Fort Knox, an Empty Haven | Teen Ink

Fort Knox, an Empty Haven

June 18, 2015
By KoreanGsus BRONZE, Northridge, California
KoreanGsus BRONZE, Northridge, California
3 articles 0 photos 0 comments

On April 5 of 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued the Executive Order 6012, which forced all US citizens to surrender their gold to save their economy. Over half of the world’s gold was collected as a result. Furthermore, the gold was worth somewhere around 200 billion dollars. The government constructed Fort Knox in the state of Kentucky to secure these gold from others.


  Theoretically, Fort Knox is nigh impregnable. Not only are there sniper and machine gun towers and Apache helicopters, the fort is protected by the highest tech fences and electronic surveillance system. Even if the infiltrators destroyed the defenses, the vault in Fort Knox would be the hardest challenge for them. The closed vault is sealed with wax and tape to find even the smallest breaches. Furthermore, it takes 10 specially trained technicians to do different actions simultaneously for the vault to open. Are you wondering if the vault would be broken by force? When the vault was designed during 1933, it was created to withstand nuclear strikes. Now here comes the interesting part, all these defenses may be for nothing since there is a high possibility that the vault may be completely empty.


  The vault was opened to people outside the U.S. government 42 years ago. After the inspection done by Mary Brooks, director of the Mint, Fort Knox was sealed from outside inspections. Furthermore, Craig Hulet, who worked as a security in Fort Knox, said that his captain gave him no ammunition since the captain said the vault was empty. Where did all the gold go? Over few decades, journalists and citizens living near Fort Knox witnessed many occasions where huge transporting vehicles exited Fort Knox with possibly our gold. The government refused to discuss or reply to any questions asked by the media and communities.


  Why is this such a huge deal? When currency is made in a country, the country usually sets a material such as gold as a standard of the money’s worth. You see where this is going? Yep, the U.S dollar’s standard is based off of gold. If all our gold is gone, the money that is in your wallets will be not worth the paper it was printed in. United States will be suffering a hyperinflation where our economy that was built around dollars will be crushed into rubbles. But for now, the best option we have is to trust the United States government’s assurances, and hope that all our gold is safe within the vault of Fort Knox.



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