Commonwealth of Kentucky (1983: Doomsday)

Doomsday
Maj. Gen. Donald M. Campbell Jr. the commander of Fort Knox at the time believed that Fort Knox would be a target in a nuclear war with the USSR. American Intelligence believed that Fort Knox would be a secondary target thus giving them time to prepare or evacuate. Upon hearing of the pending strike, General Campbell ordered his troops to get in the bunkers and prepare for the worst. However, intelligence was wrong: a few days later a few troops wearing radiation suits emerged from the bunker to see what remained. They were happy but shocked at the same time to discover that Fort Knox was fully intact and had in fact not been a target in the war. General Campbell ordered the area under martial law while attempting to make contact with the state and federal government. Jim Bunning who was running in that yeas election for the governor of Kentucky and Mitch McConnell who was running for Senate were both visiting troops stationed at Fort Knox at the time of the attacks and assisted in establishing order. General Campbell was able to contact the 101st Airborne at Fort Campbell. When they informed him that they were moving out of Southern Kentucky to West Virginia and after failing to make contact with President Reagan, he realized that he and his troops would be on their own.

Post-Doomsday
After establishing the Provisional Government of Kentucky General Campbell's first priority was helping refugees and gathering essential supplies (Food, Water, Medical Supplies). There was lots of food stored in Fort Knox that would last them for the time being but with the influx of refugees the supplies were stretched to the limit. The refugees that could work built structures to house themselves and any other refugees that turn up. They were also able to get seeds from nearby abandon stores along with whatever food was left on the shelves. The army began a plantation near the base so they could grow their own food. Electricity was restored using back up emergency generators on the base. However they needed to seek a permanent source of energy. General Campbell was quoted as saying "We need electricity I don't give f__k how you make it!". There was also wide spread fear of a nuclear winter so finding winter clothes was a must. At Fort Knox there was a large storage room with winter military uniforms. The extras were given to civilians and refugees but there was not nearly enough for everyone. Lucky the prospects of a nuclear winter never came to fruition. However the summers became much warmer that caused the deaths of many from heat stroke or starvation from poor crops as there was a terrible drought. The population was around about 250,000 by the end of 1984. Suicides were also extremely common as people began to realize just how bad things had gotten. Eventual suicides went down as the area began to return relative normalcy. There were rumors of survivors in the Cave City area but General Campbell decided that they still needed to focus o themselves before they get involved with anyone else.

On July 4th 1987 the Commonwealth of Kentucky was officially formed. The people followed the United States Constitution and American values. Most still referred to themselves to be Americans. The People of the CMK still held out hope that the US government was still out there somewhere and that one day they may rejoin their former nation. General Campbell was named the first president with elections being held in 1992 for a new leader. The citizens went to the polls on July 5th 1987 to elect their senators and congressman. The two major parties like in the America of old were the Democratic and Republican Parties. After a few weeks the election results were announced, Republicans narrowly won the Senate (7-5) while the Democrats had a decent majority in the House (28-22). Their government is very similar to that of the old United States.

Modern Times
As the new millennium approached the people of the Commonwealth were generally fairing well. Food was available in an abundance. Radiation deaths were also slowly declining. However raids by warlords and gangs were still a problem. To deal with the gangs a group of forts were built along the border to keep gangs out and to allow refugees in. Plans were devised to search the bombed out remains of Lexington, the rumored survivors at Cave City, the Virginian Republic and what ever else might be out there. Through Ham radio the Commonwealth has been able to communicate with The North American Union, Superior, Vermont and Virginia. They have learned of Aroostoock, West Texas, The Municipal States of the Pacific, other survivor nations and the history of the world since Doomsday.

Expeditions
While Kentucky had generally stuck to a policy of isolationism the recent events in West Texas have encouraged them take a second look into exploring the world around them. Senator David Frum (R) Chairman of The Senate Foreign Relations Committee proposed a bill to send expeditions to explore the Cave City settlements and other survivor communities in Tennessee. The bill easily passed Committee and is expected to pass the House and Senate with little opposition. After fiercer opposition then expected and lengthy debate the Kentucky Senate narrowly voted to approve the Frum exploration plan. In the wee hours of the morning on November 7th 2009 President Bunning signed the bill into law. Secretary of Defense Hitchens made brief remarks saying that expedition teams could be ready to go by the end of the week. Senator Frum made a speech at the press conference hoping that this would "Usher in a new era of exploration and expansion for our young nation."

Expansion
The bombed out remains of Louisville and Lexington have only recently been explored. Anything of value was moved to Kentucky territory along with any small survivor groups that were found. A host of new territory has been claimed in Southern Indiana and is currently being configured and will be integrated shortly.

Foreign Relations
When chaos still reigned supreme in the Commonwealth there were rumors of survivors in the Cave City area but they didn't have the resources to establish contact and none have been made since. However there are some plans in the works to do so. Through Ham radio operators they have reestablished contact with the 101st Airborne now in West Virginia calling themselves the "The Republic of Virginia". Through Virginia they have been able to learn of the existence of the Commonwealth of Australia and New Zealand, The South American Confederation, the League of Nations and the WCRB as well as other survivor nations throughout North America. Kentucky has established an embassy in Charleston Virginia while Virginia has constructed a embassy at Fort Knox. Kentuckians were deeply saddened to hear that the United States had disbanded it's self in 1995, but were happy the hear that George H. W. Bush was still alive. The Congress is currently debating whether to send a formal request to join the League of Nations. Kentucky declared their neutrality in the Saguenay War and offered to mediate peace talks between the two sides.

Military


All males over the age of 18 must serve two years in the CWK Army. Their army is relatively strong as they have lots of equipment and many soldiers from the divisions stationed in the area in and around Fort Knox. There are also elements of the Indiana and Kentucky National Guard that were escorting refugees to safer areas who were absorbed into the Commonwealth's military. The Commonwealth's army uses M60 Patton and the M1 Abrams battle tanks. The army also uses the M113 Armored Personnel Carriers, Jeeps and other assorted trucks. The Air Force consists mainly of UH-60 Black Hawk, UH-1 Iroquois, AH-1 Cobra and the F-16.

The Units currently stationed at Fort Knox are:


 * 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division
 * 3rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary)
 * 19th Engineer Battalion
 * 16th Cavalry Regiment
 * 1st Squadron
 * 2nd Squadron
 * 3rd Squadron
 * 194th Armored Brigade
 * 81st Armored Regiment
 * 1st Battalion
 * 2nd Battalion
 * 3rd Battalion
 * 15th Cavalry Regiment
 * 5th Squadron
 * 46th Infantry Regiment
 * 1st Battalion
 * 2nd Battalion
 * 34th Military Police Detachment
 * 46th Adjutant General Battalion
 * 95th Infantry Division (formerly 95th Training Division)
 * 113th Band
 * Ireland Army Community Hospital MEDDAC
 * 84th Infantry Command (UR)
 * 70th Training Division (FT)
 * 1st National Guard Brigade
 * 2nd National Guard Brigade

Government
The Government use to convene at one of the office buildings in the Fort Knox facility. In 1999 a plan was conceived to build a new Capital building that resembled the one that use to be in Washington D.C. They wanted to symbolically separate the military from the government to assure the people they had true democracy. The government of Kentucky was run almost identically as the old United States Government. Until the 2001 constitutional convention when the President was stripped of the power to appoint all cabinet positions including the Vice Presidency and instead having the people vote them in so they are directly held accountable by the people.

Executive branch positions consist of
 * President - Jim Bunning (R)
 * Vice President - David Willmoth, Jr. (I)
 * Secretary of State - Kenny Lewis (R)
 * Secretary of Defense - Christopher Hitchens (I)
 * Secretary of Commerce - Ron Lewis (R)
 * Secretary of Energy -  Matthew Hobbs (D)
 * Secretary of Labor - Eugene P. Stuart (D)
 * Secretary of Treasury - Todd Hollenbach (I)
 * Secretary of the Interior - Ed Poppe (D)
 * Secretary of Agriculture - Jonathan Weinzapfel (D)
 * Secretary of Transportation-
 * Secretary of Education- Steve Beshear (D)
 * Secretary of Bullion-
 * Attorney General - Deborah L. Shaw (R)

Political Parties
Just like in the old United States the two main political parties are the Republican and the Democrats. However over the years the Independence Party has begun to gain traction.

Commonwealth of Kentucky Bullion Depository


The Kentucky Bullion Depository, commonly called Fort Knox, is a fortified vault building located near Fort Knox, Kentucky, which is used to store a large portion of United States official gold reserves and, occasionally, other precious items belonging or entrusted to the Federal government of the former United States and The Commonwealth of Kentucky.

The Kentucky Bullion Depository holds about 4,603 tons (4 176 metric tones) of gold bullion (147.4 million troy ounces.

Pre-Doomsday History
Before the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1932, gold coins had circulated freely in the United States as legal money, and gold bullion was owned by banks and other private entities. In early 1933, as part of the New Deal, the United States Congress enacted a package of laws which removed gold from circulation as money, and which made private ownership of gold in the U.S. (except for coins in collections or jewelry such as wedding rings) illegal. All gold in circulation was seized by the government in exchange for dollars at the fixed rate of $20.67 per ounce. Owners of gold bullion in the U.S. were also required to trade it for other forms of money. All of this left the government of the United States with a large amount of gold metal, and no place to store it.

In 1936, the United States Department of the Treasury began construction of the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky, on land transferred from the United States Army. The Gold Vault was completed in December 1936 at a cost of $560,000. The site is located on what is now Bullion Boulevard at the intersection of Gold Vault Road.

The first gold shipments were made from January to July 1937. The majority of the United States' Official gold reserves were gradually shipped to the site, including old bullion and more newly made bars made from melted gold coins. Some intact coins were stored, as well. The transfer needed 500 Rail cars and was sent by registered mail, protected by the United States Postal Inspection Service.

During World War II, the repository held the original United States Declaration of Independence and United States Constitution. It also holds the reserves of several European countries and several key documents from Western history; for example, it held the Crown of St. Stephen, part of the Holy Crown of Hungary, given to American soldiers to prevent them from falling into Soviet hands. The repository also held one of four known copies (exemplifications) of Magna Carta, which had been sent for display at the 1939 New York World Fair, and which, when war broke out, was kept in America for the duration.

Post Doomsday History
General Campbell ordered his men to secure the bullion depository from looters. Working in tandem with the Bullion Security Forces were able to repel a few small raids from gangs and maintain control of the facility.

Construction and security
Below the fortress-like structure lies the gold bank vault, which is lined with granite walls and which is protected by a blast-proof door that weighs 22 tons. No single person is entrusted with the entire combination to the vault. Various members of the Depository staff must dial separate combinations known only to them. Beyond the main vault door, smaller internal cells provide further protection.

The facility is ringed with several fences and is under armed guard by officers of the Commonwealth Mint Police. The Depository premises are within the site of Fort Knox, a Commonwealth of Kentucky Army military base, allowing the Army to provide additional protection. The Depository is protected by numerous layers of physical security, alarms, video cameras, armed guards, and the Army units based at Fort Knox, including AH-64 Apache helicopter gunships of 8/229 Aviation based at Godman Army Airfield, the 16th Cavalry Regiment, training battalions of the Commonwealth of Kentucky Army Armor School, and the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Infantry Division, totaling over 50,000 soldiers, with associated tanks, armored personnel carriers, attack helicopters, and artillery.

Gold and coin holdings
Gold holdings peaked during World War II at 649.6 million troy ounces (20,205 metric tons). Current holdings are around 147.3 million ounces around 368,000 standard 400 troy ounce (12.4 kg or 27.4 Pound lb) gold bars. At April 2008 rates of $913 an ounce it is worth roughly $134 billion, while the World War II total of 649.6 million troy ounces would be worth approximately $593 billion.

The depository also holds monetary gold coins. It also holds several specimens of Sacagawea Dollar coins made out of 22 Carat (91.6% pure) gold from blanks that are used to strike the $25 half-ounce American Gold Eagle bullion pieces made for an unknown project.

Not all the gold bars held in the depository are of exactly the same composition. The mint gold bars are nearly pure gold. Bars made from melted gold coins, however, called "coin bars," are the same composition as the original coins. Unlike many .999 fine gold bullion coins minted in modern times for holding-purposes today, the coin alloy for pre-1932 U.S. coins, which were intended for circulation, was a much tougher and wear-resistant .900 fine alloy (balance copper) derived historically from 22-carat crown gold (a similar alloy consisting of .917 gold and the balance copper, used to mint gold sovereigns).

All of the gold in the depository, if pure, could form a cube 19.7 feet (6 m) on a side—a volume of 216 m³. In comparison, all the gold ever mined in the world would form a cube 64.3 feet (19.6 m) on a side, with a volume of approximately 7500 m³.

In popular culture
The bullion depository has become a symbol of an impregnable vault, leading to phrases such as "locked up tighter than Fort Knox" or "safer than Fort Knox".

Radio

 * WQZK 1400 AM- Talk Radio


 * CWKR 93.5 FM- Commonwealth of Kentucky Government Information Radio


 * WHHT 106.7 FM - Pre Doomsday R&B, Soul, Funk and Pop


 * WLVK 105.5 FM - Pre Doomsday Rock


 * KPR  90.9 FM - Kentucky Public Radio


 * WKTA 98.3 FM - Pre Doomsday Variety


 * KCR 91.5 FM- Classical Music

Television

 * KPTV - Public Television


 * Channel 3 - Local, National and International News, Weather, Sports and Opinion


 * Channel 4 - Government News and Information


 * K-Span 1 - Live video of Political speeches, and the goings on of the Kentucky House of Representatives


 * K-Span 2 - Live video of Political speeches, and the goings on of the Kentucky Senate


 * Channel 7 - Cartoons and 50's, 60's 70's and 80's syndicated television plus local programing

Sports
Intercollegiate basketball and horse racing were two of the most popular sports in the former state of Kentucky pre-Doomsday. People's love for those two sports persisted over the years; basketball has been the national sport since the Commonwealth became an independent nation, and the recent reopening of Ellis Park in Henderson represents what officials hope is the rebirth of the horse racing industry. Baseball and Football also have a presence in the Commonwealth but to a lesser extent then Basketball.

Fort Knox High School
Fort Knox High School is currently serving grades 9-12 and was built in 1958 and has gone under only a handful of renovations since then. However, a new Fort Knox High School was completed in July 2009 and dedicated on August 7. The current building (minus the gym and vocational wing) was torn down and made into a parking lot, after standing for 51 years. The school's nickname is Eagles and varsity sports include volleyball, football, swimming, soccer, baseball, basketball, powerlifting, wrestling, track and field, tennis, golf and softball.

Higher education
The city of Evansville is home to two major universities, the University of Evansville and the University of Southern Indiana (USI). The Indiana University School of Medicine also has a presence in the city with the Evansville Center for Medical Education on the campus of USI. Evansville Center for Medical Education Other campuses in the city include Ivy Tech Community College, ITT Tech, Harrison College, and Oakland City University's School of Adult and Extended Learning. The main campus of Oakland City University is located just north of the city in Oakland City, Indiana. Owensboro is home to two private, four-year colleges, Brescia University and Kentucky Wesleyan College, and one public community college, Owensboro Community and Technical College. Campuses of Draughons Junior College and Daymar College are also located in Owensboro, and Western Kentucky University maintains an extended campus presence there. Elizabethtown is home to Elizabethtown Community and Technical College, a member of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System. It also has an extended campus of Western Kentucky University as well as the Elizabethtown Beauty School and the Elizabethtown Hair Design School.

Airports
The Commonwealth is served by the Elizabethtown Regional Airport (EKX) and the Elizabethtown Airport Board is currently exploring options to bring commercial services to the city. Godman Airfield is the main airport of the Commonwealth located in the Fort Knox military base. Godman Army Airfield can accommodate many types of civilian and military aircraft. Owensboro-Daviess County Airport covers an area of 826 acres (334 ha) which contains two asphalt and concrete paved runways: 18/36 measuring 8,000 x 150 ft (2,438 x 46 m) and 5/23 measuring 5,000 x 100 ft (1,524 x 30 m). For the 12-month period ending March 31, 2007, the airport had 60,688 aircraft operations, an average of 166 per day: 10% general aviation, 84% military, 5% air taxi and <1% scheduled commercial. There are 50 aircraft based at this airport: 74% single-engine (37), 12% multi-engine (6), 12% jet and 2% ultralight. The Evansville Regional Airport, housed in an Airport terminal and offers nearly 30 flights a day to various destinations. A complimentary shuttle service is offered from the airport to major hotels.

Public Transportation
The Metropolitan Evansville Transit System (METS) provides bus transportation to all sections of the city.

Events of interest

 * Owensboro considers itself the "Barbecue Capital of the world"; it holds its International BBQ festival and competition every second weekend in May.


 * During the summer, the city offers "Friday After 5",, a free 16-week series of outdoor concerts on the downtown riverfront. The festival includes live bands, events for families, and entertainment every Friday from 5:00 pm till 10:00 pm. An estimated 55,000 people attend the events.


 * Owensboro holds the Annual Owensboro PumpkinFest each September at the Sportscenter/Moreland Park complex. The festival includes food vendors, crafts people, carnival rides, children and adult activities and games, and contests using pumpkins.


 * Owensboro hosts the largest Christmas parades in Kentucky. Held on the Saturday before Thanksgiving Day, the parade features marching bands, clowns, fire trucks, beauty queens, miniature horses, and decorated floats.

Points of interest

 * Ben Hawes State Park
 * International Bluegrass Music Museum
 * Western Kentucky Botanical Garden
 * Glover Cary Bridge
 * William H. Natcher Bridge
 * Temple Adath Israel One of the Oldest synagogues.
 * Largest Sassafras Tree