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Atlantic Remnant of the United States of America
Timeline: 1983: Doomsday

OTL equivalent: United States Virgin Islands, Spanish Virgin Islands, Key West, Dry Tortugas National Park, Navassa Island, various US deep sea oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea
Flag Coat of Arms
Flag Coat of Arms
Location of United States Atlantic Remnant
USAR in Blue - Key West, Navassa, Isla de Mona, US & Spanish Virgin Islands
Capital
(and largest city)
Charlotte Amalie
Other cities New Lulu Town, Vieques, Key West, Spanish Town, Tortuga, Road Town, Christiansted, Cruz Bay
Language
  official
 
English, Virgin Islands Creole,
  others Spanish, Haitian Creole
Demonym American, Atlantics, Virgin Islanders
Governor John Percy de Jongh, Jr.
Commissioner Admiral William McRaven
Area 576.9 km²
Population 451,029 (USVI proper) 
Independence July 4, 1989
Currency East Caribbean Dollar, Buffalo Dollar

The United States Atlantic Remnant is an American successor state in the Caribbean Sea that was created to serve the citizens of the US territories of the United States of America and those living or visiting what is now the Caribbean Federation after Doomsday. It was created by the convergence of remnants from the US Navy which had left Guantanamo Bay after Doomsday with the arrival of a surviving flotilla of ships led by the USS Norfolk converging in the United States Virgin Islands. The military structure has helped maintain the American spirit in the region. The de jure land under sovereign USAR control includes the US Virgin Islands, Navassa Island, Culebra and East Vieques (by treaty with Puerto Rico), and the Dry Tortugas Islands. However, Americans all over the Caribbean are included under its care and carry USAR passports. The American consulates across the Caribbean are all under the authority of the USAR. Following contact with the mainland successor state to the United States, the two restored full diplomatic ties.

In recent years, the US government has facilitated ever-deeper integration between Torrington and Charlotte Amalie, with USAR-born athletes participating in US athletic teams, the US Navy's Atlantic Fleet being authorized to create updated shipyards in the Virgin Islands, and with President Heitkamp nominating one of the USAR's former Governors as Secretary of the Interior, as well as another USAR resident as Secretary of the Navy (serving below the Secretary of Defense).

History[]

Doomsday[]

The Americans in the East Caribbean were affected by three nuclear blasts - one over Naval Air Station Key West, obliterating Boca Chica Key and showering Key West in a massive tsunami, one near Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (by an American strike against Santiago) and one at the eastern tip of the main island of Puerto Rico. Guantanamo Bay was a facility under "perpetual lease" from the Cuban government. The Castro regime, though, had rejected this lease as illegal and had only left the base alone due to international pressure. With the destruction of the government in Havana, this animosity did not go away.

On the Virgin Islands, tens of thousands of tourists from mainland America and abroad found themselves away from home for what would most likely be forever. Governor Juan Luis tried to keep the tourists calm and provided them with food and shelter, but unrest ensued as the populace saw a permanent increase putting a strain on many resources.

Crisis at Guantanamo Bay[]

Already on high alert with word of a nuclear exchange, the US forces at Guantanamo Bay Naval base had been shocked that the US had actually bombed Santiago. This act signaled to local Communist troops that the treaty of 1903 was considered void. Cuba was now at war with the USA, making Guantanamo Bay fair game. However, the perimeter of the US Naval Station was impenetrable to their meagre attempts by land. The local forces nearby had no other choice but to call Havana for instructions. Havana, of course, had also been bombed.

In the meantime, Captain M.D. "Fritz" Fitzgerald began an orderly withdrawal of the troops and supplies from the now useless stronghold. It was known that it would be only a matter of time before the remnant governments of the US and Cuba would be in negotiations and that the base would have to be closed. Before the end of November 1983, nothing was left at the base but empty buildings. Shortly thereafter, Cuban forces occupied the base during their campaign to restore order to Cuba. The US forces present had relocated to Jamaica, with a small contingency having made it to Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands by way of the Dominican Republic.

Fuel

One of the immediate priorities of the US Naval forces in the Caribbean in the months after Doomsday was sending reinforcements to protect US oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. These remain an important part of the USAR's economic strength in the present day. Protecting these deep sea oil platforms has been a major impetus in the maintenance of the US Atlantic Fleet.

Reclaiming Navassa Island[]

Navassa Island, an uninhabited island off the coast of Haiti, took on new importance with the unrest in that troubled land. Long a US territory (disputed by Haiti), the island supported a herd of goats and thousands of seagulls. Off its shores, Haitian and Jamaican fishermen claimed whatever the sea would yield. Only the smallest of boats were able to come ashore because of the reefs and the cliffs. However, the US armed forces had landed helicopters upon the island on their way to Jamaica in order to establish a strategic location at the southern gate to the Gulf of Mexico. It was, after all, an untouched resource of the United States. Within a month, the troops there had begun building New Lulu Town near the lighthouse. Relations were set up with Jamaican officials that assured supplies to the waterless outpost. Throughout the late eighty's work was done on clearing the harbours of reefs and demolishing cliffs on the island's southwestern shore. A man-made port was up and running in 1991. On the north end of the island, state of the art desalination facilities was constructed with the help of Jamaican engineers to relieve the drain on resources that Lulu Town was becoming to Jamaica. By 1992, the deserted island had begun to bloom. The indigenous goats, however, had long since become a footnote in history, though attempts had been made to preserve them. Seagulls, on the other hand, continue to pester the new human inhabitants. In 1995, the first civilians began to come to Navassa, and Lulu Town grew to a population of 527 (as of 2009).

The Dry Tortugas[]

During the chaotic early days of the US Navy's regrouping process in the Caribbean, communications were troublesome, but the Navy's commanding officers soon ascertained the survival of various US Navy and US Coast Guard units and vessels off the south coast of Florida. Although Key West had been targeted by the Soviets due to the presence of Naval Air Station Key West and the Truman Annex, much of the Navy and Coast Guard vessels (though not all) had been able to sail or fly away in time to avoid being hit, owing in large part due to the "heads up" from the destruction of the West Coast. These units as well as units from mainland Florida were now scattered around the Florida Straits and the south Florida shorelines, on high alert for any possible incursions from the Cuban military.

Once the Navy's Atlantic High Command established contact with these scattered units, it began to coordinate them to work to provide an umbrella of evacuation points for survivors in southern Florida along the coastline. The area of West Palm Beach to Port St. Lucie saw hundreds of thousands of people evacuated through the next few years, as what few naval scientists remained from Key West, Guantanamo and elsewhere worked to shut down the nuclear plant in St. Lucie County. The Navy decided that the Dry Tortugas Islands, a chain of islands some 56 miles the west of Key West, be used as a forward operating point and gathering site.

Fort-Jefferson Dry-Tortugas

Fort Jefferson

The Dry Tortugas were home to the historic decommissioned Fort Jefferson, first constructed following the US acquisition of Florida from Spain in the 1820's. During the Civil War it had served as an outpost of the US military against the Confederate forces. Now it would once again be brought back into service as a major local base for the US military.

Trying Times[]

The Virgin Islands were soon impacted from the winds blowing fallout from the strikes on Puerto Rico towards the islands. By order of the military, who anticipated this, Islanders were instructed to cover their doors and windows with tarps and enact other measures to attempt to shelter from the fallout. These measures saved many lives and reaffirmed the public's respect for the Navy. Nevertheless, starting in late 1983 and going through 1985, the darkened skies, fallout and other potential factors had resulted in reduced crop yields, leading to food shortages across the islands. There was also a terrifyingly dramatic increase in rates of cancer and other radiation-related illnesses being diagnosed throughout the mid-1980's.

There were instances of riots and violence, which the military and local police forces were forced to team up to contain. Local authorities did offset some of the crop losses with increased fishing by local vessels, but it was still an uphill struggle.

Finally, on July 4, 1989, the American flag was once again raised in Charlotte Amalie, in what had been the capital of the US Virgin Islands. From there, Americans throughout the Caribbean and Western Atlantic were represented by the new government known as the United States Atlantic Remnant. In agreement with the government of the ECF the Americans living among the Caribbean would send representatives to St. Thomas and would live as "foreign nationals" among the populations of the young Federation. In the face of anti-American prejudice lingering in the populations across much of the ECF as a result of Doomsday (similar to prejudice faced by both American and Soviet civilian expats across the world during this period), almost every American civilian in the region would eventually resettle in the islands of the USAR. The USAR quickly found jobs for the newcomers in the vital fishing, mechanical, engineering, and energy industries or in the US military, in order to shore up its strength and stability.

In the 1990 elections, Governor Fitzgerald was running again, but there was noticeable unrest among many of the native population of the former Virgin Islands. Seeing the writing on the wall, Governor Fitzgerald knew that if the grievances of the native Islanders were not addressed, the very existence of the US Atlantic Remnant could be threatened; to that end, he directed the military to devolve most of its civil authority back to local institutions, redoubled the government's fishing and agricultural efforts, and abruptly withdrew from the race in favor of nominees from among the islanders themselves. The orderly transfer of power left him the logical choice for Commissioner when the new governor, Alexander F. Farrelly, was sworn in on January 7, 1991. As Commissioner, Fitzgerald would serve under two governors before retiring from the Navy as a Rear Admiral in 2001.

Meanwhile, the British Virgin Islands would join the fledgling East Caribbean Federation (today known as just the Caribbean Federation) during this time period. The Remnant, on the other hand, came to occupy a dubious, almost contradictory position in the newfound ECF. As an acquiescence to the native population, the U.S. Virgin Islanders were represented within the larger East Caribbean Federation, and its economy being inextricable from that of the rest of the Caribbean and its new Dollar, with the American Dollar now being next to worthless in the foreign markets. Although the Remnant itself remained entirely separate as a military and governing apparatus, a status quo both sides shy away from broaching even to this day. In time, locals in the British Virgin Islands would also be drawn to former allegiances, with the islands and their own expatriate British population reaffirming their Crown status to King William V in 2020.

Exodus from Panama[]

Freighter virgin islands

A derelict freighter from Panama after arriving in Charlotte Amalie, 1986

Another influx of military personnel came to the Virgin Islands from the Panama Canal Zone. Most of the Americans who had survived the nuclear blast to Panama City had been living in a condition little better than the country's guerrillas and out-of-work drug cartels. Most of the forces had spent 1983-4 banding together to try and maintain a safe pocket in the hills just west of the canal. But after a year or so, divisions appeared within the US forces in Panama, with some detachments heading for the Caribbean coast to leave the Panamanian quagmire.

The Virgin Islands were the obvious destination for these Americans. Information reaching Panama was sketchy, but they knew that the Islands were likely the only safe US territory in the region. The large number of abandoned ships in the port of Colón would facilitate their exodus. A few small boatloads, mostly civilians from the base with armed escorts, began trickling over from Panama late in 1984, and by 1987 a few thousand troops, support personnel, and family members had made the crossing. Many of them were re-settled on Navassa Island, forming an early core of the community there.

Hurricanes of 1989 and 1995 - Rising to the Challenge[]

Five years after its formation, the Remnant's durability would be put to the test. On September 18th, 1989, a Category 5 hurricane struck the island of St. Thomas, The capital city of Charlotte Amalie was left in ruins, with the exception of stone and concrete buildings. The government was temporary relocated to Cruz Bay while the military was deployed to start relief efforts. The nightmarish damage left the government dumbfounded on how to go about rebuilding. The governor and military chain of command both decided to start a massive national undertaking to put the mainland and Panamanian refugees back to work clearing the rubble and gathering the resources to rebuild the capital. Controversially for, Veterans Highway running across the coast of the city would be doubled in size, flatting an additional two city blocks on each side of the road in order to meet military specifications, as well as an additional ring of freeway connecting the Veterans Highway to Alton Adams Road. The military engineers ordered how and what would be constructed as well as help open up stone quarries in The hills above the city as well as in some of the smaller islands. By 1991, Charlotte Amalie had been rebuilt to military specifications, first incorporating an interlocked grid layout and expanding the city size to accommodate for the refugee influx as well as building codes requiring stone and concrete walls.

The West of St. Thomas would become the Remnant's indomitable bastion, with defensive artillery positions becoming a permanent fixture of the hillside. Around the same time that the American Provisional Administration would be disbanding, the Atlantic Remnant finally stood up as the voice of safety and authority for any in the region who still called themselves Americans.

Outliving the APA, Meeting the Committee[]

From the beginning, relations had been shaky with the APA due to the Gathering Order, with the government on St. Thomas vehemently proclaiming that America was alive and well in the Atlantic. For over a decade, George Bush had attempted to have forces from Australia and New Zealand to travel to the Atlantic to take possession of American property (i.e. military property) there. His allies Down Under, though, were not willing to do this, and an endless string of crises in the Pacific prevented further action.

Pundits argued that the USAR would not survive, but ironically it outlasted the APA. When word very gradually reached the islands that the APA had begun to transition to Australia-New Zealand control, USAR residents were dismissive towards the President, arguing that he had no right to "commit national suicide," as one Charlotte Amalie newspaper put it. Most USAR islanders felt, in any case, that no matter what the distant APA did or didn't do, the United States Atlantic Remnant would continue to uphold the idea of Americanness, When reports trickled in of the US Continuity Act, many asserted that the USAR was itself the USA's legitimate successor under the criteria described in the Act. By the time the League of Nations had been created in 2008, the USAR had a seat at the table as an observer 'nation.'

That same era saw the rise and growth of the Provisional United States of America, a federation of restored states centered on Torrington, Wyoming. The new League of Nations facilitated direct communication between smaller countries and organizations, and the island's delegate soon met with members of CRUSA, the Committee to Restore the United States of America. The Committee gave its exuberant support to this slice of the country surviving and preserving and rebuilding the American legacy. Meanwhile it would find a new source of support in the older generation of U.S. veterans on the Islands, now numbering in the tens of thousands, who wanted to preserve their identity in a time of great change for the Caribbean. As the most stable and developed post-American state East of the Mississippi, the islands became crucial to CRUSA's operations in the former Southeast United States.

The New Millennium and Beyond[]

The Atlantic Remnant grew to become a powerful presence in the Caribbean. However, for as many allies they had, they also had rivals or enemies. They had not dropped claims to Guantanamo Bay, which was by now under Cuban control but the Cubans claimed that not only was the original occupation illegal, but that base had become fair game when it was abandoned.

The USAR also did not forget US claims to the Panama Canal Zone. When it became clear during the 1990s that Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador were cooperating to rebuild the canal, the USAR sent a delegation to investigate. The USAR's position was that since the Republic of Panama had ceased to exist, the South Americans served as the legal successors to its government. As long as the South Americans honored the 1977 treaty between Panama and the US, the Remnant would hold up its end as well and drop its claim in 1999. As a sign of good faith, the USAR contributed a small contingent of troops to help defend the city of Colón, thereby restoring the US military presence in the Canal Zone. Some US troops continue to serve there as paid mercenaries of the South American Confederation.

America's past woes came back to haunt the Remnant when it came to the tiny uninhabited isle of Navassa, which was 200 miles off the coast of Haiti, which had claimed the island ever since its independence in the nineteenth century. In order to permanently re-enforce this claim, the Atlantic Remnant turned the rocky isle into an inhabited outpost which was a military and economic asset. Using dynamite to blow up several of the steep cliffs, and with its engineers painstakingly chiseling out docking facilities for this difficult isle, they made it easier to access the interior of the island. All of this, however, was to resume mining the guano on the island which could be used for anything from fertilizer to gunpowder, which the Remnant desired to have a constant source of.

The American Spring[]

In 2009 a charity event that led by the Committee to Restore the United States of America had left an impression on both the Commissioner and the governor. An invitation had been made for the activists to relocate to the island of St. Thomas. In February of 2010 he took them up on the offer, moving the international headquarters of CRUSA to Anna's Retreat, the island's second-largest city. Throughout that year, the CRUSA began an orderly move toward promoting the new United States of America.

To mark the official first day of spring in 2011, impatient citizens lead by the CRUSA, began to stage coordinated demonstrations throughout the islands. On Navassa Island, the local government called on the military to keep the peace as the civilian minority and Panamanian population was especially hostile to a perceived military government. Jamaican officials, who housed tens of thousands of former Americans as well, were called to be on alert for any potential uprising.

Meanwhile, on St. Thomas, organisers were more successful in coordinating the demonstrations near the capital. Though military units were visible, the speakers of the unionists were allowed free speech as they called on support of the overtures from President Allard of the USA. The mood among the white minority was especially positive, though the native population of the Virgin Islands remains divided as to the course of the reunion.

The populations of the provinces ceded from the nation of Puerto Rico are reported to be ecstatic. Word from the leadership of those islands is that reunion with the USA when reconstituted, was assumed in the treaty that created the provinces. Across the way in Puerto Rico, the American expatriates who live and work there are at a quandary as to what their protectors in Charlotte Amalie have in mind for them.

The Election of 2011[]

In an off-year, most election days are little-noticed events, but November 8, 2011, proved to be an exception due to the important vote of the populace as to whether to reunite with the United States of America in some capacity. The campaign had been heated at times, as native Virgin Islanders wondered whether this new designation would cause problems in the region. When it became clear that the East Caribbean Federation was not opposed to the autonomous government taking on a new alliance, the opinion polls had swung toward embracing the "New" United States. It helped, as well, that American authorities assured the Remnant that the new government was not connected with the old APA.

4th of July Fireworks Frederiksted St Croix USVI

Fireworks at Frederiksted on St. Croix, USAR after the pro-unification results of the 2012 referendum.

As a result of the important decision to be made by the voters, elections were being held as well for provisional representatives to serve in the US Congress and Senate from the new state. The winners would serve until regular elections in 2012 if the measure for statehood passed.

One of the crucial issues brought up in the campaign was the potential aid that association with the mainland could offer to the USAR's most crucial asset: its fleet and infrastructure. Since Doomsday, the USAR had meticulously and painstakingly maintained the vessels of its fleet and its aircraft (almost all inherited from the pre-Doomsday US military), its deep sea oil platforms inherited from American oil companies, and even the former cruise ships that had converged in the Virgin Islands bringing refugees after the bombs fell. Through the hard, intricate work of its engineers, the USAR had managed to maintain its fleet and military infrastructure in a condition that was better than anyone had initially expected. Nevertheless, almost three decades after Doomsday, the fleet's vessels were starting to show signs of their age. Even the most optimistic engineers and military strategists came to agree that the US Atlantic Remnant would need a fresh infusion of both cash and physical assets in order to continue maintaining the Fleet in tip-top shape.

Many in the pro-statehood movement pointed out that union with the revived US mainland would provide metallic ores and intricately-designed hardware and other assets that the islands simply were not in a position to mine or build themselves. The Rocky Mountains that formed the spine of the Torrington-based USA was rich with minerals and ores, and the US government could provide an influx of military engineers to facilitate a much-needed upgrade of the USAR's ships, planes, deep sea oil platforms, and other vital infrastructure. This was a point that even the skeptics of reunification found themselves admitting was a very valid argument for a Yes vote on statehood.

On Saturday, November 12, the votes for reunification were officially verified. The vote to join the United States had passed 61% to 39%. Word reached Torrington by radio contact at 3:00 pm Torrington time.

Free Association[]

Since July of 2012, Governor Percy de Gongh, Vice President Micheal Simpson, and several other key politicians have been in negotiations on how to create a practical union between the two governments. Statehood, though likely in the future, was put off at the time due to the fact they are two-thousand miles apart from each other and the New United States had only had maritime access since mid-August 2012 after the annexation of Oregon. Several proposals were shot down due to realistic capabilities not being acknowledged initially, so the September deadline for the decision was delayed by several months. Finally, as key investors, money-movers, foreign opinions as well as compromises reached, it was agreed that the United States Atlantic Remnant would enter into a "military and political union" with the Torrington-based United States successor.

Announcement of this arrangement was initially met with unrest and confusion on the islands (most notably in much of the local pre-Doomsday populace which was split down the middle toward allegiance to the Remnant and American identity and those favoring ECF affiliations), the final arrangement only favored a military and political realignment with the "mainland" United States, while maintaining a realistic approach toward the nations different currencies and economic systems, as this would cause the least friction to all parties involved.

Operation Spearhead[]

Carter Accords[]

Dry Tortugas and Key West[]

The southwesternmost portion of the Florida Keys--the Dry Tortugas Islands--had been a part of the USAR since the beginning, with the Tortugas' old Fort Jefferson being reactivated and occupied continuously by the US military ever since. In the early years, the Tortugas had been used almost entirely to base detachments of the fleet tasked with ward of pirating, and as a key checkpoint for processing and evacuating US refugees from the Florida mainland down to the Virgin Islands and the Puerto Rican islands that were part of the USAR (such as Vieques) for resettlement, as those islands were much more stable and viable for a large population.

During the 1990's and 2000's, the Tortugas also began serving as a waystation in the other direction, as the USAR's engineers and technicians were sent to occupy and maintain (with the military's help) old US oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico that the Remnant had claimed as its own. These played a vital role in maintaining the USAR energy and military needs. The Dry Tortugas were also home to a modest village called Fort Jefferson Town, built as a sort of expanded barracks to house the families of the US Navy and Coast Guard personnel stationed at the eponymous Fort Jefferson, but eventually granted status as a civilian town as various merchants had relocated there to serve the population of military families.

Fort Jefferson Ramparts

Northern ramparts at Fort Jefferson

In the early 2020's, the USAR formally authorized the creation of another tiny civilian village in the Tortugas, settled by American refugees who had not yet found a place to call home in other Remnant holdings. This quiet outpost, called McRaven Village after Commissioner William McRaven, is located on Loggerhead Key, and is centered around maintaining the local lighthouse. It is the smallest and mostly lightly-populated village in the USAR.

During the past several decades, the USAR Naval forces had come to the Republic of Florida's aid in maintained order along the south Florida coastline, helping to ward off pirates and other threats, and serving with distinction to help civilians during and after hurricanes. In recognition of this as well as seeing the practicality of letting the well-oiled organization of the USAR having a permanent presence in its backyard, the Floridian government formally ceded the Tortugas, Key West and Boca Chica (including the Marquesas Keys and the former Key West National Wildlife Refuge) to the USAR's interests for use as a military and civilian institution.

The Doomsday strike on Key West Naval AFB had completely turned Boca Chica Key into an atoll, flooding the adjacent key and the city it was named after. The survivors fled on what boats they could in any direction, ending up in Cuba, the Bahamas, the Tortugas, or the Remnant proper. With the towns abandonment, it would later be pummeled by hurricane after hurricane, washing away so much of what remained of the town. But as the radiation had in Boca Chica had long since waned by 2022, the USAR government began to discuss with its engineers the endeavor of formally repopulating the island. The Remnant is currently in talks with Florida to develop long-known untapped oil reserves along much of the Gulf Coast, although environmentalist voices in both Florida and the USAR are ardently speaking out against the move.

Hilton Head South Carolina

Hilton Head, USAR in the early 2020s.

Hilton Head[]

As of the present day, the Remnant maintains its northernmost outpost on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. With the former resort island having been home to two communities of several hundred centered along former resorts, the accessible island was absorbed into the Remnants military patrols without a hitch. Just south of the former Marine site of Parris Island from which many of its veterans hailed, and just a few kilometers north of the Savannah Research Site being facilitated by the Cubans, this marks the furthest outpost the Remnant has established on the mainland. Although the Remnant was in no position to debate the legitimacy of this site absent Neonotian and Floridian objections, many speculate the timing coincides with attempts to at the very least "keep tabs" at the goings on of the Cuban-run site at Savannah.

Science Capital of the Caribbean[]

With its aging fleet vastly disproportionate to the number of citizens under its domain in the 2020s, the USAR has made a massive pivot towards development and research. Surprisingly, with its St. Croix oil refinery now being a major supply of precious jet fuel for the Caribbean, many in both the top brass of the Navy and the civilian Government as well began pivoting their resources towards aerial technological advancements, namely what many refer to as the "Hummingbird" - the first dual jet-engine fighter produced by a post-war American state, other than Victoria. Owing to the Remnant's plethora of aging engineers and rising unemployment issue during the "2020 slump", the Remnant deemed fit to plan for a new academy to attract scientific research across the Caribbean. With a pivot away from a bulky fleet to advanced aerial craft, Geiger equipped reconnaisance craft, radiation-proof equippment to take some time, the Remnant decided to invest in a long-term strategy to maintain a cutting edge over the other prowesses of the developed nations.

USARAcademy

The Naval Institute of Science and Technology, or NIST, opened in January 2023 at the former site of Fort Christiansted on St. Croix.

Government[]

The USAR is led by a locally elected Governor, while the military is supervised by a Commissioner. In practice, this is the Virgin Islands' office of Governor now expanded to all territories under the American flag. The Commissioner is chosen by the Governor from the ranks of the USAR military forces. Although he or she could technically be chosen from any branch of the military, in practice the maritime nature of the USAR's power has meant that the US Navy remains the most prominent element of the USAR military. Consequently, every Commissioner thus far has been chosen from the upper echelons of the Navy.

Admiral William H McRaven

Admiral William H. McRaven, Commissioner of the United States Atlantic Remnant.

The current Commissioner of USAR forces is Admiral William McRaven. Admiral McRaven was instrumental in formalizing relations with the reborn continental USA, serving as part of the initial delegation at the summit between the two governments. After the 2011 vote to unify with the mainland USA, Admiral McRaven co-chaired the committee that organized the details of the military and political union the two entities would share until full integration could be realized (the other co-chair was US Vice President Mike Simpson, who would be elected President the following year).

Military[]

USS Ticonderoga CG-47

The USS Ticonderoga

From the start, the government has put a high priority on maintaining this fleet at all costs. Still formally known as the US Atlantic Fleet, American troops are afforded the autonomy to protect and defend Americans in the USAR and anywhere else in the region. The government in Charlotte Amalie has maintained mandatory conscription of all citizens from the age of 18 (or 22 for those in school) to 35 since its inception. This conscription, though, is only valid in de jure American territory. All others, in order to enjoy American citizenship, must register for a draft in case of any major crisis that might arise. Their Navy is one of the most powerful in the South Atlantic today, and is home to many ships that didn't follow the general order [[1]] and instead decided to find a new home in the Caribbean.

The Navy has at its disposal several cruisers including the first and only ship of the Ticonderoga class, the USS Ticonderoga as well as 4 Belknap, Bainbridge, and Leahy class ships and the USS Long Beach. The Navy has about 14 other destroyers of the Farragut, Adams, Spruance, and Forrest Sherman class. They also have the Amphibious assault ship Saipan, about 20 frigates of the Knox, Perry, Garcia, and Brooke classes, and 24 auxiliary ships. The flagship is the USS Independence, which rallied in the Caribbean after refusing to follow General Order [[2]] and eventually came under the control of the American Remnant. The fleet has been maintained through ingenuity and deals with South America, and cannibalization as a last resort. Today, the Remnant has secured certain replacement parts through its own factories, with a full fledged shipyard in the works.

The USS Norfolk (SSN-714), a Los-Angeles-class attack submarine, and USS Florida (SSBN-728/SSGN-728), an Ohio-class cruise missile submarine, were the only two of their kind end up in Remnant hands. Although two other nuclear submarines were in its possession - the USS Georgia and the USS Jacksonville, the Florida is the last active one with a "hot" payload - its S8G PWR nuclear reactor capable of sustaining itself without re-emerging for months, it gives the Remnant significant preemptive capabilities not enjoyed by any other power in the Caribbean, or South Atlantic for that matter.

USSFlorida

The USS Florida - the last nuclear submarine under possession of the US Navy

USSIndependence

USS Independence c. 1990

The arrival of the Independence in the Caribbean brought with it a small contigent of aircraft, affording the Remnant air superiority during its peacekeeping missions. The F14s, A6s, A7s, E2 Hawkeyes and S3 Vikings at its disposal are the very same air wings from when it escaped Virginia Beach in the early moments of Doomsday.

In recent years, the Remnant has taken to patrolling the seas together with Naval forces from the mainland United States. As a result of the vote for re-integration and eventual unification, the Remnant recognizes all duly-elected Torrington Presidents as the Commander-in-Chief of its Armed Forces, with the unspoken understanding that it is otherwise left to its local priorities as deemed fit barring a single exception: the Remnant is now bound by Law to answer the call to defend the mainland United States in the event of invasion or act of war at sea, and vice versa.

US F4s

US F-4s form a major component of the USAR's air defense.

The Air Force flies F4s, F111s, C141, C130s, 24 F16s and 8 F15s from an Air Force detachment that had been mostly stationed at Key West Naval Air Station HQ. Their army uses M14s, M16s, M60s, and many other firearms used by the old US Army. They have Dragon and TOW ATGMs as well as MAN-PADS. Their army aviation has access to Hueys, Chinooks, and Cobras, and their ground forces uses a handful M60 MBTs and M113 but mostly relies the M151s for transport.

Major bases for the US military in the Caribbean include a major grouping centered on the Virgin Islands, another group in Jamaica, a secondary force in Dry Tortugas and the Bahamas, and a third detachment in Little Cayman. The military also maintains an important joint military base and waystation to the mainland at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas region of the Florida Keys.

Besides this, the Navy generally maintains regular patrols back and forth along the sea lanes between all of its possessions in the Caribbean. The Navy also deploys groupings of defensive vessels surrounding each of the USAR-owned deep sea oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean.

Mercenaries[]

The American Virgin Islands is also the home of the Diamond Dogs, a private military company formed by retired USAR veterans.

Economy[]

The economy of the East Caribbean Federation has been greatly enhanced by the presence of the American diaspora, and its government on St. Thomas. From its inception, the Remnant's necessity for fuel led to it securing as many derelict oil rigs and untapped deposits as it could. Oil exports are extremely limited, while greater emphasis has been placed on refinement for trade purposes. On the Navassa Island settlement, guano and fertilizer deposits powered much as the reconstitution process, although they have declined from exhaustion. The capital of Charlotte Amalie was the premier port city of the Caribbean and has remained a hub for a thriving import of foreign goods from all over the world. As contact in recent years has increased, the former US Virgin Islands, along with their neighboring "British" Virgin Islands, have seen an increase in tourism to what remains a tropical "paradise" unmatched by anything outside of the ANZC. In addition to the imports, the exports in abundant tropical fruits and cane sugar have made the American islands the richest among those of the Caribbean. The fishing industry also exports some of the best seafood available in the Atlantic. The chief exports of the Atlantic Remnant are textiles, rum, pharmaceuticals, and refined petroleum. In refining much of the crude oil from Venezuela, the government in effect is able to maintain its Naval forces.

One of the major forces in the stability and growth of the USAR's economic might in the region since its founding was the creation of the Bank of the United States Atlantic Remnant (commonly called "BUSAR"), which was created to act as a localized version of the old Federal Reserve banking system of the pre-Doomsday US government. The BUSAR supervises monetary policy in the American islands and has served as the backer of all American currency in circulation in the Caribbean. As the USAR gradually emerged as one of the most successful American survivor states and an important naval power in the Caribbean, it decided to pursue a more contiguous monetary policy. In the years since the 2012 referendum, the BUSAR has been semi-integrated into the restored Federal Reserve system set up by the Torrington government on the mainland. However, BUSAR retains a degree of semi-autonomy with regard to local issues.

One of the major forces in the stability and growth of the USAR's economic might in the region since its founding was the creation of the Bank of the United States Atlantic Remnant (commonly called [[Currency of the United States (1983: Doomsday)#United States Atlantic Remnant|"BUSAR"). Having been created to act as a localized version of the old Federal Reserve banking system of the pre-Doomsday US government, the BUSAR supervises monetary policy in the territory of the Atlantic Remnant. From its policy of accepting pre-Doomsday dollars to those of the newfound ECF, it has tried to provide financial stability for the islands as they began to engage with the regional economy. Since signing the accord of Union with the reformed mainland United States of America, BUSAR has been a proponent backer of the dual currency policy, adopting the use of the East Caribbean Federation Dollar and the Buffalo Dollar as legal tender across the islands. This policy, in conjunction with the established Federal Reserve in the reformed United States, was designed to help propagate increased exposure by foreign liquidity markets to the North American Union's Buffalo dollar, given the increase in both imports and exports coming out of the region as time goes on.

Education[]

The Remnant has been a vocal force in maintaining American schools in expat communities throughout the region, deemed a crucial preserver of American identity, especially among the newer generations born and raised in the Caribbean and Latin America.

Culture[]

The modern day culture of the Atlantic Remnant is reflected by both the Virgin Islanders' rich and storied history of diversity, the unique social climate of the Cold War-era US military and the cosmopolitanism brought by the disparate groups of Americans, Europeans, Asians and Africans who were stranded on the islands on Doomsday.

US Navy Fleet Week

US Navy personnel during the USAR's annual Memorial Day ceremonies in 2020.

there. As the leaders of the Remnant movement worked among the Caribbean islands (including Bermuda), the survivors that had been stranded in exile held tenaciously to their American heritage. They were saddened that the government had fled to Australia, but were determined that the USAR leadership had made the right decision in preserving the last known vestiges of civilized America in the land that Columbus had discovered.

Popular culture was heavily influenced by Hollywood movies and video-taped television from pre-1983, played in the porous mainland "slums" all around the ECF. VCR recordings and players became a must in the homes of thousands. In the US Virgin Islands, the "native" Islanders continued their own culture, though over time the increased Caucasian population, largely refugees from the American Atlantic coast, led to many cultural crossovers on both sides. After a time of humanitarian runs to the US mainland, the cruise ships began running tours of the islands for the ECF and eventually for SAC tourists as well.

US Virgin Islands Carnival - St

A participant at the annual New Year's Carnival on St. John.

Memorial Day remains a major holiday and cultural event in the US Atlantic Remnant. The annual Memorial Day ceremonies serve as a major source of price in the region and an opportunity for the US Atlantic Fleet to memorialize its fallen members (both before and since Doomsday) and simultaneously honor those still serving. The days leading up to Memorial Day are colloquially referred to as "Fleet Week," mirroring the pre-Doomsday tradition from the mainland, in which the US Navy puts on a show of its ships, personnel, and equipment to celebrate its veterans.

As the USAR's culture is a blend of mainland American culture with the general Caribbean culture, USAR citizens also love to participate in the Carnival tradition prevalent throughout the Caribbean Sea region. The Lenten Carnival is one of the largest annual celebrations in the USAR. Equally important is the annual New Year's Carnival, a celebration that serves as a dazzling exemplar of the blended American/Caribbean culture of the United States Atlantic Remnant.

Local language dialects[]

The Caribbean creole spoken by the pre-Doomsday Virgin Islanders remains the dominant accent, although a substantial number of Islanders and Remnant citizens speak with accents resembling those on the American mainland. A noticeable vowel shift, particularly among city dwellers has been noted. In most cases, the blend of the two has come to be the universal tongue of everyday life, certain slang words and neologisms (some native to the Islands, some brought from the US mainland, and some developed from both following the permanent cultural emulsion) are widely used among all segments of the population. Due to the large presence of the US Navy, Marines, and Air Force forces and veterans forming up to 10% of the Remnants population, not to mention the heavy presence of stranded mainland tourists and their descendants, and the growing presence of NAU-Mainland civilians on the island, the written form English used almost universally in the USAR remains the Standard American set of spellings ("flavor" rather than "flavour," "notarize" rather than "notarise," "check" instead of "cheque," etc.).

Puerto Ricans constitute the majority of the Spanish Virgin Islands. on the USVI proper, there is a sizable Cuban-American presence as well, both from the existing mainland American population disaffected from the Castro era and newer arrivals due to economic ties. Most of the spoken Spanish in the USAR takes the form of the Puerto Rican or Cuban dialects of Spanish. That said, English is the overwhelmingly predominant language of the Islands, and Islanders who speak other languages are generally bilingual.

The USAR-populated islands of the Dry Tortuga and Key West are the one corner of the USAR where the mainland American accent continues to be the overwhelming majority. The military personal occupying Fort Jefferson and the civilians living in Fort Jefferson Town tend to be the families/descendants of mainland-born US military personnel who had arrived in the islands after Doomsday. Other civilians who settled here had relocated from the Florida mainland. Due to these factors, the mainland accents continue to prevail in the Keys.

As Navassa Island has recently become home to an agricultural research station, military outpost, and burgeoning civilian industries, it has also attracted local Haitians, who have lived and worked across the other islands for decades. Given the frequency of travel and trade with Haiti, it is not uncommon for many of both Haitian descent or resident USAR citizens to speak Creole or French for various purposes.

Sports[]

The USAR Eagles after a victory in Santo Domingo

The USAR Eagles baseball team poses after winning at the Santo Domingo Diamond Classic tournament in August 2019.

The primary sport played throughout the islands was baseball. In fact, by 2000, even some games were played with Cuba as the USAR government opened to the economic reality that they needed to trade with the island. Even the turmoil in Haiti had not kept the spirit of baseball from flourishing there. Though the nation had no teams of its own, many Haitians ended up playing for Jamaica and the Virgin Islands. Puerto Rico, it turned out, had a nationalistic pride that assured that no Haitians, or even Dominicans, were recruited for their teams.

Religion[]

Hebrew Congregation of St

Above: an exterior view of the St Thomas Synagogue. Below: an interior view. Note the sandy floor of the interior, one of the unique features of the synagogue.

Christianity remains the dominant religious belief in the Islands. Protestantism, being the majority denomination among both US mainlanders and US Virgin Islanders, continues to hold the majority, while Roman Catholicism is a significant minority. Catholicism in the American islands is particularly popular among the USAR's Hispanic residents.

The island of St. Thomas is home to a large community of Middle Eastern and Southeast Asians, as well as a sizable Jewish community, centered on the Hebrew Congregation of St. Thomas synagogue, which was led during the 1980's by Rabbi Stanley Relkin. The synagogue, more formally known as the Congregation Beracha Veshalom Vegmiluth Hasadim, is one of the oldest continuously-operated shuls in the Western Hemisphere. The congregation began in 1792, and the current building was built in 1833. It is the synagogue with the longest history of continuous use within the borders of United States territory.

St

A mural in St. Croix depicting a cook working at one of the island's ubiquitous snack shacks with a coal pot. The mural is symbolic of the everyday cuisine of the USAR islands.

The primary language spoken in the remnant is of course English. However, the variants and creoles spoken on the islands differ drastically. On St. Croix and the more urban parts of St. Thomas and St. John, Caribbean English with slight American accents and verbalism is most prevalent. Among lower class parts and the more rural areas, various Creoles such as Crucian or deep Jamaican are spoken. Miami English is spoken by the Cuban-Americans who emigrated to Eastern Vieques in the thousands following humanitarian missions. The Cuban-American community also made up a portion of the evacuees from the Florida mainland in the 1980's, and as the USAR has gradually begun repopulating the Dry Tortugas in the Keys, many Cuban-American families have volunteered to join the resettlement efforts, thus making Miami English a significant accent in Fort Jefferson Town (though the general mainland American accent is predominant in this settlement, as many US military families have continued their family legacy of service and thus tend to be numerous in the military-dominated Dry Tortugas).

Spanish makes up the second most spoken language and is spoken in nearly all places of international business as Spanish countries and their culture are constantly entering at the ports, and many of the younger generation speak the language bilingually. The majority of students in USAR schools take Spanish as a second language classes, due to its usefulness in participating in trade with other parts of the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. In the Puerto Rican islands of the USAR such as East Vieques, Spanish remains the majority language, with the Puerto Rican accent/dialect of Spanish being the predominant form.

Flag[]

Usarflag

In the summer of 1989, as the Remnant officially organized itself, a joint committee of both US Navy artists and local artists from St. Croix began meeting to discuss ideas for what the flag of the Islands should look like. These conversations resulted in the creation of the USAR flag, which was first unveiled at a ceremony that summer.

The flag of the Atlantic Remnant has a symbolic meaning, telling a story of the creation of the Remnant. It is obviously based on the pre-Doomsday American flag. However, at the time of the USAR's creation, its leaders didn't know how many states would still be functional or reunited into the fold, so for the local flag they decided to replace stars symbolizing states with a simplified version of the US Coat of Arms on the blue canton, symbolizing the continuance of US sovereignty.

By having the US Coat of Arms (itself the primary symbol on the pre-Doomsday flag of the US Virgin Islands) floating on a blue background, the flag symbolizes that America still lives on in the blue Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean.

International Relations[]

McRaven speech

USAR Commissioner William McRaven speaking at the League of Nations

By the time that the League of Nations had formed in 2008, the Remnant was the only known American body left apart from those associated with the ANZC. And so, against the advice of former US President Bush, the USAR was granted observer status. This status, however, will be absorbed into the foreseen membership of the USA , assuming that the USAR joins the USA as a new state. As the only remaining American territory under an American government, the USAR initially had seen tension with the continuing Communist government of Cuba, although trade occurs nonetheless. While the two have extensive contact on a daily basis and enjoy full diplomatic relations, it is not uncommon for a Cuban customs agents to make snide remarks when stamping USAR passports at harbors and airports. with However, relations with Puerto Rico have remained strong, as many of the Puerto Ricans have taken dual citizenship in order to remain in the new nation. Relations with the SAC vary with the individual nations, but overall the political climate remains cool as the USAR sees the growing power of South America.

In mid-December 2010, President Allard of the newly re-instituted United States of America met with Governor de Jongh in Charlotte Amalie to discuss the process of bringing the USAR into the nation as the state of the Virgin Islands. Town hall meetings began in January 2011 to discuss the proposal among citizens in all the islands. Since entering into a political bloc with the Torrington-based United States government, the two have been able to amplify their respective presences on the international field, largely due to the consolidation of naval resources and funds, as well as from agrarian shipments to the Caribbean lowering the infamously high costs of food in the new paradigm.

Relations with the rest of the Caribbean Federation have generally been friendly, though not without differences in opinion (and priority) over the years. Early on its history, the USAR had instituted the Caribbean Federation's ECF Dollar as its legal tender alongside any pre-Doomsday US currency still in circulation, with the ECF Dollar soon becoming predominant.

Demographics[]

A 2015 Census revealed a total population of about 440,000 total citizens living mainly throughout the Caribbean and Central and South America, with about 250,000 of these living in the USVI as well as Culebra and East Vieques. Roughly half a million Remnant-ID holders live elsewhere, mostly mainland refugees and their children who live throughout the East Caribbean Federation, Latin America and elsewhere, who remain lawful American citizens under the uninterrupted citizenship laws of the United States enforced by the Remnant. It should be noted, however, that the Remnant only extents automatic citizenship by birth in foreign lands if both parents are citizens, a necessary deviation from pre-War law, as there are many other Americans who "went native" in their new countries and married into their populations, whose children balk at identifying as even ex-Americans.

The racial composition of the island was estimated as 65% Black, 26% White, 5% Asian, and 12% Mixed, with an additional 2% claiming Native ancestry.

The African-American community from the mainland remains culturally distinct from the Afro-Caribbean community, although these lines become blurred in various contacts. Many African-Americans, particularly those descended from US military personnel, have retained more ties in "mainland US" circles along with other mainlanders of White, Asian, etc descent, than in their new Caribbean home. Around 12% of these were also considered "Latinos"; one-sixth of the Black population has origins in the mainland African-American community. It should be noted that during the mid to late 1990's, the Latino population has declined, as those previously living in the island as laborers or permanent residents eventually decided to migrate to South America due to better economic conditions. However, as conditions in the USAR improved, many returned. Many tens of thousands of European and Asian migrants, businessmen or tourists who found themselves scattered across Latin America and the Caribbean on Doomsday found themselves congregating in the Virgin islands after the establishment of the Remnant, and especially on St. Thomas. It should also be noted that a large spike in mixed-background marriages occurred in part to US military personnel who ended up marrying locals of a myriad of backgrounds, adding to the already diverse ethnographic mosaic of the islands. Today, one out of every 8 Residents claims to have parents from two or more backgrounds.

In recent years, there have been several thousand arrivals from the Torrington-based United States. It is an infamous "one way post" for military postings from the Torrington-based United States, with those arriving in the islands giving their commanding officer any excuse possible to extend their posting and then relocating when being discharged. In addition to to many of the older generations of mainlanders who were stranded in the Islands after Doomsday leaving to retire to the Great Plains of the mainland United States, feeling joyous for the privilege of dying in the land they were born in, with some newsworthy cases of individuals even returning to the very homes their families had lived in long before the war.

See also[]

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