FEATURED 3 Early Presidential Emergency Facilities (PEF) (1965-1970)-revised

         Creation of the Presidential Emergency Facilities (PEF)                   and the Presidential Retreat at Camp David

1960 through 1970

Presidential Emergency Facility Sites
Cannonball Tower on Cross Mountain Pa.(note the tower on the summit)
Site Code Name	Other Name	Location
Cactus	Camp David	Thurmont, Maryland
Cannonball	Cross Mountain	Mercersburg, Pennsylvania
Cowpuncher	Martinsburg	Roundtop Summit, WV
Cartwheel	Fort Reno	Washington, D.C.
Crystal	Mt. Weather	Berryville, Virginia
Creed	Site R (Raven Rock)	Waynesboro, Pennsylvania
Corkscrew	Lamb’s Knoll	Frederick County, Maryland
Crown	The White House	Washington, D.C.

Continuity of Government (The Undisclosed Location Disclosed)

When terrorists struck the morning of September 11, 2001, Vice President Richard Cheney was whisked from his Washington office to a secure “undisclosed location.” Cheney’s undisclosed location is rumored to have been a Cold War era facility buried deep beneath Raven Rock Mountain near the Pennsylvania-Maryland border. Located east of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, the Raven Rock Military Complex is also known as Site R and it was designed as the Alternate Joint Communications Center (AJCC) where senior military officials were to be taken in the event of a nuclear attack. Site R was among the first relocation facilities built in the 1950s and early 1960s as federal planners conceived of and realized a Federal Relocation Arc extending outwards from Washington where key documents and people could be sheltered during and after a nuclear exchange.

The Text Content of an article in The Hagerstown Morning Herald, July 25, 1977 is:

That silo isn’t for cattle

To the casual observer driving down Maryland Route 67 southwest of Boonsboro, the distant object on lop of South Mountain looks like a farmer’s silo.

Closer inspection would reveal that it is indeed a silo, but not the kind used to store cattle feed. This particular silo belongs to the US Navy and is one of at least three similar Top Secret Navy facilities in the Tri-State area. Two other silos are located atop mountain ridges in Pennsylvania and in West Virginia. Just what goes on inside the silos the Navy isn’t saying?

After repeated requests to the Navy for information on silos spokesman Ron Black gave this reply, “No information can be released its classified”.

According to residents of the area the Boonsboro silo was built sometime during the late 1960s. Like the others it is served by a narrow but a small road complete with guard rails. Although the Boonsboro silo is still in daily use the one located on Cross Mountain just inside the Pennsylvania state line north of Mercersburg was open earlier this year. The high chain link fence surrounding it has been ripped down and a heavy steel blast door leading into the silo was ajar recently. The silo is equipped with an elevator to each of its eight floors. Although much of the equipment inside has obviously been removed, much remains... Heavy air conditioning equipment, air filters and electrical panels are still in place. In an apparent effort to blast proof the equipment the panels arc mounted on heavy springs with coiled wire lo take up movement. The silo apparently housed offices. On the ceilings are fluorescent lamps. The floors are tiled.

Whatever goes on inside the silos it is not related to the Alternate National Military Command Center near Blue Summit Pa.? Sources at the Pentagon responsible for The Rock say they do not know anything about the Navy silos.

And until the Navy decides to talk its mysterious silos will remain one of the government secrets in the area.

The White House Communications Agency (WHCA) would play a key role in the implementation of Continuity of Government (COG) plan. The Continuity of Government is the principle of establishing defined procedures that allow a government to continue its essential operations in case of nuclear war or other catastrophic events. In 1954 a plan to implement emergency communications was developed and presented to the Secretary of Defense. A major element of this plan was an emergency relocation strategy which provided for the dispersal of essential elements of the Federal Government. This plan also addressed the necessary communications need by the President, and other Governmental agencies. Because little or no reliable communications were available in the emergency relocation areas, the Army Signal Corps was tasked with the planning, designing, engineering, installing and maintaining the communications support of this program.

These sites were constructed very quietly and actually hidden from the Public but in reality were in plain sight and visible from miles around, several of these Continuity of Government sites were built in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C., these sites were designed to house large numbers of federal officials in underground bunkers while the exposed concrete towers that housed sophisticated radio equipment kept communications open among the survivors, the military, and civilian populations. These were among the first relocation facilities built in the 1950s and early 1960s as federal planners conceived of and realized a Federal Relocation Arc extending outwards from Washington were key documents and people could be sheltered during and after a nuclear exchange.

The Federal Relocation Arc included above- and below-ground sites located within a 300-mile radius of the nation’s capital. These sites were administered through the Executive branch’s White House Military Office (WHMO), while the communications personnel were attached to the White House Communications Agency (WHCA). The Early Presidential Emergency Facilities (PEF) were literally holes in the ground, deep enough to withstand a nuclear blast and outfitted with elaborate communications equipment, funds to support the sites wound their way through a circuitous route in the Defense Department. All oversight for these facilities originated in the White House Military Office.

These sites in the Arc were the key to ensuring open lines of communications were built in a network that relied upon line-of-sight microwave technology, i.e., each transmitter and receiver had to have an unobstructed line-of-sight between its nearest neighbors for the network to be viable. These microwave hops were usually no more than fifty miles apart. I’m assuming that when they did their studies they knew specifically where the main terminals were going to be and they looked for locations that they had line of sight.

The microwave system connected the primary relocation facilities and key to this new communications network plan were:

1. The White House and Camp David near Thurmont Md.

2. The hardened Alternate Joint Communications Center (AJCC) at Ravens Rock, near Blue Ridge Summit, Pa. and Ft Ritchie, Md.

3. The hardened Emergency Command Post and Relocation site for the Executive Branch of the Government at Mount Weather, near Winchester Va.

The microwave network would provide non-secure voice circuits terminating on manual switchboards, to be located at each of the primary relocation sites. The network would also provide secure teletype including the famous Moscow to Washington Hotline, and the Red Phone voice circuits between the President and the heads of all sensitive agencies. Finally the network would be capable of carrying broadcast video interfacing with the Emergency Broadcast System.

Cannonball Tower atop Cross Mt. near Mercersburg PA

Access rd. to Cannonball Tower (2010)

The concrete microwave towers would become known as the Presidential Emergency Facilities (PEF) and was built during the late 50’s early 60’s. Construction included the cylindrical tower and in some cases underground bunkers used to relocate the President, Vice President, Secret Service, and key members of the White House Staff. These facilities were all capable of withstanding a nuclear attack. The towers housed all of the communication equipment necessary to provide the emergency voice, radio and teletype communications required to continue inter-departmental communications.

Each of the sites included a 100-foot cylindrical tower, two-thirds of which was solidly built to house transmitters and receivers, supply rooms, and quarters for the skeleton staff which oversaw the facilities around the clock. The upper portions of the towers held parabolic antennas aimed towards the next facility in the network. These antennas were shielded by radio frequency-transparent Plexiglas that protected the antennas from the elements and concealed them from view while enabling radio waves to pass through. Some of these towers were connected to elaborate underground bunker complexes and entry to all of the facilities was through massive blast doors.

The microwave network which would connect Mount Weather with Camp David and Site R would be operated and maintained by the White House Army Signal Agency (WHASA). WHASA already had personnel in place at these principle relocation facilities and in 1962 would become the White House Communications Agency (WHCA). The communication network was developed, installed and maintained by WHCA, and all of the towers in this network were staffed by WHCA personnel on a continuous basis.

Locator Map

Location of the Presidential Emergency Facilities.

Because the towers were highly visible yet top secret, no official explanation of their functions were ever released. Locals near the Cannonball Tower and Camp David’s Cactus site were believed to be water tanks. People around Mercersburg thought it was a water tower. We used to buy water from the City of Mercersburg and we had a water tanker that we’d haul water back up to the mountaintop so they saw that and they saw the water tanker and they just figured that they were getting better water pressure that way.

According to Cold War communications enthusiasts, the concrete towers were designed to deflect the force of a nuclear blast, all of the towers were constructed of solid reinforced concrete and the air system was filtered so that if anything did happen all the he air intakes would be shut down and you had a filtration system. Everything was engineered with the concrete structure able to withstand a nuclear attack. All of the towers were located in remote areas so the effects of a nuclear blast would be minimal. Now there was always a possibility of problems with the antenna decks but we had spare microwave dishes that could be put in temporarily if a blast was close enough to tear off some of the dishes. We had spare dishes that we could replace any damage in a fairly short period of time.

Sites like Cactus, Crystal, Creed, Cartwheel, Corkscrew, Cowpuncher, and Cannonball were critical Continuity of Government sites during the Cold War. Their highly visible towers became part of an industrial landscape defined by telecommunications infrastructure essential to the information-based third industrial revolution. Beyond their highly function roles in the ubiquitous military industrial complex, they also were places where people worked and lived daily.  I had a lot of fun even though it was a job, I just had had a lot of fun working there. You know, the funny thing about it, I worked with people that were at Crystal, and Cadre for years after we closed down those sites. But we never discussed what went on at those locations.
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The microwave systems were the major reason for the construction of the towers; however each tower was equipped with other radio systems. There were VHF FM base stations installed for the use by the Presidential motorcade. The Secret Service and the White House Stall also used these 2 way FM handheld mobile units. There was also an HF single sideband (SSB) radio system installed in every location capable of interfacing with the Air Force One, and other airborne commutations centers like Silver Dollar worldwide. The SSB radios could transmit voice on the upper sideband and TTY on the lower sideband. Finally UHF radios to communicate with Marine One.

We closed down Cannonball in 1970 shortly after significant upgrades were installed. Changes in communications technology and Continuity of Government plans obviated the 1950s facilities. Most of us were transferred to other WHCA facilities. 

Mt. Weather remains a top secret facility and Cannonball was abandoned with its tower exposed to the elements and vandals. The tower at Cactus (Camp David), and Cowpuncher Tower were demolished and Creed Tower and both Crystal Towers have been abandoned in place at Site R and Mt. Weather respectively.

The communications equipment at Cannonball, Cowpuncher and Crystal facilities was removed in the mid 1970’s, Cadre/Creed was deactivated and all of the PEF tower facilities were officially closed on or about 1990.

The emergency Continuation of Government plan was approved in 1954 and evolved into the seven locations that that would become the core Presidential Emergency Facilities (PEF) they were all cylindrical towers. The primary source of voice communications was the use of microwave radio systems interconnecting these seven locations. The microwave routes were installed to connect relocation sites at Mt. Weather, Camp David and the Pentagon (Site R) directly to the President wherever he might be at the time of the emergency.

WHCA Communications Facilities

Site 1 Cactus (Camp David, Thurmont, MD.), the tower had eight floors plus two levels of Plexiglas to cover microwave dishes and other antennas. The Tower was above ground level. 

Barracks, Mess Hall, and Cactus Tower (1988)

Site 2 Cannonball (Mercersburg, PA.), the tower had eight floors plus two levels of Plexiglas to cover microwave dishes and other antennas. The Tower was above ground level.

Cannonball Tower in Mercersburg PA

Site 3 Cowpuncher (Martinsburg, WV.), the tower had eight floors plus two levels of Plexiglas to cover microwave dishes and other antennas. The Tower was above ground level.

Cowpuncher Tower in Martinsburg WV

Site 4 Cartwheel (Ft Reno Park, Washington DC.), the tower had eight floors plus two levels of Plexiglas to cover microwave dishes and other antennas. The Tower was above ground level.

Cartwheel Washington DC

Site 5 Crystal, East and West Towers (Mt Weather, Winchester, VA.), both towers had eight floors plus two levels of Plexiglas to cover microwave dishes and other antennas. Both of the towers only had the two top levels above ground and were accessed through Mt. Weather.

Crystal West Tower (2015)

Crystal East Tower (2015)

Site 6 Creed Tower (Site R, Blue Ridge Summit, PA.), Creed tower had eight floors plus two levels of Plexiglas covered microwave dishes and other antennas. The tower only had the two top levels above ground. Creed Tower was a separate facility near Site R which housed all of the microwave equipment as well as the HF and FM radio equipment and had a separate entrance into the tower through its own blast door and tunnel at the base of the tower.

Entrance to Creed Tower near Blue Ridge Summit PA

Site 7 Corkscrew (Boonsboro, MD.), the tower had eight floors plus two levels of Plexiglas to cover microwave dishes and other antennas. The Tower was above ground level.

Corkscrew near Boonsboro MD

Government Relocation Facilities

Relocation support functions in the event of a nuclear attack, was to be provided to key members of the Government. In terms of accommodations for potential presidential habitation, primary locations such as Mt. Weather (codenamed Crystal), Greenbrier (codename Casper), Camp David (codenamed Cactus), and Site R (codenamed Cadre) were initially decorated in the 1960s with fairly basic colors, lacking any exciting elements. These areas remained untouched for many years, well into the Reagan administration, resulting in everything being essentially brand new.

Secondary locations with furnished quarters included Boonesboro, MD (codenamed Corkscrew), and Tinley Park (codenamed Cartwheel).

Cactus (Camp David Thurmont Md.), Cactus had a two-level bunker that was adjacent to the microwave tower. The WHCA switch board and communications center was located within the bunker as well as sleeping quarters, water, food, and necessary supplies needed for survival. This facility was capable of accommodating around one hundred individuals,  

 Aspen Lodge with Cactus Tower

In 1959, President Eisenhower commissioned the construction of a secret bomb shelter at Camp David, designed as a Presidential Command Center in the event of nuclear war. Concealed beneath seemingly innocent guest cabins and carved out of rock, this underground facility cost 10 million dollars at the time. This bunker was built near Aspen Lodge specifically for the President and First Family.

Personally, I can provide some insight into the POTUS apartment in the bunker at Camp David, which featured neutral-colored paint, tile, and carpet. Considering the involvement of the Navy, it is reasonable to assume that the décor in their facilities would have seen more updates compared to other sites.

Near the old Hagerstown Drive-in Theater, there used to be an upscale furniture store that had a longstanding association with Camp David. During each change of administration, a lady would be escorted into the "key cabins" to make alterations. Since this fell under the purview of the Naval Support Unit, it wasn't particularly visible. However, I often wondered if this "consultant" ever consulted the new occupants about their preferences or presented pictures to the WHMO or other staff members. Unfortunately, that store closed down approximately five years ago. Locals in the area were aware that the store supplied Camp David, and while items were purchased, when replacements were made, the old furniture, which had seen minimal use, was recovered, and removed. These pieces would then appear in the store's consignment area, without any signs indicating their origin. However, if you asked, they would gladly inform you of their source.

Layout of Aspen Lodge

There was a Command Center strategically located underneath Aspen Lodge. Accessible via elevators from various points, including the President's bedroom, it would serve as a hub for crucial decision-making during times of crisis.

Equipped with advanced communication technology, the Command Center allowed the President to be broadcast globally from Mt Weather  and connected directly into the Emergency Broadcast System (EBS).Also the WHCA microwave network provided voice and secure TTY with the Pentagons War Room at Site R for military communication in the event of war. To maintain its secrecy, extensive efforts were made to conceal the facility before a visit from Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev in September 1959.

In preparation for Khrushchev's visit, laborers worked tirelessly to cover the underground Command Center, constructing a large deck to hide the cavernous hole. Unbeknownst to Khrushchev, he stood atop a presidential relocation site as he posed for photographers on the deck.

During Khrushchev's visit, the existence of the communications tower, codenamed Cactus, was disguised as an ordinary water tower using Water Works signs. The communications tower, equipped with Microwave antennas, transmitters, and receivers, housed a detachment of the White House Communications Agency (WHCA), and had multiple floors and an underground section capable of accommodating up to 150 support staff. Though the tower (Cactus) has been demolished, the underground command center at Camp David remains intact.

This underground facility was part of a larger microwave network connecting various underground locations to Camp David. Other sites in this network included Crown (The White House Situation Room), Crystal (Mt. Weather) providing audio and video to the Emergency Broadcast System (EBS), and Creed/Cadre (Raven Rock Mountain Complex) connecting the War Room of the Pentagon.

Aspen Lodge swimming pool

When President Nixon decided to add a swimming pool outside the Aspen Lodge, the location he selected was directly over the bomb shelter. "Orange One", as it was called, had to be reinforced for a cost of $261,000.the money for this came from secret military funds.  The interior of the underground shelter was also redone with new beds, bedspreads, pictures, paint, and office furnishings.

When President Carter expressed concerns to Bill Gulley from the White House Milatary Aides Office (WHMO) about the cost of Camp David and considered shutting it down,  Gulley asked the President if he knew what was there.  President Carter replied "cabins".  Then Gulley "explained to him about the bomb shelter, the emergency communications center, and other facilities."

Cadre (Site R, Blue Ridge Summit Pa.), Cadre was a part of the underground facility at Site R. and was located on the 2nd floor of building C. This area housed the WHCA switchboard and communications center plus the Presidential Quarters and Office if needed due to any emergency relocation.

The WHCA space at Site R. was designated 3C58, and the POTUS office with a balcony, overlooking the ANMCC War Room, was located down the hall in the 'D' corridor. The living quarters were across the hallway from the office space. 

Layout of site R

The WHCA mission at site R was discontinued in early 1970. The Detachment was moved to Ft Ritchie. “During the early 1970s to the mid-1980s the Fort Ritchie Det/CCT had Site R responsibilities. The CCT frequently conducted short-notice deployments into the Site, periodically checking RF and phones. There was not anything remarkable about the quarters or decorating colors. The surroundings were quite drab, but things may have changed after the CCT closed Fort Ritchie and relocated to Luke AFB, AZ. 

Entrance to Site R (Cadre)

Cadre had no windows due to being 768 feet underground, and the same black asbestos tile floor was present, which we stripped and buffed on a monthly basis. Upon entering, the lack of occupancy and poor air circulation always seemed to produce a musty odor. Other operational areas weren't as bad, but the humidity remained quite high, resulting in oxidation on door hinges and 19" equipment racks.

Corkscrew (Boonsboro Md.), Corkscrew had a two level bunker that circled the towers base. The WHCA communications center was located within the bunker.

Corkscrew (Boonsboro Md.)

The President’s Office and Living Quarters were located in pie shaped rooms on the lower level of the underground facilities. This site was also furnished in the 1960’s and remained untouched for many years.

Crystal (Mt Weather, Va.), Crystal was part of the Mt. Weather underground facility. The east and west towers were accessed by inter connecting tunnels. The WHCA switch board and communications center was part of the underground facility and located in Building 13. This Facility also interfaced directly with the Civil Defense Emergency Broadcast System (EBS) located at Mt Weather allowing video interface with the WHCA microwave network.

Mt. Weather retained some serious 1960s-style furnishings that still appeared brand new in the 1980s.,

Mt Weather (Crystal West and East Towers)

Cartwheel (Washington DC), Cartwheel had a two level bunker that circled the Towers base. The WHCA secure switchboard and communications center was located within the bunker.

Cartwheel (Fort Reno, Washington DC) 

The President’s Office and Living Quarters were located in pie shaped rooms on the lower level of the underground facilities. This site was also furnished in the 1960’s and remained untouched for many years.

Crown (Washington DC). The White House Signal Switchboard, and WHCA Comm Center

The White House (Crown)

The communications equipment at Cadre, Cannonball, Cowpuncher, and Crystal facilities was removed in the mid 1970’s. Primarily because of advancements in communications technology, these fixed locations became obsolete and were replaced in 1970 by strategically placed Communications Contingency Teams (CCT) at San Clemente CA, Key Biscayne FL, Ft Ritchie MD. and Andrews AFB MD; they were very mobile and could be deployed at a moment’s notice.

The microwave systems between Cactus, Cartwheel and Corkscrew were left in service at least through 1986, but they were only used as backup for the landlines to the White House. At least one system of the Raytheon KTR-1000 in each route was upgraded to a newer version that was partially transistorized but the rest of the systems remained all electron tubes.

During the Reagan Administration a new UHF system (AN/GRC-103 UHF FM radio with TD-660 Multiplexer 24 voice channels) was installed between Cartwheel, Corkscrew, and Cactus, but the microwave still remained operational. Cadre/Creed, although inactive all of the equipment in the tower was still operational and fully maintained.

All of the microwave routes were phased out in the early 1990's I can only assume that the FAA took over Cartwheel and Corkscrew at this time and when the tower at Cactus was demolished this brought to an end the communications network that started in 1954 and played such a major role in the Cold War.

WHCA Microwave Network Route Map (1965)

The microwave network was designed to provide reliable communications for the President of the United States. This network was also designed to act as relocation facilities and was designed to withstand a nuclear attack. During national emergencies the President would be able to communicate through these facilities and address the American people.

Each microwave route in this network consisted of three systems that could carry voice, video and secure voice/teletype.

A typical line-up three transmitters, video patch panels and three receivers (front view)

A typical line-up three transmitters, video patch panels and three receivers (rear view)

System #1 was dedicated to voice. A Raytheon KTR 1000A microwave RF system carried AN/TCC-13 voice multiplexing equipment to all locations in the network. Every facility in the network had a working communications center capable of providing encrypted TTY utilizing KW-7 and KW-26 transmitters/receivers providing 100 wpm secure teletype on the voice system.

System #2 was used for video. Cactus was equipped with an RCA video switcher and was capable of producing live broadcast video. The emergency broadcast system could also be accessed through Crystal at Mt. Weather.

System #3 was the spare route.

TCC-13 24 channel Multiplexer, audio and TTY DC patch panels (front view)

TCC-13 24 channel Multiplexer, audio and TTY DC patch panels (rear view)

The following facilities were in the Presidential Emergency Network that was operated by the White house Communications Agency. All terminals in the network had manned switchboards to handle voice traffic and also had manned communication centers that handled secure voice and all TTY traffic. The relays in the network were through points with a few drop and insert voice channels. All relays were equipped with a communications center that would become active in the event that an emergency was declared.

Site 1 Cactus (Camp David, Thurmont, Md.) Terminal: Cactus contained a fully equipped, switchboard, and communications center with secure telephone and TTY. In Emergency situations live Presidential addresses could be broadcast over these systems. Cactus had direct shots to Cadre, Cartwheel (thru a microwave RF relay in Damascus Md.), Corkscrew and Cannonball. Cactus could also be used as a relocation site with a fully functional underground Shelter.

Site 2 Cannonball (Mercersburg, Pa) Relay: Cannonball was a relay in the Cactus to Crystal microwave route. Cannonball had direct shots to Cactus, Cowpuncher and Corkscrew. There was also a standby communications center equipped with secure TTY that could be activated if an emergency existed.A buried cable connected Cannonball to the AT&T site at Hearthstone Mountain where traffic could be routed into their underground facilities.

Site 3 Cowpuncher (Martinsburg, WV) Relay: Cowpuncher was a relay in the Cactus to Crystal microwave route. Cowpuncher had direct shots to Cannonball and the Crystal west tower. There was also a standby communications center equipped with secure TTY that could be activated if an emergency existed.

Site 4 Cartwheel (Washington DC) Terminal: Cartwheel had three systems each to Cactus (thru a microwave RF relay in Damascus Md.), Corkscrew, and Crystal. Cartwheel also had a fully operational switchboard and communications center with secure telephone and secure TTY. There was a microwave route from Cactus to Cartwheel, and because there was no line of site, Site D in Damascus was used as an RF relay. There were also one or two microwave systems to Crown. Since there was no line of site to the EOB or the White House, a passive dish was installed on the real water tower at Tinley Park, which was a hundred yards or so from Cartwheel, and the routes terminated in the EOB. Cartwheel was also directly connected to The White House by AT&T cable routes.

Site 5 Crystal (Mt. Weather, VA) Terminal: Crystal had two towers that were built substantially underground, only the top two antenna decks were above ground. The west tower had a direct shot to Cowpuncher and the east tower had a direct shot to Cartwheel. The towers were physically connected by tunnels and accessed through the Mt. Weather facility. Crystal interfaced with Mt Weather‘s underground facility and contained a fully operational switchboard, communications center with secure telephone and secure TTY. Crystal also interfaced with The Emergency Broadcast System at Mount Weather which was capable of live broadcast video and audio over the network

Site 6 Cadre/Creed (Site R. Blue Ridge Summit, Pa) Terminal: Cadre was located within Site R the Pentagon’s underground facility and contained a fully operational switchboard and communications center with secure telephone and TTY. Creed tower was a separate facility located about a mile from Cadre which was connected to Creed by cable and coax. Creed Tower had direct microwave routes to Cactus. The tower was substantially underground, only the two antenna decks were above ground.

Site 7 Corkscrew (Boonsboro Md.) Relay: Corkscrew was a relay location that had direct shots to Cactus, Cannonball, and Cartwheel. There was also a standby communications center equipped with secure TTY. Corkscrew could also be used as a relocation site with a fully functional underground Bunker.

Crown: The White House was the final destination of all the traffic generated from the PEF’s over the microwave network and terminated on the WHCA operated the Signal switchboard and communications center.

Camp David at Catoctin Mountain, Md.
Catoctin Mountain site of Camp David with Cactus Tower in the background
Elevation	1,900 ft. (579.1 m)
Location
Location	Frederick County, Maryland, USA
Range	Appalachian Mountains
Coordinates	+39.648333N -77.466667 W

17 Nov 65 started work at Cactus

Camp David was originally built as a camp for federal government agencies and their families, by the WPA, starting in 1935, opening in 1938. Winter at Camp David

In March 1942 President Roosevelt directed the National Park Service to investigate locations reasonably close to the Washington area for use as a Presidential retreat. After studying several locations, the National Park Service selected three tentative sites: One in Shenandoah National Park, in Virginia, and the other two in the Catoctin Recreational Demonstration Area, in Maryland. The President chose Camp Number Three or Camp Hi- Catoctin, by using the existing buildings that were there; the retreat could be completed in the shortest possible time and at minimum cost. The camp also occupied a perfect location, atop Catoctin Mountain at an altitude of about 1,900 feet above sea level; this location experienced a consistently lower temperature than Washington DC; and was only about 70 miles, or a 2-hour drive, from the White House.

Tower History and Purpose

Cactus was built on the Presidential Retreat at Camp David Md. The White House Communications Agency (WHCA) was responsible for the installation and maintenance of all of the communications equipment at the facility. The staff at this facility was assigned to The Defense Communications Support Unit (DCSU) and they were permanently stationed at Camp David.

Facility Map of the presidential Retreat at Camp David

The Cactus facility consisted of a cylindrical tower and a two-level bunker.  The construction of the tower and bunker was completed during the mid to late 50’s.  It was one of the first Presidential Emergency Facilities to be completed. 

Cactus was part of a microwave network designed to provide emergency communications to the President of the United States, Secret Service and visiting dignitaries while at Camp David. This microwave route connected Camp David, the Pentagon (Site R) and Mt. Weather directly to the President or White House.

When Nikita Khrushchev visited Camp David as a guest of President Eisenhower there was an attempt to disguise the true purpose of the Cactus Facility and  a sign was placed on the wooden fence that surrounded the facility It read WATER WORKS.  I don’t know if  Khrushchev ever found out the real use of the water tower.

There was also an Underground Bomb Shelter built near Aspen Lodge. This facility was designed to provide emergency shelter for not only the President and First Family, but also for select members of the White House staff and the Secret Service in the event of a nuclear attack.

The WHCA Communications Center in the provided all secure voice and TTY. WHCA provided all non-emergency communications to all visitors that stayed at the facility, including all of the non-secure telephones terminating on a three-position manual switchboard both located in the Cactus Facility.

There was a Major upgrade to the old board, and the relocation of the switchboard room in the tower which  occurred in 1971. The cords were gone, and buttons replaced all of the cords, they debuted the space-age headsets.

Also there was a big upgrade to all of the cabins including turning Laurel into big conference meeting room (Richard Nixon made 26 weekend visits to Camp David in 71). WHCA also provided and repaired all of the television sets and stereo equipment installed in all of the guest cabins as well as Aspen Lodge.  

Aspen Lodge

The Secret Service and the White House Staff used two-way FM radios to communicate with each other. Communications to Marine One was accomplished by using a two-way UHF radio system.  There was also a surface to air radio link for direct voice communications known as Echo Fox the AF1 Presidential Communications Network. This nationwide system was maintained by AT&T.

WHCA maintained the electronic fence surrounding Camp David as well as providing the Marine Guard phones at the main gate and various guard posts around the perimeter of the entire facility. All of these phones terminated on a one-position manual switchboard located on the lower level of the Cactus Facility.  

We would joke about the various "Class of Service" for various phones within the confines of the perimeter. A guard post phone for the USSS or Marines could only call the Command Post or other guard phones and not access outside lines without assistance from the WHCA operator. More than once the President would pick up one of those phones and ask for something. It was difficult to find some of these "tree phones" for call backs! I am sure with the advent of wireless, most of those phones are gone.

WHCA personnel from Camp David were also responsible for the communications equipment installed on the Presidential Train’s communications car “Crate” located just outside Harrisburg Pa. Our primary responsibility was to maintain the Comm. Equipment and the generators.  

        Google Earth view of Cactus Tower and bunker (1988) see shadow in foreground, the building shaped like an F is the Barracks and Mess Hall, the Staff swimming pool is right below the Tower

Two Microwave types stationed at CD went TDY for a week at a time to Cannonball, a microwave repeater tower which was located on a 2,600 ft peak (Cross Mountain) near Mercersburg Pa.

On Monday morning we would leave CD with enough groceries for a week’s stay in a concrete silo. There were no windows in the nine floor structure so unless you went down to the entrance and went outdoors you had no idea what the weather was like outside. there were two people permanently assigned to the facility and when they went home at night, we were left without transportation, so keeping yourself occupied could become a challenge. Nobody knew what went on during nights and weekend when the guys were left alone and to this day nobody has incremented themselves

l knew many people did hunt at Cannonball during deer season! We always wore bright colored clothing and made lots of noise when we went outside!! A hunt club owns property including the access road presently. I remember a Radio Tech at Det 3 that volunteered to go TDY up there a couple times so he could go hunting "after hours"? He always had venison in his freezer.

When I reported for duty in Nov 1965 and the only thing that hadn't changed from when Cactus was first built was that SGM Shorten was still there in DCSU HQ. The tower was completely finished with Switchboard, Comm Center and microwave systems up and operational Raytheon KTR 1000's had replaced the TRC-29.

Technology obsolescence of the microwave radio network was the primarily reason that the tower was closed and the advancement of communication technology especially satellite systems and fiber optic cable. I know that the tower at Camp David was taken down some time in the mid 90's. They also tore down the old U-shaped barracks, mess hall, DCSU Headquarters, Radio Shop and Garage. They still maintain part of the bunker, but I cannot verify that.

The new DCSU headquarters is a large office building with satellite downlink antennas out toward the back gate near where the old Log Periodic, HF antenna was located. You can clearly see the building on Google earth; you can also see a satellite dish behind the new mess hall. I cannot be 100% sure that it is not for cable TV. Also if you look closely at the last building it appears to have a flat roof with some kind of white radome, could this be the down link? Of course I do not know for sure, but all the speculation is that the bunker under Aspen Lodge has been expanded and manned full time.

Now that the "Water Tower" is gone and has been replaced with satellite terminals, internet, and cell phones. I often wonder what Camp David will look like in 50 years from now! Will it even still be there?

Cross Mountain Pa.
View of Cannonball from the access rd.
Elevation	2,062 feet (628 m)
Location
Location	Franklin County, Pennsylvania, USA
Range	Appalachian Mountains
Coordinates	39.728313 N -77.992115 W

Cross Mountain is the highest peak in the Bear Pond Mountains, a sub range of the Appalachian Mountains. This grouping of mountains straddles the Maryland and Pennsylvania border. Cross Mountain and Hearthstone Mountain 2,021 feet (616 m) which is on the Maryland side, form a unique geologic formation known as the "Punchbowl". This feature was created by the weathered shale’s of the Ordovician age in the center of a south-plunging anticline, having been eroded to expose a large amphitheater like feature (punchbowl). Cross and Hearthstone Mountains are made of hard resistant quartzite of the Tuscarora Formation of the Silurian age. Cross Mountain is also the site of a deactivated microwave relay station that was used during the Cold War. The unit was encased in a 103 ft. tower, and known as the "Cannonball" site 2. The site was closed in 1977. Access to the summit is still restricted.

Tower History and Purpose

Construction of Cannonball tower was complete during the late 50’s to early 60’s. Originally named "Concrete", the cylindrical tower, renamed "Cannonball" in 1965, was built on the site that once was a fire-watch tower and had a fire-tower legacy two-room cabin within the PEF security fence. The concrete M/W tower was part of a Presidential Emergency Facility microwave network designed to provide communications to the President of the United States and emergency communications in the event of a nuclear attack. Its cylindrical shape and reinforced concrete structure provided maximum strength.  The pouring of all that concrete was a wonder to behold, as the pour had to be continuous once started this was necessary to insure proper curing of the concrete. All those cement mixers nearly wore out the road up the mountain. The M/W network connected Camp David and other key bodies of government directly to the White House.

The Cylindrical Tower

The Cannonball tower is approximately 103 feet tall and 25 feet in outside diameter, constructed of reinforced concrete with walls about 15 inches thick. It has no windows and entrance is through a single exterior door (not shown).The recessed section at the top is a two-level antenna deck, which was completely enclosed by two circular rows of Plexiglas panels, coated with opaque paint. Behind each row of panels is space for mounting the parabolic microwave antennas ("dishes"), six feet in diameter, which linked Cannonball with other stations in the network. The panels allowed radio waves to pass through but prevented the curious from seeing where the dishes pointed, and thus locating the other towers. Due to vandalism, only fragments of the panels remain in place. The dishes themselves are gone, too - as is all of the tower's communications equipment.

Cannonball appears to have a single basement level which is of the same diameter as the above-ground floors. However, this could not be positively determined because the space was almost completely full of water.

The Doorway 

The tower's sole entrance was secured by a heavy steel blast door - essentially a vault door - which was welded shut when the tower was abandoned in 1977. Despite that precaution, the door has been stolen. Only the frame and attached hinges remain. The circular opening above the doorway is the exhaust for the tower's ventilation system. The rectangular outline surrounding the doorway and the vertical pieces of lumber attached to the wall with the bolts protruding from the wall and stoop suggest that the tower had an enclosed porch.

The "Foyer"

This photo shows the tower's entrance area, as seen from just inside the       exterior doorway. The rusted door frame at the extreme left leads into what was probably a decontamination booth. The two vertical bars in the background, at the center of the image, are guide rails for an electric elevator which ran from the basement to the floor just below the antenna deck. The doorway at the center, under the "snakes" graffito, gives access to the ground floor's main room.
               

                                                 Decontamination  Booth

This small room is immediately to the left of a person entering the tower. The operation of its door (now missing) was coordinated with that of the exterior door by a mechanical linkage in the doorframe, so that both doors could not be open at the same time.

Note: The Cannonball facility is now located on private property and not accessible to the public. It was visited and photographed by special permission from the owners.  The tower has deteriorated very badly over the years since its closing.

  

Entrance way into Cannonball Tower (2011) 

Entrance way into Cannonball Tower (2011)

Near Mercersburg Pa. on Cross Mountain, a peak in the Bear Skin Mountain chain, are the remains of a cylindrical, poured concrete tower.  This facility was a hardened, manned communications relay station operated by the US Navy in the 1960s and part of the 1970s.  The site was a Presidential Emergency Support Facility, operated by the Navy’s Special Programs Office on behalf of the White House Military Office and the White House Communications Agency (WHCA).

 It doesn’t look too impressive from the air, but the tower is 103’ tall (atop a 2062’ mountain and has a diameter of about 30’, people worked and lived inside here 

While this mountaintop site is easily visible from miles away, finding the access road that leads up the steep slope to it is a different story.  Once the access road is located, the next problem is gaining legal access to the property, especially since the road is securely gated.  I obtained legal access several years ago, and briefly explored the site.  About 50’ feet up the road from the gate is an old sign indicating something along the lines of “No Trespassing, US Government Reservation.”  The sign had been taken down and was lying next to the sign post.  The paved road is narrow and very steep, winding on for about three miles from the bottom gate to peak.  The view from the peak is quite extensive (and of course even greater from the top of the tower).

Video trip to Cannonball Tower (2011)

 Entrance Gate to Cannonball Tower (2011)

 Access Rd. to Cannonball Tower (2011)

The grounds near the tower consist of a flat grassy area that was treeless (probably a former grass helipad or low/high frequency antenna site), the foundation of a former garage/maintenance structure, and a concrete pit approximately 10’ x 12’ and 10’ deep that were filled various pieces of junk, an old bed mattress, miscellaneous chemical drums, etc.  The original use of this pit was to house the power transformers and the emergency generator.

The emergency generator was located it this pit.

The power transformers were located it this pit.

The generator pit filled with debris

Transformer vault (2011)

Most of the surrounding area was wooded; with evidence of recent logging activity probably someone getting firewood. One concrete block with an eye ring in it was observed about 50 feet from the tower, it was probably an old antenna guy wire anchor block. There was also evidence of an old gate that would have crossed the access road just prior to reaching the clearing (helipad) at the top of the Mountain.

The helipad and tower from the front gate

The old garage floor and foundation  

Sole entrance/exit (blast door is missing) in 1999

Sole entrance/exit (steel plate covers entrance) in 2011

The tower was entered by walking up one or two concrete steps, through an entrance way that based on the door frame, once had a vault-like door. The first chamber entered was the decontamination room, where you'd remove contaminated clothing & shower, then be let into another small room (walled with pink tile, ROBERTSON 39 MADE IN USA cast on the back of the tiles) to put on clean clothes before finally entering main ground floor area. There was a 1'x l' window which would allow someone inside the second room to observe a person entering the bunker and decontaminating before they were allowed into the second small room.

 First floor entrance

Decon room with pass through and changing area 

The main ground floor at the entrance was mostly open, with an old elevator on the far wall, and small (frail) metal loops built into another wall forming a ladder which would let you climb up to next floor level. A metal hatch could close off each level from the ladder way. This was probably to prevent someone on an upper level accidentally falling through if walking in the vicinity of the ladder opening.

 Decontamination changing station

(Otis) elevator shaft, Note all of the misc. water/ pipes, power, and air ducts. 

There was at least one level below ground, but it was of indeterminable size due to it being flooded. US Army Corps of Engineers records indicate it was small and just used for storage.

 Ladder way on second floor 

 Second floor at Cannonball

However a second-hand report from a local person is that the basement level was large enough that a friend of his used to ice-skate in it during the winter, when whatever quantity of water in there at the time had frozen! Another source claims to have explored the site in the late 1970s, shortly after it was vacated by the government recollects the basement level as being “... large, with lots of old equipment in it."

Exterior walls consist of steel reinforced concrete, with a thickness of approximately 16 inches and the interior diameter of the structure is about 29.9 feet. The tower had approximately 7 interior levels above ground, each having a 9 foot height. Floor/ceiling slabs are about five inches thick. All floors were explored by me, though I couldn't spend a lot of time in each because I needed to get out of there and head back down the treacherous access road before dark. Each level had at least an inch of dirt and bird or bat guano on the floors. layout was usually the same, except for one or two levels that apparently had a living area and galley, with storage closets.

Aerial view of Cannonball tower

These levels were painted with a light green hue (probably supposed to be psychologically appealing), and were divided into smaller rooms and closets with normal 2x4s and plasterboard.

Most floors apparently had a center equipment rack hanging down from the ceiling via springs (shock-mounts). Though it wasn't apparent during my exploration, the flooring on each level was also mounted on springs to help absorb the shock of a nuclear blast. Personnel assigned to the site gradually got accustomed to walking carefully to avoid causing the floors to bounce. Each level had the elevator shaft running up a side, with various ventilation ducts, old electrical paneling and with pipes that apparently contained electrical conduit.

The top level was reached by climbing a makeshift wooden ladder near the center of the previous floor -- the original access method had been removed, probably for safety reasons. This Penthouse level had a large doorway (door missing) leading to an exterior 'balcony' which went all the way around the structure, and a small circular hatch also leading out. The circular hatch for this level was found on the ground, and was made by a company that made hatches for the US Navy. This floor level had approximately 20' from floor to ceiling, with an interior metal gangway going around at about the halfway point. Approximately 6' and 15' above the floor in a ring around the wall were large 'porthole' type openings, spaced about 2' apart. They were used for mounting microwave antennas. The exterior balcony area at one time was enclosed with a 1/2" thick Lexan or Plexiglas type material (samples taken), which was coated on one side by a bluish-gray material. Jagged pieces of Plexiglas are still in place on the tower, and extreme care must be taken when on the ground in the vicinity of the tower so as not to be hit with a piece that might fall off! Interior walls near the upper gangway area had signs painted onto the walls, but the lettering was blackened out. I am assuming the blacked out lettering identified other classified sites --perhaps some still in operation-- that each microwave antenna was aligned with.

The top two floors were originally enclosed by Plexiglas 

The exterior had a metallic support loop with platform/gantry way also, apparently to allow workers access to upper tier of microwave antennas. The 360 degree view from the exterior of the top level of the CANNONBALL facility was breathtaking. Factoring the mountain plus tower height above sea level, the visual horizon is 45.696 miles away, and the maximum VHF or UHF line of site distance is 65.803 miles. Of course, since the region is quite mountainous, those numbers are more theoretical than practical.

The top tiers were home to microwave antennas, protected behind a Plexiglas cover (busted but shreds are still in place, and fall to the ground occasionally!) You can see the doorway on the upper left, which allowed personnel to adjust the antennas. It was a blast door, The flat open land clearing to the right was a helicopter landing zone, a large log periodic antenna was in-between the tower and the helicopter landing pad.

Plexiglas protected the microwave dishes on the top level from weather elements, and it was coated on the inside by a special, RF-transparent paint manufactured by Sherwin-Williams. The paint was purely an operational security measure -- it prevented anyone in the vicinity of the tower from seeing where the microwave antennas pointed and having clues as to where other classified sites linked by microwave with Cannonball were located.

Cannonball Tower (2011)

Cannonball Tower (2011)

The specific mission of the CANNONBALL site was a manned microwave relay and part of The WHCA network supporting the governments COG activities, however it seems to have also been a National Command Authority communications relay site for use during Trans and post nuclear war scenarios. Communications systems known to have been in use at this and similar sites include VLF/LF, HF, VHF and UHF (microwave) radio. Some sites additionally had small telephone switchboards. Perhaps these sites were redundant communications outlets for other senior command facilities in the area such as Site-R or Camp David. And/or perhaps they were primary communications relay sites for secret emergency relocation centers, and linked Site-R, Camp David, Mount Weather, the Greenbrier Bunker, and the National Emergency Command Post Afloat,

As a Navy operated communications facility under the operational control of the White House Military Office and White House Communications Agency, this presidential emergency communications station had the CANNONBALL codename, which was probably also used as a static radio call sign for the site. For communications over long haul high frequency radio nets normally operated by Army Strategic Communications Command on behalf of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Cannonball tower was allocated the "audio call sign WAR-45. Other similar sites (also deactivated) are known to have been located in or near Camp David Maryland, Mount Weather Virginia, and Brandywine West Virginia.

Cannonball Tower 1999

Cannonball connected to the Hagerstown Project Office a terminal station on the AT&T Long Lines Project Office chain of Troposcatter communications stations, the Hagerstown or HAG2 site went online in 1963 servicing the US Military Automatic Voice Network (AUTOVON) communications network via a Troposcatter link to the Peters Mountain relay site to the S. Through co-located microwave transmitters, this site also served as the primary link to Raven Rock (AJCC) to the backup command center at Ft. Bragg, NC via the Chatham site at the southernmost end of the Project Office chain. In addition to these over-air connections the site was also linked via a 100 pr. subterranean cable to the adjacent Cannonball Cog site and the Long Lines cable network to the North.Like the other Project Office sites, all site infrastructure was located below ground in a nuclear-hardened bunker which was equipped to survive, operate, and self-sustain for an extended period in the event of attack. The site is still owned and operated by AT&T and was extensively upgraded as recently as 2007 with modern communications equipment, though the Troposcatter links are no longer operational.

The Text Content of an article in The Hagerstown Morning Herald, July 25, 1977 is:

                       Aerial view of AT&T on Hearthstone Mt. looking at the ridge line to Cross Mt. and Cannonball Tower

Hello, Hello

If there ever is a nuclear war restoring the nation’s telephone network might be one of the first orders of business.

That’s one of the reasons why American Telephone and Telegraph Co has buried a telephone switching station high atop Hearthstone Mountain four miles north of Clear Spring and just two miles from the Navy’s silo on Cross Mountain.

Although it’s not as secret as some government facilities around the area officials explain that the installation is designed to withstand the effects of a nearby nuclear blast.

The station which consists of 70000 square feet in a two and a half story underground building is made of concrete.

The delicate telephone gear inside is mounted on shock absorbers and the outside antennas about the only thing visible from a distance are en-cased in concrete pods

\

Access to the building is gained huge steel blast doors. Like other hardened sites the station has its own food and water supply. Filtering would remove nuclear particles from the air in the event of an attack.

The Hearthstone station is one of 65 around the world that provides routine telephone global com for the US military.

According to operations manager Bruce Parr the station normally handles only military traffic and in a busy hour it can relay thousands of telephone messages. But the equipment inside the station is standard telephone switching gear and Parr says it could be used to handle emergency or commercial traffic. Two other underground stations are also located in the area. One is at Monrovia in Frederick County and the other at Drainsville VA near the Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia borders.

Parr says Hearthstone was picked as a site primarily because of its high elevation a, factor vital to reliable microwave communications. The 5.5 million dollar facility was built in the mid-1960s and is manned 24 hours a day by about 30 people according to Parr.

He doesn't pretend that nobody knows where or what the station is but he explains that the facility is not open to the public for “safety and for the protection of the personnel who work here”.

Article by PAUL BERTORELLI

I never saw any satellite dishes or antennas at least none that were visible from the ground. I do know that WHCA looked at several of these locations nationwide for possible relocation sites. When I was in San Clemente I visited a hardened site in San Louis Obispo to see if it would be a suitable location. All of the equipment was on floors that were shock mounted and all of the environmental equipment was underground and safe from contamination.

 As a Navy operated communications facility under the operational control of the White House Military Office and White House Communications Agency, this presidential emergency communications station had the CANNONBALL codename, which was probably also used as a static radio call sign for the site. For communications over long haul high frequency radio nets normally operated by Army Strategic Communications Command on behalf of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Cannonball tower was allocated the "audio call sign WAR-45. Other similar sites (also deactivated) are known to have been located in or near Camp David Maryland, Mount Weather Virginia, and Brandywine West Virginia.

Cross Mountain (note the tower on the summit) 

In March of 1967 I was permanently assigned to a microwave relay site named Cannonball.. It was ironic, Cannonball was located on Cross Mountain, near Mercersburg Pennsylvania. I was assigned permanently along with a Navy Seabee (Al Jensen). I was responsible for the overall operation and communications and Al was responsible for maintenance of the tower and grounds. Two Microwave maintenance men would rotate in on a weekly basis from Cactus. They would be confined to the site for that week.

For a long time I have enjoyed the memories about the problems in the commute to and from work at the White House, OEOB, and on M St. I would like to share the commute that I took from 1967 to 1970, anyone that worked at Comp David will understand. 

I was assigned a 4WD 3/4-ton Dodge Power Wagon equipped with a snow blade in the winter just to make the 35-mile trip each day up the Mountain.

Many of the people assigned to DCAU and DCOU, had no idea of what we were required to do as a Member of DCSU. I was trained as a Microwave repairman, but spent a lot of time working on FM, UHF, TTY equip. and HF Radios. That was not all we had to do, we also had to to maintain the Site. We had to haul in the water using a 5-ton 1000-gal water tanker, plow the snow using a 5-ton dump truck with a salt spreader, mow the grass on the Helipad and in our spare time traveled both stateside and overseas in support of the President.. I am not complaining because I loved every minute!

While we were TDY at Cannonball cooking was the pits, especially when you lived off of TV dinners and Bologna sandwiches, but when I was assigned permanently to Cannonball I could at least go home and eat good cooking. I can remember some of the Guys broke into the C-rations that we stored on site for emergencies, just to get to the 20 year old Chesterfield, Pall Mall, and Lucky Strike cigarettes. They had to have been desperate and I guess they considered it an emergency, to smoke those things although he never admitted it I know it was Denny McLeod.

I can also remember that the worst sound in the world was the GQ (General Quarters) alarm, especially when it went off in the middle of the night while we were sound asleep. I am surprised that we didn’t suffer some sort of hearing loss! I can remember that the reset button didn't always work, was on the 8th floor and the bunks were on the 6th floor so that thing continued to ring until someone made it to the 8th. Floor and reset it. There were detectors on the roof for percussion, flash, and radiation (nuclear blast) and sometimes during storms lightning would find ways to set off the flash and/or percussion sensors. What a nightmare when up there in your underwear and the monster just wouldn't shut up! 

The gate that allowed entrance to the site as was located at the top just as you entered the clearing with the chopper pad on the left and on the right there was two silver I-beams with a chain stretched between them this was to block access to the ridge going across to the AT&T site. The perimeter fence ran along the tree line and enclosed the entire grounds surrounding the tower. 

At the time there was no gate at the bottom of the mountain in 1970. Of course the gate was locked and the fence had three strands of barbed wire on top. There were several telephone poles with red beacon lights just outside of the fence that marked the pad for night landings and there were two red beacons on the top the tower. There were only a couple of night landings while I worked at Cannonball. It appears that everything was removed or cut down from recent photos.

Radio checks at Cannonball one night were just over, and a very loud "BELCH" came out over ABLE frequency. The OIC of the Detachment was in his vehicle coming back from a Christmas party and probably was a little steamed when he heard this transmission. Before he could cool off, the next transmission, was: "CANNONBALL, THIS IS CACTUS, READ YOU LOUD AND CLEAR". Our OIC stopped his car at the next payphone and called in because he didn't want to express himself on the net! 

The switchboard operator that took that call was not amused. Monday morning, the team at CANNONBALL was summoned to DCSU HQS, and a couple of temporary replacements were sent up for the day. By the end of the day, and damage control, it was determined that no one in Washington area had heard or complained about the transmission and they were finally laughing about it. RIP Frank Sisco! To the best of my knowledge it never happened again!

The chopper pad looking at the front gate from the tower 

The Front Gate from the Tower

All of the PEF sites had an area that was usable to fly in personnel, equipment or supplies as needed by chopper.  There were marker lights installed at Cannonball and Cowpuncher that could be used for all night landings, The Executive Flight Detachment would regularly fly training exercises where Marine One or Army One would practice landings and takeoffs.  Each site had a UHF radio to communicate with the aircraft.  When they were five minutes out, I worked at this location from 1965 to 1969. We would always go to the garage and wheel out a large two-wheel fire extinguisher down to the edge of the chopper pad and standby in case of an emergency. I cannot remember the date or which flight crew it was, but we received a call on the radio that Nighthawk was having mechanical problems had an ETA of 10 min. and requested to land. Hearing that, we scrambled to get the fire extinguisher out to the chopper for this emergency. When the chopper landed, and shut down the engines the door opened up and every crew member started to inspect it! there was red Hydraulic fluid all over the beautiful white top. The crew started to wipe down the entire chopper. I then took the pilot into the tower to call Quantico to send a Maint. crew for repairs. in a little more than an hour a Chinook arrived with the mechanics and parts to replace the faulty hydraulic line. The crew told me that what they were afraid of most was ruining the $24K paint job on a Presidential Helicopter! 

They departed and thanked us for our assistance! That is one of the more exciting things that happened up there, was usually pretty mundane.

It was a routine beautiful day and Al Jensen our resident Seabee was out doing maintenance on the red aero lights on the poles by the perimeter fence (for night helicopter landings).  Eventually someone said "I wonder where Al is" so I went out to see.  I went back into the tower and said to Jim Wallius "you have got to come out and see this".  I picked up got a long handle shovel and we walked out to see Al.  As we stood there laughing, Al unleashed his entire Navy and New Jersey list of swear words at us.  There was a sizable timber rattlesnake at the base of the pole that Al was on.  After a bit (Al thought it was forever), I chopped off the head of the snake with one quick swing and Al shakily climbed down from his perch.   Al had a few encounters with varmints.

There was the old cabin next to the garage? We used it for storage and Al had it pretty organized at the end of his tour of duty. In early 1967 the cabin was a mess; everything was just thrown in there and basically forgotten about. Al got the idea that we needed to clean out the cabin, so in he went, well he suddenly found himself face to face with a skunk. The skunk let it fly and so did Al. It took a couple of weeks before you could even open the door and go in for a few seconds. Decon was the bait and it finally got the skunk.

There was hardly any preparation for the ORI that was conducted at Cannonball in 1967 by the Military Aides Office. At the time we didn't have a printed SOP the procedures were quickly developed by Terry Fields and I just before it happened, we were notified in advance that it was going to take place.  To the best of my knowledge there were none of the other locations involved in the exercise.  All we did was to restore the microwave routes check the telephone system and check the FM radios. I think it was for show to the military aide, but it was fun.  I didn't remember everyone that came up the mountain that day.  Jim Wallius, Al Jensen (our Navy Seabee), Terry Fields (my predecessor), myself and one other TDY duty man got to play games for a few hours.  I can't remember who else but Hugh Robinson the Army Military Aide, Mr. Fontaine and others joined us to simulate a nuclear attack and observe the procedures we had in place to respond to this emergency. They simulated a total power outage and we went through the tower making sure that all systems restored when the generator kicked in.  If I remember correctly only one fuse blew on eight and that was replaced quickly.  Poor Al had to check for any damage that might be accessed to the generators and transformer vault, as well as the outside HF antennas.  This meant he had to dress in all of the CBR protective clothing including gas mask, booties, coveralls headgear etc. Now this was early summer and was warm day. So Al took some tools and a portable Able radio for communications and out he went.  The first thing that happened was the radio died and I could not raise him, after about 10 min without knowing if he was still in the game, we decided to dress someone else (it could have been Jim) to go out and see what happened. About then Al came back in and went through the Decon chamber and the exercise was over.  I GUESS WE DID ALRIGHT BECAUSE NONE OF US WERE TRANSFERRED.  There was never another ORI ran again and I did not hear of any other location going through one. . I Talked to Terry Fields (my predecessor at Cannonball) only once after he left but like so many people that you knew and worked with you lose touch.  

 Tower viewed from access rd. (2002)

About our ability to "blend in” ‘we were all on "civilian status" and never wore military uniforms even when we were on military installations.  None of the vehicles were marked in any way or even resemble a military vehicle. I had less trouble blending in with the general public (although we are talking the 1960's here) than I did on military installations. We had a Green 4WD International Scout and a later a Blue 4WD Dodge Ram (The Blue Beast) to drive up and down the mountain. The 4WD Dodge Ram truck had a blade on the front, but the access road was very steep and narrow and we were lucky to reach the top with chains on all four tires.  There was so much snow that the only way to push it over the side was to plow downhill.  We had some pretty exciting times during the winter months.  We also had a 5 ton snow plow to keep the access road clear during the winter. We had a 2.5 ton water tanker at Cannonball, and we would haul water up the mountain whenever we needed to top off the 8,000 gallon storage tank. Both vehicles were kept in a Butler Garage just outside the main entrance.

Bud Evans ready for the drive to Cannonball with the Blue Beast behind him.

Tower viewed from access rd. (2002) 

Access rd. to Tower in (2011) 

The water truck and the snow plow did not have radios, but we would take a portable radio (Able) with us just in case we had problems. I experienced several ice storms while at Cannonball, I can remember one that was so bad that we could only get half way up the mountain because the weight of the ice on the tree branches caused them to touch the ground and we just couldn't see the road.  When we got to the top we had to break the ice off of the lock on the main gate and found everything covered with at least an inch of ice.  The elements on the beam antennas were drooping so badly that they looked like a U the triangular towers were covered from top to bottom.  I can remember that we all wore steel pots while we broke the ice off of the two towers. We kept them on when we plowed and salted the access road and retrieved the Blue Beast.  Winters there were so much fun, I will never forget the daily trips up and down the mountain.  I don't believe that anyone ever got snowed in and couldn't leave to go home when they were scheduled to go.

 Entrance Gate to access rd. January 2011

Entrance Gate to access rd. January 2011

We had quite a few construction projects take place during the 1968 thru 1970 one was the construction of some Log Periodic HF antennas.  The 80 ft. tower was equipped with a winch which allowed us to raise and lower the tower and antenna for maintenance. We spent a couple of months building the LP at Cannonball and adding a second three element beam to the rear of the garage.  The plan was to have Cannonball become the remote transmitter site for Cactus. We also installed a four channel Multi-coupler on the fifth floor.  I am not sure of the exact time frame but Cactus was also constructing a similar LP antenna I think it was going up behind the barracks and Mess Hall.   I think the plan was to add additional transmitters because I was sent to the Naval Station at Norfolk VA., in May of 1969 for training on the AN/URT 23 and the AN/URR 1051(these units would become part of the CCT packages); however we would never receive any additional systems.  Unfortunately we would never have the opportunity to really use the system as a remote transmitter because in the fall of 1969 during a severe storm the LP antenna was severely damaged and was never repaired. 

 Base of the LP Antenna

Anchor for one of the Guy Wires 

Another large project that we completed in 1969 was the shock mounting of the tower. Part of this project consisted of re-cabling the entire tower. We had a cable tied from the bottom of the elevator car to an old screw type cable terminal on the fifth floor inside the elevator shaft, which continued down to the MDF in the basement.  On the inside of the car I wanted to replace the old, two line telephone with a key telephone set and I was making a box to put on the inside of the car to house the handsets and speakers for ABLE and the UHF radios so we could monitor calls and while we were at it I wanted to extend the alarms from the TCC-13's with both visual and audible indicators. I also decided to change out the old connecting block and put in a 66 type punch down block in the shaft.  I think that Dan Maribelli was on the top of the elevator with me and Dennis McLeod was in the basement.  Are you still with me? Off we go on top of the elevator to the fifth floor. I wedged myself in the water pipes, called down to Dennis to make sure that everything was unplugged on the key system and proceeded to cut out the old cable!  Did I mention that the dykes that I used did not have insulated handles, well I got the shock of my life, and every time I tried to turn loose of the dykes I would hit another water pipe and my grip would tighten. Now I don't know how long this went on but Dennis hearing the pipes rattling started to look around and remembered we had 10 Hz, 105vac power supply mounted by the elevator control cabinet and pulled the plug. The absence of AC then allowed me to release the dykes but shot me out of the pipes and across the top of the elevator thank God that Dan was there to catch me! After collecting my faculties we finished the change out, but I bought 25 pairs of red plastic handle covers and put them on every tool we had in the tower with a cutting edge. All of the coax runs were also replaced during the tower shock mount project.

I can tell you we spent six months "shock absorbing" the tower in early 1969; we moved all of the equipment floor by floor first down to the third floor then moved it back when the floors were finished. They were made of I beams covered with steel plates, the floor was then suspended with humungous springs that attached to the ceiling by cables. The floors could be adjusted so they could be leveled and suspended. I was weird because you could bounce and swing at the same time. They reinforced the elevator shaft and spring mounted all of the air handling units. Any one that came up there during this period of time can't forget this gem of a project especially living through all the equipment moves and the construction dirt. We actually completed the project swung all of the floors and returned to normal just before we closed down the facility. What a waste of time and resources because I am sure that someone was already planning this long before we actually completed construction. I believe that Cowpuncher was finished, but I was told that both towers at Crystal were complete but were closed without swinging the floors.

We were barely complete with the shock mount project when we were told that we would repave the access road and add quite a bit of new guard rail. This project lasted about a month. Quite an ambitious program considering that in a little more than a year later we closed down everything and Cannonball was officially closed in June of 1970. 

Annotated Google Earth View of Cannonball Tower on Cross Mountain (2010) 

Floor by floor Description of Cannonball

Ninth Floor/Antenna Deck: There were two levels that needed to be accessed. The lower external area was accessed through a single blast door a ladder then allowed assent to a catwalk which circled the tower. Internal access to the upper antenna area and the roof was accomplished by climbing a ladder first to a catwalk circling the interior wall then a ladder to the pressure hatch in the roof. Three eight foot parabolic reflectors (dishes) were mounted either on the upper or lower levels pointing towards Cactus, Cowpuncher, or Corkscrew and each dish was connected to the associated systems via waveguide to the eighth floor. There were three foot dishes stored inside to be used for emergency replacement, should there be any damage to the permanently installed six foot dishes.

The two antenna decks on the ninth floor

Internal access to the upper antenna area and the roof was accomplished by climbing a ladder first to a catwalk circling the interior wall then a ladder to the pressure hatch in the roof to access all of the FM base station antennas (folded dipoles) and a 32' whip HF antenna, as well as the EMF and flash detectors.  

HF antenna on roof (32’ vertical)  
     

Eighth Floor:  Eight systems of microwave equipment were installed on this floor. Three systems went to Cactus, three systems went to Cowpuncher and two systems went to Corkscrew.  The lineup to Cactus was configured with three transmitters, the video patch panels, the order wire, a multi burst generator to test video and three receivers. On the other side of the room was an identical lineup that went to Cowpuncher.  At the end of the Cactus and Cowpuncher lineups were the two systems to Corkscrew.  This line up consisted of only two transmitters, the ladder going to the ninth floor, two Receivers, and the video patch panel.

A typical microwave lineup on the eighth floor (Raytheon KT R-1000A)
                   

All maintenance spares for the radio equipment was stored on this floor.  The facilities main power panel, for the emergency generator, air conditioning and lighting systems.  All of the equipment in this room was mounted on a shock proof floor which was suspended from the ceiling by heavy steel springs.

Seventh Floor:  This floor contained the dining area, the kitchen(Stove, Refrigerator and sink) with a pantry full of C rations, and a rest room with shower. Typically two microwave repairmen would spend a week confined to the facility. Since the tower was manned 7/24 this was the most used area in the facility.

Sixth Floor:  Contained bunks and bedding for up to twelve people.

Fifth Floor:  All of the voice multiplexing equipment for the microwave routes terminated here on voice patch panels. Since Cannonball was a relay, there were two channels that were drop and insert, which were used for communications to Cactus and Crystal. 

Typical Motorola FM base station installation 

The FM mobile base stations and UHF air to ground terminal were also located on this floor. Able frequency was installed and used for internal WHCA communications and Baker/Charlie was installed for USSS use. The UHF system was used to communicate with Marine One and Army One as needed for landings and departures. All of the radios were remoted to the elevator so site personnel would have access regardless of their location within the tower.

SSB Radio Console

TMC STB-1KW Transmitter

The Single Sideband (SSB) console was equipped with two R390-A receivers, two CV-157 SSB converters with audio patch panel for all upper sideband (USB) voice traffic with phone patch capabilities and lower sideband (LSB) TTY traffic. The TMC-GPT-750 was a 1KW transmitter and was installed in all of the towers and used primarily for support on overseas trips.

ASR-33 100 wpm TTY Terminal 

All TTY circuits had associated frequency shift keying (FSK) equipment with a DC patch panel and interfaced with various TTY terminals like the ASR 33. 

                   KWM-2A SSB system 

The Collins KWM-2 was also a 1 KW transmitter but because of its size and portability was sent overseas with the support teams. Later the URT 23-A replaced the KWM-2 and became part of the overseas trip packages.

URT 23-A with R390A receiver

A four channel RF multicoupler interfaced with a 32 ft. telescoping whip on the roof, a 40 ft. supported tower with a  rotating  three element beam, a 60 ft. supported tower with  a rotating three element beam and a 60 ft. self-supporting steel lattice tower supporting a rotating log-periodic antenna.  The primary use of this system was to provide presidential communications with worldwide communications as well as for any emergency situation..  All of the equipment in this room was mounted on a shock proof floor which was suspended from the ceiling by heavy steel springs.

Fourth Floor: Was a secure Cryptographic Comm. Center. The entrance from the elevator was a steel door with a combination lock and the area around the floor hatches and ladder was enclosed by a steel wall and door.  All lines coming into the comm. center were filtered from Radio Frequency Interference (RFI).
                            

KW-7 Secure Cryptographic TTY Terminal

There were two equipment racks of KW-7 and were two equipment racks of KW-26 encrypted TTY systems with associated printers/keyboards. These terminals could be routed over the microwave circuits or patched to the lower sideband (LSB) of the SSB equipment on the fifth floor. With this equipment we could provide secure TTY to any WHCA support team worldwide.

KW- 26 Secure Cryptographic TTY Terminal 

All of the equipment in this room was mounted on a shock proof floor which was suspended from the ceiling by heavy steel springs.

Third Floor:  The administrative office area contained work stations for four people.  All necessary supplies were stored on this floor. This area would provide administrative support for the Comm. Center as needed.

Second Floor:  This floor was the facility workshop; it was stocked with spare parts for all of the mechanical equipment. Tools necessary to complete any repair activity was also available for use.

First Floor and Entrance:   The entrance was a 12 inch thick steel blast door that opened by using a hydraulic system.

Decontamination changing station 

The first floor also had a radiation decontamination station which consisted of a dressing room and a shower. There were supplies such as gas masks and other equipment necessary to detect or combat any Chemical, Biological or Nuclear contaminants.

 (Otis) elevator shaft, Note all of the misc. water pipes, power, and air ducts. 
          

There was also a hot water tank located on this floor which serviced the seventh floor shower as well as the Decon shower and the first floor latrine.

Basement:  All of the facilities mechanical equipment was located here. The HVAC power panel, the air purification system, the elevator control panel, the water system pump and water chiller for the air handling units located on each floor.  All of the telephone cables from external sources including a 100 pr. underground cable from the AT&T site at Hearthstone Mt. entered the building and terminated on the main distribution frame (MDF). The sites telephone key system was also located in the basement.

Buildings and grounds:  The site had a fully functional helicopter pad, an emergency generator and garage, and an old two room cabin used to store equipment. The site had a 5 ton dump truck with snow plow and salt spreader to keep the access road passable in the winter.  There was also a 1000 gallon 2.5 ton water tanker to keep the water supply at capacity.

Three element beam mounted on the garage 

A 40 ft., TV tower with a three element rotating beam antenna was attached to the rear of the garage  and a 60 ft. TV tower with a three element rotating beam antenna was attached to the front of the garage.

LP tower stood just beyond the trees   

 In the clearing between the tower and helicopter pad was a 60 ft. self-supporting, steel lattice, rotating, and log-periodic antenna.  This antenna could be lowered to the ground as required maintenance dictated.

The  base of the LP tower

Cross Section View of Tower

                                                                                                       31 May 1988

            MEMORANDUM FOR REC0RD

Sub: Current information on abandoned Site 2 (Cannonball) at Cross Mountain in Franklin  County, Pennsylvania.

Encl: (1) Plan View of site2 

         (2) Pictures of Site 2

1, The Special Purpose Office (SPO) initiated an investigation of site 2 ­to determine If the White House Military Office (WHMO) or the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Chesapeake Division(CHESHAVFACENGCOM) is responsible for the restoration  of this abandoned, and in particular, the removal of an abandoned fuel tank at the facility. To date, our findings are that neither WHMO nor CHESHAVFACENGCOM is responsible for the existing facilities or able to fund safety and environmental improvements to this abandoned facility. However, it is imperative that both safety and environmental improvements occur soon.

2. On April 4, 1988, Ken Morin (CHESHAVFACENGCOM) and John Maxwell (SPO) visited site 2 to determine the status of an 8,000 gallon fue1 tank shown on Disclosure 1. The site investigation determined that the fuel tank and the rest of the facility are abandoned and deteriorating. After visiting the facility, it is our opinion that the environmental problems associated with an abandoned fuel tank pale in comparison to the life-safety hazards associated with the abandoned 103 foot high tower.

3. Enclosure 1 is a copy of a site plan, with notes describing the existing conditions.   Enclosure 2 contains a number of photographs showing the current conditions. Below is a list of some of the environmental and safety hazards found at the site?

a. The tower is readily accessible to anyone that can get up the mountain and there are a     number of signs which reveal that the tower has been visited by others. For example:  

1. Pictures 1 through 3 show that the Plexiglas surrounding the top ring of the tower is almost completely broken off. This is not due to weathering or age, but rather is more likely due to vandalism from inside the tower.

2.   Pictures 4 through 5 shows that the ground level entrance door is missing. It is our understanding that the blast doors to such facilities were welded shut prior to abandonment. To remove such a door takes a great deal of effort.

3. Pictures 6 and 7 show the elevator shaft and the existing "stripped" condition within the facility. The wall finish insulation shown in Picture 6 is potentially asbestos material

4.  Pictures 8 and 9 show the opening in the floor leading to the basement.  Since there is no hatch here, this is a very hazardous situation for someone or something cou1d fall through this opening and be seriously injured. Note that the ladder, typical or ladders within the facility, is no longer attached to the wall.  Henry Keyser (the young man that got us in the gate at the bottom of the hill) said that he and some friend’s skate on the ice that forms in the basement during the winter.  Mr. Keyser also said that he climbs the tower regularly.

5.  Picture 10 shows graffiti written on the wall of the towers ground floor.

6.  While at the site, Mr. Morin and Mr. Maxwell climbed to the top of the tower using the access ladder, during the climb we found garbage, a rope to ease top floor access, a missing rung that had been replaced with a tightly pulled coat hanger and there is total darkness on floors four through seven. Additionally, the ladder going up the tower is deteriorating, and when on the top floor of the tower, one feels a “swaying” sensation.

b.  Pictures 11 through 15 are of the fill cap of an abandoned 2,500 gallon water tank.

                                                                                                                                   

c. Pictures 15 through 18 are of the old transformer and generator vaults.  Pictures 17 and 18 shows that a lot of debris has been accumulated in these vaults over the years.  This area should be investigated to make sure that no PCB’s were spilled when the potentially PCB filled transformers were removed.  An open pit like this is a serious safety hazard.

d. Pictures 18 and 19 indicate that the 8,000 gallon fuel tank for the generator was abandoned in place.  This area should be checked for possible soil contamination and the tank should be removed.

e. For some reason, a number of trees in the cleared area are dead.

4.  As a minimum, the following short term steps should be taken:  (1) secure the tower by permanently closing the ground level entrance. (2) Test for fuel contamination in the soil around the fuel tank (3) test for PCB contamination in the old transformer vault, and (4) remove the abandoned fuel tank (note that abandoned fuel tanks are to be reported to the EPA on an annual basis by statute).  In the long run, the entire facility should be demolished and the site restored to natural conditions.  The questions that must be answered prior to the accomplishment of these recommendations are (1) Who presently owns and is responsible for the property and (2) whose and/or what funds are available for the clean up/restoration (this question is at least in part dependent upon who currently owns the property).  SPO has been trying to determine ownership over the last two months.

5.  There are (4) leases and (1) deed of easement associated with Site 2 and they are as follows:

a. USACE lease #DA-49-080-ENG-4645 between the US Army Corps of Engineers and Earl and Centha Brant.  From the description of the land leased, it is probably part of the roadway in Pennsylvania that leads to the tower. Our file contains an unsigned copy of the original lease dated 1 July 1959 and a signed original dated 11 August 1976.  The original lease states that for no reason would it extend beyond 30 June 1984.                  

b. USACE lease #DA-49-080-ENG-4368 between the Corp of Engineers and C.C. Glaser and Richard M Wolf.  From the description of the land leased it is probably part of the roadway in Pennsylvania leading to the tower. Our file contains an unsigned copy of the lease dated 22 July 1959 and a signed original of the cancellation of lease dated 11 August 1976.The original lease states that for no reason would it extend beyond 30 June 1984.

c. USACE lease #DA-49-080-ENG-4675 between the Corp of Engineers and J Randall and Hallie G. Mattern.  From the description of the land leased, it is probably part of the roadway in Pennsylvania that leads to the tower. Our file contains an unsigned copy of the lease dated 24 August 1959 and an unsigned copy of the cancellation of lease dated 11 August 1976.The original states that for no reason would it extend beyond 30 June 1984.

d. USACE lease #DA-49-080-ENG-4676 between the Corp of Engineers and Clifton M. and Cora M. Keefer.  From the description of the land leased, it is probably part of the roadway in Pennsylvania that leads to the tower. Our file contains a signed copy of the lease dated 24 August 1959 and an unsigned copy of the cancellation of lease dated 11 August 1976.The original states that for no reason would it extend beyond 30 June 1984.

e. USACE lease/deed of easement #DA-18-020-ENG-3736 between the Corp of Engineers and the Rattle Run Gun Club. The land leased is the roadway leading to the tower from Maryland.  Our file contains a signed copy of the signed deed dated 7 October 1965 and the DD 1354 where we transfer the property back to the Corp of Engineers.

f. USACE lease #DA-49-080-ENG-4675, supplemental agreement # 1, between the Corp of Engineers and J Randall and Hallie G. Mattern. The land leased under the supplemental agreement definitely contains the parcel of land that site 2 was constructed and portions of the roadway leading to the site.  In some of the documentation it is referred to as the “main site”.  Our file contains a copy of lease dated 26 February 1965.                                                                                                                                                                                                    

6.  From the incomplete documentation in our files, it appears that the Government believes that it has returned the property to the Mattern’s.  In a phone conservation on 27 May 1988 with Mr. Andrew Knapka of the Julian Post Office (work) ----------, (home) ----------), Mr. Maxwell found out that Mr. J. Randall Mattern died in 1970 and his wife Hallie died in 1976.  The chances are that the Mattern’s never knew that the property had been returned to them.

7.  Mr. Knapka also gave the following information:

a. When the government first leased the property from the Mattern’s there were other people with claims to the property.  The Mattern’s signed the lease because the government felt that they had the best claim to the land at the time.

b. Mr. Knapka indicated that he would share the information in his file on the land and the various claims to it.

c. The Mattern’s have a son, Lt. Col. Henry K Mattern, USA, Retired and living in Huntsville, Alabama.

8.  During our research of the facility, the following points of contacts have been established.

                                                                                                     

a. Pete Digel (----------). Mr. Digel works for the Army Corp of Engineers real estate division and had been researching the property prior to SPO involvement; however, he had completed his investigation, concluding that present ownership appears to be vested in no identifiable individual(s). Mr. Digel has been informed of all our findings and will be provided with a copy of this memo.

b. Bill Piccirilli (----------).  Mr. Piccirilli is an engineer with the US Army Corp of Engineers.  His office is responsible for completing the Inventory Project Report (IPR) which determines if a project is eligible for funding under the Defense Environmental Restoration Program.  Mr. Piccirilli indicates that his office cannot conduct an IRP until ownership is established. If it is determined that the facility is the property of the US Government, the site clean up would not be eligible for funding under the Defense Environmental Restoration Program and Mr. Piccirilli’s office would not handle the contract.  Mr. Piccirilli work address is:

CENAB-EN-MNUS 

US Army engineer District, Baltimore

P.O. Box 1715

Baltimore, Md. 21203-1715

                                                   

c. Bob More   Mr. More is the individual that will receive the IPR from Mr. Piccirilli’s office if completed.  Mr. More’s office does the paper work to get a particular project funded for design and construction under the Defense Environmental Restoration Program. Mr. More’s address is:

Commander Huntsville Division

US Army Corp of Engineers

CEMP-ED-PM

Attn: Bob More

P.O. Box 1600

Huntsville, Al. 35807-4301

d. Carol Robinson (home) -----------.  Ms. Robinson works at the AT&T facility at Hearthstone Mountain about 1 mile from site 2.  Ms. Robinson was very helpful in finding information about the Cross Mountain site.

e. Roderick Rohrer (work ----------; home ------------).  Mr. Rohrer is president of the Rattle Run Hunting Club.  He felt that it would not be a problem for us to use his road if we chose to do work at the site and that he will bring the issue up at the next meeting of the hunting club.

f. Mr. Atherton and son, Henry Keyser ------------.  Both live near the locked gate at the bottom of the mountain on the Pennsylvania side and have a key to the gate.  Henry Keyser took Mr. Morin and Mr. Maxwell to the site on April 4^th.

9.  From the Available records on this site, SPO has been unable to determine ownership of the question property; however, the fact that is some individual(s) or sovereign (i.e. either the US Government or the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania) does possess legal title.  Regardless of the question of legal title, the fact remains that the US Government was responsible for the construction of a facility on this property and would appear to have some responsibility (moral, if not legal) for the various hazards associated with this abandoned facility.  Therefore as a minimum, the following actions should be undertaken:

a. As a temporary solution the US Government should have the tower entrance closed and secured.  SPO could assume this responsibility, using resources using resources available to us.

b. WHMO should encourage the Corp of Engineers to make this project a high priority and secure the necessary funding to demolish the abandoned facility and to restore the ground to natural conditions.   

                                      

                                                                                         

John C Maxwell III

Copy to:                                                                                                                        

1) Pete Digel, Real Estate Division, US Army Corp of Engineers

2) Bill Piccirilli, Baltimore District, Us Army Corp of Engineers  

Enclosure 1

Enclosure 2

Photo #1

Photo #2

Photo #3

  

Photo #4

Photo #5

Photo #6

Photo #7

Photo #8

Photo #9

Photo #10

Photo #11

Photo #12

Photo #13

Photo #15

Photo #16

Photo #17

Photo #18

Photo #19

Round Top Summit, North Mountain
North Mountain's Round top summit site of Cowpuncher Tower in the distance seen from Shanghai, WV..
Elevation	1,673 ft. (509.9 m)
Location
Location	Berkeley County, West Virginia, USA
Range	Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians
Topo map	+ 39.419821 N -78.08889 W

North Mountain is a mountain ridge within the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians in the U.S. state of West Virginia.  The span consists of 20 miles (32 km) of ridge line and is noticeably higher in elevation, containing the mountains highest point of 1,673 feet (510 m) above sea-level at its Round Top summit near Arden in Berkeley County, West Virginia. North Mountain, as early settlers in the eighteenth century referred to the stream as to the "back" of the ridge when approaching it from the east. . North Mountain’s Roundtop Summit is also the site of a deactivated microwave relay station that was used during the Cold War. 

Tower History and Purpose             

Roundtop Summit, on North Mountain and west of Arden WV.  Its proximity to Washington, DC and other key locations made it a prime choice for a microwave relay station during the Cold War. In the late 1950’s/early 1960’s the Federal Government built a station here.

Cowpuncher Tower prior to Demolition

Cowpuncher Tower prior to Demolition

Construction of Cowpuncher tower was complete during the late 50’s early 60’s. Originally named Copper the cylindrical tower was renamed Cowpuncher in 1965.  Cowpuncher was exactly the same construction and served the same purpose as Cannonball.  The tower was part of a microwave network designed to provide communications to the President of the United States and emergency communications in the event of a nuclear attack. The Microwave route connected Camp David, Mt Weather, Site R and other key bodies of government directly to the White House.

Not only would the microwave network provide reliable communications, but the various sites also could serve as relocation facilities to withstand a nuclear attack. From these sites, the President could communicate with and address the American people.

Each facility had equipment to carry voice, video and secure voice and teletype. Of course, with our cellular networks today, such facilities are no longer necessary and even private citizens can communicate as long as the cellular towers still function.

There were seven facilities in the Presidential Emergency Network, each operated by the White House Communications Agency. Manned switchboards and communication centers were at each terminal. These communications centers became active in the event of a national emergency.

The sites were:

Site 1. Cactus Terminal, Camp David, Thurmont, MD
Site 2. Cannonball Relay, Mercersburg, PA
Site 3. Cowpuncher Relay, Martinsburg, WV
Site 4. Cartwheel Terminal, Washington, DC
Site 5. Crystal Terminal, Mount Weather, VA
Site 6. Cadre (or Creed) Terminal, aka Site R, Blue Ridge Summit, PA
Site 7. Corkscrew Relay, Boonsboro, MD
Final Destination. Crown, the White House, Washington, DC

The facility was deactivated in 1970  closed in 1977 and from that point was a popular place late at night with a particular group of people. The tower was demolished around 1983 surprisingly it was toppled in one piece.

The demolition of Cowpuncher tower as it fell 

Cowpuncher Tower in its “grave” (it was toppled and buried in place)

Google Earth view of Cowpuncher Tower near Martinsburg WV. Site has been demolished

Google Earth view of Cowpuncher Tower near Martinsburg WV. Site has been demolished

Cross Section View of Tower 

Mt Weather near Winchester, Va.
Crystal East (2015) at the Mount Weather PEF
Elevation	1,670 feet
Location
Location	Loudoun County, near Winchester Virginia
Range	Blue Ridge Mountains
Coordinates	39° 6′ 40″ N, 77° 50′ 2″ W

The Mount Weather Special Facility is a civilian command facility in Virginia used as the center of operations for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Also known as the "High Point Special Facility" (HPSF), its preferred designation since 1991 is "SF".

The facility is a major relocation site for the highest level of civilian and military officials in case of national disaster, playing a major role in U.S. continuity of government (per the Continuity of Operations Plan).

 Mount Weather is the location of a control station for the FEMA National Radio System (FNARS), a high frequency radio system connecting most federal public safety agencies and U.S. military with most of the states.   FNARS allows the president to access the Emergency Alert System.
  

Location

(Crystal West and East Tower)

Crystal West Tower

Crystal East Tower

Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, access to the operations center is available via Virginia State Route 601 (also called Blue ridge Mountain Road) in Bluemont, Virginia. The facility is located near Berryville, 48 air miles from Washington, D.C. The underground facility within Mount Weather, designated "Area B", and was completed in 1959. FEMA established training facilities on the mountains surface ("Area A") in 1979.

The above-ground portion of the FEMA complex (Area A) is at least 434 acres (1.76 km²). This measurement includes a training area of unspecified size. Area B, the underground component, contains 600,000 square feet (56,000 m²).

Tower History and Purpose

The famous Mount Weather Special Facility, a federal Continuity of Government installation and a Presidential relocation site, featured a White House Communications Agency (WHCA) switchboard and communication center, and two hardened microwave towers linking it to the other White House emergency sites. This Facility also interfaced directly with the Civil Defense Emergency Broadcast System (EBS) located at Mt Weather allowing video interface with the WHCA microwave network.

These cylindrical concrete towers were similar in design to the Cannonball facility, but were almost completely underground except for the Plexiglas-covered antenna decks which comprised the two uppermost levels of the towers. The towers were connected by tunnels to Mount Weather's main underground complex.

Crystal East tower (2015)

The Crystal towers are located on the east and west sides of Mount Weather; the east tower's microwave link connected to the Cartwheel facility, and the west tower's microwave link communicated with a relay station code-named Cowpuncher, located on Roundtop Mountain west of Martinsburg, WV. Cowpuncher was identical to the Cannonball tower, but it has been demolished and no evidence of it remains at the site.

  

Crystal West tower (2015)

The Crystal towers are still intact and their environmental systems are operational, but all of their communications equipment has been removed.

Crystal East Complex (2015)

Crystal West Complex (2015)

The WHCA operation was located in Mount Weather's Building 13. The location of that building is unknown to this author, but since the above-ground buildings at Mount Weather have numbers greater than 100, it is reasonable to assume that 13 is in the underground space. There is informed speculation that the building is on the east side of the site.

Cross Section of the East and West Towers 

Ft Reno Park, Tenleytown, northwest Washington, DC
Ft Reno Park (site of Cartwheel (PEF)
Elevation	409 feet
Location
Location	Tenleytown neighborhood of Washington, DC
Range
Coordinates	N 38.95198 and W 77.075922

• Street maps (regional and local) 
• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers DERP-FUDS report for Fort Reno
• Cross-section drawing
• Floor plan, lower level (PowerPoint image) 
• Facility upgrade proposal from Federal Aviation Administration (May 31, 2007; PDF file) 
• Fort Reno’s-undisclosed-location Fort Reno Update

Fort Reno Park is a park in the Tenleytown neighborhood of Washington, DC. It is the highest point in the city, and was involved in the only Civil War battle to take place in the District of Columbia Fort Reno Park is also the site of a deactivated microwave terminal station, that was used during the Cold War. The unit was encased in a 103 ft. tower, and known as the "Cartwheel" site 4. 

Tower History and Purpose                                                       

Cartwheel (Ft Reno Park, Washington, DC.), had a Tower with nine floors plus two levels of Plexiglas to cover microwave dishes and other antennas.  The Tower was mostly above ground level; but it also had a two level bunker that circled the towers base. Construction of Cartwheel tower and bunker was completed in 1961.

WHCA operated a switchboard, secure switchboard and communications center located within the bunker.  Tom Maier was a relatively new Crypto repair guy and had not gone through ANY switchboard training. But, at Secure Voice, repairmen also had to double as operators, so I was given a 1-hour crash course on how to handle the switchboard. I knew a lot about Crypto Gear (I had just finished over a year training on it at Lackland), but proper switchboard operation was quite another matter. — feeling exhausted.

My first, and fortunately my last, experience with General Haig, the gentleman (I will withhold my own personal characterization) who later became Nixon’s new Chief of Staff after Ehrlichman and Haldeman were implicated in the Watergate mess, was on my first day at White House Secure Voice.

It was sometime after 5 PM when the switchboard rang. A call was coming through from the Situation Room. My trainer said, “Why don’t you take this call. It’s after normal business hours, so it probably won’t be all that important, and it would be good practice for you.”

I reluctantly picked up the phone, pressed the Situation Room button on the switchboard, and said in my best possible, "newly acquired", switchboard operator voice, “Good Afternoon, White House Secure Voice.” The voice on the other end blurted out, “This is General Haig in the Situation Room get me General So-and-So at the Pentagon, immediately!”…CLICK!!!

...He had hung up!...

To be generous, General Haig was “relatively new” to the Situation Room at that time. He probably thought that I would be able to just place the call and ring him back when the other party picked up. Unfortunately, the equipment didn’t work that way. The secure switchboard design required that the originating phone had to remain “off-hook” for the line to remain operational. When General Haig hung up, the line dropped and there is no way that the operator…uuuh…that would have been ME…the "Newbie"…could re-initiate the call, short of calling the party on the other end and “gently” asking them to call General Haig back.

So, on your FIRST day on the job, as an E-4, which General do YOU want to “tick off”?

I stood there completely frozen…without a clue about what to do. I handed the handset back to my trainer and said rather sheepishly, “I think this is for you.” He took over and called the other General who graciously consented to re-initiate the call.

It took me quite some time to get over that little experience. Fortunately, I NEVER had to handle another General Haig call for the remainder of my tour at Cartwheel, but I ALWAYS felt a twinge of anxiety whenever any of the Situation Room Lights lit up!

This facility was part of a microwave network designed to provide communications to the President of the United States and emergency communications in the event of a nuclear attack. The Microwave route connected Camp David and other key bodies of government directly to the White House. Cartwheel had microwave routes to Cactus (via Damascus), Crystal, Corkscrew and Crown.

The folks who served at Cartwheel were really stepchildren of DCSU for a long time because a lot of support came from the shop on M Street and later Anacostia, but their Headquarters was at Camp David. It was rare for the DCSU Commander to get involved or even visit Cartwheel. There were some very structured rules on vehicles, and I don't think they were allowed to use our leased Government vehicles with all the antennas park near the facility. I remember one rare occasions where we stopped at Tenley Circle and discharged passengers, and they walked to the complex and we picked them up later.

Construction Photos of the Cartwheel Site, at Ft Reno Park in Washington, DC (1961)

Construction of the Cartwheel Site, at Ft Reno Park in Washington, DC (1961) 

Construction Photos of the Cartwheel Site, at Ft Reno Park in Washington, DC (1961)

Main Entrance into the Tower (1961) 

Construction Photo's of the Cartwheel Site, at Ft Reno Park in Washington, DC (1961) 

Stairs at the Main Entrance into Cartwheel

Working on the elevator

Pie shaped room on the lower level

Google Earth view of Cartwheel (2010)

Cross Section View of Tower 

                                                   

 

                         

Raven Rock Mountain Complex near Blue Ridge Summit Pa.
Raven Rock, Site of Creed Tower a PEF
Elevation	1,516 feet (462.08m)
Location
Location	Adams County, Pa
Range	Blue Ridge Summit USGS quad
Coordinates	+39° 44' 2.40", -77° 25' 8.40"

The Raven Rock Mountain Complex (RRMC) is a United States government facility on Raven Rock, a mountain in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is located about 14 km (8.7 miles) east of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, and 10 km (6.2 miles) north-northeast of Camp David, Maryland. It is also called the Raven Rock Military Complex, or simply Site R.   Colloquially, the facility is known as an "underground Pentagon” or ‘The Rock”.

Ravens Rock is also the site of a deactivated microwave terminal, which was used during the Cold War. The unit was encased in a mostly underground tower, and known as "Creed” site 6. The site was deactivated in 1977.  It was connected to Site R: but, access is still restricted.                

The Text Content on Page 1 of the Hagerstown Morning Herald, July 25, 1977 is:

The Rock

Buried in the bowels of the underground Pentagon a mountain waits for war

By PAUL BERTORELLI Blue Ridge Summit Pa

If a nuclear war breaks out Joe Bowman may find out about it as quickly as the President of the United States.

Just a hundred yards from Bowman’s backyard at the base of Raven Rock Mountain lies a helicopter pad.  The landing pad would be the main arrival point for top government and military leaders who would staff the military command center buried inside the mountain. 

The secret facility known officially as the Alternate National Military Command Center (ANMCC) is commonly called The Underground Pentagon or more simply The Rock.  Located just off of Pennsylvania Route16 between Blue Ridge Summit and Gettysburg, The Rock is designed to be the nerve center for the US military if a similar center in the Pentagon is knocked out, it is well prepared to do the job Buried deep inside a mountain made of the hardest rock on the East Coast.

The Rock can support 3000 persons for a month it includes apartments for the President and top government officials, it has its own water electrical and air filtration systems it has communications facilities that permit military leaders to communicate with US forces across the globe as easily as if they were linked by telephone. 

Even though it is a backup center the AMNCC is manned 24 hours a day seven days a week. Intelligence data from all over the world is funneled into the mountain and stored in a computer for safe keeping. But for all its sophistication The Rock isn’t invulnerable

When the military built it at the dawn of the nuclear age in the early 1950’s it was thought to be virtually bombproof Since then however improvements in the accuracy and power of Soviet nuclear weapons have made it unlikely that the facility would survive a direct attack against it.  Still military leaders say The Rock is and will remain a mainstay in the US defense network.  For without a command center capable of surviving at least the opening rounds of a nuclear exchange the US arsenal of bombers missiles and submarines would be turned into so many useless clay pigeons.

Going under

Even as the radioactive dust settled after the first nuclear blast over Hiroshima in 1945 American defense planners knew they would soon face a new reality The US mainland long protected from its enemies by oceans would be vulnerable to a quick and devastating attack with nuclear weapons. And Pentagon the main command center had become a sitting duck

So after World War II military leaders began looking for a place to bury a command center that could be made They settled on a 1100 acre site on Raven Rock Mountain It was located 60 miles from Washington far enough from the capital to escape the effects of an attack there but within quick flying range.  Raven Rock had another advantage it was only five miles from the US Army’s Ft Ritchie an installation that had been used during World War II for top secret training.  Since it was a relatively secluded base close by Ft Ritchie got the job of being The Rocks logistical and technical support base.

After the site was agreed on men and machines converged on the mountain in January 1951. The contractors toiled at a feverish pace.” We were real busy all right.  We worked 24 hours a day blasting and hauling rock out of there” recalls one worker who drove a truck at the site. Half mile long tunnels were drilled into the center of the mountain and were curved gently to reduce effects of a blast.

Inside the caverns at the end of the tunnels the military constructed five windowless buildings set in shock resistant foundations. According to a US Army Corps of Engineers report published at the time 500,000 cubic yards of stone were eventually hauled from the tunnels. As work inside the mountain drew to a close in 1953 a separate but related project began on a tract of government land near Sharpsburg, “A great field of giant poles 150 feet high has sprung up 10 miles south of this Western Maryland community” a1953 Washington Post report from Hagerstown said.

That project along with a similar one near Greencastle Pa was built as a communication system for The Rock. Known as Site B and Site A respectively both were abandoned in the 1960’s when communication improvements made the facilities obsolete. Today according to military sources The Rock can communicate with any part of the world without the use of antennas located anywhere near Raven Rock.

The heart of The Rock

The heart of The Rock is right out of Dr. Strangelove. It is the Emergency Conference Room the place where a command to launch a nuclear attack might someday be given. Inside this room is a large rectangular conference table lined with chairs for the President and his top advisors. On the walls of room, six huge screens are available to display the latest intelligence information. Two on either side of the screens stand ready for officers who would give a description in “Huntley Brinkley” style according to a Pentagon source

Also inside The Rock is the Current Action Center a military intelligence unit that keeps a constant watch on all parts of the globe.  If trouble flares in a coastal South American country for example the CAC can warn American ships or planes in the area of possible danger. “The Current Action Center in the Pentagon acts as a trip wire. It alerts the Joint Chief of Staff and the Secretary of Defense of events in the world which may require the use of US forces” explains Anderson Atkinson the Air Force general who oversees The Rocks communications.  If the CAC signals a crisis of major importance Emergency Conference Room would be manned and orders would then be sent out over its extensive com network.

So far all of the nation’s major crises have been handled through a command center at the Pentagon which is identical to the one inside The Rock.

But on several occasions a rise in world tension has prompted the military to send senior officers to The Rock” to spread them around just in case” If the Pentagon were threatened or knocked out the President could quickly helicopter from the White House to Raven Rock Military sources won’t say how fast the President could get to The Rock but they say it's “fast enough”. At any rate command can be swiftly shifted from Washington to Raven Rock “In less than a second we can push the button here and they have it command up there at the alternate” says Gen Atkinson.

The Rock is equipped with the same kind of computer and radio equipment that the Pentagon has and the steady stream of information gathered by military intelligence is sent to both centers. Briefings given frequently at the Pentagon center are broadcasted simultaneously to The Rock via closed circuit television. “They are nearly identical in operation. The only thing they don’t share is the coffee pot” says one Pentagon source.

From rock to rock pile

For all the efforts taken to protect it the Soviet Union is known to have bombs big enough and missiles accurate enough to wipe out The Rock.  A probe by the House Committee on Armed Services last year concluded that most military command centers and their communications networks would not survive a nuclear attack directed against them. The Rock was included in that finding.

The military apparently has foreseen that problem and acted to correct it.  In addition to building command centers at the Pentagon and inside The Rock it has equipped three Air Force 747s - “the so called doomsday planes” - to serve as airborne nerve centers.

 But Gen Atkinson says The Rock is by no means obsolete because there is no certainty it would be successfully attacked...  Some military strategist believes an enemy might spare command centers in a surprise attack.  With no command centers they reason the US would be unable to call back a massive retaliation strike.  Still the military has continuously devised schemes to improve The Rock Atkinson says he had seen a number of proposals to make underground command  post harder than it is.  He declines to discuss house plans are.

 Rep Bob Daniel of Virginia a member of the investigations committee agrees with military planners who argue that even though The Rock isn’t bomb proof it would be unwise to rely solely on the aircraft for command. “I wouldn’t recommend its destruction now” Daniel says.

The military has reviewed the House report and is expected In September to present its own recommendations to the Congress for better command and control.  Military officials refuse to say if improvements to The Rock will be among those recommendations.

 Whether improvements are suggested or not may be irrelevant when it comes to the future of The Rock.  The military so far hasn’t come up with anything to beat the Raven Rock Mountain installation. And until it does The Rock is liable to stay put. Says Atkinson” I feel very comfortable with the system I’m convinced we can direct our forces and I live with every day”.

Joe Bowman lives with it every day too although worries about how The Rock might survive a nuclear attack are the farthest thing from his mind.’ Well there isn’t much use to worry about it.  Once it happens there won’t be much left here anyhow” says Bowman.

Tower History and Purpose

"Site-R" is the location designator for a major US military bunker located inside Raven Rock Mountain, next to the community of Fountain Dale, near Blue Ridge Summit in Adams County Pennsylvania. The complex is also known as "the underground Pentagon," and affectionately to its personnel as "the Rock" or "the Hole" but the official name is the Alternate Joint Communications Center (AJCC).

Planning for the site began in 1948.  After the Soviet Union detonated its first nuclear weapon in 1949, a high priority was established for the Joint Command Post to be placed in a protected location near Washington, D.C. for swift relocation of the National Command Authorities and the Joint Communications Service.  The selected site is near Camp David (then known as "Shangri-La"). In 1950, President Harry S Truman approved making Raven Rock part of Camp Albert Ritchie, Maryland. This new site was named the Alternate Joint Communications Center (AJCC) Site R. Construction of the facility began in 1951, and in 1953 it became operational  Ft Richie is now Abandoned and is owned by a private developer.

Main Gate

Parade Field

World War II Barracks

Construction of Creed tower and the Cadre facility was completed during the mid-50 and early 60’s.  The cylindrical tower was named Creed has nine floors underground with only the two floors that contained the microwave parabolic reflectors and other antennas above ground.  The site that was named Cadre was built as part of the Site R underground complex.  Cadre facility consisted of the WHCA switchboard and the communications center.  During this period of time, WHCA personnel from this location also maintained the communications installed at the Eisenhower farm in Gettysburg Pa.

The interior of Site R consists of five, three story buildings: A, B, C, D, E. Cadre was located on the 2nd floor of building C, along with the Presidential quarters.  To visit Cadre you would enter the tunnel, all vehicles were searched at a station outside.  The vehicle was parked above a submerged area like an old gas station repair facility, so the inspectors could see clearly underneath the car.  Inside Site R were two blast doors: one for the pedestrian traffic and a much larger one to let in vehicles.

Map of Site R including approx. location of Creed Tower

The Creed tower could be accessed via a road leading to the base of the tower and park in a designated area outside the blast doors.  Entrance into the tower was through the outer blast door and down an access tunnel to the inner blast door then into the tower.  (See below)

                          Entrance to Creed Tower and Parking Lot                                           Exposed Portion of Creed Tower 

Note: The tower today is abandoned and without any electricity to power the sump pumps the tower has flooded.

The Creed tower was part of a microwave network designed to provide reliable communications to the President of the United States and also emergency communications in the event of a nuclear attack. The Microwave route connected Camp David, Site R, Mt. Weather and other key bodies of government directly to the White House.

Site 6-Detachment 3 “Cadre/Creed”

By Don Cammel

DCSU one of the three operating elements of the White House Communications Agency was headquartered at nearby Camp David, and had 4 detachments, one at Camp David (Cactus), one at FEMA Special Facility near Berryville, VA (Crystal), one located at the Reno Reservoir (Cartwheel) just off Wisconsin Ave, in the DC area, and Site R (Raven Rock) (Cadre).

All of these locations were manned 24/7 from the late 1950’s to serve as Emergency relocation sites for the President and White House Staff. They remained operational until about April 1970, and then were reduced to “mothball” status over the next several decades.

Don Cammel was assigned to Detachment 3, DCSU located within Site R and the remote microwave silo at nearby Creed Tower. The total Detachment was about 20 people, and from its inception until closing, the total number of people assigned to this unit was probably less than 40 people. It was often a boring assignment, but living in the small rural community near Blue Ridge Summit and Gettysburg had a lot of benefits.

WHCA personnel from Detachment 3 also maintained the communications installed at the Eisenhower farm in Gettysburg Pa. All of Detachment 3 also participated in worldwide travel in support of all WHCA deployments for the President and others as directed.

The USSS CP at the Eisenhower farm in Gettysburg PA

Creed Tower (Site R, Blue Ridge Summit, PA.)

CREED Tower was a part of the WHCA hardened microwave network locations providing connectivity for the President to Camp David, Corkscrew, Cannonball, Cowpuncher, and Crystal East/West towers in the event of a national emergency

Construction of Creed tower and the Cadre facility within Site R  was completed during the mid-50 and early 60’s.  Creed tower had eight floors plus two levels of Plexiglas which covered the microwave dishes and other antennas. 

Cross Section view of Creed Tower

Site of Creed Tower near the main entrance to Site R

The tower only had the two top levels above ground. Creed Tower was a separate facility near Site R which housed all of the WHCA microwave equipment as well as the HF and FM radio equipment, and had a separate entrance into the tower through its own blast door and tunnel at the base of the tower.

Site 6 Cadre (Site R, Blue Ridge Summit, PA.)

The site that was codenamed Cadre was built as part of the Site R underground complex.  The Cadre facility consisted of the WHCA switchboard and the communications center. 

The West Portal A and B entrances to Site R

 Site R was the designated relocation site for the Pentagon, and was under the control of 7th Signal Command, located at Fort Ritchie, MD. The WHCA DCSU Det 3, was a tenant activity located inside the Operations area of Site R.

Inside Site R, WHCA maintained the Presidential Office Suite and Quarters for relocation of the President.  WHCA also had an admin area for use as the detachments office, a switchboard room, Commcenter and Crypto area, plus a small dining room with private cooking facilities for the White House Mess to cook meals for the relocated Presidential party.  This area was a very sterile looking underground office environment, black asbestos tile floors, dropped faded white ceiling tiles, and often very noticeable air handlers moving fresh air about the facility.      

The makeup of the detachment consisted of about 3 or 4 switchboard operators, 3 TTY Commcenter operators, 2 COMSEC repairmen, and our OIC, an Army CWO and NCOIC for inside Site R.   We had a supply person, and about 10 people at CREED with various radio skills in both FM base stations, HF radio, and microwave.

The switchboard at Site R was one of the very first ESS Digital switchboards, and the most obvious distinction was very noticeable immediately….NO CORDS!   The Operator would see an LED read out of the party calling, answer the call, and then push an extension button or trunk line and make the connection.  Once the call was connected, the operator was now completely OUT of the call.  The users could “flash” back to operator, but in order to reconnect to someone different, it was often easier to hang up and restart a new call.   Since this switchboard was going to be used for the President in time of crisis, and only a few people trained, the section was often not able to travel because of manpower requirements to always keep two trained people off travel status. CWO Frank Sisco, started an aggressive cross-training program, and all the Commcenter, COMSEC, and people working inside the complex became very efficient at operating this system.   We had Position 17 and 18 of the ANMCC Fort Ritchie switchboard, and our positions were remoted to our own facility, we never interfaced with the other 16 positions.   There were so many “gee-whiz features” we discovered new applications every day.  You could place a call, receive a busy signal, and initiate a “Camp On Busy” feature where both parties would be connected when the call was finished.  This always added confusion, and early versions of Call Forwarding, and very robust in creating group conference calls, but difficult to release individuals from such conferences.   We had to put in a retro-system to transfer all the ESS 4W circuits with relays, to traditional 2W circuits and have a 19in rack of relays that would allow an umbilical cable to be connected to the WHCA analog mini-board. This was a Giant step backward, but the Stromberg-Carlson system would take 10-15 minutes to reboot during scheduled and unscheduled outages. In my opinion, this was one of the most challenging systems ever used by WHCA and only a few of us were ever involved.

Cadre and and Creed locations at Site R

 Presidential Office Suite and Quarters

WHCA’s designated Office space was located in Bldg. C, and the Presidential Offices and Quarters just down the hallway in Bldg. D.  There were 5 buildings designated from A-E which coincided with the 5 rings of the Pentagon.  Each of the building was 3 stories tall and there was a freight elevator near the cafeteria, and a small private controlled elevator for the Presidential Suite. 

The President’s office had a balcony, overlooking the ANMCC War Room, which was located down the hall in the 'D' corridor. The living quarters were across the hallway from the office space. Every Friday, we had a cleaning schedule to vacuum and dust the POTUS Suite and Office. I remember there being one of the first King Size beds I had ever seen.

The original furniture was chosen based on Jackie Kennedy's preferences. One piece that stood out was a wicker rocking chair, which seemed somewhat out of place amidst the otherwise bland surroundings. (It was one of those standard LBJ high-back chairs with the Presidential Emblem in the working area.)"

One afternoon, we were informed of an upcoming dignitary tour and instructed to remove the rocking chair from the suite. We managed to stash it in a mop closet, and the following week our CO at the time sought guidance on what to do with it

The order was to 'get rid of it.' The challenge lay in removing 'property' from Site R, considering we had to pass through a double blast door or our special vehicle access point. We cleverly packaged the chair in brown paper, labeled it as a package for 'Armed Forces Courier' service, and used our 'Courier Card' to successfully transport it out of the facility.

I'm certain that someone enjoyed the chair for years afterward, and no questions were ever asked. We encountered a similar situation when we needed to transport two cases of LBJ wine urgently to Camp David. It became something of a game to figure out how to circum-navigate the Military Police enforcing the rules." 

It is rumored that the Presidential quarters was nicknamed the 'Lucy and Desi' suite, their television series was actually better decorated than the bare walls of the quarters. However, after the events of 9/11, WHCA underwent significant upgrades in communications, including substantial changes in internet usage. This might explain why that particular nickname could have been fitting for someone in 2000. It's possible that modernization efforts extended to the POTUS quarters as well.

In all of these shelters, the office supplies seemed to be stuck in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Carbon manifold sets, rock-hard bottles of White Out, new Remington 550 manual typewriters, and plenty of steno pads were abundant. Typewriter ribbons were in ample supply, though well past their expiration date by 1970. We had many 2 ½ lead pencils with hardened erasers, rusted paperclips in the box, and serious doubts about how stenographers and secretaries could function properly.

The most modern equipment during that time was the introduction of the IBM Selectric typewriter, of which we had two. They utilized a special 'type ball' for all-capital lettering, possibly for use in a teleprompter. Dignitaries assigned to deploy to Site R often came for orientation tours, primarily from the USSS, WH Staff, and Military Aides.

DSCU Detachment 3 personnel were all Active Duty Military, but never wore uniforms.  There were up to 2500-3000 people at times working inside Site R, and most were Active Duty sent on a rotating basis from the Pentagon for 14 days at a time. 

Access to the Presidential Suite was VERY controlled and only WHCA personnel, visiting USSS, and occasional WH Staff on orientation would occasionally gain access for a tour or briefing inside the suite.

We manned our office space 24/7 like “Firemen in the Firehouse”. Once the day crew departed around 4:30 pm, you would basically clean up the dining room (Pinochle Game Daily), and then we would use the kitchen to cook whatever food we brought for our 24 hour shift.   On duty personnel were allowed to sleep at night once the check list had been completed. Television with local DC and Baltimore. stations was available, and there was a hide-a-bed that we were allowed to use.

One night Don was all comfortable in the scratchy US Army issue wool blanket about 1:30am, and our doorbell rings. “I put on my pants and shirt, combed my hair without a mirror, and go look outside through the peep hole. All I can see is the chest of a USAF uniform and a guy pacing back and forth with a couple of strap hangers. 

I opened the door, and while doing so, a USAF BG attempted to push the door open as I pulled it shut behind me.   I asked him if I could help him, and he announced, “I am here for my tour of the Presidential Suite”.   

At this point he had no clue that I was a US Army Active Duty SSG (E-6), and I told him, I didn’t get word on your visit, the area is controlled by the White House Military Office, you can “Dial “O” on the phone here by the door and reach the Camp David  Operator that can connect you to the WHMO stand-by Officer. 

He then started out…..this is “B.S”, I am a ONE STAR GENERAL, and the ranking person inside Site R for this week.   You will regret not granting me access, this is wasting my time.  Sorry, General, but I have my rules.  Who is your boss?   Chief Warrant Officer Frank Sisco….was my reply.   And what is your title?   I told him I was an Army SSG.  He then went wild and told me that I would regret not allowing him access.   He made the call to the Camp David Operator who connected him first to the WHCA Duty Officer, and then the Situation Room, and was told to call back during core hours the next day!   He was totally steamed when he departed.

The next day, I received a call at home from Frank Sisco and he was laughing about the events of my shift.  He had been on multiple calls from WHMO and DCSU Headquarters during the day, and they were proud of my actions and laughing about it. 

This guy never did get his tour and after his rotation back to the Pentagon, they arranged for a tour of the next person on the roster and made sure he told the other General we honored the request.   I am sure he was steamed again! Just another day inside the mountain. “

It's worth noting that there were no windows due to being 768 feet underground, and the same black asbestos tile floor was present, which we stripped and buffed on a monthly basis. Upon entering, the lack of occupancy and poor air circulation always seemed to produce a musty odor. Other operational areas weren't as bad, but the humidity remained quite high, resulting in oxidation on door hinges and 19" equipment racks.

In 1970 the WHCA microwave network and the PEF locations were deemed obsolete and WHCA’s presence was no longer needed. Detachment 3 personnel were re-assigned to form the new CCT’s at Fort Ritchie, Camp David, San Clemente, and Key Biscayne and to other WHCA units. “During the early 1970s to the mid-1980s, Fort Ritchie Detachment/CCT had Site R responsibilities. The CCT frequently conducted short-notice deployments into the Site, periodically checking RF and phones. There was not anything remarkable about the quarters or decorating colors. The surroundings were quite drab, but things may have changed after the CCT closed Fort Ritchie and relocated to Luke AFB, AZ. 

Travel and Trip support

Det #3’s personnel were also required to support Presidential travel worldwide.

"Acoustical Couplers”-Don Cammel

My first overseas Presidential Trip was with LBJ to El Salvador in Central America in 1968. We actually tested three systems using the GE Acoustical Coupler, the DEX-1, and the XEROX version of the DEX-1 our team  set up the Comm. Center in the new U.S. Embassy. Dan Schottlekotte was the 13A technician and he worked on a completely isolated system in his hotel room when we had lots of failures. It was then discovered that the built-in cradle to accept the handpiece was often different than the traditional WECO 500 set. This allowed for ambient noise from air-handlers, even conversation and sometimes "feedback" to interfere with the connection.

The Commcenter was set up in a storage room that had a couple of large power transformer/rectifiers which gave off a very loud annoying background loud hum. We had a difficult time getting a standard TTY line working, so we attempted a test of the GE Acoustical Coupler. We would get a few lines of good copy and then it would drop out. Dan S, in his quiet thinking process, determined that the physical seal of the handset in the coupler base was not keeping out the ambient noise of the electrical rectifiers and interfering with our connection. Out came a roll of Gaffers Tape, in an attempt to seal the space around the handset. You had to tape it fast, or you would lose the connection and have to start over. This effort continued for several hours during the pre-visit. We tried covering the coupler with a pillow without success. The next attempt was to wrap a washcloth around the handpiece with some improvement, but we need a thinner fabric to create a seal.   We then tried very thin black socks and wrapped them around the handset before placing it in the coupler and then closed the cover. This solved the problem, and we were able to make everything work. We never did get the dedicated TTY line working. 

We then bypassed the acoustic receiver on the GE unit, and we had a hard wire DC Voltage signal direct from the KW-7's with a fabricated harness so we used the GE Acoustical Coupler for the entire visit, including the transmission of the morning PDB, which needed about 3 transmissions to fill in the occasional errors and splice the TTY tape to make a final good copy. I still can hear the hum from that rectifier that bothered us for the entire week.

Graphic Sciences would never allow us to do the same thing with the DEX series machines. That is my recollection from a non-techie, who always got in trouble with the Maintenance guys and reminded I was an "Operator"!

I was the junior person in the Commcenter on the El Salvador trip and working the midnight shift. One night around 2am, we had a TOP SECRET message on the TTY arrive with IMMEDIATE precedence and one of the addressees was Walt Rostow, the National Security Advisor to LBJ. The same role was made famous by Dr. Kissinger with Nixon and other administrations. Mr. Rostow had elected not to stay in the same Staff Hotel, and the State Department rented a mountain chalet overlooking the ocean for him, which was about 30 miles away, but a minimum of a two hour ride.

I was dispatched to deliver this message, and the Supervisor mandated that since it was TOP SECRET, I should carry the standard issue Commcenter pistol, a Colt Detective Special with a 2" barrel and 5 rounds. After a scary ride through crowded streets and narrow mountain roads, I finally arrived at Mr. Rostow's temporary quarters for the visit. It was now approaching 4am.

The State Department and USSS guards pointed me to the bedroom, and I walked in and knock on the door, only to find him slumped over his desk in in pajamas. He of course was startled, but I delivered the message, and announced that I would be waiting in the foyer in the event he wanted to dispatch a reply, to please let me know so I could return to the Embassy.

I couldn't help but notice, he was using an old fashion fountain pen, and it was in his PJ pocket, and he had a big circle of "black" ink about 5" in diameter on around his pocket. After a few minutes he comes out, has the message and instructs me, please bring this back at 7am. Quickly, I advised him, I will just stay here in the foyer until 7am, because it is a 4 hour round trip to and from the Embassy. He thought for a second, and I got my first lesson on downgrading. He placed the yellow TTY copy on the table, took his ruler and held it in place and tore off the top and bottom headers of the message which contained the RED letter with the classification markings. He then folded up the text portion and placed it in his pajama pocket, reached for his Presidential Zippo lighter, took the two strips with the classification, and lit them on first and dropped them into the large ash tray. He then told me to have a safe trip back to the Embassy.

I got back to the Embassy, and explained the situation, and the Trip Officer and others really struggled with how to record what had actually happened to the message for the logging purposes. I was an E-5 at the time, and I wasn't going to challenge the National Security Advisor on how to handle a message in the middle of the night! That was actually the first TS message that I ever touched, and have to say, I still remember it well.

On Lambs Knoll, South Mountain near Boonsboro (Maryland)
Lambs Knoll near Boonsboro, Md.
Elevation	1,758 ft. (535.8 m)
Location
Location	Frederick County, Maryland
Range	South Mountain Blue Ridge Mountains
Coordinates	+39.448712 N  -77.62749 W

Lambs Knoll is a peak of South Mountain on the border of Washington County and Frederick County in the state of Maryland, United States. The 1,758 feet (536 m) peak is the second tallest on South Mountain in Maryland behind Quirauk Mountain.

The peak is located to the south of Fox and Turner's Gaps, and marks the beginning of geographic change in South Mountain from a solitary narrow ridge to a broad highland plateau, as it nears the convergence with Catoctin Mountain.  Lambs Knoll is also the site of a deactivated microwave relay station, that was used during the Cold War. The unit was encased in a 103 ft. tower, and known as the "Corkscrew” Site 7. 

The Text Content on Page 1 of Morning Herald, July 25, 1977 is:

That silo isn’t for cattle 

To the casual observer driving down Maryland Route 67 southwest of Boonsboro, the distant object atop of South Mountain looks like a farmer’s silo. Closer inspection would reveal that it is indeed a silo, but not the kind used to store cattle feed. This particular silo belongs to the US Navy and is one of at least three similar Top Secret Navy facilities in the Tri-State area. Two other silos are located atop mountain ridges in Pennsylvania and in West Virginia. Just what goes on inside the silos the Navy isn’t saying?

After repeated requests to the Navy for information on silos spokesman Ron Black gave this reply, “No information can be released its classified”.

According to residents of the area the Boonsboro silo was built sometime during the late 1960s. Like the others it is served by a narrow but a small road complete with guard rails. Although the Boonsboro silo is still in daily use the one located on Cross Mountain just inside the Pennsylvania state line north of Mercersburg was open earlier this year. The high chain link fence surrounding it has been ripped down and a heavy steel blast door leading into the silo was ajar recently. The silo is equipped with an elevator to each of its eight floors. Although much of the equipment inside has obviously been removed, much remains... Heavy air conditioning equipment, air filters and electrical panels are still in place. In an apparent effort to blast proof the equipment the panels are mounted on heavy springs with coiled wire lo take up movement. The silo apparently housed offices. On the ceilings are fluorescent lamps. The floors are tiled.

Whatever goes on inside the silos it is not related to the Alternate National Military Command Center near Blue Summit Pa.? Sources at the Pentagon responsible for The Rock say they do not know anything about the Navy silos.

And until the Navy decides to talk its mysterious silos will remain one of the government secrets in the area plus

In reality these silo's were part of a microwave network that was the backbone of communications for the Presidential Emergency Facilities.

The White House Communications Agency (WHCA) would play a key role in the implementation of Continuity of Government (COG) plan. The Continuity of Government is the principle of establishing defined procedures that allow a government to continue its essential operations in case of nuclear war or other catastrophic events. In 1954 a plan to implement emergency communications was developed and presented to the Secretary of Defense. A major element of this plan was an emergency relocation strategy which provided for the dispersal of essential elements of the Federal Government. This plan also addressed the necessary communications need by the President, and other Governmental agencies. Because little or no reliable communications were available in the emergency relocation areas, the Army Signal Corps was tasked with the planning, designing, engineering, installing and maintaining the communications support of this program.

These sites were constructed very quietly and actually hidden from the Public but in reality were in plain sight and visible from miles around, several of these Continuity of Government sites were built in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C., these sites were designed to house large numbers of federal officials in underground bunkers while the exposed concrete towers that housed sophisticated radio equipment kept communications open among the survivors, the military, and civilian populations. These were among the first relocation facilities built in the 1950s and early 1960s as federal planners conceived of and realized a Federal Relocation Arc extending outwards from Washington were key documents and people could be sheltered during and after a nuclear exchange.

The Federal Relocation Arc included above- and below-ground sites located within a 300-mile radius of the nation’s capital. These sites were administered through the Executive branch’s White House Military Office (WHMO), while the communications personnel were attached to the White House Communications Agency (WHCA). The Presidential Emergency Facilities (PEF) were literally holes in the ground, deep enough to withstand a nuclear blast and outfitted with elaborate communications equipment, funds to support the sites wound their way through a circuitous route in the Defense Department. All oversight for these facilities originated in the White House Military Office.

These sites in the Arc were the key to ensuring open lines of communications were built in a network that relied upon line-of-sight microwave technology, i.e., each transmitter and receiver had to have an unobstructed line-of-sight between its nearest neighbors for the network to be viable. These microwave hops were usually no more than fifty miles apart. “I’m assuming that when they did their studies they knew specifically where the main terminals were going to be and they looked for locations that they had line of sight, and they were all within forty miles of each other.”

Tower History and Purpose

                                                     

Corkscrew was one of several presidential emergency facilities and related communications relay stations constructed in the early 1960s in the Washington, DC region. Construction of Corkscrew tower was completed in 1965.  Named Corkscrew, the cylindrical tower and bunker was used as a potential relocation site for key members of the White House.  The tower was part of a microwave network designed to provide reliable communications to the President of the United States and emergency communications in the event of a nuclear attack. The Microwave route connected Camp David and other key bodies of government directly to the White House.

The installation is no longer in service as a presidential shelter, and is now used by the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA has altered the exterior (and, presumably, the interior) of the facility for its purposes. These alterations include the addition of a self-supporting steel lattice tower supporting a large high-frequency (shortwave) rotating log-periodic antenna for backup radio communications. The FAA's most recent construction project included adding and replacing several surface structures and converting the grass helicopter landing zone into an asphalt-paved parking lot.

The FAA compound is a restricted area and is protected by security personnel and systems. Visitors are not admitted unless on official business.

For at least some it’s operational life, the PEF shared the mountaintop with two unrelated facilities: an AT&T microwave relay station and a fire-lookout tower. The AT&T facility was made obsolete by fiber-optic cables and has been demolished. The fire tower was converted to a radio tower serving multiple Maryland state and local government agencies. That tower, which was in very poor condition, has been replaced by a modern tower and building performing the same function.

 Corkscrew Tower

Aerial view of Lambs Knoll

Google Earth view of Corkscrew on Lambs Knoll

Corkscrew Tower

Aerial view of Lambs Knoll

This annotated image shows the installations on Lambs Knoll as of August 2006.

  Cross Section View of Tower

   

Presidential Emergency Operations Center
Type Of Activity	Crisis Management
Location
Location	The White House, Washington DC
Date of Activity	1942 to Present
Coordinates	38°53′52″N 77°02′11″W

Initially a bunker was constructed in the White House to protect President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the event of an aerial attack on Washington DC and this bunker has been an integral part of U.S. national security since World War II. During President Harry S. Truman’s extensive renovation of the White House from 1948 to 1952, the existing bunker was expanded into what is now known as the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC). Situated beneath the East Wing of the White House, the PEOC is designed to handle nuclear contingencies, serving as a haven of security and communication for the President of the United States and other high-ranking officials during times of crisis. 

In 1956 the cold War was becoming a large National issue; President Eisenhower and his Administration was overly concerned about the threat of Nuclear War. The federal Government realized that if an attack would occur that the area around Washington had to be protected so the Government would survive. A plan was approved and implemented, the construction of a communications network around Washington which was included in this plan for the relocation of Government Agencies, including the White House at a few locations that already existed also known as the Continuation of Government (COG). This Proposal presents the size and scope of certain Communications available today, at the National level.

The East Wing of the White House

The PEOC is likely to be the President's evacuation point in the event of an incoming ICBM, invasion, terrorist attack, or any other emergency. The PEOC is reportedly hardened to withstand up to 20 psi of blast overpressure from a nuclear detonation, boasting state-of-the-art technology and infrastructure to ensure the safety and functionality of its occupants.

The Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) in the East Wing of the White House

Over the years, the PEOC has undergone numerous upgrades. In 1988, the WHCA Signal switchboard was replaced by an AT&T Dimension 2000 system. This was later upgraded in 1994 to the Definity GR 3 with Dual Port Networks, connected via multimode fiber, and was referred to as the White House Switched Network (WHSN) during the Clinton Administration. The IST telephone, designed by Electrospace Systems Inc. and manufactured by Raytheon for the Defense Red Switch Network (DRSN), was also a key component of this upgrade. The DRSN is the main secure telephone network for military command and control communications and connects all major US command centers and many other military facilities. However, during 9/11, it came out that the Defense Red Switch Network (DRSN) didn't work like it should have.

The new system enhanced both the White House Admin Switchboard and WHCA’s Signal Switchboard, which consisted of 4,000 leased Centrex lines feeding three AT&T Definity GR 3 PBX switches with digital consoles. Lucent 8410 telephone sets are used with the internal telephone network for non-secure calls. The PEOC was also upgraded with modern communication equipment, including televisions and phones, to coordinate with external government entities. Secure communication channels, air filtration systems, and other critical infrastructure ensure no detail is overlooked in its construction. The IST telephone has been gradually replaced by the IST-2 since 2003.

The PEOC has been activated on several occasions throughout its existence. Its primary function is to protect the President and other key personnel in case of a security breach at the White House, including violations of the Washington, D.C. Air Defense Identification Zone (P-56 airspace). In such cases, as on September,11 2001, the President and other protectives are relocated to the executive briefing room adjacent to the PEOC.

North and South Towers of the World Trade Center and  the Marriot Vista Hotel at the base of the twin tower

On September 11, 2001, the PEOC played a significant role in the United States' response to the terrorist attacks. Vice President Dick Cheney, First Lady Laura Bush, Lynne Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Mary Matalin, and others were evacuated to the PEOC, where they coordinated the nation's response. President George W. Bush, visiting a school in Florida at the time, utilized the PEOC as the central command center, leveraging its advanced technology and secure communication channels.

While officials and other presidents had used the PEOC for drills and exercises, 9/11 was its first test in an actual emergency. The bunker's location is classified, and few are privy to its inner workings. What is known is that it is a massive underground facility with multiple layers, including living quarters, a medical suite, and conference rooms. The operations center, where the watch team fields phone calls, includes a conference room equipped with television screens, and a long conference table.

PEOC’s executive briefing room

The nation was shocked the moment that the news got out of the attack on the World Trade Center. Two planes, hijacked by Islamic jihadists vowing death to all Americans, plowed into both towers at the World Trade Center in New York. Another plane was flown into the Pentagon in Washington, DC. A fourth plane, presumably headed for the White House or the U.S. Capitol, was heroically diverted by passengers and ended up crashing in an empty field in Pennsylvania. After reports of the first plane hitting the North Tower, millions watched the second plane hit the South Tower on live television.

It was a terrifying, startling, and humbling event for the country. The 9/11 attacks were the deadliest on American soil since the shock attack at Pearl Harbor 60 years before, and the sense of outrage was reminiscent of that moment. The attacks in New York occurred in the country’s busiest city on a busy workday. And the staggered nature of the attacks meant that news footage captured almost everything as it happened, ensuring that millions of Americans saw the events precisely as they unfolded.

 Timeline September 11, 2001

5:45 AM – Mohamed Atta and Abdul Aziz al-Omari, two of the intended hijackers, pass through security at the Portland International Jetport in Maine. They board a commuter flight to Boston Logan International Airport; they then board American Airlines Flight 11.

7:59 AM – American Airlines American Airlines Flight 11 a Boeing 767 carrying 81 passengers and 11 crew members, departs from Logan International Airport in Boston, bound for Los Angeles International Airport.

 8:14 AM – American Airlines Flight 11 is hijacked over central Massachusetts. There are five hijackers on board 

Flight paths of the hijacked planes 

8:15 AM – United Airlines Flight 175 a Boeing 767, carrying 56 passengers and 9 crew members, departs from Logan International Airport in Boston, bound for Los Angeles International Airport.

8:19 AM – A flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11, alerts ground personnel that a hijacking is underway, and that the cockpit is unreachable.                                                     

8:20 AM – American Airlines Flight 77 a Boeing 757 with 58 passengers and 6 crew members, departs from Washington Dulles International Airport, for Los Angeles International Airport.

8:24 AM – Mohamed Atta, a hijacker on American Airlines Flight 11, unintentionally alerts air controllers in Boston to the attack. He meant to press the button that allowed him to talk to the passengers on his flight. 

8:37 AM – After hearing the broadcast from Atta on American Airlines Flight 11, Boston air traffic control alerts the US Air Force’s Northeast Defense Sector, who then mobilize the Air National Guard to follow the plane.

8:42 AM – United Airlines Flight 93 a Boeing 757 with 37 passengers and 7 crew members, departs from Newark International Airport, bound for San Francisco International Airport, after a delay due to routine traffic.

8:42–8:46 AM – United Airlines Flight 175 is hijacked above northwest New Jersey. There are five hijackers on board

8:46 AM – American Airlines Flight 11 crashes into the north face of the North Tower 1 of the World Trade Center, between floors 93 and 99. All passengers aboard are instantly killed, and employees of the WTC are trapped above the 91^st floor.

8:50–8:54 AM – American Airlines Flight 77 is hijacked above southern Ohio. There are five hijackers on board

Flight 175 heads toward the South Tower 2 of the World Trade Center

9:03 AM – United Airlines Flight 175 crashes into the south face of the South Tower 2 of the World Trade Center, between floors 77 and 85. All 65 all passengers aboard are killed instantly and so are an unknown number of people in the tower.

Flight 175 crashes into the south tower

9:05 AM – President George W. Bush, in an elementary school classroom in Florida, is informed about the hit on the second tower by his chief of staff, Andrew Card

9:28 AM – United Airlines Flight 93 was attacked by hijackers above northern Ohio. There are four hijackers on board and  forty passengers and crew members. These forty fought a battle in the sky over Pennsylvania. These 40 heroes voted and decided to fight back, thwarting a planned attack on our nation's capital. They saved the lives of many others, but sacrificed their own in a field just east of Pittsburgh in Somerset County, Pennsylvania

9:34AM American Airlines Flight 77 began turning south, away from the White House. It continued heading south for roughly a minute, before turning west and beginning to circle back. This news prompted the Secret Service to order the immediate evacuation of the Vice President just before 9:36 AM. Agents propelled him out of his chair and told him he had to get to the bunker. The Vice President entered the underground tunnel leading to the PEOC.

9:37 AM Vice President Cheney and the agents paused in an area of the tunnel that had a secure phone, a bench, and television. The Vice President asked to speak to the President, but it took time for the call to be connected and he saw television coverage of smoke coming from the North Tower.

9:37 AM – American Airlines Flight 77 crashes into the western side of the  Pentagon. All passengers aboard are instantly killed and so are 125 civilian and military personnel in the building.

The Pentagon is hit by flight 77

9:39 AM The Secret Service logged Mrs. Cheney’s arrival at the White House, and she joined her husband in the tunnel, where the Vice President was still on the phone with the President advising that three planes were missing, and one had hit the Pentagon. This is the same call in which the Vice President urged the President not to return to Washington. After the call ended, Mrs. Cheney and the Vice President moved from the tunnel to the JEOC executive briefing room. The Vice President learns about the Pentagon.

Vice President Cheney in the PEOC

President Bush, in Florida, talks to Vice President Cheney

9:45 AM – US airspace is shut down under Operation Yellow Ribbon. All civilian aircraft are ordered to land at the nearest airport. Once in the conference room of the PEOC the Vice President  was able see a monitor with a feed showing every airplane across the nation still in the air. there were thousands of little airplane symbols on it

Sample screen of approximately 700/800  United Airlines flights in the air at 10:00 AM

9:55 AM – Air Force One with President George W. Bush aboard takes off from Florida.

9:57 AM – Passengers aboard United Airlines Flight 93 begin to run up toward the cockpit. Jarrah, the pilot, begins to roll the plane back and forth in an attempt to destabilize the revolt.

9:59 AM – The South Tower of the World Trade Center collapses. 56 minutes after the impact of. United Airlines Flight 175

The South Tower of the World Trade Center collapses

10:02 AM – United Airlines Flight 93 plows into an empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Although its ultimate target is unknown, it was likely heading for either the White House or the US Capitol. Later reports indicate that passengers had learned about the World Trade Center and Pentagon crashes and were resisting the hijackers. All 44 people on board are killed in the crash.

Shanksville, Pennsylvania the site where flight 93 crashed

After the attacks had occurred, while crisis managers were still sorting out a number of unnerving false alarms, One of these alarms was of a reported threat against Air Force One itself, a threat eventually run down to a misunderstood communication in the hectic White House Situation Room that morning. While the plan at the elementary school had been to return to Washington, by the time Air Force One was airborne the Secret Service, the President’s advisers, and Vice President Cheney were strongly advising against it. President Bush reluctantly acceded to this advice and, Air Force One changed course and began heading due west. The immediate objective was to find a safe location—not too far away—where the President could land and speak to the American people. The Secret Service was also interested in refueling the aircraft and paring down the size of the traveling party. The President’s military aide, an Air Force officer, quickly researched the options and decided that Barksdale Air Force Base was an appropriate interim destination.

10:18 AM – After the planes struck the twin towers, a third took a chunk out of the Pentagon. President Bush authorized any non-grounded planes to be shot down. At that time, all four hijacked planes had already crashed but the president’s team was operating under the impression that United Airlines Flight 93 was still in the air. Vice President Cheney then heard a report that a plane over Pennsylvania was heading for Washington. A military assistant asked Cheney twice for authority to shoot it down. The vice president said yes. Then the word came that Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania.

Vice President Cheney in the PEOC on 9/11

President Bush initially thought the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 in Pennsylvania was the result of the shootdown order as did Vice President Cheney. Aides frantically called the White House Situation Room to find out whether a military jet had shot it down. It was then that they discovered the flight had crashed on its own. Everyone learned later that the passengers had tried to storm the cockpit to gain control of the aircraft.

10:28 AM – The North Tower of the World Trade Center collapses, 1 hour and 42 minutes after the impact of American Airlines Flight 11

The North Tower collapses 

 10:30 AM - The Marriott Vista Hotel at the base of the two towers is also destroyed

The Marriot Vista Hotel

10:50 AM – Five stories of the western side of the Pentagon collapse due to the fire.

10:53 AM – Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld orders the US military to move to a higher state of alert, going to DEFCON 3

AF1 at Barksdale AFB

10:30 AM – Air Force 1  lands at Barksdale Air Force Base, the home of the Air Force Global Strike Command near Shreveport, Louisiana. After getting the news of the first plane crashing into the World Trade Center in New York, President George W. Bush left Florida and wanted to head back to Washington D.C. However, the Secret Service strongly objected and Air Force One headed to Barksdale AFB instead.

The Air Force Global Strike Command Center at Barksdale AFB

11:45 AM- A hurriedly organized speech site would be needed for the president to address the nation, including a simple wooden podium. President Bush addressed the nation with his first public comments from a conference room at the 8th Air Force Headquarters.

President Busch confers with top aides

When Air Force One landed at Barksdale at about 10:30 AM, personnel from the local Secret Service office were still en route to the airfield. The motorcade consisted of a military police lead vehicle and a van; the proposed briefing theater had no phones or electrical outlets. Staff scrambled to prepare another room for the President’s remarks, while the lead Secret Service agent reviewed the security situation with superiors in Washington. The President completed his statement, which for security reasons was taped and not broadcast live, and then the traveling party returned to Air Force One.

President Busch addresses the nation from Barksdale AFB

12:15 PM – Approximately 2:30 hrs. after the FAA issued the order, airspace in the United States is completely free of thousands of commercial and private flights.

1:30 PM – Air Force 1 leaves Barksdale AFB.

2:30 PM – Rudy Giuliani, the mayor of New York City, visits the fallen Twin Towers of the World Trade Center at what becomes known as Ground Zero.

Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and New York Mayor Giuliani at Ground Zero

3:00 PM – Air Force 1 lands at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, and President Bush is immediately taken to a secure bunker that is capable of withstanding a nuclear attack. The next destination was discussed: once again the Secret Service recommended against returning to Washington, and the Vice President agreed.

President Bush arrives at Offutt AFB

Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska was chosen because of its elaborate command and control facilities, and because it could accommodate overnight lodging for 50 persons. The Secret Service wanted a place where the President could spend several days, if necessary.

3:15 PM, President Bush met with his principal advisers through a secure video teleconference. Rice said President Bush began the meeting with the words, “We’re at war,” and that Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet said the agency was still assessing who was responsible, but the early signs all pointed to al Qaeda. The Secretary of Defense had directed the nation’s armed forces to Defcon 3, an increased state of military readiness. For the first time in history, all nonemergency civilian aircraft in the United States were grounded, stranding tens of thousands of passengers across the country.

A secure video teleconference with the PEOC

Contingency plans for the continuity of government and the evacuation of leaders had been implemented. The Pentagon had been struck; the White House or the Capitol had narrowly escaped direct attack so extraordinary security precautions were also put in place at the nation’s borders and ports.

4:30 PM – Air Force 1 leaves Offutt and heads back toward Andrews Air Force base near Washington, DC. In the late afternoon, the President overruled his aides’ continuing reluctance to have him return to Washington and ordered Air Force One back to Andrews Air Force Base. He was flown by helicopter back to the White House, passing over the still-smoldering Pentagon.

President Bush returns to Washington

5:30 PM – Building 7 of the World Trade Center collapses. Debris from the North Tower ignited fires on at least 10 floors of World Trade Center 7, some of which burned out of control because the automatic sprinkler system for some floors had failed (partly due to city water lines damaged by the collapse of the Twin Towers).

Building 7 of the World Trade Center

6:00 PM - President Bush returns to the White House and joins Vice President Cheney in the PEOC.

In the PEOC just prior to his speech addressing the events of the day

8:30 PM – President Bush addresses the nation. President Bush goes on national TV to address the nation from the White House. After emphasizing that the first priority was to help the injured and protect against any further attacks, he said: “We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.” He quoted Psalm 23—“though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death . . .” No American, he said, “will never forget this day.”

President Bush addresses the nation from the Oval Office

9:00 PM Following his speech, President Bush met again with his National Security Council (NSC), expanded to include Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta and Joseph Allbaugh, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who had returned from Peru after hearing of the attacks, joined the discussion. They reviewed the day’s events.

National Security Council and others meet in the PEOC ‘s executive briefing room

When the meeting with the NSC concluded the Secret Service suggested that President Bush and Mrs. Bush spend the night in the PEOC, but they declined the antiquated furniture in the living quarters of the PEOC, choosing to return to the residence in the White House instead.

President Bush, the First Lady, Vice President Cheney and others prepare to leave the PEOC for the evening

Vice President Cheney and his staff were transported by helicopter to Camp David that night, returning to the White House the following day thus ending the need for the PEOC.

The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, combined with emerging demands from a tech-savvy administration, emphasized the critical need for reliable, real-time, and secure information flow to the President and his staff. September 11 was the first real test of the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) during a crisis, exposing the deficiencies in the existing communication systems. This event underscored the issues the Department of Defense (DOD) had already identified. WHCA had already embarked on a significant modernization effort, and by September 11, they had a clear understanding of what was needed. The attacks only intensified the urgency of these efforts.

The transformation plan for this information technology overhaul included a realignment of core functions and missions within the White House Communications Agency (WHCA), along with a series of technological upgrades. Many of these improvements were initiated before September 11. At the end of 2000, the U.S. Defense Department assessed the President’s communication capabilities, focusing on DOD support to the commander in chief.

In the three years following September 11, there were significant changes in the presidential communication systems, largely driven by WHCA, which accelerated their efforts after the attacks. Although much has been accomplished, continued enhancements are necessary to ensure the President and his staff can fully leverage the benefits of advancing technology.

WHCA began evaluating each of its existing systems, examining their capacities and capabilities, and exploring the potential of Internet technology. This evaluation encompassed everything from office phones to the mobile systems that travel with the President, as well as the communications systems on aircraft. WHCA identified around 41 projects that required attention, prioritizing 11 of the largest and most complex under the Pioneer Project.

This initiative included upgrading all IP networks supporting WHCA’s role in White House operations, converging data, voice, and video on those networks, introducing a new IP-capable mobile band, enhancing the secure voice environment known as the Defense Red Switch Network (DRSN). Which, during 9/11, it came out that the Red Switch did not perform like it should have, and finally to expand the use of various military communications satellites.

In 2010, workers broke ground on the North Lawn of the White House for another underground project. Although officially described as an update to electrical and air conditioning systems, speculation suggests it was a cover for constructing a new White House bunker under the East Wing. While the area reportedly wasn’t in use under President Barack Obama’s administration, some believe the PEOC underwent renovation between 2010 and 2012 as $375 million was used for an upgrade at the White House, it’s probably safe to assume this state-of-the-art shelter features something more comfortable than a few fold-out beds from the 1940s for the principle parties. by almost all accounts part of the project included a new, massively expanded, PEOC—one complete with the latest communications, computer systems, and environmental technologies that could allow the President and their staff to operate unimpeded for extended periods of time during a crisis. In other words, we are likely talking about a fortified, deeply buried, five-story office building—an underground emergency White House if you will—that is in itself akin to a giant Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF), which would also make it an ideal locale for holding highly sensitive meetings. 

In an increasingly uncertain world, the importance of the PEOC cannot be overstated. It represents the country's commitment to preparedness and dedication to ensuring the safety and security of its people. In the face of adversity, the PEOC stands as a testament to the resilience and strength of the United States, embodying the enduring American spirit.

The tragedy of September 11, 2001 will never be forgotten. The 9/11 Memorial and Museum opened on the site of the former World Trade Center on September 11, 2011, and features reflecting pools in the footprints of where the Twin Towers once stood.

 

The White House Situation Room
Type Of Activity	Crisis Management
Location
Location	Washington DC
Date of Activity	1961 to Present
Coordinates	38°53′52″N 77°02′11″W

The idea for the Situation Room was first suggested to President Eisenhower in the 1950s, but it was President John F. Kennedy who brought it to life, less than two weeks after the Bay of Pigs invasion failed in 1961. The failure was attributed to a lack of up-to-date information, prompting Kennedy to establish a dedicated crisis management center. A former bowling alley below the West Wing, adjacent to the White House Mess dining hall, was chosen as the location. Several names were considered for the facility, from “Nerve Center” to “Executive Coordination Center,” but President Kennedy ultimately chose "Situation Room," a term coined by military researchers.

The Situation Room became crucial during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announced his decision to remove missiles from Cuba on Radio Moscow. The message was intercepted by the Situation Room staff and quickly relayed to President Kennedy. The timely communication prevented the crisis from potentially escalating.

The office in the Situation Room under President John F. Kennedy (1961)

The first configuration of the Situation Room under President John F. Kennedy (1961)

Initially, the Situation Room was a modest facility with a command or watch center and a small conference area that could accommodate a small number of people. The staff required top-level security clearances, vetted by the Secret Service, and were trained in secure protocols.

The Situation Room initially had seven positions “Some phones, monitors, and spots in the back, the President’s secure conference room was next to the command or watch center. The President’s Situation Room was not very large, it only accommodates about a dozen people around the conference table. That’s how the Situation Room engaged the world. Probably the smallest staff, and the youngest by age of all watch centers anywhere in the United States government or anywhere in the world.”

The facility had a conference room with secure communications systems; the wood panels over the walls hide audio, video, and other systems

The White House Watch Center

Conference Room part of the Situation Room (1980)

President Lyndon B. Johnson, frequently used the Situation Room to monitor the Vietnam War. In contrast, President Nixon avoided it due to his dislike of the National Security Council's domain, a sentiment Henry Kissinger attributed to "Situation Room syndrome." 

LBJ in the Sit Room during the Vietnam war

President Gerald Ford preferred using the Oval Office to assert his presidential legitimacy. 

The historic room pictured below was used by nine sitting United States Presidents including Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush to make decisions that still affect us today.

President Ronald Reagan, “wanted to be in the place where things happened

The Situation Room has been central to major historical moments, including the events of September 11, 2001. After the attacks began, the room was staffed with three duty officers, a communicator, and a few others who refused to evacuate. This was also true with  the WHCA Signal board and Comm Center in the OEOB both stayed fully operational.

Recalling the morning of September 11, 2001, after two planes had already crashed into the World Trade Center’s twin towers, American flight 77 began turning south, away from the White House. It continued heading south for roughly a minute, before turning west and beginning to circle back. This news prompted the Secret Service to order the immediate evacuation the White House and the immediate relocation of the Vice President to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) to a little used cold war bunker located below the East Wing of the White House.

Once inside, Vice President Cheney and the agents paused in an area of the tunnel that had a secure phone, a bench, and television. The Vice President asked to speak to the President, but it took time for the call to be connected. He learned in the tunnel that the Pentagon had been hit, and he saw television coverage of smoke coming from the building,  

Vice President Cheney with senior staff in the President's Emergency Operations Center (PEOC), the cold war-era bunker under the White House

For more than four decades, the Situation Room at the White House has been the hub of presidential activity during historic moments, from the Cuban missile crisis to 9/11, but for all of its importance, it had fallen way behind the technological curve.  A major renovation, was needed and completed in December 2006, introducing new technology, including NEC plasma flat-screen TVs and LG LCD TVs, to support secure videoconferences. The upgrade aimed to address the growing need for cybersecurity and modern communication tools.

In 2011, during the operation to kill Osama bin Laden, President Barack Obama and other officials watched in real time from an adjacent conference room, highlighting the room's evolving role in real-time decision-making. The famous photo of then-President Barack Obama, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and others watched in real time as U.S. special forces raiding a compound in Pakistan and killing Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader who planned the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

The president and his national security team as they "receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden

The photo was actually not taken in the main area of the Situation Room but in an adjacent conference room where they could get a better feed from WHCA. This remodel changed the capabilities of the main room to fix that.

Situation Room as it is configured today

A comprehensive renovation in 2023 further modernized the Situation Room, with enhanced security and technology upgrades costing over $50 million. The new facility features modern aesthetics, advanced communication systems, and improved security measures. The main meeting room, named the "Kennedy Room," honors President Kennedy's role in establishing the Situation Room. It includes a large wooden table with 12 chairs, surrounded by screens capable of displaying classified and unclassified information. The room is equipped to handle secure calls and video feeds from agencies worldwide.

Completed renovations of the Situation Room of the White House as seen, Wednesday, August 16, 2023

Everything, from the wood to the carpet, was picked, with security and acoustics in mind. There are rows of built-in speakers on the ceiling and digital clocks on the walls that are set based on the info that is needed -- but that also always show the time zone that the president is in.

The seal behind the desk rotates depending on who is leading the meeting: the president, vice president, the White House national security adviser and so on. On one huge wall there are eight screens and then there are three screens on each side wall of the room. Classified feeds from any agency and around the world can be plugged in, secure calls with foreign leaders can be set up -- and a lot more that officials wouldn't disclose.

The main meeting room has been designated the "Kennedy" room

The President and Vice President still have their own door to the facility while everyone else, from the Secretary of State to the chair of Joint Chiefs of Staff and beyond, must enter through the main reception area: a row of desks with wood paneling and grey stonework.

One wing of the space is a big room with walls of monitors and 17 workstations, all with several individual monitors on the "watch floor".  On-duty officers, who are mostly detailed to the White House from the Pentagon or departments of State and Homeland Security, sit at these desks in 12-hour shifts, monitoring, taking in and distributing classified intelligence. It's the backbone of the facility.

This is the "watch floor," a command center for the Situation Room where secure feeds are coordinated

The Situation Room remains the nerve center for the White House's crisis management, staffed 24/7 by officers from various agencies. These officers monitor, analyze, and distribute intelligence, ensuring the President and senior officials are informed and prepared for any situation.