Prologue: Year Two

Many of our traditions have taken on new meaning over the past year. Holidays given much significance in the past have for the most part been replaced by impromptu celebrations of noteworthy events that have more meaning to us and our new way of life. Some holidays have remained as convenient excuses for us to let our hair down and commemorate the sheer joy of life itself. Tomorrow, however, will be a milestone that will be much different in many of our minds. Much has been accomplished during the past year and most of us feel our survival during all of our many anxious moments is a true cause for rejoicing.

There has been much debate about what to call this new holiday. I vetoed Founder's Day, one of the more popular choices. Founder's Day has such a small group feel to it that I didn't think it promoted the right attitude. After all, it wasn't one small groups' effort that brought us all together. I also disliked the mindset that suggested that we could look to the modest efforts of the past year as a pattern for our future. We have made so many mistakes. At this point we haven't come far enough, haven't learned nearly enough to think that our future is in some way safe and secure. After a year of searching and adding survivors our numbers have yet to grow beyond a mere four thousand people. That small number occupies four small towns and five other bases utilizing six undersized security detachments. Our towns were small military air bases before the collapse. The small security detachments guard other larger, strategic, yet unoccupied bases. That may sound like a lot, but it's a bare minimum for the survival of a race of people.

We finally decided to call our holiday Remembrance Day. I am sure that name evokes a different meaning for each one of us. Many seek to remember those billions that simply ceased to exist on that day. For most, the memories were more personal, perhaps memories of a special loved one or special loved ones that are no more. It will for almost all of us be a somber and bittersweet day. As it is we are constantly questioning our own existence. Why are we still here? Why are we too not forever gone like all the others, without a trace? For many the most meaningful thing was being rescued, becoming a part of a growing community. Finally, all of us here are thankful for our neighbors, friends and loved ones; those who make our community life more than mere survival.

We have all learned a lot during the past year. After some serious setbacks we arrived at a policy of closely questioning all those we rescue in order to weed out those with potential to cause us harm. The informal blackball committee has evolved into our Membership Committee. Ab Grayton was only the first of several troublemakers in our midst. Thinking of that brings to mind my most tragic loss; the loss of my beloved wife Julie. I still feel no remorse for my summary execution of the man responsible for her death. I will forever miss her loving touch and buoyant sense of humor. I only wish I could have had the foresight to shoot her killer dead upon our first meeting.

As each of us grieved and dealt with Julie's untimely departure, Irene and I were beyond consolation. Irene had been Julie's best friend prior to being her spouse. They had a bond and a closeness that hadn't been readily apparent to most but was in some ways deeper than that of the twins. Irene sat around showing absolutely no emotion, as if a part of herself had been killed. She wouldn't even let anyone bury the body of Julie's killer, such was her hatred. The body finally ended up on the refuse pit that had grown up on the other end of that base.

In my own mind, it was not only the loss of my beloved wife but my abject failure to protect one of those that I had brought to this place of safe haven. Her death was senseless on so many levels and a mirror of the tragic loss that we all felt because of the collapse. I also felt guilty because I knew that I had let Irene, my first love, down. All of this shame and despair soon became an insurmountable wall beyond which I could not move. Kim tried so hard to be my friend and comforter during those times. She would sit with us under our dark cloud, weeping with us. Much later I realized that a lot of her tears were those she had failed to shed for her father. Her feelings and actions so closely mirrored ours that she ended up being our lifeline. As we became more and more concerned for Kim's well being, both Irene and I began our own healing, a healing that is still ongoing.

On the positive side, I am so proud of what we had accomplished, especially our Aviation Brigade. With maintenance, ground crew and students, the brigade has grown and now numbers almost four hundred. Still we are stretched thin. Only fourteen of our original seventeen students are now somewhat seasoned pilots. Of these, a bare eight are qualified as instructors, able to train other pilots. We have almost thirty new flight students and yet, with weekly cargo and passenger service needed to connect each of the towns, with search flights and standby fighter crews, we are stretched woefully thin. I am still the only qualified helicopter pilot and still fly five times a week on slow weeks and can't believe that will end for a while. In addition, the maintenance crews are servicing and maintaining seven different fixed wing aircraft and three different helicopters. Since our use for many of these aircraft is presently minimal, the maintenance crews spend quite a bit of their time at remote bases, cocooning these aircraft in order to preserve them for the future.

All of that takes manpower, something we are still short of in many areas. Our alternate energy program is another manpower-intensive program that will show great benefits in the near future. Fuels for operation of the bases have almost run out. We have neither the expertise nor the available manpower to run the enormous refineries that turn fossil fuels into gasoline and jet fuels. Thankfully jet fuels are close enough to kerosene that we can make fuel system adjustments and use that abundant resource to power most of our aircraft. Luckily kerosene is a stable fuel and lasts almost indefinitely in storage. We have identified large reserves of kerosene that with proper conservation will last for a generation at least.

Gasoline is another matter, as it is produced with more volatile components that break down rather quickly during storage. The first symptom of this deterioration was when one of our small generators began to cough and idle roughly. Toby Smithers, a former machinist's mate with the Coast Guard, tore this small engine apart and found nothing amiss. After almost tearing his hair out he ran some octane tests on the gasoline and found that the octane had dropped below 70, which was barely sufficient to keep the small engine running, albeit roughly, under normal compression. An existing additive was found in auto parts stores that temporarily boosted octane but the supply of that additive is limited.

Toby and others began a process of identifying alternate fuels and vehicles that could use those fuels. It took six months but finally we feel we are self sufficient with a bio diesel product that we can produce in limited quantities at our own facility north of Whiting Field.

Weaning our towns (bases) off of fossil fuels is a much more ambitious project. We felt the jet fuel being consumed at Whiting and other bases was too valuable a resource to squander. Our first step was conservation. During this phase we found thousands of items on base that we disconnected from the power grid, thus reducing demand. The second phase was to add alternative sources of electricity to that grid. We were delighted to find that a former General Electric plant in Pensacola made large wind turbines. Of course the plant was no longer in operation but there were ten of the giant wind turbines waiting shipment to Texas. These are now in use in an energy field north of the base and produce more power than the base itself will need for many years. We reduce the fossil-fuel plant input when the wind generators are producing, then ramp them up as necessary when there isn't enough wind for the generators to work.