Extreme increased activity at Fort Lewis in WA state

I'm over in Colorado springs and have seen a lot of military choppers circling the city the last few days.

Read thread, called friends and some family. They all called BS. If you can't afford a camera, you aren't worth listening to son. Put your money where your mouth is.

Originally posted by amongus
I have noticed an increase of helicopters, bombs, firing range activity over the past week here in Puyallup, WA. If three weeks before was a 0 on the activity scale, it would be at least an 8 right now.

I don't know if anyone near me can confirm, but wow. It's overwhelming at times.

Not to say that it's the start of ww3, but it surley seems like a ramp up for something.

probably just different units doing joint live-fire exercises. When I was stationed in germany I lived next to grafenweher. It was the only place in germany tankers could live fire so it was always times of increased booms when units would go to gunnery. Some general probably got the bright idea to combine everyones gunnery at once.

OP how old are you?

Something to think about.

With so many troops coming home your going to notice a lot more base training going on. Many people who live near a base might remember a time when your troops weren't deployed and night time training was a normal thing. Seeing troops road marching on the old roads or a military convoy heading from Ft. Lewis to Yakama on the I-5 freeway. (something I used to see every month) I haven't seen a real convoy in a long time.

I think everyone pretty much covered it; nothing too out of the ordinary around here.

I was siding a house today in South Tacoma and it was just the standard low-flying big green aircraft every 90 minutes...

Interesting to hear from some of you other folks around here though... and you guys got me thinking about how badass the chinooks are when they bring them out.

I live in Seattle and I heard on the radio on 97.3 FM the other day that FT Lewis currently has more troops than EVER before. The reason they were reporting this was because crime was increasing so much on the base. Robberies, rapes, assaults, vandalism etc.

I asked a question but no one has yet answered me?
Or was I right?

Originally posted by amongus

Agreed...anyone else notice increased activity?

I don't live near a base, but my nephew, who is stationed in CA just lost 7 buddies in a couple of chopper crashes during what he said was "Intense Training Exercises."

I think the crash happened in AZ.

Having spent the last 17 years of my life living on military bases from NC to HI, seeing units ship out, return home, hearing exercises at all hours I'll stick my neck out & venture to guess what you're seeing and hearing are training exercises HOWEVER I won't count out preparations for this: US Bulks Up Iran Defenses

Up here in the pnw the military presence is soo thick I don't know how one could notice an increase. I see military aircraft overhead everyday, sometimes all day. Take the highway and its filled with armored vehicles, bases everywhere and cameras all over the roads around those area. Wa is a HEAVY military stat, always flexing.

Anybody live around Warrenton or Astoria OR? See any Generals-Admirals wandering around there? It is a back up deep water port for troop deployment. It's oversaw by the Coast Guard. Back in 96 when NK was on the brink they were getting it prepared for material and troop movement but then Clinton negotiated his way out of war.

With NK feeling a little slighted by the MSM over Iran they are now saber rattling over the war games that are going to take place in March. Food for thought.

My dad's a Chief Master Sergeant stationed at McChord, I asked him if he knew of anything going on today. He said they've been running quite a few pre-deployment drills and there is also a joint training operation with McChord and Fort Lewis going on today. Today Mcchord also sent out about 100 troops for a 75 day deployment to the Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia areas.


P.S.
I live in the Ellensburg area... And as far as the convoys go... It's business as usual. I passed them on a weekly basis this summer on the stretch of I-90 between Yakima and Ellensburg.

I'm in Puyallup, off Canyon Rd, but I haven't noticed anything unusual

reply to post by amongus


I live near South Prairie Washington, 20 miles from JBLM base, I have not seen or heard anything out of the ordinary. I do have a visual of their flight paths on the base though, I will now watch over there more often. Thanks for the heads up.

I would also like to ask a general question to all. Is publishing information on strange traffic from a military base a form of an act of enabling an enemy?

Nothing strange going on at home base. North of McDill AFB. Its the hub for that part of the world, why I don't know but its pretty quiet here. I would think that they have just about everything they need over there anyway.

Originally posted by amongus

Originally posted by MDDoxs
reply to post by Hellas

 

Out of ordinary activity is not "Extreme" activity is all i was making note of.

As another poster put it, I live here. You don't. I KNOW what is normal. This is not normal. It's not even just increased. This is extreme. I've lived here for 12 years and know this is extreme.

I've lived here over 60 years and I say it is NOT extreme, but fairly normal. There's nothing unusual about activity at JBLM (Joint Base Lewis McChord, its official name).

Originally posted by ManOfHart
reply to post by amongus

 

I would also like to ask a general question to all. Is publishing information on strange traffic from a military base a form of an act of enabling an enemy?

I get this all the time when pointing out the whereabouts of our carriers. My answer is this: If the information is available through public outlets, as opposed to military sources, it can't be considered aiding the enemy. I can almost guarantee there are foreign spies stationed around JBLM to report any really unusual activity and that they have a better handle on it than your average homeowner who happens to hear some bangs on an army base. As a kid playing army on Fort Lewis I set off a smoke grenade that could be seen clear across Tacoma. I'll bet you some freaky folks in Tacoma thought "something was happening!" they were right. i was in deep doodoo over it. I found the sucker laying about on the ground, lit it and threw it in an abandoned outhouse. Yellow smoke covered the sky. e called it the Battle of the Outhouse for years. (Yeah, this was in the sixties.)

On the other hand, if you are on base and get wind of a depearture time of a Trident SSBN, you could be in a lot of trouble. All we need is some "fishing boat" off the coast of Washington to know the exact time an SSBN transits the Strait of Juan de Fuca to refine its tracking methods and capture the unique print of a Trident. AFAIK a Trident has NEVER been tracked by the enemy and was a big factor in ending the cold war.

It's kind of hard to hide a 100,000 ton displacement carrier, though. Any satellite can track a Carrier Strike Group, so saying the Vinson has left Hawaii and is headed to Bremerton isn't a big deal because eveyone who wants to know knows already anyway.

Originally posted by Jace26
I asked a question but no one has yet answered me?
Or was I right?

WA as in Washington State. WA is the official post office abbreviation.

reply to post by schuyler


Yes Wa. Washington st. Seattle Tacoma sory for no reply.