Brief history of primitive COOP planning

We've all heard of Continuity of Operations Planning (COOP), right?
It would be neat for the public to be able to use that massive old complex
under the Greenbrier. Makes you wonder what else is out here in the Appalachian
hills ...

Here's some places I just heard about recently:

The Greenbrier is a Mobil four star resort located in the town of White Sulphur Springs in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. For most of its history it was owned by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway. It is now a wholly owned subsidiary of CSX Corporation.

In 1858, a hotel was built on the property. This original hotel, the Old White, was torn down in 1922, several years after the addition of the current building. In 1910, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway purchased the resort property, building additional amenities and the Greenbrier Hotel in 1913.

In the late 1950s the U.S. government approached The Greenbrier for assistance in the creation of an emergency relocation center to house Congress in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust. The classified, underground facility was built in conjunction with an above ground addition to the hotel, the West Virginia Wing, between 1959 and 1962.

Although the bunker was kept stocked with supplies for 30 years, it was never actually used as an emergency location, even during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The bunker's existence was not acknowledged until The Washington Post revealed it in a 1992 story; immediately after the Post story, the government decommissioned the bunker.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Greenbrier

The Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center is a United States federal government facility located off Virginia Highway 601 near Bluemont, Virginia. The U.S. government has revealed little about Mount Weather to date, although it has acknowledged its basic existence and stated purpose. It houses operations and training facilities above ground for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and contains an underground facility designed to house key components of the American government in the case of nuclear warfare or other calamity.

Mount Weather is a central part of the American Continuity of Operations Plan. During the September 11, 2001 attacks a line of government cars and limousines with police escort was seen heading from Washington D.C. to Mount Weather.

The site gained wider public recognition when The Washington Post mentioned the government facility while reporting on the December 1, 1974 crash into Mount Weather of Flight 514, a TWA Boeing 727.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Weather

Site R is a US government facility on Raven Rock, a mountain in Pennsylvania. It is located about 14 km (8.7 miles) east of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, and 10 km (6.2 miles) north-northeast of Camp David, Maryland. The "R" in "Site R" is an allusion to Raven Rock. The name Raven Rock is used to refer the mountain itself, or, by extension, the Site R facility.

At Site R, the DISA Computer Operations staff provides computer services to the National Command Authority, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Office of the Secretary of Defense and other United States Department of Defense agencies through Memoranda of Agreement (MOAs). The facility functions as the disaster recovery site for the JSSC's GMC and DISA GCC.

The various service (Army, Navy and Air Force) Emergency Operations Centers (AFEOC) are also located at Site R. Support is provided continuously. The facility's Operations Center, DCS Technical Control Facility, the Northeast Dial Service Assistance Center and Information Center provide planning, installation, operation, and maintenance of over 38 communications systems (switching, transmission, data distribution, visual information, and power generation) that support the various customers of the facility.

Initial planning dates back to 1948. After the Soviet Union detonated its first nuclear weapon in 1949, a high priority was established for the Joint Command Post to be placed in a protected location near Washington, D.C., for swift relocation of the National Command Authorities and the Joint Communications Service.

The 1995 Base Realignment and Closure Commission directed the relocation of U.S. Army Signal Command units and some Base Operations support personnel from Fort Ritchie to Fort Detrick, which will become the home of East Coast long-haul communications.

According to the Boston Globe, Site R is believed to be the "undisclosed location" to which Vice-President Dick Cheney retires in times of crisis.

On May 25, 2007 the Federal Register published a Defense Dept. policy declaring that it is unlawful "to make any photograph, sketch, picture, drawing, map or graphical representation of the Raven Rock Mountain Complex without first obtaining the necessary permission." [2]

A little bit more info on Site R here:
http://ludb.clui.org/ex/i/PA3183/