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A visit to Int and Happy Valley

Free to shine

Shiny & Free
I did not mean to be rude, Paul. It was just upsetting to me to see all the pretty pictures of INT when that is NOT the way it really or usually is.

I feel really sad that with the attention Tom Cruise and Dainty David Miscavige are drawing upon themselves and their cult...they are using the very people they are taking advantage of to cover up their crimes by making them do yardwork!

This just really makes me more than a little angry.

I think I will go back to the joke thread.

Ladybird

I can't imagine how that feels.
We can only hope that the lid gets blown off really soon, and this doesn't have to continue. :bighug:
 

pomfritz

Patron with Honors
There are some photos towards the end that show a dumpster with some small blue and white buildings in the background. I seem to recall these were close to what is called the "swamp" which is a natural perserve that they are not supposed to mess with.

I have not been able to confirm this yet but are those small buildings what is now known as "SP Hall"?
 

Dulloldfart

Squirrel Extraordinaire
I did not mean to be rude, Paul. It was just upsetting to me to see all the pretty pictures of INT when that is NOT the way it really or usually is.

No problem, Ladybird. Be yourself. :)

And that is not meant to be rude, either.

The only people here I am sometimes intentionally rude to now are Alanzo and maybe Tansy, and that is in the name of relatively gentle humour.

Paul
 

Alanzo

Bardo Tulpa
No problem, Ladybird. Be yourself. :)

And that is not meant to be rude, either.

The only people here I am sometimes intentionally rude to now are Alanzo and maybe Tansy, and that is in the name of relatively gentle humour.

Paul

Relatively...
 

Kookaburra

Gold Meritorious Patron
I know there was razor wire. I just didn't see it in the recent pix and was wondering if it was still there. Maybe they replaced it with a minefield. :)

Paul

I suspect the razor wire may have been removed as out PR. They are obviously expecting some scrutiny of the base, and have to make it look better as they have been severely criticized for the concentration camp they are running up there.

Perhaps all the noise from the critics is actually starting to have an impact.

Funny the different emotional responses people get from the place. I remember being soooo very excited at the idea of going there. Then getting there and realizing I was semi imprisoned. I say semi. This was the mid 80'. My berthing was at Happy Valley. The bus would go to Hemet on request. But I still felt trapped and immediately wanted to leave.
 

pomfritz

Patron with Honors
Thanks for making those available.

I didn't see any razor wire, although lots of fences. Fences are normal. Was the razor wire not visible, or not there?

Paul

I was informed that the razor wire is there but hard to see. It's not your typical concertina type it's a thin strip that is attached to the top rails of the fences.

68290720.jpg


Here's an example of it. You're in for a nasty surprise it you try to climb the fence and don't know it's there.
 

Dulloldfart

Squirrel Extraordinaire
I was informed that the razor wire is there but hard to see. It's not your typical concertina type it's a thin strip that is attached to the top rails of the fences.

68290720.jpg


Here's an example of it. You're in for a nasty surprise it you try to climb the fence and don't know it's there.

I've seen lots of razor wire. There was some around the Ivar parking lot by the HGB. I know it's really nasty stuff. Usually it's coiled, not laid flat, at least the stuff I've seen. It's not that hard to see. Maybe I should research it more to see the different types in use.

Paul
 

pomfritz

Patron with Honors
Yeah, this is the more in-PR version of it. The cult could claim it's to keep the pigeons from sitting there.
 

pomfritz

Patron with Honors
I've updated some of the captions on the pictures. Thanks Maureen!

BTW there is one picture of a black wrought iron fence that if you enlarge it you can see the type of razor wire I described in an earlier post. It's one of the pictures in the middle of the album and has a caption about the wire.
 

Dulloldfart

Squirrel Extraordinaire
Thanks, Pomfritz. I enlarged what I could from the enlargement online, but couldn't see it. Are you looking at the enlargement online, or the higher-resolution version on your hard drive?

Paul
 

pomfritz

Patron with Honors
Thanks, Pomfritz. I enlarged what I could from the enlargement online, but couldn't see it. Are you looking at the enlargement online, or the higher-resolution version on your hard drive?

Paul

photo
(Darn, I can't get the pic to load here)

I'm looking at the picture in the album just like everyone else. In the album if you click on the photo (#69) It will enlarge it, you can also enlarge it from there by clicking on the magnifying glass in the right corner. The wire is best visible on the right third of the picture, top rail of the fence. It's not real obvious but instead of a smooth black surface you'll notice silver spikes on that rail.

I was looking for it on the other fence pics but didn't see any sign of it, just on this one.
 

Little Bear Victor

Silver Meritorious Patron
Nice job, Pomfritz & Mo.

Boy are those some familiar places and faces! Just thinking it could be me in one of the photos -- but luckily I'm out of there.

I'll take a closer look a bit later and give some comments...
 

Little Bear Victor

Silver Meritorious Patron
Paul, here's a closeup of the photo.

DSC_0739_crop.jpg


The barbed wire (ultrabarrier, it is called) can be barely seen as a jagged edge on top of the fence. Close up it is as shown a few posts earlier. Keeping it as inconspicuous as possible.
 

Little Bear Victor

Silver Meritorious Patron
A few comments as promised.

The shots are shot Sunday morning which is very telling. Sunday morning is personal CSP (Clean Ship Project = cleaning and hygiene time), which means these are people who are in personal lower conditions, ordered in early on a Sunday morning. These are all Gold crew, no other org personnel (not that there is much left of the other orgs anyway), and include Cine crew, such as the Shoot Prod Dir and video shoot team members. That means that no major Cine shoot is going on, or that these particular Cine staff are not allowed to leave the base for an external shoot, or both.

Also, these are not people from the RPF nor the SP Room, these are Gold staff who are on post (not in these pictures, of course, but in general.) Not posting any names, as they are not significant to anyone else but who knows them and they can be seen in the photos, unless someone specifically wants to know.

The razor wire and the cameras are still there; I don’t know any good reason they would be gone, not even PR reasons: You can always say they are to protect the area and expensive equipment etc., which is at least partially true. (As you saw from Pomfritz post above, ultrabarrier is pointed in both directions, inward and outward, by design.)

The landscaping: The area, especially inside the fences, is usually fairly well maintained, with green grounds, flowerbeds, brushes and trees groomed. This is taken care by Estates crew and “all” crew Saturday renos (which, for a large part, consists of grounds upgrades) -- “all” in quotes since 50% of the people are off renos on some production-related flap. It is actually a very nice looking place, if you would go there for a one-day guided tour, not knowing anything about what is going on in the place. PR.

Barbz, I don’t see the burned pine trees, which pictures do you mean? I only see the swamp area with dried up trees. Fires are pretty frequent around the place but mostly towards the end of summer.

Pomfritz, the shot at the end with the blue container is around the OGH (Old Gilman’s House) and Maintenance Man’s house. OGH at one time was the area were people on decks and on offload lines lived and worked and were Sec Checked. The HGC also used to be there in the 90ies. The SP Room is (or at least was) in the building shown in photos #130 and 131, also known as the “CMOI trailer,” when there was a CMOI. That is also where Exec Strata used to be, as well as where the WDC conference room is – where the “musical chairs” incident took place. The building that is captioned “RTC Building” became the “CMOI Building” in 2005 or so, but in reality only AVC (Authorization, Verification and Correction unit) ever moved there.

One of the items I recall reading was the installation of buried piezoelectric cables around the perimeter which (when hooked up to the proper control equipment) can detect both ground pressure variations and sound. This type of sensor system is normally used around high security military installations.

If each section of the perimeter has it's own set of sensors, security personnel may be dispatched directly to the location where a perimeter breach may be in progress. The ground pressure sensors can distinguish small animals from man-sized creatures and vehicles from both. :ohmy:

An extremely expensive and paranoid setup, if that's what they have. :no:

The Sneakster

Damn, I didn’t even know about the ground sensors. I would be impressed if it wasn’t for the fact that they still have trouble distinguishing “little bears” from other small animals.

Kookaburra, I understand your feelings and know many who had the same feeling of entrapment. I never felt particularly trapped until that day some someone got the brilliant idea of restricting me to the base. That was the day I started considering leaving.

And finally, highway cleaning is a sure sign that either COB is returning to the base or that a VIP tour is about to take place -- highway cleaning is only done before one of those two.

Let the cameras roll...
 
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