Nexus - 1106 - New Times Magazine-pages

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So, it was no great surprise to me to receive a letter from a man who has been inside a vast, secret underground base built inside a hollow mountain in Norway. Though the letter is written on United States military stationery, I have taken the liberty of not reproducing it as an illustration, out of respect for the writer's anonymity. However, I have seen fit to include a cropped copy of a diagram of the interior of the base, as drawn by the writer and included in his letter [see illustration, previous page]. I have very slightly edited the portion of the letter quoted below to obscure this soldier's identity, rank and military branch. "My reserve unit was activated just prior to Operation Desert Storm. We are a Cold Weather Unit and as such we were sent to Norway to take part ina NATO War Game, Operation Battle Griffin. It was on this operation that I was sent to do some work inside one of several "Hollowed Out" mountains. At the time, I was a [here he names his rank; author's note] and was picked for a work detail along with [here he identifies the other men] to go to the Mountain. I was rather excited to go on this work detail [excised sentence fragment; author's note]." "Before leaving to go to the mountain we were briefed and inspected, which is unusual for a working detail. We were told not to try to see where we were going or which roads we would take. Absolutely no cameras could be taken and noth- ing considered confidential could leave the mountain. We then left with Norwegian Escorts, as they are the only ones who know which roads to take. (According to the briefing, the roads crisscrossed in a maze pattern to confuse enemy tank drivers; the Norwegians knew which roads would get us there. We were put in the back of a truck in complete dark- ness. It was daytime but the truck was covered completely.) "After driving for a while we came to a stop, then heard the sound of Doors opening. We drove into the Mountain and after about a minute or so we stopped. (We were driving at a slow speed at this time.) We got out and looked around. The place was absolutely huge! The smallest area was the entrance which a main battle Tank could easily drive through. The area we were working in was about 300 yards long and maybe 30 yards or so wide; the height was about 40 feet or more. It was so big that no one felt cramped or claustaphobic [sic]. We were in only one section. I have drawn a diagram of what I saw for you on the back of this letter. "The whole cavity was lined in white plastic- type material. This material had various- sized zippered doorways. Being curious we opened several of the zippered sections, but all we found was the solid rock of the mountain. [Sentence deleted here; author's note.] We were inside for several hours stacking — A LOOK magazine article (14 June 1 gear my unit had used in _ ports built for vertically rising saucer: the operation, then left ers require. The complete operatio with the same formality ground, complete with maintenance we had come." saucer squadron. The shafts would b And here is where my source ends his letter. Brief though his account may be, it nevertheless suffices to convey something of the monstrous size of the facility that he entered. It is quite possible that the enormous facility that he saw was just one portion of a much larger underground base. He additionally alludes to the existence of multiple hollowed-out mountains; the underground base he worked in is evidently only one of several. Somewhere Deep Beneath the US East Coast The following was recounted to me by a man who had worked for the Army Corps of Engineers during the Vietnam War era. As part of his training on American soil prior to his departure to South East Asia, he was briefly sent to tour a couple of under- ground bases somewhere on the East Coast of the United States. I asked him where the bases were located. He said, "I don't remember." Of course, this evasive answer is likely to be a lie, presumably due to his security clearances. As you will read, his description of the facilities is sufficiently interesting that it is highly unlikely that anyone, least of all a military man, would for- get their locations. I asked him to tell me a little about the bases and he said that when they had to seal up from the outside world, they could do so quite rapidly—within tenths of a second. Massive, multi-ton rein- forced doors like those on bank vaults would slam shut virtually instantaneously! Anyone who had the misfortune to be standing there would be instantly squashed like a tomato! It would all hap- pen much too fast for anyone to react in time to escape instant death. I asked him about the food supply and he said that he saw hydroponic gardens in the underground bases, for growing food in the event of prolonged periods of isolation from the topside world. And that was where our conversation ended. He clammed up and would say little more about the subterranean facilities he had visited. But what little he did divulge is very revealing. By implication, there are contingency plans for surviving under- ground for the long term, sealed off from the outside world. And these plans evidently go back at least to the late 1960s to early 1970s. A LOOK magazine article (14 June 1955) supplied the following caption for this illustration: "Future air- ports built for vertically rising saucers would have no need of the long, vulnerable runways today's fight- ers require. The complete operation could go underground. Tunnels with take-off shafts set into the ground, complete with maintenance bays, fuel and crew quarters, would be bombproof shelters for a saucer squadron. The shafts would be sealed after take-off for camouflage and protection." 46 = NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com OCTOBER — NOVEMBER 2004