Updated! New Chapters 5-7 now posted.
Chapter 1 – The Fall
Jack always talked about something like this happening. For years he said it but none of his coworkers or his family ever listen to him. His kids always thought the things that he did were cool but never took it really seriously. But now, unfortunately he was vindicated.
He never wanted this to happen. But he knew it would. It was inevitable. The economy was going down the tubes and nobody could do anything about it. Domino after Domino fell. First it was the euro. Germany bailed out Greece and for a while it looked like everything was to be okay. Then the worst happened, terrorists detonated an atomic bomb in London. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed or injured.
That was on a Saturday, on Monday the stock market began to spiral out of control. The automatic stops kicked in and limited the sell off to 619 points. The next 19 days the New York Stock Exchange only managed to stay open for no longer than one hour. The shock of this was felt around the world.
Everything ground to a halt. The value of the dollar dropped so fast that retailers started making up prices as they went. The last time Jack went to the store to get last-minute supplies a fight broke out at the checkout counter over the cost of a bag of rice. The price rang up $213. You could see the initial sadness in the man's face turn to anger. He threw down $40 and picked up the bag and started leaving the store mumbling something about how ridiculous that was. By this time however, grocery stores had already put security guards at the doors. After a struggle the man was subdued and the police came and arrested him.
If that wasn't enough, Saudi Arabia and Russia stopped accepting US dollars for oil. Within a week of that happening there was no more gas or diesel available anywhere. That was it. That was the day the United States died.
Even though nobody around him prepped, Jack did. From about the time that Obama bailed out all the banks, Jack started prepping. He stored food. He had over 25 – 5 gallon buckets full of rice, beans, pasta, oats, couscous, and sugar. He stored seeds for a garden. He had guns and ammo. He even went as far as digging his own well with a small consumer well drilling kit. He made that solar right away.
Jack was definitely ready to bug in. The first year he freaked out about not being ready. He prepped like mad. After that year was over he felt prepared enough that he and his family could survive over a year without leaving the house.
The next thing he did was prepare to bug out. He put together a very comprehensive bug out bag for himself. Once he was satisfied with that, he built one for his wife and one for each of his 3 children, Jasper- 16, Mason – 12, and Dayna-7. When he finished those he started on a big project.
He bought a small covered utility trailer and began modifying it. He started by extending the tongue. The stock tongue extended 3 ½ feet from the enclosed portion of the trailer. He extended that to 10 feet. He then added a small platform just forward of the box which would hold a 12 V ice chest and four golf cart batteries. He put three 130 W solar panels on the roof of the trailer. He jumped on the opportunity to buy the rear suspension off of a wrecked 1979 Datsun truck. He removed the stock suspension from the trailer and put this new suspension on which raised the trailer 5 inches and made it more rugged. He added a 100 amp solar charger and a 2000 W inverter. He even put three outdoor rated outlets to the outside of the enclosed trailer box.
The trailer was big enough to carry almost all of his preps. He could definitely carry his food, weapons, tools and outdoor gear. There was not enough room for all of his water containers so he settled for (2) 35 gallon barrels. He added a small platform at the top of the trailer, inside for a small memory foam mattress.
Jack had always been a Jeep person. He owned a 1985 Jeep CJ-7. He put a 15 W solar panel on the hood to keep the battery charged and to prevent him from ultimately getting stuck if he left the lights on someplace remote. He built the Safari rack himself and put four KC lights on it. It had a brush guard with a Warne winch and two more KC lights. He also added two very small driving lights in which he added infrared filters to allow him to drive with night vision. He then added a switch to disable his taillights and brake lights. On the rear rack he had four – 5 gallon gas cans in which he kept stabilized gas that he had rotated four times in the last two years.
Even with all these preps, Jack did not feel ready for what was happening. The trucks carrying food stopped arriving. The results of that was the murder rate going through the roof. People were killing each other for food. Desperate people do desperate things and this was the proof of it. It was only a matter of time until people started to starve to death. Following that Jack was sure that there would be some kind of terrible epidemic from all the dead bodies.
Jack lived in a small community in southern Arizona. Jack moved his family to this community not by accident. This community had a very heavy Mormon population and though Jack was not a Mormon, he knew that they stored food and that made them less of a threat to Jack.
Chapter 2 – Community Bridges
When the gas ran out, so did the electricity and running water with it. The telephone lines were down as well. Society went back to the Stone Age's overnight. St. David Arizona didn't feel the effects like a lot of communities. The Mormon Church banded together with the community and was helping those without supplies. The Mormons held meetings at their church every Tuesday and Saturday. They put flyers on virtually every telephone or the whole area. The St. David volunteer Fire Department would come to the church and use the siren to alert the community that the meaning was about to start. People from all over the community came. Mormon or not, the whole community came together.
Jack did not attend the first meeting but his wife convinced him that the community could use his skills and experience. John reluctantly agreed and attended the second meeting. At the meeting Jack saw a lot of familiar faces. The self-appointed community leaders were discussing the need for volunteers to fulfill vital roles in the community. Jack was hesitant to speak up but when they brought up security and the ideas they had for securing the town Jack could not hold his tongue any longer.
The council had decided that they should set up roadblocks with volunteers to screen who came in and out of the community. They talked about putting out cones to stop people. Jack knew right away that these ideas were coming from people who knew nothing about security. Jack interrupted:
“Excuse me, may I speak?”
“yes you may. But first please tell us who you are in a little about yourself.”, Said one of the council members.
“My name is Jack Adams. A few of you in this room know me. I live on N. Miller Rd.”, Jack responded.
“What do you know about security Mr. Adams?”
“Sir, I am a retired sergeant first class, United States Army. I served two tours in the first Gulf War and four tours in Iraq during operation Iraqi freedom. I also served two tours in Afghanistan. I served all of my time in the 2nd Ranger Battalion. I believe I know a little bit about security operations.”
The council members talked amongst themselves momentarily and then the obvious leader spoke up.
“Mr. Adams, we would like to hear what your ideas for security would be. Could you please meet with Tom Jacobs after this meeting concludes?”
Jack nodded and sat down. Jack knew Tom was and respected him. Tom owned and managed the Ace Hardware in Benson which had recently burned to the ground due to a particularly violent riot that broke out there in which over 40 people were killed.
Jack sat through the rest of the meeting. Most of what they talked about was the logistics of getting food to those who didn't have any. Jack felt a little guilty about not sharing his food but stood firm knowing that he had enough food for his family and it was his responsibility to make sure his family was okay way before his community. He decided right away that he would not accept any food if he wasn't going to give any.
After the meeting Tom found John in the foray and they exchanged small talk for a few minutes. Then Tom got on track.
“I wish you were here for the first meeting. I was kind of thrust into the position of security coordinator. I definitely feel you're more qualified for this job.”
“I don't know about that but I'm sure I can help.”, Jack humbly replied.
“Well then, what ideas do you have?”
“We need to set up a very formidable roadblock with an overwatch position and some men trained to deal with trouble. We also need to set up a quick reaction force or QRF for short to respond to any trouble in the community at a moments notice. The QRF will be particularly handy when we have trouble at the roadblocks.”
Tom looked overwhelmed at this and felt very inadequate.
“Let me go get Ralph because I think he needs to hear this.”, and Tom walked away.
A few minutes later Tom returned with Ralph.
“Tom was just telling me what you were talking about and it sounds good. Tom also mentioned that you may be more qualified for his job.”, Ralph said.
“Are you offering it?”
“If you'll have it Mr. Adams.”
“I'll have to discuss it with my wife first but if she doesn't have any problem with it then I accept.”
“Very good then. Pending your wife's decision, were happy to have you aboard!”
They all laughed at that, shook hands and Jack made his way to the Jeep. On his way home all Jack could think about was what he got himself into. He knew he would have to train these people in some basic infantry tactics if they were going to be effective at all. That would certainly take time away from the family but then it was not like he had to go to work or anything.
Jack returned home to his family. The children were already in bed. His wife was anxious to hear about the meeting and brought it up immediately as he walked through the door.
“So... what happened?”
“They want me to be head of security.”
“Really! What did you tell them?”
“I told them I would have to talk to you first.”, feigning a reluctance to the idea.
“I think you should do it. I don't know of anybody who has more experience than you for a job like that.”, Jessica said excitedly.
“You know that it would take me away from the house a lot and expose me to terrible dangers in the middle of the night.”, Jack said jokingly.
“It's not like I haven't been through that before with you traipsing all over the world, visiting exotic countries, meeting interesting people and killing them!”, She said with a laugh.
“Well then I guess that settles it. Would you like to go to bed with the head of security of the St. David community action network?”
“You know I love a man with a big important title.”
Jack and Jessica went to bed but Jack had trouble sleeping. He knew how important his job was going to be especially when the people from the cities started to show up in his small community. Jack eventually drifted off to sleep but he did not sleep well, his nightmares woke him up more than once.
Chapter 3 – Boot Camp
Jack realized right away how much you miss the Army. This was almost as good though. Jack called the group to attention. He had 22 volunteers under his command. Three squads he decided. Two squads short of a full company to himself. Jack was already working on discipline. He had to have people who did what they were told. Their uniforms were all different but he could not expect more of them. To their credit they did make an effort by all wearing various forms of camouflage. Out in front stood Tom Jacobs. Jack had felt a little bad about taking his position. To make up for it Jack made him platoon leader. Tom spoke:
“At ease!”
The men all immediately went to parade rest. Jack was surprised at how fast these men had picked up Drill and Ceremony.
“Of all the jobs in this community, you have chosen to be part of the most important and the most dangerous. I am not here to train heroes. I'm here to train soldiers. If you do what you're told and learn the things that I teach you, this team will become a very formidable force. The squads will be rotated through the position of gate guard for each of the roadblocks. The remaining two squads will train during the day and be on call at night. Right now, we will be working seven days a week because we lack the manpower for days off. Hopefully that will change. I need hard men for this job. I have an open door policy for complaints but if you come to me whining that you need a day off then I don't need you. All of you look to your rights. The man standing at the far right of each squad is your squad leader. The man standing at the front of the platoon, Tom Jacobs, is your platoon leader and his name is now Sir. His rank is First Lieut.”
Jack stepped forward and pinned to silver bars to his lapels. Jack had taken these silver Lieut. Bars off of an officer that he beat the crap out of in Iraq for being a lousy and lazy leader. Jack was not prosecuted for this for at least this officer had enough pride not to report what had happened. After he had pinned the bars on Tom, he told him to have the squad leader's post.
“Squad leader's post!”, Tom yelled.
The squad leaders marched out to a position just forward of the new lieutenant. They did it wrong Jack thought but decided not to say anything he would teach them the proper way later. The newly appointed squad leader stood at attention in front of Jack. Jack walked to each of them in a proper rigid military manner and pinned a Sergeant's insignia on each of their lapels and shook their hand, congratulating them. When he was done he had them return to the formation.
“In my absence, you will take orders from your lieutenant. Anybody who fails to follow orders will be removed from this task force and not asked to return. In the absence of your lieutenant, you will take orders from your squad leader. These orders I'm giving you now are concrete and will not be questioned. As for my rank, I am your Colonel but you will refer to me as Sir.”
Tom couldn't believe he just named himself Colonel! He said it so unthinkingly and last-minute but he had to outranked a Lieut. It sounded so much like a cliché. He thought about it for a second while he stood there and decided what was done was done. He hoped they didn't see the perplexed look on his face while he thought about it.
“Lieut., let's get first squad on the road blocks. Team Alpha will always go to the North roadblock and team bravo to the south. Second and third squad will remain here to start QRF training.”, Jack said quietly to Tom.
“Yes sir”, Tom said with a smile.
Tom did a perfect about-face. Jack could tell he'd been practicing.
“First squad, you will break into your teams. Alpha team will be going to the North roadblock. Bravo team you will be going to the south. Second and third squad remain in the area and be prepared to move out to my farm for training.”, The new lieutenant yelled.
Tom did another about-face And reported that his platoon was ready. Jack called them to attention and dismissed them.
Jack decided to walk the quarter mile to Tom's farm but he was not going to miss out on some good cadence. Jack had Tom get the two squads together in formation and he marched them over to Tom's farm singing some of Jack's favorite cadences.
For the next seven hours Jack held class for his new recruits. He walked them through some basic infantry tactics and then had them do it themselves. Over and over they would do the same drill until Jack was satisfied that some of it was sticking. He knew however, that he had a long road ahead of him.
At one point Jack realized that one of his soldiers was picking this up quicker than the others and was frustrated by his squad leader's performance. The squad leader of second squad just wasn't a leader and Jack could tell. Jack called the squad leader over and took his rank off. He explained to the man that he felt that he wasn't ready to lead quite yet. The man explained that he was surprised he was made a squad leader anyway and conceded without argument. Jack called over the young man who was obviously way ahead of his peers and promoted him to squad leader. The young man whose name was Quinn Boyd was elated by this turn of events and promised that he would do a good job.
As the day went on, Jack could tell that this group of men was motivated and with the right leadership and mentoring he could make them into Rangers, “Jack's Rangers”
^^^
Two weeks went by very quickly. Jack had been with his men every single day. On the second day Jack stopped teaching infantry tactics and went into some basic checkpoint tactics for the roadblock crews. The on-duty QRF and himself spent an entire shift at the North roadblock. They set up an overwatch position where two soldiers would be stationed. One of the community members donated a huge stack of railroad ties and the men under the tutelage of Jack built a bunker and camouflaged it.
The men dug a hole down 4 feet. The hole was about 5' x 5'. They put two stacks of railroad ties, three high, out in front of the hole. In between the railroad tie close to the ground and the ones above it, they put some 2' 4x4s at each end of the ties creating a firing port. They did this for both stacks of railroad ties. The men then filled sandbags for about an hour until they had enough to stack up as high as the railroad ties. Then the men took some natural vegetation which consisted of tumbleweeds and Mesquite tree branches and camouflaged the position. Then the men cleared all the vegetation out from in front of the bunker so that the overwatch position had a clear field of fire.
Jack was satisfied with the roadblock situation. At the end of two weeks, both of the roadblocks were finished which were situated on on the furthest end of bridges that ran over washes at the north and south end of the community. All the men were trained on how to run the roadblocks. Vehicles that had run out of gas or that were broken down on people's properties were taken to the roadblock and put out so that vehicles approaching would have to weave around the vehicles back and forth four times. This would greatly reduce the speed of approaching vehicles and if the vehicle appeared hostile, the overwatch position would be able to pour effective fire into the hostile vehicle. A small compact car was situated in front of the opening where cars would go through after weaving through the other cars. This car was left in neutral and when a vehicle was okay to pass, the new soldier could push it out of the way easily.
Jack was really happy with how the training was coming. The men were learning quickly. They were motivated and were excited to be a part of something like this. Jack was particularly satisfied with how well the QRF training was coming. The men were starting to move and fight as a team instinctively. With every after action report, Jack would have to correct them less and less.
Jack would get volunteers from the community to be the OP-FOR or opposition force. He would give the OP-FOR a rough scenario and have them “attack” the roadblocks.The roadblock teams would react to the attack and immediately called for the QRF. The QRF would race out to the roadblock and engage the OP-FOR from pre-determined rally points that the roadblock team would designate depending on where the enemy was.
The QRF had been drilled so many times that Jack was confident that if the roadblock had a problem, the QRF would solve it. Jack was by no means done training the men. This would be an ongoing process but Jack knew that he had a good fighting force.
Up to this point at the roadblocks, there had only been a few vehicles that had requested to pass through St. David. Jack knew this would not last. Jack knew that eventually people would start coming to small farming communities for food. It was no secret that Mormons stored food for themselves. And it was no secret that St. David was a Mormon community. It was only a matter of time until people came. Jack wanted to be ready.
Chapter 4 – Home Sweet Home
Jessica was no stranger to hard work. She had taken her small home based craft business start up, and built it up to three retail stores in Tucson. She did this to pass the time while Jack was away at war. All the while, she managed to raise their three children. Jessica, when Jack retired from the Army, said that she wanted to take a vacation. Someplace without children but the needs of her business prevented her from taking that vacation. When the whole world fell apart, her businesses were no longer. She didn't even get a chance to close the doors herself. Now that she didn't have to go to the stores and deal with the finances and other problems that came up, she found that she actually had a lot of time on her hands.
Jessica and the kids immediately got to work on starting a garden. She put Jasper in charge of the garden as he was the oldest and she felt that this was a very important task. Jasper to gardening quickly and felt very important being put in charge of such an important responsibility. The house was built on the east side of 4 acres. Jessica decided that 1 acre of that would be for the garden. Jasper didn't like that his mom referred to it as a garden and started referring to it as a farm.
When Jack and Jessica were looking for property to buy, one of Jack's buying points was good soil. He didn't tell Jessica this because she wouldn't understand his reasoning on this. But it turned out to be a moot point because Jessica fell in love with this property the moment she saw it and Jack was in love with the soil.
Jasper and Mason set out to start their farm. Jasper was meticulous about digging furrows. He put stakes in the ground at 2 foot intervals on either side of his farmland. Then he took kite string and strung it all the way across the plot. Jasper and Mason started digging the Furrows. It took them (3)-12 hour days to complete this task But they were proud of the work they were doing and call their mom out more than once to look at it. Mom would regularly bring water out of them and remark on what a good job they were doing.
Jack had seeds. Jack had been collecting heirloom seeds for just this moment. He did his research. He talked to local ranchers and farmers about what vegetables would grow here and how to grow them. He had enough seeds to sow land 10 times greater than what they were about to plant. He let Jasper and Mason choose what crops they wanted with a little help from mom.
Jack had purchased 300 seed starting flats Before the crash. Jasper and Mason meticulously planted each seat with care and label each flat. Then at dinner that night, reported to the rest of the family that they would have exactly 1500 plants to take care of.
Jack was proud of how his family was adapting so quickly to this new situation. Dayna was especially happy because she didn't have to go to school anymore. She was very disappointed when, after the farm was planted, Jessica started daily two-hour school sessions that included homework. When she told the children of her intentions, she told Jack that she thought the children would go on strike.
Jack was especially proud of Jessica. She had risen to the challenge without a complaint. She managed the household perfectly. Jack could not be happier. In fact Jack was kind of enjoying this new life. Family time was really family time. Jack had managed to rig a couple small 12 V lights in the house utilizing the bug out trailers solar system for power. He also ran an extension cord into the house so that Jessica could use some of the small kitchen appliances. To save power, however the family started going to bed shortly after sunset. The results of this was that the family would generally get up right around dawn and did not even have to be told.
Chores were evenly distributed. Once the farm was planted, Jasper and Mason didn't have very much to do. One day a week was dedicated to weeding the garden. The rest of the week regular chores were done before the kids could go play. Because of jacks forethought about the well, they had running water However, they did not have enough power to continually use the washing machine and dryer. Therefore, laundry was done manually.
Using a 5 gallon bucket and a gamma seal lid, the children would do their own laundry. Jack showed Mason how to build one and Mason built two more. Sunday and Wednesday were laundry days for the children. It only took them 20 minutes to do their laundry each day. Jack hadn't thought of stocking laundry detergent so Jasper, once the laundry detergent ran out, was tasked to dig up some soap tree yucca roots. The Chiricahua Apache tribe would use the soap tree yucca because of its soap like properties. Jack deduced that this would work for detergent as well. The soap tree yucca roots were used for every manner of washing in the Adam's household when the soap ran out.
As far as food is concerned, Jessica became a master at making the Food stored in the 5 gallon buckets taste good. But soon the children wanted meat on the menu. The boys after a thorough talking to by their father about strangers and the dangers that they now faced, were sent out with their .22 caliber rifles to get some meat. Jack knew this would be a relatively hard task. Since the crash, the people in the area without food were hunting. Daily you would hear the report of rifles in the distance. Jack figured that there wouldn't be any game to shoot. Jack could not have been more wrong. The boys within 15 minutes had shot two cottontail rabbits. They didn't have to go very far. While working in the farm they had seen lots of rabbits. Most of their free time was spent chasing a rabbit out of the garden. That night Jack and the boys skinned the rabbits. Jessica the master chef made the tastiest rabbit stew anybody had ever had.
To Be Continued...
Chapter 1 – The Fall
Jack always talked about something like this happening. For years he said it but none of his coworkers or his family ever listen to him. His kids always thought the things that he did were cool but never took it really seriously. But now, unfortunately he was vindicated.
He never wanted this to happen. But he knew it would. It was inevitable. The economy was going down the tubes and nobody could do anything about it. Domino after Domino fell. First it was the euro. Germany bailed out Greece and for a while it looked like everything was to be okay. Then the worst happened, terrorists detonated an atomic bomb in London. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed or injured.
That was on a Saturday, on Monday the stock market began to spiral out of control. The automatic stops kicked in and limited the sell off to 619 points. The next 19 days the New York Stock Exchange only managed to stay open for no longer than one hour. The shock of this was felt around the world.
Everything ground to a halt. The value of the dollar dropped so fast that retailers started making up prices as they went. The last time Jack went to the store to get last-minute supplies a fight broke out at the checkout counter over the cost of a bag of rice. The price rang up $213. You could see the initial sadness in the man's face turn to anger. He threw down $40 and picked up the bag and started leaving the store mumbling something about how ridiculous that was. By this time however, grocery stores had already put security guards at the doors. After a struggle the man was subdued and the police came and arrested him.
If that wasn't enough, Saudi Arabia and Russia stopped accepting US dollars for oil. Within a week of that happening there was no more gas or diesel available anywhere. That was it. That was the day the United States died.
Even though nobody around him prepped, Jack did. From about the time that Obama bailed out all the banks, Jack started prepping. He stored food. He had over 25 – 5 gallon buckets full of rice, beans, pasta, oats, couscous, and sugar. He stored seeds for a garden. He had guns and ammo. He even went as far as digging his own well with a small consumer well drilling kit. He made that solar right away.
Jack was definitely ready to bug in. The first year he freaked out about not being ready. He prepped like mad. After that year was over he felt prepared enough that he and his family could survive over a year without leaving the house.
The next thing he did was prepare to bug out. He put together a very comprehensive bug out bag for himself. Once he was satisfied with that, he built one for his wife and one for each of his 3 children, Jasper- 16, Mason – 12, and Dayna-7. When he finished those he started on a big project.
He bought a small covered utility trailer and began modifying it. He started by extending the tongue. The stock tongue extended 3 ½ feet from the enclosed portion of the trailer. He extended that to 10 feet. He then added a small platform just forward of the box which would hold a 12 V ice chest and four golf cart batteries. He put three 130 W solar panels on the roof of the trailer. He jumped on the opportunity to buy the rear suspension off of a wrecked 1979 Datsun truck. He removed the stock suspension from the trailer and put this new suspension on which raised the trailer 5 inches and made it more rugged. He added a 100 amp solar charger and a 2000 W inverter. He even put three outdoor rated outlets to the outside of the enclosed trailer box.
The trailer was big enough to carry almost all of his preps. He could definitely carry his food, weapons, tools and outdoor gear. There was not enough room for all of his water containers so he settled for (2) 35 gallon barrels. He added a small platform at the top of the trailer, inside for a small memory foam mattress.
Jack had always been a Jeep person. He owned a 1985 Jeep CJ-7. He put a 15 W solar panel on the hood to keep the battery charged and to prevent him from ultimately getting stuck if he left the lights on someplace remote. He built the Safari rack himself and put four KC lights on it. It had a brush guard with a Warne winch and two more KC lights. He also added two very small driving lights in which he added infrared filters to allow him to drive with night vision. He then added a switch to disable his taillights and brake lights. On the rear rack he had four – 5 gallon gas cans in which he kept stabilized gas that he had rotated four times in the last two years.
Even with all these preps, Jack did not feel ready for what was happening. The trucks carrying food stopped arriving. The results of that was the murder rate going through the roof. People were killing each other for food. Desperate people do desperate things and this was the proof of it. It was only a matter of time until people started to starve to death. Following that Jack was sure that there would be some kind of terrible epidemic from all the dead bodies.
Jack lived in a small community in southern Arizona. Jack moved his family to this community not by accident. This community had a very heavy Mormon population and though Jack was not a Mormon, he knew that they stored food and that made them less of a threat to Jack.
Chapter 2 – Community Bridges
When the gas ran out, so did the electricity and running water with it. The telephone lines were down as well. Society went back to the Stone Age's overnight. St. David Arizona didn't feel the effects like a lot of communities. The Mormon Church banded together with the community and was helping those without supplies. The Mormons held meetings at their church every Tuesday and Saturday. They put flyers on virtually every telephone or the whole area. The St. David volunteer Fire Department would come to the church and use the siren to alert the community that the meaning was about to start. People from all over the community came. Mormon or not, the whole community came together.
Jack did not attend the first meeting but his wife convinced him that the community could use his skills and experience. John reluctantly agreed and attended the second meeting. At the meeting Jack saw a lot of familiar faces. The self-appointed community leaders were discussing the need for volunteers to fulfill vital roles in the community. Jack was hesitant to speak up but when they brought up security and the ideas they had for securing the town Jack could not hold his tongue any longer.
The council had decided that they should set up roadblocks with volunteers to screen who came in and out of the community. They talked about putting out cones to stop people. Jack knew right away that these ideas were coming from people who knew nothing about security. Jack interrupted:
“Excuse me, may I speak?”
“yes you may. But first please tell us who you are in a little about yourself.”, Said one of the council members.
“My name is Jack Adams. A few of you in this room know me. I live on N. Miller Rd.”, Jack responded.
“What do you know about security Mr. Adams?”
“Sir, I am a retired sergeant first class, United States Army. I served two tours in the first Gulf War and four tours in Iraq during operation Iraqi freedom. I also served two tours in Afghanistan. I served all of my time in the 2nd Ranger Battalion. I believe I know a little bit about security operations.”
The council members talked amongst themselves momentarily and then the obvious leader spoke up.
“Mr. Adams, we would like to hear what your ideas for security would be. Could you please meet with Tom Jacobs after this meeting concludes?”
Jack nodded and sat down. Jack knew Tom was and respected him. Tom owned and managed the Ace Hardware in Benson which had recently burned to the ground due to a particularly violent riot that broke out there in which over 40 people were killed.
Jack sat through the rest of the meeting. Most of what they talked about was the logistics of getting food to those who didn't have any. Jack felt a little guilty about not sharing his food but stood firm knowing that he had enough food for his family and it was his responsibility to make sure his family was okay way before his community. He decided right away that he would not accept any food if he wasn't going to give any.
After the meeting Tom found John in the foray and they exchanged small talk for a few minutes. Then Tom got on track.
“I wish you were here for the first meeting. I was kind of thrust into the position of security coordinator. I definitely feel you're more qualified for this job.”
“I don't know about that but I'm sure I can help.”, Jack humbly replied.
“Well then, what ideas do you have?”
“We need to set up a very formidable roadblock with an overwatch position and some men trained to deal with trouble. We also need to set up a quick reaction force or QRF for short to respond to any trouble in the community at a moments notice. The QRF will be particularly handy when we have trouble at the roadblocks.”
Tom looked overwhelmed at this and felt very inadequate.
“Let me go get Ralph because I think he needs to hear this.”, and Tom walked away.
A few minutes later Tom returned with Ralph.
“Tom was just telling me what you were talking about and it sounds good. Tom also mentioned that you may be more qualified for his job.”, Ralph said.
“Are you offering it?”
“If you'll have it Mr. Adams.”
“I'll have to discuss it with my wife first but if she doesn't have any problem with it then I accept.”
“Very good then. Pending your wife's decision, were happy to have you aboard!”
They all laughed at that, shook hands and Jack made his way to the Jeep. On his way home all Jack could think about was what he got himself into. He knew he would have to train these people in some basic infantry tactics if they were going to be effective at all. That would certainly take time away from the family but then it was not like he had to go to work or anything.
Jack returned home to his family. The children were already in bed. His wife was anxious to hear about the meeting and brought it up immediately as he walked through the door.
“So... what happened?”
“They want me to be head of security.”
“Really! What did you tell them?”
“I told them I would have to talk to you first.”, feigning a reluctance to the idea.
“I think you should do it. I don't know of anybody who has more experience than you for a job like that.”, Jessica said excitedly.
“You know that it would take me away from the house a lot and expose me to terrible dangers in the middle of the night.”, Jack said jokingly.
“It's not like I haven't been through that before with you traipsing all over the world, visiting exotic countries, meeting interesting people and killing them!”, She said with a laugh.
“Well then I guess that settles it. Would you like to go to bed with the head of security of the St. David community action network?”
“You know I love a man with a big important title.”
Jack and Jessica went to bed but Jack had trouble sleeping. He knew how important his job was going to be especially when the people from the cities started to show up in his small community. Jack eventually drifted off to sleep but he did not sleep well, his nightmares woke him up more than once.
Chapter 3 – Boot Camp
Jack realized right away how much you miss the Army. This was almost as good though. Jack called the group to attention. He had 22 volunteers under his command. Three squads he decided. Two squads short of a full company to himself. Jack was already working on discipline. He had to have people who did what they were told. Their uniforms were all different but he could not expect more of them. To their credit they did make an effort by all wearing various forms of camouflage. Out in front stood Tom Jacobs. Jack had felt a little bad about taking his position. To make up for it Jack made him platoon leader. Tom spoke:
“At ease!”
The men all immediately went to parade rest. Jack was surprised at how fast these men had picked up Drill and Ceremony.
“Of all the jobs in this community, you have chosen to be part of the most important and the most dangerous. I am not here to train heroes. I'm here to train soldiers. If you do what you're told and learn the things that I teach you, this team will become a very formidable force. The squads will be rotated through the position of gate guard for each of the roadblocks. The remaining two squads will train during the day and be on call at night. Right now, we will be working seven days a week because we lack the manpower for days off. Hopefully that will change. I need hard men for this job. I have an open door policy for complaints but if you come to me whining that you need a day off then I don't need you. All of you look to your rights. The man standing at the far right of each squad is your squad leader. The man standing at the front of the platoon, Tom Jacobs, is your platoon leader and his name is now Sir. His rank is First Lieut.”
Jack stepped forward and pinned to silver bars to his lapels. Jack had taken these silver Lieut. Bars off of an officer that he beat the crap out of in Iraq for being a lousy and lazy leader. Jack was not prosecuted for this for at least this officer had enough pride not to report what had happened. After he had pinned the bars on Tom, he told him to have the squad leader's post.
“Squad leader's post!”, Tom yelled.
The squad leaders marched out to a position just forward of the new lieutenant. They did it wrong Jack thought but decided not to say anything he would teach them the proper way later. The newly appointed squad leader stood at attention in front of Jack. Jack walked to each of them in a proper rigid military manner and pinned a Sergeant's insignia on each of their lapels and shook their hand, congratulating them. When he was done he had them return to the formation.
“In my absence, you will take orders from your lieutenant. Anybody who fails to follow orders will be removed from this task force and not asked to return. In the absence of your lieutenant, you will take orders from your squad leader. These orders I'm giving you now are concrete and will not be questioned. As for my rank, I am your Colonel but you will refer to me as Sir.”
Tom couldn't believe he just named himself Colonel! He said it so unthinkingly and last-minute but he had to outranked a Lieut. It sounded so much like a cliché. He thought about it for a second while he stood there and decided what was done was done. He hoped they didn't see the perplexed look on his face while he thought about it.
“Lieut., let's get first squad on the road blocks. Team Alpha will always go to the North roadblock and team bravo to the south. Second and third squad will remain here to start QRF training.”, Jack said quietly to Tom.
“Yes sir”, Tom said with a smile.
Tom did a perfect about-face. Jack could tell he'd been practicing.
“First squad, you will break into your teams. Alpha team will be going to the North roadblock. Bravo team you will be going to the south. Second and third squad remain in the area and be prepared to move out to my farm for training.”, The new lieutenant yelled.
Tom did another about-face And reported that his platoon was ready. Jack called them to attention and dismissed them.
Jack decided to walk the quarter mile to Tom's farm but he was not going to miss out on some good cadence. Jack had Tom get the two squads together in formation and he marched them over to Tom's farm singing some of Jack's favorite cadences.
For the next seven hours Jack held class for his new recruits. He walked them through some basic infantry tactics and then had them do it themselves. Over and over they would do the same drill until Jack was satisfied that some of it was sticking. He knew however, that he had a long road ahead of him.
At one point Jack realized that one of his soldiers was picking this up quicker than the others and was frustrated by his squad leader's performance. The squad leader of second squad just wasn't a leader and Jack could tell. Jack called the squad leader over and took his rank off. He explained to the man that he felt that he wasn't ready to lead quite yet. The man explained that he was surprised he was made a squad leader anyway and conceded without argument. Jack called over the young man who was obviously way ahead of his peers and promoted him to squad leader. The young man whose name was Quinn Boyd was elated by this turn of events and promised that he would do a good job.
As the day went on, Jack could tell that this group of men was motivated and with the right leadership and mentoring he could make them into Rangers, “Jack's Rangers”
^^^
Two weeks went by very quickly. Jack had been with his men every single day. On the second day Jack stopped teaching infantry tactics and went into some basic checkpoint tactics for the roadblock crews. The on-duty QRF and himself spent an entire shift at the North roadblock. They set up an overwatch position where two soldiers would be stationed. One of the community members donated a huge stack of railroad ties and the men under the tutelage of Jack built a bunker and camouflaged it.
The men dug a hole down 4 feet. The hole was about 5' x 5'. They put two stacks of railroad ties, three high, out in front of the hole. In between the railroad tie close to the ground and the ones above it, they put some 2' 4x4s at each end of the ties creating a firing port. They did this for both stacks of railroad ties. The men then filled sandbags for about an hour until they had enough to stack up as high as the railroad ties. Then the men took some natural vegetation which consisted of tumbleweeds and Mesquite tree branches and camouflaged the position. Then the men cleared all the vegetation out from in front of the bunker so that the overwatch position had a clear field of fire.
Jack was satisfied with the roadblock situation. At the end of two weeks, both of the roadblocks were finished which were situated on on the furthest end of bridges that ran over washes at the north and south end of the community. All the men were trained on how to run the roadblocks. Vehicles that had run out of gas or that were broken down on people's properties were taken to the roadblock and put out so that vehicles approaching would have to weave around the vehicles back and forth four times. This would greatly reduce the speed of approaching vehicles and if the vehicle appeared hostile, the overwatch position would be able to pour effective fire into the hostile vehicle. A small compact car was situated in front of the opening where cars would go through after weaving through the other cars. This car was left in neutral and when a vehicle was okay to pass, the new soldier could push it out of the way easily.
Jack was really happy with how the training was coming. The men were learning quickly. They were motivated and were excited to be a part of something like this. Jack was particularly satisfied with how well the QRF training was coming. The men were starting to move and fight as a team instinctively. With every after action report, Jack would have to correct them less and less.
Jack would get volunteers from the community to be the OP-FOR or opposition force. He would give the OP-FOR a rough scenario and have them “attack” the roadblocks.The roadblock teams would react to the attack and immediately called for the QRF. The QRF would race out to the roadblock and engage the OP-FOR from pre-determined rally points that the roadblock team would designate depending on where the enemy was.
The QRF had been drilled so many times that Jack was confident that if the roadblock had a problem, the QRF would solve it. Jack was by no means done training the men. This would be an ongoing process but Jack knew that he had a good fighting force.
Up to this point at the roadblocks, there had only been a few vehicles that had requested to pass through St. David. Jack knew this would not last. Jack knew that eventually people would start coming to small farming communities for food. It was no secret that Mormons stored food for themselves. And it was no secret that St. David was a Mormon community. It was only a matter of time until people came. Jack wanted to be ready.
Chapter 4 – Home Sweet Home
Jessica was no stranger to hard work. She had taken her small home based craft business start up, and built it up to three retail stores in Tucson. She did this to pass the time while Jack was away at war. All the while, she managed to raise their three children. Jessica, when Jack retired from the Army, said that she wanted to take a vacation. Someplace without children but the needs of her business prevented her from taking that vacation. When the whole world fell apart, her businesses were no longer. She didn't even get a chance to close the doors herself. Now that she didn't have to go to the stores and deal with the finances and other problems that came up, she found that she actually had a lot of time on her hands.
Jessica and the kids immediately got to work on starting a garden. She put Jasper in charge of the garden as he was the oldest and she felt that this was a very important task. Jasper to gardening quickly and felt very important being put in charge of such an important responsibility. The house was built on the east side of 4 acres. Jessica decided that 1 acre of that would be for the garden. Jasper didn't like that his mom referred to it as a garden and started referring to it as a farm.
When Jack and Jessica were looking for property to buy, one of Jack's buying points was good soil. He didn't tell Jessica this because she wouldn't understand his reasoning on this. But it turned out to be a moot point because Jessica fell in love with this property the moment she saw it and Jack was in love with the soil.
Jasper and Mason set out to start their farm. Jasper was meticulous about digging furrows. He put stakes in the ground at 2 foot intervals on either side of his farmland. Then he took kite string and strung it all the way across the plot. Jasper and Mason started digging the Furrows. It took them (3)-12 hour days to complete this task But they were proud of the work they were doing and call their mom out more than once to look at it. Mom would regularly bring water out of them and remark on what a good job they were doing.
Jack had seeds. Jack had been collecting heirloom seeds for just this moment. He did his research. He talked to local ranchers and farmers about what vegetables would grow here and how to grow them. He had enough seeds to sow land 10 times greater than what they were about to plant. He let Jasper and Mason choose what crops they wanted with a little help from mom.
Jack had purchased 300 seed starting flats Before the crash. Jasper and Mason meticulously planted each seat with care and label each flat. Then at dinner that night, reported to the rest of the family that they would have exactly 1500 plants to take care of.
Jack was proud of how his family was adapting so quickly to this new situation. Dayna was especially happy because she didn't have to go to school anymore. She was very disappointed when, after the farm was planted, Jessica started daily two-hour school sessions that included homework. When she told the children of her intentions, she told Jack that she thought the children would go on strike.
Jack was especially proud of Jessica. She had risen to the challenge without a complaint. She managed the household perfectly. Jack could not be happier. In fact Jack was kind of enjoying this new life. Family time was really family time. Jack had managed to rig a couple small 12 V lights in the house utilizing the bug out trailers solar system for power. He also ran an extension cord into the house so that Jessica could use some of the small kitchen appliances. To save power, however the family started going to bed shortly after sunset. The results of this was that the family would generally get up right around dawn and did not even have to be told.
Chores were evenly distributed. Once the farm was planted, Jasper and Mason didn't have very much to do. One day a week was dedicated to weeding the garden. The rest of the week regular chores were done before the kids could go play. Because of jacks forethought about the well, they had running water However, they did not have enough power to continually use the washing machine and dryer. Therefore, laundry was done manually.
Using a 5 gallon bucket and a gamma seal lid, the children would do their own laundry. Jack showed Mason how to build one and Mason built two more. Sunday and Wednesday were laundry days for the children. It only took them 20 minutes to do their laundry each day. Jack hadn't thought of stocking laundry detergent so Jasper, once the laundry detergent ran out, was tasked to dig up some soap tree yucca roots. The Chiricahua Apache tribe would use the soap tree yucca because of its soap like properties. Jack deduced that this would work for detergent as well. The soap tree yucca roots were used for every manner of washing in the Adam's household when the soap ran out.
As far as food is concerned, Jessica became a master at making the Food stored in the 5 gallon buckets taste good. But soon the children wanted meat on the menu. The boys after a thorough talking to by their father about strangers and the dangers that they now faced, were sent out with their .22 caliber rifles to get some meat. Jack knew this would be a relatively hard task. Since the crash, the people in the area without food were hunting. Daily you would hear the report of rifles in the distance. Jack figured that there wouldn't be any game to shoot. Jack could not have been more wrong. The boys within 15 minutes had shot two cottontail rabbits. They didn't have to go very far. While working in the farm they had seen lots of rabbits. Most of their free time was spent chasing a rabbit out of the garden. That night Jack and the boys skinned the rabbits. Jessica the master chef made the tastiest rabbit stew anybody had ever had.
To Be Continued...