Paul Fisher, Steve Junge, Ray Kolota and Ed Beck stood next to the stainless steel food service table in the mess hall at the long-closed Air Force base south of Antigo. They were among dozens of people touring the base while here for a reunion. |
Reunion draws former base personnel July 26, 2010 There was a gathering of about 70 former Air Force personnel and their mates in Antigo Saturday for a reunion of those who served over the 26 year span at the 676th Radar Squadron.
The base, tucked in the Marathon County forests about nine miles southwest of Antigo, operated from 1951 to 1977 monitoring the skies of the northern states searching for unfriendly aircraft. Those were the days of what was known as the “Red Scare.”
The base had thousands of men and women filter through its gates in those 26 years and some of them took the time to visit Antigo, and even the long-idled base on Saturday afternoon.
During the dinner program the colors were presented by men who had tremendous experience doing it, and then Don Matews addressed the crowd wearing a red, white blue necktie.
He called his time at the radar base here an “enjoyable stay,” serving eight years in Antigo on three different hitches.
“I did my duty here,” he said, “and had a good time.”
Visitors at the reunion came from Illinois, Oklahoma, Florida, Nevada, California, South Carolina, Wisconsin, and of course, Antigo.
The small base had a staff of about 200 with a combination of military personnel and civilian contractors. Many of them lived in Antigo, and quite a number remain here.
After the base closed it was purchased by a Texas firm, Dutton and Dutton, a father-son team who had bought surplus military installations and turned them into industrial sites.
They did not do much salvage work at the base hoping for development, but after a number of years there were no industries interested in the buildings available on the grounds.
It was sold to Roy Kieisch and he has rented the housing complex and at an auxiliary military site that was used as a communications center until 1977, maintains a large commercial vegetable garden.
He opened the gates to allow some of the Air Force alumni to roam and remember on Saturday afternoon. Many said it was sad to see what has happened in more than three decades since it lost its military role.
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