[Darksheare]

Was down there once to help work on the elevator at the old drop tower.
The guy working the tower mentioned the fun possibilities brush fires provided.
We also had to fix a cargo elevator that some genius removed the door straps from.
I mentioned to the guy that he could “borrow” a crew safety strap off a Humvee, cut it down, and rivet it in place of the original.
Don’t know if he did or not.

[NoCmpromiz]

It's been over a decade since I have been on base (as a contractor). As part of your 'orientation' which preceded your getting whatever passes you needed to get into the place you were instructed that if you saw anything unusual and/or out of place to leave it alone and call security..

Periodically they would test some of their concoctions (at the time it was 155mm shells) out in the back 'enclosure' so your day on base was punctuated with a series of kabooms. One of the buildings that I visited was situated at a spot where the shockwave from their testing apparently got funneled down the valley and invariably took out the glass in the main entrance door - and only that door. They finally replaced it with plexiglass/lucite/some such stuff that didn't shatter.

Went back to the drop tower one day and interrupted them dropping a case of flashbangs (they were testing the shipping case/crate thing to verify that it could be tossed out of a helicopter at 130 feet without bothering the contents enough to cause a nonsalubrious manifestation...) The dude doing the 'test' allowed that if we could figure out a way to account for them, some unknown quantity of flashbangs could mysteriously appear in my vehicle, like, if some flashbangs flashbanged the count could then be fudged. Unfortunately the shipping case under test was adequate to the task, there was no flashbang, thus none could be liberated...

When I first started going on the base security was pretty lax and you just got waved through the gate (Clinton years). After Bush replaced Clintoon you had to stop and show ID. Then... 9/11 happened and they tightened the place up like a trap. Full vehicle searches and document checks and everything. If you were a contractor for the DOD you could apply for and (usually) receive a DOD sticker for your windshield and a photo badge citing what areas you were allowed to access which then allowed you to roll up to the dude with the weapon, display your badge, he would check both that and your DOD sticker and give you the 'Have a good day, Sir' as he waved you through while the guy behind you who did not have any of that got cavity searched...

Last I checked the 'news' they are saying no explosive threat was found in the truck...