ammunitions maintenance building
Loring Air Force base was originally named Limestone Army Air Field, located in northern Maine in Limestone, not far from the Canadian border. In 1954, President Eisenhower presented the widow of Major Charles Joseph Loring, Jr., USAF, with his Medal of Honor and announced that the new Air Force Base in Maine would be named in his honor for his noble spirit, superlative courage and conspicuous self-sacrifice. Major Loring was killed instantly when he maneuvered his damaged aircraft into enemy artillery batteries at Sniper Ridge, North Korea, saving countless numbers of United Nations ground forces.
The United States Air Force became a separate entity from the United States Army on Sept. 18, 1947. The United States government leaders, seeing their wartime achievements, understood potential growth by having a branch dedicated to aviation and aeronautical warfare. Loring became the first base for the United States Air Force. It was also one of three Strategic-Air-Command bases in the Northeast.
Its weapons storage capacity was 10,247,882 NEW (Net Explosive Weight) and it could hold 9,193,374 gallons of fuel. Built for its strategic geographical location at the time and warfighting capabilities, it ranked as the second largest base in SAC, with 14,300 acres.
Loring AFB supported last-chance opportunities for crews to rest and refuel before crossing the ocean. While the base was ideal for wartime, because of its proximity to Europe and the Soviet Union, it had a disadvantage by being at a distance from the western Strategic Training Route Complex and the Nevada and Utah bombing ranges.
It was targeted for closure in 1976 because its estimated cost needed for improvements amounted to $300 million. Between then and 1979, that decision was reversed after substantial debate regarding its static importance and Congress committed itself to upgrade the base facilities. By 1981 the military construction and operations and maintenance (O&M) funds had spent nearly $300 million to upgrade the facilities at Loring AFB.
In 1991 the Secretary of Defense, with the recommendation of the Secretary of the Air Force, identified Loring AFB as one of the six Strategic Air Command bases to be closed. The official closure date was Sept. 30, 1994.
In 1998, the U.S. Air Force transferred a part of the Loring AFB to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Aroostook National Wildlife Refuge was established. In addition to the transferred land, the refuge manages more than 1,500 acres of conservation easements.
Demolition of military buildings and the cleanup of contaminated soils have taken place since the refuge has been established. The refuge manages to conserve and protect wildlife species and their habitats.
Wayne Selfridge, a current volunteer and former president of Friends of Aroostook National Wildlife Refuge, was also stationed at Loring. He was actually there 11 years out of his 23 in the Air Force, where he served as security police and first sergeant.
There are definitely some interesting structures left behind and Wayne didn’t hesitate to share his knowledge. “One of the buildings is a two-story building that used to be called the Vamp House, short for Vampire House. This building was designed to look like an old schoolhouse. The entire building has fake windows and the top story is filled with cement. This building stored 120 attenuators. Each one went to a specific nuclear bomb,” Wayne said.
“The nuclear bombs were stored in bunkers: usually eight to a bunker and sometimes more. They were on trailers, so they could pull the trailers out right away and put the attenuators on them if they needed to load the planes.”
“There were additional bunkers that were beneath trees. This is where they stored the conventional weapons: the regular explosive weapons.
“The Bank is another building that was constructed two years after the Vamp House. It sits upon a level hill with a lower section that goes into the hill under the structure. When it was completed, the attenuators were moved into that building.”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service modified one of the bunkers to accommodate 30 male brown bats in December 2012 to help fight against the White-nose syndrome. WNS is a fungus known as Geomyces destructans that can wipe out an entire population of hibernating species. In 2013 it was estimated that WNS had killed 6.7 million bats. WNS persists in environments for an unknown amount of time, not requiring bats as a host. If there are no bats, it does its normal degrading of organic matter. In a natural environment, if a new bat comes along it would be exposed.
Using a manmade structure, such as a bunker, the site can be cleaned and scrubbed down and because of the bunker’s temperature and humidity, it is the perfect hibernating place for the bats. The humidity stays around 95 percent and the temperature inside the bunker stays around 37 degrees Fahrenheit, even when it’s below zero outside.
The bunkers have also become nesting places for sparrows and sandpipers. The Upland Sandpipers, which has become a species of concern in the United States, has taken to the grassland habitat.
Benjamin Brigman, a young visitor to the wildlife refuge who visited with some family members, thought the bunkers were really interesting and that Wayne gave a good historical tour and accurate facts on the places they visited. “I saw a rare bird, a bear with two small cubs and the bunkers.” His favorites were the trails and the visitor center, which was full of a lot of different items. It has books, taxidermy, displays of artifacts, including birds’ eggs, animal bones and a lot of different items for visitors to purchase and take home.
As Selfridge said, “We have a mantra there: Bombs to Biodiversity. A Cold War base can be used in the best interest of nature.”
For anyone interested in volunteering or doing a tour at the refuge, you can call 207-328-4634 and leave a message. The tours are free and can make a great group outing. The address for the refuge is 97 Refuge Road, Limestone, Maine.
