I wasn’t worried about the living conditions as I knew I would cope well in a small town; anyway, it was my financial problems and the fascinating work that drew me to this lonely outback town of just 18,000 people. I did wonder what other incentives brought families to a place with such a foreboding description. Many coveted NSA overseas assignments could be found in exciting locations such as Hawaii, the United Kingdom and Japan, but despite the somewhat depressing description of Alice Springs as a hardship tour, it was the nature of the job that was a top priority for me, and this made Alice Springs the most desirable place I could be at that time.
Because of the harsh environment, the buildings at Pine Gap are all painted white to insulate them against the oppressive summer heat in Central Australia. They’re grouped alongside several radomes (the name is an elision of ‘radar dome’)—giant golf ball–like structures that are transparent to electromagnetic energy and prevent sun, rain, ice, wind, lightning, sand and dust from damaging the delicate antennas that point towards space.
Pine Gap and Alice Springs are small spots on a vast open land of red dirt and mountain ranges. The hardy eucalypts (red gums and white gums) that populate the desert survive remarkably well in a land that averages approximately two weeks of rainfall every year. So what else was it about Alice Springs that made the NSA describe this town as a ‘hardship tour’? I had pondered what the government meant by ‘hardship’ and wondered how hard it could actually be. To me, the term invoked images of living in a tent on a mountainside with no running water, my backyard serving as a toilet, occasional gunfire waking me from a sound sleep, and travelling in snow over rugged terrain. But I knew Australia wasn’t a Third World country. This wealthy modern nation hardly conjured up any thoughts of suffering. As far as I was concerned, moving to a small town with only three traffic lights and a bus service to and from work was much more enticing than shovelling snow off my car every winter’s morning just to get it out of the driveway, and I certainly wasn’t going to miss the daily battle with the million or so commuters stuck in traffic jams in Washington DC and Maryland. Hardship was in the eye of the beholder.
In reality, the NSA considered Alice Springs a hardship posting because of its remoteness, comparatively harsh summer weather, and lack of lifestyle choices. Having a limited number of restaurants wasn’t a problem as I would forego a Big Mac for a good Aussie steak in a heartbeat. But to make up for being stuck in the middle of nowhere the NSA enticed us with some excellent incentives that included a higher salary, free housing and paid utilities, a paid business-class R&R return trip to the United States every year, tax-free alcohol (and tobacco products for smokers), transportation to and from work, a United States Post Office, a large gym, and an extra fifteen days of annual leave (known as home leave) every year.
My mind was made up: I completed the paperwork with the HR and payroll offices and was scheduled to depart for Alice Springs in late October 1990. My office held a small going-away party for me and they presented me with a certificate for ‘Dedicated Service to the Office of ELINT for Nation’s Security’ signed by my colleagues. In September, my wife and I were making plans to celebrate our third wedding anniversary when the agency asked me to leave earlier than planned. Iraq had invaded and occupied Kuwait less than two months earlier, on 2 August. On 7 August, President George HW Bush announced that the United States would put in place a defensive mission, Operation Desert Shield,[5] to prevent Iraq from invading neighbouring Saudi Arabia. Due to these political developments the NSA asked me if I could leave on 2 October and start my new job on 5 October, which meant leaving before my wedding anniversary. My wife and I agreed to celebrate early and I prepared to depart two weeks after our celebration.
As we drove to the airport and the reality of living apart for two years sunk in, my wife began to have second thoughts. ‘Don’t go,’ she pleaded. ‘The agency will understand if you decide not to go.’ But I wanted to go. We couldn’t survive financially if I stayed, and I knew that neither of us had been completely happy together. As we made our way to the departure gate I kept the bigger picture in mind. I told her that I loved her and would see her soon in Hawaii for our second honeymoon. We hugged and kissed goodbye in an emotional farewell.
I boarded the aircraft and settled into business class, wondering if my marriage could in fact survive the two-year separation. As the plane pushed back from the gate and rolled down the runway, I could see my wife looking out from the terminal window. I felt very sad about leaving but tried to focus on my new position, believing the two years would pass quickly. While I worried about my marriage and leaving my wife, the patriotic thoughts I’d had as a young boy returned to me. With the United States deploying forces to the Middle East, I was eager to get to my new workplace to help my country and our Australian allies prepare for a possible war. I began to look forward to my new destination: the Australian outback—the land of kangaroos and killer snakes.
3: THE MISSION
While Pine Gap had been quietly collecting and reporting intelligence for twenty years before my arrival, the mission there remained a delicate subject for both the Australian and United States governments, with neither willing to reveal details of the facility’s capabilities or of the government agencies receiving and analysing intelligence from it.
The site’s official history began on 9 December 1966 when Australia and the United States signed an agreement creating a new government facility called the Joint Defence Space Research Facility (JDSRF).[1] Two days later, the Australian Government issued the following statement:
The Governments of Australia and the United States have agreed to establish a joint United States / Australian defence-space research facility in the vicinity of Alice Springs. This facility will be operated by the Australian Department of Defence and the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the United States Department of Defence.
A variety of research projects will be carried out and the results obtained will be available to both countries.
The facility will be constructed on a site some 12 miles southwest of Alice Springs. About 10 square miles of land will be required as a buffer zone to reduce electrical interference, although the facility itself will be built on an area of approximately 50 acres.
The facility will include its own power plant, air-conditioned laboratories to house electronic equipment, and two radomes, each of which will enclose a large antenna. No launching or firing operations will be conducted at the site and it may be possible to continue grazing stock in the buffer zone.[2]
Australia and the United States shared common security interests in Asia and the Pacific, and the ANZUS Pact of 1951[3] had already galvanised the two nations’ post–World War II security partnership.
Australia’s commitment to support the JDSRF was therefore a natural extension of the protective agreements that existed both in writing and in spirit. (In the 1980s, the JDSRF was renamed the Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap. ‘Pine Gap’ refers to a pass in the MacDonnell Ranges used to access the land on which the facility is located.)
On 25 May 1961, President Kennedy announced his ambitious program to land a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth. In the ensuing five years, technology advanced rapidly, primarily driven by the needs of the military to combat the ongoing Cold War. When the JDSRF treaty was signed, the United States’ spy satellite program was still in its early stages, but spy satellites then quickly grew in size and eavesdropping capability. As successive spy satellites went up, greater amounts of increasingly complex data were sent down—relayed to the collection facilities where the data was processed and reported. When the United States needed a new facility, Australia was the perfect choice. Politically, the Australian Government was also eager to strengthen its alliance with the world’s most powerful country. Not surprisingly, Alice Springs’ 6400 residents extended a warm welcome to the Americans constructing the mysterious new government buildings as this large government project would be an economic boon to their relatively obscure outback town, providing jobs and many American dollars to local businesses over a long period of time.
2
Charlston, Jeffery A,
3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anzus. The Australia New Zealand—United States (ANZUS) Treaty, signed in 1951, obliges Australia and New Zealand, and separately Australia and the United States, to cooperate on Pacific-area defence issues. In 1986, the United States suspended treaty obligations with New Zealand over New Zealand’s refusal to allow nuclear-powered and nuclear-armed ships into New Zealand ports.