Bomarc Missile Battery Site: Part II of II

The gate at the Bomarc missile base, circa early 1960s. The guard house and building to the right still stand, the water tower has been replaced. 

I previously wrote about scouting around the perimeter of the Dow AFB's missile defense site in this post and delved some more into how these supersonic unmanned (nuclear capable) interceptors in Bangor's backyard had fit into the greater scheme here.

I ended up re-visiting the rows of actual missile launch houses at the site, daring to get a bit closer to the businesses who occupy the "business park."

Blast doors that will likely never open again.

Where this is my final post on the Bomarc missile defense site, let's take a look at a snippet from the Lewiston Daily Sun, from November 16th, 1957:

"PORTLAND, Nov. 15 AP - A 10 million dollar installation to be built at Bangor will be equipped with the Bomarc guided missile which boasts a range of 300 miles. Brig. Gen. Alden Sibley, commander of the New England district of Army Engineers said the defense installation would be constructed near Dow Air Force Base. He didn't say when the construction would begin."

According to Air Force Magazine, Bangor was one of the very first Bomarc bases to have been built, along with Cape Cod, Long Island, and the ill-fated (and still largely irradiated) McGuire AFB in New Jersey. Continuing along, toward the current day, let's dip into this snippet from the Bangor Daily News, from May 1st, 1958:

BANGOR --- The Army Engineers, New England Division, informed US Sen Frederick G Payne that about 750 men will be employed on the construction of the Bomarc site in Bangor. They expect that probably some 800 to 900 men will be needed on the construction during the summer months.

The John A. Volpe Construction Co. of Malden, Mass, has been awarded the contract for the Bangor Bomarc Missile site. 

The property where Boeing Airplane Co's missiles will be located covers more than 50 acres of land and runs from Burleigh Rd to Broadway and Essex St. 

J.R. Cianchette Sr. has the work of clearing land in preparation for construction and work has already been in progress on this phase of the program. 

The Bomarc base, such as the one to be built at Dow, consists of a lunching area where the missiles will be kept in a "ready status", a support area where missiles are maintained and inspected, and a "cantonment" area which will provide the necessary housekeeping activities.

I've looked up the number for Volpe Construction in Malden, if I have any luck I'll update the post.

But in the mean time, let's have a look at what's left of the missile launch houses in bangor.

Bomarc Launch Buildings in Bangor

The above image was taken while standing between two rows of missile launch buildings. I took that photo while standing on a mound of grass indicating a conduit/utility tunnel between the missile prep building and the readiness area. Here's a photo of the vent for the 6x6 tunnel:

$10 to put your head in there.

Below is what the buildings would have looked more like if they were left untouched.

Courtesy Urbexobsession - Bomarc site in Ontario - I did not take this photo

These buildings have been modified nearly beyond recognition. But while we're on the topic, below is what one of them would have looked something like, had the site not been turned into a business/self storage park.

Same site in Ontario - I did not take this photo

Notice the folding roof that would have allowed vertical launch. It's very sad that very little is left onsite in Bangor.



-T

Milford's forgotten B-17 Training Area (Pre Visit) Part 2 of 2 : Phantom POW Camp?

In my last post I discussed the abandoned airfield up in Milford and how that since it was built in 1942, and the Memphis Belle was delivered to its crew in the same year at Dow AFB, and the Milford site was the only precision bombing range near the Dow AFB (until 1948) -- that it's possible (but unfortunately, unverifiable) that that the Memphis Belle could have touched down in the middle of mud-run country.

Another neat piece of lore surrounding the 70 year old strip of pavement in the middle of nowhere is that the site was used as overflow for Camp Houlton.

Camp Houlton, for those unfamiliar with Maine's military history, was

"...a prisoner-of-war camp for captured German soldiers ...in Houlton with other satellite sites around the region. Many of the prisoners elected to work on local farms planting and harvesting potatoes, working in the woods and in a local food processing plant. Working for about a dollar a day, the same pay as a private in the German army, the POWs worked hard and were appreciated by the local residents."

-The Aroostook Historical and Art Museum

Satellite sites. What strikes me as curious, and why I'm willing to call this site "Milford's Phantom POW camp" is because of the following statement from one Gus LeBlanc

“My uncle John was stationed at Dow AFB (now Bangor International) as a SAC commander.I was also told by my uncle John that the field was used during WW2 to train medium bomber pilots on short field landings & take offs. He also indicated that the site was used briefly towards the end of the war to temporarily house some German POWs due to the camp in Aroostook County being full.”

-Airfields-Freeman.com

Now, the Milford airfield had fallen out of heavy use as time progressed and flying fortresses gave way to much heavier flying superfortresses, it's possible that Mr LeBlanc was correct. Several references are found in local media to an 'overflow' camp in Bangor. Having spent a fair amount of time trying to find any records of a POW camp in Bangor with no results, is it possible that the Milford air strip is the overflow site incorrectly attributed as in 'Bangor?'

It's also possible that I'm completely wrong and that the city has omitted this bit of its history, whether accidentally or intentionally. Bangor is the type of city that, in the past, has been willing to demolish grandeur in favor of "modernization", so it's possible that we'll never know.

It's one of those historical mysteries that, unfortunately, require some word of mouth to solve with any sense of conclusion.

Air Raid Sirens of Bangor - McGuire Building (?)

On a not-so-warm spring evening, I was accompanying a friend in downtown Bangor as they dropped coffee off to their spouse. As the car idled in the parking lot of Bangor's very own Mos Eisley, he nodded behind us and asked what "that thing" was in the rear view mirror, on top of the historic McGuire building.

The McGuire Building in 1942

-Courtesy Maine Memory Network and the Bangor Public Library

Knowing that he knows I'm into odd historical things, I got out of the car and looked at what he was pointing out. 

Let's examine this a little more closely:

This object is either: 

• A gigantic "Smoker's Cease Fire" bucket.
• A bad reproduction of a middle-eastern style minaret in a dying timber/wartown in the whitest state in the nation. 
• An obese neckbeard in the world's shittiest Punisher costume. 
• A Rosie O'Donnell inspired cupola. 
• An air raid siren. 

If you've read any of this blog before,  you should know that I'm not terribly interested in giant cigarette buckets, white people's minarets, a neckbeard dressed like the Punisher, or a Rosie O'Donnell inspired cupola.

I'm pretty sure what I'm looking at is an air raid siren from back when they needed to paint the Thomas Hill Standpipe olive drab; also pretty sure that this is an air raid siren because of the shape/scale. However...the flared out bottom does indeed sow seeds of doubt. Could this just be a cupola?

I'd love to find out whether or not this is indeed an air raid siren. I'll try to update this post when I get access to binoculars, telescope...x-ray specs...something.

-T

Dow AFB GATR Site | Bangor

Nestled in the middle of a bedroom community for Bangor, on a cross road between two main thoroughfares are the remains of Dow AFB's Ground to Air Transmit & Receiver site. The two beheaded towers flank the town office and stand watch over the town's public safety building, and a basketball court. 

Assuming the town hall was built after the USAF had pulled out of Bangor, this site would have been used to transmit/receive communications between manned interceptor aircraft (the 75th Fighter/Interceptor squadron, flying F-106 Delta Darts) at Dow and the SAGE computer site farther downstate.

According to an article appearing in the Maine Commons, 09/2002, titled "Cold War Residue in Glenburn" (Catherine Schmidtt), there used to be an entire communications array behind the building. Apparently the property was acquired by the US Government in 1958, to house a computer and radar system that would communicate with the air base at Dow and the Bomarc missiles nearby. Sadly, as of 2013, the satellite communications array behind the building has been demolished.

A better view

[Retro Tech] The Doomsday Shitter

This isn't so much a post about a Cold War era site, but rather a Cold War era artifact...and it's not really 'tech.' It's just a steel barrel that you shit in.

Around this time of year in my youth, I'd be tasked with helping to take down "winter clothes" from a shed/garage. Usually they'd be in plastic totes, but sometimes -- they were in these drums with white lettering on them. These brown drums had kind of been an object form my childhood that I never really thought much about. All I knew about them growing up is that they sucked to try to hold on to and walk down the stairs.

A few months ago, I was helping my father do some garage-cleaning and found one of the green drums.

Since my 1st Gen Samsung Galaxy's camera has the resolution of a potato, here's what the text on the drum actually says:

To Fill: Remove drum cover. Insert plastic bag liner assembly and fill liner with approved tap water by inserting clean hose into bag spout. DO NOT FILL DRUM WITHOUT USING PLASTIC BAG LINER. Fill to water fill line, twist spout and double back on itself and tie tightly with wire tie. Replace drum cover.

To Dispense: Remove cover. Unfasten spout, insert siphon tube about 3/4 lengths into bag liner and pinch siphon tube. pull tube downward 12 to 18 inches which will start flow of water. release and fill individual containers. 

To reuse as a commode: Cut top seam of inner bag for full width of bag, spread mouth of bags over and down around top opening of drum about 4 inches. add waste treatment chemical, place commode seat on drum. When waste is to sanitary fill line, close mouth of bag and tie with wire tie. DO NOT REMOVE FILLED BAGS. Replace drum cover. 

Bomarc Missile Site: Part 1.5 | Bangor

Bomarcs in New Jersey.

Before I head off to the Bomarc site again to take more pictures, I wanted to reflect a bit on just exactly what it is I'll be visiting. Primarily through explanation of the technical aspects of what used to be there and perhaps a bit of exploration of what could have happened should things not have gone right.

It would really help if you read this, from here on out, in the voice of John Henry Eden

The Bomarc missile! At the time it was one of the many business ends of America's SAGE system. A series of 22, 300-ton, IBM supercomputers that prove as long as something has a screen, someone will find a way to put porn on it.

Would you like to play a game? 

Hailed at the time as a critical part of America's defensive perimeter. The SAGE (Semi Automatic Ground Envrironment) computer would take information from gap filler radar sites, texas towers and also airborne platforms, and compare it to mighty handfuls of punch cards full of data from the Federal Aviation Administration. If something showed up on radar that wasn't on record with the FAA, either manned (i.e. an F104) or unmanned (Bomarc) interceptor would be dispatched.

The SAGE system and its network of nuclear-tipped unmanned aircraft was seen as a protective umbrella of sorts, so that children in the 50s could do what children in the 50's did. Which, according to "documentaries" produced by IBM meant rowdily lining up to go inside for recess and being scared shitless while being told to hide under their desks in drills that were supposed to increase their likelihood of not having their skin burned off should the Soviets drop the bomb. That, and putting models together of their great Defenders.

Dear Santa

The USAF held 26 of these (potentially) nuclear tipped, 16,000 pound unmanned aircraft, capable of Mach 2.5 on the outskirts of Bangor from the late 1950's to the early 1960's. At the time, the city had a population of 39,000 people (as opposed to 33,000 as of 2012.)

Why is population important? These things were before solid fuel. Also, they had to have their engines 'jump started' with a mixture of pressurized air and helium. You've got some pretty volatile technology that was supposed to propel a nuclear warhead, only a few miles away from the rest of the city. In 1960, at McGuire AFB in New Jersey, a helium tank exploded in one of the missile launch structures and started a fire that burned uncontrolled for 30 minutes and took a total of 15 hours to completely put out. Fortunately, the warhead didn't detonate. 75 acres are still fenced off due to radiological contamination.

Let me recap this: The sleepy town of Bangor Maine (or Derry, Maine if that's your thing) was one home not only to one of the major air force bases of the Cold War (easternmost in the country) but also to twenty six supersonic unmanned interceptors that were liquid fueled and outfitted to carry W40 nuclear warheads (with a 7-10 megaton yield.) Should a situation requiring them to launch arise, it would have meant that the Soviets were on their way.

...Am I the only person around here who thinks old Bomarc sites are really cool? Not only for the fact that they were essentially nuclear capable, supersonic UAV's, but because of their "the future is now!" vibe? I mean, *this* happened FFS.

Sources:

Bomarc Missile Accident Site
Semi Automatic Ground Environment

Dow AFB: Bomarc Missile Battery site -- Part I of II

This is a three part series. You're currently looking at the first post of three related to Dow AFB's Bomarc missile site.

• Part 1.5, which discusses a bit more about how the site would have fit into the regional defensive scheme.
• Part 2, which is more photos of the launch houses.

---

It was last November. Cold, snow was already on the ground under gray Maine skies. I was hanging out with a friend and saw something interesting out the window while standing in front of his john. This fence:

His bathroom wasn't this close, but this is the fence...

At the time, I was familiar with Bangor's role in the WWIII that never happened; but I had no idea my friend lived in such close proximity to Dow AFB's old Bomarc site. Despite his reluctance, I got him to walk with me through the short woods, and onto a paved perimeter pathway that hadn't been used since "I Want To Hold Your Hand" was at the top of the charts.

. 

In the background you can see the site's old diesel storage tank, in the foreground you can see a post more exiting than this one, and in the middle you can see the perimeter walkway.

Perhaps, no more Doctor Who. 

As we walked along bits and pieces of the base came more into view. The checkered structure is a water tower that's apparently still in use by the city, so not really something I care to go near. Things that are still in use and threaten you with unpleasant consequences aren't fun. Looking at how overgrown this once pristine and secured site had become, however, is fun. Not fun like 'roller coasters' or 'motorcycles' fun, but fun like "if I step into a hole in the spacetime continuum and come to occupy the same space but somehow in 1959 I'm going to be riddled with bullet holes before I realize what happened" fun.

I really shouldn't be concerned about microtears in the fabric of time, I should be more concerned with whether or not I'm breaking any laws. There were no "no trespassing" signs, but I still got an eerie feeling of "you guys shouldn't be here." After all, there are now several private businesses in the area and adolescent shitheads with no sense of historical context have apparently been messing with some of the buildings.

Stay Classy, Bangor

If you can't tell, shit like this really annoys me. It tends to make those who own the property nervous about people who just want to visit an installation that used to house supersonic, nuclear-capable surface to air missiles. What's so wrong with that? I mean, why would you want to tag up something that's 'Half-Life' level of cool?

Oh...

We walked up to the back of the missile assembly building. I have no idea what the garage doors were for on the second story, and I can't really tell whether or not the part of the building in the foreground is original -- it definitely looks original. To the left, you can see that some of our youths in the area are immune to paranoia. If you can spark up at an abandoned USAF facility and not want to nope the fuck out of there, you either have balls of steel or brains of bricks.

Through the trees, you can see the site's diesel storage tank. Someone has cut a hole in it and installed a garage door. Inside the "garage" there was a couch that looked like it was used by either kids to sit on and get high, or for homeless men on bath salts and spice and everything vice. Either way, we didn't stick around much.

As we exited, we passed the old guardhouse. I was surprised at the cinder block construction, considering that Bomarc missiles were nuclear capable. The guy sitting in there back then would wave past all sorts of personnel that were more or less just waiting for a computer down in Thomaston to signal that Soviets were about to rain down nuclear hell. And you probably thought your job was depressing.

There was some sort of access hatch in the guard house that was wide open. But it was cold and dark and I really didn't want to go inside since I don't trust a 40 year old ladder to service 250lbs of dork terribly well.

The trip didn't last too long. And I'm aware I missed a lot of stuff. I didn't go near the missile "coffins" at all. And I didn't get any pictures of the semi-underground utility tunnel, or the concrete conduit access 'thing' either. I plan to return and take more photographs.

I've included a map below to give you some impression of the missile base in relation to the air force base.