Jack of Harts

In the founding years of the American military when the British were the oppressive enemy, the army was based around militia units recruiting young men from the surrounding territory. Many soldiers in the years and decades that followed would spend their entire service careers rarely more than a few day’s march from the home they grew up in, resulting in heavily divided loyalties between their State and America as a whole. And when their State seceded from America during the Civil War, they generally stayed true to their home. After that conflict ended, the American military began a long tradition of maintaining strong federal units that rotated individual troopers throughout their bases every few months to years. The intention was to keep local loyalties from overriding federal oaths in the future. But as Twenty First Century social experimentation led to spending cycles that drove the federal government further and further into deep debt, many politicians looked for ways to reduce military spending. They fought against “sending the troops on expensive world tours on the public dime” and called for them to “bring the boys home so they can work for a living.” They of course had far more important social engineering projects the military could “beat their swords into plowshares” to perform. And the expensive practice of rotating them between bases was simply not necessary to this new and improved mission. This would lead to unpleasant consequences during the Second Great Depression.

At a time when many military bases fell apart or joined the State they resided in to survive, Joint Base White Sands continued flying the American flag atop their flagpoles. Their operational reach was greatly diminished compared to pre-Second Great Depression levels, but they eventually deployed small teams into the Borderplex to coordinate with local police and sheriffs in an effort to drive out the gangs and drug cartels. And they maintained enough of a watch on matters on the southern side of the old Mexican border to keep tabs on their foreign enemies. By the time the Texas State Guard was ready to roll into Mexico and deal with those enemies for good, Joint Base White Sands provided them with the best aerial intelligence in the remaining Free World. And the remains of their Army units rolled with the Texans as well, though they made it clear that they remained in the American chain of command. Even if they did not precisely follow the insane orders still coming from Washington. They did not subordinate themselves to Texan command, but were happy to coordinate with them. The Texans, supremely confident that would change in due time, accepted both the clarification and the help with equal cheer. Not everyone was blessed enough to be born a Texan after all.

The Second Great Depression was not kind to the military reservations surrounding the White Sands Missile Range. The drop in federal funding left them surviving off local resources alone. Many soldiers chose to go home, often taking whatever supplies or weapons they could carry with them. Some were already affiliated with the local gangs and drug cartels, and sold various military supplies to them. By the time open street fighting hit the nearby Borderplex cities, Fort Bliss had shrunken to something not much larger than a skeleton security force trying to secure what weapons and supplies it still had. While also searching for the traitors in their own ranks still selling supplies and weapons to the enemy. Holloman Air Force Base had similar issues and only retained enough people to fly a handful of aircraft at a time, most of which were unarmed drones. They did what they could to help the Borderplex fight the gangs and drug cartels, but their reach was severely limited.