From SC Creator: I am always honored to get fan fiction from SC fans and this is one of the biggest I've ever received. Its also very interesting since the author has a medical background so she can grasp the rigors of war on a medical team much better than I. Mrs. Garcia has also been asking me tons of questions about SC canon for a long time to get it just right. Thank you for sharing your vision of Shattered Citadel. 27102012.
From the FF Creator: Hi Michael, here is the finished short story I was writing about medical care during SC. I've change a few things, but kept the general timelines. Let me know what you think. (Me: I liked it) This is also a two-parter, for now I'll just see how Part 1 does.
SCFF: Incoming
BY: Cameron Garcia
The Western High Command had begun to plan for the invasion of China. Called “Operation Scorch Gardens” To do this, it is decided to combine all militaries into three large Army groups consisting of over 280,000,000 men and women. Each Army Group Commander has now been elevated to the rank of a five star Field Marshal.
Field Marshall, Sir Edmund Montgomery III’s (Army Group North) of over 30,000,000 would enter China from Siberia, and fight their way into Mongolia and through to Manchuria. Field Marshall Radish Singh’s (Army Group South) of 200,000,000 would enter through the Himalayas into Tibet and reach China. With Field Marshall, George Tiberius Patton’s (Army Group West) of 50,000,000 entered China from Taiwan through the East Coast of China, and fighting their way into Beijing.
02042077, China, Earth [Sol].
Lieutenant Fergus McDuffie, QARNC (Queen Anne’s Royal Nursing Corps) had been transferred from the British Army to the 2075th MV, and always worked the Emergency Department (ED) weekend duty roster. He had a nice schedule of working the day shift from 0700 to 1400 hrs. After work he could immerse himself in his Chinese studies, trying his hand at writing that great novel he wanted to write, or seeing one particular female nurse from the Post Anesthetic Recovery Room (PARR), or just kick back and enjoy his large collections of DVD’s, life was great and today he was the Base Station Nurse on duty.
By 0855 hrs, the morning started off with a bang. Everything from the common flu, to falls, lacerations, and a self-inflected gunshot wound when one of the cooks who thought she would shoot a rat eating food in the storage CONNEX, missed and shot her right foot kept the 80 nurses and 120 medical corpsman busy. Major Henrietta Johnson the day shift head nurse was in her office looking at the sign in log which had 185 patients coming through since the shift started. Auditing a few charts, and make phone calls to some of the wards for an update on a few that had been admitted.
While on the phone, she heard the unmistakable noise coming from the Base Station Radio communication room. Hearing the same noise, Lieutenant McDuffie walked into the Base Station Radio room, containing 10-20 Corpsmen manning the various computer consoles. With its large glass windows, one could see it had the latest state of the art communication system that could talk to any one of the thousand of MEGVACS in the CTO (China Theater of Operations), or Air or land ambulances.
Computers kept track of the patient flow from the receiving trauma rooms, to any part of the hospital. Bar codes on every piece of equipment, throw away items, drugs, and even the patient guaranteed that they would not be lost in the thousands and thousands of casualties coming in through the ED doors. With the newer Combat Patient Information System (CPIS), each patient was initially bar coded in the field, using the information from their dog tags, using a small hand held scanner, the medics would input the type of injury location & severity, and the type of medical procedure performed. At the same time, the patient would be scanned for other injuries to include a CT scan. Once completed, the medics then upload and sent this information to a centrally secured CPIS computer where the information was sent to all MEGVACS, within a 500 mile radius. With the information safely stored, the patient was packaged for transport.
Besides the computer console, the MCPIS automatically updated the Combat Trauma Computer System (CTCS). This system kept track of the eight person team assigned to one of the thousands of trauma teams. Because so many of the Officers, nurses, and medics were transferred to other MEGVACS, the trauma teams always ran short of personnel. With the continued transfer of staff, and replacements, the 2075th was a 3000 patient Mega Evacuation Hospital (MEGVACS).
With over 360 Trauma teams of 8 physicians, nurses and medical corpsmen, it was now down to 250 teams, and this was one issue that worried Lieutenant Colonel Delfin, not enough teams to care for the eventual casualty rate for the Battle of Beijing, and finally Xi’an.
Lieutenant McDuffie opened the door and yelled in his Scottish Brogue..
WE HAVE INCOMING…ETA 15 MINUTES. 1 MEDI-VAC COMING IN WITH FOUR CRITS, AND 26 NON CRITS, AND FIVE MORE MEDI-VACS WITH 1-8-5 CRITS, WITH SERIOUS NON-CRITICAL LIFE THREATENING INJURIES.
With the flight of casualties coming to the 2075th the Emergency Department went into a well-rehearsed high rate of speed. Massive heavy covered carts were being wheeled into position from their from their wall storage cabinets, other nurse/corpsmen were now moving non-emergent patients who were waiting for a physician to some of the smaller exam rooms. One or two of the corpsmen started hanging IV Bags on the IV poles, and charged the IV Infusers. As Henrietta came out of her office she asked; how many patients and how many birds are coming in. Lieutenant McDuffie said a total of thirty patients per helicopter, and now there were six Air Ambulances with 185 CRITS, less than 15 minutes out.
Home Plate, Home Plate, this is Redeye 151 with emergency traffic, over…
Redeye 151 this is Home Plate go ahead with your emergency traffic, over.…
Home Plate, Redeye 151 continuing, I have thirty casualties, on this bird. Four are critical, and the others are serious but non life threatening, and our ETA is now 10 minutes, over.….
As the radio traffic continued Colonel John Edwards commanding officer of the 2075th, and a Board Certified Trauma Surgeon entered the room, standing by Major Johnson, he listened as the flight medic gave his report on the status of all of his patients. One after another each flight medic on the other Air Ambulances gave their reports to Lieutenant McDuffie, but the three patients coming in demanded a quick decision, and the fourth one in full cardiac arrest would be dealt with…
Redeye 151, Home Plate; how long has CPR been in progress?
Home plate, Redeye 151 approximately almost two hours….
Home Plate, Redeye 151 continuing
Patient # 1: 34 y/o, 137lb WFA, Blast victim, suffered massive head trauma to the occipital region, with numerous penetrating injuries, a broken collar bone, multiple contusions , and flash burns to her upper neck, and face. BP continuing to drop, but holding steady at 40/30. We have her on two 1,000 cc bags of Normal Saline, and two units of packed cells. Respirations are still shallow. Patient is responsive to painful stimuli, left pupil is blown, the right pupil is sluggish, but reactive to light. Patient’s BP- 100/20, P – 40 slow, R-12. We have her on face masks with high flow O2, at 100 LPM (Liters per minute).
Patient #2: 28 y/o , 145 lb WFA, Blast victim, double BK (below the knee), numerous penetrating injuries, she has penetrating injuries to her abdomen under her body armor, extensive genito/urinary injuries, loss of hearing in both ears. She has a large trauma dressing applied to her genital area. Bilateral tourniquets applied, and both legs have been bandaged. We’ve hung a 3rd 1,000 cc bag of Normal Saline (NS), we have her on plasma expanders. 5cc’s of MS (Morphine Sulfate) at 1600 hrs. Currently patient’s vitals are stable at this time. Patient’s BP 80/20, P-14 slow, R-5-6. We have her on face masks with high flow O2, at 100 LPM (Liters per minute).
Patient #3: 38 y/o, 178lb WMA, multiple GSW’s to upper chests, sucking chest wound. Severe lacerations to upper legs, arms and lower legs which have been bandaged. We have him on face masks with high flow O2, at 100 LPM (Liters per minute).
Patient #4: 39 y/o, 134 lb AMA, blast victim in full Cardiac Arrest, CPR being initiated. Patient is in full Cardiac Arrest, Cardiac meds aboard. Patient shocked twice at 250, 300, 400 joules, with no response. CPR continuing.
Patient #5: 18 y/o, 195 lb WMA victims of WP (White Phosphorous) full thickness 2nd & 3rd degree burns to face, upper neck, chest, facial, upper neck, arms. Patient is has been inserted into an Aqua-Gel burn bag, 5cc MS aboard, 100 liters 02 by mask at 100%.
Patient #6, 19 y/o, 175 WMA, WP victim, 3rd degree burns to upper torso, he has singed nasal hairs, respiratory distress, but conscious. Penetrating injuries to lower legs, upper arms. Aqua Gel burn dressing to face, neck and head, wounds dressed, 5cc MS given, patient is stable at this time with a BP at 160/92. Patient is on high flow 02 via mask at 100 LPM (Liters per minute).
Inside the Medi-Vac chopper, as the minutes went by the medics were not happy. Besides the other injured soldiers, the four critical ones , were being watched closely. Other Medics inside the Medi-Vac Air Ambulance were taking care of the other critical non-life threatening injuries, and even with all of their medical equipment aboard, it was getting to be touch and go. Listening to the status report, Dr. Edwards, took the microphone from Lieutenant McDuffie and said..
Redeye 151 this is Home Plate, what is Patient #1’s current status?
Home Base this is Redeye 151….Patient #1’s status has not changed, and has not gotten worse. Redeye 151, go and hang another 1,000 cc bag of Normal Saline, then add 100 cc’s of Mannitol to her IV bag, with a wide open drip rate, and keep on monitoring her vitals every 5 minutes. We’ll be waiting on the pad….
“Cheers”…
As Lieutenant Colonel Edwards turned to Lieutenant McDuffie and Major Johnson he said
“I guess the Haggis is on the fire”….
hen Major Johnson pushed the Trauma Recall Button, within a few minutes people assigned to their teams were now responding. Soon more than one hundred Trauma Teams were already assembling in the ED waiting for the MEDI-VACS to land.
G50 Huyu Expr, China, Earth [Sol]
0400 hrs, the men/women of the “Black Widows”, 4th Bn, 78th Infantry Brigade; 125th Infantry Division; Army Group South, were inside their M1001 GOLIATHS driving towards the area of a complex trench line, identified by Drones as trench 331A. Their mission was to probe the entire trench for information, and for any weaknesses in the Chinese lines that could be exploited. Getting out of the GOLIATHS, Charlie Company taking point, sent out one of its scout/recon platoons to scout ahead of the Battalion by 15 minutes. With Alpha and Delta Company on both flanks, Bravo as the rear security element, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Benson’s unit dismounted from the GOLIATHS, and started walking the rest of the way on foot towards the trenches.
Suddenly someone thought they heard the unmistakable sounds of whistling artilley shells coming down somewhere. Suddenly the Colonel, Command Sergeant Major, other officers, and parts of headquarters Company vanished in a white hot fiery cloud of steel shrapnel, dirt, and body parts. People were now screaming the words “INCOMING! . . .INCOMING!, . . . INCOMING!. Finding their range, the Chinese gunners firing 155mm, and 122mm SP’s. As Chinese gunners boxed in Battalion, they sought the safety of the 1 mile wide trench. As the GOLIATHS tried to move forward to extricate the Battalion, they too disappeared into a pile of twisted metal from Chinese snipers using anti-tank missiles.
Safely in the trench without any means of escape the soldiers hugged the sides of the trench, and then the shelling stopped; safely peering over the edge they watched as over 85,000 Chinese of the Independent 934th Red Guard division were now screaming in Chinese, and slowly marching towards them in an endless massive black human wave. Putting up a wall of steel, the Chinese went down, as another took his/her place. Soon mortar shells were exploding among the Chinese. Inside the small bunker, Captain Denise Goodman, along with her RTO, and Platoon Sergeant, were trying to raise headquarters when a high explosive shell exploded on the roof, and blowing everyone out of the bunker.
Suddenly the entire Kunyu River Area exploded into a fiery ball of fire; as soldiers of the Chinese 935th seemed to freeze before exploding into firewood, as artillery rounds from a Russian Artillery Unit were now peppering the Chinese with High Explosive shells with devastating effects, with the Chinese human wave being mowed down. Once the shelling stopped, six A-10A9’s dropped large 500lb Napalm bombs on the Chinese left standing. As the Chinese were now on fire and screaming, thousands broke ranks, and tried to run in all directions; but managed to run a few hundred feet before falling. As the fire consumed them, they laid on the ground as human torches in the hot Chinese sun.
Of the 600 men/women of 4th Battalion, 360 were KIA, 180 were WIA, and would be flown to the nearest MEG-VACS. Going through the dead, Military Intelligence discovered that the 935th was populated by older men/women Chinese soldiers in their mid 60’s, who were in poor health, and were wearing inferior body armor, and older les reliable infantry rifles.
From the FF Creator: Hi Michael, here is the finished short story I was writing about medical care during SC. I've change a few things, but kept the general timelines. Let me know what you think. (Me: I liked it) This is also a two-parter, for now I'll just see how Part 1 does.
SCFF: Incoming
BY: Cameron Garcia
The Western High Command had begun to plan for the invasion of China. Called “Operation Scorch Gardens” To do this, it is decided to combine all militaries into three large Army groups consisting of over 280,000,000 men and women. Each Army Group Commander has now been elevated to the rank of a five star Field Marshal.
Field Marshall, Sir Edmund Montgomery III’s (Army Group North) of over 30,000,000 would enter China from Siberia, and fight their way into Mongolia and through to Manchuria. Field Marshall Radish Singh’s (Army Group South) of 200,000,000 would enter through the Himalayas into Tibet and reach China. With Field Marshall, George Tiberius Patton’s (Army Group West) of 50,000,000 entered China from Taiwan through the East Coast of China, and fighting their way into Beijing.
02042077, China, Earth [Sol].
Lieutenant Fergus McDuffie, QARNC (Queen Anne’s Royal Nursing Corps) had been transferred from the British Army to the 2075th MV, and always worked the Emergency Department (ED) weekend duty roster. He had a nice schedule of working the day shift from 0700 to 1400 hrs. After work he could immerse himself in his Chinese studies, trying his hand at writing that great novel he wanted to write, or seeing one particular female nurse from the Post Anesthetic Recovery Room (PARR), or just kick back and enjoy his large collections of DVD’s, life was great and today he was the Base Station Nurse on duty.
By 0855 hrs, the morning started off with a bang. Everything from the common flu, to falls, lacerations, and a self-inflected gunshot wound when one of the cooks who thought she would shoot a rat eating food in the storage CONNEX, missed and shot her right foot kept the 80 nurses and 120 medical corpsman busy. Major Henrietta Johnson the day shift head nurse was in her office looking at the sign in log which had 185 patients coming through since the shift started. Auditing a few charts, and make phone calls to some of the wards for an update on a few that had been admitted.
While on the phone, she heard the unmistakable noise coming from the Base Station Radio communication room. Hearing the same noise, Lieutenant McDuffie walked into the Base Station Radio room, containing 10-20 Corpsmen manning the various computer consoles. With its large glass windows, one could see it had the latest state of the art communication system that could talk to any one of the thousand of MEGVACS in the CTO (China Theater of Operations), or Air or land ambulances.
Computers kept track of the patient flow from the receiving trauma rooms, to any part of the hospital. Bar codes on every piece of equipment, throw away items, drugs, and even the patient guaranteed that they would not be lost in the thousands and thousands of casualties coming in through the ED doors. With the newer Combat Patient Information System (CPIS), each patient was initially bar coded in the field, using the information from their dog tags, using a small hand held scanner, the medics would input the type of injury location & severity, and the type of medical procedure performed. At the same time, the patient would be scanned for other injuries to include a CT scan. Once completed, the medics then upload and sent this information to a centrally secured CPIS computer where the information was sent to all MEGVACS, within a 500 mile radius. With the information safely stored, the patient was packaged for transport.
Besides the computer console, the MCPIS automatically updated the Combat Trauma Computer System (CTCS). This system kept track of the eight person team assigned to one of the thousands of trauma teams. Because so many of the Officers, nurses, and medics were transferred to other MEGVACS, the trauma teams always ran short of personnel. With the continued transfer of staff, and replacements, the 2075th was a 3000 patient Mega Evacuation Hospital (MEGVACS).
With over 360 Trauma teams of 8 physicians, nurses and medical corpsmen, it was now down to 250 teams, and this was one issue that worried Lieutenant Colonel Delfin, not enough teams to care for the eventual casualty rate for the Battle of Beijing, and finally Xi’an.
Lieutenant McDuffie opened the door and yelled in his Scottish Brogue..
WE HAVE INCOMING…ETA 15 MINUTES. 1 MEDI-VAC COMING IN WITH FOUR CRITS, AND 26 NON CRITS, AND FIVE MORE MEDI-VACS WITH 1-8-5 CRITS, WITH SERIOUS NON-CRITICAL LIFE THREATENING INJURIES.
With the flight of casualties coming to the 2075th the Emergency Department went into a well-rehearsed high rate of speed. Massive heavy covered carts were being wheeled into position from their from their wall storage cabinets, other nurse/corpsmen were now moving non-emergent patients who were waiting for a physician to some of the smaller exam rooms. One or two of the corpsmen started hanging IV Bags on the IV poles, and charged the IV Infusers. As Henrietta came out of her office she asked; how many patients and how many birds are coming in. Lieutenant McDuffie said a total of thirty patients per helicopter, and now there were six Air Ambulances with 185 CRITS, less than 15 minutes out.
Home Plate, Home Plate, this is Redeye 151 with emergency traffic, over…
Redeye 151 this is Home Plate go ahead with your emergency traffic, over.…
Home Plate, Redeye 151 continuing, I have thirty casualties, on this bird. Four are critical, and the others are serious but non life threatening, and our ETA is now 10 minutes, over.….
As the radio traffic continued Colonel John Edwards commanding officer of the 2075th, and a Board Certified Trauma Surgeon entered the room, standing by Major Johnson, he listened as the flight medic gave his report on the status of all of his patients. One after another each flight medic on the other Air Ambulances gave their reports to Lieutenant McDuffie, but the three patients coming in demanded a quick decision, and the fourth one in full cardiac arrest would be dealt with…
Redeye 151, Home Plate; how long has CPR been in progress?
Home plate, Redeye 151 approximately almost two hours….
Home Plate, Redeye 151 continuing
Patient # 1: 34 y/o, 137lb WFA, Blast victim, suffered massive head trauma to the occipital region, with numerous penetrating injuries, a broken collar bone, multiple contusions , and flash burns to her upper neck, and face. BP continuing to drop, but holding steady at 40/30. We have her on two 1,000 cc bags of Normal Saline, and two units of packed cells. Respirations are still shallow. Patient is responsive to painful stimuli, left pupil is blown, the right pupil is sluggish, but reactive to light. Patient’s BP- 100/20, P – 40 slow, R-12. We have her on face masks with high flow O2, at 100 LPM (Liters per minute).
Patient #2: 28 y/o , 145 lb WFA, Blast victim, double BK (below the knee), numerous penetrating injuries, she has penetrating injuries to her abdomen under her body armor, extensive genito/urinary injuries, loss of hearing in both ears. She has a large trauma dressing applied to her genital area. Bilateral tourniquets applied, and both legs have been bandaged. We’ve hung a 3rd 1,000 cc bag of Normal Saline (NS), we have her on plasma expanders. 5cc’s of MS (Morphine Sulfate) at 1600 hrs. Currently patient’s vitals are stable at this time. Patient’s BP 80/20, P-14 slow, R-5-6. We have her on face masks with high flow O2, at 100 LPM (Liters per minute).
Patient #3: 38 y/o, 178lb WMA, multiple GSW’s to upper chests, sucking chest wound. Severe lacerations to upper legs, arms and lower legs which have been bandaged. We have him on face masks with high flow O2, at 100 LPM (Liters per minute).
Patient #4: 39 y/o, 134 lb AMA, blast victim in full Cardiac Arrest, CPR being initiated. Patient is in full Cardiac Arrest, Cardiac meds aboard. Patient shocked twice at 250, 300, 400 joules, with no response. CPR continuing.
Patient #5: 18 y/o, 195 lb WMA victims of WP (White Phosphorous) full thickness 2nd & 3rd degree burns to face, upper neck, chest, facial, upper neck, arms. Patient is has been inserted into an Aqua-Gel burn bag, 5cc MS aboard, 100 liters 02 by mask at 100%.
Patient #6, 19 y/o, 175 WMA, WP victim, 3rd degree burns to upper torso, he has singed nasal hairs, respiratory distress, but conscious. Penetrating injuries to lower legs, upper arms. Aqua Gel burn dressing to face, neck and head, wounds dressed, 5cc MS given, patient is stable at this time with a BP at 160/92. Patient is on high flow 02 via mask at 100 LPM (Liters per minute).
Inside the Medi-Vac chopper, as the minutes went by the medics were not happy. Besides the other injured soldiers, the four critical ones , were being watched closely. Other Medics inside the Medi-Vac Air Ambulance were taking care of the other critical non-life threatening injuries, and even with all of their medical equipment aboard, it was getting to be touch and go. Listening to the status report, Dr. Edwards, took the microphone from Lieutenant McDuffie and said..
Redeye 151 this is Home Plate, what is Patient #1’s current status?
Home Base this is Redeye 151….Patient #1’s status has not changed, and has not gotten worse. Redeye 151, go and hang another 1,000 cc bag of Normal Saline, then add 100 cc’s of Mannitol to her IV bag, with a wide open drip rate, and keep on monitoring her vitals every 5 minutes. We’ll be waiting on the pad….
“Cheers”…
As Lieutenant Colonel Edwards turned to Lieutenant McDuffie and Major Johnson he said
“I guess the Haggis is on the fire”….
hen Major Johnson pushed the Trauma Recall Button, within a few minutes people assigned to their teams were now responding. Soon more than one hundred Trauma Teams were already assembling in the ED waiting for the MEDI-VACS to land.
G50 Huyu Expr, China, Earth [Sol]
0400 hrs, the men/women of the “Black Widows”, 4th Bn, 78th Infantry Brigade; 125th Infantry Division; Army Group South, were inside their M1001 GOLIATHS driving towards the area of a complex trench line, identified by Drones as trench 331A. Their mission was to probe the entire trench for information, and for any weaknesses in the Chinese lines that could be exploited. Getting out of the GOLIATHS, Charlie Company taking point, sent out one of its scout/recon platoons to scout ahead of the Battalion by 15 minutes. With Alpha and Delta Company on both flanks, Bravo as the rear security element, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Benson’s unit dismounted from the GOLIATHS, and started walking the rest of the way on foot towards the trenches.
Suddenly someone thought they heard the unmistakable sounds of whistling artilley shells coming down somewhere. Suddenly the Colonel, Command Sergeant Major, other officers, and parts of headquarters Company vanished in a white hot fiery cloud of steel shrapnel, dirt, and body parts. People were now screaming the words “INCOMING! . . .INCOMING!, . . . INCOMING!. Finding their range, the Chinese gunners firing 155mm, and 122mm SP’s. As Chinese gunners boxed in Battalion, they sought the safety of the 1 mile wide trench. As the GOLIATHS tried to move forward to extricate the Battalion, they too disappeared into a pile of twisted metal from Chinese snipers using anti-tank missiles.
Safely in the trench without any means of escape the soldiers hugged the sides of the trench, and then the shelling stopped; safely peering over the edge they watched as over 85,000 Chinese of the Independent 934th Red Guard division were now screaming in Chinese, and slowly marching towards them in an endless massive black human wave. Putting up a wall of steel, the Chinese went down, as another took his/her place. Soon mortar shells were exploding among the Chinese. Inside the small bunker, Captain Denise Goodman, along with her RTO, and Platoon Sergeant, were trying to raise headquarters when a high explosive shell exploded on the roof, and blowing everyone out of the bunker.
Suddenly the entire Kunyu River Area exploded into a fiery ball of fire; as soldiers of the Chinese 935th seemed to freeze before exploding into firewood, as artillery rounds from a Russian Artillery Unit were now peppering the Chinese with High Explosive shells with devastating effects, with the Chinese human wave being mowed down. Once the shelling stopped, six A-10A9’s dropped large 500lb Napalm bombs on the Chinese left standing. As the Chinese were now on fire and screaming, thousands broke ranks, and tried to run in all directions; but managed to run a few hundred feet before falling. As the fire consumed them, they laid on the ground as human torches in the hot Chinese sun.
Of the 600 men/women of 4th Battalion, 360 were KIA, 180 were WIA, and would be flown to the nearest MEG-VACS. Going through the dead, Military Intelligence discovered that the 935th was populated by older men/women Chinese soldiers in their mid 60’s, who were in poor health, and were wearing inferior body armor, and older les reliable infantry rifles.
Standing in the shower stall she shared with her assistant Chief of Nursing; Lieutenant Colonel Arlene Delfin the Chief Nurse for the 2075th MEGVAC was just settling in for a nice long hot shower. Today she’d un-wrap that new bottle of Dove Bath Wash; she received from her younger sister Olivia. With her makeup wiped away, her long black/gray hair pinned up into a bun, she looked more like a friendly Filipina grandmother. On the outside the 6-1, 195 lb Chief of Nursing was an “In your Face”, tough as nails nurse who backed her nurse and enlisted personnel, and didn’t take any gruff from any one, to include any errant junior or field grade officer.
Lathering up and standing under the hot/warm water, she was thinking of maybe taking in a movie at the unit movie theater, or going through her stack of Netflex movies. Or maybe she’d go down to the kitchen, and see if Senior Chief Master Sergeant Phil Cox (USAF) the Mess Sergeant, would let her cook something from her Lola (Grandmother) “Loling’s” old family recipes to take back for “Women’s Night Out”. Instituting Women’s Nights Out allowed the female nurses, and corpsman to be women for the evening, and allowed them to vent out their feelings about the war.
Finding a wooden chair, Arlene sat down, leaning backwards against the shower wall with her legs spread apart, she let the water splash on her face, and thought about pre war Vallejo, Ca, and those long gone days before the war…15062046, With all of the bags packed, Mom/Dad and the family were going to be visiting both Lola Janet, and Lola Mary, who were now living on the 18th green at Pebble Beach, Ca, or….
She remembered those visits to San Francisco, visiting Steinhart Aquarium at Golden Gate park, visiting Haight Ashbury, eating at the Chinese and Filipino restaurant….
Then there was the February 5th, 2048 Super Bowl, at Niner Park when the San Jose Forty-Niners (old San Francisco 49’ers), and the Santa Clara Raiders (old Oakland raiders ) the Santa Clara Forty Niners won with a score of 56 to 21. Fully lathered, she was just about to wash the soap out of her hair, when the wall mounted recall monitor, beeped, and its texted message said….
“INCOMING with an ETA of 15 MINUTES” 4 SEVERELY INJURED WITH CRITICAL LIFE THREATENING INJURIES, 25 WITH CRITICAL NON-LIFE THREATENING INJURIES…. ETA 15 MINUTES..
Seeing the message, there was only one word that Arlene said, as she jumped out of the chair, leaving the shower stall “SHIT”! With her hair full of soap. She hurriedly dried off put on a pair of OD green coveralls, slipped into her shower flip flops, and grabbed a multi-colored towel, wrapping it around her long hair as she ran out of the shower room. Running by a high ranking general Arlene gave him a quick salute, and disappeared into a side corridor. Running to the crowded Trauma Room, which was being expanded by moveable doors, all the teams were now in place waiting for the patients. Arlene asked what the current status on all six Air Ambulances is. Lieutenant McDuffie said…
“INCOMING.. 15 MIN with 30 battle casualties, four critical with she did not like those odds. Normally Redeye 151 would take their patients to the 78th MEGVAC (MEG) which was another 10-15 minutes further than the 2057thMEG , but with the number of casualties, and the type of injuries, the Flight medic decided to divert to the 2057th MEG.
As the room became tense, someone said in a high voice…”Who’s got the Beef”? Or “Who’s your Daddy”? Which made everybody laugh, and soon everyone was adding their own spin to the joke. With the teams a bit looser they watched as Redeye 151 and the other MEDI-EVACS makes its final approach. Soon the wait was over as Redeye 151 landed on its assigned landing pad. The team of nurses and corpsmen out on the helipad exploded into action.
As soon as Redeye 151, and the rest of the other MEDI-VACS touched down, the rear passenger ramp of the large helicopter swung downwards, and then an army of Triage nurses were now climbing into the Medi-Vacs, scanning each soldier as they came out; ordering the corpsmen put them into a specific gurney for the short trip to the Trauma Department. As the gurneys approached the Trauma Room, each gurney with a team was moved to one of the hundreds of trauma station. The critical ones were moved to one side as specialize teams worked on them. The other non-life threatening were move to another part of the large Trauma Room.
Soon many of the gurneys were now on their way to one of the over five hundred operating room for further medical treatment. As each surgeon finished stabilizing each patient, they were then moved to one of the 15,000 beds where they would be watched for the next 24-72 hours. Once stabilized enough, they were then flown out within four days to one of the 1,000,000 bed MILMEGS.
As the last gurney left the large Trauma Bay, Arlene surveyed the room noting that the floors looked like a battlefield. Littered with cut off bloody uniforms, cast off field dressings, dirt, clumps of bushes, a few empty M-16 shell casings, now rolling on the floor, empty IV bags, half-filled ones, bandages, trampled and torn up papers, empty syringes and needles, discarded boxes, bloody gloves, contaminated Foley catheters, bloody suction tubing, suction bottles full of blood, it looked like your typical day caring for the badly injured.
Shortly the Base Station Radio came back on, Lieutenant MCDuffee answered the radio, and said that Redeye 151 was enroute; but with four serious, non-critical life threatening injuries. With the regular staff (80) in the Emergency Room, they could take care of these soldiers, while the rest of the trauma teams went back to their regular duties.
Walking down to the cafeteria, Arlene entered and ordered a light meal. Sitting down at the large table, she was soon joined by her assistant chief of nursing, other nurses, and a few of the medical corpsmen. As other doctors came over, there soon came laughter from their table of 50 people, as they started to tell the most morbid jokes, or stories that occurred during the life-flights. Excusing herself from her friends, Arlene went to her room to complete her shower. Finishing her shower, and drying her long hair, Arlene finally got into bed.
After spending a restless two hours in bed, Arlene got out of bed, knelt down by the side of her bed, reached underneath and retrieved a medium sized box. Removing the box cover, she found a marked sealed envelope address to Angela, on the front it only said.. ‘To be opened upon my death”. A packet of papers and a few photographs of the family and relatives long since gone.
Going into her darkened office, Arlene sat down her easy chair, switched on the reading lamp and sat down to read long lost letters, staring at the one large family picture, and the individual pictures of her sisters, and one in particular a picture of a smiling 17 year old boy taken before the war. There were her parents, so happy, their one pesky brother who kept on getting in trouble. Turning the picture over, she saw the names of her parents, her six sisters and Brother Kevin. Eight happy people unaware of the changes that were about to happen and how life would change for one of them…
Born March 10th, 2029; Kevin was the eldest of six sisters. Kevin’s father a political activist was born in Banga Aklan, Philippines in 1980. His mother a banking executive with the Bank of the Philippines was born in Cebu City , Philippines in 1996. With the political situation in the Philippines getting worse, and the assassination of activists, and political opponents at the now Infamous Luneta Park Rally grenade bombing, his parents immigrated to the United states in 2027, settling down in Vallejo, Ca.
Even though the children all spoke English, they didn’t speak their parents dialect, but could understand both parents, and would answer their parents back in English. Sometimes one of the children could put together a few simple sentences, but in general the family spoke English. Graduating from Piedmont High School, in June of 2047. Kevin had a secret, and he knew he was not Gay, he found that he was a Transgendered person, so after years of counseling, hormone therapy, Breast Augmentation, Gender Confirmation Surgery, and Female Feminization Surgery, and court ordered name and gender change, Kevin now Arlene entered Stanford University School of Nursing, graduating with a BSN in 2051, Arlene after talking to her military recruiter that she wanted to be a nurse in the US Army, and she was a former male, who had transitioned. Her recruiter citing Federal Law, and current Army regulations dating back to August 25th, 2032, told her that Transgenders were finally accepted by all of the military services, and being in the Army Nurse Corps would be fine.
In 2051, after attending Nurses Military Officers Training Program, Arlene was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army Nurse Corps. Arlene began to laugh as she remembered the day she was issued her uniforms in Basic training. Nothing fit her 6-1 frame, and with a weight of 195 lbs, all of her uniforms had to be specially ordered. She remembered the day she got her uniform, and put it on…. There standing in front of her full length Army Locker was a woman in a smartly fitted and custom made military uniform. From her first transfer as a 2nd Lieutenant in 2051, she had within eight years had been assigned to various Medical Units, and promoted from 1st and 2nd Lieutenant to Captain.
Arlene remembered another date; 25052060, and now assigned to the 150th Evacuation Hospital, as a brand new Major, and the new Chief of Nursing. Working with the 150th, she had molded the Emergency Room into one of the best Emergency Departments within AMED (Army Medical Department). The 150th had been in training for a possible invasion by the Chinese, and she had only been in the unit approximately two months, when the Chinese launched their attack on the California Coast on July 1,st , 2060. The United States was invaded by 92 division of the PLA. Once the first wave of Chinese had landed remnants of California’s 149th Infantry Brigade, Marines from Camp Pendleton, Army units from Ft. Carson, Co; Ft. Bragg, NC; and Ft. Hood, TX; were being sent to help stop the Chinese. There were the hundreds of civilian militias, from the surrounding states and regular citizens who had armed themselves and were now banding together in trying to stop the flood of Chinese from crossing across the Rockies into Nevada and eastward.
20092060, Donner Pass, California/Nevada border, Earth [Sol]
The 150th Field Hospital had somehow managed to escape into the Rocky Mountains of the California/Nevada border. The 150th was disbanded, merged with the remnants of hundreds of Army, National Guard, and Reserve medical units to become the 49th Composite Medical Hospital of the Western Defense Force of the Rocky Mountains (49th CMH/WDFRM) With the 49th operating at full strength, 5,000 Army Nurses, Civilian Nurses, Medical Corpsmen, EMT’s/Paramedics, Red Cross Volunteers, and CERT teams (Community Emergency Response Teams) began to treat the thousands, and thousands of injured soldiers, and many of the Civilians. With over 200 Air Ambulance assets coming from other Army/Air National Guard units, and reserve units, they were able to take the seriously injured to many safe zones in Nevada, and New Mexico.
22092060, Donner Pass, California/Nevada Border, Earth [Sol]
The situation became worse by the hour as the Chinese continued their heavy shelling, got closer and closer. As the millions of Chinese poured through the American lines, their defenses were overcome one by one by the millions of Chinese moving up the mountain. With the command post of General James Beauregard, now Commanding General of the Western Defense Force of the Rocky Mountains safely hidden with the medical hospitals, a dirty military Humvee with multiple bullet holes, drove up followed by a mixture of beat up APC’s, and trucks. As the convoy pulled up, they could see the 2,500 men and women slowly get out of their APC’s , trucks and whatever means were wearing a mixture of torn and blood military uniforms, of different camouflage patterns. With bloodshot eyes, fatigue, many of the men had not shaven for many days, the women’s hairs were disheveled, and many were not wearing makeup. For the soldiers who could walk they were wearing an assorted number of dirty and bloody bandages wrapped around their arms hands, legs or head. Taking the seriously wounded out, and treating them they saw a dirty and tired individual carrying an M16A6 came out of the lead Hummvee.
Judging by his manners, he was wearing a foreign Army uniform with two stars on his torn and mud splattered uniform, reporting to General Beauregard, he told him he was Major General Manfred Von Stuebenfeld, one of the other commander of the Western Defense Force of the Rocky Mountains (WDFRM), his militias/civilians had been working with the regular Army units, but they had taken heavy casualties. As a General with the German Army assigned to NATO, he had been attending a six month course at the Presidio of Monterey, and the Naval Post Graduate School, when the Chinese invaded.
Unable to return to Germany, he was given command of over 8,950 civilian militia groups that were federalized and put under his command. Fortunately for the General, there was a platoon of German soldiers also attending the Defense Language Institute/Foreign Language Center(DLI/FLIC) taking the Persian Farsi language as translators. Using the German Platoon, he was able to train the Militias, and the German troops to work together. As the Chinese rolled over the Americans military, his militia and Germans were able to momentarily slow down the Chinese, as the Americans, put together a rear guard action. Reduced to around 500 men/women they had gone into the mountains with the last American Rear Guard units.
Conferring with General Beauregard, it was decided that all medical personnel shall retreat east to safety with the millions of Americans attempting to flee the Chinese. General Beauregard ordered all medical personnel to leave the wounded, he and General Von Steubenfeld would provide cover so they could leave in safety. As two hundred Air Ambulances were loading up the women, children, some of the seriously wounded, and the medical personnel, they lifted off in time, as the Chinese overran the last defensive positions. Watching from the sky as they headed eastward, they could see the entire hospital compound crawling with Chinese. Years after the end of the war, captured Chinese documents reported that everyone had fought to the last man and women, while taking an 1500 additional Chinese with them
28092060, Mississippi Defense Line, Earth [Sol]
Dropping the civilians at one of a thousand of safe zones, the Medi-Vacs and the doctors, nurses and medical corpsmen finally made it to the MDL. Once there, they were debrief, fed and given quarters to rest for the next 72 hours. Some of the physicians would be heading out in the next 24 hours to a Field Hospital, Evacuation Hospital or a Battalion Aid Station, whereas a number of medical corpsmen would also be assigned to Infantry Units as medics. In the mean time, reports coming from the field indicated that the Chinese were now as far as Salt Lake City,UT, and down by the Arizona/Mexico border. After a few days, Arlene was given orders to report to the 326th Evacuation Hospital, as a Staff Nurse. The 326rh Evac would be involved in many operations along the MDL. Arlene was transferred to the 58th Evacuation Hospital as part of Army Group West. The 58th EVAC would be one of hundreds of thousands of Evacuation Hospitals, Field Hospitals, Medical Clearing Companies, Battalion Aid Station caring for the estimated 20-80 million of battle casualties.
Operation Scorch Gardens went as expected. Army Group South at LZ Eagle with over 39,578,529 soldiers from the US, Mexico, and Israel landed, and at D-Day + 10, they had control of the Cities of Fujan, Jheiang, and Shanghai. With over 1,222.40 miles of Chinese territory, they proceeded northward to Beijing. Army Group West (LZ Monkey) combined force of over 105,421,924 Indian and US troops landed, and by D-Day +15, they had taken the cities of Hong Kong (Macao), Guangdong, Shanoquan, Longyon, Xiamen and Kinmen.
Wading ashore at Fujan from the landing ships, the 58th EVAC was now in the thick of things. With over 1.5 million of injured during the first twenty days, these numbers would continue to skyrocket taking medical care back to the days of the old American Civil War between the North and South. With more and more Evacuation Hospitals, Field Hospitals, Battalion Aid Stations sagging under the continuous arrival of wounded, and about to break the entire Medical System down, Medical Planners at SHAPE/NATO came up with idea of combining four 750 patient Evacuation Hospitals into one large MEGVACS (Mega-Evacuation)The MEGVACS with over 128 physicians, 12 dentists, 5 administrative officers, 5 chaplains, 208 nurses, and 1272 medical corpsmen would be large Evacuation Hospitals that could treat more than 3,000 patients in its medical wards, and over 750 to 1000 casualties at one time in its large trauma bays.
Standing in the early morning light, twenty physicians, twenty to thirty nurses, and sixty medical corpsmen, in Class “A” uniforms stood in formation, as the colors of the 58th EVAC were now cased, and the hospital made non-operation. The 58th in its day was state of the art; but was unable to handle the new patient loads, without an up to date computer system and enlarged trauma bays, it was deemed to old.
As the flag of the newly designated 2075th MEGVAC was now unfurled, and blowing in the warm China sun. With a four week transition as additional physicians, nurses and medical corpsmen came aboard. The equipment of the 238th, 58th, 297th, and 80th Evacuation hospital were now pooled together as the 2075th MEGVAC.
With the change over in newer patient information systems, the MCPIS 5000, along with its TRCS were installed in its new communication room, making sure the 2075th could contact other MEGVACS , and Air Ambulances, and land ambulances within a 500 mile radius. After four weeks of getting to know each other, and performing simulated drills to see if everything worked like it should, the 2075th was now ready for business.
07282077 Yuncheng, Earth [Sol]
It didn’t’ take very long for the 2075th MEGVACS, and the MEGVACS to get casualties. As soon as the 2075th moved up into the Yuncheng Province area Air Ambulances were now landing and unloading between 200- 800 badly injured patients every hour. As the pitch of combat rose, the number of badly injured arrived. Sometimes they would be thrown into the Medi-Vacs w/o IV’s, With the Battalion Aid stations swamped, the injured were either stacked up outside with medics trying to attend to their wounds, or the medics would bandage, stick IV’s, and shove more than 100 casualties into a Medi-Vac Helicopter that would normally hold 60 patients w/o problems.
As the battles for Wi’an intensified; four more MEGVACS were setup not more than five miles from each other, with the capacity to treat over 12,000 casualties. After three months of heavy fighting, the Chinese had lost more than 62,935,951 soldiers killed in action and 30,874,354 wounded in actions.
With over 1.5 to 2 million soldiers surrendering daily the Allies now had more than 20,194,294 EPWS (Enemy Prisoner of War) . On September 9th, 2077 more than 5,000 generals, 300 Marshalls, and 50,000 junior officers surrendered to the Allies.
On October 2, 2077, an Armistice was signed by the Chinese Government. At exactly 1100 hrs, all guns finally fell silent in the CTO. For the millions of survivors, it was the end of the most bloody Civil War the world had ever seen; But for the Field Hospitals, Evacuation Hospitals, Air Ambulance Units, Clearing Hospitals, Battalion Aid Stations, work still continued, and the numbers of casualties still continued to climb.
Lathering up and standing under the hot/warm water, she was thinking of maybe taking in a movie at the unit movie theater, or going through her stack of Netflex movies. Or maybe she’d go down to the kitchen, and see if Senior Chief Master Sergeant Phil Cox (USAF) the Mess Sergeant, would let her cook something from her Lola (Grandmother) “Loling’s” old family recipes to take back for “Women’s Night Out”. Instituting Women’s Nights Out allowed the female nurses, and corpsman to be women for the evening, and allowed them to vent out their feelings about the war.
Finding a wooden chair, Arlene sat down, leaning backwards against the shower wall with her legs spread apart, she let the water splash on her face, and thought about pre war Vallejo, Ca, and those long gone days before the war…15062046, With all of the bags packed, Mom/Dad and the family were going to be visiting both Lola Janet, and Lola Mary, who were now living on the 18th green at Pebble Beach, Ca, or….
She remembered those visits to San Francisco, visiting Steinhart Aquarium at Golden Gate park, visiting Haight Ashbury, eating at the Chinese and Filipino restaurant….
Then there was the February 5th, 2048 Super Bowl, at Niner Park when the San Jose Forty-Niners (old San Francisco 49’ers), and the Santa Clara Raiders (old Oakland raiders ) the Santa Clara Forty Niners won with a score of 56 to 21. Fully lathered, she was just about to wash the soap out of her hair, when the wall mounted recall monitor, beeped, and its texted message said….
“INCOMING with an ETA of 15 MINUTES” 4 SEVERELY INJURED WITH CRITICAL LIFE THREATENING INJURIES, 25 WITH CRITICAL NON-LIFE THREATENING INJURIES…. ETA 15 MINUTES..
Seeing the message, there was only one word that Arlene said, as she jumped out of the chair, leaving the shower stall “SHIT”! With her hair full of soap. She hurriedly dried off put on a pair of OD green coveralls, slipped into her shower flip flops, and grabbed a multi-colored towel, wrapping it around her long hair as she ran out of the shower room. Running by a high ranking general Arlene gave him a quick salute, and disappeared into a side corridor. Running to the crowded Trauma Room, which was being expanded by moveable doors, all the teams were now in place waiting for the patients. Arlene asked what the current status on all six Air Ambulances is. Lieutenant McDuffie said…
“INCOMING.. 15 MIN with 30 battle casualties, four critical with she did not like those odds. Normally Redeye 151 would take their patients to the 78th MEGVAC (MEG) which was another 10-15 minutes further than the 2057thMEG , but with the number of casualties, and the type of injuries, the Flight medic decided to divert to the 2057th MEG.
As the room became tense, someone said in a high voice…”Who’s got the Beef”? Or “Who’s your Daddy”? Which made everybody laugh, and soon everyone was adding their own spin to the joke. With the teams a bit looser they watched as Redeye 151 and the other MEDI-EVACS makes its final approach. Soon the wait was over as Redeye 151 landed on its assigned landing pad. The team of nurses and corpsmen out on the helipad exploded into action.
As soon as Redeye 151, and the rest of the other MEDI-VACS touched down, the rear passenger ramp of the large helicopter swung downwards, and then an army of Triage nurses were now climbing into the Medi-Vacs, scanning each soldier as they came out; ordering the corpsmen put them into a specific gurney for the short trip to the Trauma Department. As the gurneys approached the Trauma Room, each gurney with a team was moved to one of the hundreds of trauma station. The critical ones were moved to one side as specialize teams worked on them. The other non-life threatening were move to another part of the large Trauma Room.
Soon many of the gurneys were now on their way to one of the over five hundred operating room for further medical treatment. As each surgeon finished stabilizing each patient, they were then moved to one of the 15,000 beds where they would be watched for the next 24-72 hours. Once stabilized enough, they were then flown out within four days to one of the 1,000,000 bed MILMEGS.
As the last gurney left the large Trauma Bay, Arlene surveyed the room noting that the floors looked like a battlefield. Littered with cut off bloody uniforms, cast off field dressings, dirt, clumps of bushes, a few empty M-16 shell casings, now rolling on the floor, empty IV bags, half-filled ones, bandages, trampled and torn up papers, empty syringes and needles, discarded boxes, bloody gloves, contaminated Foley catheters, bloody suction tubing, suction bottles full of blood, it looked like your typical day caring for the badly injured.
Shortly the Base Station Radio came back on, Lieutenant MCDuffee answered the radio, and said that Redeye 151 was enroute; but with four serious, non-critical life threatening injuries. With the regular staff (80) in the Emergency Room, they could take care of these soldiers, while the rest of the trauma teams went back to their regular duties.
Walking down to the cafeteria, Arlene entered and ordered a light meal. Sitting down at the large table, she was soon joined by her assistant chief of nursing, other nurses, and a few of the medical corpsmen. As other doctors came over, there soon came laughter from their table of 50 people, as they started to tell the most morbid jokes, or stories that occurred during the life-flights. Excusing herself from her friends, Arlene went to her room to complete her shower. Finishing her shower, and drying her long hair, Arlene finally got into bed.
After spending a restless two hours in bed, Arlene got out of bed, knelt down by the side of her bed, reached underneath and retrieved a medium sized box. Removing the box cover, she found a marked sealed envelope address to Angela, on the front it only said.. ‘To be opened upon my death”. A packet of papers and a few photographs of the family and relatives long since gone.
Going into her darkened office, Arlene sat down her easy chair, switched on the reading lamp and sat down to read long lost letters, staring at the one large family picture, and the individual pictures of her sisters, and one in particular a picture of a smiling 17 year old boy taken before the war. There were her parents, so happy, their one pesky brother who kept on getting in trouble. Turning the picture over, she saw the names of her parents, her six sisters and Brother Kevin. Eight happy people unaware of the changes that were about to happen and how life would change for one of them…
Born March 10th, 2029; Kevin was the eldest of six sisters. Kevin’s father a political activist was born in Banga Aklan, Philippines in 1980. His mother a banking executive with the Bank of the Philippines was born in Cebu City , Philippines in 1996. With the political situation in the Philippines getting worse, and the assassination of activists, and political opponents at the now Infamous Luneta Park Rally grenade bombing, his parents immigrated to the United states in 2027, settling down in Vallejo, Ca.
Even though the children all spoke English, they didn’t speak their parents dialect, but could understand both parents, and would answer their parents back in English. Sometimes one of the children could put together a few simple sentences, but in general the family spoke English. Graduating from Piedmont High School, in June of 2047. Kevin had a secret, and he knew he was not Gay, he found that he was a Transgendered person, so after years of counseling, hormone therapy, Breast Augmentation, Gender Confirmation Surgery, and Female Feminization Surgery, and court ordered name and gender change, Kevin now Arlene entered Stanford University School of Nursing, graduating with a BSN in 2051, Arlene after talking to her military recruiter that she wanted to be a nurse in the US Army, and she was a former male, who had transitioned. Her recruiter citing Federal Law, and current Army regulations dating back to August 25th, 2032, told her that Transgenders were finally accepted by all of the military services, and being in the Army Nurse Corps would be fine.
In 2051, after attending Nurses Military Officers Training Program, Arlene was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army Nurse Corps. Arlene began to laugh as she remembered the day she was issued her uniforms in Basic training. Nothing fit her 6-1 frame, and with a weight of 195 lbs, all of her uniforms had to be specially ordered. She remembered the day she got her uniform, and put it on…. There standing in front of her full length Army Locker was a woman in a smartly fitted and custom made military uniform. From her first transfer as a 2nd Lieutenant in 2051, she had within eight years had been assigned to various Medical Units, and promoted from 1st and 2nd Lieutenant to Captain.
Arlene remembered another date; 25052060, and now assigned to the 150th Evacuation Hospital, as a brand new Major, and the new Chief of Nursing. Working with the 150th, she had molded the Emergency Room into one of the best Emergency Departments within AMED (Army Medical Department). The 150th had been in training for a possible invasion by the Chinese, and she had only been in the unit approximately two months, when the Chinese launched their attack on the California Coast on July 1,st , 2060. The United States was invaded by 92 division of the PLA. Once the first wave of Chinese had landed remnants of California’s 149th Infantry Brigade, Marines from Camp Pendleton, Army units from Ft. Carson, Co; Ft. Bragg, NC; and Ft. Hood, TX; were being sent to help stop the Chinese. There were the hundreds of civilian militias, from the surrounding states and regular citizens who had armed themselves and were now banding together in trying to stop the flood of Chinese from crossing across the Rockies into Nevada and eastward.
20092060, Donner Pass, California/Nevada border, Earth [Sol]
The 150th Field Hospital had somehow managed to escape into the Rocky Mountains of the California/Nevada border. The 150th was disbanded, merged with the remnants of hundreds of Army, National Guard, and Reserve medical units to become the 49th Composite Medical Hospital of the Western Defense Force of the Rocky Mountains (49th CMH/WDFRM) With the 49th operating at full strength, 5,000 Army Nurses, Civilian Nurses, Medical Corpsmen, EMT’s/Paramedics, Red Cross Volunteers, and CERT teams (Community Emergency Response Teams) began to treat the thousands, and thousands of injured soldiers, and many of the Civilians. With over 200 Air Ambulance assets coming from other Army/Air National Guard units, and reserve units, they were able to take the seriously injured to many safe zones in Nevada, and New Mexico.
22092060, Donner Pass, California/Nevada Border, Earth [Sol]
The situation became worse by the hour as the Chinese continued their heavy shelling, got closer and closer. As the millions of Chinese poured through the American lines, their defenses were overcome one by one by the millions of Chinese moving up the mountain. With the command post of General James Beauregard, now Commanding General of the Western Defense Force of the Rocky Mountains safely hidden with the medical hospitals, a dirty military Humvee with multiple bullet holes, drove up followed by a mixture of beat up APC’s, and trucks. As the convoy pulled up, they could see the 2,500 men and women slowly get out of their APC’s , trucks and whatever means were wearing a mixture of torn and blood military uniforms, of different camouflage patterns. With bloodshot eyes, fatigue, many of the men had not shaven for many days, the women’s hairs were disheveled, and many were not wearing makeup. For the soldiers who could walk they were wearing an assorted number of dirty and bloody bandages wrapped around their arms hands, legs or head. Taking the seriously wounded out, and treating them they saw a dirty and tired individual carrying an M16A6 came out of the lead Hummvee.
Judging by his manners, he was wearing a foreign Army uniform with two stars on his torn and mud splattered uniform, reporting to General Beauregard, he told him he was Major General Manfred Von Stuebenfeld, one of the other commander of the Western Defense Force of the Rocky Mountains (WDFRM), his militias/civilians had been working with the regular Army units, but they had taken heavy casualties. As a General with the German Army assigned to NATO, he had been attending a six month course at the Presidio of Monterey, and the Naval Post Graduate School, when the Chinese invaded.
Unable to return to Germany, he was given command of over 8,950 civilian militia groups that were federalized and put under his command. Fortunately for the General, there was a platoon of German soldiers also attending the Defense Language Institute/Foreign Language Center(DLI/FLIC) taking the Persian Farsi language as translators. Using the German Platoon, he was able to train the Militias, and the German troops to work together. As the Chinese rolled over the Americans military, his militia and Germans were able to momentarily slow down the Chinese, as the Americans, put together a rear guard action. Reduced to around 500 men/women they had gone into the mountains with the last American Rear Guard units.
Conferring with General Beauregard, it was decided that all medical personnel shall retreat east to safety with the millions of Americans attempting to flee the Chinese. General Beauregard ordered all medical personnel to leave the wounded, he and General Von Steubenfeld would provide cover so they could leave in safety. As two hundred Air Ambulances were loading up the women, children, some of the seriously wounded, and the medical personnel, they lifted off in time, as the Chinese overran the last defensive positions. Watching from the sky as they headed eastward, they could see the entire hospital compound crawling with Chinese. Years after the end of the war, captured Chinese documents reported that everyone had fought to the last man and women, while taking an 1500 additional Chinese with them
28092060, Mississippi Defense Line, Earth [Sol]
Dropping the civilians at one of a thousand of safe zones, the Medi-Vacs and the doctors, nurses and medical corpsmen finally made it to the MDL. Once there, they were debrief, fed and given quarters to rest for the next 72 hours. Some of the physicians would be heading out in the next 24 hours to a Field Hospital, Evacuation Hospital or a Battalion Aid Station, whereas a number of medical corpsmen would also be assigned to Infantry Units as medics. In the mean time, reports coming from the field indicated that the Chinese were now as far as Salt Lake City,UT, and down by the Arizona/Mexico border. After a few days, Arlene was given orders to report to the 326th Evacuation Hospital, as a Staff Nurse. The 326rh Evac would be involved in many operations along the MDL. Arlene was transferred to the 58th Evacuation Hospital as part of Army Group West. The 58th EVAC would be one of hundreds of thousands of Evacuation Hospitals, Field Hospitals, Medical Clearing Companies, Battalion Aid Station caring for the estimated 20-80 million of battle casualties.
Operation Scorch Gardens went as expected. Army Group South at LZ Eagle with over 39,578,529 soldiers from the US, Mexico, and Israel landed, and at D-Day + 10, they had control of the Cities of Fujan, Jheiang, and Shanghai. With over 1,222.40 miles of Chinese territory, they proceeded northward to Beijing. Army Group West (LZ Monkey) combined force of over 105,421,924 Indian and US troops landed, and by D-Day +15, they had taken the cities of Hong Kong (Macao), Guangdong, Shanoquan, Longyon, Xiamen and Kinmen.
Wading ashore at Fujan from the landing ships, the 58th EVAC was now in the thick of things. With over 1.5 million of injured during the first twenty days, these numbers would continue to skyrocket taking medical care back to the days of the old American Civil War between the North and South. With more and more Evacuation Hospitals, Field Hospitals, Battalion Aid Stations sagging under the continuous arrival of wounded, and about to break the entire Medical System down, Medical Planners at SHAPE/NATO came up with idea of combining four 750 patient Evacuation Hospitals into one large MEGVACS (Mega-Evacuation)The MEGVACS with over 128 physicians, 12 dentists, 5 administrative officers, 5 chaplains, 208 nurses, and 1272 medical corpsmen would be large Evacuation Hospitals that could treat more than 3,000 patients in its medical wards, and over 750 to 1000 casualties at one time in its large trauma bays.
Standing in the early morning light, twenty physicians, twenty to thirty nurses, and sixty medical corpsmen, in Class “A” uniforms stood in formation, as the colors of the 58th EVAC were now cased, and the hospital made non-operation. The 58th in its day was state of the art; but was unable to handle the new patient loads, without an up to date computer system and enlarged trauma bays, it was deemed to old.
As the flag of the newly designated 2075th MEGVAC was now unfurled, and blowing in the warm China sun. With a four week transition as additional physicians, nurses and medical corpsmen came aboard. The equipment of the 238th, 58th, 297th, and 80th Evacuation hospital were now pooled together as the 2075th MEGVAC.
With the change over in newer patient information systems, the MCPIS 5000, along with its TRCS were installed in its new communication room, making sure the 2075th could contact other MEGVACS , and Air Ambulances, and land ambulances within a 500 mile radius. After four weeks of getting to know each other, and performing simulated drills to see if everything worked like it should, the 2075th was now ready for business.
07282077 Yuncheng, Earth [Sol]
It didn’t’ take very long for the 2075th MEGVACS, and the MEGVACS to get casualties. As soon as the 2075th moved up into the Yuncheng Province area Air Ambulances were now landing and unloading between 200- 800 badly injured patients every hour. As the pitch of combat rose, the number of badly injured arrived. Sometimes they would be thrown into the Medi-Vacs w/o IV’s, With the Battalion Aid stations swamped, the injured were either stacked up outside with medics trying to attend to their wounds, or the medics would bandage, stick IV’s, and shove more than 100 casualties into a Medi-Vac Helicopter that would normally hold 60 patients w/o problems.
As the battles for Wi’an intensified; four more MEGVACS were setup not more than five miles from each other, with the capacity to treat over 12,000 casualties. After three months of heavy fighting, the Chinese had lost more than 62,935,951 soldiers killed in action and 30,874,354 wounded in actions.
With over 1.5 to 2 million soldiers surrendering daily the Allies now had more than 20,194,294 EPWS (Enemy Prisoner of War) . On September 9th, 2077 more than 5,000 generals, 300 Marshalls, and 50,000 junior officers surrendered to the Allies.
On October 2, 2077, an Armistice was signed by the Chinese Government. At exactly 1100 hrs, all guns finally fell silent in the CTO. For the millions of survivors, it was the end of the most bloody Civil War the world had ever seen; But for the Field Hospitals, Evacuation Hospitals, Air Ambulance Units, Clearing Hospitals, Battalion Aid Stations, work still continued, and the numbers of casualties still continued to climb.
Every day for the last twenty-two years, flight loads of quick frozen body bags, each containing a complete body, deformed, or an incomplete body was off loaded from the large C5AN. After unloading the bodies, from the 100 C5AN, that were always unloading or getting ready to take off, the bodies were placed onto large pallets that would take them to one of the ten Crematorium Complexes five miles apart. For this load, Saudi Crematorium 5 (SC5) was getting ready for its next load, so after the bodies had been scanned with the information on the front of the bag, a long train carrying more than 20,000 bodies stacked ten high drove the five miles from the tarmac to the entrance of the crematorium.
After going through another station, and being verified that the person, or the remains were what was listed on the tag, the bodies were then off loaded. As each bag was opened the horror of what the War had done was now evident on the condition of the body as they placed each one within a cremation rack. Man of the bodies were mangled, you could tell who were females, males, White, Black, Asian, Hispanic, even Chinese. Sometimes the bodies were just parts consisting of parts of a torso, or legs, some were missing heads, or what was left, was the the lower abdominal area and the legs. Faces were blown off, and for many you could see where the medics had left the IV lines, or where some surgeon in a Battalion Aid Station tried to start the heart by opening the chest cavity; but it was all the same, WAR sucks… So with a heavy heart each body was lovingly placed into the conveyor belt, and the short and final road would be undertaken.
Each complex could cremate 20,000 bodies every eight hours. After cremation, the ashes of 20,000 soldiers were then placed into a cylindrical press, and a thin aluminum cover was placed over the cremains. After the cremains were ready, they were then rolled into a large hydraulic press that exerted over 1.5 million PSI’s for one hour. After the compression, what was left was a six inch round by 1 inch thick disk that looked like a hockey puck. where the cremains were then subjected to being compressed by a 200 ton s diameter cylindrical disk approximately once inch in height.
The next step was a bar tag that was glued to each disk. The bar code information was the rank and name of the deceased, sex or gender, date of birth and date of death, last unit assigned to, location, and the cause of death. Also information was given on the last rank of the individual. Finally after this was completed, the disks were placed into a plastic cylinder containing 1,000 disks measuring 1o feet in height. Each cylinder was packaged into a plastic pallet containing 20,000 plastic sleeves, and then these were sealed and bar coded with the number of the burial site, after being stored for a few days, the entire pallet was Uloaded into the back of the C5AN for its final flight to the Greenland Facility.
05082077, Flying overhead Somewhere over China, Earth [Sol]
Arlene sitting in the back of the Air Ambulance, was studying the reams of papers she received from her recent tour of the 1205th MILMEG Fujan. Along with over 500 senior Chief of Nurses, they were impressed by scope and magnitude of the number of patients that each MILMEG could hold and treat. The number “1M” was too great to comprehend; but with ten 50 story buildings, and with each floor holding more than 2000 patients broken down into four quads of 500 patients each, she could see that this was not your typical hospital in the normal sense of the word. With an invasion force of 280M, and with the high number of casualties from 500-5200 patients a day hitting each MEGVAC, she began to see that the old style Field Hospital or Evacuation Hospitals would have been swamped…
In the Air Ambulance with two brand new Obstetrical Nurses being transferred to the 2075th MEG, Arlene decided to put them at ease, and with an hour long flight it would give her a chance to get to know them, and about their families. As the two nurses were now giggling, and talking about boyfriends, and home life in the safe zones, Arlene returned back to her reading, soon she tired of reading the large report, pulled out her small secured Tablet, typed in her password, then she pulled up a current status of the 2075th, looking at reports generated by Angela, on new admits, deaths, how many casualties had come through the 2075th Trauma Bays (600), she was satisfied with the results. Logging off, she turned to looking at the destroyed country side…..
Homeplate, Homeplate, This is Blackjack 5,… we need help; over…..
Homeplate, Homeplate, This is Blackjack 5,… we need, can anyone hear us?....
As Arlene picked up on the conversation on her headsets, the co-pilot answered…
Blackjack 5, this is Jolly Green 7, how can we help you . . . . . .
Jolly Green 7, this is Blackjack 5, we’re at Grid 305260 with 20 pediatric patients. we need to get them to safety, over…..
Without hesitating Arlene told the pilot of Jolly Green 7 to go ahead and tell them that they would help evacuate the newborns…. Soon Jolly Green 7 was now diverting to an area that was still infested with Chinese Soldiers, the small town of….
Black Jack 5; a Special Forces “A” team had been sent to bring back information on Chinese activity. While on patrol, they spotted the small village of Xihauan ( Pop 20,000 ) people; as they entered the quiet village, the found the entire population had been massacred by the retreating Chinese Soldiers. Continuing their search of the buildings two of the Special Forces Soldiers had found hidden inside a storage room of the orphanage for orphan children 10 newborn girls, and a mixed group of around twenty 5-24 month old babies in a secret storage room. Since the SF Team could not leave them behind, they attempted to call for an Air Evac to extricate the children to safety.
Blackjack 5, this is Jolly Green 7, we are on the way; and we have three nurses aboard…
Jolly Green 7, copy; and thanks….
As Jolly Green 7 made its final approach, the sound of a heavy firefight could be heard. As Jolly Green 7 landed, a stray shot took out a window. Not waiting for orders, Arlene told the pilot to put her and the two nurse on the ground, take off and return when called for. As the three nurses ran towards the temporary safety of the Orphanage, the were met by Staff Sergeant Rama. Sergeant Rama gave Arlene a quick briefing; they had twelve men, and were now up against 1,000 Chinese soldiers who had blundered onto the SF team. For now the SF team held them off, but could not be sure for how long. So Arlene asks Sgt. Rama to take her and the nurses to the children.
15082077, Xihuan Orphanage, China [Sol] 1600 hrs.
The three nurses could see that the babies had been suffering from dehydration, the others were hungry; and they were all in need of a change…. As they picked up the newborns, the soldiers and nurses could now see that not all were pure Chinese, one or two of the younger baby girls had mixed Asian features, one or two were of Caucasian Chinese ancestry and the rest were of Chinese origins. Searching through the records, one of Sergeant Rama’s men who spoke Mandarin found that this was a small Presbyterian run hospital, and the babies were the products of a group of Missionaries who had been working in the area. There was no other mention on what nationality the fathers were.
Quickly finding formula, food, and a change of diapers for the children, the two Obstetrical nurses were now caring for the children. While Sgt. Rama’s communication sergeant called for a Medi-Vac for themselves and the babies. Soon the word from the ‘A” Team was not good, the Chinese were now massing for a direct frontal attack, and they were not sure if they could hold them off until pickup….
As the communication sergeant finally got through, they could hear…
Blackjack 5, Blackjack 5 to anyone on this channel, requesting emergency extrication for fifteen adults and twenty children…. Blackjack 5, Blackjack 5 to anyone on this channel, requesting emergency extrication for 15 adults and twenty children.
A few minutes later, they heard …. Blackjack 5, Blackjack 5; this is Angel 15 over… How can we help?
Angel 5, thanks; we have fifteen adults, three nurses, twelve soldiers, 10 newborns, and ten babies that require extrication, how do you copy, over?
Blackjack 5, Angel 5; our ETA is less than 10 min….
As soon as the last communiqué went out, the sounds of running feet, and a SF soldier said the Chinese were now not more than two blocks away. Arlene ordered the soldiers, and nurses to get the children ready for transport, finding some food, and some clean clothing, they heard the noise of Angel 15 attempting to land. As soon as Angel 15 landed, four flight medics ran out of the back, meeting the nurses who hurriedly gave them two to four children each. As the medics ran back to Angel 15, with the nurses, soldiers and children close behind. One of the soldiers who were carrying three of the younger babies was hit in the back of his body armor fell to the ground, as he and the babies were now sprawled, Arlene stopped, gave the nurses two of the babies, turned around and ran back to the fallen soldier. Seeing that he was dead, the other SF soldiers dragged his body back to Angel 15. Arlene grabbing both of them ran back towards Angel 15, with the Chinese now putting up a wall of steel. Suddenly as Arlene was about to board Angel she was hit multiple times in the torso, and lower abdominal area. Arlene had managed to find a rifle, and as she was providing cover fire, she was hit multiple times and fell down. Soon a swarm of medics and Special Forces soldiers rushed out, and dragged her into the Medi-Vac as it now started to leave with its packages.
Cutting through her uniform, exposing her body, it did not look good. Arlene had multiple gunshot wounds to her chest, and lower abdomen. With a collapsed lung she was now having problems breathing, so one of the nurses put in the chest tube. As the flight medics started applying clotting trauma bandages to the wound. Two large bore IV’s were inserted and she was given Normal Saline wide open, Plasma, and expanders were used. On high flow O2, electrodes were attached, even though her pulse rate was racing, and her blood pressure was dropping, they put her in shock-trauma trousers to keep her Blood Pressure stable.
Soon the Base Station Radio at the 2075th was now crackling…..
Homeplate, Homeplate this is Angel 15 with emergency traffic over…..
Homeplate, Homeplate this is Angel 15 with emergency traffic over……
A female voice answered, Angel 15 this is Homeplate, what is your traffic, over?
Homeplate, Angel 15 with code-3 traffic. I have a 48 y/o 180lb AFA with multiple GSW (gunshot wounds) to the upper chest and lower abdomen. She is in MAST pants, with two large bore IV’s kept wide open, plasma expanders are also in. Her BP is 60/40 stable, Pulse 90 and fast…. We have her on a monitor and show multiple PVC’s…. Over. Angle 15 continuing, we also have two non-criticals and twenty 5-24 m/o orphan children on board, who are being taken care of by two nurses aboard…. Our ETA is now 10 minutes….
A male voice asked who is the patient?..
Homeplate…Angel15…. Colonel Delfin.
Once Angel 15 said “Colonel Delfin”, the Trauma Room exploded into action, the hospital commander was called down to the Emergency Room, and Colonel Amunatigui was also notified. As soon as the Medi-Vac landed the Trauma Nurses began their treatment, rolling Arlene into the Emergency Department orders were not being barked out, soon teams of physicians were evaluating her, and as Lieutenant Colonel Amunatigui came by, Arlene who was still conscious told her…. Under my bed there is a letter… Then she flat lined. With CPR being started, Cardiac Meds, she was shocked without any results. Taking her gurney into the operating room, the surgeons tried to save her life, but an hour later, Arlene died. The Surgeons called it at 2150 hrs…..
As the news of Colonel Delfin’s passing many of the nurses on the wards wept, now Angela was summoned to the Colonels officer where he told her, you are now Chief of Nursing. As the news hit her, Angela broke down and cried. Knowing her friend wanted her to read the letter, Angela waited till the next day. But first she had to visit the new visitors to the hospital. Fortunately, the 2075th had a small Pediatric ward, so checking in with the head nurse she visited the newborns, as the pediatric staff and the two new nurses were now laughing, and smiling at the children. As each child as stripped down, weighed, examined, then put in new pajamas and put to bed, Angela stopped by one of the cribs holding a two year old baby. As the nurse stripped off her diaper, and long jacket; Angela spotted something in the diaper. Looking at the object Angela found one of Arlene’s Dog Tags, and a short note. It read…
Bunso, we’re here at the Orphanage, and I can hear the sounds of fighting coming nearer, so I’ve decided to adopt this baby. She has no parents; she has nothing; so I would like to adopt her as my daughter. If something should happen to me, please see that my wishes are completed. There is also a name of a cousin and the family’s address in Florida.
Salamat guid, Manang Arlene.
Taking the paper and dog tag, Angela looked at the baby, who was now sleeping. The baby looked like it was mixed race, she had Chinese and Filipino facial features. With the physical now completed, the Pediatric physician said that the baby did not have any signs of disease, she looked pretty healthy, and she could be adopted once the baby was evacuated back to the states. Leaving the Pediatric ward, Angela went to Arlene’s closed room, opening the door, she saw the room was a bit messy. Sitting on the bed, staring at the small toys, teddy bears, Arlene’s favorite Forty Niner pillow, her blanket that said “I Love Cebuano”, Angela could not believe that her best friend was now dead, Going through her clothes locker, she found a Formal Filipino Dress in the back; however she had a request to perform, one that her friend felt was very important. Looking underneath the bed; Angela found the box, along with her personal papers, and the photographs. Finding the sealed package, Angela went into Arlene’s former Office, and turned on the desk lamp, and sat down. Opening the package that said “Upon my Death”… Angela pulled out a two page hand written letter.
July 10, 2076
Dearest Inday…
I knew that someday I will die in this stupid war, so I wrote this letter last year, hoping that when the time came, I would be in a position to adopt a child. Unfortunately if you are now reading this letter, things did not go as planned.
If there were children involved, and I am in a position to physically bring a child back alive, I would leave one of my dog tags, and a short note in its diaper. If nothing happened, then I would retrieve my dog tag and the note. But if I don’t come back alive, then my plan is to be put into effect, by having you complete the necessary paperwork on the adoption.
I have decided to give the child a name. If it is a baby girl; then her name will be “Cynthia Delfin”, and if it is a boy, then “Max Delfin “ should be used. Whatever child I have picked is to be my beneficiary, so all of my back pay, and military retirement, and insurance benefits will go to the child. I have also informed a first cousin of mine who is married, and living in Florida to take the child in, and raise it in my name. You will be the Godmother, and responsible for seeing that the child knows the story how she got here.
I know this isn’t the way I wanted to adopt a daughter, but I have thought about this for a long time, and the Commander already knows of my intentions.
I know that I will never see her grow up, and I’ll never get to see her life, This short life I had with her will be the best thing that has ever happened. There are some urges as a woman that I’ve never had, or will ever enjoy; but recently within the last year, my urge to become a mother to care for someone, or to make a different in that persons life is now great. This may seem selfish, or foolish; but to me the chance to give someone a better life has become an overpowering urge. So my friend; I want to be that mother…
Lovingly,
Manang Arlene
16082077, 2077th Base Chapel, China [Sol]
Arlene’s service was not that long, a short mass, all of her friends, the Hospital Commander, and Angela all saying a few funny anecdotes about her, then a Kevlar/Rubber body bag with Angela in her Class “A” uniform was placed on a pallet of other quick frozen bodies. After Graves and Registrations personnel made a final check of Arlene’s toe tag, ensuring she was tagged correctly the bag was zipped up for the final time, and then Liquid Nitrogen was introduced into the bag. Once the body was quick frozen, it was gently placed on a pallet containing more than 500 other body bags. Then the pallet was slowly placed inside the behemoth C5A5N Cargo Plane for the trip to Saudi Arabia. As Colonel Amunatigui, some of her nurses, and medical corpsmen stood and watched the funeral plane took off, heading eastward, the sounds of “INCOMING” came over the public Address speakers, and once again the dance with death began.
25112078, Saudi Arabia Crematorium Complex A1, Earth [Sol]
The stench of death was all around. With over 50 Billion dead, from the rotting bodies of soldiers, there was no way they could be buried in a regular fashion. The stench of death would continue to permeate the air for years to come, and so this presented another unimaginable and complex nightmare. The question was, how do you properly dispose of an estimated 50 Billion war dead from 2050 to 2077, and another 500 million civilians who died, and will be dying from the future effects of Chemical, Biological and Nuclear weapons? The typical way would have been through common burial procedures, but with the earth still reeling from contamination, and countries unable to properly dispose of the dead, the Allied Powers discarded the custom of Judeo/Christian, or the typical burial practices of many of the world’s religious groups, would be stopped for the time being. Instead mass cremation would be required. All of the war dead both Allied and Chinese would be processed in large Cremation Facilities, and buried together in one common military burial facility. The civilians would also be cremated; but their ashes would be buried in massive burial mounds, holding more than 500,000 cremains.
12242078, Yuncheng China, Earth [Sol]
It was a quiet Christmas Eve night in the Emergency Department, as the once busy Trauma Department was busy stabilizing the hundreds and thousands of casualties during Operation Scorch Gardens. Now with the war over, the large Trauma Room that at one time could handle more than 1200 casualties at one time. Now was bare of almost all of Its equipment. with most of its Trauma Equipment now boxed and awaiting shipment to the surplus depots, for distribution to many civilian hospitals all over the world, the large room was now a shadow of its former self. The Emergency Department had smaller Trauma rooms that could see eight people in four rooms…
Sitting around, with the Emergency Room Crew was Colonel Amunatigui, Chief Nurse. As the sounds of Christmas music played in the background, the would talk about their former comrades who had died, and the funny things that made them laugh. All of the women remembered Lt. McDuffie’s Scottish Brogue, and some remarked about a particular body part that was a bit bigger than most men, laughing at all of this, the talk would always go back to Colonel Delfin who had died in the Trauma room.
As most of the nurses silently wept at all of the other comrades they had lost, Colonel Amunatigui suddenly excused herself and went to her office. Always joyful, and the one nurse who could always come up with an off color ribald joke, or return an insult into a compliment to one of the injured male or female soldiers. Making a phone call, she called a telephone number in the former United States, and talked to the party on the other line, then when she was satisfied, she hung up the phone. Looking at the last picture of her and Arlene taken a few days before she died, she smiled and said to herself “Manang all is going well”, and you will be glad to hear she is now a happy little baby girl.
Lieutenant Colonel Angela Amunatigui , now Chief of Nursing was born on November 24th, 2035, in Cebu, the Philippines. After graduating from the Nursing Program at the University of the Philippines, she joined the Philippine Nurse Corps, and became an Army Nurse. Working in the Visayas, and at Victorino Luna (V. Luna) General Hospital, home of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Medical Center, Angela had risen through the rank, and was selected to attend an advanced Combat Nursing Program at Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC). As part of her four year program, she also got her Masters of Nursing in Obstetrics and Maternal Nursing. After her graduation from the 16 week program, she would be assigned to one of the Field Hospital where she could put her skills to good use .
Knowing Arlene for the past three years, they both enjoyed each others company, both were Filipina, while Angela was from the Philippines, Arlene having Filipino parents became Angela’s best friend. Each would at some time exhibit a certain Filipino characteristic. When Arlene needed an Assistant Chief of Nursing, she choose Angela over the other qualified senior nurses. Together the both of them ran the 2075th…
25042077, Saudi Arabian Cremation Complex A1, Earth [Sol]
It was decided that the crematories would be placed in all of the world’s desert areas. There 500 large crematory complexes handling up to 20,000 bodies could run 24-hours a day every day without the heat affecting the growth of new plant, and tree life, neither would it disrupt the land needed now to grow food for the ever hungry civilian populace. The Saudi Arabian Desert was chose for the disposal of all military war dead from both sides.
The Militaries of the Western Powers had since 1991 used DNA to identify all soldiers; the military of 2020 had gone one step further. They had used DNA scanners, computerized coding, and other human markers, so that no matter how badly decomposed the soldier was, The Army’s DNA profile matching program which started in 2021 was the basis for proper DNA matching of the deceased. Living family members and the soldiers DNA were matched and stored. This allowed for proper identification of unknown remains.
Once a body was discovered, or the soldier died in a medical facility, each complete or incomplete remains were inserted into a insulated Kevlar body bag which was quick frozen on site. Once a load of over 5,000 body bags were palletized, they were flown to Saudi Arabia. Each Crematorium complex measured five by ten miles, and had a conveyor system that continuously fed the prepared dead in the ovens to be cremated.
12252101, Third War Burial Processing Center, Greenland Zone, Earth [Sol]
0350 hours, the burial flight from Saudi Arabia’s Cremation Unit 5 was just making its last approach before landing. The night before they had gotten a fresh carpet of snow, and the work crews on the airfield were just now finishing moving snow off the runway. As 1st Lieutenant Connelly and his Military Honor Guard waited for the crew to off load six more cremation pallets, she couldn’t help but wonder which of her brothers was in that palletized container, or where were these young and old men & women from during the Great Human Civil War.
Issuing a few commands, the seven man team moved smartly out onto the tarmac, found their spot and waited. As the air crews opened up the back end of the C5A5N cargo plane, she saw six large plastic pallets with the flag of the United Allied Military draped over the top. As the pallets came out, the band also at its own per-designated place started to play the new National anthem of a victorious world. As the band played its last note, the Lieutenant gave the order, and seven volleys of three shots rang out. After the last shot rang out, the two details went back inside the large roomy reception area to get warm, and await the next flight due in another hour.
As the crew of the giant C5A5N taxied down the runway, as the pilots gained altitude, they would pass over an area that overlooked the Greenland Sea. As the plane slowly banked to the left, the loadmaster looking out the back of the cargo plane, saw hundreds and hundreds of thousands of the palletized containers stacked in the deep snow. Stacked ten high in spaced piles, as far as the eye could see. Soon the plane gradually gained flying altitude, and Greenland was a memory, as the plane flew back to Saudi Arabia for another load of pallets…
15122113, Zhejang Pavilion Army Group West General Headquarters, Earth [Sol]
0700 hrs, the lone military figure got out of the old style Chinese Pedi cab. Stepping out of the Pedi cab, Col. Cynthia D. Romo paid the driver. As the Pedi-Cab disappeared into the distance, she pulled at her Class “A” uniform jacket, so it wasn’t bunched up, straightened her tie, then walked to a closed store to look at her reflection in the large window of her legs encased in seamed nylons.
Seeing that uniform was correctly fitted, she then moved her dark brown Sam Browne belt carrying a small leather holster that held her chrome .40 caliber semi-automatic pistols and one extra magazine. With the shoulder strap now over her right shoulder, she smiled in her reflection, then she made sure her dark blue beret, which was the color of the Adjutant General’s Corp, and rank was also squared away.
Army Group only military personnel among the allied officers authorized to carry their own personal preference for a side arm were the field and general officers. The regular officers from Lieutenant to Major still carried the standard 9mm semi-automatic pistol. Even though the war lasted only 22 years everyone was still conditioned to carry a weapon for protection.
Col. Romo wore the old style; modernized version of the military uniform women wore during WWII. The Military had also gone back to the haircut and makeup regulations of WWII for women, and decided that if women were going to be in uniform, then they should look like women, and with her Asian features, long hair that was nicely put up, she looked like a model.
As Cynthia entered the vast covered lobby of Tower #1, she stopped by the Chinese Run Starbucks, milling with the other military personnel from the various military units, she always turned the male officer’s eyes. At 6-1, and 185 lbs, she cut a beautiful figure as her Chinese Filipino features gave her the look of one of those models, with her great smile, and a great sense of humor, she was one of those officers you wouldn’t mind dating. Paying for her Pumpkin spiced Latte, she stopped at one of the armed checkpoints which was manned by a female sergeant of the British Royal Military Police. Pulling her ID card from her purse, she went to one of the swipe card stations, swiping her badge she waited for the green light.
With the green light on, she waved to the other MP’s then entered Elevator number one, and went up to her 46th floor office. Entering her locked office, she opened the window shades, and as she was standing there in the now warm sun, she could still see the devastation that years had taken its toll of China. Buildings that were destroyed, were now being replaced by modern buildings, shopping malls, private businesses, homes were now being replaced and being rebuilt. Within another fifty to a hundred years, experts said that China would look like its old self; but with one big difference.
The Allied China Occupational Army (ACOA) on a permanent basis, This Army Group would ensure that the Chinese would not be able to rebuild another army or attack any country. This military forced consisted of the three Army Groups, that would rotate among each other every five years. The next group to return next year would be Field Marshal Abhaya Sing’s Indian led Army Group North. Four Army Divisions backed up by Airborne, and a motorized Army Brigade was stationed in the mountainous areas of China. Another five or six divisions backed up by Armored, Airborne, and a Light Infantry Scout Battalion would be stationed in the Great Plains of China. Rounding this out was the Allied Air Force with the Drones that continuously monitored the uninhabitable regions of China. If they saw something suspicious, ten tactical fighter wings would be dispatched. So for the past 36 years the world continued to build, and to remember the dead.
But for now, the project she and her staff had finished was now lying on her desk. Singing her name, she left her office and went up to the he project her staff had finished now lay on her desk waiting for her signature, then she would take it to General Montgomery’s office who would give this to Field Marshall Richard Bentley. Cynthia’s report was read by Field Marshall Bentley, and he was very impressed on the completeness of the report, and the information that was now on paper.
Looking at the thick two hundred page report, besides the usual other military information, the war facts were startling:
Total Number of Personnel assigned to Army Group West on 05/01/2077
Total number of soldiers: 50,000,000
Total number of males: 47,955,999
Total number of females: 2,044,001
Total Killed in Action (KIA): 39,950,880
Total Wounded in Action (WIA): 9,350,009
*These figures would change
Missing in Action (MIA)/EPW: Unknown
Other Allied Soldiers absorbed: 9-10 million
The actual figures did not take in the number of the other soldiers from the Army Groups South, and North, who during the Battle for Beijing, and Wi’an were absorbed into Army Group West, as their units were either destroyed, or lost. So another nine to ten million more soldiers were absorbed.
After she gave the report, she went back to her office to answer a telephone call from Ninang (godmother) Angela. Usually her Ninang and her parents would sometimes call to check up her. Not minding Ninang (Godmother) Angela’s interesting Filipina accent make her feel good. It was always great to hear her voice. But there was something that she wanted to ask of her; but decided that when she went home for her annual leave she would check up on a hunch, about these monthly checks for $5,000 she had been getting each year. She thought it was a mistake; but checking with Payroll, she found out that it was legitimate. But one thing bothered her; who was Colonel Delfin, and why was she even listed as being a beneficiary? But for now all of that would have to wait, she couldn’t wait to tell her godmother that she was coming home to visit…..
After going through another station, and being verified that the person, or the remains were what was listed on the tag, the bodies were then off loaded. As each bag was opened the horror of what the War had done was now evident on the condition of the body as they placed each one within a cremation rack. Man of the bodies were mangled, you could tell who were females, males, White, Black, Asian, Hispanic, even Chinese. Sometimes the bodies were just parts consisting of parts of a torso, or legs, some were missing heads, or what was left, was the the lower abdominal area and the legs. Faces were blown off, and for many you could see where the medics had left the IV lines, or where some surgeon in a Battalion Aid Station tried to start the heart by opening the chest cavity; but it was all the same, WAR sucks… So with a heavy heart each body was lovingly placed into the conveyor belt, and the short and final road would be undertaken.
Each complex could cremate 20,000 bodies every eight hours. After cremation, the ashes of 20,000 soldiers were then placed into a cylindrical press, and a thin aluminum cover was placed over the cremains. After the cremains were ready, they were then rolled into a large hydraulic press that exerted over 1.5 million PSI’s for one hour. After the compression, what was left was a six inch round by 1 inch thick disk that looked like a hockey puck. where the cremains were then subjected to being compressed by a 200 ton s diameter cylindrical disk approximately once inch in height.
The next step was a bar tag that was glued to each disk. The bar code information was the rank and name of the deceased, sex or gender, date of birth and date of death, last unit assigned to, location, and the cause of death. Also information was given on the last rank of the individual. Finally after this was completed, the disks were placed into a plastic cylinder containing 1,000 disks measuring 1o feet in height. Each cylinder was packaged into a plastic pallet containing 20,000 plastic sleeves, and then these were sealed and bar coded with the number of the burial site, after being stored for a few days, the entire pallet was Uloaded into the back of the C5AN for its final flight to the Greenland Facility.
05082077, Flying overhead Somewhere over China, Earth [Sol]
Arlene sitting in the back of the Air Ambulance, was studying the reams of papers she received from her recent tour of the 1205th MILMEG Fujan. Along with over 500 senior Chief of Nurses, they were impressed by scope and magnitude of the number of patients that each MILMEG could hold and treat. The number “1M” was too great to comprehend; but with ten 50 story buildings, and with each floor holding more than 2000 patients broken down into four quads of 500 patients each, she could see that this was not your typical hospital in the normal sense of the word. With an invasion force of 280M, and with the high number of casualties from 500-5200 patients a day hitting each MEGVAC, she began to see that the old style Field Hospital or Evacuation Hospitals would have been swamped…
In the Air Ambulance with two brand new Obstetrical Nurses being transferred to the 2075th MEG, Arlene decided to put them at ease, and with an hour long flight it would give her a chance to get to know them, and about their families. As the two nurses were now giggling, and talking about boyfriends, and home life in the safe zones, Arlene returned back to her reading, soon she tired of reading the large report, pulled out her small secured Tablet, typed in her password, then she pulled up a current status of the 2075th, looking at reports generated by Angela, on new admits, deaths, how many casualties had come through the 2075th Trauma Bays (600), she was satisfied with the results. Logging off, she turned to looking at the destroyed country side…..
Homeplate, Homeplate, This is Blackjack 5,… we need help; over…..
Homeplate, Homeplate, This is Blackjack 5,… we need, can anyone hear us?....
As Arlene picked up on the conversation on her headsets, the co-pilot answered…
Blackjack 5, this is Jolly Green 7, how can we help you . . . . . .
Jolly Green 7, this is Blackjack 5, we’re at Grid 305260 with 20 pediatric patients. we need to get them to safety, over…..
Without hesitating Arlene told the pilot of Jolly Green 7 to go ahead and tell them that they would help evacuate the newborns…. Soon Jolly Green 7 was now diverting to an area that was still infested with Chinese Soldiers, the small town of….
Black Jack 5; a Special Forces “A” team had been sent to bring back information on Chinese activity. While on patrol, they spotted the small village of Xihauan ( Pop 20,000 ) people; as they entered the quiet village, the found the entire population had been massacred by the retreating Chinese Soldiers. Continuing their search of the buildings two of the Special Forces Soldiers had found hidden inside a storage room of the orphanage for orphan children 10 newborn girls, and a mixed group of around twenty 5-24 month old babies in a secret storage room. Since the SF Team could not leave them behind, they attempted to call for an Air Evac to extricate the children to safety.
Blackjack 5, this is Jolly Green 7, we are on the way; and we have three nurses aboard…
Jolly Green 7, copy; and thanks….
As Jolly Green 7 made its final approach, the sound of a heavy firefight could be heard. As Jolly Green 7 landed, a stray shot took out a window. Not waiting for orders, Arlene told the pilot to put her and the two nurse on the ground, take off and return when called for. As the three nurses ran towards the temporary safety of the Orphanage, the were met by Staff Sergeant Rama. Sergeant Rama gave Arlene a quick briefing; they had twelve men, and were now up against 1,000 Chinese soldiers who had blundered onto the SF team. For now the SF team held them off, but could not be sure for how long. So Arlene asks Sgt. Rama to take her and the nurses to the children.
15082077, Xihuan Orphanage, China [Sol] 1600 hrs.
The three nurses could see that the babies had been suffering from dehydration, the others were hungry; and they were all in need of a change…. As they picked up the newborns, the soldiers and nurses could now see that not all were pure Chinese, one or two of the younger baby girls had mixed Asian features, one or two were of Caucasian Chinese ancestry and the rest were of Chinese origins. Searching through the records, one of Sergeant Rama’s men who spoke Mandarin found that this was a small Presbyterian run hospital, and the babies were the products of a group of Missionaries who had been working in the area. There was no other mention on what nationality the fathers were.
Quickly finding formula, food, and a change of diapers for the children, the two Obstetrical nurses were now caring for the children. While Sgt. Rama’s communication sergeant called for a Medi-Vac for themselves and the babies. Soon the word from the ‘A” Team was not good, the Chinese were now massing for a direct frontal attack, and they were not sure if they could hold them off until pickup….
As the communication sergeant finally got through, they could hear…
Blackjack 5, Blackjack 5 to anyone on this channel, requesting emergency extrication for fifteen adults and twenty children…. Blackjack 5, Blackjack 5 to anyone on this channel, requesting emergency extrication for 15 adults and twenty children.
A few minutes later, they heard …. Blackjack 5, Blackjack 5; this is Angel 15 over… How can we help?
Angel 5, thanks; we have fifteen adults, three nurses, twelve soldiers, 10 newborns, and ten babies that require extrication, how do you copy, over?
Blackjack 5, Angel 5; our ETA is less than 10 min….
As soon as the last communiqué went out, the sounds of running feet, and a SF soldier said the Chinese were now not more than two blocks away. Arlene ordered the soldiers, and nurses to get the children ready for transport, finding some food, and some clean clothing, they heard the noise of Angel 15 attempting to land. As soon as Angel 15 landed, four flight medics ran out of the back, meeting the nurses who hurriedly gave them two to four children each. As the medics ran back to Angel 15, with the nurses, soldiers and children close behind. One of the soldiers who were carrying three of the younger babies was hit in the back of his body armor fell to the ground, as he and the babies were now sprawled, Arlene stopped, gave the nurses two of the babies, turned around and ran back to the fallen soldier. Seeing that he was dead, the other SF soldiers dragged his body back to Angel 15. Arlene grabbing both of them ran back towards Angel 15, with the Chinese now putting up a wall of steel. Suddenly as Arlene was about to board Angel she was hit multiple times in the torso, and lower abdominal area. Arlene had managed to find a rifle, and as she was providing cover fire, she was hit multiple times and fell down. Soon a swarm of medics and Special Forces soldiers rushed out, and dragged her into the Medi-Vac as it now started to leave with its packages.
Cutting through her uniform, exposing her body, it did not look good. Arlene had multiple gunshot wounds to her chest, and lower abdomen. With a collapsed lung she was now having problems breathing, so one of the nurses put in the chest tube. As the flight medics started applying clotting trauma bandages to the wound. Two large bore IV’s were inserted and she was given Normal Saline wide open, Plasma, and expanders were used. On high flow O2, electrodes were attached, even though her pulse rate was racing, and her blood pressure was dropping, they put her in shock-trauma trousers to keep her Blood Pressure stable.
Soon the Base Station Radio at the 2075th was now crackling…..
Homeplate, Homeplate this is Angel 15 with emergency traffic over…..
Homeplate, Homeplate this is Angel 15 with emergency traffic over……
A female voice answered, Angel 15 this is Homeplate, what is your traffic, over?
Homeplate, Angel 15 with code-3 traffic. I have a 48 y/o 180lb AFA with multiple GSW (gunshot wounds) to the upper chest and lower abdomen. She is in MAST pants, with two large bore IV’s kept wide open, plasma expanders are also in. Her BP is 60/40 stable, Pulse 90 and fast…. We have her on a monitor and show multiple PVC’s…. Over. Angle 15 continuing, we also have two non-criticals and twenty 5-24 m/o orphan children on board, who are being taken care of by two nurses aboard…. Our ETA is now 10 minutes….
A male voice asked who is the patient?..
Homeplate…Angel15…. Colonel Delfin.
Once Angel 15 said “Colonel Delfin”, the Trauma Room exploded into action, the hospital commander was called down to the Emergency Room, and Colonel Amunatigui was also notified. As soon as the Medi-Vac landed the Trauma Nurses began their treatment, rolling Arlene into the Emergency Department orders were not being barked out, soon teams of physicians were evaluating her, and as Lieutenant Colonel Amunatigui came by, Arlene who was still conscious told her…. Under my bed there is a letter… Then she flat lined. With CPR being started, Cardiac Meds, she was shocked without any results. Taking her gurney into the operating room, the surgeons tried to save her life, but an hour later, Arlene died. The Surgeons called it at 2150 hrs…..
As the news of Colonel Delfin’s passing many of the nurses on the wards wept, now Angela was summoned to the Colonels officer where he told her, you are now Chief of Nursing. As the news hit her, Angela broke down and cried. Knowing her friend wanted her to read the letter, Angela waited till the next day. But first she had to visit the new visitors to the hospital. Fortunately, the 2075th had a small Pediatric ward, so checking in with the head nurse she visited the newborns, as the pediatric staff and the two new nurses were now laughing, and smiling at the children. As each child as stripped down, weighed, examined, then put in new pajamas and put to bed, Angela stopped by one of the cribs holding a two year old baby. As the nurse stripped off her diaper, and long jacket; Angela spotted something in the diaper. Looking at the object Angela found one of Arlene’s Dog Tags, and a short note. It read…
Bunso, we’re here at the Orphanage, and I can hear the sounds of fighting coming nearer, so I’ve decided to adopt this baby. She has no parents; she has nothing; so I would like to adopt her as my daughter. If something should happen to me, please see that my wishes are completed. There is also a name of a cousin and the family’s address in Florida.
Salamat guid, Manang Arlene.
Taking the paper and dog tag, Angela looked at the baby, who was now sleeping. The baby looked like it was mixed race, she had Chinese and Filipino facial features. With the physical now completed, the Pediatric physician said that the baby did not have any signs of disease, she looked pretty healthy, and she could be adopted once the baby was evacuated back to the states. Leaving the Pediatric ward, Angela went to Arlene’s closed room, opening the door, she saw the room was a bit messy. Sitting on the bed, staring at the small toys, teddy bears, Arlene’s favorite Forty Niner pillow, her blanket that said “I Love Cebuano”, Angela could not believe that her best friend was now dead, Going through her clothes locker, she found a Formal Filipino Dress in the back; however she had a request to perform, one that her friend felt was very important. Looking underneath the bed; Angela found the box, along with her personal papers, and the photographs. Finding the sealed package, Angela went into Arlene’s former Office, and turned on the desk lamp, and sat down. Opening the package that said “Upon my Death”… Angela pulled out a two page hand written letter.
July 10, 2076
Dearest Inday…
I knew that someday I will die in this stupid war, so I wrote this letter last year, hoping that when the time came, I would be in a position to adopt a child. Unfortunately if you are now reading this letter, things did not go as planned.
If there were children involved, and I am in a position to physically bring a child back alive, I would leave one of my dog tags, and a short note in its diaper. If nothing happened, then I would retrieve my dog tag and the note. But if I don’t come back alive, then my plan is to be put into effect, by having you complete the necessary paperwork on the adoption.
I have decided to give the child a name. If it is a baby girl; then her name will be “Cynthia Delfin”, and if it is a boy, then “Max Delfin “ should be used. Whatever child I have picked is to be my beneficiary, so all of my back pay, and military retirement, and insurance benefits will go to the child. I have also informed a first cousin of mine who is married, and living in Florida to take the child in, and raise it in my name. You will be the Godmother, and responsible for seeing that the child knows the story how she got here.
I know this isn’t the way I wanted to adopt a daughter, but I have thought about this for a long time, and the Commander already knows of my intentions.
I know that I will never see her grow up, and I’ll never get to see her life, This short life I had with her will be the best thing that has ever happened. There are some urges as a woman that I’ve never had, or will ever enjoy; but recently within the last year, my urge to become a mother to care for someone, or to make a different in that persons life is now great. This may seem selfish, or foolish; but to me the chance to give someone a better life has become an overpowering urge. So my friend; I want to be that mother…
Lovingly,
Manang Arlene
16082077, 2077th Base Chapel, China [Sol]
Arlene’s service was not that long, a short mass, all of her friends, the Hospital Commander, and Angela all saying a few funny anecdotes about her, then a Kevlar/Rubber body bag with Angela in her Class “A” uniform was placed on a pallet of other quick frozen bodies. After Graves and Registrations personnel made a final check of Arlene’s toe tag, ensuring she was tagged correctly the bag was zipped up for the final time, and then Liquid Nitrogen was introduced into the bag. Once the body was quick frozen, it was gently placed on a pallet containing more than 500 other body bags. Then the pallet was slowly placed inside the behemoth C5A5N Cargo Plane for the trip to Saudi Arabia. As Colonel Amunatigui, some of her nurses, and medical corpsmen stood and watched the funeral plane took off, heading eastward, the sounds of “INCOMING” came over the public Address speakers, and once again the dance with death began.
25112078, Saudi Arabia Crematorium Complex A1, Earth [Sol]
The stench of death was all around. With over 50 Billion dead, from the rotting bodies of soldiers, there was no way they could be buried in a regular fashion. The stench of death would continue to permeate the air for years to come, and so this presented another unimaginable and complex nightmare. The question was, how do you properly dispose of an estimated 50 Billion war dead from 2050 to 2077, and another 500 million civilians who died, and will be dying from the future effects of Chemical, Biological and Nuclear weapons? The typical way would have been through common burial procedures, but with the earth still reeling from contamination, and countries unable to properly dispose of the dead, the Allied Powers discarded the custom of Judeo/Christian, or the typical burial practices of many of the world’s religious groups, would be stopped for the time being. Instead mass cremation would be required. All of the war dead both Allied and Chinese would be processed in large Cremation Facilities, and buried together in one common military burial facility. The civilians would also be cremated; but their ashes would be buried in massive burial mounds, holding more than 500,000 cremains.
12242078, Yuncheng China, Earth [Sol]
It was a quiet Christmas Eve night in the Emergency Department, as the once busy Trauma Department was busy stabilizing the hundreds and thousands of casualties during Operation Scorch Gardens. Now with the war over, the large Trauma Room that at one time could handle more than 1200 casualties at one time. Now was bare of almost all of Its equipment. with most of its Trauma Equipment now boxed and awaiting shipment to the surplus depots, for distribution to many civilian hospitals all over the world, the large room was now a shadow of its former self. The Emergency Department had smaller Trauma rooms that could see eight people in four rooms…
Sitting around, with the Emergency Room Crew was Colonel Amunatigui, Chief Nurse. As the sounds of Christmas music played in the background, the would talk about their former comrades who had died, and the funny things that made them laugh. All of the women remembered Lt. McDuffie’s Scottish Brogue, and some remarked about a particular body part that was a bit bigger than most men, laughing at all of this, the talk would always go back to Colonel Delfin who had died in the Trauma room.
As most of the nurses silently wept at all of the other comrades they had lost, Colonel Amunatigui suddenly excused herself and went to her office. Always joyful, and the one nurse who could always come up with an off color ribald joke, or return an insult into a compliment to one of the injured male or female soldiers. Making a phone call, she called a telephone number in the former United States, and talked to the party on the other line, then when she was satisfied, she hung up the phone. Looking at the last picture of her and Arlene taken a few days before she died, she smiled and said to herself “Manang all is going well”, and you will be glad to hear she is now a happy little baby girl.
Lieutenant Colonel Angela Amunatigui , now Chief of Nursing was born on November 24th, 2035, in Cebu, the Philippines. After graduating from the Nursing Program at the University of the Philippines, she joined the Philippine Nurse Corps, and became an Army Nurse. Working in the Visayas, and at Victorino Luna (V. Luna) General Hospital, home of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Medical Center, Angela had risen through the rank, and was selected to attend an advanced Combat Nursing Program at Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC). As part of her four year program, she also got her Masters of Nursing in Obstetrics and Maternal Nursing. After her graduation from the 16 week program, she would be assigned to one of the Field Hospital where she could put her skills to good use .
Knowing Arlene for the past three years, they both enjoyed each others company, both were Filipina, while Angela was from the Philippines, Arlene having Filipino parents became Angela’s best friend. Each would at some time exhibit a certain Filipino characteristic. When Arlene needed an Assistant Chief of Nursing, she choose Angela over the other qualified senior nurses. Together the both of them ran the 2075th…
25042077, Saudi Arabian Cremation Complex A1, Earth [Sol]
It was decided that the crematories would be placed in all of the world’s desert areas. There 500 large crematory complexes handling up to 20,000 bodies could run 24-hours a day every day without the heat affecting the growth of new plant, and tree life, neither would it disrupt the land needed now to grow food for the ever hungry civilian populace. The Saudi Arabian Desert was chose for the disposal of all military war dead from both sides.
The Militaries of the Western Powers had since 1991 used DNA to identify all soldiers; the military of 2020 had gone one step further. They had used DNA scanners, computerized coding, and other human markers, so that no matter how badly decomposed the soldier was, The Army’s DNA profile matching program which started in 2021 was the basis for proper DNA matching of the deceased. Living family members and the soldiers DNA were matched and stored. This allowed for proper identification of unknown remains.
Once a body was discovered, or the soldier died in a medical facility, each complete or incomplete remains were inserted into a insulated Kevlar body bag which was quick frozen on site. Once a load of over 5,000 body bags were palletized, they were flown to Saudi Arabia. Each Crematorium complex measured five by ten miles, and had a conveyor system that continuously fed the prepared dead in the ovens to be cremated.
12252101, Third War Burial Processing Center, Greenland Zone, Earth [Sol]
0350 hours, the burial flight from Saudi Arabia’s Cremation Unit 5 was just making its last approach before landing. The night before they had gotten a fresh carpet of snow, and the work crews on the airfield were just now finishing moving snow off the runway. As 1st Lieutenant Connelly and his Military Honor Guard waited for the crew to off load six more cremation pallets, she couldn’t help but wonder which of her brothers was in that palletized container, or where were these young and old men & women from during the Great Human Civil War.
Issuing a few commands, the seven man team moved smartly out onto the tarmac, found their spot and waited. As the air crews opened up the back end of the C5A5N cargo plane, she saw six large plastic pallets with the flag of the United Allied Military draped over the top. As the pallets came out, the band also at its own per-designated place started to play the new National anthem of a victorious world. As the band played its last note, the Lieutenant gave the order, and seven volleys of three shots rang out. After the last shot rang out, the two details went back inside the large roomy reception area to get warm, and await the next flight due in another hour.
As the crew of the giant C5A5N taxied down the runway, as the pilots gained altitude, they would pass over an area that overlooked the Greenland Sea. As the plane slowly banked to the left, the loadmaster looking out the back of the cargo plane, saw hundreds and hundreds of thousands of the palletized containers stacked in the deep snow. Stacked ten high in spaced piles, as far as the eye could see. Soon the plane gradually gained flying altitude, and Greenland was a memory, as the plane flew back to Saudi Arabia for another load of pallets…
15122113, Zhejang Pavilion Army Group West General Headquarters, Earth [Sol]
0700 hrs, the lone military figure got out of the old style Chinese Pedi cab. Stepping out of the Pedi cab, Col. Cynthia D. Romo paid the driver. As the Pedi-Cab disappeared into the distance, she pulled at her Class “A” uniform jacket, so it wasn’t bunched up, straightened her tie, then walked to a closed store to look at her reflection in the large window of her legs encased in seamed nylons.
Seeing that uniform was correctly fitted, she then moved her dark brown Sam Browne belt carrying a small leather holster that held her chrome .40 caliber semi-automatic pistols and one extra magazine. With the shoulder strap now over her right shoulder, she smiled in her reflection, then she made sure her dark blue beret, which was the color of the Adjutant General’s Corp, and rank was also squared away.
Army Group only military personnel among the allied officers authorized to carry their own personal preference for a side arm were the field and general officers. The regular officers from Lieutenant to Major still carried the standard 9mm semi-automatic pistol. Even though the war lasted only 22 years everyone was still conditioned to carry a weapon for protection.
Col. Romo wore the old style; modernized version of the military uniform women wore during WWII. The Military had also gone back to the haircut and makeup regulations of WWII for women, and decided that if women were going to be in uniform, then they should look like women, and with her Asian features, long hair that was nicely put up, she looked like a model.
As Cynthia entered the vast covered lobby of Tower #1, she stopped by the Chinese Run Starbucks, milling with the other military personnel from the various military units, she always turned the male officer’s eyes. At 6-1, and 185 lbs, she cut a beautiful figure as her Chinese Filipino features gave her the look of one of those models, with her great smile, and a great sense of humor, she was one of those officers you wouldn’t mind dating. Paying for her Pumpkin spiced Latte, she stopped at one of the armed checkpoints which was manned by a female sergeant of the British Royal Military Police. Pulling her ID card from her purse, she went to one of the swipe card stations, swiping her badge she waited for the green light.
With the green light on, she waved to the other MP’s then entered Elevator number one, and went up to her 46th floor office. Entering her locked office, she opened the window shades, and as she was standing there in the now warm sun, she could still see the devastation that years had taken its toll of China. Buildings that were destroyed, were now being replaced by modern buildings, shopping malls, private businesses, homes were now being replaced and being rebuilt. Within another fifty to a hundred years, experts said that China would look like its old self; but with one big difference.
The Allied China Occupational Army (ACOA) on a permanent basis, This Army Group would ensure that the Chinese would not be able to rebuild another army or attack any country. This military forced consisted of the three Army Groups, that would rotate among each other every five years. The next group to return next year would be Field Marshal Abhaya Sing’s Indian led Army Group North. Four Army Divisions backed up by Airborne, and a motorized Army Brigade was stationed in the mountainous areas of China. Another five or six divisions backed up by Armored, Airborne, and a Light Infantry Scout Battalion would be stationed in the Great Plains of China. Rounding this out was the Allied Air Force with the Drones that continuously monitored the uninhabitable regions of China. If they saw something suspicious, ten tactical fighter wings would be dispatched. So for the past 36 years the world continued to build, and to remember the dead.
But for now, the project she and her staff had finished was now lying on her desk. Singing her name, she left her office and went up to the he project her staff had finished now lay on her desk waiting for her signature, then she would take it to General Montgomery’s office who would give this to Field Marshall Richard Bentley. Cynthia’s report was read by Field Marshall Bentley, and he was very impressed on the completeness of the report, and the information that was now on paper.
Looking at the thick two hundred page report, besides the usual other military information, the war facts were startling:
Total Number of Personnel assigned to Army Group West on 05/01/2077
Total number of soldiers: 50,000,000
Total number of males: 47,955,999
Total number of females: 2,044,001
Total Killed in Action (KIA): 39,950,880
Total Wounded in Action (WIA): 9,350,009
*These figures would change
Missing in Action (MIA)/EPW: Unknown
Other Allied Soldiers absorbed: 9-10 million
The actual figures did not take in the number of the other soldiers from the Army Groups South, and North, who during the Battle for Beijing, and Wi’an were absorbed into Army Group West, as their units were either destroyed, or lost. So another nine to ten million more soldiers were absorbed.
After she gave the report, she went back to her office to answer a telephone call from Ninang (godmother) Angela. Usually her Ninang and her parents would sometimes call to check up her. Not minding Ninang (Godmother) Angela’s interesting Filipina accent make her feel good. It was always great to hear her voice. But there was something that she wanted to ask of her; but decided that when she went home for her annual leave she would check up on a hunch, about these monthly checks for $5,000 she had been getting each year. She thought it was a mistake; but checking with Payroll, she found out that it was legitimate. But one thing bothered her; who was Colonel Delfin, and why was she even listed as being a beneficiary? But for now all of that would have to wait, she couldn’t wait to tell her godmother that she was coming home to visit…..
SCFF: Incoming
Sat, 27th October, 2012
A story written by Cameron Garcia set in the Shattered Citadel Universe about an Allied medical team in the middle of WWIII.