Urban Exploring

I live in Upstate NY (Syracuse-area) and there are a few left-over Cold War-era facilities that have been closed for years. NY had a wealth of military facilities that were important in the protection of the U.S. Specifically, Griffiss Air Force Base was a SAC base and had nukes and is located in Rome, NY. While it is no longer a SAC base, NEADS (formerly EADS) operates at the former air base. "The Eastern Air Defense Sector is one of two Sectors responsible to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and the Continental NORAD Region for peacetime air sovereignty, strategic air defense, and airborne counter-drug operations in the continental United States. The other sector is the Western Air Defense Sector (WADS)."

Anyways, Griffiss operated several satellite facilities that performed a variety of radar research & development. One of these facilities was located a short distance away, it was called the Verona Test Site or Annex. It was home to the 1st Space Surveillance Squadron. The mission of the 1 SSS was to operate the Low Altitude Space Surveillance (LASS) system to gather space intelligence and track space systems in near-Earth orbits. Griffiss was removed as a SAC base due to closures produced by BRAC (base closure and realignment commission). The Verona Test Site also closed. The entire site is complete, yet vacant. The buildings are in a bad state of repair and falling apart. The newer buildings are intact but much of the buildings have a significant amount of water and roof damage. Its a really cool place. The radar dishes have been removed but the towers remain. It provides an interesting look into Cold War-era facilities.

I've lived here all my life and I had no idea it was here. I found it accidentally. I work on a helicopter employed to provide medevac services and we were heading back to the hospital when the pilot spotted the Test Site. From altitude, it appeared interesting. There was a military-looking "feel" to the place and it stuck out like a sore thumb to the rest of its surroundings. There appeared to be an airfield and there was a giant "H" for a helipad. I've visited it a couple times but it has been purchased by a private organization. I believe they allow the local fire department to practice controlled burns there. There a bunch of radar domes that are empty, but still cool to look at.

There is also an additional site located south of the Site that performs radar cross section (RCS) work. They have done work on B-52's and C-130's. North of Rome, additional sites perform RCS on current aircraft. They call it the "Upside Down Air Force" because when they perform RCS the aircraft are suspended upside down on pedestals. It's pretty awesome to see! I've always had a fascination with underground facilities and have been wanting to visit Camp Hero on Montauk Point in Long Island, home to the infamous Montauk Project. Lol

Has anyone else done Urban Exploring in former military facilities?

reply to post by Cosmic911


Very interesting. S&F. you should see if you could manage some photos.

reply to post by Fastercaddy


I have a lot of photos, do you know how to post them? I don't...

reply to post by Cosmic911


Put the photos on a free website. Flickr would be my choice. If you have a yahoo account, you have a Flickr account. Then post the links in another message.

Regarding the upside down aircraft, I believe that is for antenna testing rather than RCS.
www.lazygranch.com...
This facility is for testing antenna on Guardrail (RC-12). I've never seen it in use, but it looks to me that they run the crane all around the airplane and map the antenna radiation pattern. Every couple of years they make a new Guardrail, so I guess the site stays in caretaker status between testing. There is always someone there in the trailer to call the sheriff, so photography is a basically a drive-by.

WADS is called Bigfoot. They have an extensive repeater system at (cough cough) secret locations. It is used often enough that the locations aren't so secret. The east coast equivalent is Giant Killer.
www.carmachicago.com...
Note I haven't checked this frequency list for accuracy. But the basic system description looks correct.

reply to post by gariac


Thanks for the reply and directions! I'll try to post them now.

I'm uploading some of the pics I took. Enjoy!

i82.photobucket.com...[/IMG]]Radar Dome

i82.photobucket.com...[/IMG]]Air Force Warning Sign

i82.photobucket.com...[/IMG]]Security Station

i82.photobucket.com...[/IMG]]Squadron Badge

I can't believe they didn't clear out the electronics in the guard shack. I wonder if the shack was staffed by a contractor rather than DoD. I could see a contractor walking away from gear. In fact, much of the stuff you find on ebay out of silicon valley is just crap left in the building after the startup failed.

I've seen plenty of "golf ball" radomes, but I don't recall seeing one on the ground. Usually they are raised, if only for the health benefit of those suckers on the ground.

Originally posted by gariac
I can't believe they didn't clear out the electronics in the guard shack. I wonder if the shack was staffed by a contractor rather than DoD. I could see a contractor walking away from gear. In fact, much of the stuff you find on ebay out of silicon valley is just crap left in the building after the startup failed.

I've seen plenty of "golf ball" radomes, but I don't recall seeing one on the ground. Usually they are raised, if only for the health benefit of those suckers on the ground.

I was amazed by what they left!!! Much of the electronics in most of the buildings has been looted for scrap metal, ripped apart for copper to sell. It's almost like the military just got up and left. They left classified blue printes of the facility and electronics too. I thought that was weird. There is one blue print that describes and is titled "EMP," which I thought was very cool. I found a memo on how to store classified material during the closure. The guard shack was pretty neat, so old looking it reminded me of the end of Terminator 3 when they went to that "safe house." All the old looking computers and technology. Kinda cool really. There was the one radar dome, but there was two raised platforms that I assume radar dishes sat upon. They were some of the oldest structures on the base. From what I gather the facility was divided into two sections: a secured section and a somewhat "less secure" section. The secured section contained the guard shack, which allowed access to the R&D portion of the facility. I read they conducted research with radars. They performed laboratory research on animals too, something to do with prolonged radar exposure or something. Records report that 72 air force personnel worked there and 1 civilian. I found a roster of all the officers, their home numbers and addresses. They left so much crap. There were several other facilities in the area that I "visited" but these were earlier versions of this base, with much older equipment. Here's more pics...

i82.photobucket.com...[/IMG]]Electronics Board

i82.photobucket.com...[/IMG]]Air Lock

i82.photobucket.com...[/IMG]]Helipad

i82.photobucket.com...[/IMG]]Guard Shack

i82.photobucket.com...[/IMG]]Radar Tower

i82.photobucket.com...[/IMG]]Electronics

reply to post by gariac


My friends and I jokingly refer to this place as "Area 52." lol

reply to post by gariac


This is the facility's badge...

i82.photobucket.com...[/IMG]]1st Space Surveillance Squadron


Emblem Significance

The dragon is the vigilant sentinel mascot of the 1st Space Surveillance Squadron, on guard for deep space satellites. The dragon is tightly holding a black, inverted equilateral triangle of deep space indicative of the unit's surveillance tracking coverage. The four pointed star represents a geosynchronous satellite within tracking coverage of the squadron. The dragon's eye reflects the star and sheds light on the darkness of space through the unit's surveillancemission and contributions to space warning, space control and space force management. The background represents the global aerospace projection of the Air Force.

Wow I LOVE the older looking technology! Brings back memories of a better time. Thanks for the pics

This would be a good place for a movie set.

Originally posted by havenvideo
Wow I LOVE the older looking technology! Brings back memories of a better time. Thanks for the pics

This would be a good place for a movie set.

Thanks! I think this is a wonderful site that shoudl be preserved as a part of Cold War-era history. It's a shame to see it destroyed by water damage and the elements. Thanks for the reply!!

reply to post by gariac


"Upside Down" F-15

i82.photobucket.com...[/IMG]]F-15

Here is the link of a very cool website. The website was created by a Colgate student. Its a fascinating look into Cold War-era military facilities. Most of these places have been closed for years but are still around for "urban exploring." Enjoy!

www.stephenmaclellan.com...

There must be hundres of abandoned military facilities across the U.S. I hope to see other pics and hear about other people's experiences like mine. Here's a few more pics.

i82.photobucket.com...[/IMG]]Security Board

i82.photobucket.com...[/IMG]]Halon System Activation & Abort Switch

i82.photobucket.com...[/IMG]]Security Board

i82.photobucket.com...[/IMG]]Warning Sign

i82.photobucket.com...[/IMG]]Radome Warning Sign

i82.photobucket.com...[/IMG]]Electronics Board

Something very odd about the place is that keys were just left in electronics panels all over the base. Of course, the base was closing so who cared if keys were left. This attributed to the feeling that people just got up and left. It gave the place a very eerie feel. Suppossedly, the equipment was transported to facilities that were still conducting the same mission. But with the amount of equipment left over and the classified blue prints left at the base for anyone to find, this seems to be a breach of somekind of security. I would think that if we were still using this kind of technology, the air force would not leave this kind of material behind. I found it very interesting....

I love the upside down plane... it is interesting how they went about testing radar. I definitely need to head upstate to check this out! Do you have a scan of the blueprints?

If you are interested in urban exploration, may I suggest this site:

www.urbexforums.co.uk...

Okay, it is UK based but still very intresting, especially as I was based at many of those old military installations.

Originally posted by Skooter_NB
I love the upside down plane... it is interesting how they went about testing radar. I definitely need to head upstate to check this out! Do you have a scan of the blueprints?

Another poster, gariac (a couple posts above), said the purpose of turning them upside down was more for antenna work than radar. I guess they inverted them because the antenna got in the way during the testing when right-side up. I don't have any scans of the blue prints as I'd need a scanner that big! If you're really interested I wouldn't mind sending you a couple in the mail...I have a ton of them!

This is a cool thread, I need to take a trip up there, I worked on a Naval Weapons Station in New Jersey and that place had some cool stuff but not nearly as cool as this place.Im glad I decidced to rejoin(under a new name of course) ATS.

Is that a functional F-15?..The picture was great, were those inert bombs on the Eagle?

Originally posted by Blu82
This is a cool thread, I need to take a trip up there, I worked on a Naval Weapons Station in New Jersey and that place had some cool stuff but not nearly as cool as this place.Im glad I decidced to rejoin(under a new name of course) ATS.

Is that a functional F-15?..The picture was great, were those inert bombs on the Eagle?

There's a lot to see up here post Cold-War. What was your rating in the Navy? I was a corpsman. From what I've read, the aircraft are no longer air worthy so they use them. I'm not sure what an inert bomb is so I wouldn't know, haha. I guess this kind of testing is far more cost-effective than fly overs. There's no per-hour operating cost, no fuel cost, no pilot cost, etc. Anytime you want to take a trip Upstate, let me know!

Cheers!