Ft. Ritchie, Md.

[Stick]

Yesterday I turned on the boob tube and the first thing I heard was "the entire building is mounted on springs." I looked over and they were showing a screen full of heavy springs under the footers of what looked to be a very large building. The first thing I thought of was Site R, Fort Ritchie, Maryland where I once was assigned in the supply room for the site. Fort Ritchie was under the STRATCOM (Strategic Communications) Command and has since been shut down. The post is right on the Md. - Pa. border with the site actually in Pennsylvania. The site "building" is deep within a mountain and was to be utilized as the "underground pentagon" in time of need. It was a building four tears long and three stories high. As you went from one tear to the other your security clearance level went up from confidential to secret, to TS, to crypto and higher. Several years ago one of my daughters and I were in the neighborhood and went onto the post just to drive around so I could show her the post chapel where her mother and I were married the first time in 1966. They just waved us onto the post without stopping us at the gate at all. Tracy and I left the post and drove past Site R on our way to Gettysburg. The commo-tower was still on the top of the mountain and there certainly wasn't any thing hiding the tunnel going to the site. There's no secrets about where it is. There just isn't anyone going into the mountain anymore. At least there ain't nobody admitting it and obviously what was on television yesterday wasn't "classified." What I saw on the television yesterday sure as heck looked like the Site R that I remember but the Discover Channel said that it was Colorado Springs. Has anyone here been at Fort Ritchie or is it just a figment of my imagination?