Liberators: A Novel of the Coming Global Collapse

38 PACKING IT IN

Only days after the UNPROFOR capitulation in the United States, Ken Layton, Todd Gray, Mike Nelson, and Jeff Trasel volunteered to make a series of CBLTV logistics excursions to Canada. For his part of the supply effort, Joshua donated two of his deer carts to Todd’s group.

Following the suggestions that they’d heard on the shortwave, Todd had packed both of the camouflage-painted carts half full of rolls of detonating cord, a few magazines (M16, FAL, and HK G3—all freshly loaded and wrapped in plastic), and an assortment of ammunition calibers that included 7.62x39, 5.56mm NATO, .303 British, .300 Savage, .30-30, .270 Winchester, .308, .30-06, 9mm Parabellum, .45 ACP, and twelve-gauge buckshot. Any of the ammo that was not already in sealed plastic battle packs was carefully wrapped in sealed plastic bags. On top of this, he packed each cart heaping full of blasting caps in padded boxes. Some of this padding was woodland pattern BDU camouflage pants and shirts, which they assumed the resistance could also use.

The loads were secured with scrap pieces of camouflage netting, attached with paracord and plastic cable ties.

For their own defense on the trips, Todd’s team decided to carry guns that they had captured from UNPROFOR and then leave them with the local resistance before returning to the U.S. These rifles were all captured AK-74s. Coming home, they would be traveling only lightly armed, with just one gun for each man: a FN P90 bullpup, a Steyr AUG bullpup, and two Colt M1911 pistols.

Their first CBLTV trip to Canada began on August 20, and they were back home by August 24. Their first crossing was east of Lick Mountain, which was north of the town of Yaak, Montana. There, the Yaak River Road looped within three miles of the Canadian border. By prior arrangement, they simply dropped off their cargo at a prearranged set of GPS coordinates just across the border. They hastily cached the pile of parcels with cut fir boughs.

Their second trip, which began on August 27, was nearly identical except that their crossing was on the west side of Lick Mountain.

Their third trip, in early September, was a shorter drive, but a longer walk. They parked at the Good Grief store, 2.5 miles short of the then closed Eastport border crossing station. From there, they had a strenuous hike for ten miles up Canuck Basin Road, which was impassable to vehicles. A half mile beyond the border fence (three strands of barbless wire, which had previously been cut) they came within one hundred yards of the southern terminus of Hawkins Canuck Road. Waiting for them there was a man named Chet—their NLR contact. He thanked them profusely for the two previous deliveries as well this latest one. He presented each of them with a keepsake Canadian silver dime and declared them members of the NLR.

Chet stayed to talk with them for two hours, describing his perspective on the current situation in British Columbia, the NLR’s current logistics and technical needs, and some ways that people in the United States might be able to help with the Cause. He was convinced that the U.S. could do more to apply diplomatic pressure on the UN to withdraw their troops. He also questioned why the CIA wasn’t involved. On this note, he said, “It shouldn’t just be volunteers footing the bill.”

Providentially, all three trips were without incident except for one sprained ankle on the last return trip. (Jeff Trasel rode the last mile back to his pickup in a deer cart.) On all three trips—each with four hundred pounds of materiel—they were able to fill some specific requests that had been relayed from resistance cell leaders. These requests included a replacement magazine for a SMLE Mk. III rifle, some CR123 batteries, and ammunition in some oddball calibers including .25-35, .307 Winchester, .38-55, .30 Remington, .30 Herrett, and .221 Fireball.

Filling the special requests took some coordination via the CB radio relay network. (The phone network was still down, but the CB network covered from Grangeville, Idaho, northward and stretched into eastern Washington and western Montana.) Much of this ammunition had been custom handloaded.

Though they had planned to make additional trips into Canada, news of construction of a cordon sanitaire and uncertainty about just where it might be land-mined gave them pause. Instead they sent their gathered ammo and gear to Jerry Hatcher in Bonners Ferry, Idaho. Jerry was a former Alaska bush pilot who had volunteered to make some daring solo low-level night flights into Canada in his Cessna 180, an airplane equipped with oversize tundra tires. He landed in remote farm fields near Wynndel, High River, and Taber, British Columbia. In all, he made eleven flights, ferrying between 350 and 420 pounds of cargo per flight depending on the distance to his landing fields. On three occasions, he also flew out wounded resistance fighters to the United States for medical treatment.