Happenings October 2004 - Project ELF

DETROIT - Project ELF, the controversial Navy communications system that was denounced as a doomsday machine but was in fact a vital part of America's nuclear deterrence, has just met a quiet demise in the forests of Michigan and Wisconsin.

As noted by environmental activist/author Dave Dempsey, ex-adviser to 1983-90 Gov. Jim Blanchard: "Not with a bang, but a whimper, does ELF pass into the night."

ELF's extremely low frequency system enabled nuclear-armed Trident-class submarines to get messages while deep and undetected. It essentially was a beeper system for our most lethal and expensive weapon system - one that in the event of attack is most likely to survive.

One such sub with multiple-warhead missiles is the USS Michigan, which is nearly as long as two football fields and carries more firepower than has been used in all of the wars in history combined.

Improved very low frequency (VLF) frequency systems and strategic realities (end of the Cold War and different threats) prompted the Navy to pull the plug on ELF.

Transmissions halted Oct. 7 from facilities that were activated in 1985 in the Upper Peninsula's Copper Country and Escanaba River state forests, and were linked by three underground lines with facilities in the Chequamegon National Forest south of Clam Lake, Wis.

At various times in its development stage, ELF was called Sanguine and Seafarer. The original plan for an enormous underground grid was widely criticized by environmentalists and others. Protesters once staged a sit down demonstration at the Capitol office of then-Gov. Bill Milliken, smearing his carpet with ashes.

President Ford, approaching the 1976 election, took the highly unusual step of giving Milliken a veto on the massive project. Milliken exercised it, with a flourish and a call to the Pentagon while on a trip to the U.P. with Lansing-based reporters.

Note: This event seems important because of the other events that occurred at this same time and are brought to light in the Infinite Play