199 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
199 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
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(word processor parameters LM=8, RM=75, TM=2, BM=2)
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Taken from KeelyNet BBS (214) 324-3501
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Sponsored by Vangard Sciences
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PO BOX 1031
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Mesquite, TX 75150
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There are ABSOLUTELY NO RESTRICTIONS
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on duplicating, publishing or distributing the
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files on KeelyNet except where noted!
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December 3, 1993
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HILLGRAB.ASC
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This file shared with KeelyNet courtesy of Rick Lawler.
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Supersecret Groom Base can be viewed from Nevada's White Sides
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Mountain -- a mountain the U.S. Air Force is attempting to take
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over.
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U.S. TO HEIGHTEN BASE SECRECY BY SEIZING MOUNTAIN NO PEEKING FROM
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PEAK: AIR FORCE WANTS TO SEIZE MOUNTAIN TO PROTECT SECRET BASE
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10/17/93
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THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
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RACHEL, Nev. -- Hikers who make it to the top of 6,089-foot White
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Sides Mountain get a clear view of dry Groom Lake. Trekkers can
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spot long runways, barnlike hangars and crops of communications
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equipment in the distance. Some people even pull out binoculars and
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telescopes trying to get a peek at the latest U.S. Air Force jets
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that routinely take off and land at the facility.
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The Pentagon wants it stopped. It plans to seize 4,000 acres around
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White Sides Mountain and end public observation of an air base so
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secret officials refuse to say it exists. On Saturday, about 20
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protesters crossed sagebrush and walked to the edge of the
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restricted military zone at Groom Lake. They set up camp at a place
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they call "Freedom Ridge" -- about two miles from the foot of White
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Sides Mountain. From the ridge, protesters could look down and see
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the air base, located some 125 miles west of St. George. With
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protesters gathered around, Glenn Campbell said in a mocked bravado:
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"Just let them try and seize Freedom Ridge. We will defend that to
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the death."
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But Nevada Rep. James Bilbray says the mountain should be restricted
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for national-security reasons. "Every time someone goes up on White
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Sides it costs taxpayers a lot of money," said Bilbray, a Democrat
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serving on the House Armed Services Committee. "They have to cover
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up what they're doing - at the base} with camouflage netting or roll
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it into hangars. They have to wait until the people get off the
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mountain before they can go on with what they were doing and that's
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not fair."
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The base has been used by the Air Force and the CIA to test secret
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aircraft, such as the U-2 spy plane and more recently the F-117
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stealth fighter. Bilbray says military security knows that spy
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satellites routinely observe the facility, but the base knows their
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Page 1
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orbit schedules -- and plans accordingly. However, he says, hikers
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with cameras are unpredictable.
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Campbell sees no reason for the government's secrecy. The 33-year-
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old leader of the White Sides protesters says times have changed.
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Campbell describes himself as a UFO investigator. He moved from
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Boston to Rachel in January after reading about alien-spacecraft
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sightings at the Groom facility. So far, he says, he has seen
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nothing but military planes cross the sky.
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When Campbell moved to the town of about 100 people, he set up shop
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at the A-Le-Inn. The bar's owner, Joe Travis, had painted a picture
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of a bug-eyed alien on his sign to attract the numerous UFO
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enthusiasts who make the pilgrimage to Groom. At first Campbell was
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welcome. But his activism about White Sides brought the Lincoln
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County sheriff out to Rachel one too many times. In August, he was
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ejected from the A-Le-Inn after a sheriff's deputy came to
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confiscate pictures Campbell had taken near the Groom facility.
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Photography is prohibited near the base. Jim Goodall, an aviation
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historian who lives in Tacoma, Wash., plans a more direct approach.
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He says he will sneak up to the border at night, armed with his
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cameras until he gets a clear photo of a new, secret aircraft
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rumored to be at the base. "I'm a real pain in the a-- to my
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government because I'm not someone you can brush off. I keep hanging
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on," the 48-year-old said. Goodall is a sergeant with the Minnesota
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Air National Guard and is the group's wing historian. He also has
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free-lanced for several aviation publications and sold photos of the
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stealth fighter before the Air Force publicly revealed the aircraft.
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On Oct. 6, the Air Force filed a petition with the Bureau of Land
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Management office in Reno, asking that 3,972 acres of land on White
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Sides be withdrawn from public access. The purpose of the
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withdrawal, they wrote, would be to "ensure the public safety and
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the safe and secure operation of activities in the Nellis Range
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Complex."
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The Nellis Range is a 3 million acre military reserve used for
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combat training, weapons testing and -- at the secret air base -- a
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lengthy airstrip for worldwide reconnaissance flights. When the
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base expanded in 1984, the Air Force took 89,000 acres of public
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land. They set up guard posts and turned hunters, miners, ranchers
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and reporters away at gunpoint. Nevada politicians raised a stink,
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saying the land grab was illegal.
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Although after-the-fact, Congress approved the land withdrawal in
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October of that year. This time around, the land-withdrawal process
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will be more different, according to Curtis Tucker, the BLM area
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manager who oversees much of central Nevada, including White Sides
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Mountain. "A decision could take six months to a year," Tucker
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said. "Of course, I don't know how much political pressure will come
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to make it happen sooner."
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Tucker said a representative of the secret facility approached him
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in the spring to explain why the Air Force wanted White Sides shut
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off to outsiders. "He was nonspecific. We talked in generalities,"
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Tucker said. "It basically gets down to there are some assets they
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don't want people to see."
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Page 2
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What they don't want people to see, according to published reports
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in aviation trade journals, is a secret high-flying spy plane code-
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named "Aurora."
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The super-secret jet is said to attain speeds of 4,000 mph (Mach 6)
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and seismologists in Southern California now call the plane's earth-
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shaking sonic boons "air-quakes." Air Force information officers
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offer some surprising answers when asked about the plane or the
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secret test facility. "You're not going to get anyone in the Air
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Force to talk about it," said Maj. Monica Aloisiom, a public-affairs
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officer stationed at the Pentagon. "- Groom Lake is probably a
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secret test facility and I don't have a need to know that, so I
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don't know about that." The Air Force has a history of running
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people out of the Groom area.
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During the late 1940s and early 1950s the Sheahan family, led by Dan
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Sheahan, mined at Groom. But atomic blasts damaged the mine and
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above-ground buildings at Groom, according to Department of Energy
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records. The Sheahans' horses were killed after they developed
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huge, open sores. The Sheahans blamed radioactive fallout. Then, in
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the summer of 1954, Air Force pilots flying from the Las Vegas
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Gunnery Range attacked the Sheahan mining operation.
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"Buildings have been struck by bullets, several people have narrowly
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escaped being killed and some pilots have even gone so far as to
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dive down and strafe our workings," Dan Sheahan wrote in a July 7,
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1954, letter to then-Nev. Gov. Charles Russell. In 1958, the Air
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Force bought out the Sheahans. That is when the military began the
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U-2 spy-plane mission, according to a book written by Francis Gary
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Powers. He was the U-2 pilot captured by Soviet forces in 1960 when
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his spy plane went down over Russia.
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In his book Operation Overflight, Powers referred to the secret air
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base in the Nevada desert where he trained "as one of those you-
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can't-get-there-from-here places." It was run by the CIA, he wrote,
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and called "Watertown Strip" or simply "the ranch." Powers spent
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nearly two years in a Soviet prison after his capture. In 1977, he
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crashed a Los Angeles television station's helicopter and died.
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During the Reagan administration, the Groom facility got a big boost
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as part of the president's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) plan.
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That is when the Air Force seized 89,000 acres adjacent to the base
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in 1984, presumably to protect the stealth fighter and other black-
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budget aircraft.
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In 1989, UFO enthusiasts began traveling to the base after stories
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spread that live aliens were being kept at so-called "Area 51." They
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have climbed White Sides and the ridges overlooking the air base
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looking for outer-space critters.
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If the Air Force succeeds and takes White Sides, the people who trek
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into the desert to look at lights in the night sky have a backup
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plan. "I've already found a new spot," says aviator Goodall. "You
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can't see the facility, but you can see anything that takes off from
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the facility."
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If we can be of service, you may contact
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Jerry at (214) 324-8741 or Ron at (214) 242-9346
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Page 3
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