Posted on 11/28/2009 10:06:53 PM PST by george76
End of an era: Aircraft depart Brunswick Naval Air Station as Maine base readies for closing.
The two last planes at Maine's Brunswick Naval Air Station lifted off Saturday in blustery winds, ending nearly 60 years of maritime patrol operations at New England's last active-duty military air base.
The P-3 Orions of the VP-26 squadron lumbered down an 8,000-foot runway before heading off to a six-month deployment in Central America. After that, they fly to their new home at Florida's Jacksonville Naval Air Station.
The planes took off without any speeches or fanfare ...
Brunswick, once home to 4,000 sailors and six patrol squadrons, now has a skeleton crew. Its two runways are scheduled to close in January and personnel will continue to leave the base until it closes for good in May 2011.
The P-3 Orions, which went into operation in the 1960s, tracked Soviet submarines in the Atlantic Ocean during the Cold War. More recently, the planes have been used on drug interdiction missions and in support of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Sad. When I was a little boy I ved in Scarborough right under the approach path to the Portland Jetport, and I’d watch Orions and Delta 727’s roaring over my house every day.
Thanks for your informative and interesting reply. In the Spring of 1959 the D models were replaced at Loring, and my squadron (which should have read the 70th not 75th) was transferred to Biggs AFB at El Paso as the 334thBS. We were then given B-52B models which were soon on alert with nukes in the newly constructed “crow’s foot” and alert facility at the north end of the runway. I finally was moved to the radar nav position and spent 6 years there in B models.
I volunteered to return to Loring and was reassigned there in 1965 in B-52G models. In all I spent 12 years assigned to B-52 outfits and flew nearly 4000 hours in the Buff.
I too am a hunter and fisherman and really enjoyed hunting those huge whitetails, shooting black ducks and woodcock and catching landlocks on Square Lake to name a few endeavors. I also owned and hunted three Plott hounds while there and ran bear, bobcat and raccoon. My hunting partner was a longtime Loringite T/Sgt. Brent Adams a recip mechanic.
We don’t have a carrier based at Mayport any more?
Just damn.
And then K.I. Sawyer on Lake Superior. Iron Mountain was nearby, which was home of the World Ski Flying Championships, in which the ski jumpers would fly 500+ feet through the air. It would have been something to witness that.
Alas, they closed them both before I could get there. Those Cold War days ended......at least on paper.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
