For my black ops valentine d By Alex Beam Boston Globe Feb. 6, 2008 As someone who once spent part of a family vacation visiting the Air Force's secret Area 51 research facility in Nevada, I was fascinated to see Trevor Paglen's "I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to Be Destroyed By Me: Emblems From the Pentagon's Black World." Paglen, an "artist, writer, and experimental geographer," has assembled about 40 colorful patch insignia from secret, military "black" programs that are hardly ever discussed in public. He has plenty of regalia from the real denizens of Area 51: the Stealth aircraft test squadrons; the "Red Hats," who used to fly Soviet MiGs in combat exercises against American fighters; the Electronic Warfare Directorate, and so on. There is a patch featuring a menacing, dark panther with bright yellow claws that has a local provenance: "Panther Den is a Special Access Program (SAP) based at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts," Paglen writes. "Managed by the Big Safari project office, Panther Den is charged with overseeing classified information warfare projects." "Even if I did have details on this program, which I don't, I wouldn't be able to talk about it," says Hanscom public affairs officer Kevin Gilmartin, who asked: "A shoulder patch? Why would people be walking around with a shoulder patch for a secret project?" "That's a good question," says Paglen. "But it's not like they wear these insignia out in public. They can wear them on base, at the bowling alley, for instance. It's like being in a secret society when you're a child. The fun part was advertising that you had a secret society." All you kids at Boston Latin and the Latin Academy - you may have a future in secret projects! Almost every patch has a Latin phrase at the bottom, e.g. Semper en Obscurus, or "Always in the Dark," the motto of the Air Force's Special Projects Office. Here is my favorite, which Paglen claims is the motto of the Air Force's Rapid Capabilities Office: Opus Dei Cum Pecunia Alienum Efficemus, or "Doing God's Work with Other People's Money."   (Archives)