Apparently we're not leaving Afghanistan anytime soon? Or maybe we're invading someone else shortly?

I believe there is a Stryker Brigade up at Fort Lewis/McChord in Washington state. I think they are being deployed in December to Afghanistan.

http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2011/08/3rd_stryker_brigade_from_joint_base_lewis-mcchord_will_deploy_to_afghanistan.html

They ship lots of stuff by rail.

Your post should be America, 1940 to Present. For better or worse, that is what we do and have been doing for a long time.

My friend who was an Air Force officer during the late 1980s and 1990s would tell me stories about how they transported ICBMs around the country. He was stationed in nuke missile silos in the midwest.

You all sure that's not for the Portland Police?

M1126 Infantry Carrier Vehicle - ICV (NSN 2355-01-481-8575)

Unit cost in 2002: $1,411,000

Abe - According to the link below, those babies now cost $3.8 million a pop. Ouch.

http://costofwar.com/en/publications/2011/analysis-fiscal-year-2012-pentagon-spending-request/

That could really put a down payment on a streetcar to Milwaukie.

RE: "...those babies now cost $3.8 million a pop"

the cost increase is due to emission controls and fuel economy measures to comply with the tighter California requirements

Regardless of where you stand on military spending, that seems extraordinarily pricey to me.

They are part of a system in which the Department of Defense (DOD), will spend approximately 12 billion dollars to consume 374,000 barrels of oil per day, to invade/occupy foreign lands in order to take what are fast becoming only buckets of oil for their efforts.

By comparison, Nigeria consumed almost 280,000 barrels per day and Greece 371,000 barrels per day in 2010.

Besides the trillions of DOD budget that the War Department can't account for, here is a peek at where some of the money goes:

http://karbuz.blogspot.com/

Go By Train?

YIKES!

Yeah, those are for Randy Leonard's water bureau police force.

I cross the cut two to four times a day. That's cool, sorry I missed it.

Real Portlandians worry about are all of those cheap and evil cars from the orient* coming in from the marine terminals and being distributed by trains. EVERYDAY!

*hat tip to eddy said

Look out, Occupy Porland!

Actually, I think it's the motor pool for the Mary Nolan City Council campaign.

no body noticed the black helicoptors flying cover

The remains of a certain percentage of those machines are destined to rust forever in the harsh sun of Afghanistan and their former occupants will come home in a box.

Since even Congress doesn't get a vote on war any more, it really doesn't matter where they are going or for whom they will kill in our name.

Nice color, though.

This isn't the first such movement...

In fact I took video of such a military train in Tigard some time ago, and shot a picture of another military train that travelled over Rex Hill to Newberg.

I do know that with one of the recent movements northbound through Portland (I did not get pictures of) that it was shadowed by some sort of security force, and that several railfan photographers were told not to photograph the train. However the security was not consistent as other photographers had no problem getting pictures and did not encounter the security.

They are surplus, being brought here to be melted down and turned in to streetcars by Sam & Charlie's buddies over the iron works.

Thanks
JK

I'm proud to live under the protection of the strongest military power in the World.

We're lucky the Chinese aren't in the pole position: they wouldn't be anywhere near as benign an occupation force as the US Army and Marines.

My God, a train load of tanks goes by and it's the end of the world.
I forgot that Oregon doesn't have any Military Bases.
Come on down to my house on the lake 12 Miles south of Offutt AFB and the Underground, pop a cold one on the deck, I I will give you a nice Daily Air Show of Looking Glass, AWACS, B1B, B2's and F16's.
Even had the pleasure of seeing the Space Shuttle docked to the 747 come in for a refueling stop on it's cross country jaunt from Edwards AFB to Cape Kennedy.
I also had the chilling sight of Air Force One flying in on 9-11.

PDXleinOmaha - Oregon has a military base, the Umatilla Chemical Depot. It is eastern Oregon, which might as well be Pluto for those in western Oregon.

I used to live in Omaha, the home of Stratcom. Nice place but terrible summers - too hot and humid.

Let's make Oregon a military-free zone.

You know, pass laws and stuff that make the military illegal in Multnomah County, especially the Marines, cuz they're like storm troopers anyway, right?

We could, like, march and camp out and stuff like that till they all leave.

I mean, if we all get together and demand it, they'd have to, right?

And then we could all go back to doing whatever it is we do.

About two years ago, staying overnight in a house in North Portland, I looked out the front window early one morning and saw a military exercise being conducted on Willis Blvd., with uniformed soldiers getting out of vehicles and, carrying (presumably unloaded) weapons, deploying in various directions on foot. It was spooky.

I forgot that Oregon doesn't have any Military Bases.

You're correct in that we don't have any military bases used by active duty, non-reserve or Guard aligned units.

That said:

We have two Air Force installations (Portland ANG Base and Kingsley Field ANG Base), both of which have F-15s assigned to them (Portland actually serves an alert function and is at the control of NORAD; Klamath Falls is a training facility).

We have the Umatilla Chemical Depot which is no longer used for any significant Army function (it is in the decommissioning process)

We have the Boardman Bombing Range, which is administered by the U.S. Navy (and has from what I've heard maybe one or two personnel assigned to it; it's also used by the Air Force)

We have several National Guard Camps (Camp Withycombe in S.E. Portland, Camp Rilea near Seaside - just to name two.)

We have numerous Coast Guard facilities (yup, the Coast Guard is still considered part of the military)

There used to be a big radar installation near Christmas Valley, but it is in the process of being torn down.

There's at least one other radar facility in Eastern Oregon (that caused an uproar when a wind turbine was to be constructed near it)

I believe there might still be a radar installation at Mt. Hebo, a former Air Force base (decommissioned since the 1970s)

Thanks, Erik H., for this inventory of military investment in OR. There is also the potential use of parts of Central Oregon for drone testing:

"Eric Folkestad, an engineer who works on business development for the unmanned aerial vehicle manufacturer Arcturus UAV, said Central Oregon would be an attractive area to test the company’s small drones, if a military area opened to testing. Folkestad is based in Washougal, Wash., and the company’s plant is in Rohnert Park, Calif.

Compared with the Naval Weapons Systems Training Facility in Boardman, 'Central Oregon would be much nicer for us,' Folkestad said, adding that the company has an eight-person test crew. 'We definitely would consider it, and put it on our list of places to go.'"
http://www.dailyastorian.com/news/oregon/article_5d4fa45c-fd87-11df-b65a-001cc4c002e0.html

"Oregon Senator Ron Wyden has introduced an amendment to a federal aviation bill that would create up to 10 drone testing areas nationwide by 2012.

Proponents of the idea say that the growth of the UAV industry is being stunted due to a shortage of testing areas.

Collins Hemingway is leading an effort in Central Oregon to win approval for a testing area outside of Bend."
http://news.opb.org/article/wyden-introduce-amendment-create-drone-testing-areas/

More recently (4Oct),

"The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs is looking to open the skies above its reservation to companies that want to test Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or drones. But those plans have been dealt a set back by the Federal Aviation Administration."
http://www.eastoregonian.com/news/northwest/faa-grounds-warm-springs-drone-testing-plans-for-now/article_35ef0ce3-2914-5154-8014-dca2dda7aa39.html

JK:They are surplus, being brought here to be melted down and turned in to streetcars by Sam & Charlie's buddies over the iron works.

Wonder if there is also a surplus of paint....has anyone else noticed that many of the new cars are the “new colors” of the year apparently, olive, the green and brown shades in the camouflage range?

I will take a look in the stores to see if those same colors are dominant in clothes. I imagine following in that range will be the appliances.

It may all fit then with our living in or getting accustomed to living in a camouflaged world!

Erik H. - Didn't know that the Umatilla Chemical Depot was in the process of being decommissioned.

Interestingly enough, on Friday I was talking to a gal whose husband was stationed there.

Thor, Eric H., Gardiner,
Thank You for the correction on Military Installations in Oregon. I was narrow focused on a Ft. Lewis or Offutt like base. Good info.

Re: "Didn't know that the Umatilla Chemical Depot was in the process of being decommissioned."

thor,

"The Umatilla site is one of the last American chemical depots to destroy its nerve and mustard gas agents in compliance with the worldwide Chemical Weapons Conference pact of 1997, which calls for the United States to get rid of these weapons by April 2012. Then it will take roughly two and a half years to to [sic] tear down the incineration complex, feeding the possibly contaminated building parts and equipment through the same burners that destroyed the liquid poison mixtures. After that, the almost 31-square-mile site is expected be a mix of industrial areas and nature preserves."
http://crosscut.com/2011/10/11/military/21386/Umatilla-chemical-weapons:-end-of-a-nightmare/