Magooch: The army shut down the sites in 1971. Some people were still there when I got here, but they were in the process of closing them down. A Battery at the Moose Creek Bluff, B Battery in the hills behind Eielson. And C Battery farther back in the hills. We were maintaining a base that was almost in Caretaker status. We jocked about "Huntn N Fishing, Was The Mission". There was no planes stationed at Eielson then. The SAC Wing had a few refuelers (KC-135s) and the RC- 135 reconnison planes. All up here on rotation from bases in the lower 48. They also had four alert planes in the Alert Hanger for intercept, don't remember what they were. The alert planes were also here on rotation. I met many people that had been here for years, with several consecutive tours. One Sargent I personally knew, was assigned to the power plant. He had been sent here straight from Basic. He had worked in a Coal Fired Power Plant before enlisting, and had taken a By-pass Specialist Test. Upon narriving he and his wife bought a mibile home in the base moble home park. She went to work in Fairbanks at the Airport for one of the local airlines. In five years they had that mobile home paid off. They raised two sons there in that old mobile home. It was very convenient, he only worked about a mile away. The commassary and BX was not much farther. The Base ran a free shuttle bus back then, from the base, through Fairbanks, then on to the airport, then in reverse back to the base. She could ride it to work every day. Twenty Years later, he moved that moble home off base when he retired. That old mobile home became a work shop, near his big new home that he had build before retirement. I knew of several other people that had done the same thing, they were called Homesteaders.
Three months after I arrived, I was tagged to take VIPs hunting for Caribou, Moose, Bears, and Dall Sheep. Generals, Admirals, Members of Congress, and other high ranking Government Officials. I can talk for hours about those trips.
Pat/Rick: When I got here the Bomb Dump was closed. It was called Engineer Hill then, and was pickeled and locked up. I had the keys to the gate and buildings, and went out there just snooping around. Then sometime in the mid to late 70s they brought in Planes and stationed them here. Engineer Hill had been an Army munitions storage facility, for the Nike Missle Sites, and the munitions needed for the Army Troops. It was upgraded for Air Force munitions Storage. Suddenly everything changed. By the mid 80s if you admitted you were a hunter or fisherman , they did everything possiable to have you sent back to the states. No one was allowed to extend and stay for a second assignment. Today the only planes are a reserve unit flying refueling, and a few fighters for training perposes when units come up here from the lower 48 to train.
