Post by pendleton on Oct 15, 2014 16:43:26 GMT
I've always thought of this decal as something associated with model rocketry as ( at least by the witness description ) it doesn't seem to have a direct USAF or USN insignia or identifier on it. I would think that if the decal had "McClellan", "Beale", "El Toro" on it it would be fairly prominent. I would speculate that would also hold true with military contractors who can access these locations although that might not be the case.
I was briefly involved with model rockets though a friend of mine when I was about 12 years old. Model rocketry has / had thousands of decals with faux military insignias and logo mock-ups over the course of time. The acronym AFC that appears on the decal is one that's used in model rocketry to denote an Acme Fin Canister which is a type of fin base that the body of the rocket is glued into. It may be grasping at straws to mention that but ( relying on the witness description ) when I see a "missile-like product" under a larger parachute and no prominent military location, number sequence, etc. I tend to think of this as something else. I think the witness would likely have been able to differentiate between a parachute and a parabolic antenna of some type on the decal if they can give the level of description they did. Then again, it could have possibly said 'AFB' with additional detail that wasn't seen / missed.
I don't remember the full circumstance with the car trying to gain access to Coronado NAS but as I remember the entry gate guard didn't recognize the decal and then obtained the phony name and SS# from the driver. In other words, the decal probably wasn't even a reasonable facsimile of something they saw regularly.