Abandoned military bases

[bayonetbrant]

http://www.historyinorbit.com/21-creepy-abandoned-military-bases-around-world/

[bayonetbrant]

What's crazy is that someone actually got on the ground at Hashima Island to get a Google Street View of the ruins

https://goo.gl/maps/P66CvyzVSKx

drag the yellow dude onto the map and it's like watching a walkthru of a Call of Duty map after Jarhead cuts loose on it with all his firepower

[bayonetbrant]

The descriptor of Ft Ord is pretty wrong, too

mainly served as a basic training facility for service members getting ready for combat roles

No.  It was alternately the home of 11th Cav (pre-Vietnam), and 7th Infantry Division.  There was a basic training facility out on the back side of the base, b/c it was the only one west of the Rockies for a long time, but it was only basic training, and not AIT for any specialties.  Moreover, once most combat arms went to the OSUT program for initial entry training starting in the mid-80s, virtually every combat arms soldier went thru OSUT someone other than Ft Ord (Ft Benning, Ft Knox, Ft, Leonard Wood, Ft Sill, etc).

And while parts of it are abandoned, the vast majority of it has been repurposed - Hayes Park housing is now part of the City of Seaside.  Fitch, Marshall, and Stillwell Park housing areas are in use by the US Army to support Presidio / NPG (I lived in Fitch Park when stationed in CA).  Most of the old division barracks are now Cal State Univ - Monterey Bay, and the hospital was converted to a DFAS facility.  On the north side of the base, several housing areas were turned over to the city of Marina, and right by the 12th street area there's a new shopping center with REI, Best Buy, etc.

So it's hardly 'abandoned' (ie, 'empty') as this article makes it sound.

[BanzaiCat]

http://www.historyinorbit.com/21-creepy-abandoned-military-bases-around-world/

Nice article.

Terrible website (790 ad blocks just on the first two pages!  )

[bayonetbrant]

yeah, the website is a pile of shit.  I always hit it in incognito mode

[Sir Slash]

Number 6 is where I worked for 28 years beginning in 1974. The Juvenile Justice facility there closed in 2011. It's owned privately now.

There were 2 Army Training Airbases in Desoto County during WWII. Carlstrom Field south of town and Dorr Field east of it which is now a state prison. They both were grass fields and also trained British pilots as well as American.

The local cemetery has a 'British Field' where 42, if I remember correctly, British pilots are buried killed while training or by illness during the war. They fly the Union Jack every Memorial Day over that section.

[Toonces]

The descriptor of Ft Ord is pretty wrong, too

mainly served as a basic training facility for service members getting ready for combat roles

No.  It was alternately the home of 11th Cav (pre-Vietnam), and 7th Infantry Division.  There was a basic training facility out on the back side of the base, b/c it was the only one west of the Rockies for a long time, but it was only basic training, and not AIT for any specialties.  Moreover, once most combat arms went to the OSUT program for initial entry training starting in the mid-80s, virtually every combat arms soldier went thru OSUT someone other than Ft Ord (Ft Benning, Ft Knox, Ft, Leonard Wood, Ft Sill, etc).

And while parts of it are abandoned, the vast majority of it has been repurposed - Hayes Park housing is now part of the City of Seaside.  Fitch, Marshall, and Stillwell Park housing areas are in use by the US Army to support Presidio / NPG (I lived in Fitch Park when stationed in CA).  Most of the old division barracks are now Cal State Univ - Monterey Bay, and the hospital was converted to a DFAS facility.  On the north side of the base, several housing areas were turned over to the city of Marina, and right by the 12th street area there's a new shopping center with REI, Best Buy, etc.

So it's hardly 'abandoned' (ie, 'empty') as this article makes it sound.

I don't know when you were there last.  In 2009 it was a ghost town, and seriously creepy.  And talk about some terrible housing.  I mean, when they stereotype base housing (which at times can actually be quite good, see Makalapa), Fort Ord is what they are talking about.

Not sure when REI moved in, but when I was there that place was a graveyard.

[bayonetbrant]

I don't know when you were there last.  In 2009 it was a ghost town, and seriously creepy.  And talk about some terrible housing.  I mean, when they stereotype base housing (which at times can actually be quite good, see Makalapa), Fort Ord is what they are talking about.

Not sure when REI moved in, but when I was there that place was a graveyard.

Last time I lived there was 1999.  Last time I visited was 2007.  I know they were rebuilding Fitch Park, but hadn't yet started on the junior officer parts of Stilwell Park.  The lower enlisted parts of Stilwell Park were boarded up in 1992, and still hadn't been torn down in 2007.  The senior NCO housing area off of 12th St was still abandoned, but the newer housing by the back gate (Schoonover and Preston Parks) were turned over to the City of Marina to manage.  Hayes Park (senior NCO housing) was still in use in the 90s, but being phased out to hand over to Seaside.

AFAIK, Fitch, the upper part of Stilwell, and Marshall Parks are all still in use for the military, as they're the three closest to the exchange, commissary, chapel, etc, as well as the elementary school and middle school on post there.

[Toonces]

You and I crossed paths if I remember correctly.  So, we're in the same timeframe, but seeing vastly different perspectives. 

The more I think about it, I think you're right...I'm talking 2007.