Slab City, California: Military Bases, UFOs And Things That Go BOOM!
I’m having a drink at the Red Rum Room Bar in Slab City. This is an outdoor bar and the desert sun is beating down on us. I’m talking to 'Uncle Shaun' who currently lives in Slab City.
“The military is on the other side of the fence,” I say, gesturing towards the fence that runs along the boundary between Slab City and Camp Billy Machen. “Do you ever hear anything coming from there?”
“Oh, bombing,” Uncle Shaun said.
Camp Billy Machen is a military base used in training Navy SEALS for desert warfare.
“How often do you hear that?” I ask him.
“Everyday,” he tells me. “And once in a while it shakes the ground.”
“You’re kidding me. It comes that close?”
“Um no,” said Uncle Shaun. “This is the U.S.A. man. They got shit that goes BOOM! I mean, it’s gone.”
“OK so it’s some powerful stuff,” I say. “Can you see that or just feel it?”
“Like a mushroom cloud,” he said.
“You’re kidding me . . .”
“It’s dirt.” Uncle Shaun proclaimed.
“What does that mean - it’s dirt?”
“It’s not nuclear.”
“Well, we don’t know what it is.”
Slab City, or "The Slabs" as the locals call it, is an unincorporated city located in California's Sonoran Desert. This off-the-grid alternative lifestyle community consists of a patchwork of tents and RVs catering to outlaws, rebels, drug addicts and people desirous of living outside the cookie cutter confines of mainstream society.
There are no Walmarts, Chick-Fil-A or Starbucks here. In fact, Slab City has no police department, fire department or hospital. They don’t even have running water or electricity. The law is in your own hands. This is the last bastion of the real Wild West.
One of the ways folks in Slab City make a living is by getting on their four wheelers and crossing into the military zone. There they spend most of the day "collecting brass," that is, retrieving spent munitions then selling the metal for cash.
"Some of them come out missing," Uncle Shaun said, "and some of them come out not all there. Know what I mean?"
"I'd like to know what you mean," I said. "They're losing body parts or they're losing mental parts?"
"Body parts. Blown up."
With his wide brim hat and beard, Uncle Shaun looks like a post-apocalyptic Gandalf the Wizard.
"Do you know anything about the military history of this place?" I ask him.
"This being Camp Dunlap? An old marine corp camp," he said. "General George Patton wanted this as a training facility for our troops going to Africa."
"The training course was hard," he added, "they bled a lot. But they bled less when it came to war time."
The U.S. was essentially a bystander in the first two years of World War Two but the military had kept updating their intel on the war. Concerned, politicians and the military called for the creation of four mechanized tank divisions to be created to counter German advances in North Africa. Specifically, the desert campaign against Germany's General Erwin Rommel, aka the Desert Rat."
The U.S. created a desert war training center in Southern California and Arizona, headed by General George Patton. His units proved successful against Rommel and ultimately the liberation of Germany from the Nazis.
Across the street from the Red Rum Room Bar is the Slab City Internet Cafe. The Internet Cafe provides power, wi-fi and coffee in the mornings. IPSs provide internet serve via radio antennas mounted on nearby cell towers.
They accept donations.
I headed over there with my film producer, Mr. Peter, to see what was cooking. The cafe was essentially a shack filled with the detritus of society. A man who looked like he walked off the set of Mad Max introduced himself as 'Kramer.'
Kramer has been living in Slab City for the past two years. He harkened from Austin, Texas. I sat down with him on a make-shift couch from the torn out back seat of a car. We discussed the military activity around Slab City.
"Sometimes you hear gun fire all day - brrr - machine guns right here down the street," Kramer said.
Pointing to the sky he added, "Lot's of times you'll see military jets, helicopters. There's all kinds of weird noises and lights in the desert at night too it's kind of cool. Lights going across then drop down . . . weird patterns, it's not normal. It's a UFO. Lot's of weird military stuff going on here."
"So you think there's some Area 51 type thing going on here?" I asked.
"Yeah, because it's in the middle of nowhere. They know there are people here. They could release some kind of gas for twelve hours and see how they react. There are drones that fly by."
"So the military owns this land?"
"No, there's a military base on the other side of this fence . . if we stand up we see a cluster of buildings 15 or 20 miles away. That's Camp Billy Machen. "
Camp Billy Machen Desert Warfare Training Facility is named after Billy Machen, born December 20, 1938 in Gilmer, Texas. He earned distinction during the Vietnam War where he was the first Navy SEAL killed in action there.
He earned the Silver Star citation for conspicuous gallantry in action on 19 August 1966 while serving for SEAL Team ONE, while on patrol in the hostile region of Rung Sat Special Zone, Republic of Vietnam.
As point man, Billy Machen led his team though the jungle in search of two hidden sampans reported in the area. The team came upon a clearing and Machen headed forward alone. He spotted an enemy ambush and decided to fire his weapon, thus exposing himself to the enemy, rather than retreating and thus compromising his team's position.
As a result, his team was able to form a defensive perimeter. Machen was killed by enemy fire. His teammates carried his body out of the VC kill zone, declaring dead or alive, they'd never leave a Teammate behind. This proclamation gave birth to the U.S. military's motto of NO MAN LEFT BEHIND, DEAD OR ALIVE.
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Andrew K. Arnett is a writer and producer. He has been published in Paranoia Magazine, New Dawn, Nexus, Konbini and Alien Buddha Press. He lives in Brooklyn, NY and hunts ghosts with the Brooklyn Paranormal Society. Find him on Twitter: @AndrewArnett
