Oral History: WWIII

Sorry for the bad format, read it like pages in a book and it will be easier on the eyes. This was not written for ATS or on ATS. This is first draft form, so forgive.

A Note from the Author


It is my hope in bringing together these firsthand accounts of The War that the memory of this most important human event will not become a casualty of time. It is possible, maybe likely, that the human race has gone through similar cycles of near-death and rebirth in our ancient past. If such an ancient civilization did exist, they left nothing for us by way of history or science and little by way of evidence of their existence.

I am not qualified to cast in stone for future generations what we have learned to date of mathematics, science, or medicine; I was a writer and reporter before The War. If I can use my talent to help secure our memories for future generations then it may be possible to salvage some of the knowledge we have gained in the last few centuries. I pray that by reading this, future generations will be inspired to seek out the knowledge of their fathers and grandfathers and keep that knowledge alive.

I pray also that the horrid descriptions of The War contained in the eyewitness accounts of this book will spur future generations to guard the knowledge we have garnered of the workings of the physical world so that we never again use it to destroy ourselves or our world.

Finaly, I understand that my choice to publish this book in anonymity may seem a cowardly thing. This is not, however, my story alone. This book and these accounts belong to the people who donated their pieces of the puzzle by sharing with me, and with you, their most guarded and painful memories. As much as these memories belong to them, however, the stories they tell belong to us all.


- New Vegas, Nevada
November 11, 21 C.E.


1


Central Washington, North West Republic


[Ken Blanco sits down on a fresh-cut tree stump outside his home in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. A strong but short man, the soles of his steel-toed boots barely brush the grass below. He has just stepped from the forge attached to the side of his house and is sweating profusely. He stares blankly at the distant mountain peak for several minutes before he hesitatingly begins to speak.]

“If it’s why the war started in the first place you want to know, I can tell you why my war started. You have to understand, there was a lot of anti-government sentiment in the days before The War. Everyone had their own gripes, their own reasons to hate the government. I mean, everyone was pissed about something. Taxes were sky high, people’s rights were being trampled, the Middle East war was dragging on and on.

“In those days I considered myself a patriot. I backed our government, no matter what it did, just so long as the phrase ‘homeland security’ was thrown in. I didn’t realize that there is a difference between a patriot who supports his country to the end and a nationalist who supports his government no matter what. I had my reasons. I was 10 when San Francisco happened. I lost both my parents. I fell in line with the new bandwagon patriots who seemed to be everywhere back then.

“When I was 20, I joined the army to go fight in the Middle East. By then things were going very bad over there and most people just wanted us to leave, but not me. I wanted to go over there; I wanted to bring the fight to them. I never made it. You know, sometimes I thank God that I didn’t get my wish, that I didn’t have to go over there and kill those people. Other times, though, I feel like maybe it would have been better to go and die over there then to do what we had to here at home.

“When I was 21, after [1] OCS, I came down on orders for Ft. Lewis. I never got out much; I was what they called a ‘barracks rat.’ I would sit at home all night on my computer playing games and surfing the web. I spent a lot of time on the sites about San Francisco. I was drawn to them. The more evidence I read that the government wasn’t telling the truth about what happened, the more it started to make sense, and the more I wanted to find the truth. I never believed the theory that the government did it, not until the conspiracy web sites went down. You know how everyone was back then; no one wanted to admit the truth that was right in front of us. I remember watching a movie about some news guy when I was a kid who goes crazy and says [2] ‘Just let me keep my toaster and I won’t say anything.’ That’s how we all were back then. Just let us live in peace and be comfortable and why should we say anything? Problem was, we let it go too far. We weren’t comfortable anymore.

“When they canceled my unit’s orders to deploy to the Middle East and we

[1] OCS: Officer Candidate School
[2] Howard Beale, a character in the 1976 movie Network played by actor Peter Finch, says the line “Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything.”
.

2

jumped right into advanced [3] MOUT training I knew something big was about to happen. Seattle was the site of daily protests against the M.E. war. It was so bad up there we actually weren’t allowed to go there in uniform, you know, for our own safety. Well, at first anyways. After the first Seattle riots my company was given orders to deploy to the city. When we arrived in the back of 5 ton trucks we pulled right into a camp just outside the downtown area. It was a brick apartment building the Army had acquired to use as a barracks. Our engineers put up concrete barriers around the perimeter and we actually fortified the barracks with sandbag machine gun nests. You gotta understand that they had it ready. The barracks I mean, the apartment building, it was ready for us!

“It really sank in for everyone how bad things were when after being there a week we were given the ROE, the Rules of Engagement, and issued a combat load of live rounds before a patrol. You know, everything that’s happened and I still remember that day like it was yesterday. You should have seen the look on my guys’ faces when I briefed them. I was actually expecting some of the guys to be excited about the chance to stop the protests. The looks that I got ranged from shock to fear. No ‘hoaahs,’ no ‘lets get em,’ just silence. I asked my Platoon Sergeant if the ROE was clear to everyone and he freaked out. ‘Of course the rules are f****** clear, you don’t shoot anyone who doesn’t shoot at you!’ I pulled him aside and asked him what his problem was. He apologized and told me that if I had gone to the Middle East I would understand that the ROE we were given was the same one they had over there. He looked like he was going to cry. He told me that he would not shoot at innocent Americans, that he couldn’t lead soldiers into a situation where they would have to make that choice.

“While we were talking outside, I heard gun shots from inside the building. We thought it was probably an accidental discharge and went inside the building. There was commotion by the Commander's office. We walked over, told a group of enlisted guys to back off, and saw the commander lying on the floor of his office. There was blood everywhere. One of the medics looked up from the CO’s body and said he couldn’t do anything. Another medic was treating the [4]XO who had been shot in the shoulder. With all the Platoon Leaders there, the First Sergeant told us what happened. He showed us orders that had been received from Squadron saying that at 1500 The President would make a public declaration of martial law, that in the interest of homeland security all personal firearms were to be turned in to local law enforcement agencies, and that our company was to proceed immediately to Tacoma where we would man several roadblocks to perform vehicle searches for at least a 48 hour period. We were to detain any person transporting firearms or anti-war/anti-government literature as well as any person who refused to comply with the search. He said that the XO had argued with the Commander, saying it wasn’t right, that we had sworn to defend the constitution. The XO said he would refuse the orders. The Commander pulled out his sidearm and pointed it at the XO. He ordered the First Sergeant to take the XO into custody. When the First

[3] MOUT – Military Operations on Urban Terrain
[4] XO – Executive Officer, second in command of a company
3


Sergeant said he couldn’t do that, that the Commander should listen to what the XO had to say, the Commander had yelled at the First Sergeant, repeating his orders to lock up the XO. While yelling and looking at the First Sergeant, the Commander’s gun went off, shooting the XO in the shoulder. First Sergeant said the Commander looked and him, said ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to,’ and then shot himself in the head.





[edit on 19-12-2007 by cavscout]

Thanks for the read.

This was obviously inspired by the style of "World War Z" by Max Brooks.



[edit on 19-12-2007 by cavscout]

Please do continue! Have you already completed this piece, or is it a work in progress?

Originally posted by Unit541
Please do continue!

The greatest compliment you can give to a story teller who delivers a partial work is "please continue" because it eases self doubt.

Thank you.

Have you already completed this piece, or is it a work in progress?

That is a secret

[edit on 19-12-2007 by cavscout]

I definatly agree! I would love to read more of what you have!

How long have you been working on this story, and what inspired you to write it?