Two of the balloon style radar towers were idle this week at the base. |
Air Force base reunion nears July 22, 2010 Some of the men and women who served with the 676th Radar Squadron will be returning here this weekend to exchange stories and experiences that date back nearly 60 years.
The base, tucked in a forested area of Marathon County about nine miles southwest of Antigo, was a tremendous social and financial engine for the region — as well as serving a role for the protection of the northern United States during the “Red Scare” era.
The former Air Force crew will meet at the Antigo Elks Lodge Friday evening and Saturday afternoon and evening and the owner of the idled Air Force complex, Roy Kleisch, has allowed the past military personnel to take a tour of the facility.
The government purchased the land for the base during 1950 and work at the site got underway quietly in 1951. The facility was activated in 1952, as part of a network of radar units across the northern United States looking for aircraft that may be ferrying nuclear weapons.
Technology exploded during the following two decades and by 1977, when the colors were lowered at the base by Air Force personnel for the last time, the fever pitch of the “Scare” had pretty well faded.
But the economic and social impact of the closing hit Antigo and Langlade County hard. The millions and millions of dollars that were pumped into the base to pay military personnel, contractors and purchase utilities, were simply gone in a heartbeat.
Since 1977 the base has had two owners, starting with a Texas firm known as Dutton & Dutton, which had plans to develop the site for industrial uses, but that project failed.
Kleisch bought it a number of years ago, did salvage work in some of the buildings, and continues to maintain a housing complex attached to the property.
Some of the military buildings are falling apart after nearly 60 years but the gigantic concrete tower that supported the sweeping radar antenna looks much today as it did when constructed five decades ago.
That structure may just last for the ages, and it will certainly be an anchor for the men and women attending the reunion this weekend.
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