(8-2 thru 8-6-99) RED FLAG
((part I))
These longer trips get wordy, so, as always, I will try to keep it
simple.
Arrived at the secret camping spot, just as the sun was setting, on
the 2nd. Right from the start, a real mystery had presented itself,
within half an hour of my arrival.
In the quiet of Sand Spring Valley, due north of Groom Lake by about
20 miles, a deep rumbling could be heard coming from the direction of
the Groom Range. It had that jet fighter sound, that you hear so often
in these parts, however, this jet(?) was not moving. It sounded a lot
like an engine 'run-up' that you might hear near an airport. Since I
work directly with aircraft in a capacity that would allow me to know
exactly what that sounds like, I am convinced that is very much what I
was hearing. It lasted about 4-5 minutes.
(8-3)
On the morning of the 3rd, caught up with a few aquaintences from a
previous trip, and decided to go out to bother a Marine Reserve unit
out of Atlanta, out at Ranch Rd. They had a Stinger Missle Battery set
up for RED FLAG, (actually, there were 12 teams in all, scattered
throughout the base and Railroad Valley.)
Met Staff Sergent Gonzales about 30ft. from the road, and decided to
check it out. C-130's and Dutch Jaguars & F-16's were running in
on these guys at low level, and we got to watch and see some
outragious flying. FAST & LOW. Those C-130 pilots are GOOD!!!!!.
And having an F-16 buzz you, 200 feet above your head at 600+mph,
ain't all that bad either.
The remander of the day was spent hanging out at the RESERCH CENTER
and shooting the breeze.
(8-4)
The next morning, the 4th, took an early drive out to TIKABOO Valley.
Two B-2 bombers were doing a bombing pass through the area. Got some
great photo's.
I then headed back to Rachel to hook up with two guys that work at the
"CENTER". I was taking them with me to watch the planes fly
against the STINGER's. Later that afternoon, from Ranch Rd., we took a
walk towards the South, and came rather close to the boundary near a
bombing area.
About 1/4 mile from the 'line', just on the other side of a hump in
the rolling hills, the three of us found an old practice bomb, that
had missed the range. left a nice crater. Brought home a piece.
Also, got to see a lot more of the STINGER Battery team, beat up on
the aircraft.
Now for the second little mystery.
Later in the afternoon (still on the 4th), met up with some locals,
and a couple of Belgium tourists, that had spent the previous night up
on "Powerline Ridge." From there, you get a much higher and
clearer view of the airspace above Groom Lake. (I've described these
guys as the RANGE ROVERS).
It seems that they were up for a good portion of the
night....watching!! And, it seems that there was a sizable glow coming
from the "BASE." Some of us have heard about this before.
One wonders why so many lights are on, because that is what it is.
Flood lights!
There is a theory that is making the rounds, that stadium style
lighting is used to blind an outsiders view of things, should they be
in a position to see into the 'Base". This would make a night
time peek, into the 'Base' from Tikaboo Peak, or from an aircraft to
the east, nearly pointless. The glare would shield anything behind the
lights. ???
((end part I))
(8-2 thru 8-6-99)
((part II))
(Morning of the 5th)
Up bright and early with the sun. A little corned bash hash for
breakfast, a sponge bath and fresh cloths, and I was gone. Hit Tikaboo
Valley, again.
[Actually, almost hit a calf. Those little things are spunky and
stupid. The cows stay put. But calfs get spooked easy. Whatever you
do...don't hit anything bovine. You will be heavily fined for the cost
and potential eanings of that animal.]
I was in Tikaboo looking for low-level B-1's. I had the scanner set to
the appropriate Freq's. I could hear chatter from someone coming out
of the south. One of the things I have learned is the ability of an
aircraft to hide. The military is good. I was looking everywhere with
binoculars.
Then, without warning, right over my head, came a B-2. Didn't hear it!
Didn't see it. Not till it was over me. What a beautiful plane. I'm
guessing he was 300 - 500 feet AGL(above ground level). He was alone,
but banking hard towards the Groom Range and Bald Mountain. He passed
behind the hills that are home to Andies Mine. (I still need to get
over there.)
Set out for the Marine Stinger Missile position, again. (They didn't
mind) What an amazing air show. Like I have said, FAST & LOW. For
the morning session, F-16 and Jaguars flew against these missile
batteries, trying to penetrate a simulated air defense network. These
pilots really fly HARD. This is no local airport putting on a cheezy
public Airshow. This is as close to real as you can get.
One Jaguar pilot came by us so low, and so fast, that as I tried to
follow him with my camera, I pinched a nerve in my neck. And, boy, did
he rock that desert floor we were standing on.
((F-15 CRASH SITE))
Afterwords, took up the task of re-locating the F-15 (1 of 2) crash
site, out by the Railroad Valley Dry Lake Bed. (Locals call it Bear
Paw). Had two guys from the Research Center with me, again.
We found it. I thought it would have been all cleaned up. NOPE! The
crater was big enough to drive a truck into. It reeked of Jet Fuel.
Small bits of F-15 were everywhere. A little digging in the crater
proved that the military left a lot behind, under the soil. There was
fire damage about 50 yards out. If you want to see this thing, it's
still there.
((Final))
For the most part, the remainder of the trip was spent full of RED
FLAG combat. The Marine Reserve Unit, Stinger Missile Battery was very
hospitible, and showed me how it was done. There was lots to see and
hear.
Every night was a different kind of joy. Stars and silence. Lots of
meteors streaking across the sky, too. And, saw my first satellite, as
it passed over head, a little after sundown one night.
As usual, I scanned for Groom Lake activity, at night. Heard a few
things on the scanner, but not sure what it was. (In the future, I
plan to make a trip, just for monitoring.) Activity is still high, in
and out of the gates around Area51, and Nellis's back door, with lots
of truck traffic. Ranch Road is now a full scale asphalt road, all the
way to Tonapah!
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(7-08-99)
Took the nephew on a road trip/vacation this past
week. Got home yesterday. Passed through Rachel and the 'Area'
(7-2-99). Heard about two F-15's that had crashed three weeks earlier,
during "Air Warrior" exercisies. (I was there and missed it,
darn it!) Seems that they "touched." Pilots got out OK.
Found the crash site, of one, just SE of the Railroad Valley dry lake
bed, about 2-3 miles off 375.
Four-wheeled it across, to the clean-up. AF was everywhere. By the
time I got out of the truck, MP Chris Duff was introducing himself.
Nice guy. Very friendly. Spent just a few minutes chit chatting. Not
much to see except the size of the clean-up crew. (BLM must hate a
messy house).
Nephew thought I was cool!
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Visiting the Guard Shack (part I)
(Mid June "99)
Intended to spend a few days at my favorite capsite, (known only to
the other members of the Groom Lake Audubon Society*.) AIR WARRIOR was
in full swing, and I do love to watch and listen to those birds fly.
Third day out, met three guys at the Research Center, all from
different walks of life, but with one goal.....to make the
"dudes" earn their paychecks. I will call them the
"Range Rovers" (They can come up with their own goofy name
later.)
Their leader had a tip on a good viewing spot of the "Guard
Shack" (Groom Lake rd.) It is not widely known that you can see
it, and their leader had been there. I schmoozed my way into their
inner circle, and was subsequently invited to "spend the
night" checking it out. Since "Air Warrior" was going
on every night, I added the element of audio support and radio freq's,
while all of us came with varies optical enhancement items. I
intended, however not to stay the night, because of my need to depart
for home.
At this point I will shorten the story for lack of inventive writing
skills, and say that we made it to our appointed location on the GPS
scanner. Sure enough, there it was...The Guard Shack. Neat!! Now what?
Well....that was Ok, but it was still daylight. We had about an hour
before dark fell.
Dark came and something funny was noticed. Did you know that the guard
shack has a lighted railroad type crossing arm with red flashing
lights? It just seems out of place, almost comical to us. Why would
you put all those flashing red lights, on a crossing arm, that can't
be gained access to by your average citizen? Why would that particular
shack need such measures? Nobody can get to it, unless your supposed
to be there, in which case, you know to stop anyways to check in.
During all this of course, the "Dudes" were in full force.
We were only feet from the "Markers." The guard shack
probably was watching us too.
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Exploring BADGER (Is that a Camera?)
((MARCH '99)
Uncharted territory, how could I resist? With so many of Area 51's
mysteries solved it was incredibly exciting to think that there was
something left for me to explore. And to top it off it was even a
somewhat controvesial debate.
You see, there is this little known rumor floating around Rachel that
there is a surveilence device on Badger Mountain (just north of
Tikaboo). In local legend this device was installed in 1998 by the
government to monitor the trail to Tikaboo Peak and "get anything
sensitive off the runway" in the event that some pesky tourists
decided do a little sight-seeing.
The alleged device was pointed out to me while on the trail (if thats
what you want to call it) to Tikaboo Peak by a local tour guide that I
had bumped into along the way. It is located next to some sort of
radar relay that apparently had been there for years. From where I was
on Tikaboo (which granted, was quite a distance away) in did in fact
appear to be very similar to the cameras at the Area 51 border. Upon
reaching "the Peak", I began to question the need for such a
device. Even with the sunlight working to our advantage the distance,
haze, and heat waves obscured the base to the point that if we hadn't
been specifically looking for the base we probebly would have never
noticed it was there. Even with the aid of a telescope a team of Grays
could have rolled the Aurora out onto the runway I wouldn't have seen
it.
Some time later I decided to put the "Surveilence Device"
debate to an end. It would be a truely interesting endevor, after all,
Badger Mountain was virtually unexplored! No guide books, no trails,
nothing! I could die out there! What fun! (Hey it sounded like a good
idea at the time.) So with my trusty Topographical map, compass, any
stylish hiking attire I set off.
Intitially I set off for the first visable spine of Badger. Upon
reaching it another, more gradual spine came into view just beyond it.
In the end I opted to take the second one. Obviously, the Device was
not visable from the base of the mountain, and I had only a vague idea
of where it was (the mountain looked a lot different on the map than
it did from Tikaboo). Contrary to what it looks like on the map, I
found Badger to be a somewhat easyer hike than Tikaboo. For one, there
was much less cacti and loose rock on Badger than there was on Tikaboo.
After hiking for about forty-five minutes finding the device was
starting to seem doubtful. But still, I pressed on. Eventually,
portions of the northern part of the base started to come into view.
Although the majority of it woould remain hidden by Tikaboo. It did
seem likely that that an unobstructed view could be had elsewhere on
Badger, although I would probebly mean some serious hiking, for a view
that is a greater distance than Tikaboo.
Just when I was about to give up hope I cleared a false summit and
"the Device" came into view. Much to my dismay however, I
found there was an incredibly large dip in the mountain that seperated
it from me. It wouldn't have been an impossible hike, probably not
even an especially difficult one, just a long and time consuming one.
And on that paticular trip time, unfortunatly, was a factor. So
reluctantly, I set up my telescope where I was.
I had really hoped it was a camera. It would have been a great story.
It would have been a gross misuse of land that had been sanctioned for
a radar relay. It could have been the long awaited shot it the arm
that stirred interest in the Area 51 community (if there is such a
thing). And I could have gotten the first semi-close footage of it.
But when I lowered my eye to peer through the telescope I was
disappointed in what I saw. I can't say for sure what it was, but if I
were to guess I would say it was probably just a second radar relay.
Anyways, it certainly didn't appear to be any kind of camera. I could
be wrong, I'm probably not, but I suppose I could be. It could have
just been the angle that I was viewing it from, but I seriously doubt
it.
I have reviewed the video I shot of it several times, looking for
something to indicate I might be mistaken, but I have found nothing.
Gee, who would have thought it? An unfounded conspiracy floating
around Rachel. Sigh. I guess I should have learned my lesson a long
time ago. Does this mean those rumors about eavesdropping devices
lining the mountains of the Tikaboo Valley could be false as well?!?!
Till Next time, this is MAJESTIC signing off.
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ON!! The Base ...or... (**Having Fun With Blackhawks)
(Trip-Feb. '99)
I was walking in the 'corner' boundary area, from Southwestern Mine
Rd. You enter a nice small little canyon, through a sand wash, after
passing one of the Medlin water troughs. I parked the truck, and
walked...
About 10 minutes before I took off to walk the area, I scoped out the
hills to the west, with binoculars, to look for markers. I knew I was
only a 100 yards or so, from the "limit line." I, also,
looked to the rear of the canyon, about 200 yards, and of course,
spotted a 'dude' checking me out with binoculars. (He had followed me
in.) I did the same, and waved, to let him know I was not trying to
hide. (I was caught, so why fake it.)
I set out on foot, to the north-west, to get closer to the boundary,
and get up higher on the hills in the area. Just look around. This
took me out of view of the dude, however.
As I came across my first marker, it caught me by surprise!! I
stopped, and jerked my head up and to the right, and found myself a
good 30 feet inside another marker, out in front of me. (I had my
compass out, and wasn't paying attention.) I had been drifting too far
west. I took about 10 giant leaps to my right, faster than I could
take a breath, and got the hell away from that hill. I knew I was
busted. The "dude" had to have seen me, or a camera, or
something. I back tracked, went up the other side to the east and
climbed a small rock ledge, and sat there for 15 minutes ....waiting.
My heart was going as fast as it could go without killing me. I could
see my truck from up there, but nobody came.
Just as I broke out my sandwich, out of my bag, I heard it...the
Blackhawk. (#%&*!!!) I just sat there, pissin my pants. He came
out from Tikaboo Valley. He circled all over the hill I had been on,
where the 'line' is. It took the crew three passes to spot me on the
other side. When they changed direction and came at me, I figured that
I was going to be watched till the sheriff came. I decided to take it
easy back to the truck, to the south, and go on my way, hoping I could
get away, or something. The Blackhawk circled around the canyon for
about 5 minutes, making two passes, then left. (I need to post the
photo's) There were no 'dudes' at the canyon entrance. I kept
expecting Lincoln county's 'finest' to show, at some point leaving
Groom Lake Rd., but nothing happened. I went back to my campsite, and
wrote some notes.
SO, sure, ... I've been on the Base. (By shear stupidity)
C3 (GLAS)
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