Orange One is a
U.S. Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...
–operated facility located in the
Appalachian Mountains
The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...
, extending underneath
Camp David
Camp David is the country retreat for the president of the United States of America. It is located in the wooded hills of Catoctin Mountain Park, in Frederick County, Maryland, near the towns of Thurmont and Emmitsburg, about north-northwe ...
, the
U.S. President
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...
's country retreat. Described in one account as a "fortress", it was designed for use by the president as a military headquarters during an emergency.
Design
According to the diary of British Prime Minister
Harold Macmillan
Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, (10 February 1894 – 29 December 1986) was a British Conservative statesman and politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. Caricatured as "Supermac", he ...
, who toured the facility in 1959, Orange One can house a staff of 200 persons in two separate wings and is a "fortress ... hewn out of the rock".
Bill Gulley has said Orange One can be reached by an elevator from Aspen Lodge, the president's quarters at Camp David, and that part of Orange One extends underneath the Aspen Lodge swimming pool.
Gulley noted that, as of the mid 1970s, Orange One was no longer considered a primary command and control facility as its communications systems had not, at that time, been improved and it had not been updated to withstand attack by certain categories of weapons.
History
Orange One was first visited by a sitting president in the 1950s when
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
inspected the facility while leading the exercise Operation Alert.
In April 1961, then-former president Eisenhower returned to Camp David for consultations with
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
on the failed
Bay of Pigs invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion (, sometimes called ''Invasión de Playa Girón'' or ''Batalla de Playa Girón'' after the Playa Girón) was a failed military landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in 1961 by Cuban exiles, covertly fina ...
. According to former
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
reporter Dale Nelson, Kennedy inspected Orange One following Eisenhower's departure before helicoptering to his private estate, Glen Ora, in
Middleburg, Virginia
Middleburg is a town in Loudoun County, Virginia, United States, with a population of 673 as of the 2010 census. It is the southernmost town along Loudoun County's shared border with Fauquier County.
Middleburg is known as the "Nation's Horse an ...
.
The existence of Orange One came to public light in the 1970s, during the
Watergate scandal
The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's continual ...
, after it was revealed that
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
's choice of location for an outdoor swimming pool at Aspen Lodge sat over a portion of the subterranean Orange One. This necessitated the construction of an above-ground pool, landscaped to appear in-ground.
See also
*
Site R
The Raven Rock Mountain Complex (RRMC), also known as Site R, is a U.S. military installation with an underground nuclear bunker near Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania, at Raven Rock Mountain that has been called an "underground Pentagon". The ...
—located near Orange One, houses the Alternate National Military Command Center
*
Tagansky Protected Command Point
The Cold War Museum (Moscow) or Bunker GO-42, also known as "facility-02" (1947), CHZ-293 (1951), CHZ-572 (1953), and GO-42 (from 1980), and now Exhibition Complex Bunker-42, is a once-secret military complex, bunker, communication center in Mos ...
—a Cold War–era Soviet government leadership facility
*
Wolf's Lair
The ''Wolf's Lair'' (german: Wolfsschanze; pl, Wilczy Szaniec) served as Adolf Hitler's first Eastern Front military headquarters in World War II.
The headquarters was located in the Masurian woods, near the small village of Görlitz in Ostp ...
—a World War II–era German government leadership facility
References
{{reflist, 30em
External links
Pathe News report on Eisenhower's participation in Operation Alert 1957, probably evacuating to the then-unknown Orange One
Continuity of government in the United States
Bunkers
Military installations in Maryland