A Sad Day…

Posted on by March 6, 2013


Yesterday, 28 November 2009 marked the final flight of a P-3 from NAS Brunswick, ME, better known to all of us as Broomstick…

The last two VP-26 P-3s flew out yesterday afternoon with no fanfare, no statements, just going on deployment to do their jobs. The squadron will return to NAS Jacksonville in approximately six months.

Broomstick was the one base I was never stationed on, but I made plenty of trips in and out of there… Good shopping, with LL Bean, Kittery Trading Post and other good places within about 20 minute drive.

The other thing I will always remember was the Lobster house just off base, he took personal checks, always gave us the best possible price, and if we couldn’t get a ride out to pick up the lobsters, he delivered, and wouldn’t take extra for gas…

People either loved the place or hated it, and over the years there were some interesting screwups…

Early in the 1970s, both NAS Brunswick and NAS Glynco (at Brunswick, GA) got new base housing contracts approved…

And yep, you’re right, they crossed them up… The Brunswick, GA houses were insulated to hell and gone, and the Brunswick, ME houses had NO insulation…

Also they ‘tried’ to dig basements in GA, which didn’t work to well with a water table at about three feet…

I also remember the pilot inadvertently dropping a torpedo that landed in the pizza shop off the departure end of the runway…

This is the 13th base I was either stationed on, or worked out of that has closed… Maybe somebody is trying to tell me something…

NAS Glynco, NAS Sangley Point, NAS Keflavik, NAS Rota, NAS Agana, NAS Cubi Pt, Naha AB, NAS Moffett Field, NAS Adak, NAS Barbers Point, NAS Lajes, NAS Bermuda, and now NAS Brunswick.

God forbid that we need to ramp up anytime in the near future…

We won’t have the assets, the runways, or the people to make things work…

Absent Comrades

Comments

A Sad Day… — 21 Comments

  1. Yeah, old friend. I know the feeling. As a soldier, I remember having 15 divisions. Now we’re down to about half that. We’ve got a lot of separate brigades and you can cobble together a Corps on the fly, but divisions have to train together.

    Absent Comrades.

  2. Hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving and I bet your Turkey was the best part!

    Wanted to tell you something I thought was pretty funny and kinda relates to ur post…my kid ended up getting the Mercury and shes gonna be in Tinker AFB in Oklahoma…..approx 200 miles from the geographical center of the US.

    Yup, shes in the Navy allright. We get a good laugh about this.

  5. **gulp** uh oh hope we can handle what is possibly coming down the line!
    Hope your Thanksgiving was great NFO !!

  6. I had a reservist (O-3) form Willow Grove working for me in the 90’s. He asked if he could go to a change in command at Brunswick. I told him sure.

    He asked me how many lobsters I wanted.
    He told me the new CO would meet the old CO, the mayor and the Lobster man in that order.

    I guess everybody that could made the change of command at NAS Brunswick

    Gerry

  7. Paw- Agreed!

    Peedee- That is good news! She will be deployed out of Tinker, and will get to see some ‘interesting’ places 🙂

    Fuzzy- it sure ain’t gettin any better…

    Alan- That’s another one, forgot about NASD, we used to fly in there all the time…

    Gia- I’m beginning to wonder…

    Gerry- It was a ‘good’ excuse 🙂

  8. Jim, I felt the same way in the 80s and 90s. Watching all the AF bases being closed. Richards-Gebaur here near KC. Forbes in Topeka, KI Sawyer, many others. R-G was a favorite refueling spot here in the middle of the USA. Forbes closed first followed a few years later by R-G. Now it’s just Whiteman, a SAC base (or ACC as they now call it.) SAC is gone too just like the old Air Defense Command and Air Force Comm Svc.

    Consolidation, contraction, reduction. It seems to never end until there are none left.

  10. Hi Jim, When I saw the news about Nas Broomstick closing I got a sick feeling in my gut. I was stationed there from ’62 to 66 and again from 72 til 74. First time was to set up and run the SERE school while attached to FAETULANT Det 1. Last time was At the OMD. Over those years I made some of the best friends of my life with the local civilian folks. There is what is killing me. It’s reported that about $182M is going to be yanked out of that surrounding area. It was all the time I was there a kind of a depressed area, and this will again push it right back to that era of the early 60’s and before.Tourism will not be their salvation as I can already see it is on the wane from our last summer. You know where I live!! Keep up the good fight guy. My powder is dry, lots of lead and brass on hand, 4 future years worth of seeds in nitrogen jars, as well as one big assed pile of food,enough for all 4 of my kids and the 6 grandkids for 2 years! Am I one of those crazy assed Survivalists? Bet yo’ ass!

  11. USS Independence, VT-26/NAS Chase Field, VA-145/USS Ranger, VA-128(twice) VA-147/USS Kitty Hawk.
    I realize that 147 has been a Hornette squadron for twenty years. But I left Lemoore then to go back to NAS Whidbey Island and tour number two in VA-128. Old hands do make the differentiation concerning squadron designators. And soon, VAQ-140 will transition to the EA-18G Growler(I thought it was a WC, OK?)
    And I now live up the road from the former George AFB at Victorville, Norton AFB at San Bernardino and March Air Reserve Base at Riverside. Yeah, know the feeling. And who knows if the idiot at 1600 and his merry band of maggots will try and shut down Edwards, my current place of employment.
    I think that the hope of the locals at Brunswick for new industry and such is a pipe dream. Maine is hard on business and ain’t nobody gonna show up!

  12. Very sad. I’m a retired Intel officer with half of my active and reserve time in the VP community. Almost every place Brunswick, South Weymouth, Rota, Keflavik, Bermuda, gone. Don’t know about Souda or Naples.

  13. This old mainiac is going to miss the thrum of the loitering P3 for sure. Even when you couldn’t see them you could still hear them and sometime even feel them in your stomach.On occasion they would come down w/throttle to about 300 ft. MSL then stand it on a wing complete w/ vapor trail off the tips. Don’t know wether they were just relieving the boredom or not. I still remember pappa 2 victor out of South Weymouth as a kid.

  15. Similar background. I’ve personally seen NAS Bermuda, NAS Moffett Field, NAS Barbers, NAS Keflavik, NAS Glenview close. Of my previous VP Squadrons, VP-16, VP-31, VP-60 and VP-66, only VP-16 remains. Painful.