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Spotted some old equipment at CA coast

J

JL2510

Member
I'm from Maryland but I'm over by Long Beach, California for a few days this week. We're still on Maryland time so we went for a drive this morning about 6am west coast time. Headed south from Long Beach and we soon passed a sign that said "Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach". Looked like garages buried under dirt, I assume full of ammo. I wanted to head back over towards the shore more, so we took the next right and drove along the fence. Suddenly there were a few old John Deere combines, inside the fence. My son spotted them first. I was driving and couldn't get a picture so I found it on Google Earth. Looks like there's a lot of old equipment there. Anyone know its purpose there?

The equipment is at the top of the yellow line in the last image.

It reminds me of the University of Maryland Research Farm we have back home. I'd be a little nervous doing tillage around those ammo buildings....haha.
cvphoto62507.jpg


cvphoto62508.jpg


cvphoto62509.jpg
 
There was a time when the military talked about running special disguised freight trains all over the country loaded with nuclear ICBMs in gondolas or tank cars, that could be launched after an attack. The enemy was supposed to be confused about which ones were real, and which weren't. Perhaps they had to have some farm machinery for "props". Since we entered post-Soviet peace time, there was no need anymore. Just speculating. Today, components are hauled to and fro by sort of non-descript, older-looking commercial semi-trucks. Better not cause them any trouble.
Missile Train
 
In the bottom picture, what looks like giant heads of wheat are rail cars in sidings surrounded by dirt mounds. If you zoom in on Google earth you can see it.
 
cdmn ...... there was a similar post a couple of weeks back. Someone replied that the drivers of those vehicles had "shoot to kill" orders. Obviously, they weren't finding any problems buying ammunition ..... LOL !!! No need for all that secrecy, I'm sure that all countries with nuclear capability know where their enemies missiles are located and visa versa whether on a truck, a ship or in a hole in the ground.
 
There is a lot of land that is cultivated or at least mowed if not kept as tilled dirt year round.
For catastrophe control maybe.I

Maybe at one time they actually grew a cover crop that could be combined. Just to keep the surrounding land free of over growth.
That middle pic looks like there are quite a few tractors rusting away also.
 
Yeah I only noticed the combines as we
drove by, but it certainly looks like
there's a lot of other equipment there
too. All older stuff.
 
That is an interesting read. I was young at the end of the Cold War and that kinda stuff has always interested me. Thanks for the link.
 
While I was in the Navy and we were going in the yards at Long Beach Naval Station for repairs I got the privilege of helping remove all 5 inch and 3 inch ammunition from a DDR at Seal Beach. Later I got to help bring it all back aboard.
 
We used to move atomic trains (most always 14 cars) into and out of West Burlington, Iowa ordinance plant. We understood some were empty decoys to confused enemy satellites. Always had special passenger type car with at least 2 armed guards. If we stopped they hit ground and walked train with long guns. Stopped more than 30 minutes and FBI was called to talk with dispatcher and get train rolling. Guards were not friendly either.
 
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