academy on lockdown

Texasrocks

10-Year Member
5-Year Member
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Sep 8, 2009
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anyone have insight usafa on lockdown security with m16's everywhere
 
I'm wondering too. Was chatting with our cadet on Facebook and he mentioned lockdown, but didn't know why. Anyone with info ?????
 
I was out running when the lockdown notice first came on over the giant voice. It only lasted about ten minutes, but there was no mention of it being an exercise/drill, so who knows. Nobody really knows what went on.
 
It was not a drill. There was a fugitive that drove on base and the entire base was put on lockdown, not a cadet area readiness exercise.
 
Actually fencer, think about it, if you were a fugitive, it would be the last place they would look for you because just your thought.

When Bullet was at CGSC at Leavenworth, people use to joke it was probably the least safest place because nobody would think the fugitive was dumb enough to come on post if they were being hunted.

I am just curious of how they got on since they drove on.
 
The academy is basically an open base. It's a major tourist trap. There are certain parts of the base that requires an ID card, but people drive on to look at the static planes, go to the visitor center, museum, bring their bicycles on and go mountain biking, etc... Just show your driver's license and you're on. So getting on is easy. Getting to the cadet area and many other places isn't possible, but the academy is the largest college campus in the country 18,000 acres. It also one of the most visited tourist places in the area.

On a side note, assuming it wasn't winter, the academy would be the perfect place to escape to as a criminal. Get on base, park some place, get your hiking boots on and start heading west. You could get so lost in the Rocky Mountains, that no one would ever be able to find you. "Assuming you knew how to live off the land, you could literally head west and disappear off the face of the earth. Granted, most criminals probably don't have the skills, but you could literally walk for weeks; work your way to utah, new mexico, or wyoming; and never run into a person if you were careful. As long as you know how to eat and drink.
 
I get it being open, that is like Bragg or Ft Rich or even the Pentagon, just wondering if it is open how they locked it down?

Hate to be janie raincloud, but if they locked the gates down after they knew they were in there, the way the system works is incoming are checked, out going aren't.

It would be the best way to help a convict escape. Get in there, get the accomplice in before they go on lockdown and drive their convicted butt out. Meanwhile, everybody is searching the AFA while you are on your way to CC's house in Cheyenne!
 
If the base is truly on "LOCKDOWN" vehicles are not allowed on or off until security forces clear the situation.

It can be a HUGE pain in the...folks want to go home and they're lined up a mile or more, waiting for the gates to open.

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83
 
I get it being open, that is like Bragg or Ft Rich or even the Pentagon, just wondering if it is open how they locked it down?

Hate to be janie raincloud, but if they locked the gates down after they knew they were in there, the way the system works is incoming are checked, out going aren't.

It would be the best way to help a convict escape. Get in there, get the accomplice in before they go on lockdown and drive their convicted butt out. Meanwhile, everybody is searching the AFA while you are on your way to CC's house in Cheyenne!

I don't know about other bases, but I got stuck ON AFA once. Sometime after I entered to drop off my cadet (in the middle of the night) I turned around and drove to the gate where I promptly had to sit in the winter cold in the middle of the night for almost two hours. No way were they going to let me (or the other ten or fifteen cars in line with me) off that base ....

Don't know what the deal was with the current event, but I can guarantee that when they locked that base down when I was in that mess, it was a long and cold time! It was certainly a two way (in and out) lockdown!
 
The entire base was on lockdown, not just the cadet area. Vehicles were not allowed in or out for the duration of the lockdown.
 
i've been stuck on that before at USAFA. Nothing like a friday afternoon trying to get the heck away for a weekend only to be stopped at the gate for a while. Or another time we were just trying to go get food. No bueno.

and it happened here at Wright-Patt a month or so again as well. I decided to get gas on base, and it ended up costing me 30 min of sitting in my car.
 
If the base is truly on "LOCKDOWN" vehicles are not allowed on or off until security forces clear the situation.

It can be a HUGE pain in the...folks want to go home and they're lined up a mile or more, waiting for the gates to open.

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83

Yea, it's called "Air Force vs Navy: Football 2010". I think that was longest to get off base than any lock down I've been in. If you've even been to the academy; Falcon stadium to the south gate. 1 hour 40 minutes. (And that's even with me cheating and knowing all the back roads that you need an ID card to get through).

P.S. PIMA: Criminals don't come to Cheyenne. Colorado is proud of their guns. Wyoming is MARRIED to their guns. If you come to Wyoming and try to commit an armed crime, you most likely will be shot. "Wonder if that's why our crime rate is one of the lowest in the country"?
 
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That's interesting about closing the gates for people leaving. In the 21 yrs Bullet was in the AF, except for LSN exercises I don't recall the base ever being locked down that tight.

I remember on 9/11 within minutes they had jersey barriers up and checked every incoming car, but you were still free to leave. That was at Leavenworth.
 
18,000 acres? Including runways? Holy smokes that is big! You guys sound like you could write a good crime story. I did live in Colorado at the time there was a missing fighter jet, kind of creepy to think that thing could have ccome roaring into my little mountain valley town (Eagle County). We too were conjuring up all sorts of conspiracy theories as it was the time around the Oklahoma city bombing trials I believe. I hope all is well and I loved the reference to the "giant voice" that's funny!
 
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Actually, the only runway is for small prop type planes. There isn't a military/heavy type runway on the academy. It's basically 18,000 acres of trees, woods, mountains, and the occasional building here and there. Runway traffic is done at Peterson AFB; on the other side of Colorado Springs.
 
Yea, it's called "Air Force vs Navy: Football 2010". I think that was longest to get off base than any lock down I've been in. If you've even been to the academy; Falcon stadium to the south gate. 1 hour 40 minutes. (And that's even with me cheating and knowing all the back roads that you need an ID card to get through).

Yea we ended up late to the game coming from our hotel when we went to watch the game cause of that line
 
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