Powell AFS (and two good resources)

Regarding "Powell AFS," I served in the 303X3 career field for many years during my Air Force career. Powell AFS was no mystery and had nothing whatsoever to do with UFO's. What was formerly Ist Combat Eval Group became the !st Electronic Range Group in the late 80's. The purpose of the establishment of Powell was as part of a large "racetrack" for B-52's and B-1's to receive efficient training on electronic countermeasures and simulated bomb scoring. Powell was one of several temporary sites established in Wyoming and Montana used in conjunction with permanent sites in those states and in Idaho, Colorado and Nebraska. Several sites in Wyoming besides Powell were Gillette, Green River, Thermopolis and Douglas, Alliance, NE and Forsyth, MT, Havre, MT and Conrad, MT, Dickinson, ND and Belle Fourche, SD. Support bases were Malmstrom AFB (for Montana sites) MT, Peterson AFB, CO (for LaJunta) Mountain Home AFB, ID (for Wilder) and FE Warren AFB, WY (for the Wyoming sites) and Ellsworth AFB, SD for the Dakota sites. The idea was for the aircrews to be able to fly from one site to another in a "racetrack" fashion to save on aircraft fuel and maintenance costs and to provide the aircrews with more training time during their flying missions. The sites were disbanded after the end of the cold war once the mission changed and self-scoring technology improved, rendering the career field obsolete in the mid 1990's. Most of these sites were manned by airmen TDY from permanent sites for 90 - 180 day time frames. Most loved their assignments away from their permanent posts. The sites were located in remote, unpopulated areas to minimize noise complaints because many of the simulated bomb runs were accomplished with the aircraft flying at low altitudes at night. I hope this information is helpful to your readers. Again, nothing UFO related here, sorry to say for those of you who like that sort of thing.

In aug of 1975 I was camping in Yellowstone. One night while looking at the milky way we saw what i thought was a satellite moving at a very high altitude. When it began to arc down i thought it was a meteor. Then it began to zig zag covering large swaths of the night sky. When it disappeared behind the trees I plotted its direction. It was toward Powell WY. There was nothing on the map to suggest an Air Base or even an airfield in that direction. After reading your thread I now suspect it was some kind of re-entry vehicle test.

a reply to: rand

The base housing is now part of Northwest Community College. The old facility is open to the public as it is the Powell Business Incubator facility a part of the Powell Valley Economic Development Council. There are still old Air Force signs there. The runways are defunct. The only runways are now north of town on the rims. It is mostly used by air ambulance to evacuate ill and injured by fixed wing aircraft to Billings, MT. The college and economic council have tons of history on the secret base. It had several functions including radar shield for ICBM's and a targeting range for bombers.