Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that answer the question.
Query: When did construction on Caribou Air Force Station begin?
Caribou Air Force Station, also known as North River Depot and East Loring, is a defunct Air Force Station that operated from 1951 until some time when it was absorbed into Loring Air Force Base in 1962. It was located in Limestone, Maine, adjacent to Loring. Between 1951 and 1962 Caribou was an Operational Storage Site for Air Materiel Command (AMC-OSS), one of five in the United States, and the weapons storage and maintenance facility for Loring alert aircraft.
The airport was built by the United States Army Air Forces during 1942/43 as an axillary airfield for Stuttgart Army Airfield, near Stuttgart, Arkansas. It was known simply as Stuttgart Army Airfield Auxiliary #2. The runways in use today were built during that period. It was used to help train medium bomber and transport pilots, who used it for emergencies on it or practiced touch-and-go landings. It was not manned, and at the end of World War II it was simply abandoned and the land turned over to local authorities, like many other small auxiliary airfields.
Klamath Air Force Station was one of twenty-eight stations built as part of the second segment of the Air Defense Command permanent radar network. Prompted by the start of the Korean War, on July 11, 1950, the Secretary of the Air Force asked the Secretary of Defense for approval to quicken construction of the permanent network. Receiving the Defense Secretary’s approval on July 21, the Air Force directed the Corps of Engineers to begin construction adjacent to the town of Requa, California, about 3 miles northwest of the town of Klamath and within sight of the mouth of the Klamath River.
The airport was built by the United States Army Air Forces during 1942/43 as an axillary airfield for Stuttgart Army Airfield, near Stuttgart, Arkansas. It was known simply as Stuttgart Army Airfield Auxiliary #5. The runways in use today were built during that period. It was used to help train medium bomber and transport pilots, who used it for emergencies on it or practiced touch-and-go landings. It was not manned, and at the end of World War II it was simply abandoned and the land turned over to local authorities, like many other small auxiliary airfields.
The depot was constructed in 1927 when the Seaboard Air Line constructed its All Florida Railway to Naples. It was designed in the same Mediterranean Revival style the Seaboard Air Line used with its stations in Delray Beach, Deerfield Beach, Hialeah, and Homestead on the southeast coast of Florida (which were built around the same time), and is virtually identical to the Hialeah depot. The station only briefly saw Seaboard Air Line passenger service in the late 1920s before the railroad reduced its Arcadia to Naples Branch to freight service only. Seaboard ended freight service in the 1930s. During World War II, the depot was home to USO shows for troops stationed at the nearby Naples airfield.
When the U.S. Air Force was established as a separate executive department under the National Security Act of 1947, Secretary of the Air Force W. Stuart Symington, requested FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to loan General Carroll to the services to organize a U.S. Air Force agency for investigative and counterintelligence functions. He organized and directed this new organization, the AFOSI, along the lines of the FBI rather than the U.S. Army's Criminal Investigation Command (USACIDC or CID). General Carroll was tendered a commission as a colonel, U.S. Air Force Reserve, January 12, 1948. He was ordered to active duty in the grade of brigadier general May 6, 1948, and promoted to major general August 11, 1950.
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 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.
Stuttgart Municipal Airport dates to 1942 when it was built by the United States Army Air Forces as a training airfield as part of the 70,000 Pilot Training Program. It was one of many air fields created in the country’s interior during the war. The airfield consisted of four main 5'000 ft concrete and asphalt runways, aligned 01/19; 05/23; 09/27 and 13/31. In addition to the main airfield, seven axillary fields were constructed to support the training mission. Those were located as follows:
The locations of auxiliaries #3 (Roe), #4, #6 and #7 (Stuttgart) are undetermined.
Silverstone is built on the site of a World War II Royal Air Force bomber station, RAF Silverstone, which opened in 1943. The airfield's three runways, in classic WWII triangle format, lie within the outline of the present track.
The RCAF had established a presence at the Uplands (Ottawa) Airport, in August 1940, under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, as No. 2 Service Flying Training School began operations. With the war ending, No.2 SFTS closed on 14 April 1945, the Station became home to Headquarters RCAF Maintenance Command, and when Maintenance Command relocated, in 1947, RCAF association with the site ceased. RCAF flying activities resumed at Uplands, with the re-activation of several WW2 fighter squadrons, they designated again for service in Europe. No.439 Squadron was first re-formed in September 1951, at Uplands, as was No.416 Squadron, in September 1952, both departing for in Europe in 1953, they flying the F86 Sabre.
Wheelus Air Base was a United States Air Force base located in the Kingdom of Libya. At one time it was the largest US military facility outside the US. It had an area of 20 sq miles on the coast of Tripoli. The base had a beach club, the largest military hospital outside the US, a multiplex cinema, a bowling alley and a high school for 500 students. The base had a radio and TV station, and a shopping mall and fast food outlets. At its height it had over 15,000 military personnel and their dependents. Wheelus Air Base was originally built by the Italian Air Force in 1923 and was known as Mellaha Air Base. Today the facility is known as Mitiga International Airport.
The Air Force mission at Langley is to sustain the ability for fast global deployment and air superiority for the United States or allied armed forces. The base is one of the oldest facilities of the Air Force, having been established on 30 December 1916, prior to America's entry to World War I by the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps, named for aviation pioneer Samuel Pierpont Langley. It was used during World War I as a flying field, balloon station, observers’ school, photography school, experimental engineering department, and for aerial coast defense. It is situated on 3,152 acres of land between the cities of Hampton (south), NASA LaRC (west), and the northwest and southwest branches of the Back River.
Silverstone Circuit is built on the site of a World War II Royal Air Force bomber station, RAF Silverstone, which opened in 1943. The airfield's three runways, in classic WWII triangle format, lie within the outline of the present track. Since its first use in the 1940s, the circuit has undergone several changes.
The former RAAF Stores Depot is of significance for the expansion it provided to Dubbo's traditional role as a regional freight handling hub within national transportation networks. It is of significance for the role of the depot and its personnel in the regional economic development of Dubbo during World War II. The variety and arrangement of innovative, prefabricated and other stores buildings, constructed during World War II, provides an intact example of a 1940s military cultural landscape. It also has research significance for its Aboriginal relics, especially in relation to the recommended archaeological excavation of the "open artifact scatter" on the western side.
The facility was established in 1942 as Naples Army Airfield by the United States Army Air Forces. It was initially assigned to the Southeast Training Center (later Eastern Flying Training Command). Provided basic (level 1) flight training to flight cadets by Embry-Riddle Co; Fairchild PT-19s were the primary trainer used. Along with the flight training, was a sub-base to Buckingham Army Airfield for flexible gunnery training, which the 75th Flying Training Wing supervised. Inactivated on November 1, 1945, being turned over to the War Assets Administration for conveyance to civil control as a public airport.
The RAAF operated ten stores depots around Australia during World War II and Dubbo was one of two within NSW. Its siting at Dubbo is important for illustrating the military decision to locate training and maintenance depots well inland, away from coastal areas and carrier borne aircraft. Several sites in inland NSW were surveyed in February 1942, and in April Dubbo was chosen in preference to Orange and Parkes. The Commonwealth Government bought the state forestry land from the NSW Government in 1943 for A₤1,911. Dubbo was well sited within the triangle formed by the "Strategic Land Corridors" between Bourke, Sydney and Melbourne, and was also located conveniently to the "Brisbane Line" (running from Brisbane to Melbourne or from Brisbane to Adelaide). In December 1942 the RAAF Stores Depot No. 5 (renamed No. 6) was formed at Waterloo, Sydney, before being quickly moved to Dubbo. Stores Depot No.5 was never built. Stores Depots 1-4 were located in the suburbs of the capital cities. Like the Dubbo base, Stores Depots 7 and 10 were located well inland to support training and maintenance functions. Stores Depots 8, 9, and 11 supported operational units in the northern areas of Australia.
Warren AFB is the oldest continuously active military installation within the Air Force, established in 1867 by the United States Army as Fort David Allen Russell. The facility came under United States Army Air Forces control on 1 June 1947, and United States Air Force (USAF) respectively on 18 September 1947 until now.
The former RAAF Depot Site, Dubbo has been identified as being of significance to the Aboriginal community in Dubbo. There are two layers of significance. The first is associated with tribal Aboriginal people who lived in the area before European settlement and who were responsible for the scarred trees. The second is associated with Aboriginal people who lived in Dubbo in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and who camped at "the Pines" when the site was part of the State Forest before being bought by the Department of Defence c.1941.
On 30 September 1935, a station, originally named Tinsley Green, was opened at a location only south of the present station. Within a single year of having opened, it was renamed "Gatwick Airport", following the completion of the nearby Beehive airport terminal, which had a direct connection to the station. During 1940, the airport was requisitioned by the Royal Air Force (RAF) for military use. In 1952, the British government decided that the facility would be expanded to form London's second airport. The station continued to be operation until 27 May 1958, the same day upon which the present Gatwick Airport station (above) was opened. The old Gatwick Airport station, following a discontinuation of services, was later demolished. In the present day, the only visible remains of the old station are sections of the former up slow line platform; sections of the connecting subway between the station and the original terminal building, The Beehive, have also survived.
On 1 June 1947 Air Training Command assumed jurisdiction of Fort Warren, the 463d Air Force Base Unit was activated to manage the support facilities, and the 3450th Technical Training Wing was activated for conducting training. Training began on 7 July 1947. In September 1947, Fort Warren, along with other Army Air Force facilities, was transferred into the newly established United States Air Force.
After the war, Edwards returned to Canada and joined the newly-formed Canadian Air Force, a few months after its formation on 18 February 1920. Following a short flying refresher he was posted to Ottawa and placed in charge of the personnel branch where he was responsible for documenting Canadians with First World War experience in the RAF then recruiting them into the provisional air force and setting up an air training centre at Camp Borden. By 1924, the Canadian Air Force had grown sufficiently to acquire permanent status as a component of the new Department of Defence. On 1 April 1924, Canada's national air force was accorded royal assent and officially established as the Royal Canadian Air Force.
In June 1962, the United States Atomic Energy Commission released its custody and ownership of the weapons to the Air Force, and the personnel and property were absorbed into the adjacent Loring Air Force Base.
Nearby to the northeast, Loring Air Force Base opened in the early 1950s near Limestone, with bomber and tanker aircraft of the Strategic Air Command. It provided a major economic boost to the area, with construction starting in 1947 on "Limestone Army Air Field." Caribou was incorporated as a city in 1967 on February 23, but the area's boom period leveled off in the 1970s as a result of difficulties in its traditional potato industry. That, along with closure of the base in 1994, contributed to a decline in population in the 1980s and 1990s.
Another area of the site was still further removed from the rest of the Q area. This area became the focus for activities performed by those personnel assigned to the site who were employees of AEC and/or Sandia Corporation. The Base Spares Area was situated at the westernmost point of the Q-Area. It was constructed between 1952 and 1956, and included structures necessary for the storage of components and spare parts needed to modify, maintain, and/or repair the weapons on site. Many of these buildings have since been demolished or removed, but some are still standing today. Of the original sixteen structures built at this area of the site, six or less remain in various stages of disrepair. Building No. 368 was constructed in 1952. It was constructed of brick on a concrete foundation. It was a front-gabled structure with a steel deck roof and an entrance on the southwest elevation. A large addition was constructed in 1989 on the northwest elevation. The addition has a pitched roof, is faced with vertical siding, and has four overhead doors and one pedestrian door on the southwest elevation. The edition was constructed by the Air Force for SAC munitions maintenance personnel. This building is the only building within the Base Spares Area in good condition today. Building No. 369 was constructed of concrete block and was razed some time ago. The date is unknown. Buildings 368 and 369 were both used for warehouse supply and equipment storage.
The war brought increased funding to Limestone in 1951. Eight additional hangars were constructed at the southwestern end of the runway, as well as a 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, 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.