Jack of Harts

Dyess Air Force Base helped fight the various drug cartels attacks that came into Texas during the Second Great Depression. The Hercules squadrons moved soldiers all around Texas and the surrounding States in quick reaction to strike after strike. They became a welcome sight everywhere, proof that Texas was strong even as the federal government reeled from one scandal to the next. And the paratroopers who jumped out of those craft became the paladins of a new age, storming down from the sky with weapons blazing to kill evil drug cartel enforcers wherever they could be found. And yes, they did often help Dixie and her merry little band of misfits in their unrelenting war with the cartels. That simply added to their reputation. Dyess AFB’s fame hit a new high when it was featured on Dixie’s show, and it became one of the preferred shooting locations for both documentaries and fictional shows for years to come. That would ensure that the citizens of Texas would never forget Dyess.

Dyess Air Force Base’s B-21 Raiders did not fare well during the Second Great Depression. The hi-tech bombers could not maintain flight potential without constant maintenance by the very best technicians on the planet. They depleted their spare parts inventories within weeks, and could obtain none to replenish them, leaving Dyess AFB without its primary global strike ability. Fortunately for both Texas and America, one of their bomber squadrons had never been upgraded to the expensive Raider. They still operated the ancient but more dependable B-1B Lancer that had seen service in every major conflict of the Twenty First Century, and most of their crews remained. They were generational crews, working in their parents’ or grandparents’ craft, and they would never leave their plane to anybody else. When Texas looked for a first strike option for use against the drug cartels, Dyess AFB sent the Lancers in to clear a path for the ground forces. To say they were devastating would be to underutilize a perfectly good adjective.

Dyess Air Force Base was a pure Air Force Base when the Second Great Depression came upon us all. It had not been transferred to the Space Force as some bases had, and though some of its aircraft certainly did brush the edges of atmosphere at times, their mission was purely terrestrial, and as such it was still an Air Force Base at the time. Its primary duties were twofold. The first was airlifting cargo and troops all around the world with the century-old C-130 Hercules aircraft that still performed the job better than every attempted replacement. The second was bombing America’s enemies into the stone age all over the world with the newest and most expensive B-21 Raider stealth bombers. Though the half-century old B-1B Lancers had outlasted all estimates of their service life and continued to serve at Dyess AFB. Both of those ancient airframes would prove to be an important and decisive advantage for America in the months and years of the Second Great Depression and the other difficulties that surrounded it.