FC: Firsthand info on former NSA/NASA base in Carolinas

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[Interesting followups to http://www.politechbot.com/p-01614.html from 
folks who have been there. --Declan]

***********

> Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 08:08:37 -0500 (EST)
> From: "James B. DiGriz" <jbdigriz () dragonsweb org>
> To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
> Subject: Re: FC: Astronomers take over abandoned NSA base, from Baltimore
>  Sun
>
> On Mon, 8 Jan 2001, Declan McCullagh wrote:
>
> >
> > 
> http://www.sunspot.net/content/cover/story?section=cover&pagename=story&storyid=1150520223288
> >
> >     NSA abandons wondrous stuff
> >     Surprises: Astronomers who took over an abandoned spy base find
> >     remarkable, expensive and often incomprehensible stuff at every turn.
> >       _________________________________________________________________
> >
>
> Not so much news, Declan, as history rediscovered in a new context.
>
> Furthermore, the article distorts or contravenes fact to ride the popular
> X-files meme. This may sell newspapers to the credulous, but it's lazy,
> irresponsible, and a disservice to history and the achievements of the
> space program, which too many people have forgotten too many of already. This
> is the reason I quit reading the damn paper. I got tired of reading fiction,
> propaganda, and marketing campaigns masquerading as news.
>
> Granted, the confusion in this case seems to have been a direct result
> of the military's idiotic obsession with secrecy for secrecy's sake, but
> this reporter could have done a lot better job. It scares the hell out of
> me that a professional journalist would find anything at Rosman
> "incomprehensible", too. It's too much like Clarke's law at work. This
> does not bode well.
>
> regards,
> jbdigriz
>
> p.s. and to think that all this time, Eric Rudolph has been
> dodging FBI agents and freezing his butt off in some dark, wet, dirty cave in
> the woods, when just over the next ridge...

********

> Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 11:52:30 -0500 (EST)
> From: "James B. DiGriz" <jbdigriz () dragonsweb org>
> To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
> Subject: Re: FC: Astronomers take over abandoned NSA base, from  Baltimore
>  Sun
>
> Rosman was originally a NASA installation. Contrary to what the article
> tries to suggest, about all the NSA appears to have to done beyond what
> was already there was to install fiber and an electrical substation to
> power the the additional antennas they brought in. I'm not even sure about
> the latter, because I saw a substation there in '69 or '70. The generator
> system was only a backup (with it's own backups) at that point.
>
> This is Cold War stuff, Declan. It was the 2nd of NASA's 85ft. VHF/UHF and
> later s-band dish stations mostly used for unmanned satellite tracking and
> telemetry. It was built in the Cuban Missile Crisis days, and some thought
> was obviously given to nuclear survivability, and pinch-hitting for sabotaged
> or damaged trans-atlantic cables and commercial satellite stations, which the
> DoD relied on for communications at the time. The sigint capabilities were
> there all along as well, and no doubt the NSA had lines running into the 
> place
> even then-that was the impression we were given, despite official disclaimers-
> but the implication that the spooks swooped in in 1981 and transformed some
> dinky NASA outpost into this huge James Bond Thunderball operation, in a
> vast conspiracy that was successfully hidden from everyone, is a patent
> fantasy. It was all there from the git-go, and it wasn't a secret,
> except, it seems, after the fact.
>
> Maryland chauvinism, maybe, if you want to be charitable to Ms. Sullivan.
>
> regards,
> jbdigriz

********

> Date: Mon, 08 Jan 2001 10:01:27 -0600
> To: declan () well com
> From: Scott Schram <scott () schram net>
> Subject: Re: FC: Astronomers take over abandoned NSA base, from
>   Baltimore Sun
>
> Declan,
>
> I was driving through the mountains in 1981 with a friend, and decided to 
> try to find the tracking station.  As we pulled up to the gate, we were 
> greeted by a lone guard.  He explained that the defense department was 
> going to take over the site in about a month.  After some friendly 
> conversation, we were treated to a private tour!  Probably the last tour 
> for a very long time.
>
> I suspect that most of the buildings were put in place during the NASA 
> era.  The redundancy and robust infrastructure were required by the Apollo 
> program and the remote location.
>
> More pictures including the interior of the radome and the smiley dish are 
> under "Resources" at:
>
> http://www.pari.edu/
>
> Scott
> --------
> http://schram.net

********




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