Investing whats left into something tangible

This post is for those of you who still have something in your 401k, stock or you took your money out of the bank and put in your mattress.

One asset that will not go up and down like buying bullion gold or silver is numismatic coins. U.S. COINS. Now if you are going to buy numismatic coins DO NOT BUY GOLD COINS. They are tied to the price of gold on the low end of the market. What I mean by this is that lets say you buy a common date $20 GOLD Liberty that is in circulated condition. If the price of gold drops to $700.00 an ounce and you bought it at $929.00 an ounce the value of the coin will drop accordingly. Now you will also pay a premium for a coin of this type around $100.00 or more.

Your best bet is to buy KEY DATE coins. Coins that are of low mintage basically. These are but not limited to the following. They are not tied to a bullion spot price either. Even the silver coins in the key date category do not depend on the silver price for their value.

pennies 1909 s vdb, 1911s, 1922 plain or no mint mark (no D mint mark D=Denver), 1924D

nickels 1913s, 1914d, 1915s, 1921s, all buffalo nickels

dimes 1916d, 1921, 1921d, mercury dimes

quarters 1932d, 1932s Washington quarters

halves 1916, 1916d, 1916s, 1921s, 1938d, all Walking liberty

$1 1888s, 1893, 1893o, 1894o, 1894s, 1895o, 1895s, 1902s, 1903, 1903o, 1903s, and any of the CARSON CITY MORGANS mint mark CC, all of these are Morgan type $1

PEACE $1, 1921

This list only covers modern coins not the older coins that are less familiar to you. Also I have not included odd denomination coins. No error coins are included either such as the 3 legged Buffalo nickel, any double die coins(coin struck twice and letters or date doubled in process), or small or large date varieties, nothing that would be considered an error. I also did not include any KEY date coins that start at $1000.00 in the GOOD grade category for obvious reasons. Most of these coins are low mintage coins or from low mintage mints such as the Carson City dollars(these gained notoriety in the 1980's when the mint found many bags of them during an inventory. Big news back then. Mint put them in a Slab (plastic case) and they went crazy in price. They were the must have coin and still have a good collector value.

Now I know if you do not have any coin collecting knowledge how can you buy these and know what you are getting is what the dealer says it is. Make sure that with any of these key date coins that they come in a SLAB from either PCGS (Professional Coin Grading Service)or NGC (Numismatic Guaranty Corporation) There are others but these in the opinion of most are the best. The gray sheet web site lists the % increase of these companies graded coins PCGS UP 78.06%, NGC up 74.95%. No other grading companies are in the 70% range. See next paragraph for GRAY sheet info.

The next thing is how much is too much for a slabbed coin. You can get what is called the GRAY sheet. But it is located at www.greysheet.com The cost for 3 months is $31.00 for 19 issues and worth every penny. Cheaper by the year and two year subscription etc. Do not buy before consulting this sheet. Coin books you can buy at book stores or use at the library or magazines DO NOT have current value. They only can give you mintage, and basic info, NOT current values.

Now what grade to buy. The better the grade of course the higher the price you will pay. I have a theory on this and is only my idea so come up with your own. I would buy the best you can get but I would avoid the highest grade. Here's why, lets say you want to sell your graded coin later. If you paid X and there are fewer buyers who can afford X then you have limited the number of available buyers. A good mid grade say EF (extremely fine) depending on the coin will still be priced so Joe the plumber can buy it to add to his collection. In the higher grades there are fewer people that can afford them. On the other hand the higher grades will appreciate faster so there is a give and take on what to buy. The coins that may only reach a price of say $500.00 or $700.00 at the highest grade would be a good buy since most collectors will have that amount if they really want it.

Now I have not mentioned any Proof coins here. Proof coins are stronger strikes and start with a premium price. The 1936 proof set (1st set of 5 coins but others in earlier dates as single coins are available at a HUGE PRICE) sold for I believe $1.85 when it came out and sells for around $7,500.00 now. Proof sets have a sheet price also and these go up depending on demand and availability. Do a search for the 1936 proof set and see what I mean.

Now any of these that you buy will be higher price than the sheet price since the seller wants to make a profit on them. You must use your own judgement on how much more than the sheet price you want to pay.

Well I think that will give you the basic info and the rest is up to you. I am not giving any guaranties on any of this but I would say the chances of these types of coins going down appreciably is slim. Just stay clear of any gold numismatics since some of the price is tied to the gold spot price. Only the really rare gold coins will not be affected, such as the 1907 HIGH RELIEF $20.00 ST. GAUDENS to name one. This type of coin is for the BUFFETS of the world even in the lower grades. Upwards of the HIGH 5 figures and up for one of these in the upper grades.

Remember do your homework and get a gray sheet before buying anything.

Good luck and put that money in something safe even if you do not choose coins.

Maslow's Theory, LIFE, LIBERTY, PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

For anyone who has had a management class you are familiar with Abraham Maslow, a Psychologist who came up with the following pyramid to depict basic human needs very simply. This is called Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. To put it in simpler terms, at the base are LIFE needs Food, shelter etc. , moving up there is security, LIFE again, then relationships or HAPPINESS, mental well being, HAPPINESS again and finally freedom of expression and morality or LIBERTY. Maslow's theory I believe is in the Declaration of Independence, " We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their CREATOR with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are LIFE, LIBERTY and the PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. It is striking to me that Maslow put sex in there twice. I will take all I can get.

The Constitution is also relevant to his theory. He mentions security of the body, the family and property, 2nd Amendment anyone? How about morality, Freedom of Religion, 1st Amendment.

Just my take on this theory and how it relates to Survival needs in general.

My opinion and I am sticking to it. Yes I know the theory about opinions.

This is for "D" the vegan gun toter

Well thank you first of all for posting a comment "D" to my Meat food for life. You said in your post that many vegetarians/vegans do not eat meat for environmental reasons. I think that is a good cause since I do not want polluted water, land, air or food for that matter. But to say that eating only vegetables is saving or helping to save the environment is a bit of a stretch.

Unless the veggies are harvested by hand, transported by horse drawn wagon (methane)and use no water to grow them, have no fertilizer to help them grow, and the seeds just appear out of thin air then they are not as GREEN as you think.

Even organic veggies require fertilizer to grow. If compost is used this must be stored some where and transported by truck (diesel fuel or gasoline)or packaged in plastic bags (oil based) and then shipped. Even if it is shipped by trains they use (diesel) for generating electricity to make it go (more economical than trucks). I have never seen a train pull up to my local garden store or grocery store. Even if the grower picks it up himself fuel is used. If manure is used then we are back to Cows (methane), horses or exotic animals such as elephants, etc. These require feed that also must be transported the same as the compost. The amount of methane produced by these animals is HUGE so there we go again with the pollution factor. You could have your own compost pile but it better be HUGE and start now so you will have it for your future garden.

As for growing your own veggies for a vegetarian I would say that 1 acre per person would be advisable. Now weather is a major factor with any garden. I assume all those who are vegetarian's live in Florida, California or some other great year round climate. Otherwise you better can enough for winter (canning requires Heat=fuel). Now that garden does not produce, milk (cows again), soy products in quantities for food (I would not want soy as my only food), Sugar if used, coffee same, oranges, bananas, olive oil, rice, coconuts, tea, avocados, nuts, salt, pepper, various other spices, grape fruit, apples, dates, molasses, pomegranate, kiwi, star fruit, honey, juices, peanut butter, butter (cows), cashew butter, pineapples well you get the point I hope. Most of the non U.S. grown products must be shipped by boat or train and they are far from environmentally sound. Ever seen what ships dump in the ocean?

I did not even cover the stores that sell these products or the people who work there and I would say they drive to work, not walk in most cases.

Now I hope every vegetarian that grows their own food has sufficient water for it in the form of rainfall. If not then water must be provided from other means such as the city, county or through irrigation canals. All use some sort of power to get them to you. Even the irrigation canals cannot flow up hill. Not to mention the chemicals (oil again) used to make water safe for drinking, except for the irrigation canals.

Now vegans do not eat eggs but vegetarians do and these eggs have to be transported, refrigerated, inspected(light source, electricity)and packaged. Now the people who do this may not be as GREEN as their product and I am sure they drive to work (fuel). Does it require any fuel source such as electricity to make the recycled egg cartons?

Now we won't even go into the production of the seeds. But energy must be used for packaging, transport, and the growing of the seed producing plants to begin with.

You also mentioned that I was wrong about the lack of vitamins in a pure vegetarian / vegan diet. Yes they have many vitamins but if cooked improperly say goodbye. How can you be sure they are cooked properly. I suggest drinking the left over water or using it for soup to insure that you get the vitamins. Steaming is the best way to cook them. If you are eating them raw you can get the full benefit of the nutrients. But who could eat raw veggies for life. I suggest you still take supplements for your health just in case.

I agree "D" with your train (no pun intended) of thought, yes, cows, chickens, pigs, ducks, geese, turkeys and other food animals do produce products harmful to the environment. But being a vegetarian or a vegan is not much better and much more expensive in the long run.

You also mentioned you are a gun toting vegan. Where do the components come from for gun powder, the steel for the weapon or the lead, you get my point.

Again I thank you for your post but as long as humans live on this planet no matter what we eat we will still contribute to some kind of pollution and there is no way around that unless you can live without food, water and shelter.

Thank you again "D". This post was not meant to put you down in anyway but to help you see the truth behind any diet.

Greatest Dow Jones % gain EVER

Here is a little something that may surprise readers. Since the markets are having a little rebound of late I thought I would give a little history of the Dow Jones Bull Markets. The greatest % increase in the Dow was 15.34% and get this the date was 15 March 1933. The next 3 highest % gains ever on the Dow are as follows; 6 Oct. 1931 14.87%, 30 Oct 1929 12.34% and 21 Sept. 1932 11.36%. Now all of these were in the heart of the Depression. Even Hoover pointed out in his later years that his administration had the greatest BULL market to that date. These records still stand to this day.

Now for the connection to today's markets. The 5th highest % gain of all time was 13 Oct. 2008 11.08% and the 6th highest was 28 Oct. 2008 10.88%.

The 8th through the 10th highest % gains were also in the heart of the depression, 3 Aug. 1932 9.52%, 11 Feb. 1932 9.47% and 14 Nov. 1929 9.36%.

Coming in at number 7 was 21 Oct. 1987 10.15%. 1987 also has the highest % loss of all time of
-22.61% on 19 Oct 1987. This is followed by 28 Oct. 1929 at 12.82%.

See any pattern here?

Now I am not predicting anything but the markets have a history of this type of rebound we are experiencing in today's market. Just thought it would be fun to see these numbers.

Buy the way at the same time the market is up so is gold and silver. Go figure.

U.S. Military History Question Series

I thought that a U.S. military history question series would be interesting. I hope some young folks will read these questions and be motivated to learn more about the Greatest Military ever.

What branch of the U.S. military sank the first Japanese naval vessel of WWII, and where?
Now even harder what type of weapon was used?

Info on "How do you spend your Saturday mornings"

If anyone wants info that I said I would give on the above post you can email me at ;

markkent13@gmail.com I will be glad to share with anyone who asks. You too J.T.

I have added the shortcut to the refinery I use at the bottom of the blog list the very long one. Just click and go this is the best around and no fees.

My take on Bernie Madoff's Take

First let me say that I have renamed him Madeoff as in of course with the money. I know it is not original probably but I like it.

The leading factor behind his success in this scheme was GREED. He was the former NASDAQ chairman so everyone thought he was the man for investing with. So they just poured money out to him no questions asked. They just wanted more MONEY and did not care how they got it.

Greed is very powerful and even some very rich people who should have done some checking before hand lost bunches of money. Now the charities and pension funds should fire the mangers who did not check first on his investments. Also the people who invested for the well known types like Spielberg and the such should get jail time for not doing their job, or at the least be sued.

Bernie's wife, sons, brother and niece are also part of this scheme. His wife was the accountant, His niece and one son were the Compliance officers, and his brother received funds from this ponzi company to invest in real stocks in the real Madeoff investment firm. His other son from what I understand helped run the crap company. Bernie also transferred some property to his wife for something like $1.00 or the such. GREED

Now you can or should I say could make money in the stock market but if any of these people had done any research they would have steered clear. But since this was Bernie they thought it was OK. Greed again.

The others with liability in this are the SEC and the bank that he was depositing the money from these people into. It was a New York bank and they should have seen the signs of huge amounts of money being moved around. But again it was Bernie and they were probably glad to have such huge amounts of cash in their bank. Again GREED.

The whole point is that most, if not everyone who was part of this aside from the SEC (just incompetent) believed his lies and were GREEDY bastards who deserved what they got.

There is a saying from a Steve McQueen movie that I like and it applies here: "Believe half of what you see and nothing of what you hear"

Physical precious metals is the only way to go. Had these fools put their money in gold or silver when this scheme started in the early 1990's they would have more than they do now! Millions More Ha Ha! That is not greedy that is just smart.

I think a lot of his investors would like "A Weekend with Bernie"

Meat food for life

Well here is something that just wrangles me, Vegetarians. Now I am all for "to each his or her own" but being a vegetarian makes no sense to me. Most of the country of India (Hindus) are vegetarian with cows treated like gods running all over the place. There are an estimated 40,000 cows in Dehli alone roaming free. Are there any starving people in India? They would be short a few cows if I was hungry. Here we call them a hamburger on the hoof or what ever is your choice cut. But I digress. In this country vegetarians mainly choose that path not for religious reasons but for the sake of the living thing. To be sure most vegetarians have no religious background since in the bible it tells you all about eating MEAT!

When a vegetarian tells me that they can never get full and are always hungry I just want to sit them down and show them what a meal is really like. I would get them a nice New York Steak or a T bone with all the fixin's and see if they are still hungry then. Now myself I do not eat the huge hamburgers put out by the fast food chains, but give them a triple decker burger and some greasy fries and damn if they won't be full then.

Now even our teeth are geared to meat eating. Take an elephant for example it has teeth for grinding vegetable material down so it can be digested. Our front teeth are for tearing the meat and the back teeth are for further chopping of the meat.

What happens to your digestive system if you only eat veggies, you are always taking a dump that's what. Try eating a high fiber diet when that is not your normal diet and see what happens. Imagine just eating plant material forever and you get the picture.

Now I am not against vegetables. I love my corn, green beans, beans in general, rice, potato's etc. But this is not what our bodies were designed to run on. You must take huge amounts of supplements with a veggie diet to maintain proper health.

One other point about Veggies, it has been my experience that most are LIBERALS! Who among other things hate guns, approve of abortion, want my money and think that the OBAMANATION is the greatest thing since soybeans.

The whole point of this post was to vent some again.

Just give me some good ole MEAT thank you. In fact I think some steak is in order tonight. Maybe I will eat the veggies portion besides mine.

What would you have done?

This post is for those who may have thought my purchases of precious metals from charitable organizations such as thrift stores was unethical. As a matter of fact I went to both stores and offered my expertise gratis, free and even offered to get them set up on ebay so they could sell the more valuable donations.

I went to one thrift stores board meeting with a plan. I would get NOTHING from this and they would make more money. I was asked to leave and told they were not interested. The other store said they had someone who does that type of thing for them and thank you anyway.



With both of these places I was doing it to help them not myself and so today I make out like a bandit at the expense of either their pride, arrogance or ignorance

So I continue to purchase gold, silver, platinum and diamonds for pennies on the dollar. Not to mention the collectibles and antiques I find and resell also.

In my opinion these stores are doing an injustice not only to their charity but to the people who donate the items.

Just thought I would clear the air just in case, although no one had commented on that post as yet.

BOYCOTT ADIDAS

Well I guess one sports company does not want to exist anymore. Adidas is now proudly selling hats with the HAMMER AND SICKLE on them. The part that really pissed me off is that they are SOLD OUT! I hope this companies stock goes the way of Lehman Brothers or Washington Mutual. The real kicker is that they are probably made in CHINA! If I owned any of their crap, which I do not, I would mail it back to the company headquarters with a note telling them to shove them where the sun don't shine.

What genius in the marketing department decided this was a good idea and why is he still employed?

The fact that the hats were sold out is a testament to the stupidity of the American lemming public. I take that back because lemmings at least do not buy these stupid hats. If I see a loser with one on I will say something you can count on that. But the chances of one being seen here are slim since most wear hats with a fertilizer company logo or a cowboy hat, thank GOD. I am in what can still be regarded as AMERICA.

This is a German company with offices in the USA.

I had more on my mind but I will leave it at that since it will only make me more angry.

BOYCOTT ADIDAS

Here is their contact info to give them a piece of your mind if you wish.


adidas

USA Customer Service
5055 N Greeley Ave.
Portland, OR 97217USA
1 (800) 448-1796
customerservice@shopadidas.com

I just don't get it, am I missing something?

On my trips around town I take short cuts through the numerous alleys and today alone I noticed TWO gigantic screen TV boxes and along with one the ever needed new entertainment center. I must have missed the memo that the economic downturn was over. Yes I know that spending helps the economy but I cannot condone this type of spending on items that have no intrinsic value.

My biggest TV is a 27" tube type that we bought in 1995. It still works fine although it did need a new remote recently at a cost of $9.00.

I know that it is none of my business but why would anyone want something that will be obsolete in a year or two and worth no more than the TV I have now.

No its not sour grapes since I could buy one of the new 65" flat screens if I felt I needed it. But TV only upsets me most of the time and I tend to only watch CNBC and educational programming (History channel ETC.) or something funny. Watching the news no matter who you watch just makes me want to throw lead at the set. But then I would have to buy another one.

I guess its OK that people are still buying the trinkets in life but how much gold could you buy with the money spent on a flat screen. Not to mention any other items discussed in survival forums. I am part of the great minority that is the Be Prepared world, but I would rather be part of that group than the sit on my butt and watch football on the new flat screen.

Yes watching sports on TV or the Oscars, or some reality show is a form of escape. Maybe those who buy the big TVs are getting a comfort fix and that is how they deal with all the crap around them.

I wish I could sit down with those people and give them a dose of REAL REALITY and explain what could happen in the future near or far and get their heads back in the game of life. My family has always been "prepared" for as long as I can remember. I just grew up with that mindset by observing my parents. Even today in their mid 70's they are ready to head out with all the things they need and live comfortably. We even discuss where to meet in THE event and such like it was nothing.

I have always wondered how many people there are like those who write the survival blogs I read. It would be interesting to get an idea of the numbers so we could do a head count after all the rest are either in camps or on the way to whatever destiny awaits them.

Some have posted that many who blog are talkers or wannabes or Mall survivalists. I for one take it very serious.

So when I see people spending on useless (to me) stuff I just shake my head and try not to get upset at the lemmings around me. I try not to get upset at the stupidity and think happy thoughts. I could be wrong and those people could have a basement of stuff for the SHTF but I doubt it.

Well I got that off my mind and I feel better and it only cost me a little time not $$$$. Thank you for letting me vent.

Home on the Range (TONOPAH TEST RANGE) III

Well here we go again.


Today I will focus a little on what we did at Nellis as part of the cover story for the Stealth program.


Being at Nellis and having a BIG secret was kind of exciting to say the least. We for obvious reasons felt privileged and at the same time special in relation to others on the base. We weren't any better than the rest but our mission was entirely different and required at times thinking on our feet as it were.


The operations on Nellis were many times multinational and this caused some apprehension on our part many times. A great tradition among Air Force's worldwide is patch trading. Now since we were not very visitor friendly this was a little difficult for us when someone would POP in for a chat and to get one of our patches. As as I mentioned before when someone who we did not recognize came into our building we would instantly do a MEET AND GREET before they got to far into the building. We would approach the person and ask politely if we could help them. This was odd I am sure to them since in most places you could wander for some time before someone would even notice you. On one occasion a British group came for a visit and we went into action. They just wanted to get some patches which we gave them and then they wanted to see our planes and talk shop. Well that was not going to happen. Try getting a fellow airman to kindly leave as soon as possible in a polite manner and they begin to feel unwanted. This was not our purpose but in our building things could change at a minutes notice and someone could be discussing classified or the such. These poor Brit's I am sure thought how rude of the colonists to rush us out.


Another time a Brit who had purchased of all things a Harley had been driving down the flight line road a no no to begin with towing his prized possession on a trailer and drove right into our red line area where the planes were parked. He was stopped by a maintenance crew they called security and he was given a polite lashing I am sure. The Security Police on Nellis were not briefed on our mission and any breach of the RED LINE was handled the same as anywhere else on the flight line. For those who do not know there is a red line painted the entire length of the flight line. As with anything red it means stop, no crossing. This type of infraction happens often at bases worldwide. Some times it is a civilian driver who is lost and wanders into the flight line area by mistake.


Being part of the 4450th was also different in that we had different rules from the regular AF. For instance in the USAF every year everyone has to qualify on a 1 1/2 mile run in a certain time for your age. In our unit we got permission to do long hikes in the mountains nearby instead and that was great. One time we went up a trail that led to the area where the oldest living things on earth live the Bristlecone pine said to be over 5000 years old. These hikes would be a family affair with a picnic afterwords and a great time for us all to get together. Of course there would be more than one of these events since our schedules would not allow for everyone to do it on the same day.


The agencies on base were familiar with us but anytime we dealt with them they knew we were odd sorts since we always got what we wanted no questions asked. We had priority in everything we did. This at times caused some discontent among the MASSES but they never gave us a hard time just the LOOK. I am sure they resented us in some small way but they could do nothing about our special status.


A good example of this special treatment was when we needed some new recruits from a tech school in Denver Colorado, Lowry AFB. Myself and two others a Chief Master Sergent and a Master Sergent flew out to Lowry with the task of finding two people to join the A7's.


Now when we showed up at the school the we went directly to the Commander's office. Since we were SPECIAL he had no notice of our arrival or what we were doing at HIS school. The Chief just handed him a letter that basically said COOPERATE. Now I know that this was unprofessional sounding to just show up with no notice but that is how we operated to preserve as much secrecy as possible. The Commander, after reading the letter, said what do you need and asked us how he could help. I do not know who signed the letter but they had much pull. We were given a room to interview some folks and also given their service records and school records. Each candidate was questioned at length, even as far as asking them if they had any problems with flying. These poor folks were very new in the military and a few asked when they entered the room if they were in trouble since their instructor could not give them any idea what we were doing. We would put them at ease and we even went so far as to put them on a first name basis for the interview so as to relax them further.


When we had found our two people it was time to let them know they were selected and that we would take care of getting their assignments changed. This is where the fun started. We went to the assignment section of the personnel department at the base and the Chief handed the letter that he had shown the Commander of the school to the Chief of the Personnel section. The Chief of this section being a Chief said I cannot change their assignments and gave our Chief the brushoff. Our Chief being the diplomatic type asked to use the phone. He promptly called someone, to this day I have no idea who he called, and handed the phone to the Chief. The Chief simply said yes sir several times and hung up. He then asked our Chief how he could help. Amazing what one phone call can do.

This is my favorite example of how our unit was different from even other A7 units. Our A7's were the only active duty planes of this type. All others were assigned to the National Guard. Since our planes were no different in appearances to those in the Guard we got any and all modification or time compliance orders that they got. The only problem was that ours did not have the cannon installed and some of the armour plating(for weight and balance). These were removed to make the aircraft lighter. There were also systems that we did not use. I will leave it at that. So if we had a new mod or the such that pertained to these areas we could not perform that task.

This lack of systems or non use of systems proved interesting on one occasion for me. As the head of my specialty on the aircraft I was sent TDY (temporary duty) to Wright Patterson AFB, Dayton Ohio for a conference on a digital conversion of the system I was responsible for and several other system it would affect. Since some of this stuff was not used I hoped that nothing would come up that I could not explain away.

The first awkward moment was when all the other Guard folks and I met. The first thing they asked was, so why do you guys fly A7's and what do you do? Our cover was that we were testing advanced avionics (not a lie - F-117). So that's what I told them. I could tell right off that was not good enough for them but they let it be, for now. I was going to be at this conference for 7 days so I just hoped that that was the end of the awkwardness, Not. Everything was going great until someone mentioned some problems with a NON use system on our planes. When I was asked if I had a similar problem which they all had experienced I simply said NO (not a lie). Needless to say they wanted to know why and I told them I could not discuss this any further. Luckily the chief in charge of this conference understood my situation and changed the subject.

One other great thing about that conference is my visit to the Air Force Museum at Wright Paterson AFB in Dayton Ohio. I was like a kid in a candy store. Planes I had only seen pictures of were now inches away. I was overwhelmed. I say all my favorites, the XB-70, X-15, B-58, B-29, (FW-190, ME -109 German WWII) P-51, Spitfire, P-39, P-47, P-40, P-62, B-1, B-36 HUGE the list goes on and on. If you are ever in Dayton this is worth the trip.

One thing that I will mention here is that I had a relative who was a Major General attached to Wright Pat when the Roswell thing went down. This is the base that the supposed Alien bodies were brought to. He was at the time in charge of a Scientific unit at the base. I asked him many years ago if he knew about the rumor. He said he did and that to his knowledge nothing of the sort ever came to that base. Take that for what it is worth. I will say that he had a very high security clearance. One more interesting thing about him is that he also participated in the Nuremberg Trials as a younger officer. He was a West Pointer. Was moved over to the USAAF during WWII and went on to the USAF in 1947. He was a pilot, P-51s. One of my TTR buddies reminds me of him a little, this relative once buzzed his mothers house in NEW YORK CITY. He was a great guy. He has passed now but he was alive well after 9/11. Here is something he said to me after 9/11. Mark its been two days now how come Afghanistan still exists! Every so often he would call and mention the time since 9/11 and ask the same question. He lived to see something happen there but he felt it was way to little to late! He passed at the age of 95 and is buried at Arlington. Sharp as a tack to the end!

Now for one of the characters I worked with. I will not use his real name. Derek was by far the most exciting of the bunch. I remember a trip I took with him in a Government owned vehicle, GOV, up North as we called it. One of only two trips where I got to drive up instead of fly. The trip up was uneventful if you could call a high speed run uneventful. Derek was the driver ALWAYS he insisted and who am I to argue at being a passenger. Its a long drive. Anyway the speedometer was not much use for him. To put it simply the mile markers were going by every thirty seconds! Yes I know it was wrong but we were young and fearless let alone the abuse of a GOV. Needless to say he had an ulterior motive for this. He wanted to make it before dinner, it was surf and turf night. We arrived on time for his dinner of choice and unscathed. This was just a parts run of sorts for the A-7's there and to bring some other items back to Nellis. It was an overnighter of course.

On the return trip Derek wanted to take a Short Cut. Now you must understand there are no shortcuts across CLASSIFIED RANGE. Our security badges allowed us to access only certain parts of the the Test Range. But Derek new better and proceeded to drive where we were NOT SUPPOSED to be. He said it would cut many miles off our trip back. I said maybe not if we get stopped and they check our badges. He was not phased by my words one bit. So here we were about to Trespass on areas of classified Range and he was excited. As we went along suddenly a sign read area such and such badges only. I looked at my badge and it was not there. Here we go. I will not be able to describe where we were or what we saw but I can tell you this, I was keeping an eye on the sky for a very good reason! After what seemed FOREVER a new sign proclaimed we were leaving that area and we were in the clear. Thank you Lord!

Now the fun was not over and now I got to play a little. I am sure you are all aware that Nevada has what is called the EXTRATERRESTIAL Highway. Well we ended up coming out on that road. Now Speed racer had a new game he wanted to play. At the speeds mentioned before. He had brought along many very small steel juice cans, you know the ones you see in the markets with pineapple juice in them they are about 3" high and about 1/1/2" in DIA. perfect for the palm of the hand. He called them juice grenades and we had all flavors, prune, apple, pineapple you name it. Now these were full cans. His idea was to try and hit things with them as he drove. I was the launcher and he would toss a few too. Well I am not very good at hitting things at the speed he was going so I never made contact with any targets. The idea was sound but we had no way of judging when to release. I have to admit it was kind of a rush trying to hit billboards and the such. None of his lobs by him made it either. I bet somewhere out there there are many burst juice cans along the south bound lane of that highway. We did not stop in Rachel NV we blew by like a flying saucer. Made the trip back in record time, for who I do not know but it was fast.

Years later I saw Derek back in Vegas at a Reunion of sorts. He had flown in under his own power. He had a PILOTS license now, a REAL one and had rented an aircraft. He wanted me to go up with him. I declined for obvious reasons.

Well I will stop for now. More later. Thanks for reading Mark

Well I will end here and get more to you later. For now its enough.

Home on the Range (TONOPAH TEST RANGE) II

Well here is more of my time at TTR.

I left off talking about the accommodations at TTR. They were at best just hotel rooms but with more for no cost. After checking out the digs we went to the dining hall to get some dinner. This facility is open 24 hours a day since the base operated on the same schedule. Now it had ANYTHING you could think of. On Wednesday they called it Surf and Turf day. Yes steaks and lobster no joke. On any given day you could have burgers, sandwiches of any kind, pizza, well you name it they had it. In the drink department they ad unlimited choices you name it they had it. The facility had two lines. I call them the full course meal line and the what do you want line. The full course meal line had several menus to choose from like Chicken, beef, fish, turkey etc. on the other line there were sandwiches and fast food options of all kinds. Needless to say we were not going hungry.

After pigging out we checked out the other facilities. The Mancamp had more than a full gym, indoor pool with jacuzzi, racket ball courts, steam room, sauna, free weight room, Nautilus room, exercise room you know mats and the such and a basketball court.

The pool was unusual in that it was stainless steel not the normal concrete style you see everywhere. This is because of the earthquakes and testing done on the range would have cracked a normal pool in short order. It was very large, Olympic size is about right. The jacuzzi was also large.

There was also a baseball field, football field / running track, several tennis courts and outside basketball courts too.

The main building that housed the indoor rec equipment also had a library that could order books from Nellis if they did not have it. A very small quick store of sorts that was mainly run by GI's and stocked by them. They were mini entrepreneurs of sorts and the military gave them a very small room to work out of. You could get the essentials like smokes, dip (smokeless tobacco), beer, can sodas basically anything that the government did not provide.

In this building there was also a rec room with pool tables, ping pong,video machines, foosball, card tables everything you could think of. Here is one that may get your dander up, there was no golf course at TTR but they did have one of those whack your ball at a screen things with many different courses available to play. This was before they were popular and it cost a mint I am sure. But the big wigs spared no expense for the troops.

Now on the subject of BEER there was a full bar in this very building. Yes a bar just like in the real world, TV's, juke box, and a full service bar. Now this place saw lots of business and the group of guys I hung out with in my time on the range had our favorite drink of choice, KAMIKAZE'S by the pitcher (only $12.00) with no glasses we used something that was even better, what me called straws but were actually oil sample tubes for the jets, new ones of course. Yes they were not intended for this use but they were made out of plastic that would leave no contamination in the sample and for that reason they were just fine for straws at least we hoped. What can I say we were young and could care less about the health effects, hell we were drinking alcohol with them. The great part of being at TTR was that most people did not drive and there was no need to worry about DUI since there was a great mass transportation system.

One quick sidebar on the bar. Myself and many others were at TTR when the first gulf war started for obvious reasons. We all met in the bar to watch the Classified News Network since we had advance knowledge of what was going to happen. The Stealth fighter was first into action (yes the Apaches started the whole thing by killing some front line positions but they did not "boldly go where no one had gone before") Anyway we sat with our Pitcher of our favorite and waited for news of the first attacks. More on this later.

Now while at TTR we could not leave the fenced area which meant no going into Tonopah the town. We were isolated in that respect. The civilian workers had a bus that ran them into town on a regular basis called the town bus. I of course never rode on it. The gate of the fenced area of TTR was just outside of Mancamp. But I never made it past the fence that surrounded mancamp on foot since it was forbidden. The gate(yet another fence) that was used by the town bus to the free zone has now been moved, I have been told, all the way to the highway that leads to town about 8 miles from what I can figure, that's a lot of fence.

Another interesting thing about TTR was that it was of course restricted airspace. While I was part of the wing we had a Cessna make an emergency landing on our runway. He was in trouble and saw a runway and headed for it. He ignored repeated calls to not land but what was he supposed to do? When he landed the security nabbed him bagged him(bag over his head) and took him out of the secure hanger area. We heard that after some questioning and signing his life away he was sent packing. But the plane was not as easy. They could not let him fly out of our facility so they towed it to the fence outside of Mancamp and lifted it over the fence and sat it in the dirt next to the road. Sometime later he was allowed to repair his plane and takeoff from the road never to return.

Well enough for this run I will post more later. I hope those who read this enjoy it. Let me know what you think please. Until next time.