In addition to his drive Reeves had a knack for organization. He had used that talent to get the current governor elected and he used it on a daily basis to keep GO Thomas’s sprawling business concerns growing and prospering while Thomas ran the state. This morning his skill for sorting order from chaos would prove to be the decisive factor in breaking the impasse between the paratroopers south of West Gowen Road and the Guardsmen scurrying about in the motor pools north of that road.

Reeves didn’t spend much time at the headquarters building. He knew it was impossible to influence the situation from there at a time like this. The Guard colonel appreciated the fact that soldiers, even in the age of high tech weapons and sophisticated communications, still need to be led in person.

One of the first people Reeves happened upon as he made his way through the motor pools was the major who had been marshaling vehicles to park on the airport’s runway. The major didn’t belong to his cavalry squadron but the two men knew each other. Calmly Colonel Reeves listened to the harried major as he explained his plan. The colonel nodded in agreement with the concept but stated in a tone that belied his own concern for haste that it was more important that the threat presented by the paratroopers already on the ground be dealt with first.

In a manner more befitting a father giving advice to a troubled son, Reeves redirected the major’s efforts. He instructed the major to deploy some of his tanks and Bradleys along West Gowen Road to act as a threat and keep the paratroopers from crossing it. While that was going on, the major was to dispatch those vehicles with full crews and machineguns on board to the ammo bunkers. There each of them were to pick up several boxes of small arms ammunition for their weapons. Once those vehicles were finished with that, they would move out to the road to replace the tanks and Bradleys that were on guard but had not yet had a chance to draw ammo.

Saluting smartly, the major turned about and faced the commanders of the vehicles he had managed to gather. Stepping back, Colonel Reeves watched and listened as the major appointed an officer to lead each ad hoc unit of tanks and Bradleys and assigned them each a specific task. Excited that they would be doing something that made sense and eager to get on with their assigned tasks, these subordinate commanders set out to implement the major’s directives.