All six of the aircraft had worked hard for the last two days—Lady Dandy, Sally’s Pilatus, the FedEx Cargomaster, the 210, and the two Cessna 172s—and it was on the evening of the ninth day when everybody met up again at Preston’s airport.
They all flew in just before dusk after each completing three flights out of Pope and Seymour Johnson. That day alone, over 2,900 more people had been delivered a two-week supply of food, and it was time for a cold Yuengling for everybody. Cold brown bottles were being popped everywhere. Even the president had a couple in his hand, one for him and one for his tired wife, when Preston got a radio call from the guard at his gate. A Colonel Grady from Alabama was there at the gate wanting to visit, and hundreds of military vehicles were waiting in a line for miles down the road behind him.
“Let him in,” replied Preston. “Nobody is flying in tonight. I’ll disconnect the lights. Tell them to drive in and park next to each other along the length of the runway. It will be easy for them to get out in the morning.”
One-by-one, the large trucks towing the howitzers drove in and were directed by Air Force soldiers. They drove along the runway towards the south end, turned in, and parked across the width of the tarmac.
It took 30 minutes, but finally the whole length of the 2,700 foot runway was full of hundreds of vehicles facing the house and hangar. It was a powerful sight in the setting sun.
The aircraft in the hangar were being pulled outside with the tractor so that as many of the 800 plus men who had arrived could sleep on their field mattresses on the cement in the warmer building. It wasn’t summer, or even spring yet! The doors had been opened several times that day, but 50 degrees was better than the 30-degree temperature outside, the beer was reasonably cold, and the hangar would soon heat up with all the bodies arriving.
The three dozen porta-potties were still at the airfield and would now come in handy. They were in a line behind the old red barn, now full to the brim with ammo and other military supplies ready for any more attacks. Many of the Air Force troops had already shipped out with the C-130s to several locations, and there was now only the minimum guard of 30 soldiers and Captain Pierce protecting the farm.
Colonel Grady came over to shake Preston’s hand and got the shock of his life when the U.S. President and his whole family came out of the hangar to wonder at the massive amount of Army vehicles, which had just arrived.
“Is he…… the real…..?” Colonel Grady asked, his hand frozen in Preston’s and his mouth open as the president walked up to the growing group of men as if he owned the place.
“Attention!” shouted the colonel, and every single man who was moving stood to attention and saluted in the direction of the president.
“At ease, gentlemen,” the president shouted, smiling as he and the First Family came over to greet the colonel. “It’s good to see that the U.S. Army still has some fire power,” the president said to the colonel, shaking his hand.
“It’s not much yet, Mr. President, sir, but we are growing in size with every army barracks we visit. Your official letter sure helps the commanders get their act together,” he drawled in his very southern accent. “This is just the vanguard of our total forces. I didn’t want to wait for the colonel at Bragg. He’s 24 hours behind us and I left 400 men to help him prepare for travel. He has the same amount of these older troop carriers we have here. We have also cleared the road up to here from Fayetteville, and he’ll catch up with us once he gets on I-95.”
“Good news, Colonel,” said Preston. “The Navy had dozens of bulldozers on the northbound side of I-95 and they are clearing a lot of highway miles per day. You are going to have to use your bulldozers to clear up to the North Carolina-Virginia border and then it should be plain driving from there. They have squads all the way north to New York. Over a dozen naval stations are clearing a path for you.”
“That will help us get there a little quicker. I thought the Navy used boats, not bulldozers,” laughed the colonel. “Preston, we all have MREs with us and the men can sleep next to the vehicles tonight.”
“How many do you have here tonight, Colonel?” Preston asked.
“Just over 800 men,” Colonel Grady replied.
“If you set up your guard positions,” continued Preston, “I’m sure most of the men can sleep in the warmer hangar tonight. There should be enough room if they bed down in lines and the best part is that we have enough beer to go around—at least two beers per man, as long as you allow them to have a couple of drinks, Colonel.”
“I’m sure the men will appreciate that, Preston, Mr. President, but we don’t want to take all your stocks,” Colonel Grady replied.
“We already had enough here and then the Air Force brought in a pallet of beers. Actually, you guys are drinking on the hospitality of the U.S. Air Force tonight, Colonel,” replied Preston.
“Well, if that’s the case, I’m sure my men could easily stomach a few Air Force beers.”
“What do we have here, Colonel Grady?” the president asked, looking over the long line of vehicles and still holding his first beer in his hand.
“Oh yes! Mr. President let me give you a tour. Let us walk.”
The colonel ordered the men to form up and continued talking to the president while his soldiers got into formation in front of their vehicles. “Preston, we have grown since you and I first met in Alabama two days ago. This group is the vanguard, or the lead group. You told me to get up there as fast as possible and that’s why we are here. We now have 22 155mm howitzers and 28 105mm howitzers, all pulled by those trucks at the southern end of the runway.” The colonel showed the walking group the first 50 large trucks with the large howitzers towed behind them. They had now been joined by everybody on the farm, including Joe and David, who had heard the racket.
Introductions were again made, and the colonel continued walking down the long line with men in formation saluting the president as he came up to each group of men. The First Family was excited to meet as many of the troops as they could, and Preston was handed the president’s beer so that he could give a return salute to the troops.
“Colonel Smith at Bragg is getting another six 155mm howitzers behind six of his trucks—all museum pieces and as bad as mine— and he has two old M-103 heavy tanks still on their original tractor trailers. They are beauties, Mr. President. They have the bigger 120mm guns with armor-piercing projectiles. Seventy of their projectiles are armor-piercing, and he also has two operational older M1 Abrams with the smaller 105mm guns. Unfortunately, their tractor trailers don’t work and the Abrams are going to have to get up there under their own steam. So far, we have a total of 189 troop carriers, nine fuel tankers, and 15 old jeeps, of which eight are Mutts. The Mutts have TOW missiles, anti-tank and armor penetration to about five or more inches with ‘normal’ armor. ‘Hardened armor’ is another matter, but the TOWs don’t mind if they hit tanks or ships— they will just go where they are aimed. Then we have 27 old trucks, of which several used to be garbage trucks and are now carrying ammunition. Then we have 15 ammunition-filled trucks pulling large 88mm mortars, one rocket launcher vehicle (post Vietnam-war), and a hospital tractor trailer.
“That’s 230 trucks standing in front of you, and another 120 getting mobile. There are another 2,200 men ready to move in from Fort Bragg, but they are still searching for enough vehicles to transport them. The Fort Bragg commander is filling another five 10-ton dump trucks with all types of guns, ammo, mortars, flares, and all sorts of nasty surprises for anybody wanting to attack us. He has another couple of fuel tankers he will need refueling bases along I-95 every 100 highway miles or so. Mr. President, we have built a small army, and we have enough firepower to sink anything that gets within three miles of the U.S. shoreline.”