Post by MG Laura McArthur on Feb 25, 2017 1:52:00 GMT -5
The Plain at West Point, looking towards the south; the buildings opposite are (L-R) Lee Barracks (named for USMA graduate Robert E. Lee), Washington Hall (named for President & former Continental Army commander George Washington) and Grant Barracks (named for USMA graduate Ulysses S. Grant)
Two days after the events in The Collapse....
Looking out at the assembled mass of soldiers gathered out on the edge of the Plain, all but a few dozen or so dressed in their Class B Army Service Uniforms (the others were wearing ACUs' and either serving as air traffic controllers for the arriving Russian delegation or as an honor guard for them upon arrival), General McArthur felt a humble pride indwelling within her; while the past four years had taught everyone at West Point the value of survival and perseverance, they hadn't forgotten how to dress otherwise and after inspecting the troops, McArthur believed it still true. McArthur herself was dressed in Class B's as well....and all of them were armed, M4s' slung over shoulders but ready to use in salute at a moment's call and notice. Alongside the assembled infantry were both the remaining cadets who'd arrived back in 2013 and had stayed at the Academy the past four years, along with the campus' military engineering contingent
"Well dressed, aren't they, General?" President Michner asked; as the titular civilian head of what was, for all intent-and-purposes, a rump United States government, he was the commander-in-chief but he also had the common sense to know that, until the civilian government could stand up, it was General McArthur who called the shots.
"Yes, sir, Mr. President, that they are," McArthur replied, pausing as Major McKenna, commander of the newly re-created 1st Infantry Regiment, joined them on the Plain. The regiment, first stood up in 1791 by Congress as "the 2nd Regiment of Infantry", was the first of what both McArthur and Michner hoped would be a slow but steady build-up of forces for what they hoped would be a reclamation of the Republic and while the present size of the regiment - four platoons with two sections each - was paltringly small, they were the survivors of the pre-apocalypse 4th Bn., 1st Infantry who'd survived everything the world had thrown at them and they wore those slings and arrows like badges of honor. They knew their limits, Major McKenna liked to say whenever possible, but they also knew how to go past those limits whenever called to do so.
After a few minutes' conversation, General McArthur looked over at the major and said, "Major, call the troops to order."