U.S. Interstate sytem developed for military as well as commerce

As this being my first post, please forgive me if this has been brougt up already, but couldnt find it through search engine. I once heard a relative of mine talking to my dad when I was a kid in the 70's. He said that in the 50's the massive interstate program that was being developed had more than one purpose beside for commerce and travel. He said that in case of a national emergency (war) the system could be used to transport troops, and this is my favorite, be used as runway's. He said that in the planning stage they made sure that there was to be an absolutely flat, straight strech of higway at least two miles long every so many miles ( i cant remember the number of miles). Back in the 80's they proposed using a transportable MX missle launcher and roam oround the country thus making it very hard for the Russians to target them. I suppose they scrapped that one because the Russions would be forced to basicly blow up the entire nation. Any one have any more knowledge of this?

reply to post by Spader


TACMARS = Nato codes on road signs.

projectavalon.net...


How the quadrant sign codes works:



1. Signs are divided in half, left and right.


2. Markers positioned on the right side, point right.


3. Markers on the left side, point left.


4. Markers turned on “end” are an arrow “UP” code, signifying a site for pick-up helicopter airlifts


5. Marker on top means straight ahead


6. Double ended arrow denotes an airlift facility


7. 3 arrows denotes a facility


8. 2 arrows denote the direction of the operational site


9. The coding on the stickers is also used to point to drugstores with passport photo services. Under martial law, this facility may be used for medical care, inoculation/vaccination, and creation of ID cards.

Originally posted by Spader
As this being my first post, please forgive me if this has been brougt up already, but couldnt find it through search engine. I once heard a relative of mine talking to my dad when I was a kid in the 70's. He said that in the 50's the massive interstate program that was being developed had more than one purpose beside for commerce and travel. He said that in case of a national emergency (war) the system could be used to transport troops, and this is my favorite, be used as runway's. He said that in the planning stage they made sure that there was to be an absolutely flat, straight strech of higway at least two miles long every so many miles ( i cant remember the number of miles). Back in the 80's they proposed using a transportable MX missle launcher and roam oround the country thus making it very hard for the Russians to target them. I suppose they scrapped that one because the Russions would be forced to basicly blow up the entire nation. Any one have any more knowledge of this?

I believe it was made for quick evacuation of areas in case of an atomic attack in major cities.

On June 29, 1956, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. The bill created a 41,000-mile “National System of Interstate and Defense Highways” that would, according to Eisenhower, eliminate unsafe roads, inefficient routes, traffic jams and all of the other things that got in the way of “speedy, safe transcontinental travel.” At the same time, highway advocates argued, “in case of atomic attack on our key cities, the road net [would] permit quick evacuation of target areas.” For all of these reasons, the 1956 law declared that the construction of an elaborate expressway system was “essential to the national interest.”

www.history.com...

Good luck landing a plane on Hellinois roadways. Our highways are junk and usually under construction.

reply to post by skorpius


listen... how the... and who the hell even starred you for this?

Ok I admit you made it look official but... nato never informed me of this tacmars. Nato? Really?

On topic... well sure they can be. Its no conspiracy. Hitlers autobahns were constructed with the same purpose in mind, I dont know about interstates because I'm not from the US, but most countries have their "military purpose" civilian assets.

But these tacmars... seriously... dont even pay attention to that bs. Because it is what that is. BS plain and simple.

EDIT: I just remembered a top secret nato road sign I have here near my house... its a huge sign that reads "NATO JHQ" - we're really big on hiding sites.

There were articles a few months ago, I forget which country, but they talked about/showed how their highways WERE set up to be runways/air defense systems.

It's really bugging me that I can't remember what it was. It was recent and totally substantiated...

There is a lot of truth to the OP. Trucking for a good part of my life, I picked up the story of the interstates a bit (and of course, a class in the trucking school way back at the start..lol). Eisenhower made them first and foremost for a Military transportation network after seeing a train trip could still take a long time and driving the 2 lanes was absurd for emergencies over distance. Second came interstate commerce in priority and much of the nation's standards for Bridge height, maximum grade % on a national interstate vs. highway and the rest.

Tourists came a second and side benefit....but then, that's the perspective of a career trucker, too.

* Oh and on the pics of helipads on the thread? Those are all over rural America but not maintained for some nefarious or evil purpose. They're generally community transfer points to 'Life Flight' medical evacuation helicopters when/as needed. They're pretty common in areas where that's the only way to get to a big city medical center in a timely way.

reply to post by Spader


Don't pay attention to Skorpius. He reads too much into things.

East to west interstates are even numbered. North to south......odd.

I-5 in California signifies that only 5% of the U.S. lies west of that highway. I-95 on the east coast.......95%

I-90.........90% lies south.............I-10........10%. All numbers are pretty rough as far as being exact, but that was the intent when they built the system. Take I-80 for example. On the west coast it's about in the middle of the country as far as north to south is concerned. Pass through Ohio and you can spit on Canada. It averages out. They pretty much all do.

Pretty soon, every state will have the mile markers and the exit numbers on interstate freeways match up. Right now, only California, New York and I believe Connecticut don't have that system in place yet. And don't even get me started on the GPS and tracking in trucking fleets. It's awesome.........and it's only going to get more detailed.

MapMap

In the a.m. I'm going to post a picture of the back of a stop sign. Now I live in a Golf Community and have only just realized that there are different coulor symbols and signs on the right side of a stop sign. We have lots of lakes in the Neighborhood due to the golf courses. Two eighteens and a par 3 course. There are reclective signs on the back of MOST signs, not all. I know that the pumper trucks can take care of the water needed for the fires, but there are other symbols that i dont understand. Tomorrow in the A.M. I will take a pic of the suspiscious stop sign. Untill then, hope you all are doing well.
Spader

Originally posted by Spader
In the a.m. I'm going to post a picture of the back of a stop sign. Now I live in a Golf Community and have only just realized that there are different coulor symbols and signs on the right side of a stop sign. We have lots of lakes in the Neighborhood due to the golf courses. Two eighteens and a par 3 course. There are reclective signs on the back of MOST signs, not all. I know that the pumper trucks can take care of the water needed for the fires, but there are other symbols that i dont understand. Tomorrow in the A.M. I will take a pic of the suspiscious stop sign. Untill then, hope you all are doing well.
Spader

Seriously in this day and age of technology, I have my serious doubts that secret emblems exist on the backs of signs. Secret signs for Hobo's and the homeless I can believe, but the military? Please spend your time looking into something much more important.

Ah, the old TACMARS. I've looked at the back of a lot of signs around military bases and most of them are perfectly blank, or have the DOT stickers on them, nothing more. I especially love how they're designed to be read by a guy with night vision goggles on, sitting backwards in the back of a Humvee or truck barreling down the road.

As for the Eisenhower Interstate System, it was originally built after WWII when the Allies saw how fast the German army could move down the Autobahn. Eisenhower wanted something similar in the US for the military to use in case they had to transfer from point to point quickly, it would be much faster to just drive down the road.

As for the runways, that's an old myth. I've heard that as well, but if you look at most of the roads, they aren't nearly level, smooth, or debris free enough for something like an F-15 or good god an F-16 (we used to call them vacuum cleaners because after they taxied the ramp where they sat was spotless). And you certainly couldn't land a heavy on them (jesus that gives me the willies to just think about).

reply to post by BubbaJoe
Seriously, The first major stop signt im my GATED COMMUMITY has all kinds of different reflective symbols on the back of it leading into the Golf communty. I think I went overboard saying that there are all kinds of symbols for the military. (but what about a U.N. type force that does not speak English)? But to lead our volunteer fire department to the few fire hydrants are,(it is a very large and confusing place to navigate with only two entrances and exits) and where the ponds are to pump water from? And I thought this site was for ANY ideas or comments, not to get flamed. This was just something I heard on Coast to Coast one night and decided to keep my eyes open.

The fire hydrants where I live all have what appears to be 5' radio antennae mounted to the top of them. Every damn one of them. Is in a NWO comm repeater? A NATO GPS marker? A HAARP transceiver?

Maybe we just get a lot of snow here... could these be attached to the hydrants to aid the fire department in finding hydrants when we get 4 feet of snow?

Seemingly bizarre objects attached to public utilities aren't always proof of a conspiracy.

reply to post by maybehelpful

Pretty sure it was Switzerland.

Edit to add: This looks pretty genuine.

reply to post by maybehelpful


Some countries, including Russia, and Poland DO use roadways as runways. However, if you look at Russian equipment vs American equipment, the Russian aircraft are designed to be flown off unimproved airstrips. The MiG-29 and YAK-130 are prime examples of this.

Here is the MiG-29 on the taxiway:



The YAK-130:



Notice the intake doors? Those allow air to get in to the engine, while keeping what's known as FOD (rocks, nuts, bolts, things that make jet engines very unhappy) from going down the engine intake, and destroying the engine.

Now by comparison, here is the F-15 and F-16 that the US uses:

F-15:



F-16:



On the F-15, the intake drops down to an angle like that for airflow purposes at low power settings, but it doesn't do anything to protect the engine. The F-16 on the other hand, having the intake on the bottom of the aircraft like it is, is a vacuum cleaner when the engine is running. We used to joke that there was no need to have them sweep the ramp around the F-16s when they were in, because they'd take care of it for us.

When you add in the sheer size of the aircraft that the US uses, there is no physical way possible for the Air Force to use any roadway as a runway. They simply aren't stressed for that purpose. If you've ever driven down some of the highways (I-10, I-12 especially), riding in the right lane, you've felt how rough the road is. That's from trucks grossing out at 80,000 pounds. Now imagine if they tried to land something with a max take off weight of hundreds of thousands of pounds on that same road?

reply to post by madmac5150


They're there to help them find them when it snows and they get buried. They stick up higher than the maximum recorded snow level. They have things like that all over in Alaska, including poles that come out over the interstate to show you where the road is when it's snowing, so the plows can find the roadway.

reply to post by Zaphod58

I am completely aware of why these things are used (my hydrant antennae), my point is that if someone from the deep south were to see one of these, they look odd and out of place. Someone that has no understanding of the winter snows here may see one and post it on ATS... "NWO controls northern firefighting" becomes an ATS thread... which of course gets blown way out of proportion... "HAARP hydrant receivers controlling elk herds?"

It's a vicious cycle...

reply to post by Zaphod58
The Russians have always built their aircraft to operate on from anything from a smooth runway to the surface of the moon. LOL. I did not check the links but do know that their air intakes close to avoid anything to get in to the engine and wreck its blades. Of course they have to use full afterburner to take off (if thats the way it works). and then gas up once upstairs, like we do with fully loaded planes. The landing gear on all Russian planes are probably stronger than the ones used on U.S. carrier landing gear.

reply to post by Spader


It goes back to the quality v quantity debate that has been going on since WWII. The Soviets/Russians have always gone for low quality that they can crank out in big numbers, while the West has gone for lower numbers that are of better quality and tech levels. This debate will probably be ongoing for a long time to come too.

reply to post by Spader


While I generally agree with almost everyone else here posting in reply to your OP, make no mistake about this one. EVERY INTERSTATE BUILT IN THIS COUNTRY was built with the idea of using it in case of war. They are built for relatively fast transfer of ANYTHING. Any country attacking us would have a hard time negating the ability of troop mobilization within the US because of the Interstate System. I drive these roads everyday.

And despite what anyone else here says or writes, yes...you can most certainly land any current plane on any interstate in the country. Would you want to everyday? No. But my father helped construct 80/94/294 through NW Indiana and Illinois and that entire stretch of roadway is built to airport runway specs...