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"Cold War" Tour "Giant Plane" Arrives
The Sawyer Air Heritage Museum One of the biggest airplanes of its
hosted 50 people from the Northern time, and the biggest to visit Mar-
Center for Lifelong Learning quette, landed at Green Garden
(NCLL) in late March as part of a field on July 12, 1936, to show off
"Cold War and the U.P. exhibit." At its size and make some money fly-
Sawyer, visitors got a closeup look ing local people around the county
at a key military site. Heritage Mu- "at exceptionally low fares" all day
seum president Bob Vick, who was and into the evening. The Ford was
stationed at the former air base, led 60 feet long with an 80-foot wingspan.
the tour and answered many ques- Sawyer's B-52 bomber One of the flight's sponsors predicted that future passenger ser-
tions, pointing out that the facility is a vice between Marquette and Milwaukee was "not far away."
memorial to the thousands of military men and women who served
our country at Sawyer Air Force Base. Shorter, Yet Still Longer
NCLL members toured the outdoor exhibit area of fighters, Come summer, Sawyer's 12,370-foot runway (the longest in
bombers, and trainers, and got to stand underneath the nose of a the state) will be shortened to 9,070. The project, which will also
giant B-52 bomber with its 185-foot wingspan. re-pave the strip, will take 72 days to complete and will force a
This busy group of mostly retirees, as part of their mission to vis- three-day runway closure in early August. The long runway –
it the area's most interesting places, returned to Sawyer in mid- inherited from the air base – is no
April for an inside look at Superior Extrusion and its fascinating longer necessary for Sawyer's opera-
aluminum extrusion process. tional needs, and is costly to maintain.
Sawyer will still have the longest U.P.
Salute to Bert Peterson runway and third longest in Michigan.
Captain Julius "Bert" Peterson, a Manistique The top three will be:
native, learned to fly at Finlay College in Ohio, Detroit Metropolitan 12,003
then joined the Army Air Corps in World War Grand Rapids 10,000
II. He was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Divi- Sawyer 9,070
sion, where his specialty was piloting C-47
transport aircraft which dropped parachute Depart Chart Departures from Sawyer
troops into battle zones of North Africa, Sicily, Travelers seeking a quick 7:30 a.m. to
and Italy, flying at treetop level with only a reference guide to Sawyer Minneapolis
departures can clip the
flack jacket for protection. graphic at right for wallet or 8:47 a.m. to
He followed this with similar flights over purse (the chart doesn't in- Chicago
France, Holland, and Belgium in northern Europe. In one raid of clude American's Saturday 10:26 a.m. to
81 aircraft in Peterson's unit, 45 were shot down or damaged. Bert flight to Chicago starting in Detroit
was awarded 11 combat medals, and is enshrined on the Sawyer May). The full schedule is 5:30 p.m. to
Aviation Wall of Honor. at www.sawyerairport.com. Detroit