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- BloodJunkie, on 10/12/2007, -2/+39Isn't that Diego Garcia? If so then it's used as a launch pad for the Iraq war. Also, there's a fascinating story behind how that came to be. The British basically deported the whole island nation of people to another nearby island where shortly afterwards they began literally dying of depression from missing their homeland.
Check it out an article on it here: http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/27b/036.html
And you can find a documentary about it on many torrent sites called "Stealing a Nation" - greenergrad, on 10/12/2007, -1/+30Isn't that Diego Garcia, the US B-52 base leased from the UK?
- gwjc, on 10/12/2007, -1/+30That's a pretty cool island.. must be beautiful; I wonder what the hell the big circle is for: http://www.google.ca/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=reunion&ie=UTF8&t=h&om=1&ll=-7.279539,72.367952&spn=0.005044,0.010815
maybe it's where the extra terrestrials land ;) - bobbknight, on 10/12/2007, -0/+22Ahh the beautiful foot print of freedom as some call it.
Diego Garcia, British Indian Ocean Territories (BIOT)
It started out as a Copra plantation, Google Copra.
During the Vietnam war the US needed a new place to put B 52's.
You see the Vietnamese with lots of help from the USSR had echo chambers directed at Guam. They could hear the B 52's coming. So in the mid 60's we asked the Brits if we could use DG as a B 52 base, so we rent it from them. Now we have a military communications station, a space trash optical tracking station (the bits that break off space craft, and that can cause damage to things in space), and a pre-positioned squadron of supply ships for the US Marines and other military items. Most go boom.
Diego Garcia is a wildlife marine refuge, though people stationed there are allowed to fish. It has some of the best fishing I have ever enjoyed.
It has a British Magistrate and about 200 or so Brit military. Many Brit Marines, very fun to rib with. Google ridged inflatable boat.
The normal tour of duty for US Military is 1 year, unaccompanied, no wife and kids. Contract workers come mostly from the Philippines and run most of the support services on the atoll. That big circle is an HF communications antenna, used for backup support for the area around the atoll. Over all not a bad place to visit, or be stationed at. though it is out of the way.
No bonus pay for being stationed there, when I was there, though that may have changed. - delong, on 10/12/2007, -3/+19"why do britishers need a military base in the indian ocean ? british and us govenrment scare the hell out of me"
The Indian Ocean basin - vital to east-west global maritime traffic. Not important at all. Why would anyone bother with that?
While you haplessly sit on your butt eating cheetos at your computer, being scurred of those scary soldiers, airmen, and seamen, they are keeping the sealanes clear for you, so you can enjoy your cheap energy and goods. I won't expect you to understand in the least. - gcnaddict, on 10/12/2007, -6/+21uhh, how is it unlikely to see a british military base in the indian ocean? Last I checked, India was practically owned by the British Empire until sometime in the early 20th century (maybe even up until WWII, but Im not that good with history)
also, I agree with Dradis in thinking that the big circle might be a testing site for certain random munitions developed or salvaged :P
edit: oooh look, image corruption courtesy of... either aliens or the british gov't. That or the british just successfully tested an EMP :P
http://www.google.ca/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=reunion&ie=UTF8&t=h&om=1&ll=-7.262649,72.357223&spn=0.009717,0.018218 - kije, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16The big circle is the remnants of an old HF direction finding antenna. Like this one: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=52.042580,-0.388298&spn=0.052674,0.080887&t=k
- rhnet, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13Yes, it is
If look in google earth, it says so.
Screen: http://img74.imageshack.us/img74/3016/island5bz.jpg
Also, look, theres an alternate shuttle landing site! - antoniojvr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13I think it is. On Google Earth you can see all the B52s. Very cool.
- npiv, on 10/12/2007, -3/+16That would make a sweet BF2 map
- antron, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11These on the left are probably tankers
http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=reunion&ie=UTF8&t=h&om=1&ll=-7.311002,72.414161&spn=0.004097,0.005445
These to the lower right are B-52s
http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=reunion&ie=UTF8&t=h&om=1&ll=-7.314535,72.41783&spn=0.004097,0.005445
This looks like a C-17
http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=reunion&ie=UTF8&t=h&om=1&ll=-7.3002,72.396694&spn=0.004097,0.005445
You can see the differences in shape and wing placement on the fuselage - freebirdpat, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12That big circle is the sand trap for the 18th hole. Or at least it was last time I was there....
/kidding, obviously its an alien *GURGLE*
//a red flash hits your eyes and you remember nothing - thezanman, on 10/12/2007, -5/+14Did anyone else see this and go "OMG Wake Island"???
...shutup. - freebirdpat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8I think BF2 map Wake Island was modeled after the actual Wake Island....
- livet0ski, on 08/17/2009, -0/+7this looks a little bit more like wake....
http://www.google.ca/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=marshall+islands&ie=UTF8&t=h&om=1&ll=19.295104,166.626291&spn=0.057274,0.10849 - quasipalm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Also a good read:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diego_Garcia - node3, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8The big circle is a prototype of one of the earliest attempts at fitting 1,000 songs in your pocket. While they were successful at fitting 1,000 songs onto a format that utilized technology of the day, they were never able to overcome several limitations, including the need for a large label in the center for identifying the tracks, and the tendencies for ocean breezes to send the arm/stylus across the media unpredictably (you can see in the picture that it has, in fact, landed on the human-readable meta-data portion where it does not belong).
On the other hand, it did have a white enclosure for the battery (seen to the left), and featured *two* pairs of white headphones (further to the left and above).
Sadly, while the British PhonoPod contained many innovative features, they were never quite able to get it to fit into a standard-sized pocket.
And now you know the true reason why Apple Corps sued Apple Computer. - RichPowers, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6http://www.google.ca/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=reunion&ie=UTF8&t=h&om=1&ll=-7.312385,72.415465&spn=0.003501,0.006781
Wow, look at all those B-52s. I'd hate to be on the opposite end of that firepower. Beautiful aircraft though. - Dradis, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10Maybe munitions testing/ ranges. There are similar patterns in the Nevada dessert that are used for these purposes.
- dirtyfratboy, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9Is it just me, or is it impossible to reply to comments...? I can't find the little reply link anymore...
Edit: NVM, they came back within a minute... weird. - sleepless, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I've been there. There are usually more than a dozen B2s there as well. Very nice shark fishing :-)
- eclectro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5kije is right - zoom in on his link to see the hf direction finding pad. He shouldn't have been modded down. It was/is an NSA listening post.
- craigiedan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4The Island is Diego Garcia, part of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean. There are several US military commands stationed there as well as a small unit of British Military Police. I was stationed there in 2000 in the US Navy. The island is used mostly for support for ships and planes operating in the Indian Ocean. Most of the wildlife consists of chickens and donkeys that were brought in from earlier settlers....
- eclectro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4It's a cold war relic probably used for U-2s. But useful as a staging area for the persian gulf activities. I doubt if the islanders will ever be allowed back no matter what any court rules. Should be interesting to see how it plays out.
The islanders would have a nice airport for tourists if they ever got their island back. - cliph, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Check out the South Pacific, several atoll bases there too:
http://www.google.ca/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=marshall+islands&ie=UTF8&ll=10.09867,167.211914&spn=23.333256,55.546875&t=h&om=1
Good hi-res pics too.
These islands are very beautiful parts of the earth. I went on a Google Maps journey around the South Pacific one day and found lots of beautiful islands, some with what look like military installations that have corresponding Wikipedia articles but I'm afraid I can't remember the names now. - hextor25, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Holy Moley. So much disinformation. It's Deigo Garica a fairly well known British Protectorate in the Indian Ocean - look at the google mini map it says as much. Us Brits have a base there and the US uses it for mid east operations. It's not like DG is even a secret.
- gnalakalaciath5, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6it already sort of looks like a bf2 map; wake island
- asvasv, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4From wikipedia:
The island and base were unaffected by the tsunami caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Service personnel on the island reported only a minor increase in wave activity. The island was protected by its favourable ocean topography. East of the atoll lies the 400-mile-long Chagos Trench, an underwater canyon plunging more than 16000 feet. The depth of the trench and its grade to the shore makes it difficult for tsunami to build before passing the atoll. In addition, undersea coral reefs may have dissipated much of the waves' impact. - jefree, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Might have great surfing. That would do it for me.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6@gcnaddict: India was under the British rule till 1947. That's till 2 years after WWII got over.
- ericnmu, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7I did, I was thinking BF2 :P
- WorfoSAUR, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Hmmm...Where's the BF2 Map?
- plokey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I heard 007 is stationed there until his next movie.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diego_Garcia
The airbase is US, you've probably heard of it on CNN. - theoallardyce, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Nice to see we've still got a couple of good old military island bases left. I would have thought Labour would have privatised them by now, or that they would have just run out of funding.
- datter, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7It's possible.
EDIT: er... yeah ;) - david76, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Yes, it is.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/diego-garcia-pix.htm - yeahbuddy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Man, there is no such thing as secrecy now that Google Maps and other easily accessable satellite maps are widely available. Makes for creative intel these days...
- veritech, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Kinda old news to me. It's been a staging base for all the gulf war bombing operations since 1991. You didn't think they did all the flights from guam and the continental us?
B-1's, B-52's, Tanker aircraft, E-3's. If it can't fit on a carrrier, doesn't cost a billion quid (ala B-2) this is where it does the dirty on the iraq and the rest of the middle east.
I believe you americans got in part for our war debt after WWII, along with quite a few other things, but it's only on lease, like Hong Kong was. - Scynet, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6Hehe, I thought so too. It's quite similiar.
- vermin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Cool, shuttle emergency landing.
- tacom8, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Its Atlantis you fools!!! i knew it existed!
- bluejet, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2That's one beautiful island. I wonder how the fishing is?!
- salweem, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Thus the Battle of Wake Island during WW2.
- Valnar300, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Is it just me or do they have baseball fields? Top right, on big part of island
- batmant, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Does anyone else see barracks or housing or any kind?
- 3leggedHorse, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2theres b52's on that island, since when the british own those things.
- hypercube33, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Oddly looks like a baseball field gone wrong!
- FrugalFreak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1zoom all the way in under dark black areas, looks like Block compond type buildings. those clouds are WAY too fake. and notice ripples of water inside middle versus outside.
- h2d2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@gcnaddict:
India the country and Indian ocean are not related besides the name. Dozens of countries (just like India) have shores lining it... including the Antarctic territories.
May be need to do some geographic research before asking why Great Britain needs a military base in the Indian ocean... -
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