I don't have cable or satelite but what I've seen of the History channel has been very good. While waiting for my car to be finished being worked on, I watched how they computer recreated some of the key battles between the Romans and the Gauls prior to the fall of Rome.
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109528608271618992,00.html?mod=home%5Fpage%5Fone%5Fus
To Secure Airport,
Houston Enlists
Volunteer Riders
They Patrol the Woodlands
Looking for Terrorists;
The Lure of $329 Boots
By AMY SCHATZ
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
September 16, 2004; Page A1
HOUSTON -- On an early Saturday morning in May, Kay Bauer was galloping through the woods surrounding George Bush Intercontinental Airport on her 20-year-old Arabian horse when she spotted a photograph of Osama bin Laden. Nearby, Hollis LaRoe, a 71-year-old retiree, and his horse sneaked up on two pictures of al Qaeda terrorists with shoulder-fired missiles.
Then both riders returned to base camp for their rewards. Mr. LaRoe took home a $25 tie. Ms. Bauer scored a toy horse that whinnies when its string is pulled.
Also unearthed that morning: a photo of Saddam Hussein and pictures of hand grenades and a nuclear mushroom cloud, as the Airport Rangers -- Houston's new weapon in the war on terrorism -- practiced protecting the airport from attacks.
The mounted volunteer security force has patrolled Houston's largest airport since December, scouring the woodlands around the airfield in search of real terrorists. More than 500 volunteers, about two-thirds women, regularly report for duty on horseback, cellphones at the ready. They wear security badges and have full access to the airport's outlying property -- thousands of heavily wooded acres now complete with roughly cut trails. In return, they report suspicious activity to airport police. The only rangers allowed to have guns are off-duty law-enforcement officers.
"We want to make sure Osama can't get in these woods and attack the airport," says Tom Jenkins, a forester who was hired to cut the airport's new trails.
While no terrorists have been found, the move reflects a struggle facing airport officials around the country as they try to balance their need to secure undeveloped, often wooded, land or nearby coastland with the desire of outdoor enthusiasts to enjoy spots they have been frequenting for years. Many airports simply don't allow access anymore.
In San Francisco and at New York City's two airports, for example, boaters are not allowed within 200 feet of shore. Clammers were banned from digging near Boston's Logan International Airport after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Airport and federal security officials wanted to keep unauthorized people away from airport property, even though the mud flats near the airport are among the most bountiful in Boston.
But after the state legislature intervened, clammers were allowed to return in the summer of 2002. They're now required to wear special vests, security badges and report suspicious activities to airport police.
Aviation officials are concerned that terrorists could fire surface-to-air missiles at U.S. commercial airliners from outside airfield fences. Since the 1970s, shoulder-fired missiles have been fired at about 40 commercial aircraft, according to the State Department, the latest an Israeli plane in Kenya in 2002. It wasn't hit. The Department of Homeland Security is testing two antimissile systems to see whether they could work on commercial jets, but airlines complain the systems could cost more than $1 million per plane.
"There's over 11,000 acres out there," says Greg Walker, the Houston airport's security manager. "Many of these places are ideal for someone who wants to cut the fences, climb over the fences or who wants to use shoulder-fired missiles. ...We don't have the manpower to patrol those areas."
That's where the Airport Rangers come in, providing an old-fashioned solution to a modern security problem. It also has cost significantly less than antimissile systems -- roughly $50,000 to conduct background checks on volunteers, hack out trails and put in a few picnic tables.
Local riders have quietly roamed the airport property for years, says Darolyn Butler-Dial, co-owner of Cypress Trails, a nearby stable that now offers $125 "Airport Rangers Rides" to tourists. After Sept. 11, Houston airport officials discouraged riders from visiting the property, but local equestrians complained. To compromise, the airport created the ranger program.
"Anyone find a boot?" Mr. LaRoe hollered one Saturday morning, as a half dozen fellow Rangers, wilting in the 94-degree heat, trudged over to a gray plastic watering tub set up under shade trees at the corner of a dirt parking lot. The Rangers lamented that no one had found the photo of a cowboy boot during their "treasure hunt" for terrorists two months earlier. So the grand prize, a $329 pair of ostrich cowboy boots, had gone unclaimed.
One man knew where it was hidden, but he wasn't telling. Kelly Baber, a 38-year-old Internet database programmer, lives near a small stable next to the airport with his girlfriend and four horses. Unofficially, Mr. Baber is the lead Ranger: He designed the Airport Rangers' Web site, plans monthly get-togethers and rides the trails several times a week with his 12-year-old mutt, Red Dog, trailing behind. He also hid the photos for the drill.
"Horses are so acutely aware of their environment, if something's there they haven't seen before, the horse will notice it," Mr. Baber said, pointing out a cut fence recently reported by the Rangers to airport security. He then showed a small group of Rangers a potentially dangerous hole near the trail as he led them on one of his favorite trips: the margarita ride.
The 45-minute margarita ride features hills (mounds of dirt left from runway construction) and valleys (drainage ditches). The last leg of the trip, which runs along a six-lane highway and through a Firestone MasterCare service station parking lot, is short and ends with a drink at La Cabana Mexican Restaurant and Cantina. It has become such a popular destination for the Rangers that the owners nailed up a 2-by-4 hitching post for the horses.
Rangers say they're continuing a long Texas tradition of riding the fence lines to protect their land, fulfilling the romantic notion of riding the range.
"I'm a full-time lawyer and a part-time cowgirl," said Ms. Bauer, an environmental lawyer for the City of Houston, sipping her margarita. She particularly likes to ride along the fence near one runway, waving at passengers as the planes land.
Rangers doing their work have spotted a few deer poachers. And one discovered the theft of about 30 newly planted hardwood trees, although the thieves were never caught. Most of the calls Rangers make to airport security are about downed fences or holes under the airfield fences dug by coyotes that live in the woods. Airport police are still grateful, since the fences keep small animals away from the airfields and planes.
"The last thing you want is to see a bunny about to get sucked into an engine," Mr. Walker says.