My father-in-law is a "gun nut". He loves America, has pictures of John Wayne and Ronald Reagan in his house, but is highly mistrustful of our government. He lives in a major city, but refuses to have a telephone or bank account. He uses pay telephones and cashes his paychecks.

Years ago, right after me and my then-fiancee got together, we were talking about shooting and places we like to go shoot. Since we're both ex-Army gun nuts we talk about such things frequently. He told me there was this dry wash where he frequently went to shoot, and he had to pass by a federal facility(a prison) to get there. There were eight semi-trailers parked in a lot behind this facility, and he had second- and third-hand information that these semi-trailers were filled with riot gear, razor wire, and other supplies needed to control an insurrection or other massive public disturbance. I assumed my father-in-law was just being paranoid and didn't think much of it.

Years later, by a quirk of fate I got a job at this facility. The trailers were still there, and when I inquired about their purpose was informed that they were long-term storage of construction supplies. That's all anybody seemed to know, and I believed it because nobody seemed to think about them one way or another. Nobody ever went in them for any reason that I can remember. I recalled what my father-in-law said about them, but didn't concern myself with them because they weren't part of my immediate purview. Not my department, not my problem, and to ask for access to them would have been way out of line for someone as low in seniority as me.

One day, after I had been working at this place about two years, the trailers were gone. Poof, just like that, which is odd because nothing in federal government gets accomplished without multiple memorandums, interagency agreements, and other bureaucratic ceremonies. The only thing anybody knew for sure is that they were gone. It was said, but not known for sure, that they were going to be used by another agency and that government employees or contractors had picked them up. The more I asked about the situation the less people seemed to know. For all anybody knew, drug gangs could have stolen them to use for cross-border dope smuggling.

I still work for the same agency at a different facility. I've come to realize something about federal service that's true no matter where or for which agency you work; Ignorance and obfuscation are institutionalized parts of the job. Knowledge beyond one's actual job function is discouraged and in some cases penalized.

Given this paradigm, its easy for me to see that if, and that's a big if, the government wanted to set up something like secret bases or POW camps it would be easy to accomplish. I don't know what happened to those trailers or what was in them, but if it was something sinister we were blissfully unaware of it.

Semi-trailers filled with riot gear and razor wire it might just be me but that does sounds like supplies for a prison. You didnt really go into detail on the other supplies found in them.

If there ever was a massive insurrection in the USA there wouldnt be much of anything the Goverment could do to stop it. There something like 200 million plus guns in private hands. Goverments around the world cant control that many armed citizens thats just too many people. Theres a good reason tyrants like Hitler, Stalin and the like disarmed the people first.

I'd think the govt. would be able to do pretty much wanted to do if they got their acts together. As far as the trailers go, they could have been moved for many unknown reasons to you. With out you actually knowing the contents it could be as simple as your employer needing more storage room or they could have been sold. It would be nice if your father-in-law had more details. Never quit asking why.