Presidential Emergency Facility Site 1 - "Cactus” (1965 to 1967)-revised

 

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.  

Old Camp David stories (1955-1960)                                                                                                   by Roger  Zabkie                                                                                

Learning to type the Army way.

When Rodgr Zabkie arrived at David as a PFC (E3) the whole of the radio equipment complement was in a wooden shed-type building. There were three upright Motorola base stations, for the Able, Baker, and Charlie nets; two TRC-29 MW terminals; and an HF radio setup complete with TTY console.

Roger was assigned to turn on the BC-610 HF transmitter every hour and attempt to communicate with the WH, plus keep a log of how it went. So on the hour I fired up, tuned the HF receiver, and there it was: CACTUS DE CROWN INT QRK. (Fortunately someone had thoughtfully left a copy of the Q codes lying around.)

But I couldn't type! Spending several long minutes, I managed to peck out CROWN DE CACTUS QRK 55 INT QRK and make a log entry. This exchange continued until after nightfall when the propagation on that band turned to crap.

When MSGT Shorten came in the next morning he indicated that I did a not-so-bad job for a green Soldier whose MOS was Microwave Radio Repair, and I headed for my bunk determined to pick up a new skill: typing. The thing is that MOS then and there meant very little -- we all cross-trained in several fields, picking up a variety of skills along the way. It was a great prep for the real world.

About Trout Dinners

Any evening when one of us from the WHASA Camp David group might be returning up the hill in an official vehicle (which was painted black and sported DC plates), we would call on Able radio channel to see if anyone needed anything from Thurmont. Often the reply would be “Two trout dinners.”

Now, each of us had a personal callsign that began with the letter T, and since there was a guy there, an E-6, whose call was Trout and who was a serious beer aficionado, a “Trout dinner” naturally translated to “a six-pack of beer.” This went on for years although Camp David was as officially dry as a Navy ship.

One day when our ranking Soldier, a warrant officer, made a visit to Raven Rock he was asked what the hell was this trout dinner they heard about so frequently on the radio. Of course he didn’t know, which was just fine with us enlisted types.

The beer tasted really good on boring evenings when the PRESUS was not at camp.

The Chief and the Skunk

In the late1950s the only permanently assigned at Camp David in the beginning were Navy Steward’s Mates, who were all Filipinos billeted alone in a lodge near Aspen, the President’s quarters. Their sole job, as far as I knew, was to cook for and serve the President and his guests during visits to the facility.

The stewards’ leader was a round, pleasant Chief Petty Officer known to us only as Bob Goony. Chief Goony was a career man with about thirty years in service. He drove a big Cadillac luxuriously equipped with all the latest gadgets such as self-dimming headlights and mirror, a radio that sought out stations, and I don’t remember what else. It was pretty advanced for a time when transistor technology was only beginning to replace vibrators and vacuum tubes in passenger cars 

Bob would bring his Caddy around to our shop whenever he thought there was a malfunction in his radio or whatever and we were happy to tinker with his toys because of their novelty and also because Bob was a really likeable character.

One night one of the younger stewards tried to pet a skunk that showed up in the woods outside their lodge -- with predictable results. Needless to say, he was quarantined for some time until repeated showers reduced the odor enough that the rest of the crew could stand him. When another steward explained to Chief Goony that since there are no skunks in the Philippines the victim didn’t know to avoid the animal, Chief Bob’s response became a classic at camp: “Now he know.”

Tragically, Chief Bob Goony met an untimely death when his Cadillac was hit by a train one night as he was returning to camp from a late poker game down the hill. Word was that he fell asleep on the railroad tracks and never knew what hit him. His was one of only two traffic fatalities, both Sailors, that happened during my tenure. Thank goodness.

The Case of the Talking Antenna

One night in the late ‘50s we were testing a new portable antenna which we placed on the lawn next to Aspen. The antenna consisted of a fiberglass rod around which was wrapped in a spiral of wire, and a flat stand with ground plane wires stretched out on the grass. It was maybe six feet tall.

When I came outside – probably for a smoke – the Marine sentry told me that the antenna was talking to him. I thought he was crazy until he repeated certain words, like “Cactus” and “Crown.” Still skeptical, I went and asked my fellow Soldiers to give a test count while I traveled back up to the antenna location. There it was: a small fireball where the wire ended on the tip of the antenna, modulated by the SSB signal, eerily speaking English.

Lessons learned: the Marine wasn’t drunk and there’s a reason why most antennas have a corona ball on their tip.

The Case of the Holy Cable:

One day in 1959 or 1960 another sergeant and I were ringing out a newly installed lead-shielded cable. Since it was not color-coded the technique was to terminate one end on a frame then ring out the other end pair by pair. About halfway through the procedure we began getting strange results, so he and I started walking along the cable’s path from the water tower down to the switchboard room, where the main distribution frame was located, eyeballing it to see what the problem could be.

The cable was laced down on a Western Electric tray from the mainframe to where it disappeared into a passageway on its way to the tower. The tray was almost as high as the concrete ceiling, behind the switchboard operating position, and there, right smack in the middle of one of the tray’s crossmembers, was a hole.

That’s a bullet hole, says my E-7 partner. Can’t be, says I. But he, being a veteran of WWII and Korea, knew a bullet hole when he saw it. How could a bullet hole have penetrated a steel cable tray and a lead-shielded cable there in one of the most secure pieces of real estate in the country?

Well there was that loaded M2 carbine mounted on the wall next to the switchboard, ready to defend the facility from who knows what.

As the story eventually came out, a bored young switchboard operator was killing time on a slow Sunday afternoon by fondling the carbine. When the board lit up, he set the butt down on the floor and the gun fired maybe three rounds into the ceiling and our cable. He tried to hide the event and might have gotten away with it except for the defective cable, as well as that he was overheard talking about it in his sleep a week or two after our discovery.

He was of course shipped out. And the carbine was subsequently relocated to the crypto room with the other firearms. All in all, yet another chapter in the Camp David story. I helped install the Raytheon equipment there before the end of my 2nd hitch. The new tower & all was the last change I was involved in.

                                                     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

Don Cammel remembers back when he was a shift worker at our DCSU Detachment 3 at Site R, his OIC was Frank Sisco. It was when CWO Ray Horst the OIC at Camp David was sidelined for major stomach surgery and recovery, Frank was running both Detachments.

He was attending an Annual Christmas Open House with LBJ on the 18 acres, and it lasted until around 10pm. Frank and his wife went somewhere with some other attendees, and eventually headed back to his home in Waynesboro PA.

At midnight, all the Towers had a roll call communications check on all the frequencies in order. Now, Frank had a Motorola radio unit installed in his car. A few seconds after all the Comm checks were completed, there was a very long loud belch over the ALPHA net. After a short pause, “CACTUS…CANNONBALL, READ YOU LOUD AND CLEAR”! Frank pulled off at the next pay phone and melted the phone line.

A Short timer at Cannonball, “Zippy” VanZandt was instructed to be in Frank’s office the next morning at 0800. Everyone was prepared to say farewell to Zippy, but all Frank did was look at him and say, that will not happen again. Yes, Sir! and the meeting was over. Van Zandt finished his tour and departed the Army in about 3 months.

I personally spent many days and nights at Cannonball with Mr Van Zant in the mid 60's. 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?

Presidential Emergency Facility Site 6 -“Cadre/Creed” -Revised

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, July25, 1977 is:

The Rock

Buried in the bowels of 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.

Main Gate

Parade Field

World War II Barracks

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.

Site R on 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 its “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.

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 Cadre/Creed

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 tower could only 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. 

             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.