CHARLESTON

After a year’s absence, we are back with a Newsletter and starting to plan the Reunion for July 2008. Our Committee has had many losses in the past two years with the death of Ted Robinson, Woody Breedlove, Pauline’s husband Greg Hildreth, and Marcia’s husband Lee Hatch.

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Next Reunion

For planning purposes, 2008 Reunion

will be the weekend of

July 18, 19, 20.

Looking for Answers

I have been interested in the Greenville Elephant Mountain B-52 crash in January 1963. I saw it about 1967 as my father used to hike up over the mountain to Baker Pond to go fishing. I had a piece of nylon (?) strapping 20 feet long or so which I donated to the Maine Air Museum in Bangor.

The mission of the B-52 crew was to sneak in under RADAR. They flew from Westover AFB in MA, up the Maine coast over towards Princeton, turned and came back probably parallel and north of the Airline Road, then by Katahdin Iron Works. Wind shear snapped the tail fin stabilizer off which caused the crash. Apparently this happened to 3 B-52s in a very short span of time before the problem was found out.

I have never seen any reference to tracking the B-52 and was wondering if CAFS had it on RADAR or was able to report on that Bogie.

Regards,

Harold E. Nelson

Found

Merland received an email from David Pina who was stationed at Charleston AFS from August 1965 to May 1966. David’s email address is davrob4@juno.com.

David Pina

1306 Kercher Street

Miamisburg, OH 45342

Historical Markers

I belong to a yahoo groups called Radar Sites Vets which can be found at yahoogroups.com I have really relived a lot of memories from the listings put there by people who have served at AC&W sites around the world. Recently they got on a thread about historical markers at former sites. I was wondering if this might be something we could do at Charleston AFS. Now, I have not kept up with a lot of folks that were stationed there so what do you think about this? Not sure of the costs but we could look into it and maybe place it by or during the next reunion?

M H Pridgen, P O Box 4833

Rocky Mount NC 27803-0833

H - 252-937-2218

C - 252-314-6990

F - 252-443-9950

Donations

Thanks to all the folks who have donated to the cause within the last year. As some of you are aware, our Keeper of the Funds Ted Robinson passed away last summer. From this point on, checks may be made to: Charleston AFS Reunion Fund and mailed to Merland Clark Jr, 1056 Exeter Road, Corinth, Maine 04427, who volunteered as Treasurer.

Memories from

Time on “The Hill”

By Col Bill Evans

There was a beautiful old farm field just east of Dover-Foxcroft. It was a lovely fall day with those great New England fall colors everywhere. Geoff (youngest son, then about 11) and I were out hunting with our family dog, Otis, a dog who had received no training. I expected no game bird action; this was supposed to be just a nice walk on a beautiful day with a son and a dog. Otis did manage to flush a gorgeous pheasant. Unfortunately, the bird flew in a way that put my son in the line of fire, so no shot was fired. I had delayed my shot to give the bird time to separate from Otis, who was in full pursuit. Hunting with an untrained dog has its drawbacks.

His father Brock was a trained hunting dog and we had competed well with him in novice classes in Maryland. Did not win because I was not making my living training dogs, the fix was in and everyone knew it but me. In one trial, when the judge said ‘shoot your gun’ after Brock had pinned a quail, I knew I was in a fix having no pistol. Talk about being the unprepared beginner, this was me.

I told Brock to fetch the bird. When he moved forward, the bird shot up, Brock leapt up and took the bird in his soft mouth in midair and about four feet off the ground and brought it over to me. I handed the bird to the stunned judge saying "here is your bird." He about fell off his horse. This great dog was lost through the ice one winter, he was out on a run without me; Otis had returned without Brock and was clearly very upset. I miss Brock to this day. Certain bonds can last a long time.
BillE

PS. Geoff is doing well as an Electrical Engineer/lawyer working in the Patent Office in the DC area. He has a really beautiful wife and two daughters, the younger just five weeks old.

Question for 1950’s Radar Guys

One of my historical contacts regarding the Charleston AFS in Maine (they have a website), mentioned that early on in the 1950's, Edward R. Murrow flew on a plane from Europe to America and sneaked in under Air Force RADAR and went to New York. His plane was spotted by the Ground Observer Corps.

GOC was phased out as the new Semi-Automated Ground Environment (SAGE) sites like Charleston, Caswell, and Bucks Harbor came on line. Charleston tracked Cruise Missile tests fired off the Coast of Maine landing in Rangeley. Charleston also tracked the Concorde on it's first trip to Bangor International Airport in 1976.

Charleston site is: https://www.angelfire.com/theforce/cafs/
Info on GOC is at: http://www.radomes.org/museum/

I couldn't find any place online where Murrow's flight to America is documented, I thought you might know of a Murrow expert.

Thanks,
Harold E. Nelson, Senior Geodesist
Maine DOT Property Office
16 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333

Internet Buyers Beware

The following is a 100% true story as told to Pauline by Tom L. of New York:

On July 22, 2007, I accessed Amazon.com to buy a book on Adobe Photoshop. I have purchased other books this way and had set up my account for what Amazon calls "One Click". So after one makes a selection and proceeds to check out, "One Click" will place the order.

Usually I check the URL for https://

The s at the end of http is supposed to mean a secure site.

Immediately after I hit "One Click", I realized my account listed Florida as the destination address. So I went back to my account under Amazon to correct the Florida address and cancel the order. I changed the address from Florida to New York State and when I hit enter, a new window opened and advised me to complete all the information including a re-entry of my credit card number.

Now I am in a blundering idiot mode. I did not check to see if I was still in a site which began with https, the URL was something like http://123.456.789.456/amazon.com/, the form was identical to the account information form from Amazon, I thought phishing was only associated with e-mail, I was in a hurry and everything appeared to be

almost correct. In Internet Explorer I have

the Phishing filter on, Pop-up blocker on, AVg virus protection, Link Scanner Lite

installed, Ad-aware installed, Spybot Search

and Destroy installed, Microsoft Defender on and Scotty on Patrol. I frequently use C Cleaner, so I felt smug and confident in my protection scheme.

I use on-line banking, so on July 29 I opened my accounts and there in black and white was a $10,323.00 debit on my Master Card.

I checked the charges and they were all made on July 22 and were made in foreign countries. Most charges were for cash and some were for electronic equipment. I called the bank and the fraud squad said I am not responsible for the charges but I should check my computer for tracking software and use more caution with the URL addresses.

If you do on line banking, be sure your link has an s after http (secure site). Although I am protected by the bank (I think), I still felt violated by these internet thieves

A word to the wise is sufficient

Additional Scam Info

Submitted by Pauline

In July, I heard on the news that a New Jersey woman’s credit card number was taken from the internet through a similar scam. Federal authorities traced where it was used and all the funds went to foreign countries. Some of her personal funds were used to fund terrorist training camps in Iraq and some went to the medical professionals in England that were planning the thwarted large Al Qaeda strike there. Sounds like WE are financing the terrorists.

Charleston Memories

Taken From the Website

My duty section was AN/FYQ47 digital data processor section. Great duty, great people, and great place to be stationed especially if you're an outdoorsperson. I wouldn't be averse to hearing from other people stationed there during the period between 1973-78 which is when I was stationed there.

John Brandolini, Kittery, Maine

j_brandolini@yahoo.com

First assigned to the gap filler radars, then NCOIC of the FPS-6 tower. Followed by Training NCOIC and ending as NCOIC of the FPS-27 tower. Made M/Sgt in, I believe, 1969, left for NJ in 70 and retired in 73. CM/Sgt Burke, Sgt Milton Rankin, M/Sgt Haddock, A/2C Turnipseed, A/1C Doyon, Col Parmalee was Commander at the time I was there.

Ed Madden, Lisbon, Maine (67-70)

Memories from (t)here are so many. Was once chased from a stream by a bear after my fish. No way was I to give up my hard earned catch. Made many friends there. Will always remember my years there.

Lacy W. Prince (61-64)

Boiling Spring Lakes, North Carolina

lprince@atmc.net

Your Reunion Committee

Joe Mizda

66 Fourth St, Bangor, Me 04402

Email – jcm_mstpba@msn.com

(Keeper of the Mailing List)

Merland Clark

1056 Exeter Rd, Corinth, Me 04427

Email – mc4956@juno.com

(Keeper of the Funds)