Jack of Harts

American military and police forces were trained in a sliding scale of ever more intrusive missions as the Second Great Depression approached. And when yet another pandemic came out of China in the mid-Twenty First Century, many of the most populous State governments sent them house to house to separate the ill from the healthy. They closed businesses and churches, manned checkpoints on the streets, and arrested people traveling without approved papers describing them as essential workers. Texas and many other States followed a different model. Yes, they did instruct their citizens to follow normal pandemic routines like physical distancing, and they banned large physical gatherings. But where some States banned all gatherings of any kind, Texas encouraged virtual gatherings so people could compare notes on doctors or treatments that worked. They did not use the military to enforce their rules, and the national media networks attacked them relentlessly for refusing to do that. And for allowing their people to say things the media did not approve of. So when the media called on the federal government to mobilize the military to shut down all non-approved gatherings of any kind throughout America, Fort Hood was one of the many military bases that prayed to God the President would not be that stupid.

Fort Hood’s military funding suffered greatly in the years before the Second Great Depression. They received feasibility funding for testing prototype mech deployment within the armored cavalry, but all other combat-oriented budget line items were cut to the bone. Many military historians say through the bone and into the territory of forced demobilization. Sensitivity and social awareness briefings were fully funded and staffed, but federal penny pinchers cut training and spare parts funding for the expensive tanks that would never be needed in another war that was never going to happen. The soldiers would be much more useful digging ditches or laying down pavement for the much more important expansion of social services complexes after all. Texas helped them stretch what dollars they received by donating food, housing, and other support services under the table. It wouldn’t do for the feds to realize that and cut even more funding after all. But despite everything Fort Hood soldiers and technicians did, readiness levels fell below fifty percent as they scavenged parts from many tanks to keep others operational. It was a dark time for Fort Hood.