By Paul Losch
About this blog: I was a "corporate brat" growing up and lived in different parts of the country, ending in Houston, Texas for high school. After attending college at UC Davis, and getting an MBA at Harvard, I embarked on a marketing career, mai...
(More)About this blog: I was a "corporate brat" growing up and lived in different parts of the country, ending in Houston, Texas for high school. After attending college at UC Davis, and getting an MBA at Harvard, I embarked on a marketing career, mainly in the Bay Area with different companies. My former wife went back to medical school after we had been married a few years, and we moved into married student housing at Stanford, had our two now adult children while she was a medical student, and moved into Palo Alto when she started her Residency. Been here ever since. As my kids were going through the Palo Alto schools, I was actively involved in their activities, most notably head umpire for Palo Alto Little League and 9 years as a member of the Parks and Recreation Commission, among other activities. My kids both are grown, my son teaches 5th grade locally, and my daughter, fluent in Mandarin, is working in China. I sold the business I owned and ran for 8 years in 2012, worked on the Obama campaign, and am consulting for non-profit organizations, which gives me a nice, flexible schedule. Lots of stamps in my passport, and for fun, I like live performances &emdash; theater and music - and of course the Giants!
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My afternoon commute between I880 and US101 takes me along CA237 and past the complex of Cold War relics such as the "Blue Cube," which was described back in the day as "Ground Zero," when nuclear war with the Soviet Union was the defense concern, and the Blue Cube was chock full of military intelligence, and a site that "the bad guys" would lay to waste first in a nuclear war.
There no longer are Soviet submarines on the Pacific Coast, and consequently no US aircraft from Moffet air station flying over the coast and the peninsula to monitor them. It's been almost 20 years.
I noticed the last few days that the dish antennas are being dismantled at that site, and my understanding is that the Blue Cube will be demolished as part of the process.
I am no national security expert, or what the Blue Cube "campus" played in the times of the Cold War. I do know that I had seen the Moffett planes and that "campus" numerous times, and really did not think much about just what it was all about. I am glad that such operatons are no longer considered an important part of our national security, and can be dis-mantled.
The nature of threats, here in the States and elsewhere, is different and perhaps more pernicious. But I think a Blue Cube operation will not address them, and it is good to see it get retired.
I would love to see some community gymnasiums replace the dish antennas and the Blue Cube, but I don't think that is likely
