Google Earth

Not to advertise for anyone, but I heard about Google Earth several months ago. Well, a couple of weeks ago I went ahead and installed the program on my computer, and began poking around the world. Literally, around the world.

Ten years ago this month, my family and I left Misawa Japan for the States as I retired from the USAF after 24 years, 2 months, and 23 days of service (then I quit counting), and thirteen and a half years in Japan. Our kids grew up there; from before the time they were old enough to remember, everything was Misawa and Japan.

How are these two things connected? Well, I “Googled” (is that a verb?) Misawa, Japan this week and, sure enough, the globe spun to the West, so far west that I was looking at the Far East: Japan. And then it zoomed in on the city of Misawa, and the military base of Misawa Air Base. I could look from thousands of miles high down on the city and the air base. I can see the steeple of Calvary Baptist Church! I can even find two or three of our favorite hot baths.

Oh, Look! There is the Base Exchange and Commissary, Headquarters, and the Post Office with its’ horribly designed parking lot. There is the Burger King, and even the old Goofy Golf/ Put-Put course. It looks like they are replacing the old Legal office with a new building of some sort, and something is going on at Flag Pole Circle; I can see a crane. One of the Navy hangers is getting a new roof, right down to the rafters.

And there is the main base housing area! But it looks different, somehow. When we left ten years ago, they were going to tear down our housing area (USA Housing) and build housing towers; until, that is, I asked a question at the Base Facilities Board: “Would the new towers be far enough away from the runway for take off clearances?” They considered “mini-towers,” or half-towers, but that was unresolved when we departed.

Well, Google Earth showed me that there are new houses where our old one was located. The loop of our road was kept, but all the old USA houses are gone. They needed to be “gone.” They were originally at Chitose Air Base right after WWII, and when we gave that base back to the Japanese Self Defense Forces, the housing was dismantled and relocated to Misawa! Ours were perpendicular to the street, but the new ones are parallel to the street; and there is a new road through TOW (Termination of War, WWII, that is) housing leading to the area.

Looking at Security Hill, I can see that some of the things I was planning for when I left have been accomplished! The old water tower, damaged in an earth quake in 1996, is gone and the new one is up. There is a gym building right where I had projected it to be in our “out-year-plan.” There is another building next to it that I don’t recognize, but the old ESG HQ building is gone (I didn’t have anything to do with those projects). The Project ASSETT antenna is plainly visible; it was actually under construction when we left in 1997. Project ASSETT required the removal of unused cables to the defunct Project Landway antennas. Well, Project Landway, and all eight of its antennas and support building are gone! YES! That was a nose bleed for me, at the end! All I could do was get the cables cut, someone else got the antennas and supports taken out. My project to replace the old electrical substations on the roof with units on the ground has been accomplished! YES!! But my project to replace the Tohoku Denki electrical substation appears to have not been done. The project may have been scrapped, or just not done yet. That one would have required GOJ (Government of Japan) involvement, maybe even their funding; well, no wonder then.

Also, I had submitted plans for the demolition and removal of two “temporary buildings” inside our compound. There was some controversy about their demolition, because once a base gets a building, no one really wants to give it up. But, in my proposals, I had found out that the authorization for the two buildings was a “temporary authorization” from Congress; and when the permanent buildings were in place, the old ones were supposed to go away. Well, many years later these buildings were a maintenance and security nightmare as far as their being SCIF’s was concerned. Google Earth showed me that both of those buildings are gone: the original Project LadyLove building is gone, as is the ancient “Training Section.” I know the 301st Security Police people were happy when that was done!

I can see where our old Prime BEEF encampment on the Hill has been made into a permanent training area for the Base Civil Engineers, and a Rapid Runway Repair training area has been added, good idea someone. A mock “runway” has been paved, and it has been used it a few times; I can tell because of the look of the concrete that is there.

Both “Port-a-Mod” plastic dome/roofed storage buildings are still there, I see; right across from the baseball fields. The roofs of these 'buildings' used to leak, and the manufacturer wanted mega-bucks for repairs. These buildings were only supposed to be there five years; twenty years later there they are!!

I see that the base got smart about the road to Security Hill between Rockies’ Roost and the Ski Lodge. Turn lanes have been constructed so vehicles don’t have to stop at the top of the hill to connect to the Base Perimeter Road. A new base commander wanted to make it a full stop for the people coming from Security Hill until I challenged the wisdom of the idea (with all due respect) because of the ice on the road during the winter months.

And, drop my jaw, Deep Space is gone; I mean the buildings are there, but the antennas are not! Deep Space began after I went to Security Hill in 1988, but was still going when we left Misawa.

The base was going to close the old POL gate (its official name was changed to something else, but I can’t remember what that was). Looking through Google, I see that, far from closing it, there is an entirely new gate system and building there. A new back gate to the housing area has also been added!

Well, enough reminiscing; I know that I have bored you to tears.

Google your Earth! It's free.