By David Swanson with Shepherd Johnson
The U.S. military is a
permanent and pervasive presence in Virginia. Were the state of Virginia
to ban participation in wars of aggression, weapons sales to brutal
dictatorships, and the manufacture of aggressive and illegal weapons,
the Military Industrial Complex would be obliged to help itself to many
billions of public dollars just to cover the cost of moving operations
to the other 49 states or abroad.
The Pentagon and all of its
surrounding weapons corporation headquarters are in Virginia. The
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff lives in Quarters Six at Fort Myer
in Arlington. The Army and Air Force chiefs of staff live on "Generals
Row," also in Fort Myer.
Norfolk is home to the world's largest naval base. NATO is there too. And through this month, so is the United States Joint Forces Command.
National Reconnaissance Office in Chantilly.
The Air Force has its Air Combat Command at Langley Air Force Base. Langley and Eustis combine to form the Joint Base Langley--Eustis.
The Port of Hampton Roads is a Sea Port of Embarkation (SPOE). Also in Tidewater, Va., is Lamberts Point at Norfolk. So are two large shipyards, found in Newport News (Northrop Grumman) and Portsmouth, there to service the aforementioned largest Naval Base in the world.
But the military is spread throughout the state. Out in Radford is a major munitions plant. Up in Warrenton are four military sites, at least one of them used by the CIA.
Let's not forget the Navy. There are SEAL teams at Little Creek and (team 6) at Dam Neck. These are military forces operating at the secret command of the President.
There are secrets running through the very ground of Virginia. Not far from where I am in Charlottesville, in (and I mean in) Peter's Mountain near Gordonsville, is an AT&T site that many believe the military used to use and probably still does.
A Virginia Wal-Mart.
If it's not embarrassing to a self-professed government of the people not to know what's happening in our mountains, what we do know is even more embarassing. The Defense Intelligence Agency used to train "psychic spies" (men who'd stare at goats if they were smart enough to recognize one) at a place in Nelson county called the Monroe Institute. Another of the super-loony agencies in the Military Industrial Complex, which sometimes holds meetings in Charlottesville, is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). DARPA is located in Arlington.
The Army prepares for war in Virginia at Fort Belvoir, Fort Eustis, Fort Lee, Fort Monroe, Fort Myer, and Fort Story, the Navy at the Navy Amphibious Base Little Creek, the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren, Naval Station Norfolk, Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Oceana Naval Air Station (the cause of all that noise pollution in the air at Virginia Beach), and the Naval Weapons Station Yorktown. Meanwhile, the Marines are based in Quantico, as is the FBI Academy.
U.S. Army recruiting at the Best Buy in Short Pump, Va., with a machine that stamped out dog tags for children.
Imagine if tours were organized in Virginia, not of ancient battlefields but of current war machinery. The site would be far more numerous. Instead of pilgrimages to Stonewall Jackson's arm, you might see trips planned to some of these sites:
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