Share Report Abuse Next Blog»

About Camp David

Home Cabins Activities Holidays Maps Videos On Twitter About

TUESDAY, AUGUST 23, 2011

Raven Rock Mountain Complex

If you search for Camp David on the internet, you are bound to stumble
across information about the Raven Rock Mountain Complex, also known
as Site R. A popular theory floating around is that there is a secret tunnel
between Camp David and Site R. I had never heard of the RRMC, so I
decided to look into it.

Site R is a deep underground relocation facility for the Department of

Defense located in Pennsylvania about six miles from Camp David. It
serves as the Alternate National Military Command Center (ANMCC) and is
known as the underground Pentagon.

FOIA DOCUMENTS

The best source of information I found about Site R came from the Department of Defense in response to a
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request submitted to the Joint Staff for information about the "Site R Civil
Defense Site". FOIA documents released included the following history of Site R:

1950-1953 Construction of first 3 buildings: President Truman approved the project in 1950 and one half
million cubic yards of superhard greenstone granite rock was secretly blasted out and hauled away in ten months.
Underground buildings A, B, and C (each 3-stories tall) were completed in 1953.

1963-1965 Construction of 2 additional buildings: Buildings D and E were constructed and the ANMCC
(alternate national military command center) was expanded and moved from Building C to the new Building D.

1989-1992 Cooling tower / reservoir: A $13.5 million dollar project installed structural bracing, a fire
detection/sprinkling system, a new tunnel, an underground reservoir, and additional cooling towers at the
underground site. A 1990 article in the Gettysburg Times provides additional information about the project.
1994 Site R Security Building: A security building was built outside the A Portal.

RRMC Security building

Site R Tenants
The following list of Site R tenants were included in the 1999 FOIA documents: Naval Operations Support Activity,
Joint Staff Support Center, Air Force Manpower Readiness Flight, National Military Command Center, Air Force
Operations Group, Air Force Emergency Operations Center, Defense Intelligence Agency, 1111th Signal Battalion
(now the 114th), Department of the Navy, Office of the Secretary of Defense, and 17 other tenants.

Raven Rock Mountain Complex Layout

The 1999 FOIA request also resulted in the release of the following documents:
Illustration released by the Department of Defense in response to a 1999 FOIA request
 Illustration released by the Department of Defense in response to a 1999 FOIA request

EARLY NEWS COVERAGE OF SITE R

If you have spent any time on this blog, you will know that I like to reference old newspaper articles. The Raven
Rock Mountain Complex was built during the cold war and I find it interesting to read articles about it that were
written during that time period. Some of my favorites:
 Click here to read the entire article

Click here to read the entire article

RAVEN ROCK MOUNTAIN COMPLEX AERIAL PHOTOS

Bing Maps has a feature called Birds-eye that displays aerial images of a location that were shot from low-flying
airplanes overhead. Here are some screenshots from the Birds-eye view of the Raven Rock Mountain Complex
map:
Site R: A Portal (on right) and B Portal. The Security Building is to the right of A Portal (Bing Maps)

Site R: C Portal and D Portal (Bing Maps)

Site RT - antenna site located on top of the Raven Rock Mountain Complex (Bing Maps)
Site R : A, B, C, and D Portals and Site RT (Google Maps)
 Raven Rock Mountain Complex helipad and fire station (Bing Maps)

RRMC satellite communications facility at Site C (21st Signal Brigade netcom.army.mil - full-size photo)
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF SITE R

The 2010 DOD Base Structure Report lists the "Raven Rock Site" in Pennsylvania as having 61 buildings totaling
over 630,000 square feet on 716 acres. In 2001, there were 59 buildings with a total of 452,000 square feet on the
same number of acres.

There are several different areas that make up Site R. The glossary page in the unclassified 1994 Army
Regulation 190-15 Physical Security of the Alternate Joint Communications Center (AJCC) defines these three
locations:
Site R - the Alternate Joint Communications Center
Site RT - the limited area at Site R where antennas are located
Site Creed - the limited area on the west side of the AJCC with an underground building complex
In addition, there is also Site C, which is a satellite communications facility located atop Quirauk Mountain
Washington County in Maryland supported by the 302nd Signal Battalion. Someone living nearby captured the
nighttime glow from Site C in this Flickr photo.

A website about America's Cold War Infrastructure describes Site Creed as a microwave radio tower that was part
of a Presidential emergency communication network built in the late 1950s - early 1960s. The tower consisted of
nine floors below ground and two floors above ground that housed the microwave/antennas equipment. The Creed
tower is located a short distance away from the main complex and access is via a separate entrance tunnel
According to that same website, the tower is no longer in use. Read more about the Creed Tower and view the
diagram at full-resolution.
 Site Creed (tower at lower right) on Bing Maps Cross Section view of the Creed Tower

In 1991, the "mayor of Raven Rock", Lt. Col Art Maxwell, described the underground facility in an unclassified
briefing. Site R has four portals going 650 feet below the 1,529 foot summit of the Raven Rock Mountain. It has
living quarters, a fitness center, a medical facility, the Granite Cove dining facility, a barbershop, a chapel, legal
services, and a convenience store. The underground reservoirs hold millions of gallons of water. There are 35
miles of cables on 180 telephone poles. The inside of Site R looks like a typical office building except that there are
no windows. Site R also has a wastewater treatment plant.

There are two underground power plants - East and West plants. A fully redundant system is required to power
the HVAC and emergency generators in the event of an extended lockdown. The "Recent Changes to Site R"
section below describes some major upgrades to the West power plant. In January 1990, an explosion occurred at
RRMC. The Pennsylvania Bureau of Mines made a recommendation related to some antiquated equipment in the
power plants to prevent this from recurring.

A declassified document from the Nuclear Vault of the National Security Archive described the underground
buildings at Site R:

"The ANMCC and Presidential quarters were in Building D. Buildings A, B, and C provided quarters,
administrative space, and the operational facilities that the services planned to use as primary
emergency centers. The ANMCC was designed to accommodate 3,000 persons in an emergency
and could operate at least 30 days in a "buttoned up" position."

A Baltimore Sun article describes Site R's five 3-story underground buildings: "The five buildings at the site are
separated by thick rock walls because each was erected inside its own mountain cavern."
A 2011 employment ad included this description: "One of the nation's premier deep underground facilities providing
a safe location for the command and control of the government in a comprehensive all-threat hazards
environment. Installation is comprised of a large nationally critical underground communications facility and three
satellite sites with substantial quantities and varieties of combustible and valuable equipment and supplies."

A 2010 Fort Detrick Defense Technology & Intelligence Career Fair ad described the composition of the workforce
at Ft. Detrick: "Approximately 6,979 military members, civilians and contractors work at Fort Detrick, with support
services being provided to an additional 739 at Raven Rock Mountain Complex." A Linked-in profile of a
Supervisory Police Officer at Raven Rock put the military police force there at around 120 as of 2005.

RECENT CHANGES TO SITE R

The RRMC Fire Station was built in 2005. The
E-One website has a photo of a commercial
pumper truck delivered there.
The underground cavern was expanded in the
last few years to accommodate the installation of
larger fuel storage tanks and the
complete replacement of the West Power
plant including new generators, fuel tanks,
chillers, pumps, air handling units, direct digital
controls, a heat exchanger, boiler, sprinkler
suppression system, and miscellaneous
infrastructure support. This work was done RRMC Fire Station
to support the mission based on the future
projected facility loads.
The 2012 budget provides for the reconfiguration and consolidation of the Emergency Operations
Center.

MISSION OF THE RAVEN ROCK MOUNTAIN COMPLEX

According to the 2012 Department of Defense Budget documents, "The RRMC" provides the DOD Continuity of
Operations Plan (COOP) for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff and Senior DOD Leadership".

DoD Directive 5105.53 dated February 26, 2008 defined the RRMC responsibility of the DA&M (Director of
Administration and Management reporting directly to the Secretary of Defense) as follows:

"Provide for the ongoing transformation and improvement of RRMC into a fully-integrated, unified
DoD enterprise that affords dedicated support to the DoD continuity and command and control
missions."

The DOD Washington Headquarters Services (WHS) website describes RRMC as: "The Nation's Premier Secure
Strategic Battle Command Platform – assuring senior leader's ability to execute their mission essential functions.
RRMC's elite workforce provides a unique capability to meet requirements of a nation at war."

A WHS 2011 employment ad also has this description: "RRMC includes Site C and encompasses at least 25
tenant activities with varied mission peculiar requirements and representing OSD, JS, and all branches of the
military services." In addition, a DOD directive defines RRMC tenant units as including both the above DOD
components and "other Executive Departments and Agencies located at the AJCC by agreement." The financing
of Site R operations is shared by tenants via the Defense Working Capital Fund.

The Army's 114th Signal Battalion runs the communication and computer
systems at Site R. Their 2011 employment ad states: "The 114th Signal
Battalion assists our nation by planning, installing, operating, maintaining and
defending Information Services to enable Command and Control for the
National Military Command Center (NMCC) Raven Rock Mountain Complex
(RRMC), Combatant Commanders, DoD, other Federal agencies and the
RRMC during daily and COOP operations."

The mission statement also proclaims "114th Signal Battalion members are
proud to be 'Signal Masters of the Rock'" and according to their Facebook page
"Rock Steady Hooah!" (11/21/2011 update: their Facebook page has recently
been taken down, but here is a screenshot).

114th Signal Battalion mission statement from www.netcom.army.mil

Prior to the 114th Signal Battalion, the 1111th Signal Battalion was responsible for the communication support at
Site R. The 1111th Signal Battalion's old website provides a detailed history of the unit at Site R. Their mission
statement also proclaimed them proud to be "Signal Masters of the Rock".
 1111th Signal Battalion mission statement from asc.army.mil

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) supports the computer operations at Site R for the Joint Staff
Support Center (JSSC), which has a primary location at the Pentagon and an alternate one at Site R. Employees
of the DISA JC6 division of the JSSC were called the "Guardians of the Rock". An excerpt from their rather
lengthy 2003 JC6 mission statement:

Provides operation, administration, maintenance, and direct customer support of Information

Systems to satisfy the C3 and analytical requirements of the Joint Staff at the Alternate Joint
Communications Center - Site R.
 Installs, maintains, and supports hardware and software for
Global Command and Control System (GCCS), GCCS-Top
Secret (GCCS-T), Global Management Center (GMC), National
Command and Control System (NCCS), Nuclear Planning and
Execution System (NPES), Communications Support Processor
(CSP), and Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA)
Network systems at Site R.

Manages JSSC Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) to include

COOP facility management and relocation reception. Serves as
on-site liaison to Headquarters DISA and the Global Network
Operations Support Center for their COOP plans.

RAVEN ROCK MOUNTAIN COMPLEX ORGANIZATION CHART

The Washington Headquarters Services Organization Chart shows the management structure at Site R:
 From the Washington Headquarters Services Organization Chart as of May 2011

PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES AT SITE R

The FedBizOpps.gov website displays federal procurement opportunities over $25,000. Users can search by
agency, location, and keyword. No login is required; the information on this website is unclassified and is open to
vendors and citizens. Here are some recent solicitations related to operations and projects at the Raven Rock
Mountain Complex:

CBRNE Detection System

Emergency Escape Breathing Devices
Badges for Access and Control
X-Ray Machine
Hydraulic Barrier Maintenance
Threat Image Projection Program Upgrade
Integrated Commercial Intrusion Detection System
Tactical Storage System
 Audio Visual System Upgrade - RRMC Air Force Crisis Action Team

The Department of Defense uses a 4-digit Program Project Activity (PPA) code to track approved funding for
programs and activities within various departments. The partial list below of 2011 RRMC PPA codes listed as
active for WHS also shows some of the current activities at RRMC:

WORKING AT SITE R

A former soldier gave this description of Site R in an interview with a local PA television station:

"You just drove into a tunnel and then eventually you come into a point that's hollowed out. And
there's a couple of buildings in there. I was awed. I couldn't believe it. It was something -- the
engineering."
He went on to say that Site R looked like the inside of a giant igloo with office buildings inside. The
hollowed out area inside the mountain was big enough that buses and even big rigs could be driven
in and parked.

In 2004, a former soldier stationed at Fort Ritchie in the early days of Site R published a detailed description of his
experience in an essay in a Canadian literary magazine. An excerpt from the essay was published on the
No! blog. Several others who were stationed at Site R over the years also described their Raven Rock experience
in the comment section that followed the blog post:

"My tour consisted of 4 days in, 7 days off, 3 days in, 7 days off. My watch was 12 hours on, 12 hours
off. Handkerchiefs were almost pitch black after 4 days of breathing dirty air."
"A readiness posture was ALWAYS expected, and I was there for a few “Slam Door” and “Button Up”
events, Three Mile Island, the Chinese invasion of Vietnam, and two Norad computer errors indicating
a Soviet missile attack."
"The presidential suite was located above our computer room. Lots of stories about each president,
Nixon supposedly had the suite done for his daughter completely in pink."
"I liked the faux windows in the mess hall, it did my heart good to see “outside” whilst Happy Jack
dished up food…"
" Does anyone recall the “submarine drills” conducted at the reservoir for the newbies?"
"Boy what memories of things like the dome area, nine and three shifts, submarine watch and blowing
the valves."

On another message board, a guy who worked "in the crypto section" described Site R as having a complete war
room, a room for the President, bunk rooms for several hundred, enough food to last six months, and complete
medical units.

Job notices for RRMC are frequently posted online. They often come with warnings such as:

"Work is performed in an office in a deep underground hardened command and control facility with
no daylight and with breathing air subject to the successful operation of mechanical air intake
devices. Daily ingress and egress from office requires walking through industrial and storage areas
via concrete roadways and hallways up to a mile in length."

"Going to and from work on a daily basis requires exposure to exhaust fumes created by diesel
engines as well as other industrial irritants such as loud noises and dust. Because of the great
likelihood of a major smoke event and total darkness during a fire, selectee must maintain a
flashlight and also be issued and trained to use an emergency escape breathing apparatus."

"May be required to stay for longer than duration of workday and multiple days due to emergency
lockdowns."

EMERGENCY RELOCATION TO SITE R ON 9/11

Shortly before 10AM on September 11, 2001, counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke activated the Continuity of
Government (COG) plan and told the Pentagon: "We are initiating COG. Please activate your alternate command
centers and move staff to them immediately".

The Raven Rock Mountain Complex has specific helicopter evacuation procedures, code-named Blue Light and
Iron Gate, that they follow during COG events. Although the plan called for the Secretary of Defense to relocate,
Donald Rumsfeld sent his deputy Paul Wolfowitz citing concerns about being out of touch during the time it would
take to fly to Site R.

The Office of Army Reserve History wrote about the

role of Site R on 9/11:

"Despite the attack, command and control of the

nation’s armed forces never lapsed. The Chief
of the Army Reserve, Lieutenant General
Thomas J. Plewes, was working in his office in
the Pentagon when the attack occurred. Key
defense leaders, including General Plewes,
participated in the building’s evacuation before
they were whisked away to Site R, also known
as the Alternate Joint Communications Center, a
Helipad at Site R - Bing Maps
secure location on the Maryland-Pennsylvania
border. For a time, General Plewes was the
ranking military official at the site, considered to be the “back up” command and control center for the
Pentagon."

According to this story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, local residents spotted helicopters and convoys of SUVs
along with a "truck hauling furniture to accommodate the influx of bureaucrats". In 2004, Time Magazine
a book by James Bamford that revealed Site R as the "undisclosed location" of Dick Cheney following the events
of 9/11. Shortly thereafter, The Drudge Report reported that a White House official fumed: "TIME magazine would
have revealed the secret location of Anne Frank, if they knew it." However, in his recent memoir "In My Time",
Cheney says his undisclosed location was at the VP Residence, his home in Wyoming, and "most often, Camp
David".

PUBLIC TOURS OF THE RAVEN ROCK MOUNTAIN COMPLEX

There are no public tours of RRMC except for the

fictional Raven Rock Mountain Complex Site R Tour
offered up on a parody website.

According to the Brookings Institution, Colonel Mark

Scuerman, a former Site R commandant, proposed
opening the facility in 1992 for public tours. That idea
was rejected by officials at the Department of Defense.

However, tours are available if you happen to be

a White House Fellow. Parody photo of Raven Rock entrance sign

The lack of an official tour does not stop the curious from driving through the area and taking photos and posting
them on Flickr. Here's a guy who even shot a video (although it was of Site C, not Site R as he stated).
Sometimes people who live near Site R discuss strange events they see on internet message boards or
hear on local radio forums.

Wired Magazine's blog "Danger Room" wrote the post "How to Visit a Secret Nuclear Bunker", which was about an
announcement they saw on the Defense Threat Reduction Agency's (DTRA) website about the Raven Rock
Hardened Facilities Managers Conference that DTRA was sponsoring at Site R. The Wired bloggers sent an email
to DTRA asking for information about the conference.

Some of the items on the agenda included:

RRMC mission briefing by the Installation

Commander
How RRMC works - Life Support Division
Logistics - clothing, rations, supply, and berthing
Security / Blast door designs
Tour of the RRMC health facility
Engineering terrain walk

Agenda items that might make you glad you missed

this particular conference included: "Emergency Escape Mask Demonstration" and "Tunnel Collapse Briefing". The
Danger Room blog noted that the Raven Rock Mountain Complex location is unclassified and posted the address
and the driving directions to Site R along with other conference information.

CONCLUSION: IS THERE A TUNNEL FROM CAMP DAVID TO SITE R?

I wrote this blog post because I wanted to see if I could find any information on the internet that supports the theory
of a tunnel running between Camp David and Site R. As you can see from the length of this post, the Department
of Defense has published a lot of public information over the years about the Raven Rock Mountain Complex
including the construction history, tenants, facility layout, photos, mission, budget, organization chart, job
information, procurement solicitations and activities.

However, nowhere in this wealth of information did I come across anything about a tunnel to Camp David. In fact,
in a newspaper article cited above, the "mayor of Raven Rock" officially denied the existence of the tunnel. As I
wrote in my "About" page, I do not have any connection to Camp David. The same goes for Site R. I have never
been there and don't know anyone who has.

12/22/2011 UPDATE: Like most bloggers, I periodically review the visitor log stats for my blog. Today I received a
visit from the Army Operations Center at the Pentagon via a Google search: "tunnel between camp david site r".
So the mystery continues...

Sources: The Black Vault; FY 2009 Defense Budget - Military Construction; FY 2012 Defense Budget -
Justification; 2008 Pentagon Renovation Report; WHS PPA Codes; 114th Signal Battalion; 1111th Signal
Battalion; whs.mil; Bing Maps; Google Maps; Danger Room - wired.com; Brookings Institution; Federation of
American Scientists; coldwar-c4i.net; Gettysburg Times; Pittsburgh Press; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette;
coldwarcomms; Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure Plan; Federal Register; wikimapia; fbo.gov
Signal Brigade; Urban Exploration Resource; Godlike Productions; Radio Reference; WGAL; Sadly, No!
Military Police - Site R; National Security Archive; 2012 Joint Staff Budget Estimates; Daily Mail; Against All
Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror; The Pentagon; Time Magazine; Code Names; The Role of the Army
Reserve in the 11 September Attacks; Baltimore Sun

Posted by About Camp David at 12:37 AM

Recommend this on Google

7 comments:
Anonymous said...
There is no tunnel running from Camp David to the RRMC Complex. That rumor started over 35 years ago when
MP's used to show "newbies" the long deep and dark reservoir. New security personnel were told that high
ranking officials came into the reservoir in a submarine from Camp David. That is where the "submarine watch"
started. New security personnel were sometimes posted at the reservoir to watch for the submarine. The
"submarine watch" duty was often accompanied by a preliminary briefing and drill related to a completely bogus
protocol to be initiated in the even the submarine was spotted. Spend nine straight days in that hole with a bunch
of crazy Military Police and you would have no problem understanding how the myth of the Camp David tunnel
became fact in the eyes of a few who claim to be in the know.
December 3, 2011 11:06 PM

Anonymous said...
Tour Description
Tour guests will arrive via the six and a half mile tunnel between Camp David and Site R. Guests will proceed to
the Security Building, where they will be finger-printed, photographed, and searched.

Staff from the Fire & Emergency Services will conduct a briefing on the fire evacuation plan and the use of the
emergency escape masks. While an evacuation is highly unlikely, the safety briefing is required for all Site R
visitors. Flashlights will be issued to all guests in the unlikely event the entire facility is suddenly plunged into
complete darkness.

http://whitehouse.gov1.info/raven-rock/index.html
December 6, 2011 6:01 PM

Tim said...
Yup, just like there was no Agent Orange, there was no congressional ERS at the Greenbriar, and Area 51 isn't
officially a military facility.
December 10, 2011 11:53 AM

Anonymous said...
Just because someone says the government is lying doesn't mean they're telling the truth. There are
conspiracies to create false claims of conspiracy to discredit actual conspiracies. It's an old trick relying on
reverse psychology.
December 11, 2011 9:02 PM
 Anonymous said...
The link you posted "http://whitehouse.gov1.info/raven-rock/index.html" is a spoof site. First it is .gov1, Second, it
doesn't resolve to any government IP range.
December 16, 2011 11:10 AM

About Camp David said...

You are correct. In the "Public Tours of the Raven Rock Mountain Complex" section above, that website link is
described as being a parody fictional tour. By the way, I am also the owner of the whitehouse.gov1.info parody
site (as disclosed in the About section of this blog).
December 16, 2011 11:36 AM

Empoprises said...
I made an off-the-wall reference to "Dick Cheney's bunker" earlier today, and since then I've been reading
various sources about Site R. This post is an excellent, well-researched and supported summary of the public
information about the site.

Speaking of Cheney - I've never read Cheney's autobiography, but I would suspect that when Cheney said he
was at "Camp David," he may have been accurate within a few miles or so.
January 4, 2012 10:20 PM

Post a Comment
Enter your comment...

Comment as: Select profile...

Publish Preview

Links to this post

Create a Link

Newer Post Home

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

SEARCH THIS BLOG

powered by

BLOG ARCHIVE

▼ 2011 (14)
► December (1)
► November (1)
► October (1)
► September (1)
 ▼ August (2)
Raven Rock Mountain Complex
Camp David Sign

► July (1)
► June (1)
► May (1)
► April (1)
► March (1)
► February (1)
► January (2)

► 2010 (34)

Simple template. Template images by andynwt. Powered by Blogger.