Castle Black is coming off the page, courtesy of the U.S. Army. As reported by The Intercept, a secretive American military facility in Syria was given the name “Mission Support Site Castle Black.”
The Intercept obtained this information via a Freedom of Information Act request. It’s estimated that the US has about 800 military-oriented installations operating around the world at any given time. Castle Black — that’s the American military base, not the castle on the Wall serving as a bulwark against the threats to the north — served as a base for Special Forces operations.
As you’d expected, the U.S. government and Armed Forces are tight-lipped regarding the existence of their mission support facilities. Pentagon reports rarely mention them, and then only vaguely. Even this specific Game of Thrones name is shifty — in a separate document procured by The Intercept, it appears that the same base is referred to as “MSS Nights Watch.” So the name changes a little, but the theming remains the same.
In the cloak and dagger world of international warfare, it’s understandable that U.S. intelligence wants to keep the location and details regarding its outposts as blurry as possible. Even the word “base” is avoided when referencing sensitive ground facilities; a slew of other euphemisms are used instead, including “initial contingency locations, temporary contingency locations, semi-permanent contingency locations, contingency locations, cooperative security locations, enduring locations, forward operating sites, and main operating bases.”
What would Jon Snow and the members of the Night’s Watch think of “Mission Support Site Castle Black”? The MSS is likely a patrol base, a remote outpost deep in enemy territory designed with minimal infrastructure and only distant support; the Thrones crows would find those hardships and dangers very familiar.
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