Aerial Photos

About a thousand years ago, when I was stationed at HQMC, I got some really good maps of the Pamlico Point area.

I was hanging out over in the Pentagon one day, either in the Command Center or the WWMCCS
Center and saw a really awesome map. It was comprised of about 50 satellite photos, all overlapping each other. The detail was fantastic.

I mentioned that I'd like to get a set of photos like that of the mouth of the Pamlico River. One of the guys that worked there sat down at a computer terminal and asked for some details on the location. I told him just west of BT-9. He looked on a broad overview map and found the area I was talking about and I pointed out just exactly where I was interested in. (My duck hunting area.) He told me he'd see what he could come up with.

A couple days later he called me over in my office at the Navy Annex and told me he had some pictures. He said I could come over and see if they were the right area. I went over that afternoon and he had about 25 photos, probably 24"by 36" that all overlapped each other and covered the exact area I wanted. I thanked him and he asked me what type of an exercise was going on down there, or was it classified and I couldn't tell him.

I told him there was no Marine Corps interest in the area, that it was where I hunted and that I had never seen a good map of the area, until now. Well, he went ballistic! Hollering and ranting and raving like a mad man. I asked what was wrong and he asked me right back "Do you know how much it costs to move a satellite and take a camera run like that?" I told him no, but that I really appreciated it.