Fighter squadron reunites in Bangor

BANGOR – A clear sky, without any enemy threats, greeted the men of the 75th Tactical Fighter Squadron this weekend.

The men, most in their 60s, 70s and 80s, once served in Bangor and Presque Isle as pilots and support crew members. They gathered in Bangor to remember the days when they were young and charged with defending the country.

Some discussed the high points of their aviation tasks – such as the time in 1962 when live atomic warheads were loaded onto aircraft in Bangor as the nation plunged into the Cuban Missile Crisis with the Soviet Union. Some, however, came to remember more mundane incidents and places visited as younger men.

Leo Forand, a one-time radar technician who now lives in New York City, came to the reunion for what would be his first daytime return to Bangor since 1964. He was particularly interested in visiting an old garage on Route 2 towards Orono.

“Brownie’s auto repair garage,” he said with a smile. “I caught it in time. It’s under renovation.”

Forand, 61, also brought an old bowling trophy from the Bangor days to the meeting of nearly 100 squadron members and their families. He found someone on the team and produced the trophy, he said with a big smile.

James Bacik of Shelton, Conn., served eight years with the group as a fighter pilot. Although he would also go on an exchange program to Canada during his stint and be posted to North Carolina and later Vietnam, Bacik said the 75th in Bangor and Presque Isle was home.

“This is the squadron I associate with most because I was here for so long,” he said.

He said he was happy to see so many familiar faces and talk about old times.

Some didn’t expect to see many old friends but came anyway.

Jerry Strong, 63, now of Oklahoma City, worked in the munitions area. He served just a year, from 1964 to early 1965. Strong said he made the trip not expecting to see anyone he knew, and on Saturday that was proving true.

Strong came to the reunion with a hand-drawn map of the old Dow Air Force Base that showed the gates, runways and buildings. “I liked it up here,” he said.

The squadron has a history that spans many home U.S. Air Force bases.

The 75th dates to 1941. It was first called the 75th Pursuit Squadron. Its first action was in the China-Burma-India theater, where it took part in the American flying group known as the “Flying Tigers” that was under the command of Gen. Claire Lee Chennault. The group fought Japanese fighters.

The flight group moved to Fort Lewis, Wash., after the war. It went through a period of activations and deactivations before being assigned to Guam and the Panama Canal Zone. Then in 1951, the 75th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron was stationed at what was then known as Presque Isle Air Force Base and positioned under the control of the U.S. Air Defense Command to repel any enemy air attack.

Rick Riggio, unit historian from Fort Pierce, Fla., said the days in Presque Isle and Bangor were a new chapter for the squadron.

“Unlike the Chennault-era people, our traditions emanated from the Cold War,” he said. Even though the mission had become defensive, the tensions of the time were clear.

“For those of us who were here … that was a scary time,” Riggio said. “It was serious business all the way and so that definitely made an impact on a lot of people.”

One tradition that started with the Flying Tigers that never changed was an interest in keeping the group in touch, he said. The 75th Tactical Fighter Squadron has continued to maintain relationships that go back so far, he said.

The reunions are particularly fun for the newer pilots, who get to hear from their older counterparts about the technical difficulties of what are now considered historic aircraft, he said.

In 1952, the squadron moved to Suffolk County Air Force Base in New York for three years before returning to Presque Isle.

In 1955, the squadron aircraft was changed from F-86s to F-89s. The squadron then moved its headquarters to Dow Air Force Base in Bangor.

The planes were upgraded to F-101 in 1959, which were flown until 1968, when the squadron left Bangor for Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Michigan.

Today, the 75th Tactical Fighter Squadron is based at Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina.

The reunion had not been held in Bangor for 16 years.