West Texas Bombing and Gunnery Range

[Ken]

In 1992 I was a T-38 student pilot at Reese AFB in Lubbock, TX. There was a story that an abandoned bombing range was still visible from above in the west T-38 practice area, roughly centered around Tatum and Lovington, NM.

One day an IP pointed it out to me and I do remember being able to make out a large swastika and the outline of at least one ship either carved or mounded in the desert. But I was "busy" keeping the jet pointed in the right direction and admit I wasn't able to take it all in.

Occasionally I'll monkey around in Google maps in an effort to find this location but I've never been able to.

Any Texas or New Mexico folk know of this place?

Ken

[Holedigger]

Think we found your missing Bombing range, complete with giant swastika and battleship. It is the Roswell Bombing Range

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http:%2F% ... 10622&z=17

And here is a link to other NM military geogliphs

http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showflat.php ... PHPSESSID=

[cozmo]

That's neat

Somewhere, I think in San Diego there is a military building when seen from the air, looks like a swastika.

[Taylor Stevenson]

There a quite a few of these rock bombing targets left in W. Texas. In fact at the CAF Airsho in Midland this year, the L-Birds and PTs did a dawn patrol and they flew around and took photos of these targets as if it were a recon mission. Pretty neat. Though some of them are hard to see at only 3500!

[Ken]

Hey, thanks. It didn't look exactly as I remembered, but the ship outline is unmistakable. I saw it only once, though and was probably at 18,000 feet. Very neat.

Ken

[RyanShort1]

There a quite a few of these rock bombing targets left in W. Texas. In fact at the CAF Airsho in Midland this year, the L-Birds and PTs did a dawn patrol and they flew around and took photos of these targets as if it were a recon mission. Pretty neat. Though some of them are hard to see at only 3500!

Check the following thread for more information and some photos from Google Earth!

http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/p ... 417#243417

Ryan

[maxum96]

That's neat

Somewhere, I think in San Diego there is a military building when seen from the air, looks like a swastika.

The building you're referring to is on the Naval Amphibious base on Coronado. In case you're not familiar with it, that just across the bay from San Diego.

[Old SAR pilot]

This is New Mexico related, but you might want to take a peek at this site:

http://home.comcast.net/~nmgeoglyphs/nmgeoglyphs.html

[Ken]

I was flying west this week and, again, had a hard time spotting this. Bump for the interest factor.

Ken

[The Inspector]

Don't know if it's been eliminated or modified, but the center of the roof of IRAN AIRS headquarters in Tehran (which was designed by an Israeli) was in the shape of a Star of David, insert thumb in your eye here

[CAPFlyer]

Looking at the satellite images of Tehran and what Google lists as the HQ for Iran International Airlines, it's just a nodescript U-shaped tower. No Star of David. I think that may be a new building or a different one from where they were originally though, as it doesn't look like it's from the 1960s.

[The Inspector]

I have a copy of a 1943 book named FLYING FORTRESS the story of the boeing bomber by Thomas Collison, that deals with all phases of building the B-17 and training each crew member for their position.On page 111 are three air to ground shots in the Bombardier training portion of the book. The top photo is a B-18 dropping 10 or so 'bricks' the other two are of the ground target, a typical early WW2 'cartoon' of 'Hirohito' as the face on the target wearing the typical round glasses and with buck teeth of the period. Judging by the topography it's either in Western Texas or New Mexico but of course, no locations are given after all, 'there's a war on'. Doubt anything but the target circle still exists as the 'face' appears to be sideline chalk powder done for the photos.

[JohnB]

After reading Forgotten Fields, I recall that Muroc AAB and IIRC, Wendover also had concrete battleships.

Any of those remains left?

[The Inspector]

The Muroc Maru? Made of concrete and wooden superstructure

[Old SAR pilot]

Also some range and airfield pics in Texas here:

http://www.airfields-freeman.com/TX/Airfields_TX.htm