New life at historic air base

The old Havre Air Force Station had its doors closed in 1979, but they may be opened again for another use in upcoming years.

Keith Connolly, of Connolly and Connolly Investments, purchased the property in June 2014 because he and his father, the other member of the investment company, were interested in seeing what they could do with the old station.

"We dabble in real estate," Connolly said of he and his father, co-owners of the investment company. "We've been doing this for a little bit - mainly residential properties. Recently, we've started dabbling in commercial and historical properties."

Keith Connolly lives in Spokane, Washington and his father, Jeffery Connolly lives in Priest River, Idaho.

He said the future of the Havre Air Force Station is uncertain.

"As far as what our plans are, we don't really know yet," he said.

He and his father spent a month and a half in the Havre area, looking at the property and talking to the community about possible uses for the property.

"We're trying to formulate what we could provide to the community and increase investment," he said. "The difficulty is that Havre is about 30 miles away. That limits its potential in some ways."

Currently, there is a government lease on a portion of the old base. Some of the houses on the property are being rented out and a farmer is renting some of the shop facilities.

A commissary in the cluster of buildings left in the area has 18,000 square feet. Connolly said there is also a basketball court and other features, too

"It would make a great event center," he said. "That's kind of what we're trying to do."

He said that they have the money to make it into an event center, but they are not sure it would be successful if they did. He added that they have a couple of different business plans that they are currently working on, but they are still unsure as to what they are going to do.

He reiterated that the station's distance from Havre - about 30 miles away - is the biggest hurdle in doing anything with the old Havre Air Force Station.

The Past

Craig Otterstrom was a radar tech in the 778th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron posted at the Havre Air Force Radar Base.

Originally from Salt Lake City, Otterstrom came to Havre to work on the base, where he was stationed until the mid to late '60s.

He said a lot has changed at the old station since he stopped serving there. The base was decommissioned in 1979 and many of the buildings were taken down by the government, and the rest of them were stripped.

The radar tower still stands at the base, but the signature radar dome has been removed.

Some of the housing that was taken down was moved to Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation and Havre. Otterstrom said when the station closed, the government did not have a need for the houses, so they gave them to the surrounding communities.

The Air Force station was in service for 28 years after it was established in 1951.

"Aircraft Control and Warning was the major thing for it for many years," Otterstrom said.

He said it was decommissioned for a few years in its lifetime and brought back as a Strategic Air Command for electronic bombing ranges.

Otterstrom said he was stationed there for a couple of years, probably from 1967 to 1968. He got married to a Havre woman and still lives in the area today. While he was still single, he lived on base.

He said that living on-base was "remote."

"There are worse places," he said laughing. "As far as being remote."

He said the men came into town often, mostly on weekends. The station was in operation 24 hours a day, cut into three shifts. There were about 200 personnel at the station when he was there.

On the base, there were basketball courts, shooting ranges, a movie projector that Otterstrom was in charge of for a while, a 24-hour cafeteria and other amenities.

The day shifts were mainly for maintenance on the equipment and the night shift was mainly just watching to make sure everything worked, Otterstrom said.

"In the night shift, we'd play cards, take a nap," Otterstrom said. "We really had to stay on guard with all those Canadians."

He said the station was tied together with other stations in Montana and in Canada. The main operations of the Havre station were based in Great Falls. The Havre station had backup computers to support the mainframe in Great Falls, but also had the same operations. They would watch the skies for aircraft. They could pinpoint the altitude and location of aircraft in the area through the towers set up at the station.

He said it was a fairly easy job, and he enjoyed the work.

"It enabled you to be out in Montana," he said. "That was one of the best parts."

He said the squadron would come down to Havre for Festival Days to participate in the parade and festivities. They and the Nation Guard came down to march.

"Being in the Air Force, we weren't the best marchers in the world," he said. However, after the parade one year in the late '60s, he met his future wife in a bar. After they married, they spent a number of years in Salt Lake City, but eventually came back to the Hi-Line and have been staples since. There are a few men who were posted at the station who are still on the Hi-Line, he said.

He said he hopes the new owners of the station are able to do something with the property, though he said he doesn't know what they could do with it to be successful.