2010-09-01 Castle Air Force Base
When
we left Sequoia National Park it was late afternoon. We needed to
be looking for a motel to spend the night. Since we were so close
to Fresno I told Linda I wanted to see Castle Air Force Base, the last
place I was stationed before I got out of the Air Force in 1970.
As we neared Merced, I snapped this road sign picture.
We didn't have to travel far before I began seeing signs for Atwater where the base used to be. There's an air museum there now. All we had to do was follow the signs.
On the way I spotted these cranes or egrets in a field. The valley is mostly agricultural.
Merced is a fair sized town. As I snapped this pic there were some Mexican cowboys in the background that kind of added a western flavor to teh setting.
We turned off the freeway onto Buhach Rd.
Then we followed the signs to the base.
I had to snap this photo on the fly. It caught me off guard. Atwater is a much smaller town than Merced but it's probably increased in size to something like 5 times bigger than when I was there in 1970.
There were several well marked turns.
We found our way with no problem.
But I was very disappointed when I got there.
First, we got there so late that all I could do was take photos from outside.
At first I shot through the fence.
But mostly I was disappointed because the place had changed so much.
Since the government no longer needed the services of the Strategic Air Command (no more Cold War), the base was sold in 1995. Besides this somewhat small air museum, there's also a penetentiary. Not only that but the town has grown so that the property was encroached upon with housing developments.
I shot through the fence to take this photo of the unimpressive museum. They seem to have made no improvements on a building that may well have been our old squadron headquarters for all I know.
As I tried to get some photos of the planes on the grounds it wasn't easy to tell what I was photographing.
This old fuel tank or "pod" in the distance was a reminder that the old days were gone.
We used to have similar fuel tanks on the B-58 Hustlers I worked on at Grissom. This fuel pod on a strategic bomber would have also concealed a nuclear weapon.
The sign in front of it may well have said, "Here lies Castle AFB - Rest In Peace."
There were a few old planes about. Maybe if I had circled the base I would have eventually seen something I recognized but it was getting late and we needed to find a place to stay.
I didn't see any of the B-52 bombers, KC-135 tankers, or any other birds we used to work on so I bid the place a final farewell.
Our trip home from the west wasn't without humor. There are couple of signs I couldn't resist including. Here's the first one. The next one was hundreds of miles east of here but they seemed to go together.
So tell me again, how do you get to your house? Oh, you go past Zuzax and turn right off Zzyzx Road andz zYouz xmakez a leftx nearxz zxzxxxzx uh, what -- oh @$%#
We didn't have to travel far before I began seeing signs for Atwater where the base used to be. There's an air museum there now. All we had to do was follow the signs.
On the way I spotted these cranes or egrets in a field. The valley is mostly agricultural.
Merced is a fair sized town. As I snapped this pic there were some Mexican cowboys in the background that kind of added a western flavor to teh setting.
We turned off the freeway onto Buhach Rd.
Then we followed the signs to the base.
I had to snap this photo on the fly. It caught me off guard. Atwater is a much smaller town than Merced but it's probably increased in size to something like 5 times bigger than when I was there in 1970.
There were several well marked turns.
We found our way with no problem.
But I was very disappointed when I got there.
First, we got there so late that all I could do was take photos from outside.
At first I shot through the fence.
But mostly I was disappointed because the place had changed so much.
Since the government no longer needed the services of the Strategic Air Command (no more Cold War), the base was sold in 1995. Besides this somewhat small air museum, there's also a penetentiary. Not only that but the town has grown so that the property was encroached upon with housing developments.
I shot through the fence to take this photo of the unimpressive museum. They seem to have made no improvements on a building that may well have been our old squadron headquarters for all I know.
As I tried to get some photos of the planes on the grounds it wasn't easy to tell what I was photographing.
This old fuel tank or "pod" in the distance was a reminder that the old days were gone.
We used to have similar fuel tanks on the B-58 Hustlers I worked on at Grissom. This fuel pod on a strategic bomber would have also concealed a nuclear weapon.
The sign in front of it may well have said, "Here lies Castle AFB - Rest In Peace."
There were a few old planes about. Maybe if I had circled the base I would have eventually seen something I recognized but it was getting late and we needed to find a place to stay.
I didn't see any of the B-52 bombers, KC-135 tankers, or any other birds we used to work on so I bid the place a final farewell.
Our trip home from the west wasn't without humor. There are couple of signs I couldn't resist including. Here's the first one. The next one was hundreds of miles east of here but they seemed to go together.
So tell me again, how do you get to your house? Oh, you go past Zuzax and turn right off Zzyzx Road andz zYouz xmakez a leftx nearxz zxzxxxzx uh, what -- oh @$%#