Jack of Harts

Kirtland Air Force Base never had to choose whether to follow Federal or State leadership during the Second Great Depression. It had a century-long relationship with Los Alamos Laboratories that had resulted in the construction of an underground highway linking the two installations. That was constructed to allow them to transport secret programs between the installations in complete security, and at Kirtland they disappeared into the large amount of routine traffic it conducted every day. That link brought Kirtland far closer into the Los Alamos camp than most outside observers ever guessed. When the Second Great Depression arrived, Kirtland did not need to pick sides between the Federal and State governments. Los Alamos was a side after all. All they wished was that Kirtland’s most devastating weapons not fall to any of the various extremists striving to control them, and Kirtland’s commanders were happy to follow those wishes.