Up From the Depths Part 5

An hour later the Claggett was tied up to the dock and some basic maintenance was being done. Willis had recalled his team from their recon mission and now all the remaining officers and head civilian workers from Port Winthrop and the officers from the sub were in the headquarters building briefing room.

“OK you all know the current sitrep. Any of you have anything to add?” Powell asked after introductions were made.

“Sir, I’d like permission to form recon teams and begin combing the local area for survivors, supplies and equipment that we could use.” Burgess, a tall, large built man with a high and tight haircut, dressed in the MARPAT camouflage pattern utilities, Commander, Marine Security Forces, Port Winthrop.

“I’m sure you would captain. I want you to work with Lt Willis on that and present a plan to me later today.”

“The base medical station is well supplied and we can handle most anything.” Doc Brown, now the acting base resident doctor added, seated next to the chief hospital corpsman from Port Winthrop.

“Me and my workers want a chance to help out, look for survivors, our families, whatever. Don’t like being under house arrest, if that’s what you want to call it.” Warren Noel, a swarthy faced fat man, with large calloused hands, dressed in jeans, a LL Bean shirt, a Carhart jacket hung on the back of the chair he sat in, faded, dented and well-used yellow hard on the table in front of him, the civilian worker’s foreman.

“Mr. Noel, we’ll get to your part in all this very shortly.” Powell said.

“Captain Powell, Steve Hurgeson, civilian security.” An older man, thick, dark hair, in a white uniform shirt, epaulets, dark pants and Sam Browne duty belt with handgun, cuffs, keys, radio and ASP baton, completed with high shine paratrooper boots.

“Yes, Mr. Hurgeson?”

“Captain, I got twelve men, roughly trained in security, we were augmenting the Marine security detachment, handling passes and the main gate.”

“Captain Burgess, I want you to include Mr. Hurgeson on the inner security planning and see that his men know which end of the weapon the bullet comes out.”

”Aye sir.” Burgess made some notes on his paper.

“Now gentlemen the way I see it is pretty simple. According to the last transmission from CINCPAC, we’re pretty much on our own. I want verification of a secure perimeter at all times. No one goes anywhere alone. Get every vehicle we have and check them out, get them mechanically sound, I don’t want any vehicle not starting or breaking down at the wrong time. No soft sided vehicles. Any hummer we have that doesn’t have hard sides or top, replace it with something that is, fabricate it if you have to, I don’t care how you do it just do it. Mr. Noel, I hear some of your people are welders?” Powell received a nod from Noel before continuing. “OK then have them assigned to make armor for any vehicles that don’t have it.”

Powell paused and looked around the room.

“Secondly, once that has been done, I want a complete inventory of what we have, how long it will last and where we can get it. After that, we will begin to send out recon patrols to the surrounding towns and cities to look for survivors and supplies. Primary on the list is foodstuffs, medical supplies, ammunition and fuel.” Powell looked around the room. “Anyone know how to run heavy equipment?” A small show of hands from Mr. Noel and some of the civilian security personnel.

“Very well. Mr. Noel, your job is to interview people and find out what they can do then send someone over to the Sea Bees compound and see what’s left and what you can use. When you finish there, I want an estimate of how much material you’ll need to build a concrete wall around this base, 12ft high, eight feet thick at the base, tapering to six feet thick at the top.” Several people looked up at that with questioning eyes.

“I want this facility totally secure. No one knows how long this will last, we have nowhere else to go, our back is to the water. We make a stand here.” Powell drove his point home by pointing down.

“And lastly, I want to see a working long distance radio system that we can get contact with someone in the civilian sector. There’s a water tower on base, see if you can use that to rig up an antenna. By the end of today, I want to see estimates and readiness reports. Dismissed.”