Jim sighed before responding, “I appreciate the offer… maybe. You know the President has been pretty adamant about making sure special favors are not being pulled for senior officials and their family members. I would hate for him to find out I had my grandson’s unit pulled for my own selfish reasons,” he said.
“He certainly has not been making friends with the ultra-wealthy and politically connected people in the country. He had me personally ensure that every member of the Congress and Senate who has an eligible son or daughter was drafted and placed in a line unit. During one of our planning meetings, he said this would be unpopular but he was determined that every eligible citizen, including the wealthy and politically connected, must serve in this war. You should see the emails and phone calls I get from some of my friends who still work in banking and business. They all ask if I can get their son or daughter a deferment or at least ensure they won’t see combat.”
“What do you tell them?” asked Jim. He was curious now.
“I tell them what the President told me; everyone must serve, especially the wealthy and politically connected who have benefited so much from our country. The President promised that this war would not be fought on the backs of the low and middle class of the country.”
“I’ll bet that goes over really well,” said Jim as he chuckled.
An aide walked up to Jim and Eric and asked if they could please join the President and his staff in the library again. They both got up and followed him back into the mansion and to the library.
“Secretary Clarke, Secretary Jordan, please come join us for a drink, a toast if you will. We have discussed your offer, and though some of my ministers and advisors disagree, we have come to the conclusion that you are right. It is time for South America to do their part and join the Allies. We also want to thank you for choosing Brazil to head up the Coalition. We are honored to be a part of this chapter of the world and on the side of the Americans and those who love Freedom,” President Rousseff said with a smile on his face as he raised a glass of champagne.
The Secretaries of State and Defense flew on to meet with the Argentinians, Peruvians, Chileans and Columbians, gaining their acceptance to join the Coalition and participate in the newly created South American Expeditionary Force (SAEF). In time, this expeditionary force would swell to a little over one million soldiers and could grow significantly larger if need be. It would take close to ten full months before this new army was ready to deploy.
Crash Course
Gunnery Sergeant Thornton had just finished cleaning his M5 AIR when one of his junior sergeants walked into the tent with a handful of new replacements. “Sergeant Thornton, I was on my way back from headquarters when I was told these ten Marines were our replacements. This is Corporal Lewis; he’s the senior guy with the replacements. The rest are outside the tent, if you want to speak with them,” Sergeant Miller said, introducing the corporal to his new platoon sergeant.
Sergeant Thornton sat there for a moment, looking over the corporal and trying to mentally assess him. “Corporal Lewis, have you or any of the other guys with you seen any combat?”
“No, Sergeant. I’m a reservist; the rest of the guys are either fresh from boot camp or were working some sort of non-infantry positions before we were all shipped out,” Corporal Lewis said, knowing that was not the answer Sergeant Thornton was hoping to hear.
“I appreciate your candor Corporal. Take a seat and I’ll bring you up to speed a bit before handing you off to one of the other sergeants. I’m going to filter you replacements evenly among the squads. I’m not sure if you know or not, but our platoon had a 63 % casualty rate. We were part of the first wave to hit the Suez, and then we spent the next three weeks fighting the IR north of Eilat.” Corporal Lewis’s face looked nervous, and a bit scared. Sergeant Thornton remembered that same look on his own face, right before they left the troop carrier for the Suez.
“The most important thing that I can tell you is to stay alert and listen to those who have been here longer. These IR guys are not taking any prisoners, and neither are we. They attack in massive human waves when they do attack, so be ready when that happens. Now they say we are facing the Chinese. Well, I’ve never fought the Chinese before, so I can’t give you any words of wisdom with them. Just remember your training; fight like a man possessed, and remember, there is no surrender. They will crucify you,” Sergeant Thornton said in an icy tone. He could see on the face of Corporal Lewis that he was still digesting what he had been told and did not care for it one bit.
“Word has it we are going to be moving back to the frontlines around midnight. There is supposed to be a possible Chinese assault sometime tomorrow, so they want us to reinforce the Israeli positions. Once you get to your assigned squad, get your fire team ready for action and try to grab a couple of hours of sleep. If you have any further questions, ask your squad sergeant; he’ll provide you with whatever information he knows,” Sergeant Thornton concluded. He dismissed the newly arrived Corporal, who was still in a state of bewilderment.
By 0500 the following morning, Gunnery Sergeant Thornton’s platoon had been filtered into a short network of trenches and foxholes that the Israelis were using. His group of fifty-four Marines had been integrated into an Israeli company holding this part of the Eilat line in the ruins of Aqaba (most of the city of Aqaba had been turned into rubble with the back and forth fighting between the Israelis, Marines and IR forces). When the Chinese had attacked, the allied forces fell back to the ruins and turned them into a defensive network and trap to prevent the Chinese from moving into Eilat or the rest of Southern Israel.
At 0530, the Chinese began to bombard the ruins of the city and the allied positions with artillery and rocket fire. The explosions were kicking up a storm of dust and smoke; however, through the haze, Gunny Thornton could see Chinese infantry units moving forwards towards their lines. When his eyes focused a little harder, he could make out that the advancing infantry was fortunately not equipped with the new exoskeleton combat suits; he breathed a sigh of relief knowing that at least they were going up against the regular PLA infantry. Those suits would have given the advancing horde a huge physical and technical advantage over the Allies; luckily, only a limited number of the Chinese Naval Infantry units had them, and so far they had only been used in the Pacific. Gunny Thornton found himself wishing that he had an exoskeleton suit; rumor had it that the Army and Marines were going to be bringing their own suits to the fight soon.
Thornton began issuing orders to the rest of his men. “Standby to engage the enemy. We need to wait until the new targets have been acquired in our HUDs.”
The Gunny linked the images his heat imaging scope identified with his HUD so that the rest of the platoon could see what he was seeing.
Grabbing the attention of the appropriate Israeli counterpart, he instructed, “There is a pending infantry attack. Follow our lead when we start to engage the enemy; since you guys don’t have the HUDs; we will be showing you where the targets are.” Although the IDF was starting to receive the same HUD and M5 AIRs that the US was using, not all of the units had them yet.
“Acknowledged,” was the only reply. This particular IDF fighter was not exactly the conversational type.