Though only darkness raced up to greet the troopers of 1-9 Cav, they were not flying into the unknown. For days Air Force E-8A J-Stars surveillance flights had kept track of all ground movements throughout southern Idaho. Together with electronic intelligence gathered from Army EH-60C Quick Fix helicopters, most of the ambush sites Scott Dixon feared had been pinpointed. Armed with the fruits of this collaboration, the 1-9 Cav went forth, not to play blind man’s bluff with the Idaho Guard but to operate upon it with all the precision of a surgeon.

WEST OF ROGERSON, IDAHO • EARLY MORNING, NOVEMBER 8

Struggling to stay awake, Private Anthony Kelo, Idaho National Guard, rocked back and forth, shifting his weight about on the gunner’s seat he was perched upon. While the other Guardsmen who manned this lone M-3 Bradley scout enjoyed a fitful sleep down below in the vehicle’s troop compartment, Kelo blinked his eyes and kept watch over a stretch of US 93.

Together with the second Bradley in their section, their mission was to engage and destroy vehicles of the Regular Army’s advance guard when it came. In effect they were a speed bump. The state police manning the roadblocks at the state line farther south would raise the alarm when the Army crossed the border. “The moment the Feds start north, the folks at the roadblock will make one radio call,” Kelo’s platoon leader told them, “and then get out of the way. We’ll have maybe thirty minutes’ warning before the lead elements of the Regular Army reach us. When they do, we’ll be the first serious resistance they meet. We,” he said with a grin, “get to draw first blood.”

The look on his platoon leader’s face and the tone in his voice worried Kelo. The men and the women of the Idaho National Guard were not given the opportunity to stay behind if they had doubts about their mission. It was more than the simple fact that the Idaho Guard had precious few soldiers. Rather, no one thought of asking the soldiers in the ranks if they agreed with what they were doing. It was assumed by officers who had been carefully selected by their political leaders that their subordinates shared their sentiments concerning important state issues. To a degree those officers were correct. Most of the members of the 114th Armored Cavalry Brigade, Idaho National Guard, did.

But sharing a view does not automatically translate into unquestioning loyalty to a cause, even if it is a just cause. As days had dragged on and the TV images of Regular Army tanks, self-propelled guns, and Bradley fighting vehicles being moved to the borders of their state bombarded them, more and more Guardsmen questioned their personal commitment to their state’s chosen course. With his platoon leader’s words still rattling about in Kelo’s exhausted mind, the vigilant Guardsman kept watch.