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Mr. Norton remarked that they were flying the wings off of the planes. [1], The northern tier Strategic Air Command Ready Alert Strike Force bases were considered less than desirable duty stations for one main reason. Eielson Air Force base, Alaska. The 379th was reassigned to Wurtsmith Air Force Base, Michigan without personnel or equipment in January 1961, assuming the aircraft, personnel and equipment of the discontinued 4026th Strategic Wing. Today, the Wurtsmith Air Force Base has a museum where you can learn about its history. The human-made chemicals are in your blood, your clothes, your cosmetics. http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/06/wurtsmith_veterans_health.html, http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2016/11/13/deq-we-dont-yet-know-full-extent-wurtsmith-air-base-contamination/93242484/, https://www.publicintegrity.org/2017/08/18/21105/military-bases-contamination-will-affect-water-generations, http://www.wurtsmithairmuseum.org/Wurtsmith_AFB/wurtsmith_afb.html, Military History of the Upper Great Lakes. In 1953 it was renamed Wurtsmith Air Force Base after Michigan native, Major General Paul Wurtsmith. The study doesn't estimate past concentrations or exposure dosage and was released with . Wurtsmith AFB Water Health Issues via water, Organochlorine Pesticides Levels at George AFB Family Housing. There is an ongoing project to decontaminate the area. 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 . [5] The B-52s did not get to travel nearly as much as the KC-135s. They raised $600 to clear the land, which at the time was plenty for this job. I was shocked when we drove to a wooded area not far from bomber alert pad and WSA up the road of the k9 area where a bull dozed had dug a large trench and we were ordered to dump the shit. We knew we had some kind of plane.. At the time, George was a hub of F-4 Phantom fighter jets and OV-10 Bronco reconnaissance planes. [2] The flight crashed at 2:20PM while returning from K. I. Sawyer Air Force Base in the Upper Peninsula. We didnt know really what we had.. Cindi developed hypertension and Lawrence diagnosed with lung disease. These are simply the specific . This remoteness of Wurtsmith Air Force Base, as well as common brotherhood of being in the United States Air Force resulted in a tight knit community formed by the airmen and their families. 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. Service ceiling 27,200 feet, and range was 260 miles. Wurtsmith earned recognition during the war as the leader of the group of pilots using P-40 and P-38 fighter . At the start of 1985, Wurtsmith maintained an $80 million annual payroll with 3,600 military and civilian personnel. /. [4] Its mission was tomaintain half of the fleet on a 15 minute alert, meaning the plane could be inthe air in 15 minutes, to reduce vulnerability to a Soviet preemptive missilestrike. How is it that these large and respected scientific organizations can continue to be ignored in the face of statistically overwhelming data and human impacts. We have a lot of sick civilians and = veterans from contaminated drinking water. There is no amount of PFOA that is officially recognized as harmful. However, many studies have shown otherwise. 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). 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. The chemicals, notably benzene and trichloroethylene (TCE), were documented at extremely high levels in Wurstmith AFB water many times when the former Strategic Air Command (SAC) base was active and home to B-52 Bomber Wings. This cycle was from Wednesday to Wednesday. [1]After one week in the bunker on ready alert the flight crew would be relieved. Kelly mentioned she'd been thinking about getting . The married enlisted airmen who lived on base lived in a condo type set up with their family. The Bell P-39 Airacobra was not the best fighter aircraft of WWII, but it was the only fighter available in quantity during the first six months of the war. GitHub export from English Wikipedia. The P-6 was generally similar to the P-1 in construction and appearance. WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. There are many different ways that PFOA and PFOS can affect the human body. Fast forward to 1992, with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the US Air Force inactivated Strategic Air Command. At the time, it was considered a vital Air Defense Command base and was equipped and manned with interceptor aircraft capable of flying over the North Pole into the Soviet Union. 1942 -- Camp Skeel is renamed Oscoda Army Air Field and becomes a P-47 fighter base. A sand and gravel aquifer of glacial origin underlies Wurtsmith Air Force Base in northeastern lower Michigan. Off Base Housing. There are a lot of stories to tell. 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. [5] While the 379th, Bomb Wing was stationed at Wurtsmith Air Force Base they were part of the Ready, Alert Nuclear Strike Force. After being relieved, the flight crew had until the following Monday morningoff. Veteran Compensation Programs (USVCP) (www.veteranprograms.com), and any of their associated websites is for general informational. 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. 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. Robert Krouse, 12/31/19Stationed at Wurtsmith AFB from 1978 to 1980 and lived in barracks. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. U.S. Published August 24, 2021 at 4:15 PM EDT. The gunnery range was tasked with training pilots fromSelfridge air base in the challenging maneuvers required to land a DeHavillandbiplane on the frozen lake Van Etten for the young Army Air Corps. At one point, they had to use these toxic foam chemicals to put out a fire at the Oscoda High School in 1995. [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. 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 . Two years after release I started to experience very visible loss of musculature and strength. I remember getting a letter of counseling when I wanted to object as a warning what could happen. purposes only, and is not legal advice. Today the Wurtsmith district is integral to the community's economic potential. 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. Because of the economic impact of Wurtsmith Air Force Base the community was generally supportive of the airmen, and the base itself. [3] Search Superfund Site Information. EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, 28 Dec. 2016, cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/cursites/csitinfo.cfm?id=0503675. Wurtsmith AFB has a better paper trail showing irrefutable evidence of contamination of the base drinking water with Trichloroethelene (TCE) first discovered in 1977 as a result of a complaint from a base housing resident. During the Cold War, the base became part of Strategic Air Command. As seen, in the picture of the runways, there is a Christmas tree coming off of the, beginning of the runway with a building next to it. Ellsworth Air Force base, South Dakota. It is primarily a large jet airplane salvage, jet engine maintenance and light general aviation . 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. The P-39 had a unique configuration with the engine placed behind the pilot and the drive shaft running under the cockpit to the propeller. It was built out of a portion of the decommissioned Wurtsmith Air Force Base which housed nuclear armed B-52 Stratofortress bombers during the Cold War as well as air refueling squadrons. Mrs. Cecil V. Fowler saw the crash, according to the Times Herald article. [6] 379th Bomb Wing Homestead AFB B-47 Wurtsmith AFB B-52, www.strategic-air-command.com/wings/0379bw.htm. 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 . With all of this in a single family, the V.A. Student projects from Michigan Tech's SS3505 Military History of the United States, on the people, places, and objects involving our military history in the upper Great Lakes region. 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. With that being said, these chemicals are going to be reaching a lot more people than just the Oscoda residents. My daughter was born at the base hospital. Thisflight crew would spend one week in the bunker and be confined to an undiscloseddistance from the bunker. A total of 15,683 Thunderbolts were produced by wars end, more than any other U.S. fighter. There is an ongoing project to decontaminate the area. Now, I have been diagnosed with Stage 5 kidney failure and congestive heart disease, I am currently on dialysis awaiting a kidney transplant. Contribute to chinapedia/wikipedia.en development by creating an account on GitHub. DISCLAIMER: Information displayed on U.S. They included chemicals like MEK, PD 680, TRI CHLOROFLOIANS, ACIDS, ALODIANS, ALL KINDS OF PAINTS, SPECIAL MISSILE SKIN REPAIR KITS. In addition, the rear fuselage was deepened in order that it could faire cleanly into the bottom of the radiator. (Superstorm) Sandy came along (in October) and moved things around, David Losinski said. My first assignment as a Nuclear Weapons specialist was at wurtsmith where we deployed the AGM 69A SRAM missile system. Photos of P-47s flown by French Pilots at Oscoda. In 1977 the 379th Bomb Wing upgraded the B-52H fleet to B-52G, During the Gulf War B-52s from Wurtsmith Air Force Base were flown. Environmental groups are calling on the Air Force and the State of Michigan to get serious about cleaning up PFAS around the site of the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base. They also were known as the Red Tails because they painted the tails of their aircraft red. [1] On May 9th 1961 the first B-52 landed in Wurtsmith Air Force Basesignifying the re-designation to a Strategic Air Command Base. As long as these assignments were under 180 days they were considered Temporary Duty Assignments. It is one of the most famous bases located in our state. . .. did this bill die in the committee s? During the Gulf War these planes were run practically 24/7, landing only to swap flight crews to meet the flight crew rest requirements. He brought this idea to the attention of his squadron commander Major Carl Spaatz. Survived stage 3 oral cancer and per medical review, origin unknown since I have never smoked. With this long list of negative effects it is clearly a big health issue for local residents. As a young airman, assumed we were returning the stuff to supply to send to the next base. [6], During the Gulf War B-52s from Wurtsmith Air Force Base were flownout of Prince Abdullah AB in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Lee N. 2023 Aspyre Media Group, LLC. They are surely exposed to this chemical nearly every day, whether it be playing outside on the playground or from being exposed to the chemicals via drinking the water. VA counselor "don't waste your time". The site of Wurtsmith Air Force Base is located 2 miles Northwest of Oscoda, Michigan, about 150 miles North of Detroit. distance from the bunker. The landing gear was changed from rubber-block shock absorbers inside the fuselage to oleo-and-spring units mounted in the outer forward strut. It was criticized for its low service ceiling, its slow rate of climb, and its generally poor high-altitude performance. The M&FRC is located at 1550 Wurtsmith St . 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. At this time, the camp was renamed and the airfield was under III Fighter Command jurisdiction. They have been detected in air, water, soils, sediments, and in rain at levels that would be considered unsafe in drinking . After all of that great history, the Wurtsmith Air Force Base is still standing as a place that is visited by a plethora of people. The single enlisted airmen who lived on base were housed in barracks. These levels were published by the Enviromental Protection Agency (Mlive.com). My family lived on this base in 1983 to 1987, are we at risk? There are many historical planes you can visit as well as other interesting pieces of history that the public may view. 1970 - The Air Force knew that some of the Webb Air Force Base Family Housing units, located in Big Spring Texas, were contaminated with and the occupants exposed to a large quantity of chlordane. By Steve Elliott 502nd Air Base Wing Public Affairs. This is a short video about the small museum located at the decommissioned Wurtsmith AFB in Oscoda Mi.http://www.rv-project.com This, flight crew would spend one week in the bunker and be confined to an undisclosed. [5] In recent years groundwater contamination has be linked to jet fuel, cleaning agents, and fire suppression agents used at Wurtsmith Air Force Base. I have always scheduled an apt with my dr to talk about the possibility of how this may have affected me. I saw a big splash, and then the plane went out of sight.. After being relieved, the flight crew had until the following Monday morning, off. This cycle was from Wednesday to Wednesday. Here is a list of military bases that are known to have had their drinking water contaminated with PFAS chemicals: Alameda Naval base, California. He flew from Dayton, Ohio to Washington, D.C. at a speed of approximately 266 mph, at an altitude of 25,000 ft. As previously stated, there is a museum open to the public which has artifacts and information on the bases history. A bomber squadron for example would be sent out to destroy a target and return to its home base within a week.