Quote:
Originally Posted by Legbreaker
I think the gold was discussed a month or two ago and it was estimated "4000+ tonnes of gold would require approximately 80 trucks assuming a 50+ tonne capacity."
A lot of fuel and protection required there, along with a lot of secure storage space at the other end. Of course getting it out requires getting through all the built in security which apparently requires the codes from eight different people (going from memory here). Could cut/blast the way in, but if you can't get all the gold in one go, then the rest will be open to scavengers/thieves/the security detail left behind.
In my mind it's probably safer left exactly where it is in exactly the same condition - ie locked up tight!
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Without some sort of security force to intervene, any safe or vault, even a complex like the depository at Ft. Knox, just represents a time/distance equation for defeating its security measures. Admittedly, it would be a pretty major undertaking, but with CivGov, MilGov, and New America (plus minor/regional powers) in the game, I don't know that anyone would feel comfortable leaving anything of strategic value unattended in circa 2000 America.
So I'd think that MilGov would make an effort to get the gold out if/when they decided to pull the plug on Ft Knox. Rather than trucking it, they could haul it on the Ohio River, since the 194th seems to mostly have been oriented on river lines when it moved out of the Knox area. To get it all the way to Colorado Springs could be a trick using river lines, but it might be part of the cantonments in Cairo or Memphis, once the latter is cleared.
Or depending on the time frame that the decision was made to relocate the gold, it may have been feasible to move it by rail or even fly it elsewhere (the latter unlikely, I think, but someone could have made a forward looking call before things hit rock bottom). A couple C-5s could have hauled the supply to Colorado Springs in a reasonable number of sorties, if the airframes and fuel were available at that point in time.