“Ready for Occupancy”: The Greenbrier Bunker

Just a couple of weeks before the Cuban missile crisis, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson updated President John F. Kennedy on the status of Project CASPER - the top secret program to provide Congress with a five star emergency relocation facility under the Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. The massive facility, in short, was “ready for occupancy.”

It is hard to imagine JFK being too concerned with the “rotation of food stocks” and the “stockage of office supplies,” but we were delighted to find that such minutiae were included in the Vice President’s report.

Though he is not named,  the “project coordinator,” mentioned in the letter is Fred C. Hicks, Jr. (1920-1971) pictured below. We will be presenting a biography of Mr. Hicks soon.        

Read the full letter below.

LBJ Casper Status Report: 10/2/62

Source:

Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library
National Security File, Files of C.V. Clifton
Box No. 2
Folder: Project Casper
Document: Vice President Johnson to President Kennedy, October 2, 1962