price. Send
her a check for $8,250. Overnight.”

“That’s a lot of money.”

“I allowed $10,000, we’re $1,750 ahead. Did you find a contractor?”

“Yes he’s coming tomorrow to give an estimate.”

The contractor would need to totally remove the existing patio. He could do it for
$10,000 if he used block walls at $30 per lineal ft. and didn’t need to haul the earth and
concrete he removed. It wouldn’t be quite the size I imagined, only a total of 1,240 ft²
unless we extended it into the lawn further. Still, that should be big enough and bigger
would cost more for the excavation. It was only 6 extra feet of excavation, just maybe
we could do it. The problem was those darned posts for the roof and cover. They’d be
about 7’ inside of the outer wall. Wasn’t my problem, he’d just have to figure it out and
still come in at 10 grand. The block would run about 6 grand so he had some fudge
room. I had some too, the 10 grand covered the equipment and the freezer and proba-
bly the meat. Even if we spent 15 on the shelter, we had 25 left to get a pickup.

The problem, as I saw it, was we could get nickelled and dimed to death and as it was
we had to deal with other things like a water tank, sewage storage not to mention the
extra 3,000 gallons of propane. Fifty was a lot of money, but it was cutting it close. What
if we just dug out the entire back lawn? We had a 30’x50’ lawn or ~1,500 sq feet with no
concrete to remove. That would be 160 lineal feet of block at $30 a foot or ~$4,800 plus
the excavation and the overhead. Say 12 grand altogether plus the 10 grand on the
equipment. I was up to a 2 Vicodin moment and the contractor hadn’t even showed up.

All for a safe place we might or might not need. The next day, the contractor showed up.
It would be easier not removing the patio slab and I’d get a bigger shelter. He said he
could do it for 12 grand, guaranteed. He’d excavate half the lawn, put in half the shelter,
cover it and back fill it. Then he’d do the other half, stacking the soil on top of the com-
pleted half. He’d also bury the 2 propane tanks and set the things in the shelter, gratis. It
would be an extra 3 grand to haul the extra dirt was all. Before I agreed, Ron came
around and said the guy need the dirt as fill on another project and I was getting
screwed.

“I decided to keep my dirt for extra protection.”

“But I already have the truck lined up.”

“I don’t have 3 grand to pay you to haul it.”

101
“Oh that, we’ll do it for free.”

“How much does fill dirt sell for?”

“You heard?”

“Little Pitchers.”

“Tell you what, 12 grand even and we haul the dirt no charge. You have a finished shel-
ter and I’ll sod it for you.”

“Deal.”

By shortly after my birthday our back yard was really looking nice and except for the
blast door there was no indication that it held any surprises.

Sharon bought a used Dodge Ram with 50,000 miles on the odometer. We’d have a car
payment for a while but it had the Cummins engine. She also found a used diesel tank
and had it filled it with 1,000 gallons of stabilized diesel. She was really into this prepar-
edness thing. I was thinking it was just a matter of time before the jihadists started at-
tacking targets of opportunity. One day I accidentally turned to CNN and Wolf was say-
ing something like, “Can you imagine what would have happened to the country if they
attacked a major infrastructure target like Hoover Dam?” Draw another map, why don’t
you?

“Hey Gar.”

“What?”

“I was watching CNN and Wolf…”

“Gave the terrorists a target list.”

“I thought you only watched Fox.”

“Got the wrong channel. Is your propane topped off?”

“Yeah why?”

“Can you imagine the effect a suitcase nuke would have if it were exploded inside Hoo-
ver Dam?”

“London Bridge would fall down.”

102
“Yeah, Lake Havasu would be gone in a flash. I know for a fact that Edwards used to
get its electricity from Hoover Dam. For all I know, we might too.”

“How did you make out with the contractor?”

“He hauled the dirt and sodded the lawn, no charge.”

“They caught the last of the escaped prisoners from Lancaster prison. I guess we can
finally sleep at night.”

“Is your propane topped off too?”

“With buried tanks, we have a 95% fill plus 1,000 gallons of stabilized diesel.”

“How are you on food?”

“We rented a storage locker for Amy’s stuff and put a double row of shelves down the
middle of the garage. Plus Sharon filled the freezer in the shelter so I think we have
about a 2 year supply of food.”

“Coffee on?”

“Always.”

“See you in five.”

“Hey, new floors.”

“Same floors, we just put linoleum down in the entire house.”

“I see, easier to clean up after the animals.”

“If we ever sell the dump, we can just add a layer of carpet. Man would I like to get out
of Kalifornia.”

“I don’t know why, you really have the place fixed up nice now.”

“Did you ever get a military rifle?”

“Yep.”

103
 The New Crusades – Chapter 11

“Whadya buy?”

“Loaded M1A.”

“From Sandy?”

“Yep.”

“Did you put a red dot sight on it?”

“Yep.”

“Do you have any high capacity magazines?”

“Nope.”

“Want some?”

“Wouldn’t mind. Where do you get them?”

“Ammoman. You have him ship them to Jennifer and she can ship them to you.”

“Straw man purchase?”

“Nope, you order and pay for them. She takes delivery and reships them. The only law
broken is the Kalifornia law against importing high capacity magazines. If you get
caught with them, you can claim you’ve owned since before the law was passed.”

“It’s still illegal, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, so? I have an extra 17; I can loan you some until yours come. Or, if you’d rather,
I’ll sell them to you for what I paid for them.”

“What kind?”

“They all work the same, how may?”

“Ah, loan me 10 and I buy 10 to replace them.”

“The springs in these are pretty good so you can keep them loaded. I don’t have a
spare vest so you’re going to have come up with something to carry them in.”

“So the trust fund put up the money for the shelter?”

104
“Yep. I think it was the lesser of two evils. If I die, they have to distribute the entire trust.
Not only do I have to pay 0.9% of the total trust balance each year for them to manage
it, they invest a substantial portion of it in their bank at a reduced interest rate.”

“So they’re doing what they have to do to keep you alive?”

“He called me before I called him, which must say something.”

“Maybe he just wanted to find out if you were ok?”

“Right, a banker calls me just to see if I’m ok.”

We began to wonder if the 10 million Muslims in the US were going to bite the hand that
fed them or those bombs had been set off by a few extremists. They had to be very
careful whatever they did; we had them outnumber 29 to 1. In fact, the Jews in America
had them outnumbered 1 to 1. These weren’t Republican Guards, although some may
have been. Certainly a few of them were trained terrorists, but so were a bunch of the
Jews although they didn’t admit to being terrorists. The thing the Jews had going for
them was the fact that the majority of the country was Christian. I’ve never heard the
expression Islamo-Christian but I have heard the expression Judeo-Christian.

However, one can look it up: Dr. Richard W. Bulliet spoke about his recent book, The
Case for Islamo-Christian Civilization, to members of The Columbia University Club at
Sofitel Chicago Water Tower.

Bulliet is a professor of history at Columbia University, where he has taught all periods
of Middle Eastern history. For 12 years he served as director of the university’s Middle
East Institute. In addition to his academic work Bulliet wrote four novels that involve the
modern Middle East - where he has traveled often and widely.

After 9/11, several political leaders and academic scholars used the phrase, “clashes of
civilization” in the media. Their endorsements established a dichotomy between Ameri-
ca’s position and the Muslim world. Based on the factual events of history – from the
Renaissance through the 20th century – Bulliet offers a dramatically different counter-
point.

“Whether you’re Muslim or American or Chinese or Indian the problem is if you recog-
nize the ‘clash of civilizations,’ it gets you nowhere good and with no signposts,” Bulliet
said. “What I hope and is absolutely necessary is we experience inclusion with Arabs
and Muslims in America.”

Although America has pride in its moments of inclusion, one of the current struggles
within American society is xenophobia: people who fear and/or hate other people they
consider foreign. As long as Anglo-Americans’ prejudices regarding Arabs and Muslims

105
exist their hostility debilitates American society. While US leaders preach to the world
about American values of equality and acceptance, the international community sees
the hostility Arabs and Muslims endure in the US and abroad. Whether people are act-
ing upon these prejudices or they are on the receiving end of them, people are strug-
gling with prejudices and against them.

Another example Bulliet gave is the use of the phrase “Judeo-Christian civilization.” Pri-
or to World War II the phrase is hard to find, yet it became so widely used that it is an
important moment in American history. The phrase’s connotation is that Judeo-Christian
civilization is rooted in Western culture. “The popularization of the phrase is a response
to the Holocaust,” Bulliet added.

Although historians cannot point to the person who penned the phrase (German philos-
opher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche may have used it connotatively), the point Bulliet
emphasized is that the use and meaning of the phrase after WW II changed the master
narrative. In history the master narrative is the record of past events, and only primary
historians can change master narratives. Historians understand that history was written
by people who lived certain experiences in their lives, and they had expectations of so-
cietal futures.

I guess it goes to show that there’s one in every crowd. Correct me if I’m wrong, but
Christ was Jewish. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the first part of my Bible is called The
Old Testament and it contains the Bible used by Jewish people. The second part of my
Bible is called The New Testament and it contains Christ’s teachings. I may have it
wrong what with being a Methodist, but I really don’t think so.

The Torah is also known as the Five Books of Moses or the Pentateuch (Greek for “five
containers,” which refers to the scroll cases in which books were being kept). Other
names include Hamisha Humshei Torah or simply the Humash. A Sefer Torah is a for-
mal written scroll of the five books, written by a Torah scribe under exceptionally strict
requirements.

For Jews, the Torah was traditionally accepted as the literal word of God as told to Mo-
ses. For many, it is neither exactly history, nor theology, nor legal and ritual guide, but
something beyond all three. It is the primary guide to the relationship between God and
man, and the whole meaning and purpose of that relationship, a living document that
unfolds over generations and millennia.

We didn’t wonder long, the Muslim residents of Glendale seized the town and part of the
adjoining community, Burbank. Arnold called up every National Guard and State De-
fense Force person available and asked the President for help from other states’
Guards. Troops from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Nevada and Arizona were acti-
vated for duty in Kalifornia. I should note that 90% of the Muslim population in the US is
Sunni.

106
Before the troops could even get LA, trouble broke out in Detroit. Dearborn has a huge
Muslim population. The President activated the Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, In-
diana, and Ohio Guard in support of the Michigan National Guard. One day later the un-
rest spread, this time to New York City. New York activated its National Guard and
Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland
Guards were called up in support. We were already spread thin what with having so
many Reserves and Guards in the Middle East and the Guards were outnumbered.

“Get your crap together, Ron, we’re going to Glendale.”

“What for?”

“Militia duty.”

“What Militia?”

“The 2nd Amendment Militia.”

“For a minute I thought you meant the Palmdale Militia.”

“Nope, they haven’t been around since The Three Amigos Part X.”

“Who is going?”

“Lance, you and me.”

“The hell you say.”

“Be sure to wear your cowboy hat, it won’t be mistaken for a turban.”

“What are you wearing?”

“I’m gonna dress up.”

“Your black hat, huh?”

“Right. Did you get those magazines?”

“Oh dam, I forgot.”

“Get your rifle, about 5 battle packs of ammo and bring my magazines back.”

It might have been hilarious had it not been so pathetic. We took our new used pickup
because it had a rifle rack in the back window. You don’t see many of those in Kalifor-
nia. You never see them with 3 M1A rifles in the rack, except perhaps on private proper-

107
ty and I’ve honestly never seen that. We had it ok as far as San Fernando, the commu-
nity, not the valley although the community is in the valley. That’s where we hit the first
roadblock.

“Coming to help?”

“Thought we might.”

“Well. You turn you truck around and head back where you came from and I’ll pretend I
didn’t see the rifles.”

“Ok.”

We drove until we were out of sight of the roadblock and tried a different approach. The
next roadblock was manned by the State Defense Force.

“Hey fellas. Come to help?”

“Yep, where do we report?”

“Are you members of the State Defense Force?”

“Palmdale Militia,” Ron answered.

“Is that one of those groups of crazies like the Michigan Militia?”

“No, aren’t they defunct?”

“All except for the Southeast Michigan Volunteer Militia. Where are the rest?”

“We’re it.”

“Go back where you came from, you old men will just be in the way.”

“Who you calling old, punk?” Ron asked.

“Let’s leave; maybe the third time will be a charm.”

It wasn’t and this time we were called by that disrespectful name, Survivalists.

A survivalist is a person who anticipates a potential disruption in the continuity of local,

regional or worldwide society, and takes steps to survive in the resulting unpredictable
situation. Some survivalists take an interest in survival in the wilderness or at sea, while
others look for opportunities to gain practice and training by assisting in government
volunteer organizations. Still others look at historical incidents, either localized or affect-

108
ing large regions, and put extra effort and funds into preparing themselves with all the
tools and information needed to handle repeats of those same events.

The way in which survivalists prepare for some future loss while maintaining access to
society is said to differentiate them from other people who endure extreme situations,
such as those who live in very remote or isolated locations, commandos and guerrillas,
and subsistence farmers.

The specific preparations made by survivalists depend on the nature of the anticipated
disruption, some of the most commonly anticipated being:

1. Natural disasters, such as tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, blizzards, and severe

thunderstorms.
2. A disaster brought about by the activities of humankind: chemical spills, release of
radioactive materials, war.
3. General collapse of civilization, resulting from the unavailability of electricity, fuel,
food, water, and other goods and services. For this reason concern over the Y2K com-
puter bug led to a brief widespread interest in survivalism in 1999.
4. Widespread descent into chaos, or some other apocalyptic event.

Many people, who are not “survivalists” in that they are not preparing for any total col-
lapse of society or apocalyptic event, nonetheless make prudent preparations for emer-
gencies. This can include, depending on the location, preparing for earthquakes, floods,
power outages, blizzards, avalanches, wildfires, nuclear power plant accidents, hazard-
ous material spills, tornadoes, and hurricanes. These preparations can be as simple as
keeping a first aid kit, shovel, and extra clothes in the car, or maintaining a small kit of
emergency supplies in the home and car, containing emergency food, water, a space
blanket and other essentials, commonly known as a bug-out-bag, go kit, Get Out of
Dodge (GOOD) kit, or a 72-Hour kit, named for three days’ worth of supplies.

Some businesses have arisen around providing survivalist supplies, including business-
es that sell complete sets of food supplies for specified periods of time.

Official government preparedness training has often been ridiculed or discounted by

those in the survivalist movement. This goes in particular for the 1950s/1960s era duck
and cover drills. One main tenet of the survivalist movement has been that people
should prepare on their own or with like-minded people, not rely on the government to
take care of them in emergencies. On the other hand, there is a growing body of
thought in favor of community based efforts, widespread involvement in CERTs, and
working together with first responders. Many of those in favor of this approach reject the
term “survivalist” because they see preparing in conjunction with government agencies,
and preparing completely apart from the government, as two separate things; also be-
cause they emphasize that they do not anticipate any permanent or long-term break-
down of society which they say survivalists do.

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Get this, it’s directly from Wiki: Lights Out, an online novel written by David Crawford
(aka Halffast) that depicts life after an atmospheric nuclear explosion that causes a
worldwide black out via EMP. He most definitely deserves the attention!

“We’d better leave before someone decides to arrest us.”

“Yeah, there isn’t a place for Patriots in Kalifornia. Ronald, what was that crack about
the Palmdale Militia?”

“It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

“I thought so too. That’s why I formed the Palmdale Militia in Preparations.”

“Did your buddy and you ever sell many copies of your CD, the one that contained all of
your stories?”

“A few. I told him to hang onto the money until he had enough to buy me something I
couldn’t buy in Kalifornia. I’m still waiting so I guess we didn’t sell many.”

“Does he have a M1A?”

“Hah, he likes plastic guns. He has a Glock and a Kel-Tec 16.”

“Did you check them out?”

“I did. I won’t say the Glock is a bad weapon, but I wouldn’t have one. That Kel-Tec
might be handy to keep in the front of a car, it folds up. Except for barrel, bolt and
mechanism the SU-16 is made entirely of high impact reinforced polymer. Personally, I
rather have a rifle I can barely pick up.”

The US has 2 borders, Mexico the one in the news, and Canada, the one not in the
news. The Canadian border is longer than the Mexican border and it is essentially un-
guarded. Methinks it would be so easy for those terrorists to have come into the US
from Canada. Canada and the US share the longest common border, officially known as
the International Boundary, between any two countries that is not militarized or actively
patrolled. The terrestrial boundary (including small portions of maritime boundaries on
the Atlantic, Pacific, and Artic coasts as well as the Great Lakes) is 8,891 kilometers
(5,522 mi) long, including 2,477 kilometers (1,539 mi) shared with Alaska. The border
roughly follows the 49th parallel. The actual number of US and Canadian border securi-
ty personnel is not known but estimated to be less than 1,000 in total, largely clustered
near major crossing points. In comparison, there are in excess of 7,000 US border se-
curity personnel on the Mexico-US border alone.

We also have border disputes with Canada:

110
The Beaufort Sea
This dispute is a little more serious. Canada and the US disagree over who has sover-
eignty over a chunk of this northern sea between Yukon and Alaska. It’s what’s under
the water that has piqued the interest of both sides: oil and gas. The US has expressed
it desire to increase oil and gas exploration along Alaska’s northeast coast.

Dixon Entrance
The Dixon Entrance is a strait between B.C. and Alaska that’s about 80 kilometers long
and wide. It lies between the Clarence Strait in Alaska to the north, and the Hecate
Strait into the Queen Charlotte Islands in B.C. to the south.

The Dixon Entrance is the principal approach to the port of Prince Rupert, B.C.

Strait of Juan de Fuca

This body of water connects Puget Sound to the Pacific Ocean between Vancouver Is-
land and the Olympic Peninsula, Wash. Frequent ferry service between Port Angeles,
Washington and Victoria crosses the strait.

One of the most contentious disputes between Canada and the US in recent years has
been over the Northwest Passage. The passage connects the Atlantic and the Pacific
through the Canadian Arctic.

Canada claimed sovereignty over the water around its northern islands. In 1985, the
United States sent an icebreaker through the passage without asking Canadian permis-
sion. Washington argued it didn’t have to because the route was through international
waters.

The route can save cargo ships 4,000 kilometers in a trip between Europe and Asia – if
the conditions are good. Global warming may make the passage an attractive route –
someday.

There may have been more boundary disputes within Canada than between Canada
and its international neighbors.

Quebec and Newfoundland have argued over the Gulf of St. Lawrence – and its poten-
tially rich oil and gas reserves.

Newfoundland and Nova Scotia have done verbal battle over where to draw the line in
the water between Cape Breton and Newfoundland. Again, oil and gas rights are at the
center of this dispute.

Prince Edward Island and Quebec have squabbled over fishing grounds between PEI
and the Magdalene Islands. At issue is a lot of lobster.

111
And in the Northwest Territories, two native groups are arguing over land. The Akaitcho
claim the Dogrib are claiming more of their sacred land.

Yet with all the disputes, one part of the country has learned to live with boundary lines
as a fact of daily life. The border between Canada and the US passes right through the
heart of Rock Island, Quebec.

The boundary passes right through several buildings, splitting bedrooms, apartments, a
library, a factory and even an opera house between Quebec and Vermont.

For the most part the Canadians and the US get along. The majority of Canadians
speak English, except for Quebec. I rather suspect that many people in Quebec speak
English, as a second language. Their attitude about things in general isn’t that different
from ours. They enacted the GST and the PST to pay for public health. What it amounts
to is an average 15% sales tax on everything.

Canada is one of the world’s wealthiest nations with a high per capita income, a mem-
ber of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and
Group of Eight (G8). Canada is a free market economy with slightly more government
intervention than the United States, but much less than most European nations. Canada
has traditionally had a lower per capita gross domestic product (GDP) than its southern
neighbor (whereas wealth has been more equally divided), but higher than the large
western European economies. For the past decade, after a period of turbulence, the
Canadian economy has been growing rapidly with low unemployment and large gov-
ernment surpluses on the federal level. Today Canada closely resembles the US in its
market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and high living standards.
While as of July 2006, Canada’s national unemployment rate of 6.4% is among its low-
est in 30 years, provincial unemployment rates vary from a low of 3.6% in Alberta to a
high of 14.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Earth’s temperature could be reaching its highest level in a million years, American sci-
entists said.

Researchers at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies said a further one degree
Celsius rise in the global temperature could be critical to the planet, and there was al-
ready a threat of extreme weather resulting from El Niño. The scientists said that in the
30 years to the end of 2005, temperatures increased at the rate of 0.2°C per decade, a
rate they described as “remarkably rapid”.

Comparison of the current global temperature with estimates of historical temperatures

– based on a study of ocean sediment – showed the current temperature was now with-
in 1°C of the maximum temperature of the past million years.

112
Dr. James Hansen, who led the study, said further global warming of just 1°C could lead
to big changes to the planet.

“If warming is kept less than that, effects of global warming may be relatively managea-
ble,” he said.

“But if further global warming reaches two or three degrees Celsius, we will likely see
changes that make Earth a different planet [to] the one we know.

“The last time it was that warm was in the middle Pliocene, about 3m years ago, when
sea level was estimated to have been about 25 meters (80 feet) higher than today.”

The study showed that global warming was greatest at high latitudes in the northern
hemisphere. The study attributed this to the effect of snow and ice melting, leaving dark
areas that absorb more sunlight.

Warming was lower over sea than on land, but the research team said the temperature
of the western Pacific had been increasing, and was becoming much warmer than the
eastern Pacific. This increased difference could boost the likelihood of strong El Niño
weather conditions such as those seen in 1983 and 1998, when many countries around
the world experienced devastating floods and tornadoes.

Dr. Hansen said that the increasing temperature could lead to the extinction of some
species, which would find it increasingly difficult to find viable habitats.

Plants and animals have been observed migrating towards the poles to find areas
where the temperature better suits them. However, Dr. Hansen said that they were not
keeping up with the pace at which temperature zones are moving – this movement had
reached 25 miles per decade between 1975 and 2005.

He said: “Rapid movement of climatic zones is going to be another stress on wildlife.

“It adds to the stress of habitat loss due to human developments. If we do not slow
down the rate of global warming, many species are likely to become extinct.
“In effect we are pushing them off the planet.”

The environment group Earthwatch today warned that a change in climate could make
the difference between survival and extinction for endangered lemurs in Madagascar.

A 20-year study of the Milne-Edward’s sifakas lemur found that during dry spells, older
females were unable to chew enough leaves to provide their infants with milk. Lemurs
are able to give birth up to five times during the final decade of their lives, but as they
get older their teeth become worn, making it harder for them to eat. If dry periods be-
come more common, they will struggle to feed their young, and the numbers of animals
who make it to adulthood will fall.

113
 The New Crusades – Chapter 12

While I’d like to turn the story of the Muslim unrest into a couple of chapters, it didn’t go
down that way. The state Guard units encircled the Muslims and then tightened the cir-
cle, ever so slowly. City services were shut down including water, sewer, sanitation and
electrical and gas utilities. A few rather radical groups opened fire on the Guard, for all
the good that did. They’d never faced an Abrams tank loaded with canister. Face on,
very little will penetrate an Abrams tank, certainly not the few RPGs they had.

There were hold outs, of course, but mothers with children didn’t hold out that long and
were the first to break the lines. Surprisingly, once the Muslim women were out of the
enclave, they weren’t treated much different from anyone else. Their children and they
were fed; they were asked a few cursory questions and allowed to leave. The public
wasn’t quite as forgiving as the Guard.

A bus load of them were unloaded in Palmdale, to be housed in the Palmdale High
School Gym. I, for one, didn’t like that; the Gym was only 3 miles away. But, that being
said, as long as they stayed away from Moon Shadows, tract 6, we weren’t going to
have any problems. Live and let live, but wait, the movie title was Live and Let Die,
wasn’t it? Moore, Roger Moore.

I want to go back to earlier and mention the topic of ‘sheltering in place’. The key com-
ponent to doing that is to keep the radioactive particles out of your home. It won’t pre-
vent all of the radiation from penetrating the walls of your home, but it beats sitting in a
lawn chair watching the fallout rain down. Fallout is the residual radiation hazard from a
nuclear explosion, so named because it “falls out” of the atmosphere into which it is
spread during the explosion. It commonly refers to the radioactive dust created when a
nuclear weapon explodes. This radioactive dust, consisting of hot particles, is a kind of
radioactive contamination. It can lead to contamination of the food chain.

That dust mostly gives off beta radiation as it decays. Gamma rays are a form of ioniz-
ing radiation; they are more penetrating than either alpha or beta radiation (neither of
which is electromagnetic radiation), but less ionizing. For instance, a gamma ray will
pass through 1 cm of aluminum, while an alpha particle will be stopped by even a single
sheet of paper.

Beta radiation penetrates matter to varying distances. The higher the energy of the beta
particle, the deeper the penetration into matter. Depending on the maximum beta ener-
gy, the penetration depth may be an external radiation hazard, specifically to the skin
and eyes. The degree of hazard depends on the beta energy of the isotope and should
be evaluated in every case. Generally, beta emitters whose energies are less than 0.2
MeV, such as tritium (3H), 35S and 14C, are easily absorbed in the outer (dead) layer of
skin and are not considered to be external radiation hazards.

114
Because gamma/x-ray radiation has no charge and no mass, it has a very high pene-
trating ability. Attenuation refers to the reduction in intensity of gamma and X-Ray radia-
tion. The higher the energy of the photon, the more material will be needed to attenuate
a particular photon intensity. Of particular note with regard to radiation safety is that
shielding reduces the intensity of electromagnetic radiation, but statistically it never
reaches zero. This is in contrast to alpha and beta particles which, because of their fi-
nite path length, can be completely shielded. I thought it might become important in the
near future when WW III got hot.

United States-led counterterrorism efforts have seriously damaged the leadership of al

Qaeda and disrupted its operations; however, we judge that al Qaeda will continue to
pose the greatest threat to the Homeland and US interests abroad by a single terrorist
organization. We also assess that the global jihadist movement – which includes al-
Qaeda, affiliated and independent terrorist groups, and emerging networks and cells –
is spreading and adapting to counterterrorism efforts.

● Although we cannot measure the extent of the spread with precision, a large body of
all-source reporting indicates that activists identifying themselves as jihadists, although
a small percentage of Muslims, are increasing in both number and geographic disper-
sion.

● If this trend continues, threats to US interests at home and abroad will become more
diverse, leading to increasing attacks worldwide.

● Greater pluralism and more responsive political systems in Muslim majority nations
would alleviate some of the grievances jihadists exploit. Over time, such progress, to-
gether with sustained, multifaceted programs targeting the vulnerabilities of the jihadist
movement and continued pressure on al Qaeda, could erode support for the jihadists.

We assess that the global jihadist movement is decentralized, lacks a coherent global
strategy, and is becoming more diffuse. New jihadist networks and cells, with anti-
American agendas, are increasingly likely to emerge. The confluence of shared purpose
and dispersed actors will make it harder to find and undermine jihadist groups.

● We assess that the operational threat from self-radicalized cells will grow in im-
portance to US counterterrorism efforts, particularly abroad but also in the Homeland.

● The jihadists regard Europe as an important venue for attacking Western interests.
Extremist networks inside the extensive Muslim diasporas in Europe facilitate recruit-
ment and staging for urban attacks, as illustrated by the 2004 Madrid and 2005 London
bombings.

115
We assess that the Iraq jihad is shaping a new generation of terrorist leaders and oper-
atives; perceived jihadist success there would inspire more fighters to continue the
struggle elsewhere.

● The Iraq conflict has become the “cause celebre” for jihadists, breeding a deep re-
sentment of US involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the glob-
al jihadist movement. Should jihadists leaving Iraq perceive themselves, and be per-
ceived, to have failed, we judge fewer fighters will be inspired to carry on the fight.

We assess that the underlying factors fueling the spread of the movement outweigh its
vulnerabilities and are likely to do so for the duration of the timeframe of this Estimate.

● Four underlying factors are fueling the spread of the jihadist movement: (1) En-
trenched grievances, such as corruption, injustice, and fear of Western domination,
leading to anger, humiliation, and a sense of powerlessness; (2) the Iraq “jihad;” (3) the
slow pace of real and sustained economic, social, and political reforms in many Muslim
majority nations; and (4) pervasive anti-US sentiment among most Muslims – all of
which jihadists exploit.

Concomitant vulnerabilities in the jihadist movement have emerged that, if fully exposed
and exploited, could begin to slow the spread of the movement. They include depend-
ence on the continuation of Muslim-related conflicts, the limited appeal of the jihadists’
radical ideology, the emergence of respected voices of moderation, and criticism of the
violent tactics employed against mostly Muslim citizens.

● The jihadists’ greatest vulnerability is that their ultimate political solution – an ultra-
conservative interpretation of shari’a-based governance spanning the Muslim world – is
unpopular with the vast majority of Muslims. Exposing the religious and political strait-
jacket that is implied by the jihadists’ propaganda would help to divide them from the
audiences they seek to persuade.

● Recent condemnations of violence and extremist religious interpretations by a few no-

table Muslim clerics signal a trend that could facilitate the growth of a constructive alter-
native to jihadist ideology: peaceful political activism. This also could lead to the con-
sistent and dynamic participation of broader Muslim communities in rejecting violence,
reducing the ability of radicals to capitalize on passive community support. In this way,
the Muslim mainstream emerges as the most powerful weapon in the war on terror.

● Countering the spread of the jihadist movement will require coordinated multilateral
efforts that go well beyond operations to capture or kill terrorist leaders.

If democratic reform efforts in Muslim majority nations progress over the next five years,
political participation probably would drive a wedge between intransigent extremists and
groups willing to use the political process to achieve their local objectives. Nonetheless,
attendant reforms and potentially destabilizing transitions will create new opportunities
for jihadists to exploit.

116
● The loss of key leaders, particularly Usama Bin Ladin, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and al-
Zarqawi, in rapid succession, probably would cause the group to fracture into smaller
groups. Although like-minded individuals would endeavor to carry on the mission, the
loss of these key leaders would exacerbate strains and disagreements. We assess that
the resulting splinter groups would, at least for a time, pose a less serious threat to US
interests than does al Qaeda.

● Should al-Zarqawi continue to evade capture and scale back attacks against Muslims,
we assess he could broaden his popular appeal and present a global threat.

● The increased role of Iraqis in managing the operations of al Qaeda in Iraq might lead
veteran foreign jihadists to focus their efforts on external operations.

Other affiliated Sunni extremist organizations, such as Jemaah Islamiya, Ansar al- Sun-
nah, and several North African groups, unless countered, are likely to expand their
reach and become more capable of multiple and/or mass-casualty attacks outside their
traditional areas of operation.

● We assess that such groups pose less of a danger to the Homeland than does al-
Qaeda but will pose varying degrees of threat to our allies and to US interests abroad.
The focus of their attacks is likely to ebb and flow between local regime targets and re-
gional or global ones.

We judge that most jihadist groups – both well-known and newly formed – will use im-
provised explosive devices and suicide attacks focused primarily on soft targets to im-
plement their asymmetric warfare strategy, and that they will attempt to conduct sus-
tained terrorist attacks in urban environments. Fighters with experience in Iraq are a po-
tential source of leadership for jihadists pursuing these tactics.

● CBRN capabilities will continue to be sought by jihadist groups.

While Iran, and to a lesser extent Syria, remain the most active state sponsors of terror-
ism, many other states will be unable to prevent territory or resources from being ex-
ploited by terrorists.

Anti-US and anti-globalization sentiment is on the rise and fueling other radical ideolo-
gies. This could prompt some leftist, nationalist, or separatist groups to adopt terrorist
methods to attack US interests. The radicalization process is occurring more quickly,
more widely, and more anonymously in the Internet age, raising the likelihood of sur-
prise attacks by unknown groups whose members and supporters may be difficult to
pinpoint.

● We judge that groups of all stripes will increasingly use the Internet to communicate,
propagandize, recruit, train, and obtain logistical and financial support.

117
°

Since the anthrax letter attacks in 2001, concern has grown over legitimate scientific
work that could be misused to threaten public health and national security. This is par-
ticularly important since the US has dramatically increased its biodefense research
budget since 2001. To increase awareness of the pitfalls of research that could poten-
tially be used for malevolent purposes the Federation of American Scientists launched
an internet based tool to illustrate the experience of scientists who have dealt with “dual
use” scientific research.

“Scientists don’t generally think about terrorists using their work to attack the nation, but
as technology and the pace of research advances it will become easier for those with
nefarious intent to co-opt legitimate science,” said Michael Stebbins, FAS Director of
Biology Policy. “Raising awareness of this ugly truth is essential for the security of the
nation.”

This online learning tool illustrates the implications of dual use biology research through
case studies of three different researchers who have done dual use research and pro-
vides a historical background on bioterrorism, bioweapons and the current laws, regula-
tions and treaties that apply to biodefense research. Biology graduate students and
post-docs, technicians, and their principal investigators will be able to access the mod-
ules, as will undergraduate biology students and even advanced high school biology
students.

The goal is to fill a gap in the current education curricula. The United States has invest-
ed heavily in biodefense research, but neglected to train scientists to recognize the full
implications of their work. Molecular biological research has made extraordinary ad-
vances. Unfortunately these technological milestones have increased the risk that re-
search could be used by those with malicious intent.

It is important that biologists increase their awareness of biosecurity issues and learn to
assess their research in terms of modern security concerns. The case studies present-
ed in the modules clearly define the issues associated with “dual use” research and se-
curity in the research lab.

“They are being provided free to anyone who wishes to educate themselves about the
implications of dual use research and the Federation of American Scientists will distrib-
ute dual use education materials from any other group through our Biosecurity Re-
source page. Raising awareness of the implications of “dual use” research is an im-
portant first step in engaging the academic research community in biosecurity,” said
Stebbins.

Scientists must lead the effort to manage dual use research as they are best qualified to
identify opportunities for misuse. The research community has a moral obligation to
prevent the misapplication of their technologies or findings. The risk of not becoming
engaged may be governmental actions that impose blanket restrictions and cumber-

118
some rules for scientists that have little impact on real security and could slow legitimate
research. In the future, FAS will develop more modules and dramatically expand the
education materials available to train scientists to be aware of the consequences of
“dual use” research.

The Case Studies in Dual Use Biological Research online learning modules are funded
through a grant by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

That earlier bit was the declassified portion of whatever report everyone was fighting
over. The difference between a Republican and a Democrat had narrowed to a point
where I didn’t want to bother to vote. The only reason I had voted in 2006 was because
Kalifornia has those Propositions on the ballot, I had to vote against them. The non-
smokers wanted the smokers to pay for everything. Plus there was the Proposition to
tax the oil development. The easiest thing to do was to simply vote no on everything.

Prop 83 Prohibits registered sex offenders from residing within 2,000 feet of any school
or park and requires lifetime Global Positioning System monitoring of felony registered
sex offenders. Prop 84 Funds projects relating to safe drinking water, water quality and
supply, flood control, waterway and natural resource protection, water pollution and con-
tamination control, state and local park improvements, public access to natural re-
sources, and water conservation efforts. Prop 85 amends California Constitution to pro-
hibit abortion for unemancipated minor until 48 hours after physician notifies minor’s
parent or legal guardian, except in medical emergency or with parental waiver. Prop 86
imposes additional 13 cent tax on each cigarette distributed ($2.60 per pack), and indi-
rectly increases tax on other tobacco products. Prop 87 was funded by tax of 1.5% to
6% (depending on oil price per barrel) on producers of oil extracted in California. Prohib-
its producers from passing tax to consumers. Prop 88 provides additional public school
funding for kindergarten through grade 12. Prop 89 Provides that candidates for state
elective office meeting certain eligibility requirements, including collection of a specified
number of $5.00 contributions from voters, may voluntarily receive public campaign
funding from Fair Political Practices Commission, in amounts varying by elective office
and election type.

The one I liked was Prop 90 which bars state and local governments from condemning
or damaging private property to promote other private projects or uses. Fortunately,
they had a quick reference pullout. I could decide what I liked and what I didn’t and cir-
cle a vote.

The largest group of self-described religious participants in the United States are Catho-
lics, followed by Baptists. The third largest religious preference is no religion. The First
Amendment guarantees right to freedom. It also ensures that the government does not
act in the interest or disinterest of religion. Some scholars have argued that this “free
market” of ideas forces American pastors to cut overhead and market faith in new and
more effective ways. Culture ‘wars’ often have roots in religious differences, but major

119
incidents of religious violence are rare. Politicians frequently discuss their religion when
campaigning and many churches and religious figures are highly politically active.

However, to keep their status as tax-exempt organizations they must not officially en-
dorse a candidate. Evangelical Christians exert a strong influence on political debate in
the United States. There are Christians in both the Democratic Party and the Republi-
can Party, but evangelical Christians tend to support the Republican Party whereas
more secular voters support the Democratic Party.

Every previous President has fit into the category of White Anglo-Saxon Protestant ex-
cept for John F. Kennedy. However, some Presidents may have had nominal affiliation
with Protestant, several early holders of the office being Deists, with at least four Unitar-
ians and a single Roman Catholic. Only three presidential candidates for major parties
have been Catholics, all for the Democratic Party. A contributing factor to Alfred E.
Smith’s defeat in the Presidential election of 1928 was his Roman Catholic faith. In the
1960 election, John F. Kennedy, faced accusations that as a Catholic president he
would do as Pope John XXIII would tell him to do, a charge that Kennedy managed to
subdue considerably.

In 2004, John Kerry, a Catholic, was the Democratic Party’s candidate for the Presiden-
cy. There was discussion about whether Kerry’s beliefs as a Catholic would be relevant
to the national debate on abortion but there was no implication that his being a Catholic
per se made him an undesirable candidate. There has never been a Jewish President
or Vice-President. The only Jewish candidate for either of those offices was Joe
Lieberman in the Gore-Lieberman campaign of 2000, during which Lieberman’s Ortho-
dox Judaic faith was not a salient issue. Jews constitute just 1.4% of the population.

Protestant candidates are not subjected to the same scrutiny as non-Protestants re-
garding their religious faith, though some critics express a concern that some Protestant
candidates also would put their religious beliefs ahead of the interests of the nation.
During the early part of the 21st century, more and more of the Protestant denomina-
tions in America (most specifically in the American South) have openly campaigned to
yield more political power than its other counterparts openly campaigning for political
reform to favor their causes. In the 2004 Presidential election, George W. Bush a Meth-
odist, earned a slim but clear victory over John Kerry off the backbone of Bush support-
ers calling for a “moral values” based on religious belief (such as a ban on same sex
marriage and abortion) than Kerry’s call to strengthen national security policies and
economic growth. So far many feel that neither attempts to enact those moral value pol-
icies have been strongly enforced.

Total Christian – 88.3%

Roman Catholic 26.8%
Other Christian
-Baptist 61.4%
-Methodist 8.3%
-Christian – no denomination 4.7%

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-Lutheran 5.3%
-Presbyterian 2.0%
-Protestant – no denomination 10%
-Pentecostal/Charismatic 1.9%
-Episcopalian/Angelican 1.8%
-Mormon/Latter Day Saints 1.5%
-Churches of Christ 1%
-Congregational/United Church of Christ 0.3%
-Jehovah’s Witnesses 0.8%
-Assemblies of God 0.4%
-Evangelical 0.1%
-Church of God 0.3%
-Seventh Day Adventist 0.4%
-Eastern Orthodox 0.3%
-Other Christian 1.6%
Total other religions
-Jewish 1.8%
-Non-denominational 0.1%
-Muslim 0.3%
-Buddhist 0.2%
-Hindu 0.1%
-Unitarian Universalist 0.3%
-Others 0.6%
-No Religion/Atheist/Agnostic unknown

The American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) 2001 was based on a random dig-
it-dialed telephone survey of 50,281 American residential households in the continental
USA (48 states). Respondents were asked to describe themselves in terms of religion
with an open-ended question. Interviewers did not prompt or offer a suggested list of
potential answers. The primary question of the interview was: What is your religion, if
any? The religion of the spouse/partner was also asked. If the initial answer was
‘Protestant’ or ‘Christian’ further questions were asked to probe which particular denom-
ination.

Key findings: (Not adjusted for increase in refusals to reply)

●the proportion of the population that can be classified as Christian has declined from
86% in 1990 to 77% in 2001;

●although the number of adults who classify themselves in non-Christian religious

groups has increased from about 5.8 million to about 7.7 million, the proportion of non-
Christians has increased only by a very small amount - from 3.3 % to about 3.7 %;

●the greatest increase in absolute as well as in percentage terms has been among
those adults who do not subscribe to any religious identification; their number has more

121
than doubled from 14.3 million in 1990 to 29.4 million in 2001; their proportion has
grown from just 8% of the total in 1990 to over 14% in 2001;

●there has also been a substantial increase in the number of adults who refused to re-
ply to the question about their religious preference, from about four million or 2% in
1990 to more than eleven million or over 5% in 2001.

Other key findings:

● Nearly 20% of adults who describe themselves as atheist or agnostic also report that
either they themselves or someone else in their household is a member of a church,
temple, synagogue, mosque or some other religious institution.

● On the other hand, nearly 40% of respondents who identified with a religion indicated
that neither they themselves nor anyone else in their household belongs to a church or
some other similar institution.

● Despite the growing diversity nationally, some religious groups clearly occupy a domi-
nant demographic position in particular states. For instance, Catholics are the majority
of the population in Massachusetts and Rhode Island as are Mormons in Utah and Bap-
tists in Mississippi. Catholics comprise over 40% of Vermont, New Mexico, New York
and New Jersey, while Baptists are over 40% in a number of southern states such as
South Carolina, Tennessee, North Carolina, Alabama and Georgia.

● Historical traces of the Bible belt in the South and an irreligious West are still evident.
Those with “no religion” constitute the largest group in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and
Wyoming. In contrast, the percentage of adults who adhere to “no religion” is below
10% in North and South Dakota, the Carolinas, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee.

● Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and those with no religion continue to have a greater pref-
erence for the Democratic Party over the Republican - much as they did in 1990. Evan-
gelical or Born Again Christians and Mormons are the most apt to identify as Republi-
cans. Buddhists and those with no religion are most likely to be political independents.
In keeping with their theology, Jehovah’s Witnesses disavow political involvement.

● As in 1990 so too in the 2001 study, the Buddhist and Muslim population appears to
have the highest proportion of young adults under age thirty, and the lowest percentage
of females. A number of the major Christian groups have aged since 1990, most notably
the Catholics, Methodists, and Lutherans. Congregationalist/United Church of Christ
and Presbyterian adherents show an older age structure with three times as many over
age 65 as under age 35. Baptists also have fewer young adults than they had in 1990.
Among Jews the ratio of the over-65 to those under-thirty has shifted from nearly even
in 1990 to about 2:1 in the current study. It should be noted, again, that this survey has
focused only upon adult adherents. The observations about age structure do not include
the children who may be present in the household of adult adherents.

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● ARIS2001 found that of all households that contained either a married or domestic
partner couple, 22% reported a mixture of religious identification amongst the couple. At
the low end there are the Mormon adults who are found in mixed religion families at
12% and such other groups as Baptists, those adhering to the Churches of Christ, As-
semblies of God, the Evangelicals and those adhering to the Church of God (all at about
18%). At the high end we find the Episcopalians at 42% and Buddhists at 39% living in
mixed religion families. In all, about 28 million American married or otherwise “coupled”
adults live in a mixed religion household.

● Those who identify with one or another of the main religious groups are considerably
more likely to be married than those who have no religion. Particularly the “no religion”
group was far more likely to be either single, never married or single, living with a part-
ner than any other group. Indeed, the “no religion” group shows the lowest incidence of
marriage (just 19%) of all twenty-two groups. In sharp contrast, those identifying with
the Assemblies of God or Evangelical/Born Again Christians show the highest propor-
tions married, 73% and 74% respectively. The percent currently divorced or separated
varies considerably less, from a low of six percent (Jehovah’s Witnesses) to a high of
fourteen percent (Pentecostals).

● The top three “gainers” in America’s vast religious market place appear to be Evan-
gelical Christians, those describing themselves as Non-Denominational Christians and
those who profess no religion. Looking at patterns of religious change from this per-
spective, the evidence points as much to the rejection of faith as to the seeking of faith
among American adults. Indeed, among those who previously had no religion, just 5%
report current identification with one or another of the major religions.

● Women are more likely than men to describe their outlook as “religious.” Older Ameri-
cans are more likely than younger to describe their outlook as “religious.” Black Ameri-
cans are least likely to describe themselves as secular, Asian Americans are most likely
to do so.

● 68% of those identifying themselves as Lutheran report church membership, while on-
ly 45% of those who describe themselves as Protestant (without a specific denomina-
tional identification) report church membership. Nearly 68% of those identifying with the
Assemblies of God report church membership. Church membership is reported by 59%
of Catholic adults. About 53% of adults who identify their religion as Jewish or Judaism
report temple or synagogue membership. Among those calling themselves Muslim or
Islamic, 62% report membership in a mosque.

I’m sure that there was a time in America when the figures were much higher. Fifty
years ago church attendance was much higher, especially in the rural areas.

Generally, all errors are mine, although if I run into someone who says something I don’t
agree with, I’ll let you know. For those who have followed my stories, this is number 47.

123
This story builds on information published in mid-2005 on the subject of terrorists having
succeeded in bringing at least 7 nuclear weapons into the US via the Mexican border.
The people in the stories are usually real people and sometimes the names are
changed and sometimes not.

Headnote: The people are real and I bought The Package from KI4U and the ammo
yesterday. I bought the Loaded M1A rifle last week. I read about 8 papers, 3 wire ser-
vices and several other locations every day. Most of the stories are a mixture of fact and
fiction - it’s up to you to figure out which is which.

124
 The New Crusades – Chapter 13

“Crap, I was hoping to get some of the people who set off the nuke.”

“Ronald, we’d have been lucky to get anyone, let alone the people behind those bomb-
ings. I know for a fact that not all of the Muslims in this country are terrorists. I would
hazard to guess that many of them came here for the same reason our ancestors did, to
start over in a country with true opportunity. I’m more than willing to make an exception
to that when it comes to the people from south of the border. If the Mexican government
had its act together, they sure wouldn’t come here.”

“I don’t know Gar-bear, they do pretty good here and manage to send a lot of money
back home.”

“Do you want to go down Angeles Crest for a practice session?”

“I suppose, is Lance going?”

“I’ll ask.”

Lance said if I’d give a few minutes to let him get his things together he’d be more than
glad to join us. When he showed up, he had Dave Lucky with him.

“Mind if I tag along?”

“Not at all, do you have your own rifle?”

“All I have is a single shot 12 gauge and a .22 rifle.”

“You can try ours and if you find something you like, we’ll see what we can work out.
Basically Dave, we all have a .30 caliber rifle and a .223 caliber rifle. We tend to favor
the pump shotgun although some go with the Remington 11-87. You’ll see, with the red
dot sights, these are fairly easy to shoot.”

On the way to Angeles Crest, Lance ran over the fundamental safety rules for handling
firearms. When we arrived, we set up targets at 7 yards, 25 yards, 100 yards, 250 yards
and 600 yards. Since the trip had been Ron’s idea, he went first, starting with the hand
cannon of his, the .41 magnum. Next he ran a few rounds through his .375 and finally
his M1A. When his shoulder couldn’t take any more, Lance led Dave through the vari-
ous targets, handguns and rifles. For someone who didn’t claim to know much about
firearms, I suggest that Dave did very, very well.

Lance followed and I was tail end Charlie. I so wanted to make a shot at 600 yards but
Geraldo was safe this day. It was only important that I could shoot very well out to com-
bat range (300 meters) anyway. All my shots were in the black, but I needed more prac-

125
tice with my rifles. Two hours on the range and failing light persuaded us to call it a day.
On the way home, we stopped by High Desert Storm.

“Hi, sweetheart,” Ron said. “What sizes of ammo have you gotten in recently?”

“Ron, it’s been very hard to get any kind of ammo, those survivalists must be stocking
up. I have 9mm, .45ACP, .45 Colt, .223, .308 NATO, 30-06 and 3 boxes of .375 for your
rifle.”

“Dave here decided he wants a M1A like the rest of us, do you have one?”

“I have 2 Loaded models with synthetic stocks. They’re fitted with the Bushnell 73-0135
trophy riflescopes and 10 round magazines.”

She then leaned across the county and whispered something to Ron.

“You’re kidding, really?”

“Have you ever known me to lie to you?”

“Can you fit them? We have all of our rifles in the pickup.”

“How many rifles?”

“Four .30 calibers and 3 .223s. Dave will probably take 10 of those LEO only mags.
How much ammo can we get?”

“One case per person in each caliber he needs.”

“Dave, did you bring your checkbook?”

“Yes, why?”

“You’ll need it, that’s why. Lance, you and Gary get the weapons and I’ll work something
out with Sandy in terms of price.”

“They’ll be ready at 4pm. Dave, do you want the standard or a Loaded?”

“What do you guys have?”

“Loadeds, they have better sights, better barrels and much better trigger.”

“More expensive?”

126
“A little, but they’re worth it.”

“What gives, partner?”

“She has the improved flashhiders.”

“Surefire?”

“Absolutely. She’ll install them on the .223s and the .308s. We’ll have to return to the
range tomorrow and adjust our sights; you know they’ll shoot higher.”

I don’t know, but I suspect she swapped out the barrels on the mini-14s. That was faster
than installing the M4-FA flashhider on that particular rifle. While we waited, we went to
our house for coffee. I must have been grinning from ear to ear; Sharon picked up on it
immediately.”

“What are you smirking about?”

“Sandy is installing new flashhiders on our rifles and Dave just joined the club. He didn’t
pick a handgun, but she had a couple of good used M1911s.”

“What else are you buying?”

“A little more ammo, Sandy just got some in.”

“I suppose I should go to the range with you, I need to practice too.”

“We have to go back tomorrow, do you have the time?”

“I can make the time, how long will we be gone?”

“About 3 hours.”

“Morning or afternoon?”

“After lunch ok with the 3 of you?”

“After lunch.”

“I’ll need muffs.”

“I don’t think so, but I’ll pick up a pair for you. You really should have something a little
bigger than the .32.”

“Like what?”

127
“Do you remember my Browning Hi-Power?”

“The one I couldn’t jack the slide on?”

“I’ll teach you a trick and you’ll be able to do it. We have to be back at Sandy’s around
4, can I have the checkbook please?”

“Iowa or Kalifornia?”

“Whichever has the most money in it.”

“Iowa. You disability payments got caught up on Wednesday, but don’t spend it all in
one place.”

“When did we change to having them deposited to the Iowa account?”

“A few weeks back, don’t you remember?”

(I didn’t) “Oh that’s right, I signed some papers, right?”

“Yes.”

“Sandy, I want to buy Sharon a Browning Hi-Power, used but in good condition.”

“I think I have just what you want, Gary. It has an extended barrel.”

“Do you have a flashhider for it?”

“Yep.”

“How about a barrel and a flashhider for my PT1911?”

“Yep.

“I hope I have enough for ammo too; say how about those LEO mags for the Hi-
Power?”

“I have 5.”

“Hot dam. Why don’t you start with Dave and then Lance, Ron and me.”

“Whatever.”

In this case a flashhider was otherwise known as a suppressor. They make perfect
flashhiders. The only thing we filled forms out on was actual firearms purchases, Sandy
wasn’t a class III dealer. The Surefire suppressors might not be the best, but they have

128
a guaranteed life of 30,000 rounds. They should be installed by a gunsmith because
they come with shims to make the FA attachment fit properly. I ended up spending the
better part of 3 grand and that was with a 30% discount on the flashhiders. We stopped
by White Surplus and I picked up a holster and 2 mag pouches for Sharon’s new pistol
mags.

“What are you going to do with the .32?”

“Amy doesn’t like guns and hasn’t since ‘83 when she had the gun accident. Either you
can carry it in your purse or I’ll use it as a backup.”

“I can take the .22.”

“Ok, I’ll take the .32.”

I showed Sharon the new flashhiders and I’m afraid she’d seen too much TV; she knew
exactly what they were. It didn’t take her long to ask why I thought we needed silencers.

“Well, in the first place they’re quiet, not silent and in the second place they contain
most of the gasses and really are excellent flashhiders.”

But, they’re illegal in Kalifornia.”

“Sharon, everything is illegal in Kalifornia. Do you realize that if Prop 86 had passed
cigarettes would run over $50 a carton?”

“Really? I’m beginning to rue the day we moved here.”

“You and me both. I’d give anything to be able to move. At the moment, we’d be lucky to
get much over $165 for the house, less the commission leaving us about $60 clear. It
might be a good time to sell with all the homes destroyed in LA.”

“Are you serious?”

“Absolutely, we could move to Fredonia and get an apartment until we could find a
home. They might have a trailer park and if they don’t we could try and buy a lot and
use the home as collateral.”

“Let me think on it. When would you want to move?”

“As soon as the weather permitted. Are there any Muslim or gangs in Fredonia?”

“Can’t be many, it’s pretty small. Russ said just to emphasize our Iowa roots and not
mention Kalifornia. With Dave armed now, it’s not like the tract won’t have a few de-

129
fenders. There must be a bunch of LDS in the area, they have 6 churches. We should fit
in nicely; we have enough food for the two of us for a year.”

“I might try and talk to a realtor tomorrow and see what we’d need to do to get the max-
imum value out of the house.”

“You do that and keep me posted. You can do it after we get back from the range.”

“Did you get me muffs?”

“Ear plugs, same difference.”

“What about ammo?”

“Ball. She had to order the Gold Dot.”

For someone who hadn’t shot a gun since before we were married, Sharon’s results
were acceptable. Lance continued to work with Dave and Ron only fired enough rounds
to adjust his aim point. Sharon soon discovered that the Mini-14 had little if any recoil
and the flashhiders worked as advertised. By this time, I feel it safe to say her conver-
sion was nearing completion.

As far as selling the house, it had several attractions, a generator, and new freezer in
the shelter, was nicely landscaped and sported new linoleum and a fresh coat of paint.
The realtor suggested we ask $300,000 because of the extras. Finally a family showed
up looking for a replacement for their Studio City home and ours was just what they
wanted. Escrow closed in little over 3 weeks and we loaded our things on a mover and
asked for them to be stored in Flagstaff until we found a new home.

“I’m sure going to miss you.”

“Ron, if we can find something nice, you really ought to consider giving Fredonia a try.”

“No, I think we’ll probably try Cedar Hill. We’re going to pay off the house and move as
soon as the estate settles.”

“As soon as I get a new phone number, I’ll send you an email.”

“Do they have ADSL?”

“Won’t know until we get there. This will give me a chance to try out a few ideas I have
about building a home. It will mean building a deep basement and setting the house on
runners over the basement.”

130
“Will you have enough money?”

“About 180, it should be more than enough.”

We’d never even been to Fredonia, it seemed strange moving to a town you’d never
even visited, but I had a list of relatives of a good friend of mine, I could maybe look up
after we got to town and settled in. On the way, we stopped in Flagstaff, we both need-
ed Arizona driver’s licenses and it was a good place to shop for a mobile home. I knew
without looking what a wanted, a Fleetwood Beacon Hill plan D; I’d studied all of the
plans for stories I written.

I’d experimented with various methods of sheltering in previous missives and this time I
was going to use a tested design, with a modification. One of the secrets to have a safe
shelter is to make it unobtrusive. We bought 2½ acres and looked it over until we had
the view we wanted. I got a well driller from Kanab to put in a deep well and an excava-
tor to remove soil for a 90x40x20’ deep hole. He recommend a company to pour con-
crete walls and we set about constructing a shelter aka basement 32’ wide and 80’ long.
I explained to the second contractor exactly what I had in mind, drains that ran off to a
black water tank equipped with a sewage pump that would pump the contents up to our
septic system.

He had a gleam in his eye and chuckled but said, “Fine where does the blast door go?”

“I’ve got to call Sharon Packer in Salt Lake and order some stuff.”

“We can’t pour the last wall until you get that Andair blast door you know.”

“I know, I’ve read about it.”

“Where are you from?”

“Iowa, why?”

“Couldn’t tell, you have Arizona plates, but you almost act like a Californian.”

“Oh, you mean the People Republic? I was stationed there when I was in the Air Force
and again when I worked for the state of Iowa.”

“I’ll call her for you, what size of air filter?”

“AV-150, with a couple of spare filters. Know where I can get a generator?”

“What kind?”

131
“Onan or Kohler, 1,800 rpm, gaseous.”

“How big?”

“100 amp service at 240 volts.”

“Any preference?”

“Last one I had was a Onan RS 15000 with a pair of 3,000 gallon tanks that were bur-
ied.”

“Want the same thing?”

“I’d prefer a diesel like Kohler.”

“Are you going to live in that shelter?”

“No, once it’s done, were adding risers to set a mobile home on.”

“I’m not a fulltime concrete contractor, I’m a general contractor. Let me warn you, you’re
going to need to put some of the stuff in that shelter before we pour the lid.”

“I was going to order a 25ft³ Sears freezer, the VA-150 and the generator and have
them ready when you were ready to pour.”

“You tell me what you want and I’ll get it, we get a commercial discount.”

“LDS?”

“Yep, you?”

“Methodist. My wife’s a Lutheran.”

“Do you have blueprints or drawing of what you’re talking about one those risers?”

“I’ll show you.”

We were delayed a month while we accumulated the things we needed to complete the
shelter. John and I spent a fair amount of time discussing the various aspects of the
shelter I had in mind, like the access ramp and storage tanks. He being a contractor
was able to find me a 10,000-gallon propane tank, an oversized septic system and a
5,000-gallon water tank. He also asked if I thought of putting solar panels on the front
side of the south facing house. I explained that the panels were expensive and a person
needed a large battery bank and inverters, all of which cost money.

132
“Gary, I get a tremendous discount on that stuff, even the batteries. I can install a large
enough system to keep you going for some time. You might want to consider a 10kw
wind turbine for cloudy days.”

“Can we afford it?”

“I think you can, it’s not that expensive and you will already have the batteries and in-
verters. Most of the time you’re likely to have enough power to export some. As far as
those risers go, I’ll need to increase the size of the posts in the basement, they will be
carrying the weight. Why 10’ risers?”

“I’ll need 8’ of soil for protection and enough room to work under the house installing the
pipes and electricity.”

“What kind of home did you buy?”

“Fleetwood with the desert package.”

“How many fireplaces?”

“Three.”

“You’re going to need firewood. With 3 fireplaces you can probably heat the home.”

“That’s a lot of ash to haul, but if it comes to that, I’d rather have it and not need it than
the other way around.”

“We start pouring tomorrow. You’ll be able to arrange to have your mobile home deliv-
ered in about 3 weeks. Have you been to Utah before?”

“I went to Salt Lake City several times and to Hyrum once. Have a friend in Payson.”

“How did you decide on Fredonia?”

“My friend Russ has several relatives here in town, last names are Pratt and Brooksby.”

“Russ Williams?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I’ll be darned.”

133
A month later we were just finishing up, the moving company brought the small amount
of furniture we kept, it was oak and we’d been to Kanab and gotten some new furniture.
John spent time with me until I understood how the electrical system worked and what I
needed to do to keep it going. He even suggested a local I could get to come out and
service everything if that’s what I wanted.

One of the down sides to moving was losing all of the frozen meat. We left it in
Palmdale divided among Lorrie and Amy and even sold some of it to our friends. Sha-
ron found a meat packer and we bought a full Angus beef, half for the shelter and half
for the house. She was busy as a bee, working hard to finish spending the money we
cleared on the house so she could start on our pensions and my disability. Her sewing
room occupied the entire activity room and I got the Study and the Den. We only had 2
bedrooms, the master and one guestroom.

It didn’t take more than a month after we’d moved in to be back to normal. The majority
of the residents were LDS, it was a very nice little town. I guess I’d better explain about
the basement access. It was a ramp that started near the back door and turned the cor-
ner at the west end of the house, ran the full length of the front and turned the corner
again to the east. My wheelchair was only rated for a 5-7% grade and although it cost
more, I could get up and down without assistance. The other benefit was that radiation
doesn’t turn corners.

With 2½ acres, I figured we could have a garden every summer and can a few things. I
ordered a 30 quart All American Pressure Canner and a few cases of pint and quart
jars. Then I went to the Ark Institute and got several packages of their heirloom seed
assortments. I watched the paper and got a good used garden tiller. I didn’t need a lawn
mower, we went with desert landscaping.

We were getting there, but we weren’t quite done. My call sign is KD6GDQ and I had no
radio equipment. I drove myself to AES in Lost Wages and Sharon came along for the
ride. I knew exactly what I wanted and we weren’t there for more than 2 hours, about 3
rolls of dimes for Sharon at the casino.

My purchases included 2 Kenwood TS-2000, a scanner, an assortment of vertical aeri-

als, 1,000’ of RG-213U, connectors, lightening arrestors and a weather station that
could be wireless or hardwired. I wanted one more antenna but they didn’t carry it so I
ordered it from HRO, the MJF-1798 vertical.

John got me an electrical pole, a big one and we mounted all of the antennas and a ra-
dio guy from Kanab put the connectors on the cable and hooked in the antennas. Once
the pole was set, he drove a heavy ground rod into the ground and connected the Alpha
Delta arrestors. The remaining coax was fished through a conduit and into the shelter
where I sat up Sharon’s old computer table as a radio center. In no time at all, I was on
the air, listening.

134
 The New Crusades – Chapter 14

“This place has an echo.”

“It’s empty, what do you expect?”

“It’s not empty, we have the insulated mechanical room, my gun case, the radio table
and piles and piles of food.”

“Were you planning on sleeping on the concrete floor?”

“Hey, Rome wasn’t built in a day. I ordered some inflatable mattress from Wally World.”

“Do you plan on me cooking on a camp stove?”

“John ordered one of those combination sink, stove, oven and refrigerators. It’s not like
we can run to Staples and get a bunch of folding tables and chairs cheap.”

“Did you run a cable TV connection?”

“Of course. A little at a time dear, it’s complicated having solar panels, a wind turbine
and a generator to keep straight. I think I’m too old for this stuff.”

“You seem to have time to play with your radios.”

“Just trying to figure out all of the controls, that’s all.”

“Do you want me to go to Staples online and order tables and chairs?”

“I suppose. Get 8’ tables and 10 chairs per table. I figure we’ll need about 4 tables.”

I’d already looked them up and the melamine tables ran $50 and the chairs came in
sets of 4. The chairs ran about $10 each. The Wally World air mattress were twin/king
sets that could be used doubled up or unfolded. We had spent more than planned and
had just about finished off the house money and were looking at the disability, pension
and trust fund to pay for outfitting the basement.

“I want some privacy if you’re planning on a whole lot of people.”

“I suppose you want a real bed, too?”

“Now that you mention it, yes.”

“Ok, you go to Kanab and get an inexpensive bedroom set. I’ll get John to throw up a
wall for a bedroom or three. We don’t need lifetime mattresses, we may never sleep on
them. Just get something comfortable but inexpensive.”

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“Should I get 3 sets?”

“If they’re cheap enough.”

“Did you replace the KIO3?”

“I bought 50 bottles, which should last a lifetime.”

“Did you install the CD V-717?”

“What is this 64 questions? Yes dear, I did. Did you buy more pinto beans, rice, maca-
roni and coffee? Did you buy 30 bundles of toilet paper and a full case of Kool’s? When
are they going to deliver the beef, pork and chicken?”

“Are you planning on putting a TV down here?”

“Absolutely, but it has to be a Panasonic.”

“Why?”

“I can’t hear the Phillips you bought. We’re going to need to move all of the movies
down here too, just in case.”

“What else do you want?”

“I was thinking about a gun rack filled with rifles, shotguns and handguns.”

“Like what?”

“Carlos Hathcock used a M2HB to snipe Charlie during the Vietnam War; that might be
nice.”

“What exactly is a M2HB?”

“A 50 caliber machine gun.”

“Forget it.”

What I needed to find was a cooperative gun dealer who could get me gas piston M16
type rifles and a reasonable supply of M1As. What’s more, he had to deeply discount
the stuff or there would be no way I could ever afford it. I was getting a very late start on
putting together what I felt was an appropriate arsenal and I hadn’t even thought about
my cowboy guns or a .50 caliber sniper rifle. We only had the single vehicle, the used

136
Dodge Ram 3500 diesel but I wanted our own fuel supply just in case TSHTF, again.
I’m a firm believer in the rule of 3s. According to the rule of threes, bad things happen in
threes and it’s exponential, and goes from 3 to 9 to 27.”

We had 2 left because of the terrorist bombing. If the Nation of Islam, that Farrakhan
bunch, joined with the 6-10 million Muslims, we’d be up to our hind ends in radical Mus-
lims. We’d have a new Civil War and it would be the Christians and Jews vs. Islam. I
shuddered at the thought, but planned to be ready, whatever it took.

“John who do you know who could get me M1As and AR-15s? The brand on the AR-
15s doesn’t really matter, what does matter is that I can get them for very little over the
dealer cost.”

“What you’re asking is do I have a relative who is a gun dealer who will settle for a small
fee for the guns?”

“I guess so, if that’s what it will take. I’ve heard that the markup on guns is about 40%.
That means I should be able to buy a M1A standard models for about $1,000 and ARs
for about $700 if I could find a sympathetic dealer. I’ll also have to get magazines
cheap, maybe Ammoman or maybe someone else.”

“Say I knew someone, what’s in it for me?”

“Well, how about a place to stay if TSHTF again and weapons to use, assuming you
come up short?”

“How many do you want?”

“Six of each rifle plus 6 shotguns and about 12 of the PT1911s.”

“Big money.”

“Not counting the ammo and magazines it is. But I’ll, we’ll need plenty of those/that too.”

“You really are into this survivalist thing aren’t you?”

“I’m about as close to an LDS as you’ll find in the Methodist Church.”

“We accept converts.”

“Thanks, but not thanks, I don’t believe I’m ready for that step just yet. Anyway do you
know someone?”

“Say I do, can you come up with the money?”

137
“At the prices mentioned, it would run $6,000 plus $4,200 plus $1,200 plus $6,000 plus
magazines and ammo. What would you say, maybe $20 grand for everything?”

“That depends on what you got for ammo, as much as anything.”

“I lean towards military surplus as long as it’s all the same lot number.”

“And you can come up with that kind of money?”

“Maybe, one time only.”

“Gary, I’d suggest you think in terms of 4 each on the rifles and maybe go with the
Loaded models on the M1As. You would want to go with good scope mounts and rea-
sonable sights, maybe a good sight, like Bushnell.”

“I’m open minded, on numbers, but my top end on money is $20 grand. My personal
rule of thumb has been 5,000 rounds of ammo per rifle, 1,000 rounds of shotgun ammo,
and 2,000 rounds of pistol ammo.”

“Ok, I agree with you on the ammo. How close are you to that?”

“Four thousand 7.62 NATO and 2,000 5.56 personally but I have a case each of 12
gauge slugs, 12 pellet 00 and 1,000 rounds each of Gold Dot .45 ACP and 9mm.”

“Right, you’re short on rifle ammo, aren’t you?”

“How did you know? Yes, I only have ~4,200 rounds of 7.62 and ~2,000 rounds of
5.56.”

“My wife asked your wife. You’ll need 3 each of the rifles and shotguns plus only 9 hand
guns to stay within your budget with the amount of ammo you need. You need 17,500
rounds of 7.62 NATO and 18,000 of 5.56 NATO, another 4,500 rounds of .45 ACP and
750 rounds each of 12 gauge slugs and 00. Do you want those fancy flashhiders on the
rifles and pistols?”

“My wife has a big mouth. You know about those?”

“Small town, but you made some good choices.”

“Does everyone in Fredonia know my business?”

“You mean that you were born in California, raised in Iowa, moved here from California,
don’t much care for Iowa anymore, are a recovering alcoholic with 8 years plus and
have been into preparedness since you were a kid? No, we didn’t spread it around, es-
pecially the California part. Although it counts in your favor that you wised up and left.

138
Bad things are happening in LA and other parts of the country. How long have you
wanted to have a bomb shelter?”

“Since I was a teenager. I’ve always had a thing for cowboy guns; did she tell your wife
that too?”

“Beretta Stampedes in .45 Colt ok?”

“Original Ruger Vaqueros?”

“Matching rifle?”

“Winchester or Marlin?”

“Winchester.”

“Cowboy ammo or full loads?”

“A little cowboy until I get used to the gun. I’ll need leather.”

“Sharon already ordered it for you.”

“4⅝” and 7½”.”

“I heard.”

“Where’s the horse?”

“Salina? She told that story too?”

“Who was Kathy?” (My mid-life crisis)

“Did you tell them my short size too?”

“Those things just sort of came out.”

“I hope you bought cheap furniture for the shelter, I’m committed to spending $20,000
on guns and ammo.”

“I did very well”

“Do you want an AR-15 or to keep the Mini-14?”

“I’m used to it now; I’ll stay with what I have.”

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“What else did you tell John’s wife?”

“Rachel? Not much, we just talked for a while.”

“Did you really order me holsters for a pair of guns?”

“Did I get it wrong? A 4⅝” in the cross draw and a 7½” in the strong side, original model
Ruger Vaqueros, right?”

“Right. Fitzpatrick Leather Co. in Laredo.”

“Yes, but I didn’t get the one with the Conchos.”

“I didn’t want them anyway. How long will it take to get here?”

“A few days.”

“I’ll need the checkbook or a check made out for $20,000. That should cover everything
John is getting.”

“What are you getting that costs that much?”

“Six rifles, 3 shotguns, 9 handguns, flashhiders, extra magazines and ammo. That in-
cludes a Winchester and the Rugers.”

“We’d better watch our spending; we’ll be down to $6,000.”

“I’m done how are you doing?”

“Unless something comes up, we’re fully stocked on food and everything we need.”

“Did you get the cigarettes?’

“Sixty cartons?”

“That’s right.”

“That guy on the reservation ordered them and I paid the extra $4 a carton Arizona tax.
They were still cheaper than any store.”

“I like this cable internet service, it’s faster than the ADSL.”

“Did you send Ron an email?”

“I guess I’d better do that.”

140
I sent it but it bounced. I assumed that meant that Linda’s father had died and they had
moved to Cedar Hill. I was sure that Ron would rather risk thin air than a group coming
up from LA and plundering the Antelope Valley. The air was thin in Fredonia (1,435m)
too but I was getting along. I told Sharon that we’d have to make a run over Cedar Hill
soon, weather permitting. When John brought the guns, I put in a rifle rack like the ones
you saw in TV westerns and used a vinyl coated chain through the trigger guards to
kept the guns in the rack. I had so much ammo I reasoned that it had to be stored and
bought a second office cabinet. The handguns were on a shelf in the cabinets and the
long guns in the rack. The rest of the cabinets held ammo, case and cases of it.

I frequently bring up the Dragon Skin controversy. I recently saw a demonstration of the
product and that’s the one I’m going to buy. One vest took 26 direct hits from a
7.62x39mm rifle followed by an additional 120 hits from an MP5 and not one bullet pen-
etrated. The cover was ripped to shreds but had a man been wearing it he’d have lived
to fight another day. I’ve seen tests of the Interceptor with the ceramic plates and it
wouldn’t have survived that kind abuse. You can buy the Dragon Skin but the Intercep-
tor is military only.

If you’ve been keeping track, I’m short the body armor and one firearm, the .50BMG ri-
fle. I’m also a bit short on M67 hand grenades, M72 LAW rockets, C4 and M18A1
Claymores. By the time you buy the M82A1M, 10 spare magazines, a Swarovski PV 6-
24x50 and Raufoss ammo, you could have bought one of the cheaper compact cars.
Getting the 25mm upper would be impossible unless I resorted to theft and I didn’t think
I should go there. But, I recently heard about the Tac-50 and may go that way.

Sharon said we had 6 grand, which meant I could either try to raise more money or for-
get it. For the moment, I decided to put it off; other things were commanding great atten-
tion. Moreover, things had died down for the moment and there hadn’t been anything
that the government identified as a terrorist event. Bush was running the country from
Offutt AFB near Omaha and Cheney had gone underground again, just like he did after
9/11. My gut was going over time, either my ulcers were acting up or something was
about to go down.

“Hi Dad, how are you?”

“Derek? I got to tell you, my gut is driving me crazy.”

“Is it your ulcers?”

“I’m taking my Prevacid, I don’t think so.”

“What’s that new town like?”

“Smaller than Gassville, quiet, nice people.”

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“Made any friends?”

“Our contractor John and I get along very well. I’ve gotten the armory in the shelter fin-
ished. I have 3 more M1As, 3 more Mini-14s, 3 more 590A1s, 9 more PT1911 .45s and
about a ton of ammo.”

“Schools out soon, we thought we run out and see you. How do I get there?”

“Drive to Flagstaff and turn north on 89. Take that to 5 miles or so south of the Utah
border. Don’t blink or you’ll miss it.”

“Where do you live?”

“Stagger Mountain Road, we’re in Mohave County. It wasn’t until we bought it when we
determined why the land was so cheap, it about a half day to the County seat in King-
man. We’re on one of the roads to the Kaibab Res. Look for a new Fleetwood home and
a well building.”

“I don’t know just when, but we’ll be there soon.”

“Driving?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Bring your boy toys, all of them. Ammo and magazines too.”

“Damon, Dad. What’s happening?”

“Same stuff, different day.”

“Your brother ever buy you that shotgun?”

“Yes, one of these days I’ll get some ammo.”

“You don’t have any?”

“I have 25 rounds of 00 and 10 rounds of slugs.”

“I just talked to Derek; they’re coming to visit when school is out. I might be able to get a
group rate at a motel or you can always sleep in the shelter.”

“You built a shelter?”

“It’s as big as our house. In fact, our house sits on top of it.”

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“I don’t know if we can come.”

“I’ll send you gas money. Any problem with Muslims in your area?”

“Not that I know of why?”

“Louis Farrakhan issued a statement from his sick bed urging the Nation of Islam to
unite with their Islamic brothers.”

“And you’re in one of your circle the wagon moods?”

“Is that what you call it?”

“I’ll bring all of my shotgun shells.”

“Good, but don’t forget your shotgun.”

“Sharon, why don’t you invite Amy and Lorrie to come visit when school is out?”

“Derek coming? Damon too? I’ll call them and then head to the grocery store. Where
are we going to put them?”

“I’ll call the motel and see about a group rate.”

That was the other reason people weren’t too happy when we moved, it was the winter.

I did manage to find a nice spot to put in a garden. I ran my new used rototiller over it
twice, and then spent most of a day picking up rocks. I took a day off and then raked it.
We bought tomatoes and green pepper sets in Kanab and I put in 4 rows of green
beans. Sharon did the onions, carrots, lettuce, radishes, peas and left the rest for me. I
got some of those spuds my neighbor planted back in Iowa, Kennebec. They’re a high
yielding fast growing variety, widely adapted. Requires close planting (15 to 20 cm be-
tween plants) and vine killing to avoid producing oversized and rough tubers. Excellent
storage quality. Long dormancy period. High total solids. I had to put in seed corn, wa-
termelons and cantaloupe and those cucumbers that were just perfect for making pick-
les.

“Do we have enough jars?”

“I don’t know, I can always order more from Canning Pantry.”

“Would you rather have too many jars and not need them or need more jars and not
have them?”

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I got on the phone; this survivalist thing was rubbed off a bit too much. I order 20 cases
each of quarts and pints and 3 cases of lids. It is said that the average canner uses
about 540 jars per canning season (Walton Feed Forum) and we would have a total of
80 cases or 960 jars. I checked every case when they came in and called them back for
the replacement jars, just like I’d done the first time. The upside was when we began
canning; we could put the cooled jars back in the boxes and label the boxes. After we’d
eaten the contents and washed the jars, we could still store them in the shipping boxes,
win-win. I think out new motto was going to be, “Don’t chip the lips!”

It turned out to be late in June, actually closer to Independence Day before they all
showed up. I asked them, one at a time, if they had any trouble. Their answers didn’t
vary much, roadblocks, on average, one per 100 miles. They weren’t search vehicles,
depending upon the occupants, but photo ID was mandatory, expect for the kids. Derek
used his military ID and Mary gave up her Arkansas license, they had no trouble. Da-
mon had slightly more trouble because the kids were just at the age where Britney had
a driver’s license, Aaron a learners permit and Eric had a school ID. Amy’s ID from the
LA County Sheriff and Lorrie’s Kalifornia ID, didn’t slow them down a bit. Except for the
fact that once they hit Arizona, the questions always included, “Moving here or just visit-
ing?”

Maybe I started something, who knows? Damon and Derek must have hit every Res
cigarette store in eastern Arizona, they sure weren’t short on smokes. We talked it over
and they wanted to see the shelter. After they looked it over, they decided to stay here
rather than at a motel. I called the motel, apologized and cancelled the reservations.

“Jeez, Dad, you’re ready for WW III.”

“Gee, I hope so. Actually, I’m thinking something akin to the Civil War, with the Chris-
tians and Jews against Islam.”

“I think that explains it,” Derek said.

“Explains what?”

“You remember how the feds passed a law controlling the sale of ammonium nitrate that
was never really enforced? Try to buy ammonium nitrate now without an ID.”

“I didn’t have to show an ID when I bought a bag to till into the garden.”

“Where did you buy it?”

“Here in Fredonia.”

“What did you buy?”

144
 The New Crusades – Chapter 15

“10-10-10.”

“Try and buy a bag of 34-0-0.”

“I didn’t see any of that, but they had 46-0-0.”

“That’s urea, not ammonium nitrate. If you mixed that with diesel, you have an UFO, not
ANFO.”

“Maybe I should, I’ve never seen an UFO.”

“I have some things in the pickup I need to store, where’s the armory?”

“Didn’t built one, I have a rifle rack and store the ammo and handguns in office cabinets.
What do you have?”

“M116A1 hand grenade simulators. I also have some M185 Red Personnel Signal Flare
kits in case you get lost in the woods.”

“What woods?”

“You know what I mean.”

“What is your situation on ammo, Derek?”

“About 5,000 rounds of 7.62 NATO, and 100 rounds of .30-30 plus a case of 9mm.”

“Damon, I assume you didn’t buy more ammo?”

“What for? I haven’t shot up what I have.”

“That .30-30 is a hunting rifle, would Mary like an M1A or a Mini-14? I assume the 9mm
is your only handgun.”

“I’ll take the M1A, Gary.”

“Damon, do you think Aaron can handle the M1A? If he can, I’ll give him one and Brit-
ney a Mini-14. The other two Mini-14s will go to Lorrie and Amy. That will leave 3 shot-
guns, Derek and Amy one. There are PT1911 .45s in that cabinet along with 5 8-round
magazines each. That’s more than enough to go around.”

“What about Eric?”

145
“I’ll have to think about that, Damon, if I get him a firearm, sure as hell Audrey and Udell
will want one. Maybe we’ll look at the Ruger 10/22s, we’ll see.”

“What this?”

“Oh, that’s a Fast Attach device Mary.”

“Do you have one for a FN FAL?”

“Nope, but the spare M1A has one and it shoots the same ammo. Maybe you should
keep the FAL as your backup rifle and take the other M1A.”

“Why suppressed, Dad?”

“Best flashhider ever invented.”

Which adapters did you get?”

“The flashhider adapters. The suppressors are mostly intended for night fighting and
they’ll protect your vision.”

“I suppose you bought ALICE rigs?”

“Not hardly, I got a wholesale price on Tac-Force chest rigs. They’ll hold a dozen Mini-
14 magazines or 8 of the M14 magazines. I got the tan ones but you can doctor them
up any way you want. I still got pistol belts to carry your canteens, pistols and spare
mags. I even have a Gadsden Flag around here somewhere.”

“Did you buy those butt stock pouches I told you about?”

“They’re in the cabinet.”

“Grandpa, is the TV for movies or is it cable?”

“Both, Eric. It has a VHS/DVD player and is connected to the local cable network. The
movies are on that shelf in Alphabetical order by title.”

“What’s in that room?”

“The standby generator, the 5kw backup so you can change the oil, a large battery bank
and inverters. You’ll also find a couple of cases of spare filters, several cases of oil and
a few drums of gasoline to the small generator.”

“It seems to me I seen this before.”

146
“I used this setup in my story called, Survival Story and it worked so well, I just did it for
real.”

“In that story I came up with a pair M82A1M with the 25mm uppers.”

“I can wait. But, considering my age, don’t make me wait too long, you remember how
that story ended?”

“It was a shame we couldn’t find a boat, it could have been a real Viking funeral.”

“As you can see, Missy is still alive so don’t bury me yet. How long can you stay?”

“I have 2 weeks of vacation discounting travel time, Dad.”

“I can stay for a month, Carrie said just to let her know.”

“Lorrie doesn’t work and Amy told her mother she had 2 weeks of vacation too.”

“There isn’t much privacy here.”

“There are 3 bedrooms and the kids can sleep out in the big room. You can unpack your
clothes and use the dresser and closet. There are some snacks in the little refrigerator
and our old one, but don’t eat it all and spoil your appetites.”

“Was there much trouble in Kalifornia?”

“Not where we lived. Three of us tried to help out when the Muslims began raising hell
but they wouldn’t let us.”

“Let me guess, Ron, Clarence and you.”

“Close, Ron, Lance and me. Haven’t seen Clarence in a long time.”

“Who is this Clarence you always talk about?”

“Clarence Floyd, my friend and Ron’s. He’s a black man from Birmingham, Alabama
with as many years sober and Ron and I put together. We were a tight group for a while
and I wrote a whole series of Three Amigo stories. He retired from either LA or LA
County then had a bypass operation plus a stroke in the recovery room. Ron and I quit
going to meetings and we haven’t seen him since.”

“Where’s Ron, Palmdale?”

“His number is disconnected; I figure he moved to Cedar Hill.”

147
I couldn’t have been more wrong. Ron had a heart attack and died. Linda sold their
home and moved in with her Dad in Newport Beach. She was saving her income to buy
a home of her own after her father died. Her father, a multi-millionaire had bequeathed
all but $1,000,000 of his estate to the Masonic Order. Linda and her sister would each
get ½ million when he died, which could be 2525, the way he was hanging on. Linda
wasn’t old enough to draw Social Security but her sister and she owned a factory build-
ing that gave them each $5,000 a month in rent. I’m sure she filled a claim against Ron;
they’d been married about 25 years.

I have no idea about Clarence, his number was disconnected too.

“How are you fixed for backups?”

“What do you mean?”

“What if a bomb goes off nearby and you get a ground slap that ruins your septic tank or
well? What if your generator fails? What if we get attacked by so many people we run
out of ammo?”

“In that case, I planned to send you outside to fix it. Any other questions oh wise one?”

“For the money you spent, you could have bought a shelter system from Utah Shelter
systems.”

“In a pig’s eye, I could. Besides, I had to buy the blast door and air system from them.
Anyway, we have those electrical panels on the roof and a few spares plus the wind
turbine. One final point, their shelters are so popular they have a bit of a waiting period.
I didn’t want to wait. What’s more I needed this concrete shelter as a base for the risers
to set the house on. I have more reasons supporting this shelter than you have reasons
against, so unless you have something constructive to add, SHUT UP.”

The world is filled with critics. You know the kind, they say you should have done it this
way or you should have done that. I don’t know what anyone was complaining about,
we had 12’ risers that allowed 120” of soil on top of the shelter overhead. Our protection
factor was 31⅔. Ten to the 31⅔ power was >2,147,483,648. We were way over pro-
tected.

Besides, the only way we’d get any, repeat any, radiation here was if we had WW III
and someone missed the target. If they were aiming for Flagstaff or Salt Lake City, they
were way off target. I was pretty sure that Independence Day would be the occasion for
more protests or riots. It could go either way; we Christians protesting the Muslims, the
Muslims protest Christians and Jews or maybe the Mexicans protesting everyone. We
were far enough out of town that even if some idiot tried to protest in Fredonia, we’d

148
never know it. I was still uneasy and was very happy that we had the family together for
the first time in years.

I’m not an unfriendly person, just shy. I don’t go out of my way to make friends, probably
because of that shyness. My new best friend was John and that had nothing to do with
his knowing someone who could help me get the weapons and ammo I wanted. He was
simply put, just good people. He didn’t hold my being a Methodist against me anymore
that I held being an LDS against him. In this country, we can follow any religion we
want. You can even be a Muslim, but these days, you might end up with a Grail Knight
in your face saying, “He chose poorly.”

One of the reasons we got along so well was because he was a good contractor who
didn’t try to gouge his customers. He got the basement constructed without a blueprint
and knew better than I did what it needed for support pillars. They were under those
parts of the lid where the risers sat. Each riser was therefore supported by the lid and it
was supported by the wall and 2 pillars. The entire basement had 10” thick concrete
with #4 rebar, excluding the floor. But because a person couldn’t count on the basement
being a faraday cage, the computer table I used as my radio shack was stored in a
metal cabinet and pulled out when I was using the radios.

Jericho began airing in the fall of 2006 and I liked the show. The science was reasona-
bly close considering how badly some of the TV shows abused basic physics. The bot-
tom line is you have to set the nuclear weapon off at roughly 300 miles altitude and then
you need to deal with the Earth’s magnetic field which affects how the pulse hits the
ground.

According to what I’ve read, Gamma radiation penetrated the deepest and that was
about 4’ of soil. You can get information on the subject or radiation reduction in two
places, USS and KI4U. I find the information at KI4U easier to understand and harder to
find but that’s not to say the information at USS isn’t accurate because it is. Sharon
Packer is a Nuclear Physicist. The strongest natural structure is a sphere and a cylinder
is an elongated sphere, sort of. My rectangular box was probably the weakest structure
there was, I guess I should have built a dome. A dome is half a sphere and is as strong
as the base.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Fredonia, Arizona 86022…

Sharon and I cheated; we had a Post Office box. Although that really screwed up UPS
deliveries, I routed those to John and Rachel’s. When a shipment required an adult sig-
nature, Rachel usually signed. We made it up with an occasional Cure 81 or a turkey.
They had what seemed to be an average family for the area, 5½ kids; well, 5 with one
on the way.

149
Anyway, I decided it would be a good day to spend on a range getting everyone accus-
tomed to the weapons they were using. We found an out of the way place with a good
backstop and I was pretty sure it wasn’t on the Res. It was a rather ideal place to shoot
weapons equipped with those expensive flashhiders and even to shoot them a few
times without. I brought one of the three extra cases of SA 7.62 NATO and a case of
M855. It was the same with the handguns, 250 rounds of 230gr .45ACP Lawman and a
little 9mm Lawman. I had Gold Dot, but would limit that, it was too difficult to get on
short notice and more expensive than Speer Lawman.

“Dad, if you could have any gun you wanted besides the M82, what would it be?”

“I can’t tell you that, but I can narrow it down. First off, check out the McMillan Tac-50.
The package costs about the same as a bare Barrett. But, there are two I’d really like to
have besides .50BMG, a M1A Super Match with a Swarovski PV 6-24×50 or similar
scope Night vision and maybe a Harris bipod. The other gun I’d like to have would be a
Marlin 1895 Cowboy model in .45-70 with a bandoleer for 45-70 cartridges `”

“Damon and I might be able to chip in and get the Marlin, but that other combination
must run 15 grand.”

“More, I’d only use Black Hills 175gr BTHP.”

“For chits and giggles, what if I could get a Tac-50?”

“Don’t bother unless you can get me a couple thousand rounds of Raufoss.”

If a person got a .50BMG, a couple of very good scopes, he could easily lay out about
20 grand before he tried to buy the military only Raufoss rounds. That new AN/PVS-27
seems to be the hot ticket. FN is currently building the M16 rifles for the US military and
the military only gets the price they do because of the quantity they buy on one order,
like 40,000 or so. I guess it’s cheaper to buy new rifles than repair the old ones.

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

For our 4th of July picnic, we had fried chicken, hamburgers, hot dogs, baby back ribs,
potato salad, macaroni salad, pistachio salad, baked beans, flesh salad from our garden
and one of those double recipe Devil’s food cakes. We also had lemonade, Coke,
Pepsi, beer and assorted sodas.

“That was good, anyone want a cigar?”

“Not if they’re cheap cigars, no.”

“They used to be cheap but not anymore. I have a few boxes of Marsh Wheeling cigars,
the dark ones.”

150
I got out a box and passed them around. I had a few takers and Damon put a half dozen
in his shirt pocket. We chew them and smoked, everyone seemed to have is favorite
way to smoke a cigar. Damon turned on a portable radio so we could follow the news
from around the country. There were more disturbances than I expected but less than
Derek thought there would be. I was getting to the place where I deferred to his military
experience. My addition to the discussion was perspective, recalling similar situations
and how they worked out, albeit based mainly on research.

“Five hundred thousand protesting in Washington.”

“Maybe they’ll get radiation sickness.”

“About that many in Chicago too.”

“Same story, but they must have brought in people for that protest.”

“Full out combat in Detroit.”

“Load canister, they’ll give up.”

“LA is quiet.”

“Oh, oh, LA is never quiet, especially on the 4th of July. People bring in those class C
fireworks and usually the fire departments and police are fully deployed.”

“They’re having a parade in San Francisco.”

“Probably a Gay pride parade. They people like to brag about being non-normal.”

“Are you chewing that or smoking it?”

“Yep. I was told that my great grandfather went through 2 cigars a day and never lit one.
An explosions?”

“They haven’t reported any.”

“Good.”

“Wait, there’s a firefight in Los Angeles, something about a factory or warehouse.”

“That sounds like the Battle of Jakes.”

“What’s that?”

“A survivalist story.”

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“It don’t think so dad, they say the factory caught fire and all the people inside died.”

“Doesn’t mean anything. Maybe they escaped through a sewer or something. So far no
serious problems anywhere?”

“Apparently not.”

“I don’t like it. Gimme another cigar, this requires some serious thinking.”

“Well?”

“I’m thinking, don’t rush me. Sharon, would you object to sleeping in the shelter tonight
just to try it out?”

“What about the food?”

“Put it in the shelter refrigerators. It’s just a test run; we’ll use the VA-150 without the fil-
ter and button up the blast door.”

“Are you expecting trouble?”

“Nothing I can put my finger on. Remember last Thanksgiving? If you’re against it, we
sleep in the house.”

“I’m not against it, but we should move some things from the refrigerator upstairs so we
can have breakfast.”

As a rule, I don’t like foam mattresses, but it had been a long day and I was tired. I even
invited John and Rachael to participate in our experiment, they begged off. Most nights I
stayed up past midnight although tonight I was in bed by 11. I awoke the next morning
to the sound of the TV blaring and the smell of fresh coffee. I splashed some water on
my face, brushed my teeth, used the toilet and got dressed. John had told me we need-
ed 2 bathrooms and I had quashed the idea. Gee, I hate being wrong, the shelter could
easily handle up to 50 people with the air system we had and more if we added a sec-
ond.

After a breakfast of bacon, eggs, hash browns and toast we opened the shelter and de-
clared our experiment a success. By 10am I was on the phone talking to John about the
second bathroom. He laughed and told me he had the pipes installed, he hadn’t wanted
to chisel out the floor when I changed my mind. He said he’d send a couple of men by
on the 6th to rough in the extra bathroom and it would be up and working by the end of
the week. I think that also explained the apartment sized hot water heater in the genera-
tor room.

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The kids announced they’d be leaving by the weekend, their vacations were almost over
and each had a long drive ahead. I pigeonholed Damon and asked him if he’d ever con-
sidered moving to Arizona. I could use some help around the place and it would allow
him to save his disability money. He begged off, not wanting to be that far from his kids.

“Listen up there are some things you all should know. The country is going to hell in a
handcart. It was bad enough when we had terrorists flying airplanes into buildings. Now,
they’re here and those 7 bombs they exploded may have just been a warming up exer-
cise. Our country has changed; it’s filled with hate, distrust and more criminals than we
have prisons for. You all know that you always have a place to come when the crap hits
the fan, but don’t wait too long, getting here could prove to be a real battle.

“We’ve equipped each of you with things we think you’ll need to do that, don’t let us
down by not showing up. We’ve been buying food, generally enough for 6 people for a
month every time we hit the grocery store. Yes, it’s hard keeping extra food on the shelf,
but find a way to do it, even if it nothing more than macaroni and cheese or bags of
beans and rice. To help you get started, we have an envelope for each of you. That’s to
buy survival food, not groceries. You’d better plan on coming here without the ability to
stop and get gas.”

By the time the kids had all packed up and left, John’s men had the second bathroom
working. He put signs on the doors for men and women.

“Your rifle rack is nearly empty, Gary.”

“I had to supply the kids, they’re either short on ammo, had a rifle I couldn’t fit and ad-
vanced flashhider to or something. We ended up buying the younger kids Ruger 10/22s
and 4 bricks of ammo. They’ll get them when their parents think their ready.”

“Man, I hate seeing an empty rifle rack.”

“The boys asked me what I wanted for rifles beside the M82A1 and I told them a Marlin
1895 Cowboy in .45-70 or a Super Match M1A Equipped with day and night sights and
a Harris bipod. I also pointed out that a complete Tac-50 rifle package was cheaper
than a Barrett. They’re bolt action so you can use a suppressor.

“Let me guess, a Swarovski day scope and a Raptor 6X night scope.”

“Nightforce NXS 12-42×56mm with an AN/PVS-27 MUNS, and Hornady A-Max ammo.
If it’s the Springfield, a Nightforce NXS8-32×56mm with an AN/PVS-22 UNS”

“The Marlin will look nice in your rifle rack. It’s a shame; you could have a Super Match
for a little over $1,600.”

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“We have that much left.”

“Want one?”

“Does a bear crap in the woods?”

“Ok, I make a phone call and get you the rifle. When you have the money for the rifle-
scopes, let me know.”

“Sharon, I’m going to need $1,600 plus sales tax to replace one rifle.”

“You just gave away several thousand dollars’ worth of guns.”

“This is different; it’s a super accurate sniper rifle.”

“What else are you going to want?”

“Ammo, 2 rifle scopes and a bipod.”

“What no fancy flashhider?”

“That too.”

“How much is all of this going to cost?”

“I’m not sure, maybe 65% of retail.”

“You’ll have to do it in installments.”

“I expected that, but I figured we’d have time, Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

“Amy called; they made it back to Palmdale with no trouble.”

“Did either of the boys call?”

154
 The New Crusades – Chapter 16

“Check your emails. Amy said to tell you that she checked; Ron had a heart attack and
died. Apparently Linda moved to Newport Beach.”

“Crap. It was just a matter of time, I guess. Two down and one to go, huh?”

“What are you talking about?”

“The Three Amigos.”

“You don’t really know about Clarence, do you?”

“I guess not. Oh well, considering the state the country is in, maybe it’s better they don’t
have to go through it.”

“When will your rifle be in?”

“John didn’t say, not too long.”

“Tell me about the scopes.”

“I want either a Nightforce NXS8-32×56mm with an AN/PVS-22 UNS for a Super Match
or a Nightforce NXS 12-42×56mm with an AN/PVS-27 night scope for a Tac-50. It will
be hard to get, they’re expensive. The military has totally grabbed the market.”

Sharon went shopping and here’s what she found: The ATN 4-12x80DNS is a highly
accurate daytime sniper scope. 80mm objective and 40mm tube combined with the
best, German quality multi-coated glass on the market made the sight the best light-
gathering device for shooting in the world. An array of features that will dazzle any
marksmen include parallax-free construction; 4 to 12 variable Power Zoom, 1000-Yard
Bullet drop Compensator with interchangeable cams for six calibers (50 BMG, .308, 30-.
06, .270, 7mm Mag, .300 Win Mag. 22 - 250, .243), 1000 Yard Range Finder and a su-
per sharp, illuminated Reticle with 11 light settings. Additional features include ⅛ MOA
adjustment at 100 yards, 100% weather resistance and Matte Black mil-spec finish with
beryllium power coating. To covert the ATN 4-12x80 to a Night Vision Weapon sight is a
simply twist the daytime riflescope eyepiece and replace it with a Night Vision eyepiece
converting your scope into a high quality, very accurate night vision weapon sight.

This ingenious setup allows the shooter in the field to go from day to night in less than
30 seconds without tools, without changes in eye relief and remain zeroed all around
the clock. Model 412X80DNS4.

I was, as the saying goes, standing in tall cotton. The rifle came with the Harris bipod
installed which raised the price a bit but left one less thing to buy. I needed Black Hills
ammo and the flashhider. It wasn’t too big of a problem, I had one spare M1A adapter

155
and only really needed the flashhider. That Black Hills ammo ran about $450 a case of
200 rounds. I sent the boys an email telling them to forget the Super Match, I had it.
Maybe I should point out that the M21 rifle is nothing more than a Super Match with an
adjustable target stock.

I’d helped in the garden and Sharon was busy with her new pressure canner putting up
veggies. I was sitting on the front deck enjoying a glass of lemonade when who should
pull in but Damon.

“Change your mind? Come here to live?”

“Got some more lemonade?”

“It’s in the refrigerator, help yourself.”

“Got any more of those cigars?”

“I’ve got a lot of things, what brings you here?”

“Presents.”

“Oh really, I don’t suppose you have a Tac-50 do you?”

“Get real, Dad. I gave Derek the money to buy you the Marlin rifle. He bought that, the
scabbard, bandoleers and 2 cases of ammo.”

“Want to see my new rifle?”

“Don’t you want to see the Marlin first?”

“Sure, I’ll carry the rifle, you can get the other stuff, let’s go to the basement.”

“I need a wheelbarrow.”

“It’s in the garage.”

I guess I sort of look like a Mexican Bandito with 2 bandoleers across my chest but I
didn’t have a sombrero. I put the loaded rifle in the rack the extra stuff in the cabinets
and proceeded to get down the Super Match. I also dug around and found Damon a full
box of the Marsh Wheeling’s.

“Handle with care, Damon, it cost as much as you did, maybe more.”

“Where’s the day scope?”

156
“On the rifle.”

“Ok, where’s the night scope?”

“On the rifle, you just remove this part here and replace it with this and voila, you have
either a day or night scope. I’d have rather had the Nightforce and UNS.”

“You have both the guns you wanted.”

“I have both the guns I said you boys could buy for me. I don’t really have the one I want
above any other.”

“If I had the money, I’d buy you one.”

“I know you would, it’s the thought that counts. What were gas prices like?”

“I don’t know, I drove straight through from Gassville. You said to get something set up
to be able to make the trip nonstop. My trunk is now a spare fuel tank. I have to get a
luggage rack for the top of the car.”

“See any A-rabs on your way?”

“Not really. You’re still expecting trouble?”

“Has the FBI rounded up the ones who set off the 7 bombs? No. Do they have a clue
who they’re looking for? They haven’t said. Are we out of Iraq yet? They sortied more
ships to the Persian Gulf. The clock is ticking, kid.”

“How are you coming with the garden?”

“I planted too many green beans. I think we could run out of jars. I ordered another 40
cases of quarts from Canning Pantry. We won’t use them all this year, but they don’t
spoil.”

“You’ve been spending a lot of money.”

“I concluded I can’t take it with me. I’m trying to dream up some kind of medical emer-
gency that would us get enough money from the bank to buy the Tac-50 rifle. That’s
hard; we have the defibrillator, a 10-liter oxygen machine, some medical supplies and a
15 month supply of pills.”

“I could try talking them into $5,000, Dad. If they did that, they’d have to give Sharon
and Derek $5,000 grand each just to keep things even. You could buy a pretty nice rifle
with $15,000.”

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“Here, have a second box of cigars, I like that idea.”

“What’s for supper?”

“We’ll eat out, it wouldn’t be fair to Sharon to expect her to cook after canning 5 loads.”

“Where are we going?”

“Probably up to Kanab. Maybe Escobar’s Mexican Restaurant.”

“How many jars do you do in a batch?”

“19 pints or 14 quarts. She was doing quarts of green beans so I guess she did about
70 quarts. Like I told you, I went overboard on planting green beans. If she did 6 loads,
we’d have 7 dozen quarts.”

“I can only stay a couple of days, school starts soon and I want to be home when it
does.”

“Thanks for the rifle and here’s hoping Matt’s in a good mood when you stop to see
him.”

I had 2 Chili Rellenos as my combo, my favorite Mexican food. They were big, too, I had
to tough through it just to eat both.

“That’s a big potato patch, how many do you figure to get?”

“Maybe a ton. We won’t eat them all, but I can give John a few bags and maybe sell
some at a Farmer’s market.”

“I see you got the second bathroom finished.”

“John’s men had it almost done by the time you left. He was way ahead of me and al-
ready had the pipes in under the floor. When I was in the Air Force, most barracks had
a bathroom with 6 stools, 6 urinals 6 sinks, and one large shower room. That was for
what amounts to an Army Platoon. If we somehow end up down there in a real life or
death situation, we’re going to have to schedule bathroom use.”

“Do you have any chemical toilets, just in case?”

“Two. We’d have to set up a couple of stalls in the room with the generator.”

“So when is this tragedy going to happen?”

158
“Whenever it happens and not one minute sooner. I don’t like the idea of the Persian
Gulf having so many of our ships in it. I don’t like the fact that North Korea extracted
enough plutonium from those fuel rods for several more bombs. And, I absolutely don’t
like the idea that those 7 bombs could have been nothing more than a test run.”

“Sharon said Ron was dead. No more three amigos?”

“Oh yeah, just different faces, but it may be the 4 amigos, if John gets included. He
practices what the LDS Church preaches and they have a lot of food and supplies put
up. Enough for their family for a full year. He told me with the baby coming, he’d add
enough infant stuff for the baby and another year supply to the adult foods.”

“Did he help you get the rifle?”

“Went through a cousin with a FFL. I have no idea how he accounts for the class 3 stuff,
but for all I know, I’m a cop or deputy sheriff and don’t know it.”

“After you get the Tac-50, what do you want next?”

“How about a new, in the box, Thompson submachine gun with a bunch of 30 round
stick magazines?”

“You can’t find those.”

“Almost. There’s no way I could every afford one, not with them going for $20,000.”

“Why do you want all of these exotic weapons?”

“Only for a while. When I die, guess who gets them?”

The maximum effective range of a .50BMG rifle was ~2,000 yards or 1,830 meters. The
range of the bullet was 7,450 yards or 6,800 meters. This was a rifle that you needed a
very good backstop for, it was over 4 miles! The rifle was probably best employed with
the Raufoss ammo, another military only item. From what Derek had said about the way
the military accounted for its ammo, it was going to be difficult, if not impossible, to
come by. You couldn’t even get the Barrett IMI ammo, everyone was out of stock.
Two days later I went with Damon to the gas station and we filled his tanks, he dropped
me off and was gone in a flash, just like Superman.

A week later, I got an email that said, “Order your rifle, two checks are on the way.”

“Sharon, did we get a check in the mail from the bank?”

“No, why?”

159
“Would you go online and check the account? Look for an unexpected deposit of
$5,000.”

“No $5,000 deposit, but there is one for $7,500. What’s that about?”

“Damon was going to go to Charles City and hit Matt up. We should get 2 more checks
for $7,500 each, one from Damon and one from Derek. The money is to allow me to buy
a rifle, ammo and accessories, like ammo.”

“What rifle now?”

“A Tac-50, complete and ammo on top of it.”

“A .50 caliber? I thought they were illegal.”

“They are, in Kalifornia. They sure aren’t in Arizona.”

Sure enough, in a few days we got a check from Damon for $7,500. The check from
Derek was only for $5,000 but he said to expect a UPS shipment, I’d like what he was
sending. He said he bought me some .50BMG ammo. I talked to John and he said he’d
get on the rifle post haste. I told him I wanted extra magazines, at least 5 and preferably
10 total. The ammo beat the rifle by several days, and I didn’t even look at it, I just
hauled it to the basement.

Finally, the rifle came in and it had 2 scopes, a Nightforce NXS 12-42x56mm and the
McCann Night Vision Rail holding an AN/PVS-27 plus a total of 10 of the 5 round maga-
zines. The money was gone like Superman, in a flash, well most of it, remember John
got 35% off. That sucker was heavy, too. It was about then that I thought back to my
previous story and started to think about that tactical wheelchair.

“What on earth! This is Raufoss ammo. It’s from your son?”

“Sorry, John but look, I have 5 cases of Mk 211MP ammo. He must have had to bribe
someone.”

“Who?”

“Derek. He’s as straight laced as they come. I’m going to stand on a stool and kiss him
when I see him again.”

Barrett does not recommend putting a suppressor on their rifle. It voids the warranty and
greatly reduces the life of the rifle. However, McMillan not only recommends it for their
rifle, they sell them.

160
“Additionally, as technology evolves, it will simple and cost effective at a later date to
upgrade the weapon. We can change anything on the weapon at any time the user
wishes. We can also modify any existing suppressed Ruger pistol to this standard of
excellence.”

I’ll have to tell you, I bought a used Ruger Mk II and sent it to AWS. This was the pistol
I’d seen in a store in Scottsdale. If I had known they had the rifles with the suppressors
installed, I could have bought one there. I did buy the parts kits for the Tac-50, just in
case.

“Are you done?”

“Done what?”

“Buying guns.”

“Until I see a new one I want, yeah, I’m done. What’s wrong, is there something you
want to buy?”

“Hey, don’t blame me, I was happy not being a survivalist. We should increase our
meds until we have a two year supply.”

“We might be able to do that, almost all of my meds are generics now. We won’t be able
to get Avandaryl but I’ll substitute Actos and Glimepiride. I have a bottle of Ecotrin that
will replace the Plavix. I think most of the funds will go to store a supply of your drugs.”

“How are we going to do it?”

“Buy them from Canada. If we use the right pharmacy and have prescriptions, we
should be able to afford them. Get yours first and then we’ll get mine.”

“That doesn’t seem fair.”

“You’re going to outlive me anyway, Sharon. I’m good for 15 months the same as you. If
you have a choice, get them in bottles that contain a 30-day supply. That will allow us to
rotate them.”

She didn’t listen, sometimes I wonder if she ever does. She bought both of us a 6 month
supply. It was another month before she could buy the other 6 month supply. By that
time, I had the potatoes dug and bagged. I think we must have had about 700 jars of
canned produce. The pickles went into pints, except for the whole dills, and everything
else was in a meal sized container. I can easily eat a quart of green beans so she only
canned those in quarts. Next spring I’d order more lids to replace the ones we’d use up

161
through the year. We sliced, blanched and froze the green peppers and blanched and
froze peas.

I liked the Military Channel although much of the information was dated before it ever hit
the air. I learned kill chain.

5/25/2006 - WASHINGTON (AFPN) – At this moment, above Iraq and Afghanistan,

American data sensors are collecting information and intelligence about what is happen-
ing on the ground.

What happens to the data depends largely on a sensor’s owner and its mission. The da-
ta could be reviewed immediately, or it could be stored for later use. What is for sure is
that terabytes of information, wherever they come from, often go unused – left on a se-
cure hard drive until they are no longer relevant to anyone.

The Air Force is now engaged in an experiment to take that data and make use of it the
moment it comes off sensors. During the Northern Edge exercise this June in Alaska,
the Air Force will test a system that does just that: the Global Net Centric Surveillance
and Targeting, or GNCST, system.

Data from sources such as unmanned aerial vehicles, the E-8C Joint Stars, the RC-135
V/W Rivet Joint, electro-optical sensors, synthetic aperture radar sensors, signals intel-
ligence sensors and others are all likely candidates to be fed into GNCST.

Called “Gun Coast” by those involved with the project, the system can take near real-
time information from a nearly unlimited set of data sensors and process it into useable
information for the warfighter, said Maj. Gen. Gregory H. Power, Air Force director of
operations and support integration.

“With GNCST, a lot of platforms and capabilities will be fusing their data into one single
funnel and GNCST is at the bottom of the funnel,” he said. “It takes all that information
in, and through algorithms, is able to digest and disseminate very quickly and very accu-
rately, the position of something like a (surface-to-air missile) site.”

The system uses a Web-based interface on a secured computer network. An end user
might access the system and ask it to locate surface-to-air missiles that appeared in a
specific region within the last 45 minutes. The GNCST system would then respond, in
as little as a few seconds, with target coordinates for those SAMs.

That type of responsiveness and accuracy would be of great use to pilots, General
Power said.

“If we had a sortie that was going to attack a target, GNCST might identify a mobile
SAM system that had moved into the area as the aircraft took off,” General Power said.

162
“Of course, the pilot would not know about that,” he said. “But by having GNCST and
being able to digest that data – getting it accurately and fast – that data would be avail-
able for the air operations center to pass to the pilot. This really is a kind of life-saving
technology that, once fully developed, is really going to give us an edge on the battle-
field.”

The Air Force processes much of its intelligence information by using manpower. But,
humans who process intelligence information cannot work as fast or process as much
data as the machines.

“A human being processing the data we are talking about here, it could take in some
cases days, sometimes even weeks,” General Power said. “This machine-to-machine
interface we will have with GNCST will allow us to do it in seconds, minutes at most.
And the timeliness and accuracy of the information is the value we bring to the warfight-
er.”

The GNCST system was developed primarily to locate SAM sites, but it can be modified
to find any number of potential threats, from Scud missiles to tanks. Complex computer
algorithms allow the system to look at nearly any kind of raw sensor data and locate
threats. And as the GNCST system develops, those algorithms will be adjusted to rec-
ognize any new threats.

“In the future, this target set will grow to eventually include all threats,” General Power
said. “The database will be a living document, if you will. The list of threat systems will
continuously be changing. As new systems are developed they, too, will be added to the
database.”

The GNCST system could even find “non-threat systems,” General Power said.

One concern with allowing a computer to pick a target is the fear of removing the “hu-
man element” from the kill chain. In the Air Force command and control community, “kill
chain” refers to the series of events leading from identification of a potential target to the
ultimate destruction or “kill” of that target. The target could be a building, a cave, a con-
voy or a communications tower.

While the kill chain can be shortened through the use of computers, at the end, there is
always a human who makes the final decision to employ force, General Power said.
That will not be eliminated with implementation of GNCST.

“Just like in any execution decision, there will be rules of engagement on scenarios,” he
said. “Once the concept of operations is developed, there will be certain checks and
balances in it. The final element is the executing human being - the pilot on the sortie -
at the end of the kill chain who will have the final say on if they drop on the target.”

163
Development of the GNCST system is spearheaded by the National Geospatial-
Intelligence Agency. Partners in the project include the Johns Hopkins University Ap-
plied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., and the United States Strategic Command.

While the system is only in development now, General Power said he hopes the Air
Force signs on for the system. Its performance at Northern Edge will figure into the Air
Force’s decision to become more involved in the technology.

“This technology has a lot of promise and we want to see it developed,” General Power
said. “We are pretty optimistic that it will succeed.”

“GNCST will bring intelligence information with more accuracy in a much shorter time
period than currently possible,” he added. “It means we can find and accurately locate
bad guys in a much shorter period of time, and hopefully prevent them from causing
harm to friendly forces – in other words, saving friendly lives.”

164
 The New Crusades – Chapter 17

That was just what the military needed, a new set of boy toys. If they had too many, I’d
always be willing to take a Ma Deuce or six off their hands. I almost had a heart attack
when I head last year that they were discontinuing the H-1 Alpha Hummer, not that I
could ever afford one, they cost more than some homes. I looked into buying a used
military M1114, but when they were put up for sale, they were junk. If I were 20 instead
of my mid-60s, I’d buy one as a fixer-upper and plan to have it running by the time I
turned 40.

I watched holidays, figuring that if another attack came, it would either be on a holiday
or close to, like Black Friday. Was that only 10 months ago? It seems like it was a life-
time ago.

“Are you having stomach trouble again?”

“I don’t think so why?”

“I just bought 4 bottles of Pepcid AC and can only find one unopened bottle.”

“I sometimes get up in the night with a little indigestion and take two, but I didn’t realize
I’d done it that often. Don’t you take it too?”

“Not very often, are you anemic again? Do you think your ulcers could be bleeding?”

“Next time we see the doctor, remind me to have a CBC. I shouldn’t have anything
wrong; I’m taking Ecotrin instead of aspirin. The last time we checked it my CBC was a
little low, but not out of range.”

“When was that?”

“I think that was June last year. When you ordered drugs, did you get Clopidogrel or
Ecotrin?”

“Both. Do you need to double up on the Prevacid?”

“How many doctors samples do we have, 3 or 4 boxes?”

“Four.”

“I’ll double up for 2 months and see if that solves the problem. Did you replace the Pep-
cid?”

“Six bottles.”

165
The following Sunday when I set up my pill caddies, I doubled the dose of Prevacid. If I
hadn’t had a large supply of samples, I wouldn’t have bothered; it’s one of those $5 pills.
It’s hell to get old and even worse when you start taking pills. I sometimes wondered if
doctors invested their money in drug company stocks.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Fredonia, Arizona…

…ANFO bomb in Cleveland. The blast destroyed a major portion of the airport terminal
forcing the FAA to close the airport. Early reports indicated more than 200 dead and
several hundred injuries. The bomb was delivered in a food service delivery truck, one
of dozens supplying the terminal daily. Critically injured persons are being air evacuated
to area hospitals and DHS declined to issue a statement referring to a continuing inves-
tigation.

“Sharon did you hear the news about the bombing at the Cleveland airport?”

“No, I didn’t, terrorist attack?”

“I assume so. I’m going to watch TV for a while and see if they have more information.”

Breaking news. Fox has just learned of a second explosion at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-
Jackson airport. Observers told reporters that a Frito Lay delivery truck detonated near
the main terminal. At this time, WXIA is awaiting word from a news conference expected
to begin momentarily. Our on scene reporter said there are blanket draped bodies ‘eve-
rywhere’. Stay tuned for the news conference.

“They hit Atlanta, too.”

“Anywhere else?”

“I haven’t heard. You can’t take a toothbrush on an airplane but bombers cam drive up
with a truckload of ANFO. Doesn’t anyone try to discover these plots before they’re car-
ried out?”

“Ask Chertoff, not me.”

I was before the baby boomer generation and as such, had been enchanted with TV. I
sat glued to the set while the list of bombings continued. I had a pad and pencil and be-
gan to write down the locations and times the bombs had been set off. Before I was
done, I had a list of airports and the bombs were all set off within a 15 minute period,
generally in the area of a terminal. It took local authorities less than an hour to close
most of the major airports and to begin searching every vehicle entering the airports. At

166
last count, they had found two additional delivery trucks containing up to 5 tons of
ANFO triggered in most case by dynamite.

None of the airports bombed served any of the 7 cities they’d bombed on Black Friday.
A total of 10 international airports had been bombed not including the two where the ex-
plosives had been intercepted. I took 2 Pepcid AC and read the list to Sharon.

“Muslim extremists?”

“Sounds like it, the driver of the two trucks they stopped were from Saudi Arabia.”

“And were nearing the beginning of the Holiday traveling season.”

“If they don’t blow the airplanes out of the sky, they now killing the passengers before
they board. What next, nuclear power plants or poisoning the water supply?”

“They won’t do anything for a while Gary, they’ll have to wait for this to die down. Do we
need anything?”

“Nothing I can think of. Do you want to order another 6 month supply of drugs from
Canada?”

“Let’s do something on food and see how much money is left. What do you know about
gold and silver?”

“A little, the US mints 1, ½, ¼ and 1∕10 ounce gold coins and 1 ounce silver coins. Any 22
carat coin is okay because they contain the stated amount of gold or silver. The last I
looked gold was down to around $500 an ounce. A person can also buy pre-65 dimes,
quarters and halves, they contain 90% silver. Why?”

“I think we can get what food we need for under $2,000. Even if we buy another 6
months’ supply of prescription drugs, we’d have enough to buy some gold and/or silver
coins.”

“What do we need for food?”

“I thought we should top off the freezers, and fill in any holes on the shelves. How are
you on Kool’s?”

“I still have over 40 cartons, if you wanted, you could bring them up to a full case.”

“Ammo?”

167
“Well… I could use some 750gr Hornady A-MAX. Say, just how much money do you
have?”

“Enough, Why?”

“I’m going to check with Derek and see if there is any more of the 50 caliber available.”

“Just don’t go hog wild, whatever you spend on ammo won’t be available to buy gold
and silver.”

“Derek, Dad, how are you? Really, good. Say that ammo you got, can you get any
more? Sure, two cases would be enough, what do you need a thousand? I’ll have Sha-
ron send you a check. What do you make of those airport bombings? They did, where?
Yes I know where that is, on the south edge of plant 42, right next to Blackbird Park.”

“Sharon, Derek said he could get me 2 more cases and he’ll need a check for $1,000.
He also told me they bombed the Los Angeles control center at plant 42. He said it
could be down for several weeks.”

“How many are there?”

“30 counting Canada:

Albuquerque Air Route Traffic Control Center (KZAB)

Atlanta Air Route Traffic Control Center (KZTL)
Boston Air Route Traffic Control Center (KZBW)
Chicago Air Route Traffic Control Center (KZAU)
Cleveland Air Route Traffic Control Center (KZOB)
Denver Air Route Traffic Control Center (KZDV)
Fort Worth Air Route Traffic Control Center (KZFW)
Houston Air Route Traffic Control Center (KZHU)
Indianapolis Air Route Traffic Control Center (KZID)
Jacksonville Air Route Traffic Control Center (KZJX)
Kansas City Air Route Traffic Control Center (KZKC)
Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center (KZLA)
Memphis Air Route Traffic Control Center (KZME)
Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center (KZMA)
Minneapolis Air Route Traffic Control Center (KZMP)
New York Air Route Traffic Control Center (KZNY)
Oakland Air Route Traffic Control Center (KZOA)
Salt Lake City Air Route Traffic Control Center (KZLC)
Seattle Air Route Traffic Control Center (KZSE)
Washington Air Route Traffic Control Center (KZDC)
Anchorage Air Route Traffic Control Center (PAZA)
San Juan CERAP (TJZS/ZSU)
Guam CERAP (PGZU/ZUA)

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Edmonton Area Control Centre (CZEG)
Gander Area Control Centre (CZQX)
Moncton Area Control Centre (CZQM)
Montreal Area Control Centre (CZUL)
Toronto Area Control Centre (CZYZ)
Vancouver Area Control Centre (CZVR)
Winnipeg Area Control Centre (CZWG)”

“What does it mean?”

“If they take out about 4 more centers, very little traffic will be flying.”

“Which ones?”

“Chicago, Cleveland, Indianapolis and Denver.”

“Ready to go to Sam’s Club?”

“Sure. Are you going to get cigarettes at the Res?”

“Tomorrow, after I order the meds.”

“If we have enough money after were done, I wouldn’t mind picking up some more
QuikClot ACS.”

“Let’s see how it goes. I’m sure we can buy a few.”

“Can I make one more quick call?”

“Sure.”

“Derek, Dad. How’s chances on getting 21 CLS bags? How much? Ok, I’ll talk to Sha-
ron and let you know.”

I wanted more gas masks too, but they weren’t a priority. We spent less at Sam’s Club
than she thought we would and I got on the phone and ordered the ACS and compres-
sion bandages (Advanced Clotting Sponge). When we had the meat cut and wrapped
and everything put away, I checked to see if we could get 21 of the CLS bags. We only
had enough spare cash for 14. My next check was due in a few days so I called him and
told him to go ahead and get 21 if he could.”

The 20-round magazines for the Super Match were the magazines sold by Springfield
Armory. I didn’t see much difference between them and the Taiwanese magazines ex-
cept for the finish. The T-57s were blued and I think they call the finish on the SA maga-
zines phosphate. I loaded 8 of the magazines with 175gr BTHP and the other two with
165gr BTSP.

169
A week later the terrorists took out the other 4 control centers I told Sharon about, de-
spite increased security. Derek called and said I had a UPS shipment coming with 2
cases of ammo and 2 large boxes of training supplies. My order from Z-Medica Corpo-
ration also came in and I could add 2 ACSs to each CLS bag. One of their products was
a Battle Pack. The Battle Pack combines the needed items to control traumatic wounds.
This pack improves upon the above hemorrhage pack by adding a rugged waterproof
bag to hold a cinch tight sterile compression bandage or an emergency bandage and
two primed high volume gauze pads. The bag is designed with a Velcro belt attachment
and two attachments for ALICE clips. My only other purchases of medical supplies was
Water Gel and Asherman chest seals. These supplies were all based on the assump-
tion we’d end up in a firefight with someone.

“Are you going to try and come out for either Thanksgiving or Christmas?”

“We have to spend Christmas with Mary’s folks.”

“Thanksgiving would be fine with me; I’ll pay for your gas and put you up.”

“I’ll discuss it with Mary and let you know, Dad.”

“Sharon, I invited Derek and Mary for Thanksgiving. Do you want to invite Amy and Lor-
rie?”

“I was just coming to tell you I had.”

“I’ll call Damon and then we’ll go shopping for the turkey and fixings.”

“We already have everything we need.”

“Are you sure?”

“I made a shopping list and then following your recent suggestion, quadrupled every-
thing on the list.”

“Wow, good idea. Four turkeys, huh?”

“No 4 turkeys and 4 standing rib roasts, I wasn’t sure what you’d want. I also got a 20#
bag of sweet potatoes, fixings for 8 pistachio salads, 8 cans of cranberry sauce, 8 bags
of Pepperidge farms stuffing, and enough preformed crusts and filling for 12 pies.”

“What no onion rings for the green bean casserole?”

“Six cans plus a case of mushroom soup. Do you want to hear the whole list?”

170
“Tell me you bought more Snickers Almond bars. Do we have enough coffee? You
didn’t happen to get me some cigars, did you?”

“Yes, yes and yes. Eight of each.”

“Coke classic and C2?”

“12 12-packs each and 4 cartons of Marlboros. Stop! I got everything.”

She seemed angry that I’d question her so I went to the basement to listen to the radio
(pout). That’s when I discover a second 25ft³ chest type freezer filled with the frozen
vegetables and things like egg noodles, extra ice cream and other things we hadn’t
grown in the garden. There was also a full sized refrigerator and a full sized stove.
Someone had tried to get even for my fancy new rifle. I spent the remainder of day in-
ventorying the supplies and updating the list on my computer.

“Still pouting?”

“I made myself useful and inventoried the supplies.”

“I got the refrigerator, stove and freezer used from a widow who was moving to Salt
Lake City.”

“I see you added several new items to the food inventory.”

“I meant to tell you about that so you could put it in your spreadsheet; sorry, but I got
busy.”

“I’d better call and top off the diesel and propane.”

“Already done. I also ordered a farm tank with 500 gallons of gas and bought you a gal-
lon of PRI-G.”

“You’ve been busy, anything else I don’t know?”

“I have the Christmas shopping done; I don’t want to leave the house the day after
Thanksgiving.”

The things Derek bought came on Monday. I checked the expiration dates on the con-
tents of the CLS bags and it was all new. UPS also bought a box I wasn’t expecting and
when I opened it, Sharon had ordered several new DVDs of the movies that we wanted
but didn’t have. I was afraid we’d need 2 new cabinets, one for ammo and the other for
medical supplies.

171
“Oh, I meant to tell you, I got your Farmer Bros. commercial coffee maker repaired and
bought new carafes.”

This was something new, I felt as if I created Mrs. Hyde. I looked again and our 2 rows
of shelves had become 3 rows of shelves. If you own stock in Krusteaz, expect a divi-
dend check, she had 4 cases of pancake mix and 1 case each of muffin mix, chocolate
chip cookie mix and brownie mix. There was also a full shelf of Aunt Jemima syrup. The
stack of toilet paper seemed bigger too. I checked, we had the same generator, but a
4th drum of gas for the backup.

If I said anything, it would just start a fight, so I began adding the extra items to the
spreadsheet and recounted the toilet paper. Just because we had 2 bathrooms didn’t
mean we needed twice as much toilet paper, you tell her. I figured I’d better inventory
the ammo too, who knows what she’d bought? Well, Wally World must have had bricks
of .22 on sale and there were 4 cases, not 2 plus 4 cases of Black Hills 175gr 7.62 plus
2 25-count boxes of the T-57 magazines I didn’t remember buying. I took 4 Tylenol ex-
tra strength and went upstairs for supper.

She announced that we were going to Kanab for supper, she wanted steak. I got my
coat and dress up hat and got in the passenger side of the pickup. We went to the
Rocking V Café. You have to love a place whose dinner menu contains the comment:
Children of poorly behaving parents will be given a triple espresso, 6 scoops of ice
cream and a puppy when they leave; and, ALL MENU PRICES are highly unstable and
vary from moment to moment depending on wind speed, whim & the price of chocolate,
as well as certain, little-known grain futures. The values listed below are for reference
only. In the event that you actually make it to The Big K and find us, your menu may be
encrypted for our amusement. $27 for a filet is a bit steep.

“Where did all the money come from?”

“What money?”

“Let me give you a hint: Extra appliances, extra food, extra toilet paper, more Chinese
magazines and more ammo.”

“I sold 4 quilts.”

“Yes, and?”

“$1,250, each.”

The steak wasn’t half bad, but I’d have preferred it with a little less age.

172
There was enough fabric in Sharon’s quilting room to make about 50 quilts, but they
take lots of time. If she could get 4 done a year, she’d have to work overtime. This
wasn’t a new source of wealth. However, on the way home, she told me about the rolls
of coins she bought, $2,000 of pre-65 dimes quarters and halves. I guessed the face
value was about $500. I’m sure you’ve met women like her before, they shop the clear-
ance racks and never pay full price.

…exploded in mid-air shortly after takeoff at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. The plane re-
portedly had over 300 passengers aboard. On scene reporters indicated that survivors
were unlikely.

In the nation’s Capital, the Vice-President briefly surfaced and assured reporters that
the cleanup from Black Friday’s bombings was well underway and that reconstruction
was expected to begin in spring. Progress continues on replacing the air traffic control
centers destroyed earlier this year. IBM announced it was awarded a contract to supply
the computer equipment for the new centers and a follow-up contract to replace the
equipment in the 25 other centers. The deal has an estimated value of $10 billion.

“A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you’re talking about real money.”

“Huh?”

“Everett Dirksen. I wonder if the $10 billion is for the 5 centers that were destroyed or for
all 30?”

“What’s the difference, the Middle East war is costing us $2 billion a day?”

“All indicators say the economy is healthy.”

“You can thank the terrorists for that, Gary. It will probably take several hundred billion
to rebuild the cities. You watch the Democrats will take the White House in ‘08.”

“Assuming we have elections, yes.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Has Iran stopped uranium enrichment? No. Has North Korea tested a bomb and are
they building several more? Yes. Have we found Osama bin laden yet? No. Has he
threatened to inflame the Jihad they’re carrying on in the US and Europe? Yes. Has Is-
rael or the US bombed the Iranian nuclear facilities? No. Has North Korea launched
space junk and taken out several of our satellites? Yes. Has China fired lasers on our
satellites passing over China? Yes, but only to blind them. How many of the ABMs have
we deployed? We’re only up to 24. If I could reach it, I’d bend over and kiss my behind
goodbye.”

“You’re talking about World War III.”

173
“Newt Gingrich has been talking about it since July 16, 2006. Hear the words of Osama
bin Laden, Bush said: This Third World War is raging in Iraq.

“Crap.”

“That sums it up nicely, dear.”

At least 3 people of note had already said we were in WW III, Newt, Osama and Dubya.
Seven, count them seven, nuclear weapons had been exploded on US soil and no retal-
iation taken because we didn’t know who to blame. Al Qaeda doesn’t have a headquar-
ters we can find. While they may have been behind the attacks on the 7 US cities, no
doubt the actual attacks were carried out by agents who had crossed the border(s) into
the US or who were already in place, sleepers is the term. We didn’t even know who
had built the bombs; or, if we did, someone wasn’t saying. Consider the possibilities, as
Spock often said: US, Russia, China, France UK, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, India,
South Africa and maybe Iran or Saudi Arabia. It was called nuclear proliferation and it
would seem that we were becoming helpless to stop it.

Was Einstein right? I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but
World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. This topic brings me to that worst
outcrop of the herd nature, the military system, which I abhor. That a man can take
pleasure in marching in formation to the strains of a band is enough to make me des-
pise him. He has only been given his big brain by mistake; a backbone was all he need-
ed. This plague-spot of civilization ought to be abolished with all possible speed. Hero-
ism by order, senseless violence, and all the pestilent nonsense that goes by the name
of patriotism – how I hate them! War seems to me a mean, contemptible thing: I would
rather be hacked in pieces than take part in such an abominable business.

174
 The New Crusades – Chapter 18

Stick and stones, indeed! I think I’d better order more ammo. It is, after all, on my list of
things you can never have too much of. I have a friend who is taking advantage of Wally
World’s offer to replace the 20# propane bottles for $16 each. So far, he has nn bot-
tles… He is, by any measure, a very wise man. One other thing, I think I just heard the
clock say, ‘Tock’. Can anyone explain why the Doomsday Clock is still set at 7 minutes
to Midnight? Personally, I’d have the hands at 3 minutes, or less. Maybe they’re afraid if
they move the hands, it will start WW III… I’m rather sure old Albert never met Osama
or Newt.

I don’t write these stories for my amusement, you know. I got up to go to the bathroom
at 7am. So did one of our dogs, on my bed. At least I know which one was guilty, this
time. I’ve always claimed I write the stories for education and entertainment. Now you
know the real reason, to keep me from killing my dogs.

November 28, 2007

Fredonia, Arizona…

All the kids have arrived, at last. Derek showed up with 2 more cases of Raufoss, and
his hand out. At least his heart is in the right place and yes, Virginia, I bought more am-
mo. Six cases of 7.62 NATO, 8 more cases of 5.56 and five cases of Hornady A-MAX
Match 750gr. The last one was just unpacking his or her suit case when… the TV began
broadcasting:

This is an Emergency Action Notification requested by the White House. All broadcast
stations will follow activation procedures in the EAS Operating Handbook for a national
level emergency. The President of the United States or his representative will shortly
deliver a message over the Emergency Alert System.

“Oh, chit.”

“You can say that again.”

“Oh, chit.”

“IS THERE ANYONE WHO DOESN’T KNOW THE PROCEDURE BY NOW?”

“Amy, turn on the TV in the basement. Derek and Damon, help Sharon empty the re-
frigerator and then move the upright freezer to the basement. Everyone please move
their suitcases to the basement if you haven’t already. I’ve got to go make sure all the
radios are disconnected.”

Sharon apparently didn’t have time to tell me about all those new FRS/GMRS radios or
the new CB handheld radios, but they we also in the cabinet with the other radio equip-
ment and the CD V-715, V-717 and new V-742s? This certainly wasn’t her normal

175
spending habits. It was, however, beginning to become the time to consider closing the
basement door. Yes, I had bought more KIO3 from Medical Corps and so, apparently
had Sharon along with Radiogardase. I figured it must belong on the list of things you
can never have too much of, especially when John and Rachel and their children
showed up and one of their boys was lugging the battery to their vehicle.

“Damon and Derek, if you’re not too busy, please pull the batteries from the vehicles.
Oh, you already did, sorry.”

My Fellow Americans,

It is my painful duty to inform you that the Russian Republic and the People’s Republic
of China have, what do you mean I have to leave on Marine One? Oh, all right. People,
I assume you get the message, take shelter, and God Bless the United States of Ameri-
ca. Yes, I’m Coming.

“Hey George, you had better hurry. Kids get pets down here go ahead and close the
door.”

“What’s going to happen now?”

“I don’t know, but he said Russia and China. Either of them has the ability to launch a
warhead to create an EMP. That will shut down the power and if it’s placed right do it for
the entire country. However, we launch on warning so the minute NORAD picks up the
incoming missiles, we’ll launch. I think they’ll launch the Minuteman III missiles first to
keep them from being destroyed. If we need a second wave, we have 14 SSBNs.”

“Have we already given the order to launch?”

“Wherever Bush is, you’ll find Rumsfeld. They either gave the order before they left the
White House or will do it from Air Force One. I’d bet it has already been given subject to
NORAD seeing incoming.”

“Why would they do that?”

“They’re in Marine One until they get to Andrews. It might be too late if they wait, re-
gardless of the capabilities of the helicopter. IIRC, NORAD doesn’t contact NCA until
they have a positive hit.”

“NORAD is in Cheyenne Mountain, right?”

“Not anymore, they moved to Peterson AFB. Cheyenne Mountain is on warm standby.”

“I bet it’s hot now.”

176
“Can’t you just see some 3 star pounding on those 30 ton blast doors yelling, “Let me in,
let me in?”

“Gary, that’s not funny!”

“It all depends on how you look at it. The American people didn’t start this war. We will,
I’m sure, finish it.”

“Who started it?”

“Pope Urban II.”

It was a cheap black and white TV. I don’t know if it lost the signal or got zapped by
EMP. The good TV was sitting inside a Faraday cage just like everything else including
the generators. I didn’t know if EMP could penetrate that far so I took the advice Sharon
Packer presented and protected everything. When the power failed, the alarm went off
and I could hear the generator kicking in. I silenced the alarm and closed the door.
When the generator got up to speed, the emergency lights blinked out. What, you
thought we were sitting there in the dark? Not when those emergency lights are as
cheap as they are, $20 at Harbor Freight Tools for the fancy one.

“There are 2 disassembled office cabinets in the generator room, why don’t you boys
get them and set them up? We have extra medical supplies and more ammo. I put up a
second rifle rack because I figured you’d bring your weapons.”

Sharon set out 2 loaves of bread, butter and lunch meat plus 2 large bags of potato
chips. When nobody moved, I opened the Olive Loaf and made a sandwich. I added
chips, got a C2 and sat down to eat. I had written about this so many times I almost got
Déjà Vue, all over again. Damon had written some fiction once and he tried to make
jokes about it. His current plan had been to build an earth sheltered home and he called
when he had questions. I wanted to scream sometimes and tell to just read the stories,
they lay the entire scenario out.

I had my handy dandy seven ten rule spread sheet I could use to tell when the radiation
peaked and how long we’d be down here. (It was posted at Frugal’s and is on this CD
as well as Jerry’s CD) Both the CD V-715 and CD V-717 have a maximum range of
500R. They are also less accurate at the edges of the range. A person can work around
that or buy a 10,000R meter. The key to the pickup had the Nukalert and it never
chirped once, telling me the radiation level in the shelter never rose to 100mR.

“I wonder where they hit.” John mused, not really asking.

“Somewhere, buried on my computer is a list of targets, state by state, I copied from a

website. Just guessing, but probably the closest target was Nellis or Area 51.”

177
“We’re not that far from Las Vegas.”

“True, and just about straight east of Groom Lake. Either way, it won’t be long before we
start to get fallout. I suppose it would be okay to connect all of the equipment, the dan-
ger of EMP should be passed. Hey, you two get off your behinds and get those cabinets
assembled, we don’t want the kids playing with the ammo or CLS kits.”

“Why don’t you have beam antennas?”

“Because you have to point them with a rotor and I’m not climbing any pole to service a
rotor in the middle of WW III. Nothing but static at the moment, we’ll have one of the
teenagers monitor the outside radiation reading and log it.”

“Are you sure you’re not LDS, Gary? You seem to follow the guidelines on stocking up.”

“That’s because they’re good guidelines, John. This preparedness thing seems to come
to members of your Church naturally. I suppose having to start over in what must have
mostly been desert did that for you.”

“There’s more to it than that.”

“That sounds like an opening for you to start preaching, save that for later, please. I
suppose we’re going to have to start over too. Putting in that garden this year was too
much work for a couple our age. We have ample canned food and even basics like pails
of grains. We’re about 160 miles from Las Vegas as the crow flies; we should get radia-
tion in 10 to 15 hours.”

“You’re sure they hit Vegas?”

“Don’t know it for a fact, wouldn’t bet against it.”

“Vegas was already nuked.”

“Not Nellis or Area 51. All they got was the casinos. Nellis is on the north edge of town.
Area 51 is at 37°16’05”N, 115°47’58”W and we’re at 36°56’58”N, 112°31’18”W, which is
nearly straight east. I looked it up John, it’s 182 miles on a heading of 95.9°. At 12mph,
the wind will carry the radiation here in 15 hours.”

“Why Groom Lake?”

Groom and Rogers are dry lakebeds on Air Force bases capable of landing and storing
the airplanes.”

“You’re talking like we still have a military.”

178
“We do. I’d be willing to bet that the majority of our Navy put to sea. Aircraft may have
been sent aloft to protect them during the attack and ground units sheltered in place.
Like Damon said, Cheyenne Mountain is hot now. Since we’re now in a state of war, I
think we’ll see internment camps like back in WW II for people identified as possible en-
emies.”

“You mean the Muslims.”

“It would be a good start. Unlike WW II, we don’t want to lock them up and forget them.
It would give us a chance to sort them out.”

“Never happen, Dad,” Derek said. “We overreacted to the Japanese attack of Pearl
Harbor. Japanese proved they were just as good Americans as anyone else, Go for
Broke, remember? Besides, you saw the Bruce Willis movie, The Siege, didn’t you?”

“Let’s see, after the abduction by the US military of an Islamic religious leader, New
York City becomes the target of escalating terrorist attacks. The head of the FBI’s
Counter-Intelligence Task Force in New York, teams up with a CIA operative to hunt
down the terrorist cells responsible for the attacks. As the bombings continue, the US
government responds by declaring martial law, sending US troops, led by Gen.
Devereaux (Willis), into the streets of New York City, right?”

“I rest my case. Rebuttal?”

“I said they wouldn’t keep them very long.”

Over the course of the first 2 weeks, we discussed many things including information I’d
included in my stories, like the information on fallout:

3,000 Rem
Distance: 30 miles
Much more than a lethal dose of radiation. Death can occur within hours of exposure.
About 10 years will need to pass before levels of radioactivity in this area drop low
enough to be considered safe, by US peacetime standards.

900 Rem
Distance: 90 miles
A lethal dose of radiation. Death occurs from two to fourteen days.

300 Rem
Distance: 160 miles
Causes extensive internal damage, including harm to nerve cells and the cells that line
the digestive tract, and results in a loss of white blood cells. Temporary hair loss is an-
other result.

90 Rem

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Distance: 250 miles
Causes a temporary decrease in white blood cells, although there are no immediate
harmful effects. Two to three years will need to pass before radioactivity levels in this
area drop low enough to be considered safe, by US peacetime standards.

Radius of destructive circle: 1.7 miles

12 pounds per square inch

At the center lies a crater 200 feet deep and 1000 feet in diameter. The rim of this crater
is 1,000 feet wide and is composed of highly radioactive soil and debris. Nothing recog-
nizable remains within about 3,200 feet (0.6 miles) from the center, except, perhaps, the
remains of some buildings’ foundations. At 1.7 miles, only some of the strongest build-
ings – those made of reinforced, poured concrete – are still standing. Ninety-eight per-
cent of the population in this area is dead.

Radius: 2.7 miles

5 psi

Virtually everything is destroyed between the 12 and 5-psi rings. The walls of typical
multi-story buildings, including apartment buildings, have been completely blown out.
The bare, structural skeletons of more and more buildings rise above the debris as you
approach the 5-psi ring. Single-family residences within this area have been completely
blown away – only their foundations remain. Fifty percent of the population between the
12 and 5-psi rings are dead. Forty percent are injured.

Radius: 4.7 miles

2 psi

Any single-family residences that have not been completely destroyed are heavily dam-
aged. The windows of office buildings have been blown away, as have some of their
walls. The contents of these buildings’ upper floors, including the people who were
working there, are scattered on the street. A substantial amount of debris clutters the
entire area. Five percent of the population between the 5 and 2-psi rings are dead. For-
ty-five percent are injured.

Radius: 7.4 miles

1 psi

Residences are moderately damaged. Commercial buildings have sustained minimal

damage. Twenty-five percent of the population between the 2 and 1-psi rings are in-
jured, mainly by flying glass and debris. Many others have been injured from thermal
radiation – the heat generated by the blast. The remaining seventy-five percent are un-
hurt.

It was obvious that we wouldn’t get more than 300R this far from Area 51 or Las Vegas.
We’d be down to a safe level around 5 weeks, tops. My big printer was in the shelter

180
from the beginning, it was too heavy to move. I got a case of paper and printed out my
stories for anyone who was interested to read. I got one complaint, they weren’t realis-
tic, ergo, they lacked the action generally found in other stories. Nobody got caught a
long way from home or where their preparations were, if they had any, and I seemed
too focused on firearms. I told them to watch a movie if they wanted action, John Wayne
was good.

09-19-2006

Doing Less With Less

By Paul Connors

Anyone familiar with the American military and its operations in the fifteen years since
the end of the first Gulf War has become accustomed to hearing or using the term, “do-
ing more with less.” That term, for me at least, seemed to be the quintessential catch-all
that described all too accurately, the daily state of affairs for those who wear the uniform
of the United States. Even before the attacks of 9/11, when American military personnel
supported other, less lethal missions around the world, observers knew that at some
point there would be systems failures, when personnel, equipment and financial re-
sources (and the lack thereof) would all coincide to create a devastating train wreck.

SFTT and DefenseWatch founder, the late Colonel David H. Hackworth, US Army (Ret.)
introduced me to the acronym, “CRS” in his book ‘ABOUT FACE’. As readers of that
excellent book and others in the service know, CRS means “can’t remember shit.”
Those three little letters, that stand for three very important words, really do sum up the
magnitude of problems facing America’s armed forces. I am sure that as Hack looks
down on us from above, that he is probably still frustrated and perhaps angry because
nothing has really changed.

Over the course of his writing career, Hack always made a point of reminding people
that George Santayana’s dictum, “that those who forget history are condemned to re-
peat it” was something more than an interesting historical anecdote. Hack’s distillation
of that quote, into a three letter mouthful reminded me every day, that he had absolutely
no intention of ever letting the folks he came into contact forget what really is a truism.
What is especially disturbing as that too many people in government really do seem to
be operating in that fugue-like state that brings on a massive case of “CRS.”

The average American family without someone serving in the armed forces probably
gives scant thought to the needs of the GIs fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. The same
could probably be said for their elected officials in Washington and most certainly there
are senior uniformed leaders, the very same caste of military politicians that Hack la-
beled perfumed princes, who have forgotten that there are glaring gaps in what is really
needed to protect the nation.

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Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld came to Washington in 2001 with the single-
minded intent of “transforming” DoD and the way this nation fights. Despite his best in-
tentions, world events interrupted his plans and he was forced to deal with a very active
and on-going war that came in two parts. One was the Global War on Terror (one in-
flicted on us from outside) and one was a war of our own choosing.

For the war of our own choosing, Mr. Rumsfeld and his senior deputies publicly rebuked
the congressional testimony of Army Chief of Staff, General Eric Shinseki when he stat-
ed that the conquest of Iraq probably could be accomplished with less than 150,000
troops but the occupation would require a force of 250,000. Shortly thereafter, General
Shinseki retired and has not been heard from since. Somewhere along the way, I con-
cluded that General Shinseki was quite prescient; then again 37 years of military service
provided him with an education and experience that NONE of the civilian leadership
possessed or cared to acquire.

Less than two and one half years after US and coalition forces entered Iraq, while also
fighting in Afghanistan, the US armed forces had to deal with another round in the
BRAC process. While many of the base closures were no surprises to the affected ser-
vices and the communities in which they were located, the reductions in capability did
hit home.

Hard hit were the reserve components of all the services (with the possible exception of
the Coast Guard since they are outside the DoD orbit). The Army National Guard, the
primary provider of a combat ready force in reserve continues to see those capabilities
drained away for conversion to combat support and service support roles, making that
component more of a mirror of the Army Reserve than a force multiplier for the active
component.

Army Guard and Army Reserve units, long used to making due with less than front-line
equipment still deployed to operational locations with their assigned gear. Unfortunately,
too many Adjutant Generals around the country are reporting that they were forced to
leave behind organizational equipment for follow on units. Magnifying those problems is
the fact that there is little if any funding available to replace destroyed or ‘left behind’
equipment. This wartime matériel, critically necessary for mission accomplishment is
also often used for civil assistance missions like those created in the wake of Hurricane
Katrina in 2005. To date, the active Army and DoD have made no plans for the retrieval
and return of organizational equipment currently deployed to Iraq. What are the units
that have re-deployed to CONUS to do? The question remains unanswered.

The Army Guard and reserve are not alone in this leaky lifeboat. The 2005 BRAC
stripped flying missions and aircraft from 29% of the Air National Guard’s capability na-
tionwide. While some of those capabilities have been partially restored or replaced by
new or modified missions, the fact remains that the US Air Force will have a smaller and
less capable Air National Guard to fall back on.

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The outcome of the BRAC of 2005 has not been lost on the pool of potential recruits for
the various branches. Over the last year, the Air National Guard has missed its recruit-
ing goals for non-prior service members more than eight times. While retention of exist-
ing members is still high, shortfalls in accessions for personnel from civilian life could
prove to be the portent of future shortfalls as young people conclude that their local Air
Guard or Air Force Reserve unit has little to offer in the way of challenge and career op-
portunities.

The upward spiral of development and manufacturing costs for fighter aircraft means
that the Air Force can afford to buy fewer and fewer aircraft. The increasing age of exist-
ing airframes and their higher than average need for maintenance has resulted in the
Air Force deciding to retire aircraft in wholesale lots in order to maintain an ever de-
creasing inventory. The ‘trickle down’ effect that drives active Air Force planning turns
into a snowball that ends up hitting Air Guard and reserve units especially hard. As re-
positories of some of the oldest airframes still flying, the active component shuts them
down first to pay for the purchase of newer equipment while trying to stretch the
maintenance dollars for essential equipment.

Analysis of the situation finds problems compounded by the wars against terror and
Iraq. Operations in Iraq draw funding away from both new acquisitions and mainte-
nance. The Air Force, the least competent service when it comes to force and personnel
management, then starts to dump people to pay for toys. It is a vicious cycle.

Common sense dictates that the rubber band can only be stretched so far before it
breaks. The same wisdom applies to people and equipment. The average Air Force
fighter is now more than 20 years old. Almost EVERY B-52 still in the active inventory is
flown by pilots who weren’t even born when the last new one was delivered.

Unfortunately, common sense seems to be in short supply among planners in Washing-

ton. The failure to do the right thing is one of the symptoms of the CRS syndrome that
Hack railed against for more than 30 years. It’s a sad thing, but I have a feeling that
Hack’s admonitions will still be falling on deaf ears in the years to come. Fortunately,
there are some commanders who know that they have an obligation to the nation and
are crucial contributors to its defense. These are the officers who are pointing out that
the system is breaking and that by necessity, they will be forced to do less with less.

The endless and largely cynical blather about a “Global War on Terrorism,” “Islamic ex-
tremism,” “Islamofascism,” etc. has served more to obscure than to reveal the strategic
situation the West now faces. Islam is, and always has been, a religion of war. What
has changed in recent times is that after about 300 years on the strategic defensive, fol-
lowing the failure of the second Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683, Islam has resumed the
strategic offensive. It is expanding outward in every direction, and much of its expansion
is violent, if not initially then once new Islamic bridgeheads are strong enough to sustain
violence.

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The most critical question, and it remains an open question, is whether what remains of
Christendom will defend itself or simply roll over and die. Most Western elites, and al-
most all Western political leaders (including those who call themselves conservatives),
accept and live according to the dictates of cultural Marxism, the Marxism of the Frank-
furt School known commonly as “multiculturalism” or “Political Correctness.” Because
cultural Marxism’s primary objective is the destruction of Western culture and the Chris-
tian religion, its adherents see Islam as a useful if somewhat troublesome ally. They will
even go to war on behalf of Moslems against Christians, as the Clinton administration
did twice in the Balkans. It is improbable, to say the least, that any Western political
leader will rally Christendom to defend itself.

What the Emperor, and the Pope, said is precisely correct. If you read the Quran (and I
have read it), you will find it is mostly a pastiche, some elements taken from Judaism,
some from Christianity, some from the pagan polytheism common in Arabia before Mo-
hammed (Allah was the name of the leading god of the pantheon, the equivalent of
Zeus or Jupiter). The main ingredient Mohammed added to this stew was endless con-
demnations of “unbelievers,” including repeated calls for violence against them, e.g.,
“slay them in every kind of ambush.” It is not surprising that from its birth Islam has been
at war with every other religion. The Quran mandates exactly that.

By telling the truth about Islam, the Pope appeared to offer Christendom the leader in its
own defense that it must find if it is to survive Islam’s latest onslaught. More, quoting a
Byzantine Emperor, he suggested that defending Christendom was his intention. The
Byzantine Empire was the Christian world’s first line of defense against Islam for centu-
ries. Its fall to the Turks in 1453 was a catastrophe, but by then the modern age was
beginning in the West. Modernity soon gave Christendom a decisive advantage over
Islam and all other cultures that endured until the 20th century, when the West fought
three civil wars that largely destroyed it. (Another Pope bought the West the time it
needed – by assembling the Christian galleys at Lepanto.)

The Holy Spirit is Truth. As men of the West, we can only pray that the Holy Spirit will
strengthen the Pope to continue to speak the truth about Islam. If the trumpet sounds
uncertain, who will follow? Hey, where do I sign up?

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 The New Crusades – Chapter 19

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (AP) – A sheriff’s deputy showing a handgun to friends at his
birthday party accidentally shot himself in the face, killing himself, authorities said Sat-
urday.

Matt Barnes, 26, told guests at the Friday night celebration his .45-caliber revolver was
not loaded, according to the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office. He pulled the trigger
around 10:30 p.m., authorities said, and was pronounced dead at the scene.

You know, more people get killed by “unloaded” guns than… I keep my guns loaded
and teach safe gun handling. Generally, they’re in Condition 3 unless it’s a semi-auto
pistol. Those are kept in Condition 1. My M1A is in Condition 4 because it has a butt-
stock magazine pouch.

Condition 0 - A round is in the chamber, hammer is cocked, and the safety is off.
Condition 1 - Also known as ‘cocked and locked”, means a round is in the chamber, the
hammer is cocked, and the manual thumb safety on the side of the frame is applied.
Condition 2 - A round is in the chamber and the hammer is down.
Condition 3 - The chamber is empty and hammer is down with a charged magazine in
the gun.
Condition 4 - The chamber is empty, hammer is down and no magazine is in the gun.

During the five weeks, we had many discussions. It would be winter when we came out,
January of 2008. Would we be able to tell if Carl Sagan was right about nuclear winter?
The answer, in this case, was a resounding yes, that snow was deep. When the boys
opened the covering to the ramp, the snow fell in, nearly burying them. There was a
drain at every landing where the ramp turned the corner and we hooked a water hose to
that large hot water heater and flushed the heater, melting the snow. I was very con-
cerned about the house, although if the heat tapes worked the way they were supposed
to, we might not have any broken pipes. Sharon had left the furnace on heat and set at
55°.

The radiation level was ~94mR, with an occasional hot spot. We cleared a path to the
back deck and then cleared the deck. The sky was cloudy as far as the eye could see.
The thermostat was raised to a comfortable level, 74°, and we all gathered in the living
room.

“I don’t see how we can get home, look at the snow.”

“You can use my snow blower if you want, John. You should be able to get home by
spring. Sorry, but I don’t have a tractor or anything with a blade. I meant to buy a Polaris
snowmobile, but spent the money on guns and ammo.”

185
“Do you have any skis or maybe snowshoes? If we could get to Fredonia, we could find
something to clear the roads.”

“I’m sorry, I guess I didn’t plan far enough ahead. I’ve always been a big believer in the
philosophy of strategic reallocation.”

“What’s that?”

“Looting, John. My Dad always believed in taking what you needed if you didn’t have it.”

“It’s not looting, kid, how many times do I have to explain the difference?”

“A rose by any other name…”

“Is a website, or used to be.”

“Still…”

“Think we’ll have a late spring?”

“Oh yeah and lots of mud.”

Treatment of influenza – a disease caused by a viral infection – with antibiotics contin-

ues to be rampant among doctors and hospitals, yet new studies show that anti-viral
medication can be life-saving.

In two studies presented Friday at a major infectious diseases meeting in San Francis-
co, doctors described how use of the antiviral medication oseltamivir – Roche’s Tamiflu
– reduced mortality among patients by 71 percent and significantly reduced hospitaliza-
tion and complications among young children.

In one study, patients sick with influenza during the influenza season were far more like-
ly to be prescribed antibiotics than antiviral medication, said Allison McGeer, a consult-
ant in infectious diseases at Mt. Sinai Hospital, Toronto.

And in some cases the failure to provide antiviral treatment may have been fatal. “In this
cohort of adult patients hospitalized for influenza, oseltamivir therapy was associated
with a 71 percent reduction in mortality,” she said at the Interscience Conference on An-
timicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, sponsored by the Washington, DC-based Ameri-
can Society for Microbiology.

McGeer and colleagues in the Toronto Invasive Bacterial Diseases Network, selected
patients who were taken to hospitals for emergency treatment of symptoms due to influ-
enza.

186
Many of the patients were first treated by their primary care physicians, and many of
those patients were prescribed medication. Of the 185 children in the study under age
15, primary care physicians prescribed antibiotics – used for treating bacterial infections
– about 24 percent of the time. When these children got to the hospital, they were pre-
scribed antibiotics 75 percent of the time. None of the children were administered antivi-
rals.

In the group ages 15 to 64, antibiotics were prescribed 23 percent of the time at the
doctors’ offices and were prescribed 84 percent of the time at the hospital, although 24
percent were prescribed Tamiflu as well.

For the older patients, 23 percent were offered antibiotics at the doctors’ office, 91 per-
cent were given antibiotics at the hospital, although 34 percent were also prescribed
Tamiflu.

There were 25 deaths in the study, 22 among persons over age 65, most of the deaths
occurring in the people who were not treated with Tamiflu.

McGeer admitted she was at a loss as to why doctors fail to get the message that influ-
enza is a virus and antivirals work on viruses whereas antibiotics do not.

It’s not just a Canadian problem, however. “It would have been worse than that in the
US,” J. Owen Hendley, professor of pediatrics at the University of Virginia, Char-
lottesville, told United Press International.

He said most pediatric offices do have rapid testing for influenza available but the doc-
tors don’t always use them. “The problem is that there are so many febrile illnesses (fe-
vers) in children you simply can’t tell what’s influenza,” he said.

But treating children with Tamiflu appears to prevent them from needing hospitalization
and reduces the risk of pneumonia and other complications, said Dominick Iacuzio,
medical director at Roche, who presented results of a study that reviewed treatment for
more than 15,000 children.

Researchers scrutinized a database of health insurance claims from 2000-2005 influen-

za seasons to identify a total of 15,161 patients, ages 1-12 years who were diagnosed
with influenza. Of those children, 7,914 were prescribed Tamiflu and their outcomes
were compared with 7,914 children who had no claims for prescriptions of the antiviral
medication.

The results:

● Children receiving Tamiflu achieved a 91 percent reduction in hospitalization due to

respiratory illness.
● A 50 percent reduction in the overall risk of hospitalization.

187
● A 53 percent reduction in the risk of pneumonia.
● A 39 percent reduction in the risk of otitis media - ear infections.
● A 28 percent reduction in the risk of respiratory illness.

“This study suggests that early treatment with Tamiflu can have a significant impact on
pneumonia, one of flu’s most serious complications,” Iacuzio said.

He said the studies also throw light onto the subject of influenza, which kills 22,000 to
36,000 people a year during a “normal” flu season. McGeer said that doctors still don’t
seem to take influenza seriously.

I’d imagine that very few people stocked up on Tamiflu, it cost ~$50 a card and required
a prescription. The idea of having a small fortune tied up in drugs, just in case, was
probably foreign to most people. I’ll have to admit that Sharon and I didn’t have 20 cards
of the stuff, we only had 10 cards. Those 10 cards were like 750 lawyers on the bottom
of the ocean, a good start. We had done everything we could to have a stockpile of our
drugs and it was enough for ~2 years in normal times. In the days after we emerged
from the shelter, we were well aware that these were no longer normal times.

The clouds indicated a large volume of moisture in the air; not surprisingly, it snowed
into April. The clouds also prevented the snow from melting and it just grew deeper,
much the way Flight ER Doc described in Paradise. His story is a model of strategic re-
allocation. Doc called it gleaning in his story because it had a nice Biblical ring to it. Doc
accessed Navajo Armory and MCLC, Barstow to equip his people. If you haven’t read it,
you should, it has hundreds, if not thousands, of very good ideas. I’m sure Clarence
would have appreciated the scenario that caused the stuff to hit the rotating blade – you
got it, a rock. Doc lays it out for you in Chapter 3, and explains how a 200’ rock hitting
the Indian Ocean near what used to be called Bombay led to… It’s his story and I’ll not
steal it, read it and find out!

We took Gunny Highway’s advice, improvised, adapted and overcame. Yes, it was just
a movie, but it was good advice, even if it came from Clint Eastwood. It is also a good
time to bring up another subject, suppressors. A suppressor offers 2 advantages and
some disadvantages. The advantages are a significant reduction of the sound and, per-
haps more importantly, elimination of the flash. A properly designed and fitted suppres-
sor completely eliminates that flash, which is why I use the term flashhider to refer to
suppressors.

One of the downsides is what Ronnie Barrett talks about, the wear and tear on the fire-
arm. A second downside is erosion of the baffles and/or the accumulation of trash inside
the silencer. The third downside is the fact that your government classified them as
class 3 devices. I sure that the criminals with silencers only use legally registered sup-
pressors and always pay the $200 tax.

188
Most of my stories deal with getting ready for the disaster and don’t really dwell on the
aftermath. If a person is well and truly prepared, they should survive the initial disaster,
regardless of what it is. The odds of a Russian or Chinese warhead smacking you on
the head are fairly slim, depending of course on where you live. If the odds are bad,
maybe you should move, we did. There may not be the perfect place, some are much
better than others. Small town Arizona always had a special appeal to me and when my
friend suggested Fredonia, I began to check it out.

Then, the money came in and we started our preparations for real. Every day put us
closer to surviving and every day put us closer to something happening. After the terror-
ist attacks, I suppose your average person would have concluded, that’s it, it’s over.
Most folks probably thought the old wives tale that bad things happen in 3’s was non-
sense. Others might argue that you had a self-fulfilling prophesy.

If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.

The parable tells us that public definitions of a situation (prophecies or predictions) be-
come an integral part of the situation and thus affect subsequent developments. This is
peculiar to human affairs. It is not found in the world of nature, untouched by human
hands. Predictions of the return of Halley’s comet do not influence its orbit. But the ru-
mored insolvency of Millingville’s bank did affect the actual outcome. The prophecy of
collapse led to its own fulfillment.

The Pygmalion effect (or Rosenthal effect) refers to situations in which students perform
better than other students simply because they are expected to do so.

We were all suffering from a little shell shock, it was to be expected. The symptoms var-
ied: headaches, backaches, inability to relax, shaking and tremors, sweating, nausea
and vomiting, loss of appetite, abdominal distress, frequency of urination, urinary incon-
tinence, palpitations, hyperventilation, dizziness, insomnia, nightmares, restless sleep,
excessive sleep, excessive startle, hyper vigilance, heightened sense of threat, anxiety,
irritability, depression, substance abuse, loss of adaptability, suicidal ideation and dis-
ruptive behavior.

One part of a George Carlin routine on euphemisms included how the word “shell
shock” changed with every war to “battle fatigue”, then to “operational exhaustion”, then
finally to “post-traumatic stress disorder”. He concluded the routine by suggesting that
the post-traumatic stress disorder might have been recognized more quickly were it still
called shell shock, i.e., the more complex terms complicated the diagnosis.

In John’s case, the shell shock was revealed by his anxiety to get to their home and
check out Fredonia. We got everyone out with a shovel, at least until we ran out of
shovels. With the snow as deep as it was, a snow blower didn’t do much good. The
wind was up just a bit and every morning the lengthening path through the snow had
some snow blown back in. It took a while, about 40 days, but we finally made it into

189
town. Once there, John located a front end loader and used it to clear the snow to their
home.

Once he got home and found everything to be in order, he settled down a bit. Fredonia
was like a ghost town and we wondered if we were the only survivors. We weren’t, of
course, but faced with that much snow, many survivors hadn’t done much more than
shovel out their homes, if that. There were a number of seniors in Fredonia and they,
like me, weren’t up to digging snow with a shovel. Years before, in Davenport, Iowa, I
used an electric snow blower when we got about 3’ of snow. I think I broke about 6
shear pins before I got the driveway cleared and that was in 1978 when I was ~35.

I thought the snow was a good thing, if we couldn’t move around, neither could any of
those bad guys. You can call them by any name you want, criminals, bad guys or op-
portunists; in the end, they cared about no one except themselves. Stealing a TV didn’t
make much sense when the broadcasters were off the air unless you also stole the
DVD/VHS player and the movies.

John began to open the ways into homes, all 450 of them although some were multiple
family dwellings. I think he had a mental list of who might need help the most because
he didn’t just work his way down the streets, he went to specific homes first, seniors.

Later, when all the snow melted off and we could plant, we’d have a big garden and go
looking for livestock, some may have survived. I made my mind up that previous experi-
ence notwithstanding, I was going to get a horse and name it Salina. Then, if the horse
ran on me, I’d wait until it stopped and shoot it right between the eyes. I don’t blame the
horse, I blame myself, I was afraid and she sensed it. Maybe hanging a few scabbards
on the horse would slow it down.

Sharon and I talked about that and she said I didn’t have to shoot the horse, I just had
to let it know who was in charge. It would help, she said, if the stirrups were properly ad-
justed so I could ‘put my foot down’. Now she tells me. Fear is an emotion that we have
to learn to deal with when working with young horses. The horse and rider will often
communicate anxiety, or even outright fear, to each other. While fear is an important “at-
tention getting” emotion, it can get in the way of learning.

The handler must realize that the horse uses fear to protect himself in his wild environ-
ment. One horse in the group senses danger and they all immediately become alert and
ready to flee. In fact the flight in itself can be an exhilarating experience for the horse,
reinforcing “spook and run” behavior.

Fear is something which a nervous rider can easily convey to a horse. Just about any-
one who has been around horses for very long recognizes this. What many people don’t
realize is that horses can teach humans how to master fear. Prey animals can’t spend
their entire lives in terror, so they have to be able to manage this emotion. We can learn
from them in this regard.

190
“Six feet deep and falling.”

“What’s that?”

“The snow, Dad.”

“If you wait, it will all melt. What do any of you have to go home to? Derek, if you want to
leave when the roads are clear, I won’t stop you, but think about it before you decide.”

“We’re talking about that very thing; Mary is worried about her family.”

“You could always go and bring them back here.”

“I don’t know if they’d come.”

“It’s not there’s much industry in the area beyond the tourist trade and a couple of facto-
ries. I wrote about Flippin and Gassville in 2 different stories, I have a fair idea of what’s
there.”

“We’ll see.”

At the moment, thanks to Mother Nature, I had the upper hand, when the snow was
gone, I’d lose it. It was their choice; I rarely intervened in the boy’s decisions, whether or
not I agreed. Damon’s ex was probably frantic and all she knew was we were in north-
ern Arizona. I thought it served her right and even if we wanted to, there was no way to
communicate with her unless I could hook up with a Ham in the Garner-Britt-Clear Lake-
Mason City area. Many of the Hams in that area communicate on 75 meters; although I
was sure they also used 2 meters in the local area.

The sky began to slowly clear and the snow began to settle faster. The ratio of snow to
water is 10:1, hence some of those snow banks represented ~ a foot of water, and it
would indeed be muddy when the snow was gone. We located enough lumber, nails
and hardware to construct a frame for a greenhouse we could cover with plastic and get
our seedlings started. I should also note that if anyone was carrying, it was generally
limited to a handgun and maybe a knife. The highway into and out of Fredonia was
blocked and John didn’t want to open it to Kanab, just yet. Kanab ended up opening it
for us and they brought in a badly needed load of food.

You can’t rototill mud, no matter how hard you try. Your best bet is to get a cup of cof-
fee, light a cigar and sit on the deck and watch the field dry, keeping a gun handy, of
course. That came after 4½ months of watching the snow accumulate and finally melt. I
actually spent most of my time in the basement listening to and occasionally talking on
the Ham bands. I reported our position as ‘north of Flagstaff’. I finally hooked up with a
Ham from Clear Lake who said he’d try to deliver a message to Carrie to tell her that the

191
kids were ok. He said that they got ‘lots of fallout’ but were otherwise ok. I shared that
we only got about 300R. I expect anyone listening thought we were in Page. I didn’t say
a word about our being on the North Rim.

“People will be out and moving around now boys, it’s time to lock and load.”

“Are we going pillaging?”

“I’m too old for this crap. What do you need, a new TV?”

“I was thinking about food and pharmaceuticals.”

“That’s strategic reallocation, not pillaging which is looting. We could use some live-
stock, the kids are awful tired of powdered milk.”

“So you’re saying we need a cow?”

“And a bull, that’s part of God’s grand design. We could use a sow, boar and a few pigs
too. If you want fried chicken, well, you get the idea. Got to have smokes and coffee,
that’s for sure.”

“There’s plenty of coffee.”

“For now, there is, but the pile has been shrinking. I don’t much care for Yuban. I’ll get
you a list of the meds and you can see what you can do.”

“You aren’t going?”

“I won’t slow you down?”

“I was thinking that someone had to guard the truck while we filled it with loot.”

“There you go again with the wrong word. Call it gleaning, that’s in the Bible. That’s le-
gal; it’s cleaning up after the harvest.”

Maybe my remarks were the result of being just a little punchy after being cooped up for
so long. We wouldn’t take anything we could grow in our garden and we weren’t looking
for uppers or downers at the drugs stores. Maybe our regular pills, some antibiotics and
Tamiflu if they had it. After any disaster on this scale, there would be rampant disease
attributed to the poor living conditions. I had the latest version of the PDR and the Mayo
Clinic Family Healthbook, we could look up things that we didn’t recognize.

Against my better judgment, we made our way to Flagstaff. I was opposed to going
through Page, I was certain there’d be survivors there. Near Page is the Navajo Power
Generation plant, a huge coal fired power plant that uses local coal. Didn’t see any
smoke or steam coming out of those 3 smokestacks. I made a note that we might have

192
a good source for coal, the plant burned 8 million tons a year and I guessed there was a
big pile. Didn’t see any people in Page either, maybe they were hiding. There were
people in Fredonia and Kanab, so there had to be people in Page too.

Why would anyone nuke Flagstaff? It’s just not that big! We started seeing signs a way
out and I turned on the CD V-715. We were wearing our dosimeters, mostly out of habit.
I was speculating that they were targeting the airport. I don’t know what the CEP was on
the weapon, but much of Flagstaff lay in ruins. The airport is south of town, towards Se-
dona. We hit the gun stores looking for ammo and then the grocery store looking for
food. We should have brought a semi, not a pickup. Damon went out to the loading
dock of one grocery store and there was a tractor trailer rig backed up to the dock.

A can of ether, a set of jumper cables, a splash of PRI-D and a couple of hours later, he
had it running. While he was doing that, Derek and I cleaned out the pharmacy and
loaded up on coffee, cigarettes and so forth. The high point of the day was when I
scored 4 cases of Kellogg’s Special K Vanilla Almond, another 40 cartons of Kool’s and
48 cans of Folgers. The trailer wasn’t full so we used pallet jacks and loaded it, man, my
back was killing me. Late in the afternoon, maybe around 3, we headed north for home.
Do 2 vehicles qualify as a convoy? I told you there were people in Page, when we got
there, they had a roadblock set up. Damon revved his motor and blew though that pair
of cars like they weren’t even there. They’ll have to tow them to move them.

We pulled into downtown Burbank, er, Fredonia and parked the truck. We took what we
wanted and/or needed and left it sit. That was our good deed for the day. When we got
home, Derek took Mary and Sharon back to town so they could sort through the truck
and get anything they thought they needed. All things considered, we had a good day
and the truck looked like it could be repaired.

John had been busy rounding up livestock in the area. We could get milk and eggs from
him and I asked if he’d seen any horses. He told me that they’d rounded up about 2
dozen and I could have my pick. I thanked him and told him I’d let Sharon do the pick-
ing. He told me they were in good shape, the standby generator he had kicked in when
the lights went out and everything was fine at their home. Although I hadn’t known they
had a generator, I should have figured they did, him being a contractor. A person never
knows about those things, it’s always the cobbler’s kids who need shoes and the minis-
ter’s kid in jail.

The mud in the garden finally dried enough we could till it. There for a while I thought
we’d be growing food in the makeshift greenhouse. When the sky was finally clear, it
was really clear, the sun beat down unmercifully. We had to erect garden netting to
keep the pants from burning. After we had it planted, the boys suggested we take the
empty truck back to Flagstaff and refill it. They said that the canned goods in the stores
were just going to spoil and we should get them and pass them out. I thought they were

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being a little too altruistic, but as long as some of the folks in town wanted to go along
and help, why not?

Off we went again, this time with folks from Fredonia in the lead. When we got to Page,
they had a roadblock set up on the north side of town. We slowed to a stop and the
folks in the front vehicle got out. Next thing you know, they’re shaking hands, clapping
each other on the back and having a high time. My boys and I got some steely looks.

The next thing you know, the folks from Fredonia invited the folks from Page to go with
us on our shopping trip. They produced 2 semis and about a dozen pickups pulling trail-
ers. Truth be told, we really did have a convoy, this time. On the way into Flagstaff, I
mentioned Navajo Army Deport to Derek. I told him I didn’t know what we’d find, but that
was where the Arizona National Guard kept much of its stuff. He suggested it was worth
a look and we could leave Damon in Flagstaff and take the pickup out there to see what
was available. The Depot provides explosive storage services to other DoD customers
ranging from small arms ammunition to large rocket motors. These customers have en-
trusted over $7,000,000,000 worth of their munitions to the Depot.

We strategically reallocated a pickup and trailer load of material that day. All of the
things were nib, and we had enough to outfit a sizable portion of Fredonia. With a semi,
we could have outfitted the entire town. We even found tarps so no one could see what
we had on the pickup or trailer. On the way back into town, we hit a gas station and
picked up all of their cigarettes and sodas. Derek stuck the tanks and they were about
½ full. If we could get a tanker and a pump, there was fuel available.

Because it seemed likely the kids were staying, we had to do something about housing.
Derek and I checked out the mobile home dealers and found some very nice sin-
glewides. We’d have to tow 4 back. This led me to realize that one generator couldn’t
power 5 homes. Southwest Windpower is also located in Flagstaff. So was Danneypat.
The principle question was whether to get diesel or propane generators. If we got die-
sel, we could manufacture biodiesel to fuel them. So the answer was to get 5, not 4,
diesel generators and use the propane for heating only.

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 The New Crusades – Chapter 20

We had found some fuel in the station west of Flagstaff and I was sure we could find
more. If we could find PRI-D, we could restore and stabilize the fuel. All we need was
one 55 gallon drum, for now. Our diesel tank only held 1,000-gallons, another consider-
ation. I suppose if push came to shove, we could always dig up a tank or two and move
them. After all, I had a friend in the construction business.

A person could spend the remainder of his/her life asking why this happened. In the
end, he/she wouldn’t know any more than they did in the beginning. One would have
thought there would be a gradual buildup of tensions and the only question would be will
it happen today or tomorrow? In a strange way, the terrorist bombings made sense;
those were done by religious fanatics. How does one explain the 3 largest nuclear pow-
ers going at it? China was running advertisements on TV in preparation for the 2008
Olympic Games. I guess you can scratch the games.

Those first days on the road had been a real learning experience. When you started to
add up the weight, 1 rifle, .30 caliber, M1A; 10 magazines, .30 caliber, 20-rounds ea.; 1
pistol .45 caliber; 5 magazines, .45 caliber, 8 rounds ea.; 2 canteens, quart; 1 knife,
Rambo I; 1 pack; and, 200 rounds ammo, .30 caliber, your back began to hurt. I was
traveling light according to Derek.

Our attitude was that we were like paratroopers in a way, all we had was what we
brought with us. The upside was that we could leave the pack with the spare ammo in
the pickup. The Mini-14 weighed less and so did the ammo; the problem with that was
you couldn’t carry enough ammo to be absolutely sure you could actually kill everyone. I
suppose that’s why our military was armed with the 9mm pistol and the 5.56×45mm
carbine and the barrels were shrinking. The military frequently does whatever is illogical.

Our home was open to the road, affording zero protection. By the time we had the 4
trailers set and hooked up to everything, we began to wonder how to protect the home
place. I remembered something from a story, crenellation pattern, and looked it up in
dictionary. That was the staggered pattern on the top of castles, I didn’t know that. The
ideal would have been to have an estate with walls and we couldn’t do that because
there wasn’t enough concrete available.

Could we build a wall out of sandbags? Derek suggested that we probably couldn’t find
enough sandbags to do any good. Damon then said why not get the front end loader
and create a mound of dirt leaving a ditch on the road side. He asked Derek if we could
use sandbags to create the crenellation pattern on top of that.

Derek, smiled and said, “Maybe, it’s worth a try.”

Another construction project? John had the front end loader and told me we could use
as long as we provided the fuel and didn’t break it. Our lot was square, 330’ per side
and the houses sat back about 100’. Damon and Derek took turns once I showed what I

195
though Damon had in mind. Meanwhile, I went shopping, we needed sandbags. I found
a store in Kanab with 2 bolts of heavy muslin and figure it was as good as anything for
sand bags. I took it back home and presented it to Sharon.

“Honey, I need a big favor, can you cut this stuff until strips and make us some sand
bags.”

“What dimensions?”

“14” wide and 26” long but just cut 15” strips across the bolts, fold them in half and run
one seam up each side with about a ½” seam allowance. Get the girls to help you cut
them and when you get an armload bring them outside and I’ll start filling them.”

I wasn’t going to fill them myself, not with a bunch of kids there. They could fill them and
I’d tie them off with a quick ‘cable tie’ using the roll of baling twine I had. The ‘knot’ actu-
ally has a name, the clove hitch. We used it when I was in the Air Force to tie wire bun-
dles. It takes about 2 seconds after your learn the trick. With Audrey and Eric holding
bags, Aaron and Britney shoveling and me tying and stacking, the ladies could hardly
keep us with us.

In 2 days we had all of the bags filled with dirt, tied and stacked. 330’ per side was
1,320’ of 10’ high bank and the boys were making about 200’ a day working from dawn
to dusk. We also had to figure out how to make a gate so I went to town and asked
John.

“What kind of gate do you need?”

“To tell you the truth, I don’t really know. Something strong enough to stop any vehicle
we’re likely to get trying to punch through it.”

“Still using the end loader?”

“Yes, but we’re about half done. Why don’t you ride back with me and take a look?
Maybe once you see what we’re doing, you’ll come up with an idea.”

“Let me get my rifle.”

I had rifles if John would have needed one, but a man gets partial to his own weapon
and it was better to let him take his. I know I wouldn’t trade my Super Match for most
anything, not considering the optics, etc.

“You just left a gap?”

“Well yes, until we can figure out what to put in for a gate.”

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“I’ve got some 6” schedule 80 pipe we can cut and weld. We can concrete in 4 posts,
two for the gate and two to keep it from opening inward. Will that do?”

“Will it keep out a pickup or small truck?”

“Won’t keep out a semi with a full head of steam but he couldn’t make the turn.”

“Galvanized?”

“Carbon pipe, you’ll have to paint it.”

“Where will the weak spot be?”

“In the center, I suppose we could add a 5th vertical pipe in the center that you could
pull for normal times.”

“And what, drop it in if we want the gate blocked?”

“I think you have the idea. Give me a couple of days, Gary, and we’ll bring it out and in-
stall it. I don’t want to put the posts in until I’m sure of the dimensions. “I think maybe 8’
high with wire on the top.”

“What about between the gate and the pile of dirt?”

“We’ll put in forms and pour a little concrete and your boys can backfill and pack the dirt
tight against the concrete walls.”

“Say, do you need anything? We have a lot of canned vegetables.”

“Yeah, so do I. What did you bring back from your trip to Flagstaff?”

“How about some M16A2s with M203s with ammo and grenades?”

“40mm grenades or hand grenades?”

“Yep.”

“Can you spare 8 rifles and some of the ammo and grenades?”

“Sure. It’s M855 ammo. Is that ok?”

“Steel core?”

“Same stuff as SS109.”

“Will that be a fair trade?”

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“Not really, I didn’t pay for the guns.”

“But you have them and that’s all that counts.

“Come with me and we’ll get you 8 boxes plus the various grenades.”

“Sorry, their only packed one to a box.”

Long and short of it was we had our little fort, I think we should call it Fort Defiance, but
it couldn’t be an official name. Fort Defiance was established as Arizona’s first military
post for the US Army to patrol the entire Navajo Country. It was later used to subdue the
Navajos on their homeland, and then, be slowly phased into a Navajo Agency to govern
the Navajos, after their return from their 4 year ordeal at the concentration camp Ft.
Sumner. Fort Defiance is located at the mouth of Canyon Bonito in Apache County,
about 7 miles north of Window Rock, Arizona, or 25 miles northwest of Gallup, New
Mexico. It is at an elevation of 6836 feet above sea level, with a 1980 population census
of 3431 residents. It is located at Latitude: 35°44’40”, and Longitude: 109°4’33”. Fort
Defiance contains a school system first started in 1870 and the Fort Defiance Medical
Center first established in 1938. It was originally the location of the first Navajo Medical
Center on the entire Navajo Reservation. There is a small reinforced concrete dam in
Canyon Bonito that irrigates about 25 acres.

Upon the signing of the Navajo Treaty of 1868 at Fort Sumner, which allowed the Nava-
jos to return to their own country, Fort Defiance was selected as the site of the Agency.
The old buildings were repaired and Major Theodore Dodd, called by the Navajos,
Na’azisí Yázhí (Little Gopher), became the civil agent. Upon his death shortly after,
Captain Frank T. Bennett, whom the Navajos called Chaatsohí (Big Belly), succeeded
him. In the fall of 1869, Bennett issued the sheep and goats stipulated in the Navajo
Treaty of 1868 to the Navajo bands. Over 13,000 ewes and 300 rams, purchased from
Vicente Romero, a large operator in the vicinity of` Fort Union, New Mexico, as well as
900 female and 100 male goats, were distributed and formed the basis of the present
Navajo herds.

Development of the fort into an agency was slow in getting under way. The first school,
started in 1870 in one of the abandoned adobes, was short lived, and the first mission,
established by John Menaul in 1871, also failed. Regular medical service did not begin
until 1880, and not until 1883 did the Indian Boarding School become established.

Until 1899, Fort Defiance continued as the agency for all Navajos and Hopis, but in that
year a separate Hopi agency was established at Keams Canyons, Arizona, and in the
next ten years four other Navajo agencies were set up. In 1936, Commissioner Collier
again centralized these, and chose Window Rock, Arizona, as the Navajo Central
Agency for the entire Navajo Reservation. Window Rock, Arizona, would later become

198
the Capitol of the Navajo Nation. The Fort Defiance Agency contains many Navajo
Chapters that help govern the Navajos in the Fort Defiance Agency area.

That mean it wasn’t a good idea, heck, I’d used it before. We put up a sign, hand paint-
ed by Damon to announce our new name. I asked John why he wanted guns for his
younger children and he said just to have them. I could understand that, that’s why I got
the Loaded Standard M1A, just to have it. I sent off and got those 1,260 rounds of SA
ammo too and I had the 20-round magazines because it was a stupid law and mama
wanted to leave Kalifornia more than I did.

I agreed with the suggestion about Fredonia because it was way off the main road. And
the small plot we found was even further off the beaten path. We had a sit down family
discussion to talk about what we were going to do next. Derek was worried about a job,
Damon was worried about his social security and Amy wanted to go back to Palmdale. I
pointed out that they must have slept though the war, they didn’t have any jobs, Damon
and I didn’t have social security and it was doubtful we’d see our pensions. I went on to
say that I didn’t know if we’d get any more money from the bank in Charles City either.

Next, money. I went on to say that were it not for the fact that Sharon bought some gold
and silver, we’d be flat broke. Any cash we had wasn’t worth much and before very long
it be as worthless as a Confederate dollar after the Civil War. If they wanted to go and
rob Ft. Knox, be sure to say goodbye before they left, even Goldfinger couldn’t do it. For
those who don’t know me, I’m a bit of a historian and love James Bond movies. Well. I
like movies, period.

Next, food. We have enough land to grow food and a well for water if we don’t get rain.
John has a handle of the livestock situation and if we can stay safe, we’ll make it. The
things we don’t have are things they didn’t have 100 years ago and maybe you should
consider it more the end of civilization as we knew it. For the most part we’ve lost manu-
factured goods and it will be like was when I was a kid. That also means that all these
fancy pills won’t be available unless we can salvage them from pharmacies, drug ware-
houses, hospitals or doctors’ offices. That why we had such a big supply, to give us time
to do some scouting and find the things we need to live.

Next, security. We’ll get those sandbags arranged on top in that crenellation pattern,
used on the top of castles. That will give us some security if we get into a firefight. Bot-
tom line is we’re short of people so we’ll have to be able to call the cavalry, or some-
times be the cavalry. Derek and I located the Army Depot west of Flagstaff and that will
give us supplies. We need to make another trip down there with a semi and see if we
can get supplies for everyone in Fredonia who wants or needs them. I don’t know how
much training these folks have so we’ll take John with us to help with our selection. In
case you’re wondering, I came up with the name from a fella named Jerry D. Young, a
writer, good one too.

“Finally, can we all just get along? There are about 2,500 different denomination of
Christians and Christianity is only one of many religions. Dr. J, who as you know, is a

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Persian aka Iranian, said the Pope was right, or maybe the guy he was quoting. When
the Shah got booted and Khomeini took over, he said, “The real Day of God is the day
that Amir al mo’menin drew his sword and slaughtered all the khavarej and killed them
from the first to the last.” We have a bunch of the Muslims here with a mission and
some who don’t. On top of that, we have The Nation of Islam to deal with.”

“This is the New Crusades, kids, like it or not. I’m not saying nuke ‘em first and let God
sort ‘em out, but I am saying be very, very careful. The way I see it, we have some sort-
ing out to do and that runs all the way from Islam to the Nation of Aztlán. Just remem-
ber, the First Amendment doesn’t say freedom to worship Christian Religion, it says
freedom to worship, period. They don’t get in our face, we don’t get in their face and
that’s the end of it.”

“And if someone shoots at us?”

“Shoot back. Hell, don’t wait for them to shoot first, if they point a gun at you use your
best judgment, that entire politically correct BS gets people killed. We aren’t the LAPD,
warning shots are allowed.”

“Dad, I want to bring up this business of full auto and 3 round burst fire.”

“Derek, be my guest.”

“There are times when massed fire is appropriate, like when you’re surrounded and
outnumbered and have a rather unlimited supply of ammo. With these chest packs Dad
bought you’ll be carrying about double a standard combat load. Nevertheless, aimed fire
is preferred to spray and pray. I spent a full year in Iraq, mostly in a very troubled area
providing escort service. The only time we ever fired our weapons was on the firing
ranges. From our perspective, a successful mission was when you didn’t fire your
weapons. Keep that in mind while we go about securing our situation.”

“Let me follow up on what Derek said. I bought those Tac Force Chest Rigs and they’ll
hold 12 30-round 5.56 magazines or 8 20-round M1A magazines. Plus you will have a
magazine in your rifle and a spare in the buttstock pouch. I know it’s heavy, tough. You
will also have a full reload of ammo for your magazines. When you run out, you’d better
have some rocks and a club. Same thing goes with the pistols. You will have 5 maga-
zines plus a full reload. Odds are you won’t have time to reload the magazines for the
pistols, but you will have the ammo. We’ll take MREs with us on missions in case we
get held up and have to lie over. When we’re out and about, the home place will remain
on high alert. Any questions? No? Ok, meeting adjourned.”

We didn’t have family meetings as a rule, but these were different times with different
rules. I didn’t want to go on many of the expeditions because someone needed to till the
garden, track the inventory and make the lists. War is a young person’s game and we

200
seniors should stay home and hoe the garden. I had read or heard somewhere that the
average foot soldier caries about 60-80 pounds of equipment, sometimes more. I didn’t
always have to use the wheelchair, anyway. I suppose if we got attacked, I could make
to the wall and up to the top, but I’d have to stop and catch my breath before I could re-
turn fire.

You know, I bought my first M1A after I saw the program on the Military Channel about
the top 10 rifles. I sort of figured the AK would be #1, but was quite surprised at some of
the other results:

1. AK 47
2. M16
3. Lee-Enfield SMLE
4. M1 Garand
5. FN FAL
6. Mauser K98 Carbine
7. Steyr AUG
8. 1903 Springfield
9. Strumgewehr 44
10. M14

Top 10 Fighting Vehicles:

1. M-113
2. M-2 Bradley
3. MCV-80 Warrior
4. Stryker
5. Sd. Kfz. 251
6. BMP-1
7. British Universal Bren Gun Carrier
8. M-3 Halftrack (Baby)
9. LVT Mk-4 (Amtrack)
10. HMMWV

Top 10 Ships:
1. Iowa class Battleship
2. Nimitz class Aircraft Carrier
3. Queen Elizabeth class Battleship
4. Ticonderoga Class Missile Cruiser
5. Fletcher class Destroyer
6. North Carolina class Battleship
7. Bismarck class Battleship
8. Essex class Aircraft Carrier
9. Deutschland Class Pocket Battleship
10. Hood class Battle Cruiser

Top 10 Bombers:

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1. B-52
2. B-2
3. B-29
4. De Havilland Mosquito
5. Avro Lancaster
6. B-47
7. Tu-95 Bear
8. Junkers Ju-88
9. Handley Page 0/100
10. B-17

Top 10 Tanks:
1. T-34
2. M-1 Abrams
3. Tiger
4. WWI Tank (UK) (Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade Tank)
5. Centurion
6. Mk IV Panzer
7. Challenger
8. T-54/55
9. Merkava
10. M-4 Sherman

I suppose it might depend upon where a person was from whether or not he/she agreed
with the Military Channel picks. In many ways, the BM-59 rifle built by Italy was prede-
cessor to the M14 rifle and better because it could hand full auto fire. However, the M14
used solely as a spray and pray weapon wasn’t bad because you didn’t aim. The prob-
lem would be that you were dealing with one heck of a lot of recoil and the ammo was
too heavy. The BM-59 was a modified Garand rifle, as was the M14. We could have li-
censed the system from Italy and had a superb MBR. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it
again, blame the Whiz Kids, and Bombs Away LeMay. The M16 made sense for the Air
Force, but not the Army or Marines. The Air Force always went its own way; their previ-
ous rifle was the M1 Carbine.

I haven’t spent much time on communications equipment, so I’ll address that. The US
experienced trouble with the development of the JTRS (Jitters) and had to stay with the
SINCGARS. The Combat Infantryman, if he had an individual radio, had a Spearhead,
the handheld SINCGARS VHF radio made by ITT Systems. It got its name because it
was the Spearhead of the new software driven emerging systems. One wouldn’t have
thought we would have found Spearheads at the Navajo Depot, but we did. SINCGARS
were around and we got both so we could have a secure communications system.

Piece by piece the boys assembled the equipment from the depot, using the shelter as
a bunker for the ammo. The Arizona Guard being an artillery unit gave Derek an idea to

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build IEDs like the Iraqis used made out of M107 155mm howitzer shells. They were
completely ideal, but require a separate fuse. Equipped for transit with a threaded lifting
plug, they were easy to handle and it was easy to equip them with a C-4 charge and a
det cord detonator. They collected det cord igniters and spools of the explosive cord.
Derek said 3 shells was enough to blow up any vehicle and we had no shortage of
shells.

They buried them all around the fort stringing hundreds or thousands of feet of det cord.
We had the igniters in one central location on each wall and marked so anyone knew
which charge on the map they detonated. Closer in, we had recovered Claymores also
marked with a number and plotted on the map. Four people could delay any attacking
force long enough for the cavalry to arrive. And we only need one lookout, me or a des-
ignate, usually Aaron.

We shared what we collected and by mid-summer no one was getting into Fredonia
without paying a terrible price. We could use people my age and the younger people to
protect the small town until we could get help from Kanab, if it came to that. Our setup
was Sierra Hotel, although we couldn’t ring the whole town, you’ve seen the size earlier.
We could, however, create choke points and preposition matériel permitting a brief fight
regardless of the size of the attacking force.

Meanwhile, when I wasn’t taking my turn in the OP, I was in the garden murdering
weeds. This was the second summer after the war and it wasn’t as hot although we
could have stood more rain. It seemed like everyone in town planted something and you
could find almost anything you needed at our farmers market. One thing you didn’t see
being traded much was firearms, weapons or ammo. We had returned the taxpayers’
tax dollars in the form of rifles, ammo, magazines, grenades, rockets (2 per family) and
so forth.

“Are we ready for winter? Harvest is nearly done and it would be a likely time for an at-
tack.”

“Everyone was food, weapons, fuel and/or wood and we’ve managed to restore electric-
ity to some degree to everyone in town.”

“How do we stand on fuel, enough?”

“How much is enough? I’d have to say yes, we ran out of storage.”

“Good. Security?”

“John has the folks in town organized and everyone here has spent enough time on the
range to be effective with their weapons if we’re attacked. We’re planning on cutting a
ledge on the backside of that pile of dirt to give everyone better footing. If we get snow
and ice, it would be very hard to stand on a slippery slope.”

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“Has there been any word on attacks in other places?”

“Haven’t heard of any, but we’ve seen some small towns that were burned to the
ground.”

“Did you see any bodies?”

“Yes, we buried them.”

“How come I’m just finding this out now?”

“You didn’t bring it up before.”

“Uh, duh, you’re saying it’s my fault that I don’t get out and help you?”

“No, why would you say that?”

“I expect you to bring back more than supplies; I expect you to bring back news. And,
speaking of supplies, have you found any more Mason jars, we ran out.”

“That’s a two way street Dad, we didn’t look because you didn’t say anything about run-
ning low.”

“Maybe it’s my fault, I thought I put them on the list.”

“You didn’t because we crossed everything you wanted off as we found it. Start a new
list and put Mason jars on the top. I’m not sure where we’ll find them, but maybe a gro-
cery warehouse.”

“You know what we ought to do, boys? Send John up to Hyrum, Utah and get more
from Canning Pantry. While he’s at it, he can stop by Draper and get us a new GF150
filter from Sharon Packer and swing by Payson and make sure Russ Williams is ok.”

“When?”

“How about now before it snows and closes the roads? I’ll call him on the radio and ask
him if he can come by for a little talk.”

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 The New Crusades – Chapter 21

I called John and he came over. When I explained what I wanted, he declined. If we
wanted to go, he’d ride along to provide support in case of trouble, but he wouldn’t
make the trip for us. Oh well, it was worth a try, I figured with him being a LDS he fit in
much better than we would. You heard all those rumors about how well the Mormons
prepare for a TSHTF scenario, haven’t you? Regardless, I didn’t want to be in northern
Utah if there was snow on the ground after TSHTF. Never in all the years I traveled to
Salt Lake City had I had any trouble; the people were polite, considerate and very
friendly.

But then, I hadn’t been there after some jerks had nuked their city, which probably took
out the Temple. It wasn’t the first time downtown Salt Lake had been hit with a disaster,
and it might not be the last. We really needed Mason jars and I didn’t like the idea of not
having a replacement filter to the shelter’s air system. My friend Russ was involved in
BYU and a CERT in Payson. I knew he had a large supply of food and we had brief dis-
cussed his plans for a survival shelter. I didn’t know if he got it done in time, but when I
said he could always shelter with Sharon Packer, he was quick to correct me.

We hadn’t had snow yet, but you didn’t need to be a climatologist to tell bad weather
was coming. I dug out the gold and silver we had, we selected a reasonable amount of
weapons and took off. We took 28 up to Nephi. From there we could get on I-15 for the
trip to Hyrum. We brought our own food and fuel, assuming they might not have a whole
lot to share.

Canning Pantry was only open on select days and the day we arrived wasn’t one of
them. We couldn’t find a motel or hotel to hold up in and ended sleeping in the back of
the semi-trailer.

“You folks aren’t from around here, are you?”

I didn’t know who he as, but the question was reasonable so I answered.

“Neighbor, we from down south in a little Arizona town named Fredonia, just south of
Kanab.”

“What brings you all the way up here?”

“We’re on a shopping trip. We need jars and lids from Canning Pantry if they can spare
any and I need to go to Draper to get some equipment for my shelter system. After, I
wanted to go to Payson to look up a friend.”

“Are you LDS?”

“John is, I’m a Methodist, Derek is a Baptist and my older boy isn’t too big on church.”

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“Have you bought from them before?”

“Canning pantry? Yes, I think we’ve bought something on the order of either 120 cases
or 160 cases of jars, plus lids and some of their canning supplies.”

“Big truck.”

“We didn’t expect to be able to fill it and we do have the means to pay for everything we
need.”

“I’m the manager and I saw your truck. I can’t fill it, but I can sell you some things, you
say you need jars and lids?”

“My last order was 20 cases of quarts and 20 cases of pints. Can’t remember how many
lids we bought, but it was enough for a couple of seasons.”

“What do you need for spices?”

“Just your canning spices, especially for making pickles.”

“Back her up to the loading dock and let’s see what we have.”

“Damon, could you please?”

“He your boy?”

“Yes, so is the other one.”

“The jars will cost you $15 a case. The lids, $3 a box. The spices will be the package
price plus 20%.”

“What’s the going rate on gold?”

“I can give you $1,200 an ounce. Silver is worth $22.50 an ounce.”

“Do you even have 40 cases of jars?”

“We do. I figured you can get it all if you have an ounce of gold.”

“Done deal.”

“Care to show me the gold?”

I held up a one ounce Eagle. He smiled and opened up the door to the loading dock. It
didn’t take very long to load the truck and I noticed Hundreds of boxes of jars. I asked if
there was limit and he said he had more quarts than pints. I asked if we could get an-

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other 20 cases of quarts. I paid with the addition jars and lids with fractional ounce gold
coins.

“Headed back south?”

“Yes sir, Draper.”

“Good luck on finding whoever you’re looking for. Here, take this recipe book with my
thanks.”

We drove to Draper and I had a terrible time finding Utah Shelter Systems and tried to
find either Sharon or Paul’s address in a phone book. We wasted most of the day track-
ing one of them down and I bought the GF150 filter. I was honestly surprised she even
had one in stock. Nice lady and I knew that she knew Russ and I asked if she remem-
bered Russ talking about the writer named Tom. She smiled and asked how things had
worked out in my concrete shelter.

“Must have been ok, we’re here and we all spent 5 weeks in the shelter. Say, could you
give me directions to Russ William’s house?”

“I could, but he’s not there, did you know what he was doing about a shelter?”

“He told me, did he manage to get it in writing?”

“At the last moment. I don’t think you will be able to find him. Could I give him a mes-
sage?”

“Sure, tell him Tom from Palmdale lives in Fredonia with some of his relatives and if he
comes our way, he can ask around, everyone knows where we live.”

“Do you need anything else?”

“Are there things in the CD scrubber I need to change?”

“I’ll get you some filters. Let’s see, I can let you have everything for a quarter ounce plus
a tenth ounce.”

“Thank you.”

“No, thank you, I think you sold 2 shelters for us.”

With Russ not available, we went home. I was talking with John on the way back about
what it was like to buy a rifle in California when I got my M1A Loaded. Kalifornia had a
15 day waiting period for a rifle. The store tried to sell me on with the air gauged SS bar-

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rel, not what I wanted. Using SA ammo with eyes as bad as mine, it made no sense.
When they calculated the price, they were higher than Santa Fe Gun Galleria. I told
them so and they matched the price. Wasn’t near what I hoped, but I got it. It was a mis-
take to send the magazines to wherever and have them reshipped, the in between party
wasn’t really on the ball and I didn’t get them for a month.

High Desert Storm had had SA ammo, at $38 a battle pack ~ 27¢ a round. I could get it
from Ohio for $187 per 980 rounds, plus $43 shipping or 25¢ a round. The good-bad
news was they shipped it in that heavy can, a guy could get a hernia. I didn’t need that; I
already had one from the Whipple Procedure. Not good, but not worth getting fixed.
Couldn’t get it fixed now, if I wanted to.

Our situation was basic subsistence living, much as they had done a century earlier. We
had some modern conveniences, but they could wear out and we probably couldn’t re-
place them. We wouldn’t be going to Hyrum again, either, that had been a hairy trip.
While we didn’t run into any specific trouble, it was eerie being the only vehicles on the
road, amplified by the fact that we weren’t from Utah.

I can say we got home just in the nick of time, we hadn’t any more pulled in and began
unloading than we were warned on the radio that there were cars at Fredonia’s northern
barrier. We piled in my pickup and headed to town, to offer whatever help we could.
When we arrived, there were intense discussions going on so we stayed out of it. I
sometimes open my mouth too quickly and say things I can’t take back. Derek, in a low
voice, advised us to just wait and see.

“What’s going on John?”

“This a bunch here that claim all they want to do is pass through town on 89. There’s
some discussion about letting them do it because they’ll get the layout of the town and
get familiar with our defenses.”

“Maybe you should let them. Derek, is the Tac-50 still in the pickup?”

“Yep.”

“Get it and these people can tell them that for every .50 caliber rifle they see, there are 3
or 4 more they don’t see. Do you think that might work, John?”

“I’d feel better if it were a pair of Ma Deuces.”

“Damon, run home and get the two Ma Deuces. Bring them back and set them up on
either side of Main Street.”

“I’ll get someone aside and tell them what we’re doing,” John winked.

It didn’t take long to get set up and I sat behind one of the Ma Deuces. It was just for

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show anyway and Derek took the Tac-50. Maybe they’d think twice before they took Alt
89 again. It did cut the miles off the trip down to Flagstaff, but still… We had collected
more than 2 of the 50 caliber heavy machineguns from Navajo Depot, but the folks had
been reluctant to set them up in town. I think this may have just changed their mind.

Even though I had the Super Match with the fancy scope, I dearly loved my M1A Load-
ed model. It had an A.R.M.S. model 22TX30 lever mount holding a Burris XTS-135 with
a 3 MOA red dot (I upgraded). If I needed iron sights, I flipped the lever and took off the
red dot. Sometimes I needed to do that because the red dot was sighted in for 150
yards, close combat range. Close combat isn’t the same as close quarters; close quar-
ters are handgun and shotgun range, or that’s how I choose to define them. When
you’re younger, like Damon and Derek, you’d probably add additional range to those
figures.

I hadn’t realized when I went looking for the Loaded all the extra features it had and I
figured the prices had just gone up. I’ll be honest I had never planned on spending what
I actually spent. Kalifornia charged 25 bucks for the background check, 8.125% sales
tax and made everyone wait 15 days. The rifle ended up costing $1,756 in round num-
bers. It really ate up my budget; I made the extra magazines and ammo my next pur-
chase. I prioritized, rifle, magazines, ammo. Next the handgun, magazines and ammo
and finally the shotgun and ammo. The budget was busted but there was Christmas and
a birthday coming.

My priorities started with the long range weapon, then the close range weapon followed
by the in between range weapon. Finally, I bought the mount and the Burris red dot at
$300 and the mount which ran another $100, installation was free. I took in my Nazi .32
auto and they were very impressed. They had a Browning Hi-Power, in the case with
Nazi markings for only $1,100, on consignment. My Sauer und Sohn was in much better
shape with 98% of the original bluing.

None of which had much to do with our present situation. We were entering another
winter and had our first outside contact come through town. They wasn’t any outward
evidence that we were doing well, but for the fact that no one looked hungry, we had
weapons on display and the town looked normal in nearly every way. Except, of course
during the night when there were few lights showing and no street lights were lit. It
wasn’t everyone who had electricity, but those that did, shared – they ran extension
cords to keep refrigerators and freezers running.

There were some of those military 50kw wheel mounted diesel generators allocated
about one per block. Enough, barely. The was some diesel fuel in town and more was
found on the roads by parties John sent out on salvaging runs. More often than not, the
fuel was old and couldn’t be used until it was restored using PRI-G or PRI-D. They

209
found some at a Marina at Lake Powell. We weren’t that far away, you know, and I think
they probably hit every Marina. Marinas sell fuel and it was probably stabilized in the
winter. Regardless, when they pumped into the empty tanker, they blended in more PRI
products. That might have been stupid if they bought the products, but they were sal-
vage, hence free.

There are two stages involved in this preparedness thing: getting ready in advance;
and, salvaging afterwards. A person might just as well salvage; the drug addicts are go-
ing to go for the pharmacies and they won’t care how many usable things they ruin in
the process. The first part got you the rifle and ammo you needed just in case some-
thing happened before you could go salvaging. It also got you the food you needed to
have until you could salvage or grow a garden. You stored fuel because: 1) you needed
to run the generator (maybe); and, 2) you needed it for your vehicle so you could go
salvaging.

We had prepared and really did well salvaging. What we didn’t get, John and his min-
ions found. The bottom line really was, if it was processed, we were limited to the exist-
ing stocks and that went from food to fuel. Anything with sugar could be fermented and
distilled to produce alcohol and anything that was oily could be squeezed to extract the
oil. Add a little lye and alcohol and pretty soon, you had homemade diesel ala biodiesel.
The real benefit to being able to produce biodiesel lay in the fact that it was far easier to
get diesel engines to run after an EMP strike.

“Red Alert at the south barricade!”

“Whatcha got?”

“Ragheads.”

“We’re on the way, kick butt and don’t bother with names.”

At this point in the story, one should back up and make a point. The entire purpose in
locating in a little out of the way place like Fredonia was to avoid what was going down
at the moment. If you didn’t know of the place, you could hardly find it on a map. All of
the other choices I’d made for locating in Arizona had either been a community on I-40
or one of some renown, like Sedona. It wasn’t even a main highway, it was Alt 89. US
89 proper went across southern Utah and through Page, eventually ending up in Flag-
staff.

I could only assume they were taking the shortcut to I-15 and from there going north to
Salt Lake City. If they got past us, they most certainly wouldn’t get very far in Utah. The
decision had been made before we were notified, Fredonia was taking a stand and we
were invited to the ‘party’. A tank would have been nice, but the Arizona National Guard
wasn’t a tank outfit. We did have some arty, plus the canister rounds. They had been

210
used to good effect in Vietnam before the US became so PC you weren’t allowed to kill
the enemy.

I recalled on the way to town an article I’d read about Jerry Brown, Governor Moon-
beam:

Like Jimmy Carter almost single-handedly destroyed the American economy with 15%
interest rates and 10% unemployment, Jerry “Governor Moonbeam” Brown destroyed
California in so many ways the state has yet to recover. The guy was the 60s first con-
tribution to the anti-American, socialist, anti-capitalist, anti-death penalty, liberal wingnut
generation of politicians that have so polluted California, the country and most unfortu-
nately the Democrat Party. Today his chaotic philosophy is represented by organiza-
tions like MoveOn.org that we wish would MoveOn.now.

Jerry Brown screwed up the state and then moved on to become the Mayor of Oakland
to with the following promise:

“By the time we’re finished, there will be a lot less crime in Oakland than there is in
Walnut Creek” – Jerry Brown in his first inaugural address – January 5, 1999.

Now 7 years later the Contra Coast Times announces:

“The criminals are running amok in Oakland “– March 6, 2006

Just as Governor, his results as Mayor are just tragic. During his tenure homicides are
up 57%, auto theft is up 84% and his 2006 scorecard reads “shootings are up 100%
and a violent crime is committed on average, every two hours.” – The Tribune and CBS.

Today Jerry Brown is running as the Democrat candidate for California Attorney Gen-
eral, the highest law enforcement official in the state. With his record of irresponsible
management and philosophy he shouldn’t be allowed to run a dog pound in Arcadia.
However, the state is dominated by big huge monopolies; state employee unions,
teachers unions, municipal unions, the left-wing media and entertainment cabal and a
sick group of anti-American socialist commies like Jerry Brown which gives an edge to
the insanity Democrats have visited on my state. If you think I have gone overboard, just
read the tragic words of Governor Moonbeam himself:

“The US incarceration binge is not tied to the crime wave. It’s a strategy to control the
surplus population in a capitalist system that is breaking down.”

“Here’s the real scam. The drug war is one of the games to get more convictions and
prisoners”

“Banning capital punishment takes us to a higher level of consciousness.” “It is not okay

211
even to kill guilty people.”

“Prisons don’t rehabilitate, they don’t punish, they don’t protect, so what the hell do they
do?”

There is a good chance the majority party in California most of whom are party loyalists
will elect this moonbat from outer space to oversee our criminal justice system. Now
doesn’t that just make you feel warm and cozy all over?

To illustrate that he hasn’t awoken from his lifelong drug-induced coma read two of his
most recent dysfunctional promises:

“I will be an unusual attorney general.”

“We’re going to move left and right at the same time. “

We need to drop Jerry off at the clinic. If you want the state to avoid the chaos Brown
will shower on us, work diligently with your friends to defeat him.

He’s the Governor who appointed Rose Bird.

My objection to him running for Attorney General came from one of his ads. A cop,
probably LAPD, was holding up a .50BMG cartridge and saying it would go through 2
police cars. I certainly hope so… WTF, .50 caliber weapons were already illegal in Kali-
fornia. Thing was, the Republican candidate for Attorney General wanted to reverse the
law. Fat chance in a Democratic legislature!

Pravda East (New York Times) and Pravda West (LA Times) were usually on the other
guys’ side and you can bet they backed Governor Moonbeam. Pravda South (Washing-
ton Post) and Pravda North (Boston Globe) probably did too. Then, in 2010, he’d get
reelected as Governor, again.

“Lock and load, Dad.”

“I did that last year, Derek. Son I’m ready to go, all I have to do is push forward on the
safety. That pretty much happens naturally went I stick my fat finger in the trigger
guard.”

We pulled into town at the south roadblock and quickly de-assed the vehicle. The ene-
my was armed with AK-47’s and they were spraying; I don’t know about the praying
part. I take that back, I was praying, big time. What I wouldn’t give for an armored vest
right now! Our pair of Ma Deuces added to the deafening sound that surrounded us. I’m
sure glad I’d put in earplugs. What do soldiers do in combat?

212
This was my first actual combat and I wished I was 40 years younger. I got behind a pile
of sandbags to have something to rest my rifle on and opened up. My rifle was very ca-
pable of one shot – one kill, but only if you hit them. I missed my first two shots and then
settled down, did the breathing exercise and finally send one of them to Paradise. One
thing I didn’t do was count; I figured that if I didn’t, my conscience wouldn’t bother me as
much.

Derek had warned me that killing someone, even an enemy, attacks your conscience
when you realize that you’ve taken a human life for the first time. I didn’t figure on walk-
ing up to the bodies and checking them out, I didn’t want to puke. It was more like being
a bomber pilot if I avoided that. Or, so I told myself. Seeing one of my bullets rip through
a man’s head and the blood flying out changed that, I had to throw up.

I won’t claim that it got any easier, but we kept shooting until they were all down. Some-
one, I won’t say who, went around and checked the opposition. Those that were only
wounded were given the kind of instant first aid that eliminates the pain immediately.
There was sand pouring from the front of the first layer of sandbags I was hiding behind,
not good, someone had shot at me.

“I think maybe you got one or two of them, Gary.”

“I don’t want to talk about it, thank you. We did what we had to do. They were stupid to
attack a barricade in the first place.”

“Do you want one of those AKs?”

“You keep them, they’re supposed to be the #1 combat rifle in the world. My M1A is in
10th place, but it suits me just fine.”

“Give us your brass and we’ll reload it for you.”

“Help yourself, my stuff is Berdan primed, hard to reload.”

“We may convert it to Boxer primed, we have more of the boxer primers.”

“Like I said, help yourself. I’m using it up first and then we’re going to use the Lake City
ammo.”

“Is that one of those Beta C magazines?”

“Yeah, they came out with the mag for the Mini-14 first and later for the M14/M1A. It’s a
universal magazine with different feed lips; at least they claim it’s universal. Heavy when
it’s loaded, it weighs as much as a sack of potatoes.”

“20 pounds?”

213
“Ten, but the rifle weights about nine and counting the sights you’re lugging around 20
pounds, about the same as a BAR. This is the first time I used it, but seems to work ok.
Gives whole new meaning to load it on Sunday and shoot it all week.”

“Do you have just one?”

“Actually several, one for each rifle. We’re still shooting up the South African surplus.
When we change to a different ammo, we’ll have to re-sight the rifles. The good thing
about the magazine is that the weight seems to hold the rifle down some, at least at
first, anyway.”

“How many can you carry?”

“This Tac-Force vest lets me carry two, one on each side. When you stop and think that
100 rounds of ammo goes at 5.2 pounds, and you have 280 rounds in the vest, you’re
really loaded down. The magazine empty weighs 5 pounds. This is a young man’s
game, John, I can hardly walk so loaded down.”

“But, altogether, you have 320 rounds because you have the stock magazine pouch and
a 20-round magazine in the rifle.”

“Right, 15.6 pounds of ammo, 10 pounds of Beta C magazines and another 10 20-round
magazines. That doesn’t count the spare rounds in the fanny pack because we usually
leave it in the pickup. It you count it, you can add another 15.6 pounds not counting the
pack; we carry one complete reload.”

“You could fight World War III.”

“John, we are, this is WW III. Oh, I see what you’re getting at; you thought the war was
over when the warheads and bombs stopped falling. I can’t agree with that, the war isn’t
over until the fighting stops. Did you get a body count?”

“Yeah, 63.”

“The sources tell me there are anywhere from 6 million to 10 million Muslims in the
country. If you assume that they died in the same proportion as the rest of us, there are
still a lot of them out there.”

214
 The New Crusades – Chapter 22

My readers know how much I liked the movie Heartbreak Ridge. I often quote Tom
Highway and advise everyone to Improvise, Adapt, Overcome. Just for the heck of it,
I’m going to take time out and tell you the real story of Heartbreak Ridge. I don’t see
Tom Highway’s name mentioned but maybe his movie character was based on a real
hero. This chapter is a little longer, it’s a complex story.

Heartbreak Ridge is a narrow, rocky, mountain mass running north and 3 south with
HILLS 931, 894, and 851 dominating the MUNDUNG-NI and SATAE-RI Valleys. The
south and east slopes were extremely steep. From these slopes the Punchbowl and
HILL 1179 could be seen in the distance. Both prominent objectives had already fallen
into our hands. Initially heavy vegetation covered the slopes of Heartbreak Ridge but air
strikes and artillery destroyed all individual concealment. In each valley bordering the
ridge were two important roads and stream beds. The roads were secondary class
routes, but a road capable of moving military equipment was built in a short time. Also, a
twisting, boulder-strewn stream bed in each valley furnished an approach for tanks. Nar-
row gorges and deep defiles presented difficult engineering problems which were over-
come during the engagement. Enemy bunkers guarded the key ridges of approach. Due
to a moderate slope to the west and north, the enemy supplies were moved up in posi-
tions with a minimum amount of labor.

The battle for Heartbreak Ridge started on 13 September with the 9th Infantry launching
an attack on Hill 728, west of the main objective, and giving fire support to the First and
Second Battalions of the 23rd who jumped off onto Hill 931, central peak of three
heights on the ridge line. The 38th Infantry, meanwhile, had gone into reserve with its
relief by the 23rd.

The first day’s fighting for Hill 931 brought little success as the well-entrenched enemy
called upon artillery and mortars to help repel the attackers. His stiff resistance was bol-
stered on the 14th as both the 9th and 23rd continued their assaults in the vicinity of Hill
894. B Company of the 72nd Tank Battalion was able to support the 9th from positions
on the MSR to the west and their high-velocity tank fire proved effective in knocking out
the enemy bunkers exposed to the direct fire of the tank guns.

The Second Battalion of the 9th moved out against 728 and by noon was on the south-
east slope of Hill 894. However, an order came down directing it to change its original
objective and swing northward to assault Hill 894 from the south while the 23rd Infantry
continued attempts to overcome it from the north. The pincers attack was pressed all
afternoon and by 1700 hours the Second Battalion of the 9th was within 650 meters of
the crest but there it was stopped. The 23rd, meanwhile, had succeeded in gaining the
crest of the ridge which joined Hills 931 and 851 and at 1900 hours it set up defenses
for the night.

The enemy reacted quickly to the 23rd’s gains which succeeded in blocking the ridge
line connecting his garrisons on 851 and 931. Strong probing attacks were flung out as

215
the North Koreans attempted to reestablish their net-work of entrenchments but the 23rd
succeeded in repulsing them all.

The 9th Infantry jumped off again to gain Hill 894 at 0700 hours on the 15th. Fighting
fiercely against determined resistance, the Manchu regiment gained the crest by 1445
and immediately sent strong forces down the ridge line south and west from the peak
and northeast toward Hill 931. The forces rushing south secured the entire ridge line,
stopping on an unnumbered hill overlooking the village of Tutayon near the western
MSR. A platoon from L Company of the 9th was unable to overcome strong resistance
on Hill 485, western anchor of the ridge line running southwest of 894.

The troops from the Second Battalion, 9th Infantry who moved north from Hill 894 dug in
on positions 400 meters north of their newly captured objective.

And while the 9th was successful in securing the southern and southwestern portion of
the important ridge line, the 23rd sent its Second and Third Battalions in a coordinated
attack to take Hills 931 and 851 while the French Battalion launched an attack on Hill
841, a peak east across the MSR from the regiment’s foothold on Heartbreak Ridge. All
these efforts met with no success in spite of close air and artillery support. The enemy
utilized every weapon in his arsenal, fighting with furious determination in his effort to
keep control of the vital ridge.

All limits on artillery ammunition expenditure were lifted by Eighth Army on 15 Septem-
ber as it offered every support to the 2nd Division in its attempts to take Heartbreak
Ridge.

The 23rd Infantry renewed its slamming attacks against 931 and 851 on 16 September
but made little gain during the day. Nightfall saw the tired, chopped ranks of the 23rd
again going into perimeter defenses to protect themselves from the inevitable enemy
probes. The air was thick with the blue smoke of artillery, the peaks churned into pulver-
ized dust. The ridge had the appearance of a forest following a devastating fire as only
twisted gaunt remains of trees and shrubs gave evidence of the once heavy underbrush
which had carpeted the sheer slopes before the battle.

The enemy threw light probing attacks against the elements of the First Battalion, 23 rd
Infantry shortly after midnight. The North Korean garrison on 931 was strong although
the positions of the First Battalion, 23rd, astride the ridge running south from 931 made
resupply and reinforcement impossible. The men of the 23rd readied for a new assault
which the probes had signaled. The anticipated thrust came at 0300 hours. Two enemy
companies struck at C Company from the north. Hardly had the attack begun than an
entire North Korean battalion was screaming down from 931 and C Company’s posi-
tions were penetrated. At 0730 hours, A Company was pushed through the dogged C
Company and together the two units hit the wall of attackers, forcing them back and re-
gaining the lost positions. The enemy hurled another battalion-sized attack against the
First Battalion at 1300 hours. Immediately a devastating rain of 2nd Division artillery was
called in and the big guns thundered in the rear, their shells plowing gaping holes into

216
the ridge-line. A Company counter-attacked again, pushing north onto the ridge-line At
the same time, the Second and Third Battalions struck again toward Hill 851, clawing
their way through a curtain of flying mortar to gain positions 1,000 meters from the crest.
By this time, night had fallen and all three battalions dug-in to hold their gains.

The first faint streaks of dawn were hardly visible 18 September when the 23 rd renewed
its efforts on the ridge line. Two enemy regiments were now defending Heartbreak to
the death. No amount of artillery fire could drive them from their bunkers on the rear
slopes where they took refuge until the artillery lifted and the infantry assault began. It
was a question of digging them out, one at a time. The 23 rd attack was met with imme-
diate resistance, fierce and determined. All day it raged with every foot forward paid for
in human life. By nighttime, the First Battalion was within 500 meters of 931 when the
enemy counterattacked again. Determined to hold, the 23rd called again on the superb
artillery support and watched as the explosions shook the hill and turned the North Ko-
reans back. The Second and Third Battalions, after dueling with the enemy all day, de-
cided on a night attack against 851. Under cover of darkness they moved forward as the
artillery rolled ahead of them. Assaulting the enemy in his foxholes, terrifying him with
flame-throwers, the attackers crawled upward, not to be denied. Success was theirs at
last. Shortly after midnight, the lead elements crawled to the top, exhausted but in wea-
ry high spirits for Hill 851 was theirs.

But the feeling of accomplishment was short lived. At 0100, an enemy company struck
at L Company on the crest. By 0200, the enemy force had grown to battalion size and
though the valiant troops clung to their hard-won positions for hours in face of violent
attack, daylight found them being forced off their peak, pulling back under fire cover
from the remainder of the Third Battalion. At 1230 hours, the Second Battalion, passing
through the Third, counter attacked and attempted to retake Hill 851. Individual, hand-
to-hand fights raged all over the crest as hand grenades exploded, throwing their dirt
and steel like rain along the peak. And as the troops of the 23 rd and the North Koreans
grappled, a strong, reinforcing enemy descended and counterattacked in the early
morning hours. L Company’s ammunition became exhausted and the enemy surged
forward, overrunning four machine guns. Still the company stood until the entire foot-
hold was overrun. The company commander Lieutenant Pete Monfore stayed with the
last of the defenders until he fell, mortally wounded among his men.

Meanwhile, in clearing weather that aided both air and artillery observation, both the
First and Third Battalions of the 9th Infantry and the First Battalion of the 23rd slammed
anew at their objectives. Thirty seven fighter bombers roared out of the sky and covered
the Third Battalion of the 9th as it struck at the 485-728 hill mass north of Imokchong on
the west MSR while the First Battalion of the 23rd again pushed up the unbelievably
steep slopes of 931. Neither battalion was successful. Mine fields, covered by fire from
both 485 and 728 stopped the Manchu Battalion. The First Battalion of the 23rd, clawing
upward in an inspired attack, fought to within 300 meters of the crest of Hill 931 but
again was stopped. Again they were forced to pull back, digging-in to await the dawn.

Westward, a patrol from the Third Battalion, 9th Infantry moved onto Hill 1024 to engage

217
and determine enemy defenses, returning before nightfall.

The Indianhead Division was in contact with four North Korean Divisions on 20 Septem-
ber when Major General Robert N. Young arrived to replace Brigadier General Thomas
E. DeShazo due for rotation to the states – as commanding general. The former assis-
tant division commander of the 82nd Airborne Infantry Division, General Young took over
the helm of the 2nd Infantry in the midst of one its most rugged offensive actions. Gen-
eral DeShazo, with a long and spectacular record of action in Korea as a super-
artilleryman and strong advocate of extensive use of forward observers bid farewell to
the Division which he had served so well.

The fierce struggle for Heartbreak Ridge continued unabated throughout the day and
again the two enemy regiments resisting the efforts of the 23 rd Infantry were successful
in repelling all attacks. The 9th infantry west of the vital ridge reported all its patrols in
contact with the enemy. A Company on 867 was engaged all day before returning to its
base.

Action on the entire Division front was quieter on 21 September than it had been in
weeks with the enemy putting up only a passive resistance to patrols sent out from the
regiments. All units gathered themselves for new assaults.

Battles flared again on 22 September as the First and Second Battalions of the 23 rd
launched another coordinated attack on 931, center of Heartbreak Ridge. Fiercest yet of
all the assaults, both battalions were on the crest of the hotly contested height several
times during the day only to be thrown off as the enemy attacked through his own mor-
tar fire, hurling grenades and directing streams of machine gun fire forward of his ad-
vance. The First Battalion of the 9th became engaged in this same action and was una-
ble to break contact although it was headed for an assault on Hill 728. Finally, plans to
take the peak that day were abandoned and all three battalions took up blocking posi-
tions on the ridge lines extending from 931 in both directions.

The 15th North Korean Regiment crowded a strong counter-attack against the 23rd In-
fantry during the night supported by heavy mortar concentrations which churned the dirt
on all sides of the defenders. Fighting fiercely, the 23rd repulsed the attackers and sent
them scurrying back to the protection of their bunkers.

The 23rd and 24th of September developed into a tragic act which helped to give further
backing to the label Heartbreak Ridge. Desperate to end the continual fighting, the First
Battalion of the 23rd again forced its way up the slopes of Hill 931. There it grappled with
the enemy, cut into his ranks and inflicted severe casualties, all the time moving up-
ward. At 1400, A Company found itself within 50 meters of the crest. It called upon eve-
ry reserve of energy and courage it had and flung itself upward but was battered back.
Again and again it tried to make the grade, in spite of mortar, grenade, and bullet it crept
and crawled forward only to be shoved down again. A fourth assault met with failure and
summoning unbelievable guts the dauntless men moved out again and by sheer dint of
courage scaled the peak. 931 had been taken. It was ours. And the First Battalion of the

218
23rd found it hard to believe but the presence of the men of A Company on the peak
confirmed the fact which they hardly dared to believe. Hastily setting up a defense, the
hand full of men remaining in the First Battalion dug in on the crest, surrounded by the
aftermath of battle. The anticipated enemy counter-attack came at 0220 hours on the
24th. Maddened screaming, animal-like the North Koreans charged the positions in
mass, hurling grenades out of the night and directing their murderous fire into the bun-
kers which they had built and knew so well. It was too much for the thinned, battle wea-
ry men to resist and at 0330 hours the remaining few were forced from the crest. At
0445, with A Company again in the lead, the First Battalion counter-attacked. At 0610
hours, B and C Companies were engaged with 200 enemy pouring down from 931 and
from the northwest, repulsing the enemy efforts to annihilate them. The fighting contin-
ued throughout the day until at nightfall the heroic men of the 23rd went into positions for
the hours of darkness during which they turned-back countless enemy probes.

The heart-rending story of frustration was repeated in the sector of the 9th Infantry dur-
ing the same two-day period. An attack by the First Battalion to take Hill 1024 met with
failure with the attackers going into perimeter defense 300 meters northeast of the crest.
An attempt on 24 September by the First Battalion of the 9th to take Hill 728, again by-
passing Hill 931, also was repulsed.

For eleven days, now, the two regiments had given every ounce of energy and reserve
they possessed to take their objectives. Time and time again they had met with failure
at the hands of the North Koreans. Each day was like the last-fight, suffer, meet or es-
cape death, sweat out the nights only to move out each new day to climb and battle up
the endless hills. Victory almost in hand for a second only to see it swept away again.
But like all war, there was no rest. The objective had to be taken.

And so it was that the 9th and 23rd Infantry Regiments again moved into battle on the
25th of September. While in the valleys below the trees turned autumn golden and red
and leaves littered the ground much as they did back home, on the hills there was only
the pock-marked hard and dusty earth littered with steel and blood and the remains of
men who had given all they possessed.

One success will often keep men going long after the time they could be expected to
drop. And so when the First Battalion of the 9th Infantry met with success that day on Hill
1024, the news was a stimulant to all. Lead by A Company attacking from 800 meters
below the peak, the lead elements of the Battalion were on the crest at 1145 hours. And
moving up amid resistance from a heavy enemy mortar barrage, the rest of the Battalion
was on the hill by 1500 hours and four hours later was tied in with ROK units on the left.

The French Battalion relieved the Second Battalion of the 23 rd over on the ridge line
south of Hill 851. The Second Battalion then moved down into an assembly area at Im-
dong-ni, well south of Worrun-ni and well out of contact with the enemy. There its tired
remnants were to gather themselves together, be resupplied, reorganized and readied
for new commitment.

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The Ivanhoe Security Force took over surveillance of the Kansas Line on 25 September
and the 38th Infantry prepared to move forward for future action. Poor visibility hindered
all actions.

The next day, 26 September, the French tried their luck against Hill 931 and found it no
better than had the rest of the regiment. The First and Third Battalions remained in posi-
tion, kept close into their meager holes by continuous barrages of enemy artillery, mor-
tar, automatic weapons and small arms fire.

The 9th Infantry consolidated its positions on Hill 1024, sending a patrol from A Compa-
ny 300 meters north to flush and kill 45 enemy troops in bunkers on the ridge line. The
38th Infantry sent patrols to the vicinity of Hills 1052 and 851 without contact.

The enemy made up for the relatively quiet day as darkness enveloped the rocky hills
for the night. On Hill 1024, the First Battalion of the 9th Infantry contained strong enemy
counter attacks while the Second Battalion repulsed equally strong attacks against its
positions on Hill 582.

Morning of 27 September brought welcome relief to the First Battalion of the 23 rd when
it was pulled out of line, relieved by the refitted Second. Gladly the men came down
from the hills into Worrun-ni where they, too, were given the opportunity to rest, bathe,
get fresh clothing and resupply.

And the 38th Infantry became engaged on the 27th for the first time since its return from
reserve. The First Battalion encountered enemy on the slopes of 1052 and a platoon
from M Company became the center of attention for the entire Division when it inadvert-
ently made a wrong turn.

Moving up to furnish fire support to the Second Battalion in its attack on 1052, the pla-
toon was headed for Hill 868. The platoon had left its company area at 0500. Its instruc-
tions were to turn up a trail just beyond a certain tank which was blocking along the
road. Unfortunately there was more than one tank in blocking position and it was at the
wrong tank that the platoon made its turn. It walked into enemy infested territory until it
reached a small footbridge 800 meters west of Satae-ri. At 0900, it became bitterly en-
gaged with an enemy force deployed in bunkers on Hill 656, just north of Satae-ri. Word
went back to Division and a rescue force was hastily assembled and sent forward. The
units making up the force were mute evidence that everyone in the vicinity had been
called upon for help. There was a platoon from X Company, French Battalion; two
squads from C Company, 38th Infantry; a platoon from the Tank Company, 38th Infantry;
and a platoon from the Tank Company, 23rd Infantry.

After several hours of hard fighting in the midst of the enemy infested area, the rescue
force succeeded in extricating the embattled platoon and making its way back to friendly
lines at 1300 hours. There was some question as to who was the most surprised at the
maneuver, the North Koreans or the M Company platoon.

220
The enemy made a concerted effort to recapture Hill 1024 from the 9th Infantry on 28
September. Thirteen separate counter-attacks were pushed against the First Battalion
but all were turned back with heavy losses. Immediately afterward, a narrowing of the
Division front placed the peak in the zone of the 7th ROK Division and at 1300 hours,
ROK elements relieved the First Battalion of its responsibility for holding the crest. The
Battalion then withdrew to an assembly position 5,000 meters south of the lines.

Ground activity elsewhere in the Division sector on the 28th was relatively light com-
pared to previous days but clearing weather permitted a record number of air sorties.
Under control of Division FSCC, 128 fighter aircraft were employed in the Division sec-
tor with excellent results. The planes were particularly effective ranging beyond the lim-
its of artillery fire, destroying enemy gun positions, supply and assembly points.

Activity on 29 September was confined mainly to the 9th Infantry as the First Battalion,
supported by fire from B Company of the 72nd Tank Battalion and Division Artillery,
moved out to make another attempt on Hill 867.

Lady luck favored the North Koreans on this day. Fog, ground mist and rain throughout
the day greatly reduced the effectiveness of artillery support. No air support was availa-
ble at all.

Initial contact was light as the lead elements closed to within 150 meters of the objec-
tive. But upon reaching this point, a hail of exceptionally intense mortar and artillery fire
pinned the troops down. The concentration continued until 1725 hours when it suddenly
lifted and the enemy launched a fierce counter attack. By 1800 hours, the 9 th was or-
dered to break contact and return to its original positions.

The First Battalion, 23rd Infantry, relieved the Third Battalion on position during the day
with the Third returning to Worrun-ni. The remainder of the regiment remained in place,
organizing its positions as did the 38th.

All combat units of the Division were in contact with the enemy during the last day of
September. In spite of every attempt by the Division to oust the entrenched North Kore-
ans from their mountain strongholds, the fading September sun set on Heartbreak
Ridge, Hill 1052, 867 and 728 and revealed them still in enemy hands. But the rock-like
defenses for the North Koreans had been costly. Excluding air strike casualties, 7,256
enemy troops were killed during the month; 9,878 were wounded and more than 600
communists were herded into UN prison camps. With the air-inflicted casualties includ-
ed, the enemy dead and wounded in September came to more than 20,000, a total the
North Koreans could ill-afford to absorb.

Division casualties, though light by comparison, were the heaviest in months. In spite of
the hopes for a truce, the war continued to rage at a heart-rending pace.

A plan for ending the seemingly endless struggles on the hills on and near Heartbreak
Ridge was set forth at a staff briefing on 1 October by General Young.

221
Anxious to bring the operations in the mountains north of Yanggu to a successful con-
clusion, he directed the laying of plans for an all-out assault. Heretofore, the regiments
had jumped-off on their own objectives one at a time. Consequently, the defending
North Koreans were able to concentrate their fire support weapons, especially mortars,
on the single attacking element of the 2nd Division. Added to the determined defensive
attitude of the communists and the ideal defensive terrain, this had been enough to re-
pulse almost every effort of the 2nd Division in the preceding weeks unless we were will-
ing to pay more than a reasonable price in casualties.

The plan put forth by General Young envisioned all regiments attacking simultaneously
on the Division front with a strong tank-infantry attack up the Mungdung-ni valley on the
west coupled with an armored task force foray up the Saete-ri valley in the east. Pur-
pose of these armored ventures was to break behind the enemy lines, disrupt his de-
fenses and inflict the greatest number of casualties.

The advantages of the operation were three fold: First, the enemy would be forced to
disperse his mortar fire over a wider front thus reducing the volume of fire he could
place on any one particular area. Second, a line established on the salient terrain fea-
tures designated as objectives for the attack would require fewer troops to secure than
the jagged front now maintained. Third, a considerable saving of manpower would be
realized by withdrawing and placing into reserve the units holding the hills which were
dominated by the objectives of the proposed operation.

Citing the idea behind the three-regiment attack, the General emphasized the im-
portance of the tank-infantry spearheads up the Mungdung-ni and Saete-ri valleys.
Such an operation would not only put the forces into positions from which they could
disrupt the enemy defenses from the rear and inflict heavy casualties but also would re-
lieve a great deal of pressure on the Indianhead regiments making the assaults on the
hills.

Target date for the attack was 5 October 1951; H-hour, 2100.

Plans to provide the immense logistical support required of such an operation were im-
mediately drawn-up by G-4. Every available truck was pressed into service and by 1800
hours, 5 October, more than 45,000 rounds of artillery ammunition, 10,000 rations, and
20,000 gallons of gas were stockpiled in supply dumps in the valley of the west MSR.

As the trucks hauled load after load of supplies, the regiments moved into positions
from which they could advance on the offensive when the word was given. Operation
Order 37 setting up the attack plan was published on 2 October. The 9 th Infantry was
given the mission of attacking and securing Hills 867 and 1005, dominating the ridge
line north of Hill 1024 to the west. The 23rd Infantry was to secure Hill 931 on Heart-
break and the ridge line running west from that peak. It was also to be prepared to as-
sist the 38th Infantry in taking Hill 728 and Objective C, an unnumbered ridge line which
jutted south from Hill 851. The 38th Infantry, in the center of the Division sector, was to

222
assault Objective C and Hill 485, a small hill south of Tutayon on the west MSR. The
38th was also to provide infantry support to the 72nd Tank Battalion which was to be pre-
pared to make an armored thrust into Mungdung-ni. The 2nd Engineer Battalion was to
exert its maximum effort on the valley road below Mundung-ni, attaching C and D Com-
panies to the 38th Infantry, A to the 9th and B to the 23rd. One platoon of D Company of
the Engineers was to support the tank thrust up the valley.

The tank-infantry task force to operate in the east valley of the Division sector was
commanded by Major Kenneth R. Sturman of the 23rd Infantry. This force subsequently
bore his name. Raiding thrusts were initiated into the enemy lines on 3 October and
were conducted daily for the remainder of the period during which the Division operated
in the area north of Yanggu. Composed of the 23rd Infantry Tank Company, 2nd Recon-
naissance Company and the Combat Company of the Ivanhoe Security Force, the task
force proved to be highly successful in knocking out enemy emplacements, inflicting
casualties and diverting a portion of the enemy strength from the western half of the Di-
vision front. It complemented the stronger tank force operating in the Mundung-ni valley
to the east.

By 1800 hours of 4 October, all units of the Division were in position for the attack
scheduled for 2100 hours the following day. One fortunate break occurred during the
early hours of the 4th when a patrol from F Company of the 38th Infantry reported Hill
485 unoccupied. The remaining elements of F Company immediately moved onto the
hill, securing it and thus placing one of their objectives in their pocket before the main
assault had begun.

The tempo of 2nd Division air and artillery support picked-up during the daylight hours of
4 October as the enemy continued to throw in harassing mortar and artillery fire on
friendly positions. Small enemy probing attacks were repulsed during the night.

The first indication of the reappearance of the Chinese Communist Forces into the X
Corps zone came from prisoner of war reports on 5 September, the day the offensive of
the Division was scheduled to get underway. One POW picked up by the Division re-
ported a Chinese reconnaissance party on Hill 931. Later in the day, X Corps intelli-
gence officers relayed a message from the 8th ROK Division that two civilians had been
picked up in its sector who admitted being CCF agents. These reports were the first of
CCF troops so far eastward since their disastrous May offensive.

At 2100 hours, 5 October, Operation Touchdown moved out with all regiments on line.
In the 9th Infantry sector in the west, the First and Third Battalions moved toward Hill
867 as the Second Battalion remained in reserve. By nightfall, after a day without ene-
my contact, the two attacking battalions were secure on the high ground south and east
of their objective and prepared to make their main assault the next day.

The Second Battalion of the 23rd Infantry moved from its positions on Hill 894 and under
enemy mortar fire advanced toward the ridge line jutting west from Hill 931, the battered
crest which had been wrestled momentarily from the enemy on the 23rd of September.

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By 0300 hours on 6 October, the Second Battalion turned into the southernmost knob of
the 931 Hill mass and immediately became engaged with elements of an enemy battal-
ion which stubbornly resisted the attack. After a brief but sharp fire-fight, the enemy
withdrew from the hill and the Second Battalion moved onto the peak. By 0630 hours, it
had tied in with the French Battalion and the hill was secure as a result of the outstand-
ingly successful night attack.

Over in the sector of the 38th Infantry, the First Battalion, less B Company which re-
mained on Hill 778, moved out toward Hill 728 overlooking the west MSR. Only light op-
position was encountered and the objective was taken with little trouble. A Company
then extended north and east and tied in with elements of the 23rd Infantry on the ridge
line west from Hill 894.

Down in the valley which lead out into the heart of the enemy defensive garrisons, the
2nd Engineers began the tremendous task of making a passable route for the tanks to
advance north to Mundung-ni. Apparently the enemy had anticipated such a maneuver
and had mined and cratered the road more heavily than any the Division had previously
encountered. Tremendous boulders blocked the mountain stream paralleling the road,
making the use of that normally passable avenue out of the question. Enemy mortar
and automatic weapons fire poured into the area, seriously hampering but failing to stop
the engineer effort. B and C Companies of the tank battalion stood by, firing in support
of the attack on the hills overlooking the road and awaiting the opportunity to break
through the obstacles which the engineers were clearing.

The 38th Infantry was given three new objectives on the 7th of October. They were Hills
905, 974 and 841, all in the central sector of the Division zone, and they comprised the
next ridge line north of that under attack by the 9th Infantry. A fourth hill, 605, was also
assigned to the 38th Infantry. It was on the left of the MSR about 1,800 meters south-
west of Mundung-ni.

South of the newly assigned ridge line objectives of the 38th Infantry, the Third Battalion
of the 9th moved onto Hill 867 against little opposition and made immediate plans to
continue its advance the next day to the unnumbered hill between 867 and 1005. The
Second Battalion, sweeping through the 8th ROK Division zone on the west, succeeded
in cutting the ridge line between Hills 867 and 1005. It then set out to the northwest to-
ward Hill 1005. Initial resistance was light but it increased with every move upward. The
advance continued throughout the 7th and 8th and the morning of the 9th found the Sec-
ond Battalion near its goal but held up by a death-stand resistance by the North Kore-
ans. Fixing bayonets, the lead elements rushed forward and routed the enemy, digging
the individual soldiers from their caves and by late afternoon the hill was secure.

The First Battalion of the 9th, during the actions of the Second and Third Battalions, had
begun a move up the valley and on 8 October was occupying the high ground northeast
of Hill 867 with a platoon on Hill 666. Plans were made to pass the First Battalion
through the Second on Hill 1005 and then continue the attack to the northwest against
the next peak, Hill 1040. Early on 10 October, the First Battalion made its move and

224
against moderate resistance inched up the slopes. The enemy, unable to mount his
usual last-stand defensive actions after his defeat on 1005, was overcome by 1610
hours and the 9th Infantry was then in full possession of the 867-1005-1040 ridge line,
sometimes spoken of as the Kim Il Sung ridge.

With the important Kim Il Sung ridge held by the 9th, the situation was ripe to launch the
38th in its assault on the next northerly line of crests dominated by Hills 606, 905 and
974. The way was also clear to move onto Hill 605.

Hill 636, the gateway to the ridge objectives of the 38th, was stubbornly defended by the
enemy and the initial attempt by the Second Battalion to wrest it from the enemy failed.
Another attempt was made immediately and although the crest was occupied by night-
fall on 9 October, the enemy clung to his foothold and battled the troops into the hours
of darkness before relinquishing his positions. The following morning, moving out from
636, the Second Battalion headed for Hill 905 and the high ground to the north east.
Again the going was extremely rugged and the enemy resisted every foot of the way. A
strong North Korean counterattack forced the battalion to hold-up its advance on the af-
ternoon of the 10th but as soon as it died down the attackers moved out again. Finally,
the Second Battalion battled its way to the top of 905 on the 11th and there pulled into a
perimeter for the night.

Back in the valley, the Third Battalion of the 38th was moving north to launch an attack
on Hill 605 which, if successful, would place it closer to Mundung-ni than any major
friendly element had yet been.

Further south, the engineers toiled day and night, blasting through the blockaded road-
way which prevented the tanks from thrusting into Mundung-ni itself. Enemy mortar con-
tinued to fall into the hive of activity in an effort to prevent a breakthrough.

The Third Battalion of the 38th continued to slog forward up the valley in face of enemy
mortar and artillery fire. After two days of dogged advance supported by fire from the
38th Regimental Tank Company, the Third was able to move onto Hill 605 and secure it
against counterattack. The Netherlands Detachment tied in on the left and L Company
tied in with the 72nd Tank Battalion on the right. L was to remain attached to the tank
battalion for the duration of the operation.

The situation in the western valley proceeded in heartening manner while in the east,
the 23rd Infantry continued its bitter three week battle for Hill 851, the northernmost ob-
jective on Heartbreak Ridge. With Task Force Sturman making repeated slashes into
the enemy lines near Satae-ri, the remainder of the 23rd fought the North Koreans who
seemed destined to remain in their deep, protective bunkers forever. On 7 October, the
First Battalion prepared to attack the hill once more from the south while the Second
Battalion moved northwest from newly won Hill 931 to tie-in with the 38th Infantry which
was securing the left flank of the 23rd. The Third Battalion, in conjunction with the moves
of the other two units, began an attempt to cut the ridge line jutting west from 851. The
attempt proved successful as the infantrymen managed to fight their way to a point on

225
the ridge line only 1,000 meters west of the crest. Determined to follow-up their ad-
vantage, both the First and Third Battalions inched their way nearer their long-sought
objective on the 8th. The enemy fought back furiously, utilizing every weapon he pos-
sessed. But the attackers managed to make substantial progress in spite of the re-
sistance and by nightfall they were in a position to dig-in to await morning and a renewal
of the attack.

Task Force Sturman made its greatest effort to date on 9 October, ranging deep behind
the enemy lines and pouring its high velocity fire into the bunkers on 851 and seriously
hindering the enemy’s efforts to make repairs.

The Second Battalion of the 23rd was diverted from its attentions to Hill 931 on 10 Octo-
ber when it was ordered to seize a new objective Hill 520, the end knob of a long ridge
line running west from 931. The battalion moved swiftly down the crest of the spur, fling-
ing aside the defenders, and by 1800 hours was secure on the objective, digging-in at
the same time as the Third Battalion of the 38th secured Hill 605.

The Second Battalion of the 23rd tied-in on its left with the 72nd Tank Battalion in the val-
ley below, completing a defensive line across the high ground separating the two val-
leys in the Division zone. Thus, the high ground on both sides of the Mundung-ni valley
was secure from the positions of the 23rd and 38th Regiments southward. The stage was
set for the armored thrust into the town itself.

The chief obstacles to the armored penetration had been the natural and man-made
barriers in the defiles north of Imokchong. Since the start of Operation Touchdown, D
Company of the 2nd Engineers had been blasting for mines, filling craters, grading the
rocky road carved from the hillside, building by-passes and diverting streams in an effort
to clear the way for the tanks. Thirty three tons of high explosives had been used in the
operation. Finally, after laboring day and night, the defile was clear enough for tank
passage. The commanding general ordered the waiting armor to be prepared to move
out at first light on 10 October.

The long planned tank-spearhead rolled north through the newly constructed gateway
into enemy territory at 0630, 10 October. B Company of the 72nd Tank Battalion led the
raid with L Company, 38th Infantry aboard to give added weight to the punch. A platoon
from D Company, 2nd Engineers, accompanied the group to give its assistance in clear-
ing obstacles along the route.

The armored fist burst through the enemy positions and deep into the valley which
served as his supply route. Mundung-ni was entered and bypassed as the lead ele-
ments of the tank force advanced 1,200 meters north of the town to place fire on the
hills. One section turned west into the valley fronting Hill 841 and was able to strike at
the reverse slopes of the enemy hills.

Eastward in the Satae-ri valley, Task Force Sturman made another surge north and
wrought similar havoc on the disorganized enemy. The two tank assault groups forging

226
up the twin valleys found the enemy unprepared and hundreds of casualties were in-
flicted before the communist troops could find cover from the ranging fire.

Meanwhile, the commanding general ordered the 38th Infantry to hold up its advance
once it reached Hill 905. Purpose of this was to avoid placing the 38th in a position ex-
posed to possible enemy attack from three sides. Thus, the left flank of the Division was
to be, for the moment, along a line connecting Hills 1040 on the south, 905 in the center
of the flank, and 605 at the top side. From there the front extended east across the MSR
along a line generally 1,000 meters south of Mundung-ni. Once the 8th ROK Division on
the left flank of the 38th Infantry pulled onto line, then plans were to be made to be made
to move out to take Hill 974 and 841.

Indications of an entrance of Chinese Communist Forces into the 2nd Division zone had
been increasing during the preceding few days operations. Finally, on 10 October, a pa-
trol from G Company, 38th Infantry, captured a prisoner who was identified as being
from the 204th CCF Division. Interrogation officers drew from him information that the
CCF was planning a counter attack against the 2nd Division within two days after the re-
lief was complete.

The capture of the Chinese soldier formed the last piece necessary to complete the or-
der of battle picture along the Division front. It was now evident that the 68th CCF Army
had relieved the V North Korean Corps with the limiting point for the CCF and NK forces
the northward projection of the Mundung-ni Road. Thus, the 2nd Division faced CCF
troops on its left front and North Korean on its right.

The relief of NK troops by those of China was conclusive and decisive evidence of the
staggering casualties suffered by the North Koreans in the operations along Bloody and
Heartbreak ridges.

The night of 10-11 October was quiet except for a heavy clash by a Division patrol
which ran into an enemy battalion in the vicinity of Hill 851. During the hours of dark-
ness, the First Battalion of the 38th moved up from reserve into an assembly area in the
vicinity of Kongdong.

The 23rd Infantry had spent all day of the 10th in another attempt to take Hill 851. This
enemy stronghold continued to be defended with every weapon and man the North Ko-
reans could muster and the determined assaults by the 23rd were again repulsed.
Fighting flared anew on 11 October as the Second Battalion of the 38th struck out to-
ward Hill 905 from its positions on Hill 636. The First Battalion, moving up from
Kongdong, was following behind prepared to exploit whatever success the Second Bat-
talion achieved. Forging upward against moderate resistance, the Second Battalion se-
cured Hill 905 and the First Battalion passed through and took the high ground between
the newly won objective and Hill 974 to the north.

That night, B of the 38th secured the high ground between the two hills and A and C
pulled back onto 905.

227
Plans for extending the holdings of the 38th Infantry were inaugurated on 12 October
with a boundary shift to the west which placed Hill 1220 in the Division sector. The Divi-
sion commander directed the 38th to prepare to take to take Hill 1220 after the 9th Infan-
try moved up to secure the terrain adjacent to the west MSR, freeing the 38th for the op-
eration. The 23rd Infantry was directed to make a new assault to wrest Hill 851 from the
North Koreans. The 72nd Tank Battalion reverted from the 38th to the 9th Infantry and
was to continue its daily thrusts into Mundung-ni.

At 1300 hours on the 12th, the First Battalion of the 38th moved out against light enemy
resistance and in two hours had secured Hill 974, thus placing it in a position for its later
attack on 1220. The 9th Infantry organized on its newly occupied positions and the 23rd
made preparations for hitting 851 the following day.

Both Task Force Sturman and the 72nd Tank Battalion made new forays into the enemy
lines on the 12th and again inflicted heavy casualties and wrought extensive damage to
the enemy rear areas. One platoon moved up the deep westward draw to a point almost
directly north of Hill 841 and slammed its effective, high velocity fire into the Chinese
bunkers on the reverse slopes of that enemy-held height.

The tanks of Task Force Sturman again concentrated on Hill 851 where the enemy had
resisted every effort of the 23rd Infantry to reach the crest.

As nightfall descended on the rugged peaks, the 23rd Infantry launched a night attack on
Hill 851. The North Koreans threw arcs of fire down the slopes, adding hand grenades
as the attackers pressed upward. The battle raged throughout the night and at 0530, the
First and French Battalions summoned their last reserves of strength and launched a
final assault on the crest. Digging upward in face of murderous enemy fire, they man-
aged to throw the defenders from their peak and by 0630 they were in possession of the
long-sought crest. For more than a month, the 23rd Infantry had battered against the en-
emy on this northernmost height of Heartbreak Ridge. Once it had been in their hands
for a few hours until a powerful counterattack forced them back. Now it was again in
their possession and this time it was theirs to keep.

Reconnaissance of Heartbreak Ridge after its capture revealed why it had been so hard
to take. Hill 931 itself was the center peak of three that were within small arms range of
each other. While continuing to hold it the enemy could put down well aimed and ob-
served fire on the neighboring two peaks. But what added even more to its strength for
the North Korean defenders was the fact that its slope on the eastern side facing the 2nd
Division troops was rocky and almost perpendicular for the last 250 to 300 yards. As-
cent by foot troops was necessarily slow. On the reverse or western side, the slope was
less steep and was of dirt. Into this slope, the enemy had dug his many bunkers of such
strength as to resist even a direct hit from our 105 mm howitzers. These bunkers, only
twenty five to thirty five yards from the topographical crest of the hill, were numerous
enough to provide complete protection to some 400 to 500 men.

228
During artillery or air bombardments, the enemy troops would leave their entrenchments
and communications trenches on the crest for the protection of their strong bunkers.
Yet, when the artillery or air attacks were lifted, they had ample time to return to their
positions before our troops could scale the last very steep and rocky 200 to 300 yards
on the attacking side.

Heartbreak Ridge had fallen but westward, the First Battalion of the 38th was unable to
take Hill 1220 despite the slugging fire support from the regimental tanks in the valley to
the north. The attackers dug-in for the night while the Netherlands Detachment, relieved
by the 9th Infantry, moved up behind to make the assault the next morning.

The Dutch troops moved out at first light against Hill 841, the peak flanking 974 to the
north, and against moderate resistance they were on the crest by 1430 hours.

Simultaneously, the First Battalion made another lunge up to Hill 1220 with fire from all
the supporting weapons in the regiment. By 1430 hours, the assault elements were
within 250 meters of the crest but further efforts to advance upward were repulsed and
the battalion dug-in for the night. The Third Battalion had moved up during the attack
and at dusk tied in with the First Battalion on the ridge line leading to 1220.

The first light of dawn was just appearing in the skies on 15 October when the Third
Battalion of the 38th Infantry passed through the blocking positions of the First Battalion
and moved out to take Hill 1220. Moderate resistance was encountered but by pressing
their attack under cover of heavy artillery fire support the attackers were on their objec-
tive by midafternoon and soon afterward the newly won hill was secure.

The fall of Hill 1220 brought the Indianhead Division abreast of a new line of defense.
Stretching from that peak in the west, it arched eastward across the now quiet peaks of
Heartbreak Ridge, Hill 1243, and thence into the northern rim of the Punchbowl.

The struggle to secure this new line had been one of the most vicious offensive actions
the 2nd Division had ever undertaken. The deeds which brought it to a close constituted
a shining chapter in the history of the United States Army.

The days following the end of Operation Touchdown were relatively quiet. Task Force
Sherman continued its end runs into enemy territory as did the 72nd Tank Battalion but
the main purpose of these strikes was to divert the enemy from the relief of the Division
which was begun on 20 October. Elements of the 7th US Division were already in the 2nd
Division area even as Heartbreak was falling. By 22 October they were entrenched in
the old positions of the 2nd Division and the men wearing the Indianhead patch were
headed southward in trucks for a well-earned and much-needed period of reserve after
103 days of continuous combat.

The period just completed was truly one of heartaches as well as of Heartbreaks, but
even more for the communists than us. The V North Korean Corps had been destroyed
and replaced by the 24th CCF Army. The II North Korean Corps had also been decimat-

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ed. On Heartbreak Ridge the 23rd Infantry had captured prisoners from six communist
regiments. And all of this was taking place during the period when the truce talks had
been suspended. Soon after these successes by the 2d Division, the communists
agreed to resume the truce talks.

The sacrifices could not have been in vain if they were the moving factor in convincing
the communists that their military defeat in battle was inevitable.

The autumn leaves were falling from the trees in the valleys north of Chunchon and
Kapyong when the convoys bearing the 2d Division rolled to a stop. Tents were pitched,
stoves were lit against the new cold, and plans were made for rugged training to bring
the Division once again to its peak of combat efficiency.

South in Pusan and southwest at Inchon, heavily loaded ships arrived daily bringing
new men to fill the ranks of the 2d Division. Waiting to occupy the berths on these now
outbound vessels were the men who had earned ten times over the right to return to
their homelands.

No one could say what the future had in store. The winds from North Korea brought the
first bite of winter and also the sounds of continued battle. The frost which covered the
ground in the early morning failed to hide the scars of war. Only the men around the
conference tables and those who guided them could make the final decisions. But the
men who trained from dawn to dusk and on into the night were preparing to give pointed
evidence to the negotiators that whatever the future held, the 2nd United States Infantry
Division was ready.

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 The New Crusades - Chapter 23

Kim Jong Il had to explode his little bomb, didn’t he? An early report said it was more
fizz than bang and measured the explosion as equal to 550 tons of TNT. Hiroshima was
13,000 tons of TNT, about 24 times more powerful. Nagasaki was even more powerful
at 21,000 tons – 38 times more powerful. My first thought was the rocket that exploded
30 seconds into its flight.

Up to the point of the terrorist bombings, those two bombs had been the only two ever
employed in a war. Throughout the Cold War, the 5 nuclear powers built their invento-
ries and 1 non-nuclear power did the same. South Africa built weapons and apparently
dismantled them. The next two nuclear powers were India and Pakistan, we still didn’t
count Israel. Then Iran and North Korea tried to become nuclear powers, raising the of-
ficial total to 9 + 1. The way I heard it, Saudi Arabia bought 3 and Iran also bought
some, using their nuclear development program as a cover.

That made 8 official nuclear powers and 3 unofficial nuclear powers, Israel, Saudi Ara-
bia and Iran. Considering the state of the North Korean economy, the greatest fear was
that they would build and sell weapons to terrorists. The same concern had been voiced
over Iran; and of course, Israel didn’t have nuclear weapons. Syria and Lebanon had to
push the issue and attack Israel. Israel responded with conventional weapons, not want-
ing to let the Genie out of the bottle.

Eventually some of those nuclear weapons made it to the US and we lost 7 cities. If that
wasn’t enough, WW III went hot and we found ourselves in Fredonia, Arizona shooting
Muslims extremists taking a shortcut to Salt Lake City. We won, they lost and I was no
longer a combat virgin, which is not the same as a combat veteran. One firefight doesn’t
make a person a veteran, that’s takes several I’d have been perfectly happy not to have
become a veteran, especially at my age. Wish in one hand and spit in the other and see
which one fills the fastest.

The only thing I couldn’t figure out was how they were getting around in all the snow. It
wasn’t as bad as the previous year although we had plenty. The upside of the snow was
that it would probably melt slowly and refill the aquifers, we needed it. I was faced with a
problem, the battery in my wheelchair died. Naturally, I added it to the list for our first
spring shopping trip. I also inventoried our medical supplies and we had burned through
our prescription drugs despite having raided pharmacies. We needed more antibiotics,
not everyone had come through the firefight without a scratch. We had 2 dead and 7
wounded. However, we had some drugs and medical professionals to care for our
wounded and they all survived.

But, one man lost a leg and would need a wheelchair too. If we could get me a tactical
wheelchair, from Kansas or anywhere, I’d take it and give him mine, complete with a
new battery. However, that would wait for spring and in the meantime, he’d have to
build his muscles using a conventional wheelchair.

231
Twice more during the course of the winter a Red Alert call went out. Twice more we
turned out and defended Fredonia against people who insisted on using the shortcut to
I-15. One group was a group of Mexicans, possibly from the Nation of Aztlán. The other
group all seemed to be Seven-Eleven employees, ergo, Iranians. I can assure you they
had one thing in common with the first group, they were 6’ under. We lost 7 killed in the
attack by the NOA and 4 killed in the attack of the Seven-Eleven employees. They were
probably looking for more potato chips and beer.

It wasn’t like people hadn’t been warned. We have disasters all of the time, all that
changes is the degree. An F-2 tornado isn’t nearly the size of a F-5 and a category 4
hurricane doesn’t happen every day, but both happen. Kalifornia is earthquake heaven,
they have several every day. In the spring, we get floods and in the winter, severe win-
ter storms, any one of which can take out your power and prevent you from getting
needed fuel for your furnace. We’ve been getting ready for a nuclear war since Russia
exploded it first nuclear weapon.

I also wondered if they were still working on building CVN-21, formally named CVN-78
Gerald Ford. The George H. W. Bush was the last of the Nimitz class, but it was hybrid,
testing many of the new systems to be included in the Ford. Probably not, but I would
have liked to see that ship. The lead ship in the class was supposed to use electromag-
netic launchers replacing the current launch system. The new system made the air-
planes last longer.

I’m one man who can’t be accused of discrimination, I dislike everyone. I don’t like Ira-
nians, but my doctor in Kalifornia was from Iran. I don’t care for Mexicans because they
won’t speak English (although most of them can) and I really don’t like gangsters of any
persuasion. I’ve had a Muslim friend, a Hispanic friend, a Black friend, a Jewish friend, a
Japanese friend and yes, Virginia, even a Canadian friend.

However, that doesn’t mean that I like Iran, Venezuela, Somalia, the current leader of
Israel or even the former Prime Minister of Canada. I tried to learn Spanish and French,
but never got past Como se llama or merci. Hell, I don’t even speak British English;
you’ll have to settle for Iowa English. I did like Tony Blair and even Dubya. In a distant
way, I’m, the Billy Mitchell of preparedness, except a few people believed me and pre-
pared. That didn’t necessarily mean they bought a M1A rifle or even a M1911, but a
SKS will kill you just as dead. Buying a M1A rifle is a very pricey affair; you have to be in
love with the rifle to spend $1,760 for the next to bottom model, the Loaded. But wait,
there’s more to the Billy Mitchell bit. In the movie, The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell,
Gary Cooper played Billy Mitchell and I was named after Gary Cooper. Some of you
might not know who he was, he died in 1961. Think High Noon.

We had seen neither hide nor hair of the government, which depending upon one’s
viewpoint could be good or bad. If you were waiting for them to rescue you, it was bad
and you’re illiterate or had never heard of New Orleans. On the other hand, if you been

232
salvaging, especially from a military depot, maybe it was just as well, they’d probably
want their machine guns back. They couldn’t have them, they were salvage and the rule
is: finders – keepers. I suppose we could give them the bullets back, one at a time.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – In Alaska’s native villages, the punishing winter cold is
already penetrating the walls of the lightly insulated plywood homes, many of the villag-
ers are desperately poor, and heating-oil prices are among the highest in the nation.

And yet a few of the small communities want to refuse free heating oil from Venezuela,
on the patriotic principle that no foreigner has the right to call their president the devil.

The heating oil is being offered by the petroleum company controlled by Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez, President Bush’s nemesis. While scores of Alaska’s Eskimo
and Indian villages say they have no choice but to accept, others would rather suffer.

“As a citizen of this country, you can have your own opinion of our president and our
country. But I don’t want a foreigner coming in here and bashing us,” said Justine
Gunderson, administrator for the tribal council in the Aleut village of Nelson Lagoon.

“Even though we’re in economically dire straits, it was the right choice to make.”

Nelson Lagoon residents pay more than $5 a gallon for oil – or at least $300 a month
per household – to heat their homes along the wind-swept coast of the Bering Sea,
where temperatures can dip to minus 15. About one-quarter of the 70 villagers are look-
ing for work, in part because Alaska’s salmon fishing industry has been hit hard by
competition from fish farms.

The donation to Alaska’s native villages has focused attention on the rampant poverty
and high fuel prices in a state that is otherwise awash in oil – and oil profits. In 2005, 86
percent of the Alaska’s general fund, or $2.8 billion, came from oil from the North Slope.

The Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, a native nonprofit organization that would
have handled the heating oil donation on behalf of 291 households in Nelson Lagoon,
Atka, St. Paul and St. George, rejected the offer because of the insults Chavez has
hurled at Bush.

Chavez called Bush the devil in a speech to the United Nations last month. He has also
called the president a terrorist and denounced the war in Iraq.

Dimitri Philemonof, president and chief executive of the association, said accepting the
aid would be “compromising ourselves.” “I think we have some duty to our country, and I
think it’s loyalty,” he said.

233
Over the past two years, Citgo, the Venezuelan government’s Texas-based oil subsidi-
ary, has given millions of gallons of discounted heating oil to the poor in several states
and cities – including New York, Connecticut, Vermont, Rhode Island, Maine and
Massachusetts – in what is widely seen as an effort by Chavez to embarrass and irritate
the US government and make himself look good.

Maine Gov. John Baldacci, who approved an agreement last winter to buy discounted
oil, said he had no plans this year to seek a similar arrangement. In Boston, Massachu-
setts, a City Council member wants a landmark Citgo sign near Fenway Park taken
down and replaced with an American flag. In Florida, a lawmaker asked the state to
cancel Citgo’s exclusive contract to sell fuel at turnpike service stations.

About 150 native villages in Alaska have accepted money for heating oil from Citgo. The
oil company does not operate in Alaska, so instead of sending oil, it is donating about
$5.3 million to native nonprofit organizations to buy 100 gallons this winter for each of
more than 12,000 households.

“When you have a dire need and it is a matter of survival for your people, it doesn’t mat-
ter where, what country, the gift or donation comes from,” said Virginia Commack, an
elder in the arctic village of Ambler, an impoverished Eskimo community of 280 where
residents are paying $7.25 a gallon for fuel.

For years, Alaska natives have accused the state and federal governments of sending
too little money to their tiny, far-flung communities, where fuel and grocery prices are
bloated by the high costs of delivery by plane and barge.

An editorial last month in the Anchorage Daily News bashed the Legislature’s rejection
in March of an $8.8 million state supplement to a federal program that helps poor Alas-
kans with home heating costs.

“It’s embarrassing that residents in a state with so much oil wealth should be looking to
a foreign nation for help,” the newspaper said. “It’s hard to blame villagers for accepting
the gift.”

A spokesman for Gov. Frank Murkowski, John Manly, said the governor believes
Chavez’s donation is a ploy to undermine Americans’ faith in their government. But he
said it is up to each village to make its own decision.

“It seems like a very strange irony that we produce the oil and yet every year there
seems to be a chronic problem in getting the fuel to people that need it,” Manly said.
Joan Eddy, principal and teacher at Nelson Lagoon’s school, said most buildings in
town were erected 30 to 40 years ago, which makes them pretty old, considering how
they get battered by the constant 20-25 mph wind coming off the ocean. Their heating
systems are aging, too.

234
She noted the fuel barge is late arriving this year, and said residents are turning on their
furnaces for only a few hours in the morning and at night.

“We’re conserving as much as we can because we are concerned. It looks like it’s going
to be a snowy winter and cold,” she said.

There are still some patriots left in the country, even if they’re Eskimos. Which only goes
to show that not everyone can be bought off by cheap oil.

235
 The New Crusades – Epilog

(CNN) – UN Security Council members will resume closed-door discussions Tuesday of

US-proposed sanctions against North Korea over its claimed nuclear test.

The resumption of talks at the United Nations comes as America’s lead negotiator on
North Korean issues urged sanctions that are tough enough to show North Korean
leader Kim Jong Il that he made a “very, very costly” mistake if a test was indeed carried
out.

“He is going to really rue the day that he made this decision,” said Assistant Secretary
of State Chris Hill Monday in an interview with CNN.

The US proposals include cargo inspections and an embargo on goods that could be
used in Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear programs.

North Korea’s announcement triggered widespread international condemnation and set

off alarm bells in neighboring capitals.

On Tuesday, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said his country would reconsider
its policy of engagement with the North, according to a report from the Reuters news
service.

Australia said it would impose various measures on North Korea, including curtailing vi-
sas and supporting any UN sanctions. Japan said it was weighing stricter economic
sanctions against its isolated neighbor.

Even close North Korea ally China signaled its dismay by telling a visiting South Korean
envoy that Beijing appears ready to drop opposition to tough UN sanctions.

“China seems to have a different position than it had before on a Chapter 7 resolution,”
South Korea’s nuclear envoy Chun Young-woo told The Associated Press.

However, a North Korean official said Pyongyang would return to international arms
talks and abandon its atomic program if the US takes “corresponding measures,” South
Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported Tuesday.

On Monday, after speaking with the leaders of China, South Korea, Russia and Japan,
US President George W. Bush condemned what he termed a “provocative act” – and
bluntly warned North Korea against trying to export its nuclear know-how.

The president said he assured the leaders of Japan and South Korea, both close US
allies, that the United States “will meet the full range of our deterrent and security com-
mitments” to them. However, Bush insisted the United States “remains committed to di-
plomacy” to settle the dispute.

236
Analysis shows small explosion

Meanwhile, scientific analysis of an explosion, which North Korea said was a successful
nuclear test, raised questions about the claim.

The apparent nuclear test was conducted at 10:36 am Monday in Hwaderi near Kilju
city, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported citing defense officials.

US, French and South Korean experts estimated that the power of the explosion, about
240 miles northeast of Pyongyang, was equivalent to about 500 metric tons of TNT,
which a senior U.S. intelligence community official said was unusually small for a nucle-
ar blast.

By comparison, nuclear tests in 1998 by India and Pakistan were about 24 to 50 times
as powerful, according to the Federation of American Scientists.

Also, the small size of Monday’s explosion may make it difficult for geological sensors to
pick up radioactive emissions that would effectively confirm a nuclear test – raising the
possibility that the international community may never know for sure whether North Ko-
rea actually has a working nuclear bomb.

Despite the ambiguity, Hill said US officials “have to work under the assumption that
North Korea did what it said it was doing” and push for a tough sanctions resolution at
the UN Security Council.

“We’re just not going to accept that North Korea, with its starving population, is going to
be able to join the nuclear club,” Hill said. “We’re going to work very hard to make sure
North Korea understands the cost of this.”

North Korea recently has test-fired seven missiles, including a long-range ballistic mis-
sile in July, but it’s unknown whether Pyongyang possesses the high-technology exper-
tise to construct a nuclear device small enough for a missile delivery system.

US Security Council debate sanctions

The Security Council Monday unanimously condemned North Korea’s announcement,

and diplomats began hashing out the details of a sanctions resolution.

A draft proposed by the United States calls for an international embargo on any goods
or materials that could be used in North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs, as well
as inspections of cargo going into and out of the country.

237
It would also prohibit financial transactions that might support missile activities, freeze
assets related to North Korea’s weapons program, impose a ban on luxury goods and
take steps to prevent counterfeiting by the Pyongyang regime.

The sanctions would be approved under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which would
make them binding on all UN members.

In addition, Japan has proposed denying North Korean ships and planes permission to
travel outside the country, banning imports of North Korean products and a prohibiting
international travel by high-level North Korean officials.

While senior US officials said there appeared to be “substantial” support for “strong
sanctions,” it remains unclear whether Russia and China – which hold veto power on
the Security Council and have voiced opposition to U.N. sanctions on Iran for its nuclear
program – would go along with a tough punishment for North Korea.

The US ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, said the early reaction by Rus-
sia and China to the strong US approach was “positive.”

“I think they were taken by surprise by this test,” Bolton said. “I think they realize how
unacceptable this is.”

China role seen as critical

Hill said the US view is that China – as North Korea’s neighbor and long-time patron –
will be key to getting a meaningful sanctions regime passed, and he expressed opti-
mism that could happen, given the strongly worded rebuke the Chinese government of-
fered after North Korea’s announcement.

“China is clearly, clearly upset,” Hill said. “The Chinese have indicated they’re going to
work with us in New York, and we’ll see what we get. But I think we can get something
that will be far more than just some sort of angry letter. I can assure you of that.”
However, Hill stressed that the United States would be working with the international
community on a response and would not act unilaterally.

North Korea’s UN ambassador, Pak Kil-yon, said Monday that the council should “con-
gratulate” his country’s scientists and researchers on their achievement, instead of issu-
ing what he called “notorious, useless and reckless resolutions.”

Pak said the test was “very, very successful” and will contribute “to the maintenance
and guarantee of peace and security in the (Korean) peninsula and the region.”

238
I was glad those Seven-Eleven employees showed, it’s pretty hard to have a one-sided
Crusade. A natural born hero like me would probably get shot in the butt and that would
ruin my image. I guess that’s why the Corps didn’t tell the real story of the Mayaguez
incident. You can look it up on Wiki, but what you’ll see is that the mission was rushed
and when the Marines evacuated, they left 3 alive Marines behind. It wasn’t intentional,
rather a miscommunication, but those Marines didn’t die well.

If they weren’t coming to you, I suggested we try and find them, it would improve our
odds considerably and we did have 2 good sniper rifles, the Super Match and the Tac-
50. We also had all that stuff that my boys recovered from the Navajo Depot, this might
be fun, assuming we didn’t get killed. With Derek having done his tour in Iraq, I just as-
sumed he might have some ideas for dealing with al Qaeda trained Muslim extremists.
Not only were some of them trained, they read American newspapers before TSHTF,
and we’d really have to be on our toes.

We discussed it at length and decided to drive back to Kalifornia and look around Glen-
dale and Burbank. Someone had to get the war started and it was easy to blame Mus-
lim Extremists, I was convinced they’d bombed the cities. It wasn’t bad enough they
moved here, they had to convert Americans like Adam Yahiye Gadahn, 28-year-old Cal-
ifornia native Nicknamed “Azzam the American”.

I told John we were going hunting, if he wanted to assume we were hunting for deer or
elk that was fine with me. I was pretty sure if we told what we were hunting, he’d object.
There were considerations about going into a nuclear fallout zone; we took KIO3 for the
radioactive iodine-131 and some pharmaceutical grade Prussian blue to help us elimi-
nate any cesium-137. Since the Prussian blue could cause constipation, we took a few
packages of Bisacodyl, a laxative along. The KIO3 protects you by packing your thyroid
with iodine while the Prussian blue is used to treat thallium poisoning and radio cesium
poisoning. It works by combining with thallium and radio cesium in the intestines. The
combination is then removed from the body through the stools. By removing the thallium
or radio cesium, the medicine lessens damage to your body’s organs and tissues.

One thing a person could do was to wear either a gas mask or perhaps an N-100 dust
mask. If you didn’t ingest the cesium-137, it couldn’t hurt you. Caesium-137 is a radio-
active isotope which is formed mainly by nuclear fission. It has a half-life of 30.23 years,
and decays by pure beta to a metastable nuclear isomer of barium-137. Barium-137 has
a half-life of 2.55 minutes and is responsible for all of the gamma ray emission. The
ground state of barium-137 is stable. Small amounts of Cs-134 and Cs-137 were re-
leased into the environment during nuclear weapon tests and some nuclear accidents,
most notably the Chernobyl disaster. As of 2005, Cs-137 is the principal source of radia-
tion in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl power plant. Together with caesium-
134, iodine-131, and strontium-90, it was between the most important isotopes regard-
ing health impacts after the reactor explosion.

What started out to be a ‘good’ idea quickly proved to be a nightmare. When we arrived
in Needles, the Kalifornia Department of Agriculture had the inspection stations manned

239
with guards carrying M16s. It was right out of ‘Grapes of Wrath’ and we couldn’t get in.
They didn’t seem to be stopping anyone leaving, just those who wanted in.

“Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.”

In case you’re wondering, that where John Steinbeck got the title of his book. I had seen
a saying on the forum and saw a Latin expression. I was curious what it meant and
looked it up.

Si jeunesse savait, si vieillesse pouvait – If love can kill people, hatred can also save
them – right, we’ll hug them to death.

We went back to Fredonia and sat down to wait for them to come to us. It was hard to
say who ‘them’ might be, these were hard times and once in a while, I pick up a report
of another town being grabbed, the men killed, the women and teenaged girls being
abused and some of the teen aged boys as well. We set off to the towns but always ar-
rived after the marauders had left. I pinned a map on the wall and began adding pins to
track the movements of the group, just like the guy did on that TV show, Jericho. While
they didn’t appear to be heading directly to Fredonia, we were in their general direction
of travel.

Before TSHTF, a friend pointed out, ‘see how much your life is becoming like your sto-
ries’. I wrote back, ‘God, I hope not’. That’s what I get for being a Methodist, God wasn’t
listening. I took his advice and got the heck out of the PRK. He went to a place to buy
wheat and it was nearly $14 per 50 pound bag. Australia’s wheat harvest in 2006 had
been down to about half the previous year. I had written about the rice crop in Louisiana
in a previous story pointing out that because of Katrina, much of the rice growing area
was flooded.

Late in 2006, the weather was awful with 2’ of snow in Buffalo, NY on October 13th. The
sun was shining in Palmdale. I’ll bet that no one in Buffalo thought that 6 weeks later
terrorists would strike seven major US cities. Back at that time, we were busting our
butts because if wasn’t a question of IF, only WHEN. Surprise, surprise, surprise, we
weren’t expecting anything on Black Friday except to do a little shopping.

We all know that BOB is a Bug out Bag, but, did you know it’s also called a GOOD bag
for Get Out Of Dodge? The day before that snowstorm, one of the news stations, prob-
ably Fox, had a piece about evacuating major cities, including all of the seven cities the
terrorists hit. Exit Capacity is an estimate of the ability of routes leading out of the urban
area to accommodate the evacuating population. The evaluation standard is a 12-hour

240
theoretical exit route capacity or a 50 percent capacity with full use of contra-flow opera-
tions (all lanes in the outward direction).

GRADE: A
1 Kansas City 90.0

GRADE: B
2 Columbus 82.3
3 Memphis 80.5
4 Pittsburgh 80.4

GRADE: C
5 Indianapolis 79.2
6 Cincinnati 79.0
7 Cleveland 74.5
8 Orlando 74.1
9 San Antonio 73.5
10 St. Louis 70.6
11 Dallas-Fort Worth 70.5

GRADE: D
12 New Orleans 67.3
13 Austin 66.2
14 Providence 65.9
15 Milwaukee 65.2
16 Baltimore 62.6
17 Sacramento 60.3

GRADE: F
18 Denver 59.8
19 Tampa-St. Petersburg 58.9
20 Virginia Beach 57.4
21 Houston 54.8
22 Boston 49.4
22 Philadelphia 49.4
24 Atlanta 48.1
25 Portland 47.7
26 Minneapolis-St. Paul 47.5
27 Las Vegas 47.4
28 Detroit 47.3
29 Washington 44.9
30 Phoenix 43.6
31 Seattle 39.9
32 San Diego 37.8
33 San Francisco-San Jose 37.2
34 Miami 36.9

241
35 New York 31.5
36 Chicago 28.0
37 Los Angeles 25.6

I’m inclined to ask, where do YOU live? New York City, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Chi-
cago, Miami, Washington DC and Boston all failed, and that presumed an organized
evacuation using maximum exit capacity.

I can report one thing, when it came, we were barely ready. Think in terms of the film on
your teeth, that’s how ill prepared we were. Still, we were better off than most of the
people in Palmdale. In Fredonia, it was more even; many of those Mormons actually fol-
lowed the Church’s teachings. You probably would too if you were a long way from a
major city. I still wanted to go hunt down some Muslims but Derek suggest I wait, if all I
wanted to do was shoot someone stay home, they’d come to us.

“Are you sure?”

“Damn right I am.”

“What’s going on, you don’t cuss?”

“How could you stand to live in that place?”

“Where?”

“The People’s Republik of Kalifornia?”

“Actually, I didn’t plan on staying there. But then we bought the house and more or less
got trapped. When I went running around, Sharon took a loan on our paid for house to
fix the place up.”

“Did it need it?”

“Yes and no. It needed some repairs but it didn’t need the kitchen remodeled. Then, af-
ter I got back we were behind the eight ball, but I held out.

“But you refinanced it right?”

“Yeah, when the interest rate got down to 6% we did and took out more money to get us
out behind the 8 ball.”

“But you got behind the 8 ball again.”

242
“Well yeah, my prescriptions cost a grand a month and I couldn’t get samples for every-
thing and we just got behind. After the terrorist attack there was a bit of a housing short-
age and we were able to bail out.”

“Why did you come here? This place is in the middle of nowhere.”

“Think about what you just said, Derek. That’s what I wanted, out of Kalifornia and out in
the middle of nowhere so when the inevitable happened we were unlikely to have to put
up with bad guys.”

“What went wrong?”

“I didn’t realized that Alt 89 was a shortcut to I-15. A friend recommended this town and
told me to emphasize I was from Iowa and not from the PRK.”

“Well, I guess you could have done worse.”

“Kid I’ve written almost 50 stories and let me tell you, no matter where you pick to live
you going to have some people who’d rather steal than work for a living. This gardening
and farming is nothing but hard work. Then you end up riding a horse named Salina and
pray she doesn’t run away with you.”

“Get a different horse.”

“It wouldn’t matter, they all know I’m afraid of horses, I think they can smell the fear.”

“Then don’t ride a horse.”

“Our supply of fuel isn’t unlimited until we can start producing biodiesel, so I guess for
now I don’t have a lot of choice. Even then, the vehicles will eventually wear out and we
won’t be able to get parts. I think what I really need is a buggy, like Doc Adams used on
Gunsmoke.”

“Fine, we’ll find you one. Will that solve the problem?”

“It will if you can figure out how to equip it with a gun rack and get a deaf horse to pull
it.”

“Why a deaf horse?”

“So it won’t bolt if I have to fire a gun.”

“How many guns do you want in your gun rack?”

“All of them and plenty of ammo for each.”

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“We may have to get you something bigger than a regular buggy if you want to carry all
of that.”

“Whatever, just work it out and I don’t want a team, just a single horse, maybe a large
draft horse. It doesn’t have to be an antique either, just something big enough for Sha-
ron and me and our firearms.”

“How about a wagon?”

“Fine, and be sure it’s equipped with some kind of radio.”

“Where are you going?”

“Just from here to town.”

“You have Spearheads, will they do?”

“Sure.”

We ended up with 2, a small wagon with a gun rack and rain cover plus a sleigh, also
with a gun rack and snow cover. It was a bending of technology, some very current and
some from a century before. That was also an apt description of my guns because I had
guns whose technology and cartridges covered a span of 100 years.

That was how we managed to survive WW III and the preceding terrorist attacks. Over
time, the government got itself organized and was able to assemble and distribute food
and later fuel. It came in spurts at first, but later they organized regular deliveries. I think
they must have thought we were Amish when they pulled in at first, most were riding
horses or riding in buggies. We didn’t have a large supply of razor blades and most of
the men grew beards. Our clothes were mostly homemade by then because the store
bought clothes had worn out.

© 2011, Gary D. Ott

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