Another tasking from Tom & Gene was to find & conquer P/Z-20A, the Selfridge AFS Gap Filler Annex (GFA) located near Burnside, Michigan. Thankfully, they`d somehow already accomplished the hardest part -- located on topo maps exactly where the GFA should have been in.

I compared the marked location the the Radomes.org web page for the site to my Garmin Mapsource mapping software, and saved the location as BURNGFA on my Garmin GPS-V unit which nominally is in my car.

I left Selfridge ANGB (see prior mail) around 4PM (19 MAR 02) and quickly dropped off a co-worker, then decided to see how far away I was from BURNGFA. The GPS indicated I was about 45 miles away, I had plenty of time before sunset (the exact moment for which my beloved GPS also informed me), so I busted a move on Northward. In the back of my mind, I was thinking that I might be able to press-on to Port Austin & find the GATR site up there & then visit the old AFS too, depending on traffic, etc.

Thanks to the location info off the Radomes web and the directions my GPS provided (the nice thing about the Garmin GPS-V is that in addition to providing distance & bearing, it also provides exact driving directions), I arrived into the area expeditiously. I`d set my GPS to alert me when I was within a half-mile of the specific coords, figure a half mile CEP was reasonable.

The areas consisted of many open, rolling hills with large pits where soil was being excavated, so I was hoping for the easy GFA signature of a radome as I drove E on Deanville Road from M-53. Turns out the coords in my GPS for the site were dead-on, and when I pulled up around 5PM, I was extremely pleased to see the building was intact, though there was no radome or big tower left. The photos will speak for themselves, but the only current use of the site seems to consist of a small Rohn tower with what looked like a UHF or VHF/UHF dual-band omnidirectional antenna atop it, next to the mounting bolts & foundation where the GFA RADAR tower once sat. I wasn`t able to determine the operating frequency or user of this site -- it`s either receive-only, or just wasn`t transmitting while I was there (I had a device with me which would have captured their transmit freq).

BurnGFA1 is taken from Deanville Road, looking South at the GFA site. Looks like they left the part of the old gate up, to prevent cars from driving back there..

BurnGFA3 is taken looking SW Can any of you ID the smaller phone pole on the right side of the image (left of the tall telephone pole) with the attachments on the top left side of it? I`ve seen similar poles at other places. Maybe it`s nothing more than a style of telephone pole, but I was thinking it could also have supported a wire antenna, not that I`d expect a GFA to have HF radio.

BurnGFA4 is looking inside the power production room, while standing at the doorway. Who knows what evil lurks within that inner door!

I entered the smaller section of the building (power plant), making a lot of noise at first to cause any animals in there to be more scared of me than I would be of them, but none were detected. As is normal practice, in case there were any humans lurking about, I recited my standard incantation of "I`m a white-boy that lives in downtown Detroit -- don`t pheaque with me!" Other than some debris & electrical paneling, the only major thing in this room was a big old heater.

Burn5GFA is taken from about the middle of the power room, looking back towards the door (door itself is gone) and a rusty little heater/furnace.

After beating on it a little with my Streamlight (I like my threats to announce their presence & capitulate BEFORE I actually see them), I opened the inner door (missing the knob!), and witnessed... BURNGFA6 The round hole in the far wall is where the RADAR waveguide would have entered the building.

BurnGFA7 is of me standing in the far corner, shooting back toward the door. The big metal box is actually a filing cabinet type thing (drawers empty) which certainly cold have dated back to the GFA days. It was bulky & heavy enough to where I don`t think anyone would have lugged it there post GFA, unless the building did have beneficial use after the GFA days (no real evidence of that, but...). The big cardboard box was full of (thankfully empty) plastic storage tanks, like might be used for pesticides or something else on a farm. You can see the old card table, and an old plastic plate, but there were zero signs of any recent occupancy or use -- just the occasional beer or soda cans outside the facility.

Using my two-way pager, I actually sent Scott Murdock electronic notification of my success while standing inside the Burnside GFA equipment/ops room!

BurnGFA8 is of the northern wall inside the GFA equipment/ops room, and is another photo showing where the radar waveguide/TWT would have entered the building.

BurnGFA9 shows the heavy-duty storage bin,

BurnGFA10 shows me safely out of the main room, and taking a close-up (for some stupid reason) of the dilapidated heater unit before I exit the structure.

BurnGFA11 shows some of the original fencing still semi-intact.

BurnGFA12 shows the cement anchor pads & bolts for where the RADAR antenna once was, and the base of the tower & the equipment housing box for the radio stuff that`s currently at the site. The Warning sign on the tower just advises that climbing a tower can be dangerous...

BurnGFA13 is looking East down Deanville Road, back at the GFA. It shows the hills, and also the soil excavation. The tall antenna atop the telephone pole close to the road is of all things, a site for my Cingular Interactive 2-Way pager! That`s how I was able to send Scott the message from within the blockhouse. With all the urban areas they don`t have coverage at, I have no idea why in the world they would have put in the 2-way pager transceiver in rural Burnside...

And that`s it for the Burnside GFA! I was really happy this target was a success, because I had mixed feelings about not prosecuting the Selfridge GATR target as well as I could have, but discretion is the better part of valor.