The Raven Rock Mountain Complex is a military installation with an underground nuclear bunker
near Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania, at Raven Rock Mountain that serves as an "underground
Pentagon". The bunker has emergency operations centers for the Army, Navy, and Air Force.
Description The installation's largest tenant unit is
the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and RRMC communications are the responsibility of the
114th Signal Battalion. The facility has 38 communications systems, and the Defense Information
Systems Agency provides computer services at the complex. Additional names for the installation
are Raven Rock Military Complex, National Military Command Center Reservation, Backup
Pentagon", Site R, or "The Rock". Site RT
Site RT is the portion of the military installation with communication towers and buildings atop
the mountain. History
Raven Rock Mountain and the adjacent Jacks Mountain on the north were formed in the tbd
geologic period, and Miney Branch flows west-to-east between them in the Potomac River Watershed.
The 1820 Waynesboro-Emmitsburg Turnpike with toll station for the 1787 crossroad was constructed
between the mountains, where the Fight at Monterey Gap was conducted after the 1863
Battle of Gettysburg In 1870 copper ore was discovered to the north, and the nearby Fountain
Dale Springs House was established in 1874. The scenic area's mountain recreation facilities
to the west included the 1877 Pen Mar Park, the 1878 High Rock Tower, the 1885 Monterey
Country Club, and several resorts. The 1889 Jacks Mountain Tunnel on the Western Extension
was completed near Raven Rock Mountain, and nearby stations were at Blue Ridge Summit
and Charmian. The Army's 1942 Camp Ritchie was built southwest of the resorts, and a
local road was built eastward from Blue Ridge Summit and intersected the north-south Fountaindale-Sabillasville
Road Planning for a protected Cold War facility
near Washington, D.C. began in 1948 for relocation of military National Command Authorities and
the Joint Communications Service.
Super underground communications center The planned super underground communications
center was identified in the original 1950 federal petition to seize the "Beard Lot",
"a 1,500-foot-high, mile-long hill located at Fountaindale and extending east and south
along the Waynesboro-Emmitsburg road", The "Declaration of Taking" for "United States
of America Versus 1,100 Acres of Land" was filed at the Adams County courthouse on January
23, 1952, and "made the government the official owner of the 280-acre tract" seized from 4
properties "South of and above the Carson service station on the Sunshine trail", bulldozers
began work on January 19, 1951; by February 3 a roadway to the site had been leveled behind
a farmhouse; and by February 24 underground work had commenced By May 26 the Army had
named the landform Raven Rock Mountain and listed its elevation "as 1,527 feet".
By October 17, 1951, there had been 2 deaths due to premature dynamite detonation in the
"Beard Lot tunnel" and to crushing of "a power-shovel operator", and the S. A. Healy company was
working on the "alternate pentagon" in November 1951, when "Washington [announced] a cut-back
in defense appropriations would affect the" installation. On January 16, 1952, the government
identified that when completed, the bunker would have "a "standby" group of approximately
100" personnel as manning—because of construction damage, the US said it "will rebuild the Sunshine
Trail…in any fashion the state may desire." By March 29, 1952, "more than 100 workers"
were on strike from building additional Raven Rock housing at Camp Ritchie, which was "to
be a supplemental installation for the “underground pentagon” at Fountaindale [and] no work
[was] going on in the Raven Rock tunnel at the present time." Local travelers having
to bypass on the serpentine on the slope between Monterey and Fountaindale grew frustrated
during the delay By April 7, 1952, United Telephone Company rights of way had been secured
for 4 tracts, including 1 in Cumberland Township. Easements for 3 additional private tracts
were filed by the government in December 1953 A 1952 army history disclosed Raven Rock information.
Three underground buildings were completed in 1953, the year a guard shelter burned on
the installation. By April 1954, "Little Pentagon" development had cost $35,000,000.
Automatic activation After the 1954 Air Defense Command blockhouse
was built at Ent Air Force Base where the joint 1955 Continental Air Defense Command
was activated, "in August 1955 OSD approved the “automatic” activation of Raven Rock's
[Alternate Joint Communication Center] on declaration of air defense warning or notice
of surprise attack". The AJCC was equipped with command and control hardware by the end
of 1955. 1956 War Room Annex
In July 1956 at Raven Rock, a joint "War Room Annex was established" and was operated by
the Air Force, and Raven Rock's readiness "was broadened in April 1957 [for] activation
prior to emergency if JCS thought it necessary." "By 1959, the services as well as JCS regarded
Raven Rock as their primary emergency deployment center. For the Air Force, it served as Headquarters
USAF Advanced, capable of receiving the Chief of Staff and key officers." After President
Eisenhower expressed concern about nuclear command and control, a "1958 reorganization
in National Command Authority relations with the joint commands" was implemented. On 1
July 1958 Raven Rock's USAF facility, "ADCC", became one of the 33 NORAD Alert Network Number
1 stations On 20 October 1960, the JCS "instructed the Joint Staff to establish a Joint Alternate
Command Element" for rotating battle staffs to Raven Rock for temporary duty. In November
1960, consoles at the Pentagon's Joint War Room became operational, and the Raven Rock
JACE "was activated on 11 July 1961 under USAF Brig. Gen. Willard W. Smith [with the
5] staffs permanently stationed in Washington and an administrative section at Ft. Ritchie"—rotations
began in October 1961 An expansion project by the Frazier - Davis - McDonald Company
was underway in December 1961 at the "little Pentagon", and bunker personnel were evacuated
during a 1962 fire. Pentagon construction to provide an entire JCS center at the Joint
War Room opened the National Military Command Center in early October 1962. It was initially
considered an "interim" center until a nearby Deep Underground Command Center could be completed
after which Raven Rock "would be phased out as superfluous, whichever version [50-man
or 300-man DUCC] was chosen", but neither was built—nor were SAC's similar Deep Underground
Support Center or NORAD's Super Combat Centers. 1962 ANMCC
Raven Rock's joint War Room, USAF ADCC, and other facilities were designated the Alternate
National Military Command Center on 1 October 1962 when the Burroughs SS-416L Control and
Warning Support System with the Semi Automatic Ground Environment had been deployed "The
term AJCC remained in use...only [for] the Army-managed communications complex". On 17
October 1962, DOD Directive S-5100.30 "conceived" the Worldwide Military Command and Control
System with five groups of C2 systems: the National Military Command System was the primary
group and was to contain the Pentagon NMCC, Raven Rock's ANMCC, 3 NEACP aircraft on 24-hour
ground alert, 2 NECPA ships, "and interconnecting communications"—the Raven Rock bunker was
"hardened further to about 140 psi blast resistance by 1963" when the Cheyenne Mountain nuclear
bunker was being completed for tbd psi. The USAF's subsequent IBM 473L Command and Control
System with AN/FYA-2 Integrated Data Transfer Consoles and Large Panel Display Subsystem
had equipment deployed at both the NMCC and ANMCC
1976 Telecommunications Center The USACC Site R Telecommunications Center
was designated in 1976, and the 1977 Alternate National Military Command and Control Center
Improvement Program was worked on by the DoD Special Projects Office for a new deep underground
C2 center with >3 mi of air entrainment tunnels After the 2001 September 11 attacks, Vice
President Cheney used Raven Rock as a protected site away from President George W. Bush. The
Raven Rock military installation was declared part of the Pentagon Reservation under 10
U.S.C. § 2674(g) and on May 25, 2007, DoD policy declared it is unlawful for any person
"entering in or on the property … to make any photograph, sketch, picture, drawing,
map or graphical representation of the Raven Rock Mountain Complex without first obtaining
the necessary permission" In 1977, the bunker had an "Emergency Conference
Room", and the "Current Action Center was a military intelligence unit
In popular culture In the TV series Jeremiah, Raven Rock is a
setting and on Prison Break, Raven Rock is an identified location.
In films, Raven Rock is identified in Oblivion, and in video games it is a setting for Fallout
3. References