Donnelly had written a best-selling book about his experiences that focused not on himself but on the bravery of his men. This further endeared him to the members of the VFW post. As a result, when the VFW members were approached by the civil authorities and asked to recommend a county militia commander, they were solidly in favor of Donnelly. Their recommendation was accepted, and Ben Donnelly was asked to present a plan to the county for a militia. However, what he came up with was not just a plan for the militia but a plan for the entire county and, eventually, surrounding counties. He first insisted that the militia would only serve as the military component of the county. The city and county governments would remain intact with elections conducted as usual. He did not want to subvert the Constitution by establishing a military dictatorship.
Cities and towns such as Canton would still provide police and firefighters for their communities, and the reminder of the county would be under the jurisdiction of the county sheriff and his deputies. The militia would only step in during extraordinary circumstances. It would be up to the towns and the county to set up a way to compensate these men and women for their services. The militia’s primary job would be to protect the border of the county from incursions either by looters or by federal forces. In order to do that, Donnelly wanted to make sure that his soldiers were highly trained and not just a ragtag group of men with weapons.
There were many military veterans in Van Zandt County, and it had also become a retirement destination for many police and firefighters from the Dallas area, so there was a lot of talent to be tapped into. Veterans in the community were so highly prized that this small Texas town had established a beautiful veterans memorial that was visited by thousands of people each year. The situation that America faced was similar to that prior to and during the Revolutionary War. At that time, all male members of the communities were required to be in the militia. The general proposed the same system for the county. In fact, everyone in the county between the ages of eighteen and sixty-five would be required to serve in some capacity based on their physical abilities.
The military veterans received assignments based on their ranks and military skill sets. There were over three hundred veterans in the county, and it was estimated that there were enough able-bodied individuals in the county of over ten thousand citizens to create two full infantry battalions consisting of three companies each and a headquarters unit. Each battalion would have about eight hundred soldiers including officers and noncommissioned officers.
Half of the veterans would train the civilians in small arms weapons and tactics while the other half manned checkpoints blocking the entrances to the county. Fortunately, virtually every family in the county owned firearms of various types, and many had been stockpiling ammunition for several years until its availability was restricted by the government. So all members of the militia had to initially supply their own weapons and ammunition—and willingly did so. There was a wide variety of weapons from bolt-action hunting rifles to semi-automatic AK-47s and AR-15s along with many pistols and shotguns.
Ammunition was obviously precious, and since most residents were already good shots, there was no reason for most of them to engage in target practice. The obvious problem was that there were not any heavy weapons to speak of, although a few residents did admit to secretly owning some outlawed fully automatic weapons. The situation regarding ammunition and automatic weapons was partially solved by the family that owned a very large firearm dealership in the countryside outside of Canton. Their license-to-sell firearms had been revoked by the federal government even before the EMP attack. Federal agents had showed up at their business and home to inventory and seize their weapons and ammunition but found nothing. The owners Todd and Jane Buchanan and their two sons, Caleb and Chris, claimed that they had sold their remaining inventory to buyers from another county. Of course, they had no records of this sale.
The five federal police officers immediately arrested the Buchanan family in order to take them back to their headquarters in Dallas where they could be interrogated. However, when they emerged from the family home with their captors, they discovered they had a problem. There were over a hundred armed men surrounding the home and the two federal vehicles. No one said a word, but the intention of the men was clear. The feds would not be taking the Buchanan family anywhere. The federal police officers got the message and quickly got into their vehicles and drove away. This was the first encounter they had with the people of Van Zandt County, but it was only the beginning.
The next day a much larger contingent of the federal police showed up at the Buchanan home again, but the family was long gone. They had moved to their cabin deep in the East Texas woods, but they were not actually living there. They were in an underground bunker they had constructed on the fifteen-acre property a few years before. It was a large bunker with living and sleeping quarters for the family as well as a small kitchen. There was also a large pantry stocked with food and water that would keep the family alive for at least two years. The whole bunker had an electrical system run by carefully camouflaged solar panels.
In addition, there was a tunnel from the family bunker to another bunker where they had stored numerous weapons, ammunition, and large amounts of black powder. There was also a workroom with a big supply of parts needed to convert semi- automatic weapons to full automatic. After the EMP attack, Todd Buchanan heard that there were militia units being formed in Van Zandt County. He then found out that the newly appointed county militia commander had called for a meeting of all veterans in the county, and as a former officer of the elite marine recon units, Todd decided to attend.
He was impressed by what he heard, primarily because General Donnelly did not intend to have the militia be just a defensive force. He was going to organize his units and train them to not only defend the county and its towns but also to conduct both short- and long-range reconnaissance patrols so they could find out if any threats were developing in neighboring counties. In addition, he was going to have his units conduct combat patrols against targets of opportunity such as federal patrols, raiding parties, or just criminal gangs. Such raids could prevent attacks on the county and hopefully secure additional weapons, ammunition, and other supplies for the militia.
After the meeting, Todd approached the general and offered his services. He felt like he could best help by having him and his family be the armorers for the militia. They would convert certain weapons to fully automatic mode, reload ammunition, and even create homemade hand grenades and other explosives. He could also provide some additional weapons and ammo to the militia. General Donnelly readily agreed and appointed Todd as his armorer with the rank of major in the militia.
Chapter XX
When General Donnelly arrived at the border crossing, the first thing he wanted to do was see his son, but he was approached first by Ray who told him that his son was worried that his father would reject him as a traitor. Ray quickly explained to him that his son was a true patriot who had been arrested for trying to help the federal detainees in New Orleans. He also informed the general about his son’s heroism in helping to initiate the escape of Ray and his team.
Ben Donnelly told Ray that he had never doubted that his son would eventually see the light and follow the right path. With that assurance, Ray took the general to the guard shack where he was able to see and embrace his son for the first time in many years. It was a bittersweet reunion, because while Jamie was grateful for his father accepting him back into the family, he was devastated to learn that while his bothers were still alive, his mother had died several years ago from cancer. Jamie knew that if he had not left his family, he could have been present to say good-bye to his mother. Ben could only reassure him that his mother had never stopped loving Jamie and always knew that Jamie loved her.
Their conversation had to be brief because the general had much to do, but Jamie had a request. He had spoken briefly with some of the members of one of the E
ast Texas militia special operation units that had arrived earlier in the day. He told his father that he was ready and willing to go through whatever training was necessary for him to become a part of one of the units. Ben Donnelly had to smile as he looked at his scrawny son who had obviously suffered greatly while a captive of the federal regime. He nodded his head and told his Jamie that as his mother used to say, “We need to fatten you up first. Then I’ll turn you over to the tough bastards who run our special operations training camp.”
There were now eight special operations teams in the East Texas militia. The core personnel were veterans of the army rangers, Green Berets, Navy SEALs, marine recon, and air force commandos. They ran a rigorous training program for volunteers who wanted to join the elite force. The program had continued to expand in the years since the EMP attack as had the militia. Shortly after the Van Zandt County militia had been formed, General Donnelly had reached out to surrounding counties that were also forming militias or considering forming them.
He met with the leaders and told them that he believed the counties would be safer if they coordinated their efforts and provided mutual defensive and offensive capabilities. The wisdom of his plans was immediately seen by those he talked to, and the militia expanded into one county after another. While this was happening, the federal forces were also expanding, often with the help of foreign troops and mercenaries. The feds had initially been responsible for taking control of the major cities in Texas and around the nation. They handled the cities in Texas the same way that Jamie had seen it done New Orleans.
The feds’ primary focus was not on protecting lives and property from looters and other criminals or providing basic services to the surviving residents but disarming the American citizens who were trying to protect themselves. For example, in Dallas, Texas, thousands of people had been killed while thousands more had fled the city. The feds basically allowed the criminal gangs to have their way in the city and actually brought them in as allies to help control the streets and the population. They also allied themselves with the Mexican drug cartels that were operating freely throughout Texas because of the open-border policy of the federal government.
However, controlling the cities was difficult because there were Americans who fought back, but they were not as well organized as the militias in East Texas had become. This chaos in the cities had bought the time the militia needed to train and be ready for the defense of East Texas. The feds did send patrols into counties surrounding the big cities, some of them heavily armed and supported by armored vehicles like Humvees and Strykers. The intention was to intimidate the populations and, if possible, disarm them. It not only didn’t work, it became an epic failure.
Donnelly had ordered the militia trained for both defensive and offensive operations. When militia recon patrols discovered an intrusion by the feds into the counties they controlled, a militia combat unit was sent in. Sometimes it was a special operations unit or a combination of such units and regular militia troops. They were proving to be highly successful in ambushing the federal units, killing the federal soldiers, and seizing their vehicles, equipment, and supplies.
These actions not only soon discouraged the feds from further incursions but also provided the militia with much-needed heavy weapons and armored vehicles. The militia’s strength was further augmented by the return of National Guard and reserve units to active duty in the counties. After the EMP attacks, the governor of Texas had sent many such units to secure the Texas borders in clear defiance of the orders by the federal government to put all those units under its control. The units in East Texas were covering the state’s northeastern and eastern borders with Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana.
As the militia got stronger, its members were able to take over the border patrol from the overstretched National Guard and reserve units so that the soldiers could go home and spend some much-needed and long-overdue time with their families. Eventually, the guard and reserve units that were legally federal units but whose soldiers had revolted were merged into the militia and the commanders readily submitted to be commanded by General Donnelly. Some of the National Guard units were part of a military police brigade. These units were armed with regulation 9mm pistols, M4 carbines or M16 automatic rifles, and some heavier weapons such as machine guns and grenade launchers. They also had armored Humvees and some Stryker vehicles. Other different types of units had provided the militia with some light artillery, a dozen tanks, a variety of mortars, and machine guns.
Chapter XXI
The militia was now better armed but lacked any air power, antiaircraft capability, and heavy artillery. Thus, General Donnelly was delighted to learn from Ray that the Louisiana National Guard units coming from Donaldsonville would be providing his command with both Blackhawk and Apache helicopters, as well as some additional tanks. He knew that the federal government would eventually be forced to launch a major assault against his militia and the area they controlled that had now been dubbed the Alamo by the people in Texas and the surrounding states.
Therefore, the general was not surprised by the intelligence Ray had gathered about the enemy force being amassed in New Orleans that had East Texas as its ultimate target. He immediately had the Louisiana National Guard members who had transported Ray and his team to Texas return to Louisiana and bring the members of the units, their families, and their equipment into Texas. They could obviously not leave the way they had entered, but there was a pontoon bridge that had secretly been constructed across the Sabine River, south of the bridge where Ray and his team had crossed. It was well concealed and had been used by the Texas militia to send recon patrols into Louisiana.
The guard members moved carefully but made it back to their headquarters near Donaldsonville, Louisiana, within a few days; and forty-eight hours later, the ground units and their families had moved out. Several Humvees with well-armed troops were on the point, and the tanks followed them. The rest of the vehicles were right behind the tanks. There were some Strykers and numerous other vehicles including vans and military trucks that carried more troops, their families, and what meager possessions they were allowed to bring with them. The vehicles were also filled to the brim with weapons, fuel, and ammunition.
It had been planned to have the helicopter units remain in place initially so they could be called in to provide fire support in case the ground units ran into trouble. Fortunately, that did not happen; and once the ground units reported they were safely in Texas, the choppers took off, loaded with additional supplies and fuel. They landed at a small airport right outside of Canton, Texas, where they were soon joined by the ground units. The helicopters and military vehicles were dispersed to hidden locations in the area, and the families and troops were put up for the time being in a tent city hidden in the woods. They would eventually have more substantial housing built for them, but now the top priority was elsewhere.
Since Ray had informed General Donnelly of the impending attack coming up from New Orleans, all preparations had to be made to meet that attack and to deal with a buildup of federal forces that was occurring to the west along the border between Dallas County and Kaufman County. The feds controlled Dallas County that included the devastated city of Dallas and its suburbs while the East Texas militia controlled Kaufman County. The city of Mesquite that was right on the eastern county line had avoided most of the initial rioting and destruction that had occurred in the rest of the Dallas metropolitan area. Its small but effective city militia had turned away the looters but fell quickly when the feds attacked in force.
This particular force consisted of a small but heavily armed contingent of federal troops that had been augmented by an unholy alliance with various vicious gangs in the Dallas area. The federal agreement with the gangs was simple. They would be armed and assist in the attack on Mesquite. Their payment would be free rein to loot the homes and businesses in the city.
The attack came quickly and was unexpected, so the Ka
ufman County militia and the rest of the East Texas militia had not even been able to mobilize and react. The gang members ran wild and not only looted the city but raped women and girls and murdered many of the male inhabitants. The feds allowed this to happen for a few days and then offered the gangs the same opportunity to assist in the invasion of Kaufman County. The gangs agreed, and the feds began consolidating and building up their forces along the county border.
It was a formidable force consisting of two companies of federal troops containing over five hundred men as well as over a thousand gang members. They had RPGs, grenades, machine guns, and many other automatic weapons. They also said some armored Humvees and several Strykers. As they massed on the county border, the Kaufman militia dug in with strong defensive positions. General Donnelly responded by moving in a full battalion of militia infantry from Van Zandt County that was just to the east of Kaufman to support the defenders.
The East Texas militia had continued to grow over the years and now consisted of over ten thousand troops, so Donnelly knew that they could defeat the threat on their western border, but he was suspicious. There was something else going on here. He sent out several recon patrols that found what he had suspected: there was an Iranian army armored platoon with four tanks supported by two infantry companies in reserve about five miles behind the federal position on the Kaufman County border. This gave the feds a much stronger force, but it made Donnelly even more suspicious.
First, the feds must know that reconnaissance patrols were regularly conducted by the militia, yet no real effort had been made to conceal the Iranian reserve position. Secondly, even though the feds did not know the exact strength of the militia, they surely knew that it could probably be able to defend the border against the force that was currently being arrayed against it. The general’s suspicions were confirmed by what Ray Thibodeaux had told him. The buildup on the border of Kaufman County was essentially a ruse to cause the major part of the militia to deploy against that threat. That would leave the Alamo vulnerable to the attack coming from the east.