Message posted by Peter Merlin (Member since 11/13/2003) on April 03, 2022 at 13:53:22 PST:
Referring to home base as "home plate" can be used generically. The term "Home Plate" has also been used in both radio traffic and on official documents to refer to the Groom Lake air field. This may have become prevalent because it was such an innocuous and generic term, or because the shape of the lakebed roughly approximates the five-sided shape of home plate on a baseball or softball field. In the case of the pilot referring to "the home plate" I think the term was being used generically. I have found that many people who once worked at Groom Lake are incapable of saying terms like "Area 51" or "Groom Lake" because they spent so many years under security restrictions. Even decades after retirement, they just can't bring themselves to use the terminology. Instead, they simply refer to "the test site" or "the major geological feature."
In Reply to: Re: Home Plate posted by Joerg (Webmaster) on April 03, 2022 at 12:25:07 PST:
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