| Raven Rock Mountain Complex | |
|---|---|
| Liberty Township, Adams County, Pennsylvania, United States | |
 The Site R tunnel entrance with abutments (39°43′47″N77°25′57″W / 39.729642°N 77.432468°W /39.729642; -77.432468, white figure in illustration) now has a building that is visible from a public road intersection to the west, particularly when trees are bare. The tunnel's other (east) opening is near themilitary installation's above-ground support area near the Route 16 intersection with Jacks Mountain Road. | |
| Site information | |
| Type | Nuclear bunker |
| Owner | U.S. government |
| Location | |
  Raven Rock Mountain Complex  Raven Rock Mountain Complex | |
| Coordinates | 39°44′02″N077°25′10″W / 39.73389°N 77.41944°W /39.73389; -77.41944[1] (mountain summit) |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1951–1953 |
See also:
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TheRaven Rock Mountain Complex (RRMC), also known asSite R and simplyThe Rock,[3] is a U.S.military installation with an undergroundnuclear bunker nearBlue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania. Raven Rock Mountain has been called an "undergroundPentagon".[4][5][6]: 2 The bunker has emergency operations centers for theUnited States Army,Navy,Air Force, andMarine Corps. Along withMount Weather Emergency Operations Center in Virginia and theCheyenne Mountain Complex in Colorado, it formed the core bunker complexes for theUS continuity of government plan during theCold War to survive a nuclear attack.[7]
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The installation's largest tenant unit is theDefense Threat Reduction Agency,[8] and RRMC communications are the responsibility of the 114th Signal Battalion.[9] The facility has 38 communications systems, and theDefense Information Systems Agency provides computer services at the complex.
Raven Rock Mountain is adjacent toJacks Mountain on the north, whileMiney Branch flows west-to-east between them in thePotomac River Watershed. The1820 Waynesboro-Emmitsburg Turnpike with toll station for the 1787crossroad was constructed between the mountains, where theFight at Monterey Gap was conducted after the 1863Battle of Gettysburg (Stuart's artillery at Raven Rock Gap shelled Federal troops.[10]) In 1870, copper ore was discovered to the north,[11] and the nearby Fountain Dale Springs House was established in 1874.[12][13] The scenic area's mountain recreation facilities to the west included the 1877Pen Mar Park, the 1878 High Rock Tower, the 1885Monterey Country Club, and several resorts (e.g., Blue Mountain House, Buena Vista Springs Hotels, & Washington Cliff House). The 1889Jacks Mountain Tunnel on theWestern Extension (Baltimore and Harrisburg Railway) was completed near Raven Rock Mountain, and nearby stations were at Blue Ridge Summit andCharmian. The Army's 1942Camp Ritchie was built southwest of the resorts, and a local road was built[when?] eastward from Blue Ridge Summit and intersected the north-south Fountaindale-Sabillasville Road (the intersection now provides access to the RRMC main gate.)
Planning for a protected Cold War facility near Washington, D.C. began in 1948 for relocation of militaryNational Command Authorities and the Joint Communications Service.[citation needed]
In 1953 the Army's Raven Rock unit[specify] was part of Joint Support Command, then in 1971 was redesignated as the Directorate of Telecommunications and placed under the garrison commander ofFort Ritchie, where Strategic Communications Command moved. The Directorate was redesignated USACC Site R Telecommunications Center in 1976,[citation needed] then simply USACC Site R in October 1981 (both under 7th Signal Command). Col. Humphrey L. Peterson was the 1983 commander of USACC Site R,[14] which was redesignated in May 1984 as United States Army Information Systems Command - Site R.[15] Operation of the center[who?] was removed from the mission when the unit was redesignated the 1111th U.S. Army Signal Battalion under the 1101st U.S. Army Signal Brigade in October 1988 (under the 1108th U.S. Army Signal Brigade in October 1993), and the battalion remained responsible for maintenance, upkeep and communications.[citation needed] The unit became the 114th Signal Battalion under the 21st Signal Brigade after the1995 Base Realignment and Closure Commission.[16]
The planned deep underground communications center was identified in the original 1950 federal petition to seize the Beard Lot, a 1,500-foot-high (460 m), 1-mile-long (1.6 km) hill located at Fountaindale and extending east and south along the Waynesboro-Emmitsburg road,[17] The "Declaration of Taking" forUnited States of America v. 1,100 Acres of Land was filed at the Adams County courthouse on 23 January 1951, and made the government the official owner of the 280-acre (110 ha)-acre tract seized from four properties (17 total properties had been requested by 15 February—some only for temporary use).[18][19][20] South of and above the Carson service station on the Sunshine trail,[21] bulldozers began work on 19 January 1951; by 3 February a roadway to the site had been leveled behind a farmhouse;[22] and by 24 February underground work had commenced (40 men working "normally" on that date were only performing above-ground construction).[23] By 26 May the Army had named the landformRaven Rock Mountain ("Raven Rock" is a pillar landform to the north along the mountain range)[1] and listed its elevation as 1,527 feet (465 m).[24]
By 20 October 1951, there had been two deaths: one, Roland P. Kelly, of PenMar, MD, due to premature dynamite detonation in the Beard Lot tunnel, and a power shovel operator from Phillipsburg named Leroy Fleagle who suffered crushing injuries.[25][26] The S. A. Healy Company was working on the alternate Pentagon in November 1951, when the government announced a defense appropriations cutback that would affect the project.[27] On 16 January 1952, the government indicated that when completed, the bunker would have a standby group of approximately 100 personnel. Because of construction damage to the Sunshine Trail, the US said it would rebuild the trail in any fashion the state desired.[28]
By 29 March 1952, more than 100 workers were striking from building additional Raven Rock housing at Camp Ritchie, which was to be a supplemental installation for the underground Pentagon at Fountaindale. No work was going on in the Raven Rock (Beard Lot) tunnel then.[29] Local travelers having to bypass on the serpentine on the slope between Monterey and Fountaindale grew frustrated during the delay (the incomplete tunnel was derogatorily dubbed "Harry's Hole," forPresident Truman.) By 7 April 1952, United Telephone Company rights of way had been secured for four tracts, including one in Cumberland Township.[30] Easements for three additional private tracts were filed by the government in December 1953[31] (a 1954 lawsuit against the U.S. by Alfred Holt was seeking $2,000 per 1-acre (4,000 m2) for his 140-acre (57 ha) woodlot atop the Beard Lot [after] turning down an offer of $2,800 from the government.)[32]
A 1952 Army history disclosed Raven Rock information.[33] Three underground buildings were completed in 1953,[34] the year a guard shelter burned on the installation.[35] By April 1954, "Little Pentagon" development had cost $35,000,000.[36]
After the 1954Air Defense Command blockhouse was built atEnt Air Force Base, where the joint 1955Continental Air Defense Command was activated, in August 1955OSD approved the automatic activation of Raven Rock's Alternate Joint Communication Center on declaration of air defense warning or notice of surprise attack[37] (SAC similarly completed a bunker in 1955). The AJCC was equipped with command and control (C2) hardware by the end of 1955.[38]
In July 1956, the Air Force established and operated a joint War Room Annex at Raven Rock. Raven Rock's readiness was broadened in April 1957 [for] activation before an emergency if the JCS thought it necessary.[37] By 1959, the services and JCS regarded Raven Rock as their primary emergency deployment center. For the Air Force, it served as Headquarters USAF Advanced, capable of receiving the Chief of Staff and key officers.[39] After PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower expressed concern about nuclear command and control, a 1958 reorganization inNational Command Authority relations with the joint commands was implemented.[40] On 1 July 1958 Raven Rock's USAF facility,ADCC (Blue Ridge Summit), became one of the 33 NORAD Alert Network Number 1 stations (but with receive-only capability as atTAC Headquarters,Sandia Base, and thePresidio at San Francisco.) On 20 October 1960, the JCS instructed the Joint Staff to establish a Joint Alternate Command Element (JACE) for rotating[specify] battle staffs to Raven Rock for temporary duty.[37] In November 1960, consoles at the Pentagon'sJoint War Room became operational,[41] and the Raven Rock JACE was activated on 11 July 1961 under USAF Brig. Gen. Willard W. Smith [with the 5] staffs permanently stationed in Washington and an administrative section at Ft. Ritchie—rotations began in October 1961[37] (Fort Ritchie also had the OSDDefense Emergency Relocation Site.)[6]: 2 An expansion project by the Frazier–Davis–McDonald Company was underway in December 1961 at the "little Pentagon",[42] and bunker personnel were evacuated during a 1962 fire.[43] Pentagon construction to provide an entire JCS center at the Joint War Room opened theNational Military Command Center (NMCC) in early October 1962.[44] It was initially considered an interim center until a nearbyDeep Underground Command Center (DUCC) could be completed after which Raven Rock would be phased out as superfluous, whichever version [50-man or 300-man DUCC] was chosen, but neither was built[45]—nor were SAC's similarDeep Underground Support Center or NORAD'sSuper Combat Centers.
Raven Rock's joint War Room, USAF ADCC, and other facilities were designated the Alternate National Military Command Center (ANMCC) on 1 October 1962 when the Burroughs SS-416L Control and Warning Support System with theSemi Automatic Ground Environment had been deployed (Back-Up Interceptor Control began atNorth Bend AFS in December.) The term AJCC remained in use, only [for] the Army-managed communications complex.[46] On 17 October 1962, DOD Directive S-5100.30 conceived theWorldwide Military Command and Control System with five groups of C2 systems: theNational Military Command System was the primary group (to serve the President/SECDEF/JCS) and was to contain the Pentagon NMCC, Raven Rock's ANMCC, 3NEACP aircraft on 24-hour ground alert, 2NECPA ships, and interconnecting communications[37]—the Raven Rock bunker was hardened further to about 140 psi blast resistance by 1963[40]: 315 when theCheyenne Mountain nuclear bunker was being completed fortbd psi. The USAF's subsequentIBM 473L Command and Control System with AN/FYA-2 Integrated Data Transfer Consoles andLarge Panel Display Subsystem had equipment deployed at both the NMCC and ANMCC[47] (a secondIBM 1410 computer was installed by 15 December 1966.)[38]: 47
TheUSACC Site R Telecommunications Center was designated in 1976, and the 1977 Alternate National Military Command and Control Center Improvement Program was worked on by the DoD Special Projects Office (later renamed Protective Design Center) for a new deep underground C2 center with >3 mi (4.8 km) ofair entrainment tunnels (cancelled in 1979.)[citation needed] After the 2001September 11 attacks,Vice President Dick Cheney used Raven Rock as a protected site away from PresidentGeorge W. Bush.[48][49] Notably,United States Deputy Secretary of DefensePaul Wolfowitz remained at Raven Rock during the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks as Defense SecretaryDonald Rumsfeld refused to evacuate the Pentagon.[50]
The Raven Rock Mountain Complex was declared part of thePentagon Reservation under10 U.S.C. § 2674(g) and on 25 May 2007, DoD policy declared it is unlawful for any person entering or on the property ..."to make any photograph, sketch, picture, drawing, map or graphical representation of the Raven Rock Mountain Complex without first obtaining the necessary permission."[51]
In 1977, the bunker had an Emergency Conference Room, and the Current Action Center was a military intelligence unit (an Air Force general was responsible for overseeing the installation's communications).[52]
...Hardened Emergency Command Post and Relocation site for the Executive Branch of the Government at Mount Weather(separate webpages for each report page)
Quoting Garrett Graff,Raven Rock: The Inside Story of the US Government's Secret Plan to Save Itself -- While the Rest of Us Die.
Plans of the government to begin work Monday at the "Beard Lot"... were revealed today [Saturday] by Attorney Charles W. Kalp, assistant U.S. attorney at Lewisburg. The "Beard Lot," a 1,500-foot-high (460 m), 1-mile-long (1.6 km) hill located at Fountaindale and extending east and south along the Waynesboro-Emmitsburg road, will be used, it is believed, as part of an underground world-wide communications center ... government had been granted ..."immediate possession" orders on four of 26 properties previously listed for condemnation in a [federal] petition ... A petition ... originally filed for the entire 1,100-acre (450 ha) area surrounding and including the "Beard Lot."... properties condemned were those of the heirs of Samuele Warren containing 47.5 acres (19.2 ha), the Hoy Martin property of 103 acres (42 ha) [E of the Fountaindale-Sabillasville road], the 3-acre (1.2 ha) property of Harold M. and Sylvia Caron and the 87.5-acre (35.4 ha) property of Robert and Vialo Kipe. ... super underground communications center [when] the "Beard Lot" is to be annexed, according to the government's original petition ... the Carsons had been told that the government wanted their land "for an entrance. ... the former [turnpike] Route 16, now returned to Hamiltonban township with the opening of the Sunshine Trail, would be used for regular vehicular traffic while the other [Route 16] highway is closed."
'Pentagon No. 2'...'Shadow Pentagon'...with a finished chamber ... 2,100 feet long [and] four suites for top officials [and space for] a staff of 1,200..in the underground center in peacetime and 5,000 in wartime.
The Army maintained that the Air Force command and control network was insufficiently reliable to permit proper control of Army weapons [e.g.,Nike missiles] in a crisis, and as a result the two services were, from a practical standpoint, poles apart on the issue of single control of weapons.
In February [1962], the Secretary of Defense approved aNational Military Command System (NMCS) composed of four major elements: the National Military Command Center (NMCC), an evolution of the JCS Joint War Room; the Alternate National Military Command Center (ANMCC), a redesignation of the JCS installation at the AJCC; and two mobile alternates, the NECPA and the NEACP. The following October he issued a DoD directive on theWorldwide Military Command and Control System (WWMCCS) that outlined the NMCS in detail, to include the NMCC, ANMCC, NECPA, NEACP, and such other alternates as might be established, together with their interconnecting communications; and defined their relationship to the command and control "subsystems" of the service headquarters, the CINCs, and other DoD agencies. ...The fixed underground ANMCC would be phased out as superfluous, whichever version [50-man or 300-man DUCC] was chosen, and the other NMCS facilities would be cut back to some degree according to one or the other.
Half mile long tunnels were drilled into the center of the mountain and were curved gently to reduce effects of a blast. ... nearSharpsburg, A great field of giant poles 150 feet high has sprung up 10 miles south of this Western Maryland community a 1953Washington Post report from Hagerstown said. That project and a similar one nearGreencastle, PA were built as a communication system for The Rock. Site B and Site A were abandoned in the 1960s when communication improvements made the facilities obsolete.
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 1952 tunnel photo | |
| Locked gate and shack |
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