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73-493: Loring Air Force Base ( IATA : LIZ , ICAO : KLIZ ) was a United States Air Force installation in northeastern Maine , near Limestone and Caribou in Aroostook County . It was one of the largest bases of the U.S. Air Force's Strategic Air Command during its existence, and was transferred to the newly created Air Combat Command in 1992. The base's origins began in 1947 with an order for construction of an airfield by

146-513: A Medal of Honor recipient during the Korean War . During the morning of 22 November 1952, he led a flight of F-80 Shooting Stars on patrol over Kunwha . After beginning a dive bombing run and getting hit, he entered into a controlled dive and destroyed a Chinese gun emplacement on Sniper Ridge that was harassing United Nations troops. Limestone Air Force Base was renamed in his honor. Designations of Loring Air Force Base: Major commands to which

219-419: A 10,000-foot (3,000 m) runway. Loring was built on 14,300 acres (58 km) of land, making it the biggest SAC base in the country. This in turn allowed for it to have the largest capacity for weapon storage and for fuel storage in all of SAC. (Its overall capacity ranked second among all 21 SAC bases). The weapons storage capacity was the highest in all of SAC, 10,247,882 NEW (Net Explosive Weight), and it

292-627: A 250-person barracks (which would later become Building 6000), a water supply system, and a railroad spur to the base from the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad ). One of the first structures was the Arch Hangar. At the time, it was the largest monolithic arch roof structure in the US, and one of the largest hangars in the world. The construction of the hangar was also groundbreaking, including a foundation set on bedrock, extensive footing structures, intricate formwork, and

365-553: A 340-foot arch span. The runway was another major construction task. The airfield in northern Maine was subject to freeze-thaw cycles and had bogs and various types of groundcover; 2.1 million cubic yards of material was removed. The foundation of the runway was constructed to a depth of 70 inches (1.78 m) of a flexible bituminous-concrete pavement. This was all done on a runway that was 10,000 feet (3,050 m) in length and 300 feet (90 m) wide. The month of June 1950 began 44 years of constant activity at Limestone. On 10 June,

438-442: A home for airmen and their families. January 1954 brought the declaration of the 42nd being capable of implementing its Emergency War Plan . On 1 October, the base was renamed after Charles Loring Jr., and became "Loring Air Force Base". One week later, the 45th Air Division was activated at Loring and designated the primary base unit. It was also designated that month as the primary staging location for fighter aircraft flying out of

511-550: A new airport is built, replacing the old one, leaving the city's new "major" airport (or the only remaining airport) code to no longer correspond with the city's name. The original airport in Nashville, Tennessee, was built in 1936 as part of the Works Progress Administration and called Berry Field with the designation, BNA. A new facility known as Nashville International Airport was built in 1987 but still uses BNA. This

584-399: A school, an officers club, a bakery, and a briefing and training building. The base was one of the first constructed after World War II and also one of the first to retain as much surrounding vegetation as possible in case there was a need to camouflage the airfield and surrounding facilities. It avoided the traditional grid system for roads. Hangars were built for the additional aircraft at

657-499: Is GSN and its IATA code is SPN, and some coincide with IATA codes of non-U.S. airports. Canada's unusual codes—which bear little to no similarity with any conventional abbreviation to the city's name—such as YUL in Montréal , and YYZ in Toronto , originated from the two-letter codes used to identify weather reporting stations in the 1930s. The letters preceding the two-letter code follow

730-600: Is available. However, many railway administrations have their own list of codes for their stations, such as the list of Amtrak station codes . Airport codes arose out of the convenience that the practice brought pilots for location identification in the 1930s. Initially, pilots in the United States used the two-letter code from the National Weather Service (NWS) for identifying cities. This system became unmanageable for cities and towns without an NWS identifier, and

803-518: Is different from the name in English, yet the airport code represents only the English name. Examples include: Due to scarcity of codes, some airports are given codes with letters not found in their names: The use of 'X' as a filler letter is a practice to create three-letter identifiers when more straightforward options were unavailable: Some airports in the United States retained their NWS ( National Weather Service ) codes and simply appended an X at

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876-513: Is in conjunction to rules aimed to avoid confusion that seem to apply in the United States, which state that "the first and second letters or second and third letters of an identifier may not be duplicated with less than 200 nautical miles separation." Thus, Washington, D.C. area's three airports all have radically different codes: IAD for Washington–Dulles , DCA for Washington–Reagan (District of Columbia Airport), and BWI for Baltimore (Baltimore–Washington International, formerly BAL). Since HOU

949-532: Is not followed outside the United States: In addition, since three letter codes starting with Q are widely used in radio communication, cities whose name begins with "Q" also had to find alternate codes, as in the case of: IATA codes should not be confused with the FAA identifiers of U.S. airports. Most FAA identifiers agree with the corresponding IATA codes, but some do not, such as Saipan , whose FAA identifier

1022-412: Is operated as Loring International Airport . For the majority of its operational lifetime, Loring was a heavy bomber , aerial refueling , and interception facility for military aircraft, equipment, and supplies first as part of Strategic Air Command (SAC) (1947–1992), then as part of the succeeding Air Combat Command (ACC) (1992–1994). Loring was planned in 1947 as Limestone Army Air Field and

1095-416: Is used for William P. Hobby Airport , the new Houston–Intercontinental became IAH. The code BKK was originally assigned to Bangkok–Don Mueang and was later transferred to Suvarnabhumi Airport , while the former adopted DMK. The code ISK was originally assigned to Gandhinagar Airport (Nashik's old airport) and later on transferred to Ozar Airport (Nashik's current airport). Shanghai–Hongqiao retained

1168-737: The Alert Area , which operated as a separate facility within Loring, due to crews being constantly stationed on alert. The Double Cantilever Hangar was the largest hangar at the facility, with the capacity to hold six parked B-52s, or five B-36s. Another nearby installation was the GLOBECOM Communications Annex #2, located in Perham, Maine . From 1955 to 1962, it was run by the 2192nd Communications Squadron , which operated from Loring AFB. One of Loring's major secondary missions included serving as

1241-561: The Canadian transcontinental railroads were built, each station was assigned its own two-letter Morse code : When the Canadian government established airports, it used the existing railway codes for them as well. If the airport had a weather station, authorities added a "Y" to the front of the code, meaning "Yes" to indicate it had a weather station or some other letter to indicate it did not. When international codes were created in cooperation with

1314-627: The Cold War , new U.S. Air Force bases were constructed along the northern border of the continental U.S.; their most direct route to the Soviet Union was through the Arctic Circle . These sites were high-importance strategic bases for hosting long-range missiles and aircraft. In 1947, the New England Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers chose a site in northeastern Maine, within both

1387-567: The Limestone Township and Caswell Plantation . The remote site consisted mostly of dense forest, shallow marshes , and wild blueberry bogs, on a slight plateau over the town, which helped keep it above the fog most of the time. Only a small part of the base was suitable for farming, so there was little impact on Aroostook County 's agricultural community. Additionally, Loring was not far from sources of materials for runway, taxiway, and parking apron construction. The most important benefit of

1460-481: The New England Division of the United States Army Corps of Engineers . The chosen site, in northeastern Maine within both Limestone Township and Caswell Plantation , was the closest point in the continental U.S. to Europe, providing high strategic value during the Cold War . The base was originally named Limestone Army Air Field , and was renamed Limestone Air Force Base following the establishment of

1533-562: The North River Depot , the remote area to the northeast of Loring's property was the first U.S. operational site specifically constructed for the storage, assembly, and testing of atomic weapons. In 1951, the Department of Defense (DOD) allocated funds for the construction of an ordnance storage site at Loring AFB. The designs called for a self-sufficient "maximum security storage area for the most advanced weapons of mankind". The mission of

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1606-815: The "State of Maine", was permanently stationed at Loring. In November 1956, the Air Force used the base for publicity. On 10 November, the Soviet Union threatened to oust British and French troops from the Middle East, days after the end of the Suez Crisis . After a response by president Dwight D. Eisenhower to the United Nations, a reporter with the Associated Press visited Castle Air Force Base in California after SAC

1679-623: The 42d Bombardment Wing from 1 April 1953 to 6 September 1956; the KC-97G Stratotanker, which was assigned from 15 February 1955 to 16 December 1957; the B-52C Stratofortress, which was assigned 16 June 1956 to January 1957; the |KC-135A Stratotanker, which was assigned from 16 October 1957 to 7 May 1990; the B-52G, which was assigned from January 1957 to 16 November 1993; and the KC-135R, which

1752-466: The 42nd OG, other components of the 42nd Bomb Wing were: Upon Loring's 1994 closure, the 42nd was moved to Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, where it became the 42nd Air Base Wing . All other squadrons of the wing were inactivated and have remained inactive, except for the 69th, which was reactivated in 2009 at Minot Air Force Base . Loring AFB was named in 1954 for Major Charles J. Loring, Jr. , USAF,

1825-427: The 69th Bomb Squadron from Minot Air Force Base landed at Loring after some 30 years since the ceasation of B-52 operations from the base and to honor the 42nd Bomber Wing. The event on this occations was to celebrate not only the history of the 42nd Bomber Wing but a Loring Open House Event that was being held. The Nuclear Weapons Storage Area at Loring once operated as a separate, top secret facility. Originally called

1898-477: The 7 officers and 78 airmen of the Limestone Detachment arrived, as the tenant unit during construction. Two days later, an aircraft from Oklahoma arrived. On the 15th, limited operations began at Limestone, as Cold War tensions began to heat up. The next day, a B-36 Peacemaker arrived and later departed. 1 July brought the re-designation of the Limestone Detachment as the 4215th Base Service Squadron . After

1971-417: The Air Force in 1947. It was named in 1954 for Major Charles J. Loring, Jr. , USAF, a Medal of Honor recipient during the Korean War . From 1951 to 1962, it was co-located next to Caribou Air Force Station . Loring was home to a civilian population, many of whom were employed alongside active duty service members. The base included many amenities, such as a hospital, school, and ski hill, which facilitated

2044-534: The Army Corps of Engineers managed the construction of these sites. The sites were manned by men from the 3rd Missile Battalion, 61st Air Defense Artillery Regiment , and provided defense for Loring and the northeastern approaches to the United States. In 1960, sites L-13 and L-58 underwent conversion from Ajax missiles to the MIM-14 Nike-Hercules missiles. These sites remained operational until 1966, although

2117-575: The Continental United States to and from Europe. Loring had 63 permanent aircraft assigned, and air traffic was significantly increased. As the Cold War progressed, so did the need for new aircraft and techniques. The first KC-97 Stratofreighter arrived at Loring with the activation of the 42d Air Refueling Squadron in January 1955. The B-36s were not actually equipped to perform aerial refueling, so

2190-507: The Korean War broke out, the decision was made to increase the squadron's size to 28 officers, 340 airmen, and 20 civilians. August brought the first permanently assigned aircraft, a C-47 Skytrain , and more aircraft using the base as a stopover between the States and Europe. The war brought increased funding to Limestone in 1951. Eight additional hangars were constructed at the southwestern end of

2263-459: The SAC bomber force went to full alert status. SAC's overall goal was achieved in 1960. On 11 March 1958, base personnel were the first members of the Air Force to land a B-52 in a wheels-up configuration at Westover AFB near Springfield, Massachusetts . After being lifted up and onto its wheels, the plane was flown to Kelly AFB at San Antonio, Texas , for a complete overhaul and inspection, before it

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2336-473: The U.S. For example, several airports in Alaska have scheduled commercial service, such as Stebbins and Nanwalek , which use FAA codes instead of ICAO codes. Thus, neither system completely includes all airports with scheduled service. Some airports are identified in colloquial speech by their IATA code. Examples include LAX and JFK . 45th Air Division Too Many Requests If you report this error to

2409-481: The United States, because "Y" was seldom used in the United States, Canada simply used the weather station codes for its airports, changing the "Y" to a "Z" if it conflicted with an airport code already in use. The result is that most major Canadian airport codes start with "Y" followed by two letters in the city's name (for example, YOW for O tta w a , YWG for W innipe g , YYC for C algar y , or YVR for V ancouve r ), whereas other Canadian airports append

2482-472: The ability to deploy at any time to support both SAC, and later, ACC missions. It was operational at Loring from 1953 to 1994. The 42nd Operations Group (OG) formerly supported national security objectives, as directed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, utilizing B-52 and KC-135 aircraft. Operational squadrons during the time of its operation at Loring included: All B-52s carried the "LZ" Tailcode. In addition to

2555-770: The adjacent Loring Air Force Base. To provide air defense of the base, four United States Army Nike-Hercules surface-to-air missile sites were constructed during 1956. Sites were located near Caribou (L-58) 46°53′02″N 068°00′32″W  /  46.88389°N 68.00889°W  / 46.88389; -68.00889 ; Caswell (L-13) 47°01′42″N 067°48′35″W  /  47.02833°N 67.80972°W  / 47.02833; -67.80972 ; Connor Twp. (L-85) 47°00′29″N 068°01′06″W  /  47.00806°N 68.01833°W  / 47.00806; -68.01833 , and Limestone (L-31) 46°55′04″N 067°47′32″W  /  46.91778°N 67.79222°W  / 46.91778; -67.79222 Maine. The New England Division of

2628-598: The adjustment to Maine life by the civilians. The 1991 Base Realignment and Closure Commission recommended that Loring be closed and its aircraft and mission be distributed to other bases in the nation. The base was closed in September 1994 after over 40 years of service. It was redeveloped by the Loring Development Authority as the Loring Commerce Centre , an industrial and aviation park; the airfield

2701-440: The airport itself instead of the city it serves, while another code is reserved which refers to the city itself which can be used to search for flights to any of its airports. For instance: Or using a code for the city in one of the major airports and then assigning another code to another airport: When different cities with the same name each have an airport, they need to be assigned different codes. Examples include: Sometimes,

2774-418: The airport's former name, such as Orlando International Airport 's MCO (for Mc C o y Air Force Base), or Chicago's O'Hare International Airport , which is coded ORD for its original name: Or char d Field. In rare cases, the code comes from the airport's unofficial name, such as Kahului Airport 's OGG (for local aviation pioneer Jimmy H ogg ). In large metropolitan areas, airport codes are often named after

2847-404: The base was assigned: Major units which were assigned to Loring: Loring AFB was carved out of the woods of Maine beginning in the late forties and officially dedicated in 1953, named after Charles J. Loring, Jr., who was killed in the Korean War. The closest Air Force base on the east coast to Europe, it was originally built with a capacity of 100 B-36 Peacemaker bombers and equipped with

2920-550: The base, including the 250-by-600-foot (80 by 180 m) double cantilever hangar, one of the first built by the Air Force in response to a demand for more efficient maintenance space. It could house five B-36 Peacemakers and six B-52 Stratofortresses, and nine planned concrete arch hangars were no longer needed. The runway was resurfaced in 1955 in anticipation of the arrival of the B-52 Stratofortress in 1956. Eighteen additional "nose-dock" hangars (hangars which could contain

2993-491: The code SHA, while the newer Shanghai–Pudong adopted PVG. The opposite was true for Berlin : the airport Berlin–Tegel used the code TXL, while its smaller counterpart Berlin–Schönefeld used SXF; the Berlin Brandenburg Airport has the airport code BER, which is also part of its branding. The airports of Hamburg (HAM) and Hannover (HAJ) are less than 100 nautical miles (190 km) apart and therefore share

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3066-874: The end. Examples include: A lot of minor airfields without scheduled passenger traffic have ICAO codes but not IATA codes, since the four letter codes allow more number of codes, and IATA codes are mainly used for passenger services such as tickets, and ICAO codes by pilots. In the US, such airfields use FAA codes instead of ICAO. There are airports with scheduled service for which there are ICAO codes but not IATA codes, such as Nkhotakota Airport/Tangole Airport in Malawi or Chōfu Airport in Tokyo, Japan. There are also several minor airports in Russia (e.g., Omsukchan Airport ) which lack IATA codes and instead use internal Russian codes for booking. Flights to these airports cannot be booked through

3139-409: The facility would be the protection and maintenance of the weapons used by SAC. The facility was in the northeast corner of the base, and construction began on 4 August 1951. In addition to 28 storage igloos and other weapons storage structures, the facility included weapons maintenance buildings, barracks, recreational facilities, a warehouse, and offices. A parallel series of four fences, one of which

3212-666: The first few months, the wing was not assigned any aircraft, and thus worked with other units who were in possession of the B-36 Peacemaker. In March and April, the base began preparing for operations of the B-36, which arrived later in April. This gave the newly activated 69th Bombardment Squadron a full complement of aircraft. By the end of August, the number had increased to 27 bombers, 322 officers, 313 airmen, and 350 civilians. Additionally, more buildings were constructed on base, making it more of

3285-557: The first three letters of the city in which it is located, for instance: The code may also be a combination of the letters in its name, such as: Sometimes the airport code reflects pronunciation, rather than spelling, namely: For many reasons, some airport codes do not fit the normal scheme described above. Some airports, for example, cross several municipalities or regions, and therefore, use codes derived from some of their letters, resulting in: Other airports—particularly those serving cities with multiple airports—have codes derived from

3358-431: The flight time could have been reduced by 5 to 6 hours if the four inflight refuelings had been done by fast jet-powered tanker aircraft rather than propeller-driven KC-97 Stratofreighters. After the flight ended, the planes landed at Friendship International Airport . The operation distracted public attention from the reporter's story. The base was also the location of an experimental system of steam pipes in 1957, to test

3431-474: The following format: Most large airports in Canada have codes that begin with the letter "Y", although not all "Y" codes are Canadian (for example, YUM for Yuma, Arizona , and YNT for Yantai , China), and not all Canadian airports start with the letter "Y" (for example, ZBF for Bathurst, New Brunswick ). Many Canadian airports have a code that starts with W, X or Z, but none of these are major airports. When

3504-593: The form of " YYZ ", a song by the rock band Rush , which utilizes the Morse code signal as a musical motif. Some airports have started using their IATA codes as brand names , such as Calgary International Airport (YYC) and Vancouver International Airport (YVR). Numerous New Zealand airports use codes that contain the letter Z, to distinguish them from similar airport names in other countries. Examples include HLZ for Hamilton , ZQN for Queenstown , and WSZ for Westport . Predominantly, airport codes are named after

3577-480: The headquarters for the 45th Air Division from 8 October 1954 to 18 January 1958, and on 20 November 1958. Loring's host wing was the 42d Bombardment Wing except for a small portion of its early existence. Loring was primarily home to active duty units, although this changed in the 1980s, when the Massachusetts Air National Guard 's 101st Fighter Squadron sent a detachment to Loring. As the base

3650-482: The international air booking systems or have international luggage transferred there, and thus, they are booked instead through the airline or a domestic booking system. Several heliports in Greenland have 3-letter codes used internally which might be IATA codes for airports in faraway countries. There are several airports with scheduled service that have not been assigned ICAO codes that do have IATA codes, especially in

3723-612: The name of the airport itself, for instance: This is also true with some cities with a single airport (even if there is more than one airport in the metropolitan area of said city), such as BDL for Hartford, Connecticut 's B ra dl ey International Airport or Baltimore's BWI, for B altimore/ W ashington I nternational Airport ; however, the latter also serves Washington, D.C. , alongside Dulles International Airport (IAD, for I nternational A irport D ulles) and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA, for D istrict of C olumbia A irport). The code also sometimes comes from

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3796-435: The nose and wings of the aircraft, allowing for maintenance to the cockpit area by the crew, without the need to use the larger hangars) were built in 1956 to the northwest of the runway, near the main parking area, along with parking areas and taxiways for these hangars. On 8 February 1953, Curtis E. Lemay , Commander of SAC, visited the base to review the construction's progress. During this visit, he indicated that Limestone

3869-416: The one they are located in: Other airport codes are of obscure origin, and each has its own peculiarities: In Asia, codes that do not correspond with their city's names include Niigata 's KIJ , Nanchang 's KHN and Pyongyang 's FNJ . EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg , which serves three countries, has three airport codes: BSL, MLH, EAP. Some cities have a name in their respective language which

3942-451: The planes supported other units until the arrival of the B-52 in 1956. Eventually, 21 tankers were based at Loring, along with 30 air crews. By 1955, the base consisted of the 42d , 69th, 70th , and the 75th Bombardment Squadrons . A hospital became operational. The next January, a B-52 landed at the airfield as part of a cold weather testing program. Five months later, the first Stratofortress,

4015-414: The runway, as well as a 2,100-foot (640 m) addition to the northern end of the runway. The Department of Defense allocated funds for the North River Depot , a weapons storage facility to the northwest of the base. It later became Caribou Air Force Station and was absorbed into the facility in the 1960s. The end of the year brought the completion of a communications facility, a hospital, three barracks,

4088-501: The same first and middle letters, indicating that this rule might be followed only in Germany. Many cities retain historical names in their airport codes, even after having undergone an official name/spelling/transliteration change: Some airport codes are based on previous names associated with a present airport, often with a military heritage. These include: Some airports are named for an administrative division or nearby city, rather than

4161-762: The site at Limestone was closed in September 1958. IATA airport code The assignment of these codes is governed by IATA Resolution 763, and it is administered by the IATA's headquarters in Montreal , Canada. The codes are published semi-annually in the IATA Airline Coding Directory. IATA provides codes for airport handling entities, and for certain railway stations. Alphabetical lists of airports sorted by IATA code are available. A list of railway station codes , shared in agreements between airlines and rail lines such as Amtrak , SNCF , and Deutsche Bahn ,

4234-541: The site was that it was a few hundred miles closer than any other base to potential targets in Europe. On 15 April 1947, construction commenced on Limestone Army Air Field, the first Strategic Air Command base designed and built to host high-speed aircraft, including the new B-36 Peacemaker. Original plans for Limestone called for two parallel north−south runways, a 12,000-foot (3,660 m) east−west runway, and accommodations for over 100 aircraft. The multimillion-dollar project

4307-497: The station code of Malton, Mississauga , where it is located). YUL is used for Montréal–Trudeau (UL was the ID code for the beacon in the city of Kirkland , now the location of Montréal–Trudeau). While these codes make it difficult for the public to associate them with a particular Canadian city, some codes have become popular in usage despite their cryptic nature, particularly at the largest airports. Toronto's code has entered pop culture in

4380-504: The two-letter code of the radio beacons that were the closest to the actual airport, such as YQX in Gander or YXS in Prince George . Four of the ten provincial capital airports in Canada have ended up with codes beginning with YY, including: Canada's largest airport is YYZ for Toronto Pearson (as YTZ was already allocated to Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport , the airport was given

4453-529: The use of two letters allowed only a few hundred combinations; a three-letter system of airport codes was implemented. This system allowed for 17,576 permutations, assuming all letters can be used in conjunction with each other. Since the U.S. Navy reserved "N" codes, and to prevent confusion with Federal Communications Commission broadcast call signs , which begin with "W" or "K", the airports of certain U.S. cities whose name begins with one of these letters had to adopt "irregular" airport codes: This practice

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4526-517: The viability of using steam to melt the snow on the runways. Pipes were spaced at different intervals in the experiment. That same year, the first KC-135 Stratotanker, christened the "Aroostook Queen", arrived at Loring. By December, all of the KC-97s had left, and by April 1958, 20 KC-135s had arrived, allowing the 42nd Air Refueling Squadron to reach full operational capacity in May. Later that year, an alert force

4599-516: Was alerted to support whatever action the U.S. might take. The reporter was unable to find classified information, and instead invented maintenance records of the fleet that painted a dismal picture. On 24 and 25 November, four B-52s of the 93rd Bombardment Wing and the 42nd flew nonstop around the perimeter of North America in Operation Quick Kick , which covered 15,530 mi (13,500 nmi; 24,990 km) in 31 hours, 30 minutes. SAC noted

4672-487: Was assigned from 1990 to March 1994. Fighter aircraft were also assigned to the base during its operation. The F-102 Delta Dagger , which was assigned to the 27th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron , was located on base from 1957 to 1960 while the F-106 Delta Dart was assigned from 16 October 1959 to 1 July 1971, and to the 83d Fighter-Interceptor Squadron from July 1971 to June 1972. On July 31st, 2024 B-52 60-0012 from

4745-651: Was created at Loring, consisting of six B-52s. The following year, in response to a conflict in Lebanon , the entire wing was placed on alert. An Alert Force was established at Loring AFB in October 1957. The wing began supporting the force with six B-52s in January 1958. In response to a conflict in Lebanon, the Alert Force was expanded to include the entire bombardment wing in July 1958, when

4818-466: Was designed with a capacity of over 100 B-36 Peacemaker strategic bombers. This plan was only partially completed due to budget constraints. Loring later became one of the largest air bases of SAC. After the B-36 was phased out, the B-52 Stratofortress was based at Loring, first with D models, then with B-52Gs. The Boeing KC-97 Stratofreighter was also based there for a number of years, until it

4891-469: Was electrified, surrounded the heart of the storage area. This area was nicknamed the "Q" Area, which denoted the Department of Energy's Q clearance required to have access to Restricted Data. In June 1962, the Atomic Energy Commission released its custody and ownership of the weapons to the Air Force. The personnel and property of the later named Caribou Air Force Station were absorbed into

4964-469: Was first in all of SAC in fuel storage capacity (9,193,374 gallons). Fuel was delivered to the base via a 200-mile pipeline to Searsport, Maine . Ramp space at Loring exceeded 1.1 million square yards, which made it second among all SAC bases in total ramp space, and first in excess ramp space. Furthermore, it was one of two fully capable conventional weapons storage facilities in CONUS maintained by SAC. During

5037-459: Was not built to the specifications of the original Army Corps of Engineers plan, and only one north−south runway was constructed. On 23 May, a $ 17 million contract was awarded to two companies to complete the first phase of construction. This included the north−south runway, a parallel taxiway (Taxiway J), a parking apron, the Arch Hangar , a base operations building, a control tower, a power plant,

5110-407: Was operationally ready. Later that month, command capabilities were formally transferred to SAC, ending an almost six-year command by the Army Corps of Engineers. Furthermore, personnel of the 4215th Base Service Squadron were reassigned to the 42d Bombardment Wing, which was reactivated and assigned to the 8th Air Force . On 23 February, Limestone Air Force Base officially became operational. During

5183-465: Was replaced by the KC-135A Stratotanker . Loring was home to many facilities that were a part of the base, or were nearby. Caribou Air Force Station was the weapons storage area that operated separately from Loring until it was absorbed in 1961. Caswell Air Force Station operated to the east, but had a unit associated with Loring before it became fully operational. On-base facilities included

5256-476: Was returned to the 42nd. Loring was also home to an administrations support base of a Green Pine communications crew from Naval Station Argentia . The detachment did not officially exist on the base, although it was located on the top floor of the Bachelors Officers Quarters and consisted of six men. Various aircraft were assigned to the base, including the B-36 Peacemaker, which was assigned to

5329-470: Was the closest in the US to Europe, it also functioned as an important stopover point. The 1991 Base Realignment and Closure Commission recommended closure of Loring AFB, and it was closed in September 1994. It was later reopened as the Loring Commerce Centre . The 42nd Bomb Wing was the host unit at Loring AFB from 1953 until 1994, supporting national security objectives with mission-ready B-52G Stratofortresses, and KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft. The wing had

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