For as long as there have been things that some do not wish for others to see, there will be speculation. The varied and often desolate landscape of the state of Maine occasionally adds some extra juice to help sweeten the truth. For example, 'the Octagon' up in Caswell is not a top secret learn to kill with your bare hands type of facility; its proximity to ex Loring AFB does not turn the training activities of the Maine National Guard into adventures of Sterling Archer (or John Steed, depending on your age.)
This piece in The Bollard brought the Redington SERE school to my attention, and if you've got some patience it contains some neat information but ultimately tries to suggest that the school is linked to a disappearing hiker (which reminds me of when I thought some camps in Springfield were what was left of the Cushman's ridge settlement.) As this site is restricted access, unfortunately I will have no firsthand photographs for you, only some newspaper articles and links.
But first, what does the SERE school do? This post on WeAreMighty sums up what we're apparently allowed to know about the curriculum. Airmen were taught survival skills, and then rounded up by 'enemy' troops, blindfolded, tortured and interrogated. Activities ranged anywhere from being locked in a cell with Rudyard Kipling's 'boots' on repeat to being restrained and having pipe tobacco blown up your nose, which sounds quite a lot like waterboarding but toxic as it was described as a pattern of choking, passing out and puking. Fortunately for the Navy they've only broken someone's back doing this and nobody has been Jimi Hendrix'd. Other descriptions include forced labor, being stripped naked in the winter and being made to standby whilst your clothes burn, and a bizarre declaration of atheism by the imaginary enemy.
The camp commander gathered us together and, holding a Bible aloft, told us our beliefs were bullshit and that the only religious figure Americans truly worshiped was St. Walt Disney.That last bit was something that the Bollard missed, since it's impossible that the US Navy has never heard of Pavlov, the association of atheism with the enemy would have made both Joseph McCarthy (and maybe Pope Urban II) proud.
Note that whatever objection I have to vilifying Americans due to non belief (or belief) doesn't mean that the site captures poor lost hikers....
Back to the news!
- 1976 | Navy Has Torture Camp | Bangor Daily News : This story mentions a 'torture' camp of 4,000 acres proximate to popular skiing locations. First murmurings mentioned were related to plow truck operators paid by the navy to keep the facilities' roads clear in the winter. Story verified when a 19 year old frogman escaped and stumbled onto a hippie commune telling tales of torture and abuse, including guards dressed as Chinese communists speaking with phony accents (I imagine much like Buddy Hackett) who would blow smoke up his nose, waterboard them and lock them in sweatboxes. Story mentions the Navy denying 'sexual abuse' (like they denied the existence of a fenced area when asked by The Bollard) and verifying that the exercises occurred.
- 1976 | Senator asks for Report on Redington Camp | Bangor Daily News: tl;dr - the Navy broke someone's back while doing their Buddy Hackett meets Falling Down schtick and it caught the attention of someone in DC.
- 1984 | For Survival School, Navy to Buy 10,000 Acres | Lewiston Daily Sun - Purchased acres from Georgia Pacific for $2.1m, was previously only leasing 3,000 acres near Rangeley. Of interest, the story mentions that the Navy hosts two survival programs here: winter and Survival/Evasion/Resistance (torture)/Escape. The story mentions that the border of the area is identified by granite markers.
- 1989 | Students Undergo Survival Training | Sun Journal: Rangeley middle school students took a field trip to learn some basic survival skills. They left presumably un-waterboarded.
- 1990 | Cruise Missile Launched Over Maine | Bangor Daily News: Despite a vote to halt this sort of thing, the Navy thumbed its nose at the people of Maine and did so anyway. The cruise missile, contents unknown, was launched from the coast with its target being the SERE school. The objective of the exercise was apparently to recover the contents of the missile.
- 1993 | War With Iraq | Sun Journal : A rather informative article detailing all military installations present in Maine during the Gulf War era.
