We took a short drive to Rome, NY, to visit Griffiss Air Force Base Technology Park. Planes, especially military planes, just don’t float my boat. Real snoozers. But I have two sons who are crazy about machinery. Aren’t all boys? So this is for them.
Griffiss was an AFB for decades before the Clinton Administration downsized it. The city of Rome developed it into a technology park, and, among other things, also hosted a debauched rerun of Woodstock in 1999 here. The AFB was named for the first U.S. airman killed in action during WWII, Townsend Griffiss.
For most of its operation, the base was equipped with B-52 stratofortresses. All are gone except the “Mohawk Valley.”
The kids circled round and round, very impressed with its size. I know what they were thinking: If only someone had left the keys in the ignition, right?
Under the wing:
Here’s the tail:
The huge wheels:
Here’s the coolest thing, a cruise missile. I’ll probably be tagged by Fatherland Security for mentioning those words.
A sobering plaque has the eternal words of Douglas MacArthur when he accepted Japan’s surrender. We love Douglas MacArthur. My kids are always writing reports on him, and I think we have seen the movie MacArthur ten times now?
It has been difficult for the community to say goodbye to the Air Force Base. Its closure still stings and many people are still bitter about it. Slowly, some other things are rising from its ashes (like a mechanical school, and NEADS, and I think some retailers and life insurance companies are interested with the area), but the base is missed by Romans.
I know there are a lot more things going on at the site, but for the life of me, I couldn’t find them. I guess I was confused by the dozens of little roads and signs pointing in every direction. I just drove round and round in circles…kinda like those NORAD fighter jets on 9/11.
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June 9th, 2008 at 10:09 am
I enjoyed the article about Griffiss.I was there from 1956 to 1959 in the 465th f.i.s.
A very good book about Griffiss and three other bases in the northeast is The First Line by Bill Green.
Sorry to see downtown Rome destroyed in the name of progress.
Regards
Bill Price
Jesup Georgia
July 25th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Growing up in Rome, NY during the period when the base was fighting against closure, and the aftermath the closing brought, was tough. All of a sudden half of your friends had to move all at once. Traffic on the streets dwindled. The silence was deafening when the planes disappeared. Many of the small businesses that Rome depended on struggled and died.
I can only imagine how people managed. I was too young to really understand what was going on, but I knew it was bad. Going back after being gone for a few years I was happy to see that the development of the land as a technology park had started to turn things around. It worries me that Rome is still so dependent on the three other major Air Force facilities that remain, but hopefully they remain open long enough for some larger businesses to move in and keep things going.