He was training with fellow pilots out of what was then Selfridge Field when his plane crashed. DISCLAIMER: Information displayed on U.S. [1] This meant that they could be flying a mission supporting a fighter squadron in Iraq, then be redirected to refuel a bomber squadron over Saudi Arabia, then fly back to Spain to land. These organizations primarily fall into seven types of activities: aviation, manufacturing, technology, medical, housing, education, community services and technology. [1] While this was a relatively boring week, it was extremely stressful, because no one knew when the alarm would sound, but more importantly no one, knew if it would be a drill or not. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. I was stationed there 1988-1992. Kelly mentioned she'd been thinking about getting . [1] On May 9th 1961 the first B-52 landed in Wurtsmith Air Force Basesignifying the re-designation to a Strategic Air Command Base. At this time, the camp was renamed and the airfield was under III Fighter Command jurisdiction. These bases were, responsible for a housing a Ready Alert Nuclear Strike Force. We didnt know really what we had.. A ground-water divide cuts diagonally across the Base from northwest to sou U.S. [1] As tensions increased around the world and the likelihood of an actual mission being flown while on ready alert increased, the weekbecame more stressful. A sand and gravel aquifer of glacial origin underlies Wurtsmith Air Force Base in northeastern lower Michigan. Traci Kroushour, an Oscoda resident until the age of 12, had her uterus removed at the age of 28 and can never have children. We offer visitors three hangars full of military (all branches) and aviation history, static aircraft displays, artifacts, equipment and lots of WAFB memorabilia. Welcome to The WAFB Historical Site dedicated to preserving the history and heritage of Wurtsmith Air Force Base and the units assigned there. All the artifacts that were taken off were replaced in their original position and original situation except for the tag we cleaned up, he said. These contaminants are harmful to the environment. During those efforts, they noted several areas they wanted to investigate, including one about four miles north of the Blue Water Bridge. Oscoda-Wurtsmith Airport became a public airport in 1993. https://www.oscairport.com/index.php/available-properties/, https://www.oscairport.com/index.php/development-site/, https://www.afhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/APH-Winter2016.pdf, http://www.armytimes.com/story/news/2014/07/30/divers-find-wreckage-of-world-war-ii-era-plane/13354373/, https://wurtsmithairmuseum.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Air-Refueling-Squadron-_-Real-People-_-George-Schlatter720p.mp4. August 8, 2018. Published August 24, 2021 at 4:15 PM EDT. This could be from hydrant flushing or a water main break. PFOA exposure is also shown to be associated with increased risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children between ages 12-15. By Steve Elliott 502nd Air Base Wing Public Affairs. [5] One crew flew 29, mission out of Jeddah, setting the record for most missions flew by a bomber, crew in theater. In 1942, three 5000x150 concrete runways were built. Anyone know the status on this? The B-52 is being serviced under the Strategic Air Command Recovery Oriented Aircraft Maintenance (ROAM) system. While the vast majority of personnel on Wurtsmith AirForce Base were not part of a flight crew rotating through ready alert, theirrespective jobs all served to ensure those planes could take off at a momentsnotice. So now what? Lester Graham. [6] The 379th Bomb Wing wasdisbanded on June 30th 1993. Engine not damaged. Drinking Water At Wurtsmith AFB Contaminted. The 4026th was a SAC Major Command controlled (MAJCON) wing that had been organized on 1 August 1958. Drinking water laced with high levels of poisonous chemicals may be to blame for cancer and other chronic disease among veterans and families who lived at Wurtsmith Air Force Base in northern Michigan, according to a new federal health report draft. [1] This meant that there was always at least threeB-52s armed with nuclear bombs, ready to take off at a moments notice. As a young airman, assumed we were returning the stuff to supply to send to the next base. I didnt know anything about the Tuskegee Airmen until we got into this.. In July 2018 the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), set the table for Congress to consider legislation that would force the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to extend health benefits to base veterans without making them prove their illnesses are linked to chemical exposure. The Strategic Air Command activated a wing there on August 1, 1958. The Wurtsmith Air Force Incident. For example a KC-135 could take off from Wurtsmith Air Force Base, fly across the Pacific Ocean, land in Spain, have the flight crew be relieved by a fresh crew, fly into theater, complete the mission and return to Spain, where the original crew would be rested and ready to fly the KC-135 back to Wurtsmith Air Force Base. Comprehensive Base Plan, Department of the Air Force, Directorate of Engineering and Services DCS/PRE - Washington DC 1 April 1970 (revised 12 July 1978) . Because of the economic impact of Wurtsmith Air Force Base the community was generally supportive of the airmen, and the base itself. Lt. Ennis Whitehead was part of a unit at Selfridge Army Air Field. Many of drums ruptured. A short time later in July 1944 it was being used to train Free French Air Force pilots, which eventually led to more and more training and more and more storage of aircraft like the B-52G (oscairport.com). During World War II, P-47 fighters were assigned to Oscoda. My family lived on this base in 1983 to 1987, are we at risk? Senator Gary Peters (MI), member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, today called on the Air Force to expedite PFAS cleanup efforts at the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Oscoda.In a letter to Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Installations, Environment and Energy John . Off Base Housing. Since its establishment in 1923, Wurtsmith played an important role in World War II, Vietnam and the Persian Gulf War, hosting the 134th Army Air Force Base Fighter Unit and 379th Bombardment Wing respectively. Because of this KC-135 squadrons would routinely fly 175 day assignments and return to their home base. Weve done quite a bit of documenting and measuring, David Losinski said. The 5,223-acre Wurtsmith Air Force Base (Wurtsmith AFB) is located on the northeastern part of Michigan's lower peninsula. As an officer Mr. Norton had to sit in on Court-Martials. USVCP Staff Writers . The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality released a report Thursday, Aug. 30, concluding that Wurtsmith wells were 'likely impacted' by PFAS contamination between 1978 and 1997, when municipal water from Lake Huron was brought to the base. There are many good photos of P-39s at Selfridge Field (Posted below), but none of P-39s at Oscoda. A total of 15,683 Thunderbolts were produced by wars end, more than any other U.S. fighter. The base is influential in Michigan, as well as the United States military history. [4] Its mission was to, maintain half of the fleet on a 15 minute alert, meaning the plane could be in, the air in 15 minutes, to reduce vulnerability to a Soviet preemptive missile, strike. [1], The northern tier Strategic Air Command Ready Alert Strike Force bases were considered less than desirable duty stations for one main reason. The result was an airplane which had a much deeper and broader fuselage than did the P-1. Lee N. 2023 Aspyre Media Group, LLC. The military has not begun cleanups at any of the 50 Department of Defense sites Congress has identified as highly contaminated with the "forever chemicals" known as PFAS - and it could be years before cleanups are complete. They included chemicals like MEK, PD 680, TRI CHLOROFLOIANS, ACIDS, ALODIANS, ALL KINDS OF PAINTS, SPECIAL MISSILE SKIN REPAIR KITS. My husband and our two children lived there from 1985-1993 I have a nerve problem my daughter has autoimmune (MS) youngest daughter has kidney problems. They were stationed at the air base from 1986 to 1993. The married officers lived in a standalone house with their family. After being relieved, the flight crew had until the following Monday morningoff. There are many historical planes you can visit as well as other interesting pieces of history that the public may view. distance from the bunker. [5] The 379th flew with a Triangle K tail flash to continue thetradition from their World War II counterparts. Mr. Norton remarked that they were flying the wings off of the planes. Heavily armed with eight wing-mounted 0.50-inch (12.7-mm) machine guns, it could carry a bomb load of as much as 2,500 pounds (1,100 kg) and could carry ten 5-inch (127-mm) rockets beneath the wings. Although in the past the Wurtsmith Air Force Base was extremely successful there are some prevalent issues with it today. Typically, brown-ish water occurs when there is large change in pressure/flow in a distribution system. While many of the airmen preferred to live on base it was possible for them to buy or rent a house or apartment off post. In addition across the base boundary dirt road was the EOD range where every friday morning we burned and destroyed old munitions and other stuff they needed disposed of. The ready alert flight crews were rotated on a three week cycle. In this June 6, 2018 photo, PFAS foam washes up on the shoreline of Van Etten Lake in Oscoda Township, Mich., near Wurtsmith Air Force Base. Over the course of Mr. Nortons career as both a KC-135 Navigatorand a DC-10 Pilot, Mr. Norton served as a flight commander, served numerousdeployments during the Gulf War escorting fighter squadrons from the UnitedStates into theater, supporting fighter squadrons and bomber squadrons intheater, served multiple temporary duty assignments to England, Spain, SaudiArabia, Alaska, and other Air Force Bases around the globe. WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. The plane was equipped with the cannon and four .50-caliber machine guns two mounted on the wings, two more just behind the propeller and timed to fire through the spinning blades. Located in Oscoda, Michigan this base is positioned no more than two miles off the shore of Lake Huron. The Wurtsmith Air Force Base, created in 1923, played a large role in WWII. I lived in base housing, I want to say 8607H Ohio from 82-84. OSCODA, Mich. - Oscoda residents and PFAS activists today held a press conference on the shores of Van Etten Lake to set the record straight on the Air Force's contamination of their community from the former Wurtsmith Air . More individuals impacted by these chemicals are Cindi and Lawrence Ashbeck. The base became a permanent installation on January 1, 1951, when the U. S. Air Force designated it as a fighter training base for the Air Defense command. The sources Im using include The Air Force Historical Research Agency (AFRA); Photo collections from Wurtsmith Museum; Photo collections from Selfridge Museum, Selfridge AFB Historical files; and Aircraft Accident Reports. He saw the surrounding land and figured it would make a great place for a gunnery range. [6] 379th Bomb Wing Homestead AFB B-47 Wurtsmith AFB B-52, www.strategic-air-command.com/wings/0379bw.htm. [1] On the first Wednesday the, fresh flight crew would relive the current flight crew in the bunkers. [1] At some point over the week an alarm would sound, signaling to the flight crew that the B-52s had to be in the air. This is a very big issue for the people of Oscoda and the surrounding areas for obvious reasons. Ruben C. Moffat flew a P-6 converted with a supercharged Conqueror engine on a record-breaking flight. I still stay in touch with Gary but do not know if he has an e-mail account. [1] On the first Wednesday thefresh flight crew would relive the current flight crew in the bunkers. My first assignment as a Nuclear Weapons specialist was at wurtsmith where we deployed the AGM 69A SRAM missile system. The Air Force . The P-6E was quite a good-looking airplane, and became the most famous of the Hawk line of biplane fighters. This air field was in dire need of a gunnery range because they being forced out of their gunnery range on Lake St. Clair. I was stationed there 1978 -81 lived on base they never told us about the water being contaminated . I have also read about the PFAS via fire retardant foam. If your base is not on the map or list above, this does not mean you were not exposed to PFAS chemicals from firefighting foam. This meant that Wurtsmith Air Force Base was essentially a self-contained airport with all of the necessities to support a full community on Base. These mission were into Iraq. On January 18, 1994 it was listed as a Superfund due to extensive groundwater contamination with heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds, including trichloroethylene, 1,1-dichloroethane, 1,1,1-trichloroethane . It had a commissary, a gas station, a hospital, housing, a bowling alley," said veteran Michael Grogan. This resulted in KC-135 squadrons spending a greater amount of time on temporary duty assignments than other squadrons from Wurtsmith Air Force Base. It still haunts me today that we had to do that and were told to just follow orders. Contribute to chinapedia/wikipedia.en development by creating an account on GitHub. Bert E. Skeel in 1924. The Wurtsmith Air Museum is an all-volunteer, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, dedicated to preserving the history of Wurtsmith Air Force Base and aviation in Northeastern Michigan. She gave Kelly the rundown of the base. Thisflight crew would spend one week in the bunker and be confined to an undiscloseddistance from the bunker. . From humble beginnings in the 1920's as a aircraft gunnery range, to its status as a vital member of our strategic defense, Wurtsmith Air Force Base has distinguished itself as an important part of our country's military history. The 5,221-acre site is bounded by Van Etten Lake to the north and east . She also has many other irregular health problems including bone death, fibromyalgia, irregular heartbeat, gastrointestinal problems, and underdeveloped reproductive organs. Everyone from the mechanics keeping the planes flyable, to the cooks, preparing food for the airmen stationed at Wurtsmith Air Force Base, to the, commanders who ensured that everything from the flight schedules being correct. There is a lot of open runways still today that can be rented out for a multitude of events. While these crews were on ready alert they did not have a wholelot to do. [5] In recent years groundwater contamination has be linked to jet fuel, cleaning agents, and fire suppression agents used at Wurtsmith Air Force Base. The Air Force knew about the contamination and spent millions since 1977 to try to cover up the problem by adding phosphates to mask the odor of the chemical in the water. The 700 hp Conqueror engine was exceptionally powerful for its day, but it had many minor and some major faults which needed to be corrected. One of these places included directly underneath the Oscoda high school. All kind of special chemicals that Boeing told the USAF we had to have. When the Gulf War started in 1990, the 379, Bomber Wing sent B-52s as well as their accompanying KC-135s into the Middle East. [1] While this was a relatively boring week, it was extremely stressfulbecause no one knew when the alarm would sound, but more importantly no oneknew if it would be a drill or not. My mom was recently diagnosed a month ago with colon cancer and skin cancer and still being treated by a dr, my broth had sever ulcers his entire early childhood. By comparing the concentrations of known fluorosurfactants with the total organofluorine, less than 10% of the fluorosurfactants were identified in half of the samples. Tests in Michigan near the former Wurtsmith Air Force base have found PFOS in groundwater at levels as high as 42,000 ppt. Learn how your comment data is processed. That plane actually crashed April 11, 1944, which was 70 years to the date that the picture was taken, Drew Losinski said. Their children developed asthma, spinal defects and thyroid problems. This article is from 2018.. This cycle was from Wednesday to Wednesday. Congress set a May 2022 deadline for the DOD to report on the cleanup status of these bases, the Filthy 50, with extremely high levels of PFAS contamination. At one point, they had to use these toxic foam chemicals to put out a fire at the Oscoda High School in 1995. Aircraft was at Camp Skeel, Oscoda Michigan for Aerial Gunnery training. The former base includes 4,626 acres (1,872ha) located approximately two miles west of Lake Huron in the Charter Township of Oscoda, bordered by Van Ettan Lake, the [1], The ready alert flight crews were rotated on a three week cycle. The base is located in Oscoda, Iosco County, Michigan. Service ceiling 27,200 feet, and range was 260 miles. What they had was a one-seat warplane piloted by 2nd Lt. Frank H. Moody, of Los Angeles. At the time, George was a hub of F-4 Phantom fighter jets and OV-10 Bronco reconnaissance planes. It was renamed Camp Skeel in 1924, for the World War I Pilot Captain Burt E. Skeel, and was used as an aerial gunnery range and for winter maneuvers 1924 through 1944 by the 1st Pursuit . One of the unfortunate risks in flying is a crash. Facebook: Wurtsmith AFB Water Health Issues via water Created to serve as a reference point for former WAFB residents to share information regarding health issues, and probable chemical exposure via base water sources. WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Mrs. Cecil V. Fowler saw the crash, according to the Times Herald article. Veteran Compensation Programs (www.veteranprograms.com) does not monitor, pre-screen or moderate posts, surveys, topics, comments, blogs or responses. If you, a friend, or loved one has been injured or died as a result of the contamination at a DOD Superfund Site please follow the steps that are outlined at Get Help. It is perhaps the best-known of all the between wars Army pursuits. There is an ongoing project to decontaminate the area. Now I see this years later. During the Gulf War these planes were run practically 24/7, landing only to swap flight crews to meet the flight crew rest requirements. Im using a combination of several source materials to tell the history of the area. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. He brought this idea to the attention of his squadron commander Major Carl Spaatz. Prior to our IOC inspection for the SRAM we were ordered to clean out igloos full of barrels 5gal to 55gal drums,1,000s of gallons which had been ordered by mistake to start the system. Investigation determined a defective tire caused the accident. [1], The usefulness and mission type of the KC-135 in maintaining air superiority, as well as supporting missions originating in the United States meant that they would have longer assignments, as well as much more fluid assignments than other types of squadrons. It was eerie, David Losinski said. Environmental context Total organofluorine and known fluorosurfactants were quantified in 11 aqueous film forming foams (AFFFs) used to extinguish fires in Ontario, Canada, and one commercial AFFF product. Today, the Wurtsmith Air Force Base has a museum where you can learn about its history. Because the Committee on Toxicology (NRC, 1979) concluded that it could not determine a level of exposure to chlordane below which there would be no biologic effect under conditions of prolonged exposure of families in military housing. The pesticide levels and CERCLA 120(h) Deed Restrictions are public information and readily available. Fast forward to 1992, with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the US Air Force inactivated Strategic Air Command. A ground-water divide cuts diagonally across the Base from northwest to . The P-47s radial engine proved remarkably resistant to battle damage and, with its heavy armament and well-armored cockpit, the Thunderbolt established a reputation as one of the most effective fighter-bombers of the war. Home Buyers Guide; Find a Real Estate Agent; Price: $299,000. Smoke started coming from the tail of the second plane, and I could see it was in trouble. It was criticized for its low service ceiling, its slow rate of climb, and its generally poor high-altitude performance.
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