The Base

Yesterday, Ken's work hosted about a dozen of us spouses for an orientation/tour at the facility. Although the official name is "Joint Defense Facility Pine Gap", everyone here calls it "the Base".

When we opened our local bank account, the banker says to Ken "So, you're out at the Base?"

When we went car shopping, the salemen all said to Ken "So, you're out at the Base?"

When I volunteered at a local museum, the manager says to me "So, your husband is out at the Base?"

Opening remarks for our tour were made by the Chief of Facility (or "cough" as Ken calls him - COF) who told us some of the speculation about what they actually do out there. One is that it is a submarine refueling/maintenance station. Now, this is pretty humurous if you realize that Alice Springs is over 1000 miles from any ocean. But, as with most rumors, it is actually grounded in some truth. When the facility was being built, some deisel generators (for power generation) of the same type used in submarines were trucked up here from Adelaide and people took note.


One highlight of the day was a tour inside one of the radomes (big white round objects easily seen in the Google Earth view of the Base.) The radome we got to tour was Radome 11, the biggest. Very interesting.

Oh, another one of the rumors about the facility is apparently that it has something to do with golf ball manufacturing!


We were not allowed to go into any of the technical or engineering areas, so I was not able to see Ken's actual office. Mainly, aside from the radome, we saw the cafeteria which looks like, well, a cafeteria. We spent a fair amount of time in a conference room watching Powerpoint slides and listening to people like the Chief of Security, the staff Psychologist, and the Chief of Support.

Check out the Metrics box on the right side of this blog to see some of the data they presented. Personally, I think the purpose of the facility is to manufacture statistics-filled Powerpoint slides.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.