Plattsburgh Air Force Base
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| Plattsburgh Air Force Base | |||||||||||
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USGS aerial photo as of 4 May 1994
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| IATA: PBG – ICAO: KPBG | |||||||||||
| Summary | |||||||||||
| Owner | United States Air Force | ||||||||||
| Location | Town of Plattsburgh, near Plattsburgh, New York | ||||||||||
| Built | 1954–1955 | ||||||||||
| In use | 1955–1995 | ||||||||||
| Occupants | United States Air Force | ||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 234 ft / 71 m | ||||||||||
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| Runways | |||||||||||
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Plattsburgh Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force Strategic Air Command (SAC) base covering 3,447 acres (13.7 km²) in the extreme northeast corner of New York, 20 miles (32 km) south of the Canadian border, located on the western shore of Lake Champlain opposite Burlington, Vermont, in the city of Plattsburgh, New York. . It is a military superfund site[1]
The base closed on 25 September 1995, pursuant to the Defense Base Realignment and Closure Act of 1990 (10 U.S.C. Sec. 2687 note) and the recommendations of the Defense Base Realignment and Closure Commission. It is now a civilian airport and industrial complex, operated by the Plattsburgh Air Base Development Authority. The airfield is now known as Plattsburgh International Airport.
Contents
Overview
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Geography
Plattsburgh AFB is bordered by the city of Plattsburgh and the Saranac River to the north and the Salmon River to the south. It lies on the western shore of Lake Champlain on the New York-Vermont border.[1]
Major units
308th Bombardment Wing
380th Bomb Wing
497th Air Refueling Wing
820th Strategic Aerospace Division
History
Previous designations
- Plattsburgh Air Force Base (1955-25 September 1995)
Major commands to which assigned
Major commands to which the base was assigned:
- Strategic Air Command, 1954 – June 1, 1992
- Air Mobility Command, 1 June 1992 – 25 September 1995
Major units assigned
- 308th Bombardment Wing (Wing existed on paper, but was non-operational)
- 380th Bomb Wing
- 26th Air Refueling Squadron (7 August 1957 – 31 July 1959)
- 310th Air Refueling Squadron (25 January 1967 – 30 September 1995)
- 380th Air Refueling Squadron (16 August 1956 – April 1961; 15 September 1964 – 30 September 1995)
- 528th Bombardment Squadron (11 July 1955 – 30 September 1995)
- 529th Bombardment Squadron (11 July 1955 – 25 June 1966 and 6 January 1971 – 30 September 1995)
- 530th Bombardment Squadron (11 July 1955 – 25 June 1966)
- 531st Bombardment Squadron (1 May 1959 – 1 January 1962)
- 556th Strategic Missile Squadron: 15 September 1964 – 25 June 1965)
- 497th Air Refueling Wing (1 January 1963 – 15 September 1964)
- 26th Air Refueling Squadron (1 January 1963 – 15 September 1964)
- 380th Air Refueling Squadron (1 January 1963 – 15 September 1964)
- 820th Strategic Aerospace Division
Operational history
Origins
Construction
Early history
Missile operations
Assigned aircraft
Second half of the Cold War
Built during the Cold War, Plattsburgh AFB's runway is large enough to land the space shuttle. It was on a list of alternate landing sites for the space shuttle.[2] Space shuttle Columbia astronaut Michael P. Anderson, born at Plattsburgh AFB, was an Air Force pilot at Plattsburgh AFB when he got selected by NASA in 1994.
BRAC 1991 and closure
Accidents and incidents
Current status
After the base was decommissioned, the Plattsburgh Airbase Redevelopment Corporation (PARC) was created to manage the 5,000-acre (20 km2) property. PARC split up the base into 165 parcels for redevelopment.[3] While community leaders feared in 1995, at the time of the actual closure, that the North Country's economy would collapse, this did not turn out to be the case; the base actually only accounted for about 8 percent of the local economy because it was so isolated.[4] On 16 and 17 August 1996, PARC hosted a massive music concert on the runway of the old decommissioned airbase by the band Phish. 70,000 people attended the concert known as the Clifford Ball[5] which added $20 million to the local economy.[6]
Current[when?] PARC tenants on former airbase properties include Wood Group, Pratt & Whitney Industrial Turbine Services (the first and longest continuous tenant), Bombardier,[7] Composite Factory, Inc.,[8] ORC Macro,[9] Pratt & Whitney,[10] GSM Vehicles (vintage trailer restoration) and the Westinghouse Air Brake Company (WABCO).[11]
The U.S. Air Force lists Plattsburgh among its BRAC "success stories."[12] The base's reuse and the circumstances surrounding it were chronicled in Flying High Again: PARC's Redevelopment of Plattsburgh Air Force Base, written by Marian Calabro and published by CorporateHistory.net in 2008.[13][14]
Environmental problems
While digging for new PARC construction was underway low level nuclear materials (such as contaminated protective clothing) were found buried. The levels of radiation were safe and the area was decontaminated.[citation needed]
Demographics
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See also
References
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.
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<references />, or <references group="..." />Further reading
- Maurer, Maurer. Air Force Combat Units of World War II. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office 1961, 521p (republished 1983, Office of Air Force History, ISBN 0-912799-02-1).
- Ravenstein, Charles A. Air Force Combat Wings Lineage and Honors Histories 1947–1977. Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Office of Air Force History 1984. ISBN 0-912799-12-9.
- Mueller, Robert (1989). Volume 1: Active Air Force Bases Within the United States of America on 17 September 1982. USAF Reference Series, Office of Air Force History, United States Air Force, Washington, D.C. ISBN 0-912799-53-6, ISBN 0-16-002261-4
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to [[commons:Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 506: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).|Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 506: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).]]. |
- SAC Bases: Plattsburgh AFB Marvin T. Broyhill, strategic-air-command.com., undated.
- Plattsburgh Barracks James P. Millard, historiclakes.org, undated
- Plattsburgh International Airport
- 556th Missile Sites
- Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. NY-326, "Plattsburgh Air Force Base, U.S. Route 9, Plattsburgh, Clinton County, NY", 117 photos, 38 data pages, 23 photo caption pages, and 114 other records for subsidiary structures
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- ↑ JOE LoTEMPLIO Decision to close PAFB blindsided community Plattsburgh Press-Republican (NY) September 26, 2015
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- Pages with reference errors
- Use dmy dates from June 2013
- Pages with broken file links
- Articles using small message boxes
- Vague or ambiguous time from September 2015
- Articles with unsourced statements from September 2015
- Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the Air Force Historical Research Agency
- Commons category link from Wikidata
- Closed facilities of the United States Air Force
- U.S. Route 9
- Strategic Air Command military installations
- Military Superfund sites
- Buildings and structures in Clinton County, New York
- Historic American Engineering Record in New York
- Superfund sites in New York
