parking at D-M

[das]

Hi all,

a quick question if I may, where have any of you parked your vehicle when doing the fence at AMARG? Any advice welcome

TIA Ray

[JAWS]

Personally I parked at the following Google Earth Co-ordinates:

32°10'39.36"N 110°51'12.92"W

32° 9'44.99"N 110°50'25.36"W

32° 8'36.27"N 110°51'28.96"W

These were the main areas I parked at , I was there on a show weekend and encountered no problems from security or police but may be different during " normal days ". There was a lot of walking involved and be sure to take plenty of water with you if visiting during the warmer months. Also remember that you can encounter Rattle Snakes and Scorpions so be aware of your surroundings.

[bruiser]

Hi Guys,
I will be in the Tuscon area in October and plan to walk the fences at AMARG. Could someone tell me if your
able to walk the fence to see areas 24 & 26. Any info much appreciated.

Chad.

[das]

Hi Guys,
I will be in the Tuscon area in October and plan to walk the fences at AMARG. Could someone tell me if your
able to walk the fence to see areas 24 & 26. Any info much appreciated.

Chad.

Hi Chad,

i was at AMARG for a week in March/April. We walked the fence from AREA 03 - AREA 20 with no questions... Until we was about to leave area 20 (up the bank)! We were yelled at like criminals to come down by some poxy airman, who really did lose the plot. He calmed down when he see our UK passports! He did however tell us we couldnt take pictures from the fence and could have our cameras taken. I questioned this and he then said he was sorry but things had changed since 9/11 and we simply couldnt do it anymore! He stated that you can phot anything you like from public places, but "step within 1 mtr of my fence" and thats different. I promptly emailed D-M public affairs to ask the rules as a UK citizen and they said no problem at all if its not a danger to myself or others, but not recommended either on account of the high traffic volumes! Now, if you want to do AREA's 24 + 26, obviously they are raised on the banks, my advice is do it 1st (before any other fence walking) and if possible, do it on a sunday, less nosey airmen about! Whatever you decide to do, stay calm, be polite (ish) and do what they say, they really are that paranoid out there now!

HTH, Ray

[bruiser]

Hi Ray,
Cheers for that, much appreciated. We plan to walk as much as we can on the weekends and as early as possible in the mornings
so hopefully, we shouldn't encounter any problems like you had.

Chad.

[bruiser]

Hi Guys,
Just thought i would give an update regarding walking the fence at Amarg.
Two weeks ago myself and a mate were in the area and planned to walk the fence to take some pics, it was a sunday morning and nice and sunny.
We parked out of the way and walked down the fence which has the cycle track taking some nice pictures, when we reached the corner and started up the fence where most of the Hercs
were a security car came racing down the track. We were soon confronted by 5 armed personnel who wanted to know what we were doing and why, after telling them what they wanted to know
and showing them our ID they told us to delete all the pics we had taken or have our camaras taken instead, they even insisted that we do it in front of them and show them the pics being deleted.
We were told in no uncertain terms to leave and not come back and that these "planes" are not there for the public to take pics of.
We therefore crossed the road to walk all the way back to the car and were followed untill we left the area, this was rather upsetting because its something we had wanted to do for some time
and were made to feel like criminals. Did anyone else have any problems out there, we did see lots of other like minded people.

Chad

[GOOSE]

Never heard of threatment like that at DM before bruiser?

Seems very OTT?

I'd have told them a very polite and apologetic "no" as they should have no jurisdiction off base. When you say that they were armed, do you mean that weapons were drawn or pointed? Were threatening words or behaviour used?

Anyone else had this sort of occurrence at DM?

[bruiser]

Hi Goose,
There weapons were not drawn, the funny thing is 2 days later we were driving past the approach at DM and saw some cars parked up so
we thought we would give it a try. We sat there for 5 hours watching the A-10 s and F-16 s come in and nobody bothered us at all.

[GOOSE]

Personally mate, I'd write a letter to the Base Commander detailing a full account of the "encounter".

To my mind most security personnel do a fantastic job. In this instance their reputation may have been tarnished, and your visit ruined, by a couple of bad apples?

[das]

Personally mate, I'd write a letter to the Base Commander detailing a full account of the "encounter".

To my mind most security personnel do a fantastic job. In this instance their reputation may have been tarnished, and your visit ruined, by a couple of bad apples?

It certainly is worrying for anyone planning to do the dream visit, wondering if they will be seen off on day one and have it all ruined. As I said earlier, I did email D-M public affairs, and they didnt seem to think it was a problem, if in a public place and safe to do so. What is needed I think is for someone to find out how far beyond the fence is military owned land. Obviously, problem is there that to get good pictures, you really need to be up against the fence!
it is the difference between this:

and this:


Ray