government road

In a moment of geek last week (yeah, I have them sometimes) I was playing with GoogleEarth and getting a bird's-eye-view
of Key West.
I found my current house, the last three places I've lived since I've been on the rock and traced the route I run on my bike workouts which led me to a look at the airport and that's when I found Government Road.
Now, I've always known that Government Road was there but, in all my years here, hadn't taken the time to go down it.
"Hmmm" I thought; a corner of Cayo Hueso I haven't explored; we just can't have that!

Government Road is a paved business that runs (I'm guessing here) about a half mile through mostly undeveloped natural nice-ness and parallel to Key West International across the salt marsh.

At the close end is Little Hamaca City Park and at the far end the road ends at a paintball battlefield. But it was the ruins I discovered in between that piqued my interest.

"What's all this then" I asked myself. Remains of radar towers (lots of them), concrete buildings big enough to warehouse Sherman tanks and something that looked to me
like a bunker.



That's when the light came on. . .
A military installation that just could date back to the
Cuban Missile Crisis.

In October of 1962 I was 10 years old and even though I have real memories of those days, the concepts of naval blockades, evil communists and nuclear armageddon were fairly abstract. I'm not even sure I knew a place called Key West existed.

Anyway, back home later in the day, I did a little homework and sure enough, here was one of the four firing batteries built to defend Key West if the situation between Kennedy and Khrushchev got out of hand.

It's a pretty amazing story actually. . .
On Oct. 20th, 1962 the 6th Battalion's 65th Artillery Unit and their low altitude defense missiles were ordered to move from Fort Meade, Maryland to Key West and in only 9 days, the troops and missiles were deployed and all four firing batteries were operational. (pretty damned quick)

Judging from the map, I'm guessing these are the ruins of Bravo Battery.

So it appears that Key West was loaded for bear in those days. It's got me wondering how weird it could get around here if the United States actually does decide to invade Venezuela.

inaugural impressions

Seas of people, a fog of steaming breath, military music, brass horns (lips can get stuck to mouthpieces in that kind of cold), most Senators are old guys, Bill Clinton's hair looks like it's thinning, Bush Senior is wearing his Nanook of the North genuine beaver hat, Bush Junior still has that dumb-ass smirk on his face (I don't think he can help it), Michelle and Laura have to be freezing up there (why didn't they wear coats?), so many flags (were they all made in China?), John Philip Sousa again (I'm as tired of marching music as I am of musicals by Rogers and Hammerstein), Yo-Yo Ma plays with unbridled joy, Barack looks nervous, Chief Justice Roberts lead the oath out of order (is he pissed because Obama didn't back his appointment to the bench?), Color Guards and more military music (AAAAAAAHHHH!!! MAKE IT STOP!!), great hat Aretha. . . and damn girl you sing sooo fine, Cheney's scowling from his wheelchair (poor bastard), Barack has a very genuine smile and he's a lefty, board the chopper George we've all had quite enough, to bad about Teddy but that idiot Kerry's cashing it in for camera face time, the reflecting pool is frozen (thank-you God for the sub-tropics), now that's a tough looking limo and jeeze-louise look at the thickness of the armor on the doors, it's getting dark early up there, Barack and Michelle look like they're having fun (all that waving and jiving with the crowd and he never lets go of her hand), I'll bet Biden's head is frozen where that hair used to be, the little girls look tired (a long day of grown-up's stuff), marching bands, marching bands, marching bands (takes my memory back to high school days), Obama dancing alone to "signed, sealed, delivered" (I guess you need that kind of ego to do that kind of work), Bush Junior back on the ground in Texas (and doesn't he seem hammered?), it's been a long and interesting day but I'm tired so one more video feed and then to bed. . .

Look at that. . . calm, confident, quiet and stately. As if nothing special had happened today. Just like it was designed to be. . .
Good night America and a brighter day tomorrow.