Jack of Harts

Marine Corps Air Station Yuma weathered the drug cartel attacks far better than those who aimed the cartels at them expected. Yuma did not know who could have managed it, but they smelled a rat. Yuma was far away from most things important, so they suspected someone had targeted them for destruction. The question was “why?” The first question, that is. There were many other questions, and it galvanized them to look for other ways to survive. The new President was not going to help them, so they began sounding out the Arizona State government. Arizona was already talking to Texas on matters of regional self-defense, and they roped Yuma into the discussion. Yuma’s commander was clear on the point that they were United States Marines, and were not interested in joining whatever Texas was cooking up. But if Texas was getting ready to shoot up the drug cartels, Yuma would deploy everything they could fly in support of that operation.

The Second Great Depression affected every military base across America differently. Marine Corps Air Station Yuma did not collapse into internal fighting. It did not suffer massive desertions. Yes, there were some, but Yuma’s fighting strength remained largely intact. The new President slashed their budget, though, and that cut their ability to train and deploy the expensive F-35Bs that were their primary striking power. So the base commander talked to his drill instructors about the Marine Corps unofficial motto. No. Not the one that probably just came to your mind. The “Every Marine is a Rifleman” motto. Knowing that idle hands makes for mischief, he ordered every Marine on base, starting with himself, placed on double physical training duty until the budget issues could be worked out. As you may imagine, his Marines did not love him for that. Though they did follow him onto the parade field every morning.