Earlier today Ninurta posted a link in Shoutbox to a YT video discussing a new temporary detention facility in the FL Everglades to be used for housing detained illegal aliens (yes, "aliens", of the illegal foreign national type.) I don't call people or things something they are not just because somebody's feelz get hurt. They're "illegal aliens", period. Anyway, here is the link which Ninurta posted in Shoutbox earlier...
Alligator Alcatraz
I wanted to start a full blown RN post about this subject because I believe this is something which warrants larger discussion than just in Shoutbox. Plus, it also deserves to be memorialized better. So, with that, I offer the following...
First of all, I am very familiar with this facility for a number of reasons, and I've been familiar with it for a very long time. In fact, I've been aware of this facility since it was originally built back in 1968. The Airport known as the Dade County Training and Transition Airport was originally designed and intended to facilitate the operation of the SuperSonic Transport (or SST) as it was known back then. Back in those days, long before the Concorde, both the US and Russia were working on prototype supersonic commercial airliners. SST's are loud (very), and this was known at the time. In fact, they were so loud that even aircraft developers and airlines realized they would not be allowed to operate out of conventional airports of the day. There were also runway length considerations as SST's require a very long runway to take off due to their design. The solution was to build an airport in the middle of nowhere, and this particular location was perfect for just such a thing. The location is even remote today, but back then it was REALLY remote. Today Miami has encroached on the Everglades from the east, and the Naples / Fort Meyers area from the west and the area is still remote, but not as remote as it used to be.
Back in the late 60's my parents had invested in property in Collier County, Marco Island to be exact. When we flew down to FL commercially, we went into Miami and drove across Tamiami Trail to Marco. Did this many, many, times in my youth. Became very familiar with this stretch of road. When the "Everglades Jetport" (as it was known then) was built it was kind of veiled in secrecy. Secret stuff like this in the middle of nowhere always fascinated me, and I wanted to know more. But information about this place was hard to find, and part of the reason was because there was a lot of environmental activist groups, even back then, who were trying to block its development. This is partly because developers had begun to market the facility as "The Largest Airport in the World". Along with this came much unwanted attention.
For probably two decades I was always waiting for this secret airport in the middle of nowhere in the Everglades to begin operations. Instead, what I got was always just a glimpse of some giant chain link gates, closed and locked. There was an airfield there, but there was nothing happening. No planes, and no activity. After a dozens of years I read that the big vision for the "SST" had been cancelled. The Russian SST never really flew commercially and only a few prototypes were built. In the US and Europe, the SST evolved into the Concorde. Tickets on the Concorde turned out to be so outrageously expensive that very few were ever built, and those which were were allowed to operate out of a limited number of existing airports. The 'World's Largest Airport' would never become a reality and was ultimately cancelled. The chain link gates remained closed and locked until they became so overgrown you couldn't see beyond them. Bummer.
Fast forward to the mid-1970's. Although the front gates never opened, the airport was actually an operational airfield complete with an ILS instrument approach system. Airlines such as Eastern Airlines and Pan Am realized this facility might be great to be used as a training facility for 747 pilots to practice instrument landings, so while the airport wasn't open to the public it was open to airmen and airlines. Using the facility as a training airport took the operational and traffic pressure off of other airports like Miami and Ft. Lauderdale. And this is pretty much how the airport operated and existed until the late 90's when full-motion simulators largely replaced actual flight time for many airline pilots. Since then the facilities have been used for permit only General Aviation (GA) operations.
Fast forwarding to today, now they're looking at this airfield to use as a US based Guantanamo Bay of sorts to house illegals many of whom are just as bad as terrorists when you think about it. The video talks about the place being guarded by alligators and pythons, and they interview environmentalists who were quick on the case. Habitat for alligators I could maybe see, but last time I checked pythons, depending on the type, were either invasive species (wiping out all the birds), or undesirable nuisances at a minimum. In any case, pythons are certainly not on the endangered list, or even threatened. More lies and liberal BS at work. Smokescreens to cut these fking illegals loose to poison our society and terrorize or kill our citizens.
Personally, I think the proposed use is an excellent idea. Little 'real' risk of any environmental threat; these people are going to be housed in tents on the pavement until they get deported out of our country. Good! Life sucks, and then you get deported to some shithole you came from. Good riddance! I have exactly zero sympathy! Just be glad for all the free stuff you got while you invaded our country, stole from our taxpayers, and ripped off from our citizens. Can we maybe sell tickets to give these people a good swift kick in the nuts just before they get put on an airplane? I'd stand in line for one of those tickets! Might make a lot of money to pay down the debt.
And you know what, even better? There's an airport right there. No need to truck these losers to an airport and give all the liberals a chance to protest. Just drag their illegal asses into the cargo hold and get 'em the fk outta' here...right after getting kicked in the nuts. That's the memory of America they "should" have, not the satisfaction of getting to see a bunch of liberals crying their eyes out! Get out, and slam the fk'ing door.
Buh bye!
BTW - Here's another link to the facility for background...
Everglades JetPort
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On a related note; there are several places along the Tamiami Trail which have a really interesting and dark history. One of them is further west from here, a place called Remuda Ranch. Probably one of the biggest real estate swindles in history, with a long and sordid history following that.
I'll have to post about that too someday. It's staggering when you see the skeleton of it from the air.
Later, after we had our plane, we no longer drove the Tamiami Trail, we flew from an FBO nearby to MIA over to Marco. There was no airport on Marco Island back then. The 'airport' was the section of road out in front of the only hotel/motel, the Old Marco Inn. To land, you called the front desk (they had a VHF and a CB at the front desk). When you got in range, you called. They had this old military Jeep and they'd drive out and cone off the road. Then they'd light these old oil lamps they had set along the road which they called 'smudge pots'; those served as your runway lights. We'd taxi back and park our airplane in the hotel parking lot.
The last time we flew in there before they built the first airport was in a friend of my parent's Convair 580. That was an "adventure" (times a factor of five)! Had to get them to remove the cones so we had the entire length of the road. They didn't believe us at first and only moved the cones a couple hundred feet. We did a low flyby...and then they got it. I think that's about the only time I ever heard someone swear over a VHF Air to Ground frequency! "OHHhhh...SHIT! Pull ALL those cones, George!". Getting that old girl stopped used every bit of that road. Taking off was going to be a whole other matter! (Dragged the mains through the treetops on the way out, and not just a little bit either. Still had to pull leaves, branches and twigs out of the gear bay at our destination). Flying was a lot different in those days. Pull a stunt like that today and you'd likely get your certificate yanked for life.
Alligator Alcatraz
I wanted to start a full blown RN post about this subject because I believe this is something which warrants larger discussion than just in Shoutbox. Plus, it also deserves to be memorialized better. So, with that, I offer the following...
First of all, I am very familiar with this facility for a number of reasons, and I've been familiar with it for a very long time. In fact, I've been aware of this facility since it was originally built back in 1968. The Airport known as the Dade County Training and Transition Airport was originally designed and intended to facilitate the operation of the SuperSonic Transport (or SST) as it was known back then. Back in those days, long before the Concorde, both the US and Russia were working on prototype supersonic commercial airliners. SST's are loud (very), and this was known at the time. In fact, they were so loud that even aircraft developers and airlines realized they would not be allowed to operate out of conventional airports of the day. There were also runway length considerations as SST's require a very long runway to take off due to their design. The solution was to build an airport in the middle of nowhere, and this particular location was perfect for just such a thing. The location is even remote today, but back then it was REALLY remote. Today Miami has encroached on the Everglades from the east, and the Naples / Fort Meyers area from the west and the area is still remote, but not as remote as it used to be.
Back in the late 60's my parents had invested in property in Collier County, Marco Island to be exact. When we flew down to FL commercially, we went into Miami and drove across Tamiami Trail to Marco. Did this many, many, times in my youth. Became very familiar with this stretch of road. When the "Everglades Jetport" (as it was known then) was built it was kind of veiled in secrecy. Secret stuff like this in the middle of nowhere always fascinated me, and I wanted to know more. But information about this place was hard to find, and part of the reason was because there was a lot of environmental activist groups, even back then, who were trying to block its development. This is partly because developers had begun to market the facility as "The Largest Airport in the World". Along with this came much unwanted attention.
For probably two decades I was always waiting for this secret airport in the middle of nowhere in the Everglades to begin operations. Instead, what I got was always just a glimpse of some giant chain link gates, closed and locked. There was an airfield there, but there was nothing happening. No planes, and no activity. After a dozens of years I read that the big vision for the "SST" had been cancelled. The Russian SST never really flew commercially and only a few prototypes were built. In the US and Europe, the SST evolved into the Concorde. Tickets on the Concorde turned out to be so outrageously expensive that very few were ever built, and those which were were allowed to operate out of a limited number of existing airports. The 'World's Largest Airport' would never become a reality and was ultimately cancelled. The chain link gates remained closed and locked until they became so overgrown you couldn't see beyond them. Bummer.
Fast forward to the mid-1970's. Although the front gates never opened, the airport was actually an operational airfield complete with an ILS instrument approach system. Airlines such as Eastern Airlines and Pan Am realized this facility might be great to be used as a training facility for 747 pilots to practice instrument landings, so while the airport wasn't open to the public it was open to airmen and airlines. Using the facility as a training airport took the operational and traffic pressure off of other airports like Miami and Ft. Lauderdale. And this is pretty much how the airport operated and existed until the late 90's when full-motion simulators largely replaced actual flight time for many airline pilots. Since then the facilities have been used for permit only General Aviation (GA) operations.
Fast forwarding to today, now they're looking at this airfield to use as a US based Guantanamo Bay of sorts to house illegals many of whom are just as bad as terrorists when you think about it. The video talks about the place being guarded by alligators and pythons, and they interview environmentalists who were quick on the case. Habitat for alligators I could maybe see, but last time I checked pythons, depending on the type, were either invasive species (wiping out all the birds), or undesirable nuisances at a minimum. In any case, pythons are certainly not on the endangered list, or even threatened. More lies and liberal BS at work. Smokescreens to cut these fking illegals loose to poison our society and terrorize or kill our citizens.
Personally, I think the proposed use is an excellent idea. Little 'real' risk of any environmental threat; these people are going to be housed in tents on the pavement until they get deported out of our country. Good! Life sucks, and then you get deported to some shithole you came from. Good riddance! I have exactly zero sympathy! Just be glad for all the free stuff you got while you invaded our country, stole from our taxpayers, and ripped off from our citizens. Can we maybe sell tickets to give these people a good swift kick in the nuts just before they get put on an airplane? I'd stand in line for one of those tickets! Might make a lot of money to pay down the debt.
And you know what, even better? There's an airport right there. No need to truck these losers to an airport and give all the liberals a chance to protest. Just drag their illegal asses into the cargo hold and get 'em the fk outta' here...right after getting kicked in the nuts. That's the memory of America they "should" have, not the satisfaction of getting to see a bunch of liberals crying their eyes out! Get out, and slam the fk'ing door.
Buh bye!
BTW - Here's another link to the facility for background...
Everglades JetPort
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On a related note; there are several places along the Tamiami Trail which have a really interesting and dark history. One of them is further west from here, a place called Remuda Ranch. Probably one of the biggest real estate swindles in history, with a long and sordid history following that.
I'll have to post about that too someday. It's staggering when you see the skeleton of it from the air.
Later, after we had our plane, we no longer drove the Tamiami Trail, we flew from an FBO nearby to MIA over to Marco. There was no airport on Marco Island back then. The 'airport' was the section of road out in front of the only hotel/motel, the Old Marco Inn. To land, you called the front desk (they had a VHF and a CB at the front desk). When you got in range, you called. They had this old military Jeep and they'd drive out and cone off the road. Then they'd light these old oil lamps they had set along the road which they called 'smudge pots'; those served as your runway lights. We'd taxi back and park our airplane in the hotel parking lot.
The last time we flew in there before they built the first airport was in a friend of my parent's Convair 580. That was an "adventure" (times a factor of five)! Had to get them to remove the cones so we had the entire length of the road. They didn't believe us at first and only moved the cones a couple hundred feet. We did a low flyby...and then they got it. I think that's about the only time I ever heard someone swear over a VHF Air to Ground frequency! "OHHhhh...SHIT! Pull ALL those cones, George!". Getting that old girl stopped used every bit of that road. Taking off was going to be a whole other matter! (Dragged the mains through the treetops on the way out, and not just a little bit either. Still had to pull leaves, branches and twigs out of the gear bay at our destination). Flying was a lot different in those days. Pull a stunt like that today and you'd likely get your certificate yanked for life.
