Loring International ME16

[Fencer]

Anybody been there? Any recent info appreciated airnav.com doesn't offer much.

 

[MikeD]

LIZ? Yes, been there a number of times........back when the 42nd Bomb Wing was there with B-52Gs.

 

[Fencer]

Yes Mike this base. It was on target maps during Frozen War. I found somebody who works there and tomorrow we will take a look from the air.

 

[MikeD]

Yes Mike this base. It was on target maps during Frozen War. I found somebody who works there and tomorrow we will take a look from the air.

Heck, they all were. I figure it was probably a Tu-22 target or SS-20 target back then.

Interesting thing about the 42nd BMW there, was their B-52Gs didn't have a nuke mission; as it got rid of it in the mid-80s. You might remember that during Desert Storm in 1991, only the G-model B-52 units went to the war. The D models had been retired 6 years earlier, and (at the time) the H models did purely nuke ops, no conventional ops, as did B-1s back then. G model units were the only ones dropping conventional weapons, so they went to the war and were one of the first units there, flying missions into theatre from Diego Garcia. Loring's Wing, the 42nd, did conventional as well as Naval warfare with the mission of laying mines in the ocean, IIRC they were the only BMW tasked with that. Interesting low-level work for a B-52.

But damn was Limestone, Maine a cold as hell place to be. I think it was worse than KI Sawyer AFB out in Gwinn, Michigan and Minot AFB, ND combined.

What are you wondering about the place?

 

[Fencer]

What are you wondering about the place?

Honestly I just want to land there. A good friend of mine from childhood a retired old fart from a Tu asked me he wants to see a soviet landing there during his lifetime. He is a kind of hardcore commie silly old man I see what I can do for him tomorrow.

There are couple great clips on YouTube about the place.

 

[MikeD]

Honestly I just want to land there. A good friend of mine from childhood a retired old fart from a Tu asked me he wants to see a soviet landing there during his lifetime. He is a kind of hardcore commie silly old man I see what I can do for him tomorrow. .

It shows as Private, but there is a number to the Airport Authority that you can call and Im sure you can get a PPR to land there. Also shows as Day VFR only, which is ironic seeing as to the all-weather operations that used to go on there and the dual ILSs it used to have.

LIZ unfortunately is one of the growing number of former airbases that were closed under BRAC or prior, that never really became an operating airport of any significance. At least it is an airport of some kind, as a number of them have been used as industrial areas, with the airfield ramp/runway part just sitting there and rotting away. Good examples of this are the former Reese AFB and MCAS El Toro, among others.

 

[Fencer]

Mission accomplished.

 

[SteveC]

Bravo!