Anyone Want To Buy A 1945 P-51D Fighter Plane?

[Igosplut]

There's an old decommissioned AF station that was a Radar base near where I live. About ten yrs back we went all through it with a friend from the government and one of the guys that was stationed there when in was shut down. It (in it's heyday) was a strategic east coast radar point. We went into what they called the 'Operations center" that was a huge bomb shelter. No windows, a two-foot thick concrete building surrounding another concrete building, full living quarters, half a basketball court, a presentation theater, the works. And all with no windows. We came into a room that you had to go through two submarine doors with a sally port in the middle. The ceiling was like fourteen feet and strung with copper screen. Though the room was stripped, there was still piles of 3/4 plywood with copper sheeting tacked to them stacked up. Wire trenches running everywhere in the floors, and PILES of these weird punch cards lying everywhere. Asking what the fuck all this was, he replied "this is the computer room and the copper is to reflect microwave energy from nuclear attack".

The presentation room was just like a small movie theater with the flip-up seats. On the stage there was a thick piece of glass with a painting of the east coast. Marked on it were all the military installations that lights would go out if they were knocked out of commission. On one wall, two big topical maps of Russia and the Soviet Union. On another, a tall box (with the front missing) with six lights divided so that they would illuminate separately. "Whats that" I ask? "A indicator for Radiation levels outside" he says. Beside that was a big chart listing everybody on the base's job/location in the event of an attack. Just really wild cold-war stuff I tell ya....

[Hardrock69]

Wow. Fucking cool!

[Igosplut]

When I was a little kid we would ride our bikes up to the main gate. They had armed guards and you couldn't get in without proper clearance and ID. We'd hang around at the end of the road and get the base guys to do burnouts in their new muscle cars. One day about 50 feet from the main gate I was riding along and I see a bag that had been tossed in a drainage ditch by the side of the road. As kids are want to do I rode down and picked up the bag opening it up. There was another clear plastic bag inside that had some weird shit in it. I poked a hole in it and smelled it. Didn't have a clue what it was, so I just pulled the bag apart scattering the contents...

Some years later at the first time I ever encountered pot up close, taking one whiff brought me right back to that day on the base road......

[Hardrock69]

Back in the 70s the military was not very strict about soldiers using drugs. Originally if you were in the Army's drug rehab program, and you failed one piss test, it was an automatic discharge. Then in the late70s, they changed the rule so that it was no longer an automatic out.
Then Ronnie Ray-gun came into office, with the "Just Say No To Drugs" bullshit, and they changed the regulations back again.

[Nickdfresh]

There's an old decommissioned AF station that was a Radar base near where I live. About ten yrs back we went all through it with a friend from the government and one of the guys that was stationed there when in was shut down. It (in it's heyday) was a strategic east coast radar point. We went into what they called the 'Operations center" that was a huge bomb shelter. No windows, a two-foot thick concrete building surrounding another concrete building, full living quarters, half a basketball court, a presentation theater, the works. And all with no windows. We came into a room that you had to go through two submarine doors with a sally port in the middle. The ceiling was like fourteen feet and strung with copper screen. Though the room was stripped, there was still piles of 3/4 plywood with copper sheeting tacked to them stacked up. Wire trenches running everywhere in the floors, and PILES of these weird punch cards lying everywhere. Asking what the fuck all this was, he replied "this is the computer room and the copper is to reflect microwave energy from nuclear attack".

The presentation room was just like a small movie theater with the flip-up seats. On the stage there was a thick piece of glass with a painting of the east coast. Marked on it were all the military installations that lights would go out if they were knocked out of commission. On one wall, two big topical maps of Russia and the Soviet Union. On another, a tall box (with the front missing) with six lights divided so that they would illuminate separately. "Whats that" I ask? "A indicator for Radiation levels outside" he says. Beside that was a big chart listing everybody on the base's job/location in the event of an attack. Just really wild cold-war stuff I tell ya....

Otis AFB? My brother was stationed there, and I recall staying in one of the row after rows of abandoned base housing for a visit...

[Nitro Express]

Wow. Heavy stuff. I was stationed at Redstone Arsenal in 1977. Always wanted to witness a shuttle launch first hand, and had planned on doing so this year before the end of the program, but recession forces my wallet to say no.

It's loud as hell and the ground shakes. We were as close as they will let you get to the launch. My father in law said the shuttle is almost as loud as the Saturn V because it's a big pay load. He got to stand in the cargo bay of the Challenger and he said you could put a big bus in it. He says the shuttles are huge.

[Nitro Express]

Back in the 70s the military was not very strict about soldiers using drugs. Originally if you were in the Army's drug rehab program, and you failed one piss test, it was an automatic discharge. Then in the late70s, they changed the rule so that it was no longer an automatic out.
Then Ronnie Ray-gun came into office, with the "Just Say No To Drugs" bullshit, and they changed the regulations back again.

They certainly weren't in Vietnam but the military isn't the same in war zones and a lot of the rules just get ignored. Nobody wanted anything to do with the military in the 1970's, so I imagine they had recruiting problems. College was cheap enough you could work your way through in those days.

[Nitro Express]

Ronald Reagan and his wife were saying no to drugs while the CIA was smuggling tons of them. I have mixed feelings about Reagan. In some ways he was a good president and in others he was a complete naive fool. I don't think he loathed the American people like the later presidents do. Personally, I don't think Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr., and Obama gave or give two shits about us.

[Hardrock69]

I agree. But then, Presidents are just figureheads, while the government just runs along doing what it does while Presidents come and go.

[Nitro Express]

I agree. But then, Presidents are just figureheads, while the government just runs along doing what it does while Presidents come and go.

Pretty much, but a bad president can do a lot of damage before he's out. The thing is they can't hold onto the power forever.

[Hardrock69]

That is why J. Edgar Hoover was known as one of the most powerful people in the US. He was head of the FBI for thirty-something years? Something like that. Presidents come and go, but the alphabet agencies stay on for forever.