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story here

What's still a mystery though is how the back-hoe operator was able to clean the massive load of $hit out of his pants.

There's always been a lot of that stuff going on. Some stories cannot be told on an open Bulletin Board. Some can.

Many, many years ago a friend of mine was doing a MAC job and discovered something weird.

The job was at an exclusive, private Boy's School here in NYC. The switch was an Ericcson X-Bar. The weirdness was one of the lines which no longer appeared on the MDF. Closer examination revealed the wiring which ran from the Line Relay to the MDF had been removed, spliced and rerouted through a run of ridgid conduit that was drilled into the side of the PBX. The pipe ran in one continuous run (no pull boxes or even condolets) all the way upstairs to one of the students bedrooms, where it finally terminated (presumably on a set).

Whose bedroom, you might ask?

John Kennedy jr.

Now mind you, President Kennedy was deceased for 10 years when this happened. But for some reason a contractor showed up, ran the conduit, pulled the wire and then two guys showed up who removed the wiring, respliced it and installed the extension upstairs.

Why the government felt that John-John should have an extension off the switch and why it should be protected was never explained. It was just done.

And if they did all this for the son of a deceased president, ask yourself what they do for serious stuff.


Sam

Sam, you have the coolest darn stories!


I know there is "undocumented, to the public" cable/fiber/etc., but to have it overlooked, where construction is occurring is poor logistics ~ especially when dealing with the secrecy level they are. You would think a standing agreement for a phone call, with any engineering firms or department of transportations that are in the same jurisdiction would avoid that costly mistake.
:shrug:

There was (actually still is) and at&t facility about 10 miles west of that area in Great Falls, VA that used to be a big hub for the AUTOVON network. Although it isn't doing that anymore, it is a well-known fact around here that all kinds of "other" traffic is processed there. It is a very non-descript building, in fact normal people would not even know what it is. Most connectivity with this place is buried very deep (over six feet) and is encased in concrete for maximum protection from sabotage.

I believe that they'd rather take the risk of these cables being damaged than to identify their locations to the general public.

I did not think in that perspective!

When money is no option, then security becomes the value... bless this land!

you mentioning the Autovon network brings back memories of my military career. I was stationed in Panama in the late 80's, early 90's. Dialing "8" from a phone that had Autovon access was awesome to call back to the states on the government dime. The only problem was operators would listen to conversations from time to time and give you a time limit on the call.

Several years back I received a call from a 'federal agency' who's voicemail system was not answering. Their telephone switch was a ITT/Cortelco Millennium, and at the time we were the only game in town for that switch.

There was no alternative, I couldn't help him over the phone. A tech had to be dispatched to figure out the problem, and the caller was not happy about it to say the least.

Our tech showed up at the address given, a generic looking office suite in a building downtown, no name on the door. He was immediately escorted into the lan room, found and fixed the problem, and was promptly escorted out of the building.

Turns out it was the FBI's Chicago field office...