My grandfather, L. W. Brumm was one of three paving contractors that built the Raco airfield. The other two were Gust.K Newberg and S.J.Groves and Sons.
I remember back in about 1995, my company did about 144 soil borings on this site for the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers to assess adverse impact from the previous missile launch sites. Mostly concerned about the past storage tanks. Crazy thing is that they did it in the winter. Why not wait till it's warm, I can't say, but it was for the government so what can you expect.
Raco was not an air force base. It was an auxillary airfield. During the WW2-Korea era there ware anti_aircraft guns there. In the 60's a Bomarc aa missile site was there. After than, not much.
FYI: this was never a US Air Force Base. The ONLY presence the USAF had on site was the Kincheloe BOMARC Missile site. THe USAF never had a flying mission there.
There was a small contingent stationed there. Most were bussed in daily from Kinchheloe AFB. MY girlfriend's husband worked fire suppression there. Local drag races were held there during the 1960's. CHRYSLER Automotive used it for cold weather battery research d😮using the later 1970's 😢
