Captain Thornton’s company had been ordered to move through Riverside and destroy any enemy forces they encountered. The 3/3 was moving to secure the road junctions just beyond the city of Corona leading in to the LA basin. The Japanese forces in the area had put up stiff resistance as the Marines moved forward, forcing them to fight block-to-block in some areas, and leveling buildings in others. It was dirty close quarter combat that had not been seen on the streets of America before. Fortunately, some neighborhoods had also banned together, using their own personal firearms to attack the Japanese soldiers (who had not anticipated the population being so heavily armed with their own assault rifles). This unfortunately also led to a lot of civilians being killed by enemy soldiers, who were not taking any chances.
The Marines would have moved through the area faster; however, the cruise missile attack had destroyed a large part of the Marines air support elements, forcing them to have to fight with limited air support. The Marines had also lost two battalions of tanks and wolverines just north of Riverside on the San Bernardino freeway. Several other major freeways had been destroyed by Japanese demolition experts, forcing many of the Marine armored units and foot soldiers to have to move through various side streets going through many of the smaller cities leading to LA. To further compound the problem, many civilians who were being caught up in the fighting were now trying to flee eastward, heading away from the battles, further clogging up the road system the Marines were trying to use to bring in additional reinforcements to attack the Chinese and Japanese already in the area.
To their credit, the Japanese forces fighting the Marines were giving ground as needed while doing what they could to slow the Marines progress. They did not want to get caught up in fights they could not win. Their only goal was to buy time for additional forces to arrive and to be offloaded in the ports. As hundreds of thousands of people began to escape the city, it quickly became nearly impossible for the Marines to move enough of their heavy forces to the front lines to begin recapturing LAX and the ports, which were being used to ferry in thousands upon thousands of enemy reinforcements.
One if by Land, Two if by Sea
Rear Admiral Michael Stonebridge was the youngest Admiral in the Navy at just 41 years of age. He had distinguished himself as the Captain of one of two American ships that had survived the nuclear attack against the American Fifth Fleet by the Islamic Republic in the Gulf of Aiden at the outset of the war. His guided missile cruiser had sustained heavy damage, but also managed to destroy six IR naval vessels, including two submarines. During the fighting, they shot down 84 missiles and destroyed 31 enemy drones. After being hit by four enemy anti-ship missiles and sustaining heavy casualties, they were forced to limp away along with the lone surviving destroyer (which had also sustained heavy damage). It took nearly fourteen hours to control the fires that threatened to send their ship to the bottom of the ocean. Stonebridge’s leadership was definitely one of the key reasons that so many of his sailors had survived that confrontation. Upon returning to the U.S., Captain Stonebridge had been awarded a purple heart (with V device for valor) and the Medal of Honor. He was also promoted to Rear Admiral for his heroic defense of the Fifth Fleet.
Several months later, as a newly minted Admiral, his task force assisted the HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales in the fighting against the Russian Navy in the North Atlantic and the North Sea as they attempted to push forward and disrupt the supply lines to Europe. Admiral Stonebridge’s task force of guided missile cruisers and three Zumwalt-guided missile destroyers helped to defeat a Russian surface fleet in the North Atlantic as the Russians tried to push past the NATO fleet between Iceland and the Faroe Islands. The French carrier that had been a part of the task force, the Charles de Gaulle, was destroyed during the engagement, and the HMS Queen Elizabeth had been severely damaged. Admiral Stonebridge was awarded his second purple heart after this skirmish; his ship had been hit by several cruise missiles during the fray, and he broke his left arm and lost a finger on that left hand. He had also received the Navy Cross for his actions during the Battle of the Faroe Islands; because the NATO forces managed to hold the line, the Russians had not been able to break out into the Atlantic, giving the Allies a huge win.
After recovering from his wounds, Admiral Stonebridge was given his second star and given command of CSG-12, arguably America’s most powerful strike group. Admiral Stonebridge was a dynamic leader and not afraid to get his hands dirty. He could often be found in the flight maintenance deck helping the mechanics conduct routine maintenance on the drones or mentoring young seamen and junior non-commissioned officers during weekly professional development training. He was a sailors’ sailor and cared about the men and women he was commanding.
Admiral Stonebridge’s work had now brought him to be stationed on the USS New York, just off the coast of Virginia. As he sat at his station, reviewing some emails on his tablet, the captain of the ship, Captain Baker, walked briskly up to Admiral Stonebridge to bring him the latest personnel report. “Admiral, we are still missing about 223 people with only an hour left before we pull out of port. What do you want to do about the missing men?” It was a question he asked rather facetiously, having already resolved to leave them behind if they missed the deadline.
“Under normal circumstances, I would leave them behind and write them up for missing the recall. However, we were not scheduled to leave for another six more days and most people have been on leave for the holidays. I still want the fleet to pull out of port and begin to head towards the canal; then we can dispatch several helicopters and aircraft standing by here in Norfolk to fly the missing individuals out to the fleet as they continue to arrive. We are going to need everyone for this mission.”
Captain Baker had not expected that response. He found that his mouth had kind of hung open while the Admiral spoke. He quickly checked his facial expression and then nodded in agreement. “Yes sir.”
“Are the contractors still coming with us?” asked Stonebridge. The fleet still had several technical systems that needed to be completed before the ships were technically ready for combat, and the navy had enlisted civilians to help speed up the repair process in order to get things rolling.
“Every contractor that was working on the ships has agreed to accompany us to Panama, and directly into combat if we need them. They all want some payback for what the Japanese just did to our forces.”
A broad grin spread across the Admiral’s face, “Excellent, Captain. When we get underway, I want the defense systems run through their paces, and make sure we are not going to have any further issues with them. We are going to need them soon.”
Captain Baker could see that Admiral Stonebridge kept glancing down at his tablet, so he left him alone to finish up his emails while he went back to getting the ship ready to leave.
Once he finished getting his Christmas message written, the Admiral moved down to his quarters, where the media team was waiting for him. He wanted to get a video pre-recorded now rather than giving it live. Once the ship was out to sea, he was going to need to hold a series of meetings with various department commanders within the ship and the fleet as a whole; he was going to have to hit the ground running.