Cold War relic in Thailand; The Ramasun Elephant Cage

[DRE]

Hello, I was stationed at Ramasun from January of 1975 to January of 1976 and worked in OPS. I can solve the mystery of the "red dots": The missing letters are "MO". It says "MOGAS" which was at the time, and may still be, the U.S. Army's designation for "motor gasoline", the same gasoline that would be used in any gasoline powered vehicle. The red dots were painted on the walls of the central hallway of the OPs building at regular intervals and on alternating sides of the hallway. The hallway was carpeted with an industrial grade indoor/outdoor carpet (the hallway was the only place on the entire Field Station that was carpeted). There was also a storage room off of the central hallway with 5 gallon gas cans (the type that are mounted on the back of a jeep). The purpose of the dots, the carpet, and the MOGAS was quite simple: in the event the Field Station was attacked and was in danger of being overrun, the last step in the destruction procedure was for one gas can to be placed at each red dot with the caps spun off and on the way out the door the destruction team would knock over the gas cans so that the gasoline could soak into the carpet and as the fires that were started by setting off the thermite charges to destroy the classified equipment in the working bays along the hallway spred to the hallway it would burn the OPPs building down. Simple and effective.

[Anderson]

Very interesting DRE, thanks for giving us your personal insights.