Chapter 16

Seal Team 4’s officers were engaged in an early morning meeting with Captain Maroun before beginning the task of removing the trees from Folsom Lake Dam.

Lieutenant Andy Montoya said, “The way I see it, we need to focus on the trees that are floating on the surface first. The filter grid and dam form a pentagon that is about eight hundred feet wide and extends out about four hundred feet from the dam. We can start about eight hundred feet out from the dam and work our way toward the filter grid clearing trees. Once the trees on the surface are cleared, we can start diving for submerged trees and work our way down to the lake bottom.

“I want this job done safely, so we need to establish work zones and safety rules for doing the work. The main hazards are going to be hypothermia, people in the water being run over by a boat, and the lack of visibility underwater.

“The lake water is cold and muddy. Initially, I am going to err on the side of caution. So to prevent hypothermia, no one is to be in the water continuously for longer than ten minutes and we spend a minimum of three minutes out of the water for every minute in the water. Once we have a bit of experience, we can adjust those times to more appropriate values. The muddy water shouldn’t be a problem until we start diving, but to be on the safe side, anyone in the water is to wear a safety line. That way we can either pull a diver out of the water, if he is in trouble, or we can follow his safety line down to where he is and bring him up.

“We have a lot of people and a relatively small area near the filter grid in which to work, so I want the area close to the filter grid divided into work zones. We can determine the optimum number and size of the work areas once we get started. There are three main activities in doing the job: connecting the trees to a towboat, towing the trees, and pulling the trees out of the water.

“The first activity will be done within about three or four hundred feet of the filter grid, so let’s divide that area into two or three work areas. I want only one of our boats in each work area and it will be basically used as a diving platform. While a dive boat’s swimmer is in the water, the boat driver can mind the swimmer’s safety line. That means a minimum of two people in each dive boat.

“The towboats can enter the work areas to pass their towlines to the dive boats, but they are to remain out of a work area when there is a swimmer in the water, or at least a safe distance from the swimmer.

“The second activity is towing the trees. The towboats will be free to operate as needed once they are outside the close-in area’s work zones and while they are not in the areas where trees are pulled out of the water. Towboats will need a driver and someone to watch the surrounding area and handle the towlines, so that means a minimum of two people in each towboat.

“The third activity is pulling the trees out of the water. The towboats need to keep an eye out for swimmers in the water when they enter the area where trees are being pulled out of the water, that is especially true since there may be multiple towboats in the area at the same time. The towboat’s towline handler isn’t busy when the boat enters the area, so he can watch for swimmers. Swimmers need to remain near the shore when they aren’t disconnecting a towline and connecting a tow truck cable. I doubt safety lines will be needed in this area as long as the swimmers’ wetsuits give them positive buoyance, but I want swimmers to wear them anyway.

“We can add any additional safety rules that may be needed as we work out the specifics of how to do the work. Zack, you said our boats aren’t going to be powerful enough to drag those trees through the water very fast. Correct?”

Ensign Zackery Yaeger said, “Yeah, I did, Andy, but I’ve been thinking about my idea of requisitioning speedboats. I decided twelve would be too many for towing trees and decided to get six or eight of the powerful speedboats that we saw on the lake last year. I hadn’t thought about the need for dive boats, so maybe twelve would be a good idea.”

“Okay. When we finish here, I want Troop 3 to take our portable generator and cables for connecting to a fuel pump to the marina’s pumps. Zack, we may need some spare towboats, so find at least nine speed boats that can be used to tow trees. Fill up their gas tanks, and have your people drive them back here. While you’re there, have your Troop poke around and bring back anything they find that might be useful.”

“Parker, since Zack has volunteered his people to get the speed boats we need, I am going to let his people use them for towing trees. Your people can use our Zodiacs as diving platforms for connecting the towlines of Zack’s boats to the trees. So you will need to get a boat and motor up to the dam for each of your work areas, and get the boats inflated.

“Efrain, you can put one of your Troop’s two Seal Platoons on each side of the dam. They can disconnect the trees from the towboats and connect the tow truck cables to the trees. You can work out the details between your swimmers, the towboats, and the tow trucks for unhooking the towlines and connecting the tow truck cables.”

Ensign Efrain Rand asks, “Alright, but who is going to operate the tow trucks, and how many will we need?

Captain Ahmed Maroun said, “Andy and I were talking about that last night, Efrain. We doubt we need the really big tow trucks that you mentioned, so we decided on six tow trucks, three on each side of the filter grid. While the Navy is getting ready to do its part of the work, I’ll have my people find us six tow trucks this morning and I’ll provide the drivers and people to pull the trees out of the water and dispose of them. If we need more than six trucks, we can get them later.

“The last time I was in Home Depot, I saw some spools of one-inch manila rope. I’ll send my people to our local store and bring back four or five spools and some hooks like those that are on tow chains. We can use the rope and hooks to make towropes.”

Andy said, “We won’t need our scuba tanks at first, but have your people get the rest of our dive gear up on top of the dam before lunch. You won’t need your wetsuits this morning for I doubt we will be ready to start pulling trees out of the water until after lunch.

“As a general rule, I want two people in each boat. Parker, for your dive boats, I want a swimmer and a driver who will also mind the swimmer’s safety line when he is in the water. Zack, for your towboats, I want a spotter/towline handler and a driver. When in a work zone or near the shore, the spotter is in command of the boat.

“My concept for doing the work is, the driver of the dive boat positions the boat near a tree and then the swimmer signals the towboat’s spotter to enter the work area. The towboat’s spotter guides the boat to the dive boat and passes the towrope to the dive boat’s swimmer. Then the spotter guides the towboat out of the work area, or at least to a safe distance from the dive boat, while paying out the towline.

“Once the towline is passed to the swimmer, he is not to go into the water until the towboat is clear of the work area. Then with his safety line connected, the swimmer secures the towline to the butt end of the tree. Once he is back in the dive boat and his safety line is out of the water, the swimmer signals the towboat’s spotter to start pulling the tree out of the work area. The spotter pays out the towline until the slack is out of the line.

“The dive boat’s swimmer and driver swap assignments when the tree is clear of the work area and the new driver positions the boat for connecting the next towboat’s towrope to a tree. To minimize the possibility of hypothermia, I want the dive boat’s crew to return to shore after hooking up to about ten trees, and a new crew to go out in the boat.

“An alternative approach to having the towboat enter the work area would be to have the dive boat go to the towboat and get the towline and pull it to the tree. We can try both methods and see which works best.

“Once the tree is towed clear of the work area, the towboat’s driver will be in control of how much power should be applied in towing the trees. I don’t want too much power applied and the transom ripped out of a boat. The towboat’s driver is to tow the tree to the area designated for pulling trees out of the water. When the boat is close to shore, the spotter is in control of the boat. The spotter tells the driver where to go and how fast the boat is to move in the area. When the tree is close to shore, driver cuts the boat’s power back to idle and waits until the swimmer has disconnected the towline from the tree and the line is coiled in the boat. Then he can leave the area and go back to Parker’s work areas for another tree.

“Efrain’s swimmers will disconnect the towline from the tree and connect the tow truck’s cable. I want the swimmer back to the shore before the tow truck starts pulling the tree out of the water. When the swimmer is back on shore, he is to signal the tow truck driver to pull the tree up the embankment and then drag it down the road. Ahmed, I’ll let your people handle that part of it.”

“I also want the swimmers in this area to limit their time in the water to a maximum of ten minutes. Based on five minutes in the water per tree, each swimmer should be able to work two trees before they have to get out of the water. At three minutes for each minute in the water, the swimmer has to remain out of the water for thirty minutes before he can go out for another tree. Alternatively, a swimmer can work one tree and then wait fifteen minutes before working another tree.

“We will start out as I described. However, I think it would be advisable for all of our Seal Platoons to rotate through all three tasks.

“Any questions?”

There were no questions, but there were a few suggestions for alternative methods of doing the work that warranted discussion.

Just before morning roll call, Captain Maroun said to Lieutenant Jackson, “Chris, after roll call, I want your people to make a scavenging run. The Navy is going to tow the trees to the side of the dam. We are going to pull them out of the water and dispose of them.

“We are going to need six tow trucks and the Navy needs towropes. Check the phone books for the addresses of several local towing companies. The small tow trucks should be adequate, but if you can find any of the larger trucks, grab them. Once your people have all six trucks, have your people convoy them back to the dam.

“Then head for Home Depot. They should have more than enough rope and chain hooks to make up a dozen towropes. Get at least four of the bulk spools of one-inch manila rope. If they don’t have enough, get something else that has a high load rating. I doubt the boats will exert more than a couple of hundred pounds of force on the rope in towing the trees, so I would look for something with a minimum load rating of four hundred pounds. Don’t stay too long, but since you will be there, grab their stock of work gloves and anything we might need for this job. We can go back later and get what we will need for the remodeling and other tasks I have in mind for the Company.”

After roll call, Lieutenant Jackson and First Platoon left on their scavenging mission. By 1100, they were back at the dam.

Staff Sergeant Michael Edwards asked, “How long will the towropes need to be, Lieutenant?”

“I don’t know. Go ask one of the Navy people.”

Ensign Yaeger, Chief Petty Officers Duncan Argento and Jackson Nighy, and the men of Troop 3 exited their vehicles in the parking lot of the Folsom Lake Marina.

Ensign Yaeger took Chiefs Argento and Nighy to the side and said, “Chief Nighy, I want Seal Platoon 6 to get the boats. Now I know the Lieutenant said to bring back at least nine boats, but it seems to me that since we are here and since Seal Platoon 6 has twelve men, each of you should bring back a boat. That will give us more spare boats than the Lieutenant asked for, but I don’t see any harm in bring back more than the Lieutenant thinks we need. If we need more boats than what he thinks we need, it might save us from having to come back here for more boats.

“Chief Argento, I want your people to fuel Chief Nighy’s boats. When the fueling operation is done, Chief Nighy and his people can head back to the dam with the boats, and we will see if there is anything worth scavenging between here and the dam.”

While Ensign Yaeger maintained a radio watch at the command truck, CPOs Argento and Nighy and their men started walking toward the edge of the hill that overlooked the boat docks.

“What do you think, Nighy? It looks like you have a lot of boats to choose from.”

“Yeah, the main thing I’m worried about is our yahoos ripping the transom off of a boat. These boats weren’t made for heavy towing and too much power will be as bad as too little.”

“Not a problem. We’re talking about using six boats. If we go through the six spares, we can just come back and pick up more boats with a little less power.”

“Yeah, I suppose we can do that, Argento, I’ll have my people start picking out boats. You and your people get the fuel pump ready to fill up our gas tanks.”

While CPO Argento and his people started walking down the boat-launching ramp, which would give them easy access to the fueling dock, CPO Nighy and his people gathered for a brief meeting before descending the stairs that led to the docks.

“You yahoos know boats as well as I do. Split up and pick a boat. If it won’t start, don’t waste a lot of time on it. Move on and pick another boat. Once you get a boat started, head over to the fuel dock, and top off your tank. Remember, back at the dam we will be in front of a bunch of Army meatheads. If anyone starts playing around and embarrasses me in front of the Lieutenant, Ensign, and the Army, you will regret it. Yes, Seamen Beebe, Arrington, and Tanner, I’m thinking of you three in particular, but it goes for everyone.”

Ace Beebe looked at Blake Arrington and Julio Tanner, and then said, “No problem, Chief. We’ll walk your line and be on our best behavior around the Army.”

Chief Argento watched as Seamen Leonardo Finch and Kevin Reed removed the lower housing of the gasoline pump. Seaman Kian Carmichael connected one end of a twenty-foot power cable to their ten KW generator. Once the commercial power cables were disconnected from the fuel pump’s power terminals and the clips of the generator cable were connected to the input power terminals of the gasoline pump, Reed called out, “Hey, Carmichael. Go ahead and start the generator.”

Seaman Kian Carmichael verified the output circuit breaker of the generator was set to OFF and then pressed the electric start button. Once the engine was running at a smooth idle, he set the output circuit breaker to ON. Carmichael shouted, “Power’s ON, Reed. Finch, go ahead and make sure the gas is clean.”

CPO Argento watches as Seaman Itzel Dixon sets a clean bucket on the ground next to Seaman Leonardo Finch. Putting the nozzle of the fuel pump into the bucket, Finch squeezes the handle and pumps about a gallon of gasoline into the bucket. After checking the gas for contaminates, Finch said, “It clean, Chief.” The gasoline is later poured into the first boat’s fuel tank.

“That’s good to hear, Finch. You and Reed stay here and fill the boats’ fuel tanks. I’m going to let the Ensign know the rest of us are going to look around and see if there is anything in this area we might be able to use.”

As Chief Argento and the rest of Seal Platoon 5 leave to scavenge the nearby area, Seaman Ace Beebe and Blake Arrington dock their boats at the fuel dock. An hour later, an armada of twelve speed boats forms up and heads for the dam. Finch and Reed stop the generator, disconnect the cable from the pump and generator, and secure the fuel pump. After returning the tools, cables, and generator to their pickup truck, the two men leave to find Chief Argento.

Seaman Reed says to CPO Argento, “You know, Chief, I was thinking while pumping gas. We don’t want to drive the boats back here every time they need their tanks filled up with gasoline. What we need to do is pump the gasoline out of the storage tank into some kind of container; possibly a couple of fifty-five gallon drums. We are going to need some place to beach or anchor the boats near the dam and we can position the container near the point we anchor the boats and use our fuel pumps to pump gasoline out of the container.”

“Good idea, Reed. I’ll pass it on to the Ensign on the way back to the dam.”

By 1200, everyone and everything was ready to begin towing the trees away from the filter grid. The work began after an hour lunch break. The enlisted Navy and Army personnel ate their lunch together and started talking about the job they had ahead of them. By the end of their lunch break, there was a small amount of camaraderie between the two groups. It wasn’t the total bonding between two diverse groups of people, as that sort of bond takes time to develop.

Ahmed Maroun, Andy Montoya, and most of their officers had observed the NCOs who were directing the work being done by the enlisted personnel.

Sergeant Davis’s work party was preparing to roll the first tree pulled out of the water down the side of the dam when he noticed an above ground pipeline at the bottom of the dam. He immediately reported his finding to Sergeant Davis.

“Bravo 2, Bravo 2-1. Over.”

“Go, Bravo 2-1. Over.”

“One of my people just pointed out that there is a pipe of some kind at the bottom of the dam on the east side of the filter grid. He suggested that since we don’t know what it’s for, we may not want to dump the trees off the side of the road in this area.”

“Affirmative, Bravo 2-1. Standby for a moment.”

Ahmed and Andy walked over to the west side of the tower and looked down into the area to the south of the dam.

“Bravo 2-1, there is a pipeline on the other side of the side of the dam, too. Have the tow truck drivers drag the trees down Folsom Dam Road to the field we cleared to the east of the road. Make sure they drop the trees well clear of the pipeline. Over.”

“Roger, Bravo 2. Judging from what I can see on the surface, there are a lot of trees to dispose of. I’ll get one of my people to get the bulldozer and push the trees into a pile that is well clear of the pipeline. Over.”

“Roger, Bravo 2-1. Bravo 2 out.”

The men of Seal Team 4 and Bravo Company understood what needed to be done to get the trees and other debris out of the water. It just took a bit of time to work out the minor problems they encountered in getting everyone working together as a team. No one was counting, but by sundown, it was estimated that close to thirty trees had been removed from the lake.

This morning I was once again in front of the Ark TV cameras making another announcement. This time the announcement was being filmed for presentation later tonight. It will be shown on Channel 80, which is the channel we always use for my daily dumps. No, we don’t call the channel Jon’s Daily Dump. I didn’t really like doing these short briefings and I disliked my longer monologues even more. So, I sort of liked that name, but everyone was insistent that we give it a more presentable name. My Bond Mates settled on Jon’s Corner.

The name may be appropriate for a small stage was set up in a corner of the TV studio for filming my presentations. A couple of sofa chairs, tables, lamps, a rug, and pictures on the wall were all it took to create the right atmosphere. I was never much on atmosphere, so I just accepted what my Bond Mates said was appropriate. All I had to do was relax in my chair with a confident look on my face and read the lines of the speech I had written off of a teleprompter. I am not a great speechwriter, but the Arkians seemed to tolerate my presentations.

“Good evening, fellow Arkians.

“Over the past two weeks, I have not talked about my daily accomplishments like I did before we returned to the surface. The main reason for that is, I was too busy.

“Our efforts at returning to the surface reached a critical point and we encountered a number of problems, which I will discuss with you this evening. The most critical of the five topics I have to discuss with you tonight is our schedule for securing the Sacramento Area.

“By now, most of you are aware that we had problems with the schedule and with the plans we made for securing the Sacramento Area. Those problems were the result of a variety of factors. I believe that we have identified most of the factors that caused the problems and we are revising our plans and schedule accordingly.

“Our mission of securing the Sacramento Area is doable, but it will take a lot longer than we thought it would take and we will accomplish that mission in a different manner than we originally planned on doing.

“I mentioned it in the past, so most of you are aware the Ark has two critical goals that must be achieved in the process of securing the Sacramento Area. The first goal is to restore electrical power to the Sacramento Area and the second goal is to restore the production of petroleum fuel.

“The first goal was divided into two major tasks. These tasks are gaining control of and securing the area around the Folsom Dam Hydroelectric Facility and restoring electrical power to the Auburn area and to the other cities that we secure in the process of securing the Sacramento Area.

“We are now in control of the Folsom Dam Hydroelectric Facility and we have secured the immediate area around the Facility; so, we completed our first task of that goal. We are well on the way to completing the first step of the second task. We have restored electrical power to the Wise and Newcastle substations, which are located in the southeast quadrant of Auburn. The Line Crews are currently working on routing electrical power to the four Survivor Collection Centers that we established. They will also restore electrical power to the Blocking Posts and other locations within Auburn that have been defined as critical locations. We will not begin the second step, restoring power to other areas, until we move out of the Auburn area.

“The schedule slips resulted in a significant concern regarding our ability to retain control of the Folsom Dam Hydroelectric Facility for three or more years with a single company of soldiers. The main reasons for that concern are the survivors in the Folsom area will look to Company B for help. They will need more help than Company B can provide, and that could lead to frustration among Folsom’s survivors. Therefore, there is a possibility that frustrated survivors or another hostile force could attack the soldiers of Company B who are protecting the Facility.

“In addition to this concern, a situation was brought to my attention that could result in damage to the turbine that drives the Hydroelectric Facility’s generator, which produces the electricity we need. A large number of trees and other debris are floating in the lake. The dam has a filter system that prevents trees and debris from entering the turbine. However, the amount of debris in the lake could possibly damage the filter system’s support structure, and if that happened, the turbine could be destroyed.

“Seal Team 4 has been deployed to the dam to remove the trees and debris from the lake that are pressing against the filter’s support structure. The Seals will be working with Company B’s soldiers to remove the trees and debris from the lake. Company B’s need to support Seal Team 4’s efforts reduces the number of personnel available for performing their primary mission of defending the Hydroelectric Facility. I have also been informed that the debris collecting at the filter grid will be an ongoing problem at the dam.

“The result is Company B does not have the personnel to ensure that they can adequately protect the Hydroelectric Facility. This has led to my conclusion that the Ark needs a stronger presence in the Folsom area. The Ark Army’s Analysts believe that the gangs currently in Sacramento will move out of the city in the coming months. It is likely for some of those gangs to head for Folsom. I decided it is necessary to begin a portion of the Stage 2 effort before we complete Stage 1. I have ordered the Ark Army to deploy three additional Companies to the Folsom area. These Companies will support an expanded mission in Folsom. The primary objective of their mission is to support Company B’s mission of protecting the Hydroelectric Facility. However, the units will also support a limited survivor-collection effort.