Airfield Archaeology 101

[PJ]

Formerly Used Defense Site. Deals with cleaning up old ordnance and its waste.

PJ
PV-2 Harpoon "Hot Stuff"
www.amhf.org

[Second Air Force]

Thanks Scott,

FUDS study? What the heck is a FUDS study? I can come up with a lot of possibilities, but nothing mentionable here!:lol:

And is there any chance of making a guess at what the buildings were from the size? Were these things a "standard" size or did they vary. I know there are no dimensions listed on the pdf I sent, but the slightly larger version I have has the scale listed. I can check on that if needed.

Sorry about the FUDS reference--I've been researching various military installations for so long that I didn't think to explain myself. I have actually found some good information from the FUDS websites, such as the location of skeet and small arms ranges, air-to-ground gunnery ranges, and bombing ranges. The government has periodically gone out to the many military stations and ordnance factories to revisit lead, chemical, and other contaminates for further remediation. A good example is that they have gone so far as to incinerate soil to "eliminate" the lead contained in the ground at the Mead, Nebraska ordnance plant.

I really don't know the dimensions of those small igloos. If I had to guess, I'd say the Corps of Engineers probably used a standard blueprint to build them. My problem has been that the ordnance areas at all the Kansas and Nebraska fields have been remediated and the igloos are gone. The only possible exception might be Walker, and I haven't gotten permission to explore that field yet. I will have to go through all the Base Maps I have in storage to see if the ordnance building dimensions are listed.

Scott

[coastdef]

They look like distances from the beginning point of a survey line. For example, 2 + 75 would be 275 feet from the origin of a survey line, 37 + 90 would be 3790 feet from the origin, etc. If you could send me the pdf, I'll take a closer look and see if this makes sense.

Regards,

Andy

As the world turns:

Also, after studying the print for awhile I've come to the conclusion that the lines between the buildings and the roads must be drain tiles, ie "20' of 8", "21' of 12" and etc.. But what do the numbers after the drain sizes represent? They read; 2+75, 1+22, 2+20, 37+90 and so on...

Second Air Force? Anyone?

I have larger, better quality images on pdf if it helps...

[Hal B]

Thanks Andy,

PM sent...

[Hal B]

As the world turns:

And a detail of that area, taken from one of the original blueprints


Anyone have an idea what the structures shown along the roads would have been? None of the drawings we have show any detail or dimensions for them.

Making some progress on the bomb dump area

One of the museum's interns found some interesting documents in the regional National Archives located at the former NAS Sand Point. A few pics, some more blueprints and most importantly an Appraisal Report from '46 or '47 when the feds were getting ready to turn the former Bellingham Army Airfield over to the city. Said report lists sizes and construction of most of the 58 buildings on site; of which 50 were in the process of being sold and moved or salvaged. So the mystery of the type of structures has been solved.

The report lists the bomb dump structures as: "Timber frame and earth bomb storage units. These are merely wooden platforms without walls or covers on mud sills surrounded with earthen revetments." All thirteen shown on the print are 31-1/2' X 28-1/2'.

In addition each bomb storage unit had a corresponding fin storage area across the road, probably just a gravel pad. Then there were 5 fuse storage buildings along the outside of the diagonal road on the left side of the dump. Not shown on the drawing, each was 6 X 9'.

And finally, the larger building facing the road at bottom was a 20 X 100' combination office/inert storage warehouse. This building also shows up on the aerial photo.

All of the buildings were of frame construction with Transite siding and roofing. Nothing real permanent there; so we're down to looking for the old earthen revetments when the jungle dies down a bit...

Last edited by Hal B on Sat Aug 22, 2009 7:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Second Air Force]

Thanks for the update on the ordnance area, Hal. Good detective work like you folks are doing is the key to preserving the history of these forgotten installations. I, for one, really appreciate your attention to detail.

The 20x100 building sounds very similar to those used in the Midwest, and now I'll have to research those small fuse buildings to see if any were built in Nebraska and Kansas.

Did any records or blueprints mention small arms ammunition storage? I suspect it was kept in the large building since there weren't any igloos. On many of the 2AF fields the small stuff was kept in one storage igloo and issued as needed through the office. One of the fields, McCook, I think, did an audit of the Ordnance area and found that someone had stolen thousands of rounds of .22 ammo. They picked a box on the bottom of the stack and cleaned it out, then restacked the pile so it looked undisturbed. I'd guess they either sold the ammo in their own version of the black market or just went varmint shootin'. Boys will be boys!

Scott

[Hal B]

Scott,
So far, no mention of small arms or ammo. storage; but we've got a long way to go.

We hope to get all this stuff on a dedicated website when we get a little further along.