You've never really been out in the American West, have you?

Just one example - the Nevada Test and Training Range alone is a bit over 4,500 square miles.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevada_Test_and_Training_Ran...

Vs. Wikipedia says the entire U.S. Army (active duty) has ~485,000 personnel.

Divide...and that's ~0.17 Army people per acre, even if the US Army had NO job except holding down the NTTR. (Which is actually US Air Force, BTW.)

[Edit: But +1 - because in the bigger picture you make a valid point. However vast the open spaces, at the spots where the cool & expensive stuff sits, there does have to be some sort of "real" security. If only so dodgy locals don't swing by with a pair of bolt cutters, and start helping themselves.]

Thanks for the perspective, you are indeed right that I’ve never been “out there”.

There was a German family once that might have paid with their lives for that presumption.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Valley_Germans