In March 1984, acting on the orders of Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger and/or President Reagan, armed guards were posted on the land.
When hunters and hikers approached Groom Lake, the guards requested them not to enter the area.
A reporter who went out to the site in May found the guards were 'especially polite as they tell visitors they cannot drive farther along the dirt road' that led to Groom Lake. The reporter chatted with the guards and watched television while they waited for the supervisor to arrive. At the same time, orders were issued to ground all aircraft while strangers were 'within earshot.' The reporter repeatedly asked for the legal justification for the air force denying public access. The only reason given was 'national security.'[389]
Throughout the west, resentment was building over federal land policy.
About 87 percent of the land in the state of Nevada was not under state control; it was federal land. The Groom Mountain land seizure quickly became part of this 'sagebrush rebellion.' Local members of Congress were quick to become involved. Representative Harry Reid (D-Nevada) said, 'People have a right to be upset. There has been no land withdrawal. They simply have closed land off for national security reasons.' Representative Barbara Vucanovich (R-Nevada) requested a hearing 'to bring it into the open.'[390]
It would be August 6, 1984, before Congress could get around to holding hearings on the Groom Mountains. The hearings before the House Subcommittee on Lands and National Parks saw a parade of Nevada officials, hunting and mining interests, and environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and Audubon Society. Nevada Governor Richard Bryan attacked the air force, saying that it had tried to 'hoodwink the Congress and the state of Nevada.' He continued: 'For years, Nevadans have acquiesced to defense-related land withdrawals, but the time has come to draw the line. I strongly suggest to you that the day is past when the federal government can look at Nevada… as an unpopulated wasteland to be cordoned off for whatever national purpose seems to require it.'[391]
Governor Bryan did not object to 'the legitimate security needs of our country,' but said, 'if the federal government withdraws the land, then Nevada must be compensated.'[392]
The subcommittee chairman, John Seiberling (D-Ohio), also attacked the air force. He told John Rittenhouse, the air force representative, 'There is no higher level than the laws of the United States.' When Rittenhouse said he could explain the reasons only in a closed briefing, Seiberling exploded:
'Shades of Watergate. All I am asking you is under what legal authority this was done. I am not asking you the technical reasons. That certainly is not classified.'
Rittenhouse responded, 'We had no legal authority, but we asserted the right to request people not to enter that area.''Newspaper headlines read, 'AF admit to illegality.'
The Groom Mountains land issue also became involved with wilderness policy. Representative Sieberling proposed a trade-off — the air force could have the Nellis Air Force Base and Groom Lake land
The legal maneuvering continued for the next three years, and involved 'compensation' for the loss of recreation, grazing, and mining claims on the land. Many of the land use-wilderness issues, such as whether snow-mobiling would be allowed in some areas and the building of a paved road from Rachel, Nevada, into the Nevada Test Site, had nothing to do with the Groom Mountains, but they blocked passage.[395]
By March 1988, the issue had not been resolved, and the temporary land withdraw would soon expire. John Rittenhouse told the Senate public lands subcommittee: 'We have operations which would have to cease if the public were allowed to be [there]. It would be extremely detrimental to our national defense effort… Our concern is for any visual sightings by anyone.'[396]
The extension to the land withdraw the air force sought was itself part of the political power plays — Reid wanted only a ten-week extension, in order to pressure Senator Chic Hecht (R-Nevada) to act on the wilderness bill.[397]
Environmentalists also continued to complain they were not getting enough.
The groups Citizen Alert and the Rural Coalition tried to use two mining claims as 'bargaining chips.' They would be given up in exchange for the groups having a 'say' in the writing of a report on military activities in Nevada, action on land claims by the Western Shoshone Indians, and return of one member's pilot license.[398]
The day before the extension was to expire, the House separated the Groom Mountain issue from the wilderness bill. The withdrawal was approved on a voice vote and sent to the Senate.[399] Approval was given and it was sent to President Reagan.
This brought the Groom Mountain land seizure controversy to a close. It had taken a total of six years — twice the time needed to develop, build, and conduct the flight and RCS tests of the Have Blue. The new boundaries of the Dreamland restricted area were laid out in straight lines. It was not realized at the time that a few spots had been missed, but that did not matter — for the moment.
While this controversy dragged on, the descendent of Have Blue had made its first flight, undergone systems development, and reached operational status behind the shield of the mountains. A few months later, this Dark Eagle would be publicly unveiled to questions about its cost and whether stealth would work.
Two years later, it would make history.
CHAPTER 8
The Black Jet of Groom Lake
The F-117A Senior Trend
Subtle and insubstantial, the expert leaves no trace; divinely mysterious, he is inaudible.
Thus he is master of his enemy's fate.
By mid-1978, the Have Blue 1001 had proven the basic concept of stealth.
Lockheed proposed two different operational stealth aircraft. One was a medium bomber about the size of the B-58 Hustler. It had a two-man crew and four engines. The other was a fighter-sized aircraft with a single-man crew, two engines, and a payload of a pair of bombs.[400]
The air force chose the stealth fighter design, and on November 16, 1978, Lockheed was given a contract to begin preliminary design work.
Extreme secrecy enveloped the program, code named 'Senior Trend.' At the start, only twenty people were authorized to know of this Dark Eagle's existence.[401]
The Have Blue aircraft had been designed solely to test faceting, with no allowances for tactical systems or weapons. The little experimental plane would have to be transformed into an operational aircraft. This meant more than simply adding these systems; the aerodynamic and RCS testing had also revealed the need for other design changes.
The most obvious change to emerge during the redesign was the tail. The Have Blue's twin fins were canted inward to shield the platypus exhausts from infrared detectors above the aircraft. In practice, however, the fins
