Guantanamo to Maine? (Bangor, Brunswick, Washington: lease, cost of, military)

[Acadianlion]

I have just received a telephone call from Senator Collins' office in Washington. In response to an email that I had sent the senator regarding moving the Guantanamo detainees to a new Federal facility to be built at the former Loring AFB, I was told that Maine is NOT currently one of the states under consideration for such a facility.

[Coaster]

That would have been major climate shock -- Cuba to northern Maine!

Does anyone know if the control tower and landing field equipment at Loring is still intact? The FAA used to send someone up there every few months from Bangor to maintain the equipment, but that was years ago. And what about the underground command post?

[Deborah Caldwell]

Good for Collins for responding. Bad for Collins for not making sure that our state was considered.
Good for you for trying.
What difference does climate make? Everyone is inside all the time.

[Elcarim]

I would think that strict confinement would feel the same no-matter where you are.

[retiredtinbender]

Good for Collins if she made sure we were off the list. I think it would be a mistake. Remember what caused the raid on Entebe? Terrorists trying to get terrorists released. In my opinion it would bring involvement in something akin to that. And before it's said that that would not happen; no one dreamed of airplanes in the towers either. I think not having them is a good thing despite losing possible jobs.

[Acadianlion]

Originally Posted by Coaster

That would have been major climate shock -- Cuba to northern Maine!

Does anyone know if the control tower and landing field equipment at Loring is still intact? The FAA used to send someone up there every few months from Bangor to maintain the equipment, but that was years ago. And what about the underground command post?

When I was organizing a high speed time trial at Loring ten years ago, I had a full tour of the airfield. Our event lease would have included the airfield and certain other buildings including the control tower. I went to the top of the control tower...which by the way, is ten stories tall...and got a great bird's eye view of everything. But the control tower itself was completely empty.

I assume the ILS equipment including glide slope and all other electronic gear has long since been removed. I do know that at some point there was some heavy aircraft engine contract work being done using the largest of the two gigantic hangers, but I would presume that any large aircraft landing at Loring would come in under visual flight rules.

There is no reason to maintain expensive electronic equipment for an airfield that gets next to no traffic. The runways themselves were marked with a large "X" at the threshholds that would indicate to any approaching aircraft that the airfield was closed to traffic.

As far as any underground facilities were concerned, I saw none, and asked to see none. But I would imagine that they are empty of any equipment at this point, IF anything was left behind by the USAF when they moved out.

I would imagine that the cost of a new top security Federal detention center would run up into the hundreds of millions of dollars. THAT would have been the climate shock, and the shock would have been a good one for Aroostook County and all of Maine.

[forest beekeeper]

I do not foresee the Feds building any new military bases stateside anytime soon.

Maine does have a lot of military retirees. Bringing their pensions into the area.

[retiredtinbender]

I would NOT be surprised if you found something inactive but ready to go active underground up there. I remember a friend finding an old BOMARC site once that had fresh yellow paint and manuals "upstairs" in the silo sheds. From the photos he had it looked ready to go operational in a few days waiting for weapons. Lord knows what's underground there. It might take the gov't a bit to ensure "detainees" (more like enemy combattants) didn't tunnel into something good.

[forest beekeeper]

The hangers at NAS Brunswick could easily be converted, into a penal facility.

[Casper1212]

Acadian has made two good points. One, that the feds wouldn't leave any equipment behind that they don't want falling into civilian--or other--hands. Second, the cost of refitting an old air base into a detention facility of any kind would be exorbitant. In fact, by the time a proper facility was planned and executed, Obama would be out of office, even if he serves a second term.