Home of the 87th FIS
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| K.I. Sawyer AFB, Michigan Home of the 87th FIS |
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| We've already written lots about K.I. Sawyer already but most of it sounds like we didn't like the place. Hey, K.I. was a great base--cold, barren, snowy (Oops! We did it again!). Seriously, rumor had it that under the Air Force guidelines, K.I. was considered a remote tour due to it's distance from a town. In fact, the base was just about 100 feet over the set distance. So what did the Air Force do? They moved the main gate up 101 feet! (Oops! Did we make fun of the place again? Sorry..) Anyway, now closed, K.I. did provide some great memories for those of us in our formative years. Here's some of those memories.... | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Did we mention that it snowed at K.I.? If we didn't, it did!! This pic was taken in 1979 from the 87th FIS barracks during one particularly vicious snowstorm. If we recall correctly, it dumped something like 48 inches of snow in 24 hours. (And since we couldn't drive on base during weather like this, we had to WALK to the chow hall--down a hill through a mini-forest! Talk about fun!) | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| This photo, taken from almost the same angle as the one above, shows the base after the skies had cleared. Some difference, huh? Anyway, the base chapel is the white building to the left while the red facility on the right was the combination skating rink (downstairs) and sometimes Airman's Club (upstairs). (What a wonderful combo!) | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| And what did we do with that snow??? We built snowmen (and snowwomen), of course!! You gotta admit--we had some real 'artists' in the squadron. The man was supposed to be, we believe, our first sergeant. The bikini-attired snowwoman was, of course, the product of some person/persons with an overactive libido! (There were a lot of those at K.I.!) We're told that the snowwoman originally appeared au natural (naked to us dummies) but the base cops made us clothe her! In today's Air Force, this (especially the snowwoman) would absolutely NOT be tolerated...another sign of political correctness run amok! Sigh.... | |||||||||||||||||||||
| K.I. Sawyer AFB Part II | |||||||||||||||||||||
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