Caribou Air Force Station
Caribou Air Force Station was the first of five, United States Air Force, Air Material Command (AMC) installations that were constructed during the period of 1951 – 1953. Each of the five installations was built specifically to provide operational storage of the nuclear stockpile, and to provide a specified number of weapons to their adjacent Strategic Air Command (SAC) bases. The first four installations were built and occupied by 1953. The fifth installation, although completed in 1953, would not be utilized until 1955. The first installation, code named “Site Easy” was originally known as the “North River Depot”. It was constructed between 1951-1952, and operations began in 1952. Funds were provided in 1951 to the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project (AFSWP), for the planning and construction of an ordnance storage site in the vicinity of a new Strategic Air Command Base. The AFSWP was directed to utilize the services of the Corps of Engineers, Department of Army, for planning and construction, and was made responsible for monitoring such work, and for operational security measures during these phases. The original directive to the AFSWP stipulated that upon completion of construction the installation would be turned over to Headquarters, Air Material Command for operational responsibilities.
Loring Air Force Base
The war brought increased funding to Limestone in 1951. Eight additional hangars were constructed at the southwestern end of the runway, as well as a addition to the northern end of the runway. The Department of Defense allocated funds for the North River Depot, a weapons storage facility to the northwest of the base. It later became Caribou Air Force Station and was absorbed into the facility in the 1960s. The end of the year brought the completion of a communications facility, a hospital, three barracks, a school, an officers club, a bakery, and a briefing and training building. The base was one of the first constructed after World War II and also one of the first to retain as much surrounding vegetation as possible in case there was a need to camouflage the airfield and surrounding facilities. It avoided the traditional grid system for roads.