The Reckoning Oral History Project
Transcript - Amelia H. Molefe. Interviewed by Tomas S. Choi
Carleon, New Avalon, 07 November, 3064
Note: This transcript has been edited for clarity and does not match the associated AV file ROHP-MoleAH01-30641107
Choi: Today is Monday, November 7th, 3064. This interview with retired Sergeant-Major Amelia Molefe is taking place at the Marshal Binyamin Rand-Davion Veterans' Home for The Reckoning Oral History Project. The interviewer is myself, Tomas Choi, and I'm being assisted by Geraldine Lucas.
Sergeant-major, I'd -
Molefe: Amelia, please. I'm retired.
Choi: Alright, Amelia. Thank you for taking the time to sit down with us today.
Molefe: My pleasure. Thank you for the invite. I'm happy to share my perspective and experiences.
Choi: Can we start then with some of your background, and how you ended up joining the AFFC - excuse me, it was the AFFS back then wasn't it?
Molefe: Right, right. Well, I think you can hear from my accent that I'm neither an Avalonian nor a native Anglic speaker. I'm from Wedgefield in the Crucis March, where three-quarters of the population - including my family - are native Deutsch speakers.
One of my fathers was an accountant, and the other was a chef. I was an okay student in school -
Lucas: You graduated from Lion's Peak High School in 3015, right?
Molefe: Yes.
Lucas: So you were in the same class as [Hall of Fame ForceCross Star] Juanita Molson?
Molofe: [laughs] Yes, I was! My one encounter with celebrity. Although, we used to say back then that we always knew she was going to go somewhere - we just didn't know if it was to the big leagues or the penitentiary!
Choi: Okay, so tell us how you ended up at Point Barrow Military Academy.
Molofe: Well, I'd always been good with machinery - by the time I was 16, I'd helped my parents restore a couple of classic aircars - a '98 Avanti Celeste and a '87 Holden Emir.
We were looking at an engineering degree at Wedgefield State, but because my marks were only okay, there was no chance of a scholarship, so we'd be looking at self-financing and loans. We did the math around the dinner table, and it looked doable, but then in my final year of high school, Chef-dad, as I called him, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
That changed everything because the medical bills, even with the insurance used up most of our life savings - including my education fund, which I gave permission for them to use for treatment.
Choi: I'm sorry to hear that.
Molofe: Thank you - he made it though, lived another thirteen years, which was better than expected.
Anyway, so obviously, the illness didn't help my grades any, although we were able to get special consideration from the Education Department so they didn't slide too far, but the end result was that Wedgefield State wasn't an option anymore.
My parents refused to let me give up, though, so they looked around and [Point Barrow Military Academy] came up. It's got a bit of an unfair reputation as the school of last resort for Outback hicks, but they're really good at assessing on potential rather than straight marks because so many candidates arrive from worlds with severe educational deficits.
Choi: So before this, you hadn't considered a military career?
Molofe: No, not at all.
Choi: Please, go on.
Molofe: Right. So I applied to PBMA and got accepted into their Tech program. To my surprise, I found that we suited each other. They are very hands-on in their teaching - I think I assisted in rebuilding a leg actuator inside of my first month there - and that was just the way I liked to learn.
Lucas: Point Barrow has a reputation for being a high-pressure school -
Molofe: Ja.
Lucas: - did you see any of that?
Molofe: Oh yes, oh yes I did. Maybe one third of my class dropped out within the first six months. In the Tech program, we were well aware that the 'Mech, or Fighter, or tank that we repaired this afternoon would be used in a field op by fellow cadets the next morning, so there was certainly that constant awareness that the lives of our classmates and officers were in our hands. Not everyone could take that, but for some reason I could.
Choi: What happened after you graduated?
Molofe: I was assigned to the Remagen [Crucis March Militia] as a [Military Qualification Code] Tango-07-Bravo - a BattleMech Technician. A bit disappointing, because, of course, everyone wants assignment to a front line or glamour unit, right? But in hindsight, it was a good place to be for a junior tech. We did a lot of improvising and scavenging, and my senior techs were amazing at passing on their knowledge and experience, they made me a much better Tech.
Then, a few years later, I was transferred to the 12th [Deneb Light Cavalry] - finally! An front-line unit! I made Corporal, then Sergeant in due course, and became a supervising tech, responsible for all the 'Mechs in 8th Company. Very rewarding, that, especially when we started participating in the GALAHAD exercises and my team was able to consistently put at least 9 'Mechs in the field everyday - sometimes we had as many as 11.
Lucas: 9? As in 9 out of 12 -Mechs in the company?
Molofe: Correct. Remember, this was the LosTech era, not like today. We had lost so much, and supply chains were so damaged that during the Second Succession War, the old AFFS changed the definition of a "full strength" unit from over 90% of [table of Organisation & Equipment] strength to 75% TO&E strength. So, having 9 'Mechs ready to go everyday was a great achievement. Believe it or not, we got a unit commendation for doing that!
Anyway, I went to war with the 12th in 3029.
......
Molofe: Three years after the war, I moved into a new role - Logistics Sergeant-Major for the RCT. But I was only there for 5 months before they called for volunteers to go on exchange with the [Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces]. Since I spoke Deutsch, the [Personnel Department] strongly suggested that I would be a good candidate, and since I was a good soldier, I volunteered [Laughs].
Lucas: You were assigned to the 26th Lyran Guards RCT right?
Molofe: Yes.
Choi: What was your role with the 26th?
Molofe: The Lyran title was "Hauptfeldwebel" which is literally "Head Field Guide", but in terms of actual responsibility, it was their equivalent of the AFFS Logistics Sergeant-Major, so I was doing the same job. That's a title, by the way, not a rank - the actual rank of a Hauptfeldwebel was actually Staff Sergeant Major in the old ranks, which was the equivalent of my AFFS rank of Sergeant Major. Aren't you glad we created a whole new rank system?
Choi: How was your integration with the 26th? We know there were some problems with the early exchanges -
Molofe: I didn't have any problems - well, perhaps I should say I didn't have any major problems. Maybe 90% of the issues I had came from the differences between Wedgefield Deutsch and Tharkad-Standard Deutsch, but as I said, those were minor only.
Choi: So there weren't a lot of cultural missteps and -
Molofe: Oh, there were a few, but this was an exchange, right, so some initial problems are only to be expected -
Choi: Okay -
Molofe: - and we were the third or fourth group of exchanges, you know? Not the first, so we all got a very good briefing before we left that minimised that sort of thing.
Choi: Can you compare the 26th to your previous unit?
Molofe: In what sense?
Choi: Quality, readiness, leadership -
Molofe: Ah. The 12th and the 26th were very different types of formations, you understand. I'd hesitate to -
Choi: Oh, I'm not asking who'd -
Molofe: - choose one over the other, so -
Choi: - win in a fight between them -
Molofe: Right, right -
Choi: - just what differences struck you, especially given these days there's less of a difference between the two state commands, you know, like how two [Davion] Guards RCTs now have Lyran-born commanders, and one of the Royal Guards has a Feddie CO.
Molofe: Well, I think the differences had more to do with the different set-ups of the units rather than where they were raised.
Lucas: You mean like how the 12th Deneb is built for raids and strikes, while the 26th Lyran was heavy unit?
Molofe: Exactly, exactly. Those are different mission sets and lead to different mentalities. In the 12th Deneb, speed of action and the ability to adapt on the move was highly prized, because that's what will keep you alive in the kinds of missions you can expect to receive.
Choi: Yes.
Molofe: Whereas in the 26th, the emphasis was on deliberate and vigorous execution of the plan, again because of the way they were set up, with all the heavy 'Mechs and tanks. Now, just because the [Deneb Light Cavalry] were good at improvising, it didn't mean they never planned, and just because the Lyran Guards planned how best to use their assets didn't mean they never changed that plan when the situation changed too.
Choi: Alright, I want to move ahead a few years to 3042 and Plan GUARDIAN -
Molofe: Ah, yes!
Choi: The records tell us that you were the 26th's project officer for that. Can you tell us how you got involved?
Molofe: Well, there had been rumours flying around that LosTech weapons were coming soon ever since the Fourth War. And we'd seen some of the early stuff too - [the 26th Lyran Guards] crossed paths with the 3rd [Lyran] Royal Guards in the mid-30s and our eyes were like that when we saw what [double heat sinks] did for their combat performance.
So we were not too surprised that eventually new equipment would reach us. What was surprising was the way it happened in... yes, it was 3042.
I remember I was in my Friday afternoon planning meeting with my Techs when I got word that the C.O. [Leutnant General Joy Corelli] had called a staff meeting.
Well, honestly I cursed that the meeting hadn't been put on my schedule, but I soon found out that no one else knew anything about it when I arrived at the conference room.
There was one stranger there -
Lucas: Sorry, could you just give us a sense of who was in the meeting?
Molofe: General Corelli, the XO, General Green-Davion, all the regimental C.O.s, their XOs and sergeants-major, as well as all the staff heads.
Lucas: So, about 30 people in all?
Molofe: That sounds about right, yes.
Choi: Go on.
Molofe: Where was I...?
Choi: You were saying there was one stranger in the room -
Molofe: Right! It was a [Replacement Depot Corps] Colonel - I think his name was... McAskill! Yes, it was Colonel McAskill.
General Corelli told us that Colonel McAskill was here to coordinate the rearmament of the 26th as part of Plan GUARDIAN, and she turned the meeting over to him.
The colonel told us that Plan GUARDIAN%u2019s goal was to completely re-equip the entire AFFC over the next decade. Because of the 26th's location and station (we were based on Tamar) we were fairly high up the list. He told us that the [Lyran] Royal Guards and Davion Guards were being re-equipped as we spoke, so we were in the second wave. Not too shabby.
It was the next two things he said that shocked us. The first was that every weapons platform in the RCT that wasn't man-portable was going to be replaced. Tanks, fighters, arty, the whole lot. That was a huge morale boost for us because we all expected the 'Mechs to get done first, but it was now clear that everyone was being treated equally.
The second bombshell - and I use the term deliberately - that he dropped was that not only was everything going to be replaced, we were also going to get brought up to actual book strength.
You know how I said earlier that I got a commendation for putting 9 'Mechs in the field? Well that company only had 11 'Mechs, total, so it was actually considered full strength.
Choi: Can you give us an idea of the deficiencies in the 26th?
Molofe: Well, I'm going by memory here - we were authorized 120 BattleMechs. We actually had... 107, 109? Something like that, certainly not more than 110.
In tanks, it was similar. Authorised 120 heavy tanks, actual number was around 90. Light tanks authorised was 240, we actually had about 200. Yes, I know that sounds backwards from a normal RCT allocation, but General Corelli liked having additional scouts and harrassers to drive the enemy to her heavy 'Mechs.
Our AeroSpace forces were short a squadron, so 30 versus 36 authorised.
We were actually overstrength in our artillery - we had 42 tubes instead of the authorised 36, and that caused problems for our GUARDIAN refit because - or do you want to talk about that later?
Choi: That might be better, yes. So, given how troop strength definitions had been revised during the Succession Wars, even with those material shortages -
Molofe: Ja, we were considered full strength. The LCAF, by the way, used a different number, 80% of TO&E was full strength to them.
Choi: So, take us through the process for implementing Plan GUARDIAN.
Molofe: You know there were actually two parts to the plan, right?
Lucas: Yes, we know. Do you have any comment on the way it was structured?
Molofe: Oh, in hindsight, it makes sense, but I'd be lying if I said we weren't disappointed that the new tech wasn't coming right away.
It's... It's the change in mindset that we needed to undergo, you know? Seeing the vehicle and it's weapons loadout as complementary, but separate systems.
Choi: Tell us about part one.
Molofe: Okay, so, Colonel McAskill told us that in Part 1, we would be getting new-build vehicles to replace our existing ones on a one-to-one basis - plus extras to bring us up to full book strength, right?
Even though there wasn't any LosTech on the new vehicles, I was very happy with this.
Choi: Why?
Molofe: Well, as a former Tech, I was all too aware that the older the equipment the worse it is to maintain. And with supply lines being the way they were, some of the jerry-rigging that we used to do just made things harder in the long run.
It;s things like, umm... the -2D Commando is supposed to require just 4 man-hours of servicing between missions, okay? So your average crew of a Tech and their three AsTechs can turn it around in an hour, right? But as they get older, it was rare that we were able stick to this timeframe. 12-16 man-hours was what it took now, and that's not counting repairing battle damage.
Also, there were things like... I remember back in the DLC, we ran out of coolant feed lines one time in the Fourth War, so I took a crew and we scrounged domestic feed lines from a local hardware store - the sort of thing you'd find under your sink at home, okay? And they worked, after a fashion, but we spent hours after the battle purging coolant systems because the the fluid was corrosive to the lines and we ended up with deposits clogging the heat sinks. Those heat sinks were never the same after that.
So, just having new vehicles was a huge boost to our capabilities. They don't break down as much, everything on them works the way it's supposed to.
But I'm getting off track... um...
Lucas: You were telling us about part 1.
Molofe: Thank you. Right - my immediate boss, Colonel [Jordan] Bass tapped me to run what we called "The Refresh".
Colonel McAskill had a small staff with him, and I tapped a few of my colleagues as well.
The first job was to take an inventory of all our equipment - which is a pain in the butt at the best of times, but we'd recently done one, so I asked Colonel McAskill if that would suffice. He checked, and the initial answer was "no". The guys running GUARDIAN wanted the info to be no more than 90 days old, and our inventory had been done 92 days ago.
But I have to give McAskill credit here - he went in to bat for us, and they accepted our inventory as valid for the refresh.
Choi: I'm assuming this was the standard LCAF annual inventory you're talking about?
Molofe: Yes, "numbers of", "condition of", etcetera... And believe it or not, despite the reputation of the LCAF bureaucracy, I actually found their inventory process easier than the AFFS one. I believe the AFFC's own annual inventory these days is based on the LCAF model.
Choi: Right. So you had the inventory -
Molofe: Yes, yes. We submitted the inventory, and a couple of weeks later, we got back a list of questions - mainly to do with chassis recommendations for the open slots in our TO&E.
Three months later, the largest convoy I'd seen since the end of the Six Months War grounded on Tamar.
I was there at Audrey Kelswa DropPort when they landed - dozens of DropShips coming down. And once their hatches opened, we sent in every [Low-Loader] and [Mech Recovery Vehicle] we had. The convoy brought some of their own too, so we could offload in a reasonable amount of time.
That was quite a sight - what looked like an endless column of 'Mechs, tanks and [Armoured Personnel Carriers] coming out of those DropShips.
Lucas: I have to ask this, mainly because it's become such a staple of media works in recent years -
Molofe: No, no one in our party cried at the sight. I agree it makes good viewing, but there was no crying, not in the 26th.
Lucas: What were you thinking when you saw that, though?
Molofe: [Pause] It felt like a weight was lifting off my back that I didn't even know I'd been carrying. I think I had a moment of that soldier's hope - the one wish we all have that maybe, just maybe, we've seen the last war and we wouldn't have to go back into the fire.
I mean, I was watching the AFFC replace all our weapons! Never mind that there was no LosTech on them. If we could do that, which of our enemies could challenge us now?
Choi: Like a turning point in history.
Molofe: Ja, and it was, just not quite in the way we thought.
Choi: How did the actual Refresh process work?
Molofe: Well, we were in only the second wave, so there wasn't a lot of experience I could draw on, but we decided to take a staggered approach. We decided that changing out a company/battery/squadron at a time was the most manageable way to go - as it turns out, this was the approach that most commands used.
We would bring the replacement vehicles down to the company's bay, laager or hanger, leave them, and haul away the old ones.
By the way, this also caused us some grief, because we'd all gotten used to repurposing unused spaces to store all sorts of things. Now, we were better than some other units, we didn't do anything dumb like keeping volatiles and ammo in the Mech Bays, but we had to do a lot cleaning out and re-packing, because - mein Gott - all the bays were going to be filled!
Lucas: This is the point where some MechWarriors, especially, had issues with GUARDIAN -
Molofe: You're talking about the "not like" protests -
Lucas: Yes. The 26th had spent centuries fighting the DCMS. You must have acquired quite a bit of Kuritan equipment -
Molofe: Ja.
Lucas: Where there any issues when you swapped over?
Molofe: Not with armour and artillery. Most of them were just happy to have new vehicles, even if some of them had to learn to use different models.
No, it was the Aero- and MechWarriors who kicked up the biggest stinks over this especially the MechWarriors.
Choi: Can you give some examples?
Molofe: Well, without naming names, of course -
Choi: Of course.
Molofe: And to be fair, the vast majority of the MechWarriors were happy with their lot. Ummm... we had two [PNT-9R] Panthers in the unit, captured salvage from long ago. They were replaced with [WLF-2FC] Wolfhounds, since, obviously, the FedCom doesn't manufacture Panthers. One Warrior complained endlessly about the Wolfhound not having jump jets like the Panther, the other never said a word.
Likewise, we had few complaints about swapping out Dragons for Warhammers.
The one real problem we had was a Leftenant in Third Battalion who didn't want to give up the family Goliath for a new FC-series Zeus. I believe he was from Bolan, originally, and one of his ancestors had captured the Goliath from a [Free Worlds League] invading force.
Can you believe it - this Leftenant claimed that over the past two hundred years, his family had "evolved" - that was his actual term - "evolved" into quad-'Mech specialists!
Choi: How did the chain of command take that?
Molofe: Not very well - he ended up signing over the Goliath "under protest" but he did it. He did become a true believer later, during the Reckoning.
Choi: Funny how that happens...
Molofe: I know, ja? Look, we got off pretty lightly on that front. I heard stories from some of my friends on the Capellan front, right? Actual lawsuits being filed because they don't want to give up Vindicators for Centurions or Enforcers, or Catapults for Crusaders.
Lucas: Yes, we've interviewed some people from those units already.
Molofe: Is it true that a MechWarrior challenged the Archon to a duel?
Lucas: It was the warrior's father, actually, but yes, it's true - cited some never-repealed provision in the Kikuyu legal code.
Molofe: [laughs] Oh, I'd have loved to see someone try that on General Corelli!
Choi: Were there any issues in the 26th about giving up family-owned 'Mechs?
Molofe: Not at first - our upgrade was completed before the Barrington Case came up - that was the guy in the 20th [Avalon] Hussars, wasn't it?
Lucas: 22nd, actually, but yes, you're right, they were in the 4th wave, and you were 2nd wave.
Molofe: Ja, right. It's - it's another example of the mind shift I mentioned earlier, where you need to stop thinking about 'Mechs as a whole and start considering them in terms of connected systems.
I can sort of sympathise with the Mech- and AeroWarriors - finding out that they only owned the chassis of the replacements for their family machines must have been a hell of a shock, you know. Even though there was a clear provision that when they mustered out, they would have own everything their 'Mech was configured with at the time, so they would come out ahead eventually.
Choi: Did the tankers feel the same way?
Molofe: Not so much - but then, very few tanks are family owned. They were more concerned that the supply chain would bring in the promised upgrades in Tranche 2.
Choi: Getting back on track - so you now have all-new equipment in the hangers. What happens next?
Molofe: Everyone goes back to school. Colonel McAskill's team included a bunch of senior instructors to bring everyone up to speed on the new stuff. Now, I can't speak to the shooter end -
Choi: Don't worry, we've talked to some of them already. Give us your perspective.
Molofe: Sure. As a former 'Mech Tech, man, the new machines were so much easier to work on. I mean, when people said the FC-series was "nothing new" - and this was pre-Reckoning, right - they didn't know what they were talking about.
The FC-series managed to correct most of the deficiencies and quirks we knew so well in the 'Mechs. Everything from the Marauder's poorly armoured hips to the crappy ammo feeds on the Enforcer. That alone would have been worth it, but the quick-change tech they brought in cut our repair times in half - sometimes more than that. Even for a complete engine change - well, most tanks already had the system, but it was new for the 'Mechs to be able to yank out and replace a complete reactor in less than an hour - with the right equipment, of course.
And if I put on my Hauptfeldwebel hat, it's more good news, because now I don't have to stock four different models of Medium Laser - all the vehicles take any of them, and I can make the Colonel look good just by bringing in whichever there's the most of right now!
Remember that all of this was before we even got our hands on the LosTech in Tranche 2 - did you want to talk about that now?
Lucas: Actually I have some more questions about Tranche 1, if you don't mind?
Choi: Yes, yes, ask them. We'll save Tranche 2 for later.
Lucas: Okay, so we've dealt with the arrival of the new machines. What happened to the old ones?
Molofe: Ah, right. So we had to prep a holding area in our bays where the old machines would be brought - this was the main reason why we swapped out a company at a time - space constraints in the work bays.
Another part of McAskill's team, together with a some of our seconded Techs and AsTechs, went over the old machines and graded them as either "keep" or "scrap" - those aren't the actual terms they used, I've forgotten the real ones - "keep%" and "scrap" is what we called it.
Choi: That's fine...
Molofe: "Keep" didn't mean the machine was in perfect shape, the way it was explained to me, if it could be brought up to full function with a reasonable amount of work, it went into the "keep" pile.
Lucas: What was considered a "reasonable" amount of work?
Molofe: [laughs] No idea! It seemed to depend on whoever the assessing officer was that day. I saw a -5S Thunderbolt get put in the "scrap" column because the coolant system needed a complete overhaul, but a Stinger was kept even though they ended up replacing both arms and a leg!
Lucas: How much of your original equipment ended up in either column?
Molofe: Oh, I'd say it was roughly one-third keep, two-thirds scrap. We got some of the scrap back though - mainly weapons, heat sinks and armour plate - for our parts stocks.
Choi: And the machines in the "keep" pile were of course, destined for units further down the priority list. Did you ever find out where your old machines went?
Molofe: No, they didn't tell me that. But there was a little incident with that.
Choi: Do tell.
Molofe: Ummm... so about halfway through Tranche 1 this was - one day, I've stopped back into the office between inspections to finish some paperwork, and Colonel McAskill storms in with his [Administrative Officer]. From what I overheard, they'd been ordered to speed up the timetable because the destination for our old equipment had changed, and they needed to be done two weeks early to make the shipping schedule work.
Turned out I'd just seen one of the last times the old Social Generals were trying to line their own pockets.
Anyway, McAskill got on the horn to his CO, ummm, what was his name? Oh yes! Ritter! Leutnant General Ritter, who got the orders belayed and reverted to plan.
Choi: Okay, so we've touched on the this briefly, but can you tell me about how the 26th coped with having their full complement of equipment?
Molofe: It was quite a pain, actually.
Choi: Really? How so?
Molofe: Well, understand that we had we had been under TO&E strength for decades, so our back-end staffing had also been understrength. We didn't have enough Techs, Warriors and so on to make full use of them.
Lucas: So what did you do?
Molofe: Pretty much what all the other units upgraded by GUARDIAN did, I suppose. Uh, Colonel Bass and myself did a recruiting drive through Tamar, looking for people we could turn into Techs and AsTechs. The Colonel let me do most of the work, I think because I had the Point Barrow background and was comfortable assessing technical potential, while he was a Sanglamore grad, and he was more comfortable with paper qualifications!
Choi: How did it go?
Molofe: Not too shabby. General Corelli got the Duke [of Tamar] to authorise a limited recall to active service for certain reservists, so we got enough Techs to cover our needs for the short term until our recruiting could kick in. Some of the retreads actually stayed with us long term though.
I didn't have too much insight into recruiting MechWarriors, but I did lose two of my Techs - they were dispossessed MechWarriors, and General Corelli okayed the transfer subject to them passing check-rides, which both of them did.
I know a couple of staff officers found themselves back in a 'Mech too, but by and large, my involvement was limited to making sure certain 'Mechs were ready for use to prospects could be checked out on them.
Lucas: Did the 26th use -
Molofe: "Combat Trials" to select MechWarriors? No - we sent them through the [Fire & Manuever] Ranges, but none of that pitting candidates against each other that some other units did. Besides, that was the kind of shit that the Clans did, wasn't it? I'm glad we didn't do that.
