Texit war game 4 – hostilities

Texit, the Texas Exit, could make history. But this history will not be tame. William Barrett Travis, Jim Bowie, David Crockett, and their fellow martyrs could tell you that, if they could speak. In the spirit of the Battle of the Alamo, CNAV continues its Texit war game series.

Disclaimer

Like any war game, this is speculation, and therefore fiction. How an actual Texit plays out (assuming Texans get to vote on it, and vote Yes) depends on the attitudes of the principals involved. CNAV does not represent that it has any inside information concerning definite plans, by either the Texas Nationalist Movement, the Texas Military Department, the Battleship Texas Foundation,the United States military, the Abbott and Biden administrations, Elon Musk or any officer or employee of any of his companies, or any U.S. Navy veteran who, having served aboard USS Texas BB-35, might remain alive today. Rather, it bases its speculation strictly on certain attitudes that certain persons, particularly on the Washington side, have expressed.

Having said the above, CNAV advises: read this now, while you can be sure it remains fiction.

CNAV also acknowledges its debt to Daniel da Cruz, author of the Republic of Texas series. Please note that Mr. da Cruz does not endorse CNAV or this series in any way, shape or form.

The Texit war game thus far

Before continuing below, CNAV suggests catching up on the Texit war game series and its preview.

The following events have taken place in real life, or are on a definite track:

Rep. Kyle Biedermann (R-Fredericksburg, Texas) introduced the Texas Independence Referendum Act on 25 January. Debate will begin when the Texas legislature reconvenes.

Tesla, Inc. continues to build “Terafactory Texas” in Travis County. For its part, SpaceX is continuing development of its Starship® reusable heavy-lift rocket. They recently acquired two oil rigs and are converting those into marine launch-and-landing pads.

Dan Miller, head of the Texas Nationalist Movement, gave an interview to Steven Turley, PhD, on 27 January.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has actually accused Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) of trying to kill her. He had the temerity to question the election results that turned in favor of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has already won a temporary injunction against a Biden administration immigration policy. He has since ordered every other Texas agency to sue the federal government over any encroachment into Texas jurisdiction.

From present-day to not-to-distant future

The war game then assumes that events will move as follows:

The Texit Referendum bill passes. Subsequently, Texans vote Yes in decisive numbers. Kyle Biedermann becomes Speaker of the Texas House and almost immediately co-chairs the Texit Committee. He and Lt. Gov. Patrick send a deputation to Washington to warn them: let Texas go, or Texas will subdivide, thereby increasing its Senate delegation.

The ultimatum triggers a Presidential assassination and two Supreme Court assassinations. The Texas deputation finds itself under arrest, then released, then having to flee back to Texas.

Rigged elections radicalize the House and Senate in a leftward direction. Senator Cruz leads most of the Texas House delegation, two non-Texas Representatives, and their families in a separate flight to the border. Most (but, unhappily, not all) conservative Circuit Judges of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals also flee to Texas. Or rather, a special Texas Rescue Squad (later Platoon) rescues some of them. Others make it into Texas in exchange for some liberal Circuit Judges who had their duty stations in Texas.

The Battleship Texas Foundation completes an emergency refurbishment of the former USS Texas, now named TRS Texas. (TRS stands for Texas Republican Ship.) A young defecting U.S. Naval line officer takes command of the Texas, with several ninety-odd-year-old Senior, Master, and Command Master Chiefs leading a crew trained to operate the old dreadnought.

President Kamala Harris contemplates a vindictive course of action that might feel good, but would risk her destruction.

And now…

The Texas receives her orders

The new captain of the Texas, in taking operational command, announces that Texas is no longer a museum ship. To drive home the point, he carries out his first order: steam to a fuel and ammunition depot. There he takes on a full load of fuel—natural gas, since a gas turbine is the fastest and easiest ship’s engine to build. He also takes on authentic shells of the original type that the Texas’ guns used.

Fully armed and fueled, he takes the Texas out into the open sea, i.e., the Gulf of Mexico. The sight of her in the Gulf excites much commentary, dividing equally between awe and fear. No one now alive has ever seen a ship like Texas afloat, except for some of her crew. For the Texas is no mere Iowa-class battleship, but a New York-class dreadnought.

When a fishing crew spots the Texas, they race back to New Orleans, their home port, and report their sighting. The local Navy officer in the harbor sends an immediate report to Arlington. But before the officer-in-charge can relay it to Washington, Vice-President Northam intervenes. “I will take that report in myself,” he says. He places the report into a briefcase and handcuffs it to his wrist. Then he calls for his limousine and has the driver take him to the White House.

But no one takes notice of an oil rig steaming out toward nowhere in particular.

Apoplexy escalates the war game

In the Oval Office, Northam arrives, unlocks and opens the briefcase, and hands the report to President Harris. The sight of it produces exactly the sort of apoplectic reaction Northam most feared. She launches into an impassioned diatribe that manages to invoke, in five minutes, the tenets of critical race theory, intersectional feminism, and a harsh notion of supremacy of national law. Northam can only stand in awe – more like trepidation – hearing his boss storm.

Then, after falling silent, she speaks again with deadly quiet. “Blockade them.”

“Madame President, are you sure you want to provoke…”

“I said, blockade them!!! And don’t you dare argue with me again!”

Accordingly, the Navy sends immediate orders to three destroyers based near Jacksonville, Florida: USS Thomas Hudner DDG-116,USS Paul Ignatius DDG-117, and USS Delbert D. Black DDG-119. Their orders:

1. Proceed at once to the Gulf of Mexico,
2. Intercept all commercial shipping out of any Texas port, and
3. Seek out and destroy a renegade dreadnought in those waters.

Further orders go out to three ships based in Norfolk, Virginia, to join them at best possible speed. They are: USS Truxtun DDG-103, USS Gravely DDG-107, and USS Jason Dunham DDG-109.

The Thomas Hudner serves as the flagship, it being the most powerful ship with any sort of flag quarters.

Sighting

The Hudner, Ignatius, and Black all depart from Naval Station Mayport at once. Immediately a Piper Cub takes off from Jacksonville airport and heads overland toward the Florida Gulf Coast. But an F-16 takes off out of Eglin AFB and, to the shock of everyone living in Florida, shoots it down.

Governor Ron DeSantis demands an explanation. This simple message comes down from President Harris: “STFU!” In reply, he places the Florida Air National Guard on alert. And quietly investigates the likely mission of the ill-fated “general aviation” plane. He learns quickly that someone was trying to fly to Port Arthur, Texas. More than that, he learns about the Hudner task force.

Now he makes a grim decision. He cuts secret orders to the Adjutant General, and gives him a secret message to take to the Jacksonville Air Guard Station. There he finds the Air Guard’s best squadron, gives the squadron leader the message, and orders them to fly to Port Arthur. There they deliver the message: At least three destroyers headed for the Gulf. Mission unknown.

The commandant at what is now Sabine Pass Texas Air Guard Station sends an immediate message to Commander, Defensive Squadron Gulf (ComDefGulf). Who sends orders to TRS Texas and to TRS Deimos, one of Elon Musk’s converted oil rigs. The orders: intercept U.S. Navy destroyers entering Gulf of Mexico.

First blood

The captain of Deimos sets course toward the Keys. The Florida Air Guard squadron flies out into the Gulf to join Deimos. After they re-fuel, one of them takes off to reconnoiter the Gulf. The pilot spots the Navy task force, and also spots an oil tanker making for Houston. The pilot then reports in and returns.

The Texas turns toward the Keys. Not long afterward, the Navy task force encounters the oil tanker and orders its captain to join them. But then the Texas shows up and fires a volley of shells, straddling the Hudner.

Immediately the Delbert Black makes flank speed directly toward the Texas. Whose captain, taking no chances, opens fire. The Delbert Black and the Thomas Hudner both go down immediately. The Paul Ignatius gets off a single guided missile, which falls to the new 50-millimeter cannon the Texas carries. Texas opens fire on Paul Ignatius with everything she has, and sinks her.

The Truxton, Gravely, and Jason Dunham spot the Texas and the obvious signs of a “tin can” going down. Accordingly, the senior captain among them, now the effective Officer in Tactical Command, reports what he has seen.

Reaction

The losses of the three destroyers in the Gulf put Congress into an uproar. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) wants to fire a ballistic missile at the Texas. The House ignores that suggestion – because one cannot deploy a nuclear weapon in secret. Worse: President Harris would have to authorize that directly. And she cannot be sure of the loyalty of the uniformed officer who carries The Football.

In fact, Congress dares not issue a formal declaration of war. That would imply that Texas actually is a separate country.

So instead they pass an Authorization to Use Military Force – to “take all necessary measures to destroy a renegade dreadnought under the command of an officer guilty of barratry.” For everyone’s information, barratry is the breach of naval discipline in which a commanding officer steers his ship – or deploys its weapons – in a manner contrary to the wishes of the admiralty.

Accordingly, the Navy now sends the one ship that can possibly destroy the Texas, and get on the scene the fastest. That ship is USS Lyndon B. Johnson DDG-1002, a member of the Zumwalt class of tumblehome destroyers. It makes its home port in Bath, Maine, and thus will take three days to reach the Gulf at its best speed of 30 knots. Congress effectively asks: well, what are you waiting for?

End of the war game for the Texas

The ship that Navy wags often call Old Cornpone steams out of Bath and heads for the Keys. With its tumblehome hull form, LBJ is so stealthy that it looks like a fishing boat on radar. But no ship is stealthy against visible light. A summer resident, sailing out of Portland Harbor in a sloop, spots her. At once he radios a friend – in Florida.

Governor DeSantis calls the Florida legislature into immediate special session. There he introduces a resolution of secession. The raucous debate, with chants of “Treason! Treason!” dominating it, bogs down in procedural votes. While this is happening, LBJ reaches the Keys, rounds them, and steams into the Gulf.

The sight of that ship, with its inward-sloping prow and tumblehome hull form, provokes mixed reactions aboard Texas. The old command master chief remembers seeing pictures of CSS Virginia (the former USS Merrimac) and remarks on the resemblance. But he gives that enemy ship another nickname: Monitor, the ship that drove Virginia back to Richmond. Most of the rest of the crew gives her still another nickname: Grim Reaper. And how very like a tombstone it looks!

The captain calls “Threat Condition Delta,” and then gives an appropriately downbeat speech. Then he issues the most solemn battle-stations call any captain ever issued.

The battle between USS LBJ and TRS Texas lasts about an hour. Sadly, even Texas’ big shells are no match for cruise missiles.Predictably, Texas sinks with all hands aboard.

But the war game doesn’t end here

LBJ, with the Truxton, Gravely, and Jason Dunham for a battle group, settles in as Boss of the Gulf. Even LBJ cannot bombard the shore; her Advanced Gun Systems literally do not have ammunition. Nor did LBJ ever get the railgun some Navy planners had wanted to install aboard her. But she can do her devilish best to blockade all Texas ports, particularly with Texas gone.

The Texas Republican Navy orders the two oil rigs, Porthos and Deimos, to round the Yucatán Peninsula and head for the Atlantic head of the Panama Canal. Because the Military Department possesses some intercepts that hint of mutiny taking place aboard USS Zumwalt and USS Michael Monsoor. Those other two tumblehome destroyers steamed out of San Diego at the same time LBJ steamed out of Bath. But the Navy didn’t reckon on half the crew of each ship hailing from Texas. Nor on the other half sympathizing with the Texans.

So as Zumwalt and Michael Monsoor approach the Pacific head of the Panama Canal, President Abbott sends a delegation on two fast jets. Each jet lands on one of the two oil rigs, re-fuels, and then heads for Panama City.

Will the delegation reach Panama in time? Can they persuade the Panamanians to let Zumwalt and Michael Monsoor through the Canal? Will Florida secede? What will other State governors do?

Don’t miss our next exciting episode!