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1986 to 89 lifetime ago if your out there hello woody ,kevin, bush, rehart and steve wilcox from shawn tandy great time and hard work brothers! 57 years old now great life!

I was stationed there from Jan 1974 till January of 1979. We lived in Marquette for a year, the winter drive to make midnight shift was always an adventure. Started out attached to the Bomb wing, then reorganized into the 2001 Comm squadron since we supported the command post digital comms system. One year I worked as a civil engineer augmenter and drove snowplows. It kept me from doing CQ for a year. I was on the runway for 16 hours the day the Edmund Fitzgerald sank, but the base never closed. 2 of my kids were born on base. We lived on Aalbatross drive in a nice little duplex.

That was trip down memory lane for sure. 410 SPS from 86 to 92. Good times!

My wife & I were up dere from May '71 to Oct '83 - 87th FIS. Some good times!

WOW great video, I lived on Falcon blv. in 79, and humped them buffs for three years, brought back memories, thanks. But KI is the reason I live in nice hot Florida today, three years at KI was enough cold weather to last me the rest of my life🥶🥶😁

LOVED that base! I was there in the early 1970's. GREAT place to live. GREAT place to work. GREAT bunch of people. I was so LUCKY to have been stationed there! I went back last year to look around. The buildings are still there....although "a bit weathered". The housing area is still active with local people moved in. Many MANY thanks for your great video...done in the winter when most people would have been indoors.

Kinchelo, Wortsmith same story

Stationed there in AMMS hound dog missile maintenance great base but lousy winters. Remember climbing to hills to get to work slipping and sliding all the way and praying the woman in the car in front does not let up on the gas and lose her momentum.

Great Video - I am 90 - Did 4 Years Active - 16 NYANG THOSE WERE THE DAYS - God Bless Us ALL

I served on the front lines of the us and ussr cold war at Minot Air Force Base north dakota. 1977 to 82. Never got to ki sawyer.

Thanks for the memories! I was stationed there 75-79 and worked in the WSA. It was great to see your video as that area is now a lumber processing business.

Actually seeing it all buried in snow is how I mainly remember it. I was there from 87-90, and it was a pretty good place to be.

If this AFB was closed down then why was the radar kept on turning around? As a former USAF person stationed at Wurtsmith AFB in March, 1976 - August, 1977 winters always was and will be is wimpy. You are thinking why am I living here? Well, when I got out of the USAF at my last AFB assignment at Sheppard AFB, Texas; my wife wanted to move back to Michigan because she had relatives her at time in May, 1977.

So sad. I could have been assigned there but received first duty to Holloman NM in 1979.

I served in the U.S. Air Force from 1986-1997. It has always been sad to see an Air Force base close down......MacDill didnt shut down but we lost our flying mission back in 1995.....we eventually got KC-130s back a few years later. Not the same as the 80+ F-16's that roared the skies over Tampa Bay. So many life's were impacted by these bases as well as friendships......we all grew up on these Air Force bases. The WSA/CSC/LED are all quiet now......life moves on.

I was born here in late 81. First time I'm seeing what it was like. Dad transferred to Luke afb.

Anybody remember a Doug and Karen Cooper?

I was stationed at KI Sawyer in the later 70’s. I actually had a great time there. Sad to see it close.

Some of your shots look just like KPSM (Pease AFB)

I was based there in the early 1970's. Just went back there this summer to look around. VERY SAD! WHY the government just walked away from this installation and let people rummage around destroying every thing inside these buildings... is beyond me. What would it have taken to keep the grass cut, the windows shut and the doors locked on all those facilities? If nothing else we could have shipped all our "homeless people" there and got them out of our rotting cities.

Was stationed there with the 87th FIS from 81-85. Left just before they closed the unit. Never thought I’d miss the place but like many I had a lot of good times there and met some great folks. Some crappy ones too! Thanks for posting Jamie. Red Bulls Forever!

I was there from ‘75 to ‘83, from the age of 4 to 12. We moved there right when the Edmund Fitzgerald went down. We lived at 617 Valkyrie. I went to KI elementary. I still remember some of my teachers, Mrs Lindstrom, Mr and Mrs Parlatto, Mr G the art teacher, Mr Hanuskala the gym teacher (good Finn name) and Mr Corkin. We spent the winters sledding dead man’s hill. Summers were all about BMX. Also, it was the golden age of video games at the bowling alley and the wonder hut. I can’t think of a better place for a kid.

Best thing that happened to place was closing it

The UP was a horror show in the winter if you worked on the flight line. Best day of my life was when I left Kinchloe.

Thank you for posting this; it brought back many memories! I was stationed there May 1974-June 1984; it was my first state-side base after spending 2 yrs at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska. Yeah, I know....couldn't get enough of the cold and snow, I guess! I was assigned to USAF Hospital, K.I. Sawyer (NCOIC, Med-Surg Ward; NCOIC Outpatient Clinics, then NCOIC Physical Exams eventually back as NCOIC Med-Surg and OB Wards. In 1981, I was selected for special duty as NCOIC NCO PME Center and assigned to the 410th Combat Support Group for the remainder of my tour there. I would eventually go on to Grissom AFB, Indiana as Commandant, 8th AF NCO Leadership School; then to Anderson AFB, Guam as Commandant, 633rd ABW NCO Leadership School. After 4 yrs on Guam, returned stateside as First Sgt, 28th Medical Group, Ellsworth AFB. Then, I completed my 25 yrs, 2 months and 19 days assigned to the 28th Mission Support Squadron as Deputy Director of the Family Support Center. Still....after the passage of 46-plus yrs, the one assignment that still tugs at my psyche, the one place I always felt the most at-home was K.I. Sawyer! I have been back twice since it has closed, once with family (stayed at Queen Cottages/South Shag Lake) and once with only my wife (camped at Horseshoe Lake). Each time, because of further disrepair and neglect, it felt like going to visit a relative at the graveyard! It was once a great place to be stationed, a great place to start a family, with great outdoors, great people-because only the best go North! I lived in a dorm down in the "Hole" for a while; then the trailer park at Little Lake and finally out hwy 460 to Scandia and 545 South. If I had the misfortune to fall into a time loop and had to live my life over and over in one spot, I would hope it would be at K.I. Sawyer AFB, in the U.P. I truly miss that place and those people....it was the best time of my life! Here's to us and those like us who stood the watch in the Great White Frozen North....damn few left! LH

I found where I was stationed in Germany on Google Earth. They have repurposed most of the main post however the storage bunkers of PSP4J and the NATO site are abandoned and falling apart. I feel the same way those of you who were stationed at KI Sawyer do. It tugs at your heart. I was in Marquette in 2017 and strongly discouraged from going to KI Sawyer or Gwinn because it had become a drug infested hood. Very sad. I grew up near Houghton so the AFB was well known to me.

What a waste. Could have alot of good uses. The only thing the state will save, is the golf course.

just wondering, if the base closed up, why was the radar still rotating ?

I was there in 73. The coldest place I have ever been.

I was 410th SPS and loved it there so much. Snowmobiling and skiing in the winter, fishing in the spring and fall, and motorcycles and beach in the summer. I actually drove my snowmobile to work 4 months a year which made going to work just way too much fun! The people and the place were amazing. My daughter just deployed yesterday on a mission; the details of which I suspect I don't want to know even if she could tell me. On a difficult day for me, it was nice to look back upon a happy time and place so thank you so much for posting this.

So sad to see the end to these bases. I was stationed at Walker AFB in Roswell New Mexico. Wish there had been a video made there before the closing.

Thank you for the video and zooming in on the police station, my dad was a cop on base

Served 1967 and 1968 410 SPS , then off to Vietnam. A lot of fond memories and fine people. RIP KI Sawyer AFB you were once a base that the air force looked up too, to many base closures, so sad.

Who else wants to move back after watching this? 😭

I wonder if anyone was still there. Because of the Radar still going

I was there from March 1977 til Jan 81 Sac Alert Force Controller

I was there 1975-79 , 410 CSG Base Administration

If the government keeps closing all of these bases, we’re not gonna have a military anymore

Just a notification to folks who might not be a part of the "I Survived KI Sawyer AFB" group on Facebook - as of yesterday - the signature, rotating antenna atop the SAGE building is no more. It was shut down a month or so back and it was dismantled and removed. It has been replaced by a standalone unit atop a tower on the northwest quadrant of the runway. You can see the old antenna in operation in this video at the 3:35 mark. It is from this day forward that it will be the only way to see this in operation. The last militarily functional role of the base has come to an end. RIP DC-14 SAGE Antenna 1960-2019.

1:36 the fire team building. It was always fun when to Packers or Lions played and you could get on that post. It was grand central station. the TV room would be standing room only. Even better when the Packers played the Lions. Usually resulted in a intra-flight civil war.

Miserable weather but had the best maintainers and people.

Dad was stationed there 91-93, but we lived in Skandia up the road. Many great times at K.I. Went to Gwinn my freshman and sophomore years. Cool place. Miss many aspects of the yoop. Formative years. However, it is not in Marquette.

Another abandoned former SAC base, there are a lot of them unfortunately. They all seem to have a Buff on display as well. I had the option of going there in the 80's but since I was already at Griffiss AFB, NY I wasn't about to go from one cold weather base to another. It's sad to see these old bases left to rot.

Stationed at KI from 84-88 and still visit every few years. Strange feeling walking around the old barracks. I worked as a firefighter on the flightline and always enjoyed the people I served with and the civilians in the department. Gwinn was always fun and Marquette is an amazing place that continues to grow. Those snow scenes are so accurate. Thanks for posting.

I hate to see any base shut down like that and then run down. That base was nice and many there in the area must miss the service members. Many of them lived in the local area and put plenty of money into the local economy.

My fiance misses that place and often talks of wanting to live there. He was there 91-95, worked in POL, 410 supply.

Used to watch the BUFF's fly over Copper Range mine in White Pine. The big stack made an easy visual checkpoint.

There used to be big mounds of dirt between the storage lockers in the weapons storage area when I was there, looks like they removed them.

I was USAF, never stationed there, but it feels eerily familiar. Maybe there is a part of every one of us in the great old military bases.

Memories.... I was stationed there in 1972. K.I. was its own city. It had everything a community needed, and now its gone. It's hard for me to imagine. Feeling sad and feeling old. Thanks so much for the video.