"CARTWHEEL" Tower, Fort Reno, Washington, DC, 2020.
All the pixels, on a need-to-know basis, at https://www.flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/49576247768/
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this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2025
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Despite CARTWHEEL being located in the middle of a residential neighborhood in a busy city and staffed by military personnel, officials went to great lengths to conceal the true purpose of these towers. They hid in plain sight, appearing to be silos or water towers (they even used civilian water trucks to send crews to some of the towers).
It was only after the cold war ended that the details of the network were declassified.
Obsolete secret infrastructure like CARTWHEEL tower, only revealed decades later, intrigues me not just for its scale and design, but also for the obvious question it gives rise to. If this stuff effectively managed to stay unnoticed for decades, what newer secrets are hiding under our noses today?
@[email protected] Just curious, how much do you know about the FAA use of CORKSCREW nowadays?
@[email protected] I'm not sure what exactly the do with them. They own both CORKSCREW and CARTWHEEL, and maintain both in good condition (with activity). They also erected an HF antenna next to CORKSCREW.
@[email protected] Just curious. Everything I know about the two is open source, but I think I’m still supposed to keep my mouth shut about them.
@[email protected] What's really annoying is when you work on a secret project that has gotten exposed to the public, I STILL CAN'T TALK ABOUT IT. I got to do some interesting things back when I was doing consulting, but still have to put the cover story on my resume.