A few decades might have changed their appearances from the last time they saw each other, but it didn’t take long for the veterans of Kalispell Air Force Station to start shaking hands, hugging and backslapping during their first reunion last week.
Several mentions of “I don’t recognize anyone” quickly turned to, “So what have you been up to?” as a couple dozen veterans of the station, located in Lakeside before it was closed in 1978, met on July 22 at the Elks Lodge in Kalispell.
According to Radomes, Inc. – the Air Defense Radar Veterans Association – the 716th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron was originally assigned to the Kalispell Air Force Station in 1959, after it was activated in 1958.
Reports from the July 17, 1958 edition of the Spokesman-Review note that the unit was scheduled to have 127 airmen, 13 civilian employees and eight officers. It initially functioned as a ground-control intercept and warning station.
In 1960, the station became part of Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE), an electronic warning system, and fed its data to the Great Falls Air Defense Sector. At the same time, it was re-designated as the 716th Radar Squadron.
The station was eventually deactivated in 1978. In 1985, Youth With a Mission Montana bought the site and still uses it for its missionary training operations.
At the July 22 reunion, the crowd consisted of U.S. Air Force veterans, civilians who had worked at the radar station, family members and Lakeside residents who knew many of the families stationed there.
Brian Coons, who worked in radar maintenance at the station during 1974 and part of 1975, drove his motorcycle up from Spirit Lakes, Idaho, for the reunion.
He reminisced about the how times had changed, and how he was able to rent a house in Kalispell for $80 a month while stationed here.
“My goodness, this place has grown,” Coons said.
Many at the reunion recounted how they made it to Northwest Montana many years ago; several laughed when they remembered thinking, “Where the hell is Kalispell?”
Among them were Don and Darlene Fritz, who transferred up to Lakeside from Key West, Fla., in 1966. More specifically, they point out, their moved occurred in February. The shock of the temperature change eventually wore off, and the couple still lives in Kalispell.
Tony Adrignola worked as a supervisor in “radar operations electronic counter countermeasures” from 1963 to 1968. He came back in 1969 and then retired in 1972.
“I didn’t expect this many people,” Adrignola said, surveying the crowd milling about the Elks.
Donnie Granger, who first came to Lakeside in 1947 and worked at the Lakeside Mercantile for 32 years, said he was surprised by the number of people who once worked at the Air Force station and are still living in the area.
Also in attendance at the reunion was Lauri Stevens, whose father, Clay Green, was stationed in Lakeside from 1969 to 1974. Stevens, now married and living in Lakeside, hopes to find out what happened to her elementary school classmates from that time.
The Kalispell Air Force Station also brought Carol Curry and her family to Lakeside in 1967 when her husband, Chuck Curry, worked there as a civilian for the Department of Defense.
In the years since, Carol Curry became one of the founding members of the Lakeside Quick Response Unit, which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary. She responded to calls as an emergency medical technician for 28 years, she said, and is now the treasurer.
Curry’s son, also named Chuck, is currently Flathead County’s sheriff.
“I’m glad we stayed,” Curry said.
For more information on the Kalispell Air Force Station, visit www.radomes.org or the 716th Radar Squadron’s Facebook page.