The intelligence operatives followed Jones once again and watched as he delivered this new information to his federal contacts. The next step in the ruse was to find a way to make the advancing federal forces believe they were actually receiving fire from the forward positions of the militia that had survived the federal barrage. Matt Donnelly and his engineers were assigned that job, and he decided to set up a number of sites with C-4 charges that would be detonated as the federal troops advanced, and that would appear to be caused by incoming artillery fire. This would hopefully convince the feds that there had been severe damage caused to the militia forward trenches.
The ruse would also include the use of good old-fashioned fireworks. There were several former fireworks distributors in Van Zandt County who had traditionally sold their wares during the weeks preceding the July Fourth weekend and the New Year’s celebrations. After the EMP attacks, the dealers gave their remaining inventory to the militia to use it as it saw fit. Matt determined that the fireworks could be used in the militia emplacements to create the impression that there was artillery and machine gun fire coming from the phony militia trenches.
However, several members of Matt’s engineers would have to put themselves in harm’s way to pull this off. Two men would be in foxholes near the C-4 charges so they could detonate them as the enemy advanced toward the false militia entrenchments. Three more engineers would have to survive the federal bombardment of the militia front lines and then set off the fireworks. When Matt told his men that he needed volunteers for these highly dangerous missions, they all volunteered.
Chapter XLII
The militia’s defensive plan was coming together, so it was time for General Donnelly to have General Harold Walker and Donnelly’s son John flown to the Canton headquarters so that they could determine how the use of this large secret reserve force of planes, helicopters, and tanks could be effectively deployed against the enemy. General Walker and his staff came in two Blackhawk helicopters to Canton and were greeted personally by Generally Donnelly and his chief of intelligence Ray Thibodeaux. They arrived late in the evening and were welcomed by the general who was particularly happy to see John who he had not talked to in several months. As they embraced, John whispered in his father’s ear that they needed to meet privately.
The general knew instantly that something was wrong, so he hosted a dinner for General Walker and his staff where they talked in general terms about the defensive deployment of Walker’s command, but Donnelly told Walker that they would go into specific details at a meeting the following morning. In the meantime, Donnelly told Walker that he wanted to spend some time with John and his brothers since they had not seen John for many months, and his son Jamie had not seen him for years. The general took his three sons to his private office that was located in the Van Zandt County courthouse in downtown Canton.
The general sat down behind a massive antique oak desk, and he had John sit in a chair facing him, but he had Matt and Jamie stand next to him behind the desk. He handed Jamie a pad of paper and a pen. The general asked John how his daughter-in-law, Melissa, and two grandchildren, ten-year-old Allison and fourteen-year-old John Junior, were doing. His son told him that they were well and happy. However, this small talk was a cover because the general and his other two sons were carefully watching John who was rapidly blinking his eyes in Morse code that he had learned as a Boy Scout along with his brothers. They had been taught by their father.
Jamie recorded the message his brother was sending on the notepad, but it was not necessary because his father and brother were both reading it correctly. John informed them that Walker had gone over to the enemy and that the secret base had recently been seized by federal forces. The families of all the American soldiers and airmen, including John’s wife and children, were being held separately and were hostages to force their spouses to do the bidding of the feds. John also informed his siblings and father that he was wired so that Walker and the officers who were with him, who were also feds, would be able to overhear his conversations. It was audio only, so there was no video to be concerned with.
As the four men continued to talk about seemingly trivial matters such as family stories and memories, John was also handed a pad and pen so he could write notes to his siblings and fathers while continuing their conversation. The general asked his son what he thought of General Walker, and John immediately took the cue. He praised Walker and said that his command was ready to effectively support the militia in the upcoming battle with the feds. While he was talking, he was writing on the pad and drawing a map of the base, showing where the hostages were being held, where the loyal American troops were being guarded, and where the feds were housed. He also highlighted the locations of all the federal guard posts.
John’s notes outlined the plans of Walker and the federal force. They knew of the impending attack on the militia and that Walker’s command would be an integral part of the militia defense, so since Walker knew he would be briefed on the defenses of the militia and his assignments to provide support, he would be able to give that information to the federal command. He would then use his control over the hostage families to force the pilots, aircrews, and armored units to attack their fellow Americans in the militia from the rear and participate in the final annihilation of the East Texas militia.
Since John was the official liaison between the militia and the force commanded by Walker, he had to be brought to the meeting in Canton, but it was made clear to him that his family would be immediately executed if he betrayed the federal plans. That was the reason he was wired with listening devices. However, since John was being held prisoner with the other American officers on the base, he informed them before he left that he might be able to convey a secret message to his father about the plight of the patriots and their families. They were unanimous in urging him to try to get a rescue operation launched against the base immediately. Otherwise, the American soldiers and airmen would launch a desperate attempt to overpower their guards and take back the base.
They knew that there was very little chance that they would succeed and that they and their families would probably be killed, yet they were determined that they would never be forced to betray their country and attack their fellow American soldiers. Ben Donnelly now knew exactly what he needed to do, and he wrote a note to John, assuring him that everything would be taken care of. He then informed his sons and the federal troops who were monitoring them that he hated to cut their visit short, but he was scheduled to meet with several of his special operations commanders who were supposed to depart with their teams in Blackhawk helicopters to be dropped over the Oklahoma border to recon the buildup of the federal troops.
No such operation was scheduled, but the general was definitely going to meet with his special ops teams to prepare them for another mission. Donnelly had suspected that his headquarters was being monitored before John had revealed that information to him, so he had taken some precautions. He had told Ray Thibodeaux to be in his separate office in the courthouse and await instructions. As soon as the meeting with his sons ended, Donnelly went to Ray’s office and told him what was going on and what needed to be done. He also gave Ray the map of the militia base that John had drawn.
Ray immediately put four special forces A teams on alert as well as two combat infantry platoons. He arranged for a meeting to take place between the general and the A team commanders. It would be held out in the open so that the federal spies monitoring the activity of the general would be able to see it take place but not be able to hear what was said. The team commanders were given the map of the militia base so that they could plan a coordinated attack that would save the American hostages, release the American soldiers that were being held prisoner, and secure the aircraft and armor that were essential for a possible victory against the federal force attacking from Oklahoma.
Since Donnelly had been suspicious from the beginning and conveyed his concerns to Ray, the sec
urity chief had assigned several four-member security teams to monitor the movements of General Walker and the five staff members he had brought with him, as well as the two pilots of the Blackhawks that had brought them to Canton. The pilots had gone to their assigned quarters for the night, but two of Walker’s people had been seen outside of the courthouse and were clearly the team that had been listening in on Donnelly and his sons. The other three men had been followed as they made their way to a position where they could watch the movements of any militia aircraft.
The militia security teams did not interfere with Walker’s men but carefully watched them. The two men outside the courthouse were seen following the general and his driver to the airfield where he met with Colonel Norman Blake, who was in charge of the operation, and his A team leaders. They had a brief discussion, and then the team leaders led their men to board the four Blackhawks. The federal spies watched this, and they saw the choppers take off and head north toward the Oklahoma border. The spies had not seen the two infantry platoons that had boarded three other Blackhawks kept at another secret location and had already taken off.
They had flown east, and as soon as the flights carrying the special operations teams knew they were out of sight of anyone in Canton, they also turned east, rendezvoused with the other Blackhawks, and then the entire force headed south toward Walker’s base.
Jamie Donnelly was onboard one of the helicopters with his A team still commanded by Lieutenant Cannon. However, this mission was like no other for Jamie because he was being sent to rescue three people he had never even met. His sister-in-law, Melissa, and his nephew and niece, John and Allison, were being held hostage and were in serious danger. He would not let his brother down.
Chapter XLIII
The map provided by John Donnelly had pinpointed a landing zone for the helicopters about two miles from the captured militia base. Colonel Blake and his team leaders had come up with what appeared to be a good plan of attack despite having to prepare it in just a little over two hours. There were four specific points of attack. The first priority was to secure the area where the militia family members were being held; the second was to take over the area where the militia pilots, tank crews, and other American military personnel were imprisoned. The next two points of attack were the airfield where the planes, helicopters, and armor were positioned and the encampment where the federal troops not on guard duty were stationed.
John Donnelly had told his father that the mostly lightly guarded target was the area housing the families of the American soldiers since there was little threat of these noncombatants attempting an escape. On the other hand, more federal troops had been assigned to guard the compound where the American airmen and soldiers were being held. There was also a smaller federal force assigned to guard the airfield; but there was a concern that in case of an assault on the base, these troops would try to destroy the planes, helicopters, and tanks rather than allow them to fall back under than control of the militia. This was something that had to be prevented.
The East Texas militia force knew that it was outnumbered. John Donnelly had told his father that there were over two hundred federal soldiers guarding the base and that most of them were foreign fighters from Iran, Syria, and Libya. John had also informed his father that they were assigned to eight-hour shifts so at any given time only approximately one-third of the force would actually be on guard duty. That meant that the guards on duty had to be silently removed so that the main federal forces would not be alerted.
To accomplish this, Danny Lone Wolf was sent in with ten warriors from the Alabama/Coushatta reservation who were experts with bows and arrows. Other members of the special forces teams were equipped with silencers for their weapons that had been made by the Buchanan family. The attack plan called to two A teams to be assigned to secure the families being held hostage while two more would liberate the area where the captured American troops were detained. The two infantry platoons were divided, with one full platoon and two additional squads assigned to attack the federal barracks where the off-duty federal troops were assigned while the other two squads would secure the airfield.
The militia force set down on the landing zone and despite operating in the dark quickly made it to the base, where they got a surprise. The base was brightly lit up, which would not have been done by a secret militia base. This was another confirmation that federal troops were completely in control of the base. However, it also gave the militia troops an advantage since they could clearly see their targets. The initial attack was to be done by the special operations units to rescue the hostages and free the American troops. Lieutenant Cannon was in charge of the two A teams assaulting the tent city where the hostage families were being held.
The federal forces did not believe there was much risk of the families trying to escape, so there was only a reinforced squad of ten men patrolling the perimeter that was loosely secured by hastily strung barbed wire. The area was brightly lit by solar-powered spotlights, but the good news was the cleared area that contained the tent city was surrounded by thick woods that allowed the militia teams to get very close to the patrolling guards. It was also a plus that the guards were mostly just standing around in sight of one another, so there was little movement. This made it easier for the militia to approach their positions. Danny Lone Wolf had four of his archers with him, and he used hand signals to assign them to take out four of the guards. Cannon also used hand signals to assign five of his marksmen with silenced weapons to eliminate the other five guards.
They all synchronized their watches and timed their attack to take place at exactly 3:15 a.m. when the other two special operations teams would be hitting the area housing the captured American soldiers. Danny Lone Wolf and his team along with the other special forces personnel did their jobs with perfection. The guards all went down within seconds of one another. Cannon then led the teams into the tents and were relieved that their biggest fear had not materialized. There were no guards inside the tents. The militia members were in the process of waking up the rescued families when they heard gunfire from elsewhere in the camp. They didn’t know where it was coming from, but it was a clear indication that something had gone wrong.
The problems had occurred when the additional five Alabama/Coushatta warriors and other members of the special forces teams were moving toward the barracks where the American soldiers were housed. This part of the camp was different from the area where the hostage families were incarcerated. These were secured barracks, not tents, and a larger cleared area around them. There were also twenty-five guards instead of ten, and there was something else involved that the militia did not know about until it was too late. In the unlikely event that any of the captured soldiers was able to penetrate the barbed wire fence surrounding the barracks, there were trip wires outside that were hooked up to grenades. One of these was set off by one of the Indian archers that were moving into position to take out a federal guard. The young warrior was killed instantly by the exploding grenade, and it alerted not only the guards in the immediate vicinity of the barracks but also federal personnel that were off duty and asleep in the main area of the camp.
The firefight at the compound housing the American captors was brief, because although they were slightly outnumbered, the militia special operations personnel were highly trained marksmen who made short work of taking out the federal troops. However, this did not solve the main problem facing the reinforced platoon that was assigned to attack the sleeping federal force that was off duty. The feds came pouring out of their barracks and split into two groups, half heading to the sound of the fire at area where the American soldiers were imprisoned and the other half moving toward the airfield where they might try to destroy as many of the helicopters and aircraft as possible to keep them from falling into the hands of the American militia.
The American infantry commander, Captain Mark Ryan, a thirty-year-old former army ranger, knew that this could not be allowed
to happen; but at the same time, he needed to protect the soldiers and their families. The federal troops had been hit hard by the militia infantry, but the divided force that was making its way toward the airfields and the rescued American captives had considerable firepower. The first thing Captain Ryan did was dispatch three of his squads to go after the federal troops moving toward the special forces teams preparing to extract the soldiers and their families. If they could hit the federal forces from the rear, his infantry should be able to alleviate the pressure on Lieutenant Cannon and his men.
Ryan had radioed Cannon to inform him of the threat heading in his direction and then sent two of his remaining three squads to assist the men at the airfield. However, the squad leaders were told to hold back until they received orders from Ryan. He had alerted the young sergeant, Alvin Grant, in charge of the two squads at the airfield of the impending threat. The militia squads had been assigned to capture the airfield but not to move in until the American hostages had been secured. However, when they heard the gunfire break out in other parts of the camp, Grant knew he had to move, so his men had immediately attacked the federal forces guarding the airfield; and since there were only ten guards, they were taken out quickly, but one militia soldier had been killed and two others wounded.