Armed forces with M-16s down the street from me.

Another thing, I just watched your video.

IT IS CLEARLY A MILITARY FACILITY.

You can tell by the guard shack at the entry point. The fences. If you've been in the military you would recognize that as a military facility immediately.

So then what is so suspicious about Army fuel tankers and some Army Soldiers operating on what is clearly a military site?

It's the Little League park like he said...get some sleep, dude!

Originally posted by Granite
It's the Little League park like he said...get some sleep, dude!

It looks like it's next to a baseball field, but you can see a guard shack right before all the fuel trucks. Classic military entry/exit point.

Well,need to put my 2 cents in here.

It is a Army reserve or NG unit on their 2 week "picknic".

Specifically one whose primary mission is fuels distribution.

All the fuel trucks is the evidence.

Reserve and NG units take all their equipment with them,so it has to be a unit that, that is their mission.

This was probably planned a Long time ago before all the crap happened.

This area is the primary location for all fuel in southern Calif.

These people need to go to places like this to learn how to process petroleum an all the things down to loading tankers and all the safeguards.

Of course they are acting as if TSHF.

Who is going to be able to do this if there is a MAJOR quake and martial law is invoked?

Of course they act like they are "protecting"something.

They are in the Socialist Republic of Mexifornia,you know.

Relax folks,this is nothing to worry about.

Yeah, I too think it is a drill, but its an interesting post none the less.

Originally posted by jdills1196
Yeah, I too think it is a drill, but its an interesting post none the less.

pardon me but u dont need faul trucks for a military drill, durning an military drill all units are already full enough of faul for days or so, oh and ya they dont need a public space to park those units from the op.

Right.....

So a large convoy of Military tankers with armed guard are parked up by a fuel depot.

On average it takes ample time to fill a tanker + the logistics and organization time. So its likely this is an practice drill or just a normal fill up.
Where do you think the Army get their fuel? Out of thin air? They need to transport it just like the petrol firms.

The pictures of the 'area' where they are parked doesn’t look like any kids playing area that I have seen in my lifetime. It looks more like a rigid outpost - Certainly not temporary. But not a full flung base.

As for guards with itchy trigger fingers. As there is no evidence of that from your pictures or video. You are either fear mongering OR the more likely, you suffer from the usual eyewitness memory flaws. Where by, perhaps you didn’t actually see what you think you saw.. But your brain is interpreting otherwise.

Fuel is still (obviously) a very lucrative resource. So with such a large amount being transported in a slow moving convoy from a Military Depot to a base, it only makes sense that they travel with armed guard. Not only for security but for training purposes also.


Quit panicking and ill buy you a beer when they leave and nothing has changed

Does the fact there is federal property labeled "Defense Fuel Supply Point - San Pedro" a little west of Los Angeles Harbor, in San Pedro, ring any bells for anybody?

Why is a bunch of military dudes doing what military dudes do, on a military base, unusual to anybody?

www.mapquest.com...

Since its on MapQuest I highly doubt its a secret. I concur with the poster who thinks its a National Guard, or reserve unit conducting annual training. Since they apparently came to bivouac it only seems prudent they brought their weapons. Pretty standard with my recollection of reserve duty. We used to go on field training somewhere and check out weapons. We had to lug them around as a semblance of realism. Then when we got back we had to clean them.

I highly doubt any of them are loaded except for the few who are actively pulling sentry duty. My old unit used to take a bunch of comm gear with active cryptographic equipment. The guys carrying the fill devices were always armed with hot weapons, and yes, because they were supposed to shoot anyone who tried to take the fill devices away from them. That stuff isn't a joke, the fills they used in training were the same ones the guys in OIF and OEF were using.

Nothing unusual here. Please remember when military units conduct training, they use set ups as they would expect to function in an actual combat environment. That means they bring tents, guns, radios, food, body armor, the whole bit. They just have to pretend that the chicks driving by in convertibles aren't there.

Comm

i apologize OP in advance, i didn't read your entire post, however i intend to, but, you said these military guys are carrying m-16's with "finger on trigger". that is weird, being in the military i know, we are trained not to do this unless we know we are going to fire, and getting caught doing it, can mean trouble with superiors, not saying your lying, just though i'd point that out... so if it's weird, something is definately going on, haul ass out of there.

What could be considered odd is whe now have an earthquake on our hands in that general area.

There are also reprts of the quake being reported and tweeted before it even happened....

IDK probably just a drill though.

I don't know what it was last week, but THIS week it's federal property. The chain link has the red, white and blue "US Government Property" shield signs on it. Looks like they were put up in a hurry, as one of them is hung upside down.

I could also see, in the video, that at one time it WAS a ball field of some sort. The cage around the diamond is still there - they haven't taken it down yet.

The personnel I could see in the photos looked like army - it looked like they were wearing the digital ACU, but I'm not absolutely certain of that. They were a bit far away, and it was hard to tell if it was MARPAT or ACU, but I believe it was ACU.

The anti-scaling wire at the top is pointed outward, meaning it's there to keep folks from getting in. By way of contrast, the anti-scaling wire at the tank farm in the pictures is pointing INWARD. Don't really know why they'd feel a need to keep folks from getting out there.

Looks to me like it might be a hasty POL distribution point. More permanent structures , instead of tents, may be coming there in the near future. If it's that close to the tank farm, it might be a good place to store inbound fuel tankers for refill, and to stage outbound fuel tankers from.

Don't know what to say about the perimeter guards, without knowing their strength or scheduling. One guy going around once an hour or so, just looking for holes cut in the fence would be looking out for fuel thieves, I would think. Several guys patrolling at all times, and making a round every few minutes would indicate that they expect something else. At the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station, during Desert Shield, perimeter guards were mounted on ATVs, and a pair passed a given point on the perimeter about once every 10 or 15 minutes. That was a fairly large perimeter to patrol, and they were expecting company. Popped a couple guys, too.

I have to wonder about how big this place is, and just how far it is from the tank farm in the photos.

Originally posted by Gorman91
reply to post by Prove_It_NOW

 

When I visited DC, there were snipers everywhere and men with guns, big guns, in lots of places. In NYC it's common to see a soldier-police every here and there.

I fail to see the importance. It's normal to me.

To sidebar for a moment.
this my friend, is part of the problem. I do not see anything normal with police with automatic weapons and snipers on patrol. I hope you can see there is somehing wrong with that picture.

reply to post by Prove_It_NOW


I'm guessing that they are contractors or maybe National Guard. The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 generally prohibits the U.S. military from acting in a law enforcement capacity.

No offense to the OP but what is the big deal? I just dont get it. American troops on American soil? Oh my God the humanity of it all.


Now if they were rounding people up and putting them on trains it would raise my eyebrows but this?

Originally posted by Subjective Truth
No offense to the OP but what is the big deal? I just dont get it. American troops on American soil? Oh my God the humanity of it all.


Now if they were rounding people up and putting them on trains it would raise my eyebrows but this?

i haven't a clue as to the case en point here. Could be a real deal temp base to a hack CO wanting to see how fast he could get a thread started on ATS

however, please correct me if i am wrong.
to my knowledge military is not supposed to be on home soil conducting military action without approval.

You have every right to approach them and ask them their purpose, after all YOU as a citizen are the highest authority because YOU give them their mandate, never forget that.

reply to post by Subjective Truth


As soon as i opened the photos and looked at the first 4 - 5, i noticed a lot of debris/leafs/rubbish built up along the bottom of the fence, which looks like it's been there for some time.

Did you say this has only been around for only 5 - 6 days or did i miss read your opening post???

While some have posited the idea that this is merely annual National Guard training, this seems like an odd place to engage in such training. I thought that the Guard had locations where they are already set up for such activities. Here in Minnesota I think they usually do their training at Camp Ripley; a fairly remote location with vast acres of woods, trails, rolling hills and prairies. It is a place where presumably all sorts of possible exercises could be carried out and have already been planned for year after year.

This place in San Pedro looks like a giant parking lot. Is this a new global military threat; parking lot warfare?

[edit on 15-6-2010 by QtheQ]

For what it's worth... I saw this last week as well.

There was construction going on just up the street at the intersection. I drive this route every day and forgot about the intersection being closed. I made a right to avoid the road closure and take an alternate rout to the freeway.

After the bend the first thing I saw was the tents. My first reaction was 'what the hell is going on?'. There were a few soldiers standing around, with weapons. The tent flaps were open and some were laying around on cots. About 15 minutes later I passed 2 military convoys heading south on the 405 freeway.

While I don't drive that street often, I have driven that area nearly every day for the last 30 years. And years before that before that with my dad. In all that time I have never seen what you see in the photographs.

Next to the area where the military is are the baseball diamonds. They have been there for years. Beyond that was a shooting range open to the public. Now it is only open to law enforcement. Across the street is the refinery. Originally it was 76 "Unocal". Then it changed hands to Tosco. Not sure who operates it now. By the way, that orange storage tank you see in one of the photographs is painted like a jack o lantern at halloween. Kind of funny and the kids like it.

Anyway, this IS highly unusual. But perhaps this will now be the norm.

Sorry in advance I am kind of ignorant on this topic. I am in the heart of Oklahoma and I wonder if I will see an Increase of soldiers here. There is a HUGE conoco plant in north Oklahoma.

I hope something exciting happens here. :]