Richard - Military Device

Military Listening Device

By Lee Gudmundsen

While I worked for Dad (Richard Austin Gudmundsen) at Perceptrix, we did research and built prototypes related to several very interesting projects. On one project we were teamed with Rockwell to develop systems that listen for enemy military activity. This needed to be tested on a military base. Dad, I and three researchers from Rockwell went to the Twenty-Nine Palms Marine Base for this purpose. The marines were bivouacking (i.e. camping) on the far end of the extensive desert base while performing live fire exercises with tanks, refuellers, HMWVS and other support vehicles. This was an excellent opportunity to gather data and test our devices.

A high level commander on the base equipped us with helmets and flack jackets and briefed us on the base procedures, rules and regulations. The most important regulations not related to safety were those regarding the protection of the very rare desert tortoise which inhabited the same desolate desert as the marine base. We were told that if one of the tortoise were frightened by a human, it would immediately urinate, dehydrate and die. To avoid this, all military vehicles were restricted to existing roads on this nearly flat base and any activity, digging a six inch deep hole for example, required proper authorization. If any soldier saw a dead tortoise and failed to report it, he would be charged with a crime and fined ten thousand dollars. If he was found to be somehow responsible for a tortoise's death, the consequences would of course be far more severe. I asked the commander if he had ever seen one of these rare tortoises and he responded with a smile "you will never know."

A science officer was assigned to escort and assist us. The marines graciously built us a tent to shelter us and our equipment and they also shared m-rations with us. We gathered a great deal of data during our tests.

Somehow, a rumor was started among the soldiers that the devices that we were testing were actually testing the effect of the marine base on the tortoise! We were suddenly very unpopular with the military personnel! Our work was sometimes sabotaged. One night, while Dad and I slept safely in a motel, the soldiers snuck up on the test where the Rockwell assistants were sleeping and scared them half to death.

We tried to spread the word that we were ultimately developing sensors for their benefit, not the benefit of the turtles.