Vandenberg AFB Beefs Up Security: No Beach Access

San Diego Union-Tribune ^ | staff

[Bernard Marx]

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — Beefed up security at Vandenberg Air Force Base is preventing public access to the state's Point Sal Beach, which can only be reached on foot through military base property.

Outdoor recreational activity has also been banned on most of Vandenberg's 98,000 acres near Lompoc.

The military says the heightened state of security will be in place indefinitely. Officials with Vandenberg's 30th Space Wing says the Department of Defense ordered the increase in security and no details are being released.

However, the measures were imposed after Osama bin Laden released an audio recording threatening Americans.

[rahbert]

are they black?

[krogers58]

Let's just suppose North Korea was going to launch and ICBM, tipped with a nuke......yeah we know we'd rain destruction on them, until the country is a sheet of glass.....but, if they did want to launch an attack that would actually hit our mainland, they would probably also have a coordinated land assault with their highly trained special forces. Seems like a prudent measure to actually defend the physical location of the interceptors. Otherwise, the missile defense shield would go down in history to be as useful as the Maginot line.

Fixed fortifications are monuments to man's stupidity,” George S. Patton, Jr.

[hoosiermama]

check out post 27

[Quix]

Did not sound like they were black.

I’m fairly sure she’d have said so if they were black.

They were somewhat at a distance. She might not have been able to tell for sure.

[Quix]

Hmmmm

Oh wheee.

I’d forgotten about that. Don’t play such games.

[B-Chan]

There is no VFAS-524 in the real world. That’s a link to a computer game page.

[hoosiermama]

For your observation and comment....Don't suppose they raised the alert cause Al Gore is trying to get his two journalist out do you? He's rumored to be going to NK isn't he? Any sightings?

[CountryBumpkin]

The U.S. Army is at DEFCON 4, WATCHCON 2. The information at the link is incorrect.

[Quix]

Thanks.

Makes a LOT more sense!

[Quix]

Thanks.

I’m not familiar with WATCHCON levels. Can you educate me?

[Quix]

Where do you check?

[Bernard Marx]

I think this measure, among others, is a response to the very touchy situation vis-a-vis North and South Korea, along with the probability that Kim Jong [Mentally] Il is about to turn power over to one of his sons. Such power transfers can be very destabilizing.

The Washington Times is reporting that military members of the North Korean National Defense Committee are flexing their muscles with the nuke tests, threats against SK and missile launches, letting Kim know where the real power lies. Naturally we should be alarmed. If the NK's start anything with SK we're automatically at war, possibly nuclear.

A huge problem IMO is Zero's plan to cut $1.2 billion for missile defense and cap the current long range interceptor force at 30 missiles. The Times says Lt. Gen. Patrick J. O'Reilly, director of the Missile Defense Agency, told a House hearing last week that the threat from ballistic missiles has "increased significantly."

[Quix]

Hmmmmmm

Sounds like quite a lot of ‘Selected’ “leaders” deserve to be keelhauled.

[wolfcreek]

If we were in DEFCOM 1 and the war was minutes away, I seriously doubt the average citizen would know squat.

And in most cases, rightly so.

[b4its2late]

You are so correct. I never thought about that.

[AU72]

DEFCON 2 would mean all military leaves cancelled, all bases on lockdown security, Strategic forces prepared to launch at will etc.

[CountryBumpkin]

WATCHCON is a strategic and tactical warning system put in place between the US and ROK to surveil and assess threats from DPRK. The WATCHCON numbers mean:
4: normal peacetime
3: important indications of threat
2: vital indications of threat
1: wartime situation

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Bernard Marx]

I agree, starting with Robert Gates. We should also be looking at the policies of Michele A. Fluornoy, our new undersecratary of defense for policy. She's in the midst of a new QDR (Quadrennial Defense Review) and is clearly busy implementing Zero's policies.

When asked if U.S. superpower status should be preserved or be balanced with other countries' like Russia, China and India she said:

"I think the fact that America's position in the world is fairly [sic] unique, it is a fact. But I think this administration, when you look at the full range of security challenges we face -- whether it's terrorism, proliferation, economic security, climate change, pick your challenge -- there's not a single one that the United States alone can deal with effectively."

So prepare yourselves, folks, for a Pentagon assault on "climate change" and "economic security." The new QDR is being rushed through to set Zero's new defense policies by early next year.

[Quix]

Would depend on a lot of contingencies.

Normally . . . we know every step of the DEFCON level raising process.

Seems to me, in this day and age . . . at least some warning to . . . uhhh . . . bend over and kiss . . .

errr . . . say one’s prayers . . . would be highly in order.