quote:
Lieutenant Ben Jagelis sat in the uncomfortable wooden chair inside the ad hoc briefing room. He was uncharacteristically dressed in a faded, but otherwise clean and cared for No. 3 Service dress uniform, his maroon beret tucked in a pocket.
At almost any other time in the past, before the war, he'd have been unarmed, but not anymore. A holstered "not quite issue" Para-Ordnance P-14-45 pistol sat comfortably on his hip. At least it was Canadian made....
On his lap rested a large manila envelope, names and addresses crossed out and rewritten several times in testimony to the need for reusing what used to be disposable office supplies. Contained inside was the simple one page orders he'd received earlier that day.
"Report at 1400 hours to Dept. of Reconnaissance and Investigation HQ for mission briefing", it said simply without further explanation. Rumour said it was for a recce mission to the mainland, but last time he'd heard that he'd ended up leading the security element for a bunch of engineers salvaging an old ferry scuttled to prevent it falling into Soviet hands....
LT Jagelis thought over the operational briefing he'd just heard.
Situation-wise, civil order had been absent for years and there were many different groups, most of whom were nominally allied with the federal government but independent for all intents and purposes. Despite the numbers of factions and the presumed presence of at least some looted or abandoned military-grade weapons in civilian hands, open conflict and internecine warfare seemed rare. Thank God, this was not yet Beirut, Sarajevo or Mogadishu, but with deserters beginning to filter into the city, if the communities decided to start acquiring and arming private mercenary armies the situation (and any long term prospects) could change very quickly, and for the worse.
The only civilian group that was known to be friendly with the feds and the Army was the community located at UBC, which included surviving RCMP personnel. Most other citizens they met (with the possible exception of American refugees) were likely nominally still loyal and might respond to appeals to their patriotism and civic duty. However, this could not be counted on initially or taken for granted under all circumstances. Covert maritime surveillance by DRI fishing boat over the last week had revealed several surviving communities on the water, with some in West Van, UBC and Richmond, with the largest communities in Burnaby, New West and the former industrial hub of Annacis Island, all located along or in the Fraser.
http://tinyurl.com/2k2wvc
(Known or suspected settlements)
There were likely criminal elements present which might include black-marketeers, thieves, street gangs, and even Asian gangs and Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs.
The addition of a former anti-gang task force member suddenly made a lot more sense.
The last two groups were the most worrisome. The Asians gangs were well organized, well armed and well-funded. However, they were not anti-authoritarian in nature.
The Hells on the other hand were also well-funded and organized, but more numerous and also likely to strongly resist any return to authority. These bikers had controlled the middle echelon of crime in BC and Canada for a decade before the war, and had long ago transformed from beer-swilling quasi-romantic rebels of the 60's. Bitter drug wars had hardened them, teaching them sophistication and ruthlessness. Long gone were the drunken street brawlers, replaced by hard core criminals more apt to choose assassination by car-bomb and directing strikes with independent hit teams for maximum deniability. By the war they'd absorbed and amalgamated all the independent motorcycle gangs around, turning BC into a "one-patch" province and a corridor for narcotics-smuggling up and down the coast and across the border.
In the here-and-now, URAEL's mission was to recce the physical infrastructure and surviving communities located in the GVRD, open friendly relations and establish a local base of operations with the survivors in UBC and assess any obstacles to reconstruction in the AO.
The initial insertion was to be via water by ship departing from Duncan on Sunday 02 April 2001 at 0500 hours Lima (local time), arriving at the marina at Deering Island at 0800. Then travel overland via surface roads to UBC in the LAV. The LAV would also the primary means of subsequent ground travel in the AO. The area was still technically under military rule but effectively uncontrolled, so deadly force was permitted when justified. However, as this was a recce, disengagement was the preferred option and all care should be taken to minimise collateral damage to infrastructure and civilians. The Airborne's talents for killing people and breaking things would by somewhat tempered.
http://tinyurl.com/2teldk
(Route Map #1)
http://tinyurl.com/2w8ljh
(Reference Red Cross)
http://tinyurl.com/2v55wo
(Reference Red Cross)
http://tinyurl.com/ypplwr
(Route Map #2)
There was a section on how they would get to the insertion point by ancient-but-seaworthy coastal tramp steamer, supplies and stores carried by the unit. Extraction would be by same ship nominally in 2 months time on 02 June 2001 unless the mission was continued indefinitely by DRI HQ. Regular resupply of food, fuel, equipment/spares and ammunition was once a week (on Sundays) by fishing boat and then zodiac, with the resupply point provisionally designated as being somewhere on the beaches around UBC 2 hours before sunset.
If regularly-scheduled radio contact was lost with the team then emergency re-contact or pick-up zones were designated Point Alpha in Lighthouse Park in West Van, Point Bravo at 2nd beach in Stanley Park, Point Charlie was the beach at Jericho, Point Delta was the seawall north of Wreck Beach, Point Echo was Deering Island in South Van, Point Foxtrot was where Westminster Highway dead-ended in Richmond and Point Golf was western tip of Delta. One day after contact was lost, for a 2 hour period before sunset a boat with a rescue team would cruise by these areas once from North to South, then again 2 hours before dawn.
http://tinyurl.com/2cljwd
(Re-Contact and Rescue Points compared to settlements)
Lieutenant Jagelis was OC of the unit, Sergeant Fox was his 2IC. Corporal Lee, brevetted to Staff Sergeant for this mission due to the possible presence of ranking RCMP personnel, was attached as an observer and civilian/law-enforcement liaison. Like the RCMP in general, she was also responsible for enforcing Canadian civil and military law where appropriate. (In 2001 the RCMP was both a civil and military police force, and so have dual jurisdiction in this area.) Sergeant Fox's rank was also brevetted to Warrant for this mission so that his rank and Corporal Lee's ranks were technically equal.
The radio check and reporting schedule, frequencies and day codes were dutifully copied down by the Signaller, Pvt. MacDonald. As well, there were daytime and night-time recognition or distress signals for authentication purposes with the offshore supply transport or rescue (wood or HC smoke, signal mirrors, flags, even random-looking debris piles during the day; flares, coded white and IR flashes, signal fires, etc. at night).
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:30, Mon 07 Jan 2008.