Fort Bogart

[Captain Enema]

With the fall of the government of Cascadia permission was sought and given for the development of a Legion fort in North America. A quick survey of the maps led General M'Tembe of the Legion Corp of Engineers to pick the small city of Port Townsend on the Olympic Peninsula for the site.

With the seemingly quiet status of the Ehestadt Theater of Operations the 2nd and 3rd Air Assault Regiments are permanently detached from the Ehestadt Legion Force and formed into the American Legion Force. The ALF troopers quickly board ships and set off to their new duty station.

With them go a Legion Engineering Battalion and Legion contractors. Rather than bothering to staff the fort with Legion civilian personnel, the local population is asked to fill the void. To effect this the Honorable North American Company Charter is signed in Port Sudan to create a private entity which will do the subcontracting for local services.

Further the Honorable North American Company will also serve a long term Legion commercial enterprise on the continent.

The utterly astonishing sight of Mount Olympus astonishes General M'Tembe to the extent that he asks for and is given special permission for a National Park. The Mount Olympus National Park is open to visitors who come over on the ferry from Victoria, Seattle, or by land through the city of Hoodsport.

By direction of the Legion Council the Mount Olympus Park is restricted from military, civilian, and commercial development.

Much will be done in the days to come, but in the end a vital hub of Austrian-Legion activity will be created on the Peninsula in the memory of Chris Bogart, a valued ally of Austria.

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/eyuGe.jpg[/IMG]

Edited July 3, 2011 by Tidy Bowl Man

[Captain Enema]

Further forces are organized and dispatched from the Legion General Reserve in Port Sudan.

1 Air Strike Wing, 18 F-16 Fighters
1 Air Transport Wing, 18 C-130 Medium Transports
1 Airborne Battalion 600 men plus equipment.

The planes are sent by air and the troops by sea. Expected time of arrival for all equipment and troops is 1 month.

American Legion Forces are clustered around Port Townsend for the most part. With smaller branch bases spread around the Peninsula. Or they will be once everything has arrived.

Until they have arrived local foot patrols will be performed by the Airborne Battalion which has been flown in by regular commercial air flights. The six hundred men of the Airborne Battalion take ferries across to the Peninsula from Seattle and quickly set to work with their patrols on foot.

Soon they'll be joined by the Air Assault Regiments, then the Engineers, followed by the Air Wings, and finally the Special Duty Detachment.

The Special Duty Detachment is a curious one as far as they go for Legion. This one includes a substantial force of naval officers and airborne experts. The prime focus of their deployment will be to create a depot to house an entire Air Assault Division. The two Air Assault Regiments will make up the seed of it with equipment for two more regiments on hand only needing the men to be flown to it in times of crisis.

They also will be responsible for creating a small fleet of landing craft to facilitate any local Puget Sound Operations.

For the time being though, it is just the Legion Paratroopers out in the boonies of Fort Bogart taking in the views and meeting the locals.

[Captain Enema]

A quick shuffling of forces is made prior to the departure of the Air Assault Regiments to Fort Bogart. Rather than two regiments only one is sent as the threat levels of the area do not warrant the expense. It is felt that the local saber rattling is just that, saber rattling.

In its place is a cadre force to recruit a local Legion Defense Brigade. The officers and NCOs will do a special course in Port Sudan while the enlisted men will be trained in place. The Pacific Northwest Brigade will have an paper strength of 8500 men. Further, it will be supplemented by a Local Coastal Defense Regiment.

Cadre from the 1st Coastal Defense Division in Port Sudan have landed in Seattle and are currently on their way to Fort Bogart. These men will be responsible for training, organizing, and leading the new Pacific Northwest Coastal Defense Regiment. Their paper strength is authorized at 2500. The officers and NCOs will be trained in Port Sudan and the enlisted men trained in place.

The Engineers have arrived at Port Townsend and have begun work. Their first goals are to begin creating a proper base for the Legionnaires. Using the Legion prefab housing modules they quickly begin erecting enough housing to keep their heads dry. The Paratroopers out on patrol find ways to keep themselves dry by billeting themselves with the local families. As per orders they pay for their lodgings and food in cash and are on their best behaviors. No one is forced to take in a Legionnaire for the night and all those who deny service are treated with courtesy and respect.

The Pilots and ground crew of the newly raised Pacific Northwest Air Strike Wing arrived as well. Rather than send their planes and gear the men alone are sent. It is felt that newer model planes from the UFE ought to be requisitioned rather than subjecting their old F-16 A models to such a long flight. The C-130s from the Air Transport Wing are in the air with long range fuel bladders in their cargo bays.

[Captain Enema]

Private:

[quote]
08:20 Denard waits patiently as the phone rings.
08:20 CharlesFountaine picks up the phone
08:20 CharlesFountaine "Charles Fountaine, Executive Ambassador, Republic of Texas"
08:21 Denard hello Sir, I'm Robert Denard of Legion, and I'm calling around to take the time to get to know my new neighbors in North America.
08:21 Denard Would you mind if I have a few moments of your time?
08:22 CharlesFountaine "Not a problem Mr. Denard, what can the Republic of Texas help you out with this fine day?"
08:22 Denard Well I don't know how aware you are of Legion's new presence in the Pacific Northwest of this lovely continent, but we are here and we are faced with certain local issues.
08:23 CharlesFountaine "Oh, Mr. Denard, you can be assure that the Republic has been keeping a close eye on the developements of the Pacific Northwest these past few weeks"
08:24 CharlesFountaine "What kind of local issues?"
08:25 Denard I can imagine you have. Rightfully so as well. I won't waste your time them, I'm a straight forward sort of person. Legion is faced with the problem of working with a local population, a local population we are obligated to provide educational and health services for. We are looking for North American vendors that we can contract with to source these with.
08:27 CharlesFountaine "Well, there are a number of unions representing educator organizations - can you be a bit more specific with the educational levels you're interested in?"
08:28 Denard Well what we are hoping is to create a foundation in the Pacific Northwest that will award scholarship to young men and women. With these scholarships, quite generous ones in fact, they'll be able to attend Universities on the North American continent, or elsewhere if they chose. We are looking to work with Texas to provide access to your University system
08:28 Denard for these young men and women.
08:30 CharlesFountaine "Absolutely, the Republic can certainly work with you to provided access to our academic institutions"
08:32 Denard Excellent, I'm greatly pleased. Legion has a very hands off approach to governance. We see our time in the Northwest as a fleeting one. No matter how much time we spend here, we do intend to leave the place in better shape than when we arrived.
08:32 Denard I am curious though, what is Texas's position on our presence here in the Northwest?
08:33 CharlesFountaine "The Republic's position is that the Americas are for Americans, that being said we have accepted foreign presence in the Americas as a fact of life and will work with them to ensure the local populaces are well taken care of"
08:34 Denard Is there someway Legion can work with Texas to ensure that our American population is being treated well?
08:36 CharlesFountaine "Greater economic and educational oppurtunities for the local populaces will go a long way to ease Texan fears"
08:37 Denard Those are both long term plans for the area, not just the Pacific Northwest, but the entire Puget Sound region. What we'd like to do is invite a representative from Texas to Port Townsend to act as a arbitrator of sorts.. not sure how to describe it.. but an American without Legion ties to be the voice for our local population.
08:39 CharlesFountaine "Anything the Republic can do to assure the local populace's well being we will. Your invitation is quite generous and I want to express my thanks for offering it to us."
08:41 Denard Good, Legion isn't in the business of stamping out local cultures. We'd rather act as the custodian of the Pacific Northwest until the time comes that they are able to go their own way. We plan on a phased system of self-rule. First we call the shots, then they start calling for themselves. It is unclear how long this will take, but thus far we've been impressed with the local population's willingness to cooperate and their industrious nature. I don' think it will be much longer before they are in some sort of state of self-rule.
08:44 CharlesFountaine "Excellent, that is reassuring to hear"
08:45 Denard Good, what we'll do immediately is clear some office space for a Education and Trade Representative from Texas in Port Townsend. If you chaps hear any abuses of the locals, call me directly. It is a hanging offense in Legion to rape, murder, and just about any other form of assault on a civilian.
08:47 CharlesFountaine "What of the law officers in the Pacific Northwest? Are they Legion or local? We can only do so much without good lawmen behind us. If necessary, we can tranfer Texas Rangers to provide training and auxillary support"
08:49 Denard Legion for the time being will keep the peace. However, in the near future we will begin creating a local police force. Perhaps the Texas Rangers could train them in Texas? We prefer to send our recruits abroad for training. For many of these young men and women it is the only chance they'll ever get to travel.
08:49 Denard We don't think it will take too much work as the local police departments seem to be more or less functioning.
08:50 CharlesFountaine "It is certainly a possibility for recruits to be trained in Texas. Once some office space is cleared we will send in staff roughly proportienet to what a regular embassy staff is sized"
08:52 Denard Excellent, give us a few weeks, we'll get it organized. In the meanwhile we are going to announce the creation of the Pacific Northwest Education and Economic Trust. It is a private organization, but one that Legion will be giving a fair bit of power and access to funds. Most of our business will be conducted through this organization.
08:53 CharlesFountaine "Excellent, we will be awaiting your announcement and call"
08:53 Denard Ownership and profits will be split between Legion and the local population, though we aren't exactly sure how we will do this, but accountants around to figure that sort of business out.
08:57 Denard Anyway, you have my number, 555-5555, call me directly if you need to speak with me about anything. We look forward to working with the Republic of Texas in the future.[/quote]





Port Townsend:

"Today Legion is proud to announce the creation of the Pacific Northwest Education and Economic Trust. Through this mechanism the young men and women of Fort Bogart and all of Puget Sound will be given access to education and economic opportunities.

The PNW E and E Trust will be funded entirely by Legion. We will give out scholarships to young men and women to attend North American Universities. These will be full scholarships as well. Service upon return is set at a 5 year term. Five years of schooling for five years of work in their own communities upon return.

Economic opportunities are to be made with matching grants. For example, if a young businessman or woman wishes to open a shop of some sort. Whatever funds they can advance the PNW E and E will match those funds. Any additional funds needed will be made with a very low interest loan that has income dependent repayment terms.

Profits of any sort made by the PNW E and E will be split between Legion and the Trust.

Thus far the Republic of Texas has agreed to allow access to their Universities. We hope to see the first lot of young men and women from the Fort Bogart area leaving to Texas in the coming months.

Thank you for your time and the floor is open for questions.."

[Captain Enema]

Troops and more Engineers begin to pour into Fort Bogart in earnest. Full scale construction of various hardened facilities are being prepared for. Several small airstrips are selected to house the Pacific Northwest Air Defense Forces to distribute them rather than to put them all in one large target.

The bulk of Legion's forces are scheduled to arrive within the next thirty days and housing and other facilities will be ready for them.

[TheShammySocialist]

"The Cajun Federation would also gladly allow these students to attend university at its prestigious institutions, provided they have diplomas from properly accredited primary acadmic institutions prior to their arrival in the Federation. They would also be required to submit for student visas before attending university in the Federation."

[Captain Enema]

"Legion thanks the Ragin' Cajuns for their generosity."

[Captain Enema]

classified:

Legion Engineers have quite an extensive history of building Coastal Defense Forts. Using contractors from the Seattle Region the needed equipment is rapidly mobilized and brought in via land routes. Four redoubts of massive scale are being planned. Two facing Vancouver Island, one facing the direction of the San Juan Islands, and one covering the Pacific approaches with decent coverage of the Vancouver region.

Phase One of the construction is the preparation of the foundations. These aren't your ordinary foundations for a piddling house either. Massive slabs of concrete are planned, reinforced concrete at that. The base layer is planned at 18 feet of thickness with iron reinforcing rods well dispersed through out it. Good reliable Portland Premix Cement is ordered by the container full to facilitate this project.

Steel plates are sourced through various local shipyards that have the proper size and thickness. They are ordered and prepared for installation giving the foundation and walls a potential sandwich style layer of defense against attack. Meaning Concrete, four inches of steel, concrete and rebar, four inches of steel, and finally more concrete.

These is for the firing point of the future railgun positions. Around them secondary defensive measures are being built as well. CIWS weapons, Surface to Air Missiles, and Secondary radar sites are being prepared using the same style of concrete/steel sandwich layers of protection. The sites are distributed to prevent a total kill scenario of the entire facility by taking out a single part of it. Power and water is triple routed to each of the manned structures through independent routes.

The site for the Thorium reactor is chosen carefully. A massive underground structure is planned that is encased with a huge shell of steel, concrete, and rebar to protect it and protect the population in the event of some sort of accident. Power lines from the reactor are planned well in advance to not only feed the local cities need for power but for the Coastal Defense Forts as well.

With them special housing arrangements are being made for the incoming UFE Technical support staff. A local luxury hotel is outright purchased and encircled with a high razor wire fence. Discrete cameras, motion detectors, and other security measures are installed to keep out curious locals. Sniper teams are placed in high points and several manpad teams are quietly secreted in advance across the property.

[Captain Enema]

The recruitment for the Pacific Northwest Brigade and the Coastal Defense Regiment proves to go quite well. Legion trainers take the enlisted men and women in hand and soon have them hard at work. Very hard at work indeed. Each of them will have to prove they can live up to the Legion's physical fitness requirements prior to undergoing basic induction training.

Officer cadres of local men and women are dispatched to Port Sudan Training schools for NCO and Officer training. They'll undergo their own basic induction training while in Port Sudan that will be the exact same material, just a very different location, that the enlisted are undergoing in Port Townsend.

Materials for Coastal Defense Forts Alpha through Delta continues to flow in. Work continues on these forts at a breakneck pace. Projected time to completion is one to two years. Tunnels linking the separate parts of the Forts are begun. Large trenches are planned with 8 foot sewer pipes, new of course, acting as the tunnels. The pipes will be buried under a layer of 10 feet of concrete, steel, and finally layers of rubble and gravel on the surface.

Hangars for the 72 advanced interceptors purchased from the UFE are begun as well. New contractors are hired to do this work. Special concrete reinforced structures are planned at the distributed airstrips around the Olympic Peninsula. Engineers planning these defenses meet in Port Townsend to discuss the overall scope of the project.

At the last minute the entire meeting is shifted to a secured warehouse that is surrounded by Legion Paratroopers to provide security. Charts of the Puget Sound, Maps of the Peninsula, and survey data reports litter the warehouse. The Engineers debate for hours and in the end come up with the triple layer agreement.

The agreement, in general terms, calls for the triple redundancy of all defensive works. Power, water, radar, escape routes, communications, and so forth are planned to have triple layers of service. Further, independence between these services are emphasized giving the Engineers quite a bit to work on in the coming days.

[Captain Enema]

Construction on the Aircraft Hangars, Air Defense sites for the Air Strips, and Coastal Defense Forts is still underway. The core cadre of officers and NCOs for the Pacific Northwest Brigade and Pacific Northwest Coastal Defense Regiment have arrived in Port Sudan and begun training.

Special Operations Group team members and Legion Paratroopers take on the role of turning the unruly mob of recruits from the Olympic Peninsula into a well honed force that is worthy of belonging to Legion.

The Pacific Northwest Educational and Economic Trust sends its first 'crop' of students. The majority of them take the chance to study in Austria so that they might better understand their own heritage. A few go to the Cajun Confederation and the Republic of Texas as well.

A week long celebration is planned to show the Empress Maria Theresia the loyalty and the respect that the citizens of Fort Bogart have for her majesty. A small church choir made up of young boys and girls will be departing for Vienna to sing the Empress a selection of traditional Austrian Church music.

Parades, open houses, and so forth are planned by the city of Port Townsend as well. These arrangements are made without the sanction or support of Legion forces as Legion forces have strict orders to not interfere in the local cultural and spiritual scene, unless of course there is an issue of public safety that must be address. A large donation to assist the choir is made by Legion to defray the expense of their travels. A small group of Legionnaires from the 4th Regimental Combat Team, currently serving in Austria, have been selected to escort the choir around Vienna as guides.

The 4th Regiment is chosen for this task due to the mostly Austrian make up of the Regiment.

Other donations are made discretely to local Austrian churches and local Austrian civic groups in the name of the Empress by Legion officers that are currently serving in Port Townsend as well. Permission has been sought and given for the participation a unit of Legionnaires to march in the parade to show their support and respect for the Empress as well.

Competition to participate in this hand picked unit is rumored to be quite fierce indeed as a great many wish to show their loyalty.

[Captain Enema]

Construction continues on the defense projects. Training continues with the local defense forces as well. The UFE Advanced Fighters have arrived and are being deployed with their pilots and ground crews to the twelve independent airstrips around the Olympic Peninsula. Temporary hangars have been prepared for them while their armored hangars are being built.

Legion Paratroopers and Legion Air Assault Troopers settle into their new barracks outside of Port Townsend. The new facility is named the Port Townsend Military Reservation and holds recreational, supply, and engineering facilities for the upkeep of Legion men and equipment.

Local authorities are notified that they have 60 days to prepare for local elections. Legion forces are not eligible to vote in these elections as well. These elections herald the Legion's drive to ensure that the citizens of the Olympic Peninsula retain as much local control of their lives as possible. Civilian Engineers and Police Officers have been recruited as well to staff the new Olympic Peninsula Services and Support Department.

Rather than cluster such services under local authorities, one Peninsula wide organization will be organized. This saves duplication of services in such a small area. This also allows for the upgrading of the staff's qualifications as the majority of them are shipped off to Austria for a six week long course.

Local schools are reopened. Legion Security Teams stand by the front doors welcoming the students back. The day soon dissolves into a massive waterfight at one of the local schools. Legion forces are forced to retreat under the massive weight of fire. They returned with a fire truck, but a higher ranking officer pointed out that such a retaliation might not work so well against kindergartenrs. The Legion troopers returned the fire truck and graciously spent the rest of the day making balloon animals and doing face painting with the children.

The local school district, Olympic Peninsula Unified School District, requests the right to teach Austrian as the first language. A quick poll of local citizens shows nothing but support for this move. A quick hiring spree in Austria turns up a bounty of teachers willing to make the move to help restaff the school district. Extra funds from the Pacific Northwest Economic and Educational Trust makes this possible.

[Captain Enema]

Construction on the reactor housing, armored hangars, and coastal defense forts is still ongoing. Extensive purchases of concrete have been made in the last few days to keep up with the pace of construction. Scrap yards have been visited for the purchase of salvaged metal to be used in the reinforcing of the structures.

Extra plates of armored steel have been ordered from local shipyards to accommodate the need for doors, armored plates, and silo covers. The first delivery of anti-shipping missiles has been accepted along with the rest of the ADA Missiles and support equipment.

Training of the Pacific Northwest Defense Forces is still ongoing. Most officers and NCOs are half way through their training courses.

[Captain Enema]

Work on the coastal forts is 33 percent complete. The armored hangars for the fighters is finished. The defensive works in and around Port Townsend are started. The training and staffing of the Pacific Northwest Brigade and the Coastal Defense Regiment are 85 percent complete. The officers of both units are currently in Austria spending a month at the Austrian Military College to finish their education and to spend time getting in touch with their cultural roots.

Voting for the mayorship of Port Townsend is complete. A local government is now in place. They've been given full local control to carry out what local duties they see fit to conduct, within the Austrian Civil Code of course, and a modest budget to supplement their taxes to assist them.

Schools are now fully staffed with Austrian teachers and local teachers. This was discussed early and decided by a local committee who surveyed the citizens of the Fort Bogart area and found they wished to retain their Austrian heritage versus taking on something new.

A hospital, funded by Legion and staffed by local doctors and nursers is opened just outside of Port Townsend. It is hailed as a step forward for providing modern medical services to the local communities. Not that they weren't being provided before by the Cascadian government, but the whole collapse thing caused a suspension of services that is just now being completely fixed with a permanent solution rather than temporarily bridging the gap with Legion medical staff.

Air Defense Units are finding their way into the area. Air to Air Missile batteries provided by the UFE factories are being set up around the 12 distributed air bases, the coastal defense forts, and Port Townsend. They'll be deployed conventionally for now and placed in harden locations later on.

Edited July 19, 2011 by Tidy Bowl Man

[Captain Enema]

The Legion's new distributed defense system is being installed on all current and future ADA defense systems. This distributed system allows for the integration of long range, medium range, and short range ADA weapons.

Work on the Coastal Defense Forts is 50 percent complete. The massive layers of concrete and steel are coming into shape. Elevators made of thick plate steel have been installed for the UFE Rail Guns. A concrete firing dome of four feet of concrete is waiting to be poured to protect the Rail Guns when being fired.

Short Range Radar systems are put into position around each Fort. Each one is independently powered and carefully disguised. They have orders to come online only when ordered to do so. They are the last line of ADA defense for the Forts should the main radar sites be taken out.

Fort Bogart is joined by the LSC Distributed Radar Network. Ten Long Range Radar Arrays are put into construction. Further, signals antennas to transmit and receive allied information are being constructed. This work is being joined with the silos for the Coast Defense Forts.

The Silos are of two sorts. Heavily fortified models and mobile silos kept on the move. The mobile silos are disguised as Semi-Trucks and are painted with civilian colors. The fortified silos are positioned away from the coastal defense forts to ensure there isn't a system wide catastrophic failure in the event of a major attack.

The silos are being provided with two sorts of anti-shipping missiles. The first is a short ranged torpedo carrying model named the Legion Sunburn II ASM. The Sunburn II is in the process of being upgraded using UFE technology to enhance it's capability. The second is a standard hypervelocity Brahmos II ASM. Once the silos have been prepared the Fort Bogart area will have a missile throw weight of 1250 Anti-shipping missiles. 250 for each fort and 250 mobile ASM units.

It'll take quite sometime to get the ASM stocks up to such levels, but once complete it'll be a fearsome force to be reckoned with. Further, the Brahmos II ASM units are being reconfigured to handle both a ASM role and PCM role. Both anti-shipping targeting and land based targeting will soon be ready for the Brahmos II ASM units.

Total time to completing the installation of all ASM units, 2 years.

Training and staffing for the Pacific Northwest Brigade and the Pacific Northwest Coastal Regiment is complete.

[Captain Enema]

Pacific Northwest Brigade and Pacific Northwest Coastal Defense Regiment are put on alert for a 2 week series of training and readiness exercises.

Coastal Defenses, AAM Sites, and other military sites are now 60 percent complete.

[Captain Enema]

The Coastal Defense forts and air defense sites are now 80 percent complete. Construction on redundancy programs are given more labor support in order to ensure that the various forts, ADA sites, Radar sites, air strips, ammo dumps, hospitals, and other military security sites have triple levels of redundancy for communications, water, fuel, and power.