Former military installations

Nike missile site - Kent, Washington
McClellan AFB - Sacramento, CA
Richards-Gebaur AFB - Kansas City, MO
McCoy AFB - Orlando, FL
Homestead AFB - Homestead, FL (now an AF Reserve facility)
Vietnamese Refugee Resettlement Center - Eglin AFB - Ft. Walton Beach, FL
Berlin Brigade - Germany
Fort Ord - Monterey, CA

These span my time as an Air Force brat and an Army soldier. Spent a week guarding Rudolf Hess at Spandau Prison in Berlin. The changing of the guard with the Russians was a highlight of that experience.
 
I'm also not a veteran, but I do have a (somewhat lame) anecdote, and since I didn't see Glenview Naval Air Station mentioned:

I recall the teacher needing to stop class for a minute a few times a day. The noise from the jets would be too much to talk over. This was early 60's.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Air_Station_Glenview

Naval Air Station Glenview or NAS Glenview was an operational U.S. Naval Air Station from 1923 to 1995. Located in Glenview, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, the air base primarily operated training aircraft as well as seaplanes on nearby Lake Michigan during World War II. Reconfigured as a Naval Air Reserve base following World War II, NAS Glenview supported Naval Air Reserve, Marine Air Reserve/4th Marine Aircraft Wing, and U.S. Army Reserve 244th Aviation Group as well as an active duty Coast Guard Air Station.

And I did not know that: "Astronaut Neil Armstrong, served as a Naval Aviator and Naval Reservist at NAS Glenview." Although James Lovell lives in the Chicago area.

-ERD50 (civilian)
 
Dad passed through Tan Son Nhut on his way home.

Had a college friend who was born on Wheelus AB (anybody posted there?)
 
Shilling AFB, Kansas
Hunter AFB, Georgia
Grissom AFB, Indiana
King Salmon AFS, Alaska
McCoy AFB, Florida
I think that is it...
 
While I am not a veteran, I owe my very existence to a now closed base. The army drafted my Dad in the late '50s and moved him from Detroit to the Presidio in San Francisco. That's where he met my Mom on a blind date and decided he wasn't moving back to Michigan when he got out.
 
I've been stationed or worked at a great many of the installations already mentioned. Here's one you might not have heard of: Sierra Army Depot, Herlong, Calif. It was on the high desert 50 mile north of Reno, Nev. Strange place. They stored "things" there, if you get my drift. I worked there for two long years.
 
Mather AFB, CA
RAF Woodbridge, UK
McClellan AFB, CA
When I arrived for my assignment at McClellan, the first words said to me were “don’t buy a house!” I spent a total of nine months there.
 
Blytheville Air Force Base in the NE corner of Arkansas. In a dry county, but the base was wet.
 
Berlin Brigade
Ft McCellan, AL
Ft Ord, CA
Ft Benjamin Harrison, IN
I did have a bizarre interview at Ft Ben for a clearance. It was down a stairwell in a dingy room with a naked light bulb. I didn’t find it intimidating, reminded me of being in the basement back on the farm...I was so naive. It was my first face to face and I remember thinking these guys aren’t very bright. They keep asking the same thing LoL!
 
As a Field Engineer
Holy Loch, Scotland- went out with the George Washington and Abraham Lincoln
DEW Line-Barter Island and Point Barrow
Korea- Osan, Kunsan, Kangnung, Cheju Do
Iwo Jima
Japan- Fuchu, Wakkanai, Misawa
Okinawa- Naha, Kadena
Canada-Clinton, Ontario RCAF base
 
Might be a little off topic but here goes.

Firebases, Dragonhead and Mace in RVN 70-71.
 
NAS Glenco Georgia
NAS Cubi Point Philippines
Subic Bay Naval Base Philippines
Armed Forces Courier Station (Navy) - Subic Bay
NAVCOMMSTA - San Miguel Philippines
NAS Sangley Point - Philippines
Clark AFB - Philippines
Da Nang Air Base - RVN
 
Last edited:
Ruislip air station, England
Danang Air Base, Vietnam
 
While in the AF in the 1970s, was on a special maintenance team visiting remote radio relay sites across the Mediterranean. System ran from deep in Turkey across to Greece, Italy, mountain top on Sardinia, Minorca island, Majorca Island and on into Spain. I know the sites on Sardinia, Minorca, and Majorca are now closed
 
While in the AF in the 1970s, was on a special maintenance team visiting remote radio relay sites across the Mediterranean. System ran from deep in Turkey across to Greece, Italy, mountain top on Sardinia, Minorca island, Majorca Island and on into Spain. I know the sites on Sardinia, Minorca, and Majorca are now closed

That sounds interesting. Did you get to experience any of the local flavor? I can't imagine those were large facilities.
 
you missed Sewart AFB (Smyrna, TN; former SAC base) and Mactan AB (Cebu, PI) in addition to the others already mentioned
 
Another New England base that is gone: Fort Ethan Allen in Colchester, VT. I had never heard of it but the first time I drove by the remains of it on a vacation to VT I looked at the layout of the remaining brick buildings on what had to have been "Colonels' Row" with the former parade field out front and thought, "This has to have been an Army post.
 
Not exhaustive I'm sure, but here are some of the bases I've been to that are now not:

Plattsburg AFB
Grissom AFB
Presidio
Ent AFB
Kelly AFB
Brooks AFB
Medina Annex, Lackland AFB
Ft Devens
Ft Ord
 
I forgot to mention Pease air force base in Portsmouth, NH. I believe that one is closed, too.
 
I forgot to mention Pease air force base in Portsmouth, NH. I believe that one is closed, too.
It's now Portsmouth International Airport. We pass by it every summer on our way to Maine, and this past summer we dropped someone off there to catch a flight. There may still be an Air National Guard unit there, just as there is at the Bradley Airport here in Connecticut, but the airbase is defunct.
 
Last edited:
Camp Zama, Japan
Walson Army Hospital (Ft Dix, NJ)

Not sure about Walson but was told that hospital is abandoned and in advanced state of decay
 
Back
Top Bottom