Search on for time capsule hidden at U.S. Oval HQ

PLATTSBURGH | A small team of U.S Air Force veterans mounted a search Thursday, Oct. 3, for the time capsule hidden nearly 40 years ago in a wall at 206 U.S. Oval. The historic property has been empty for decades, shuttered when Plattsburgh Air Force Base was decommissioned in 1995. It was known as Building 100 for USAF Strategic Air Command and later Air Mobility Command operations. The men and women who served here refer to it as "The 100." Gathered on the front steps, a group led by Joe McNichols (USAF Col. ret.) included former Airman Steve Zerges, USAF Fire Enforcement, who prepared and put the historic marker in place in 1986, and Debbie Kegan, a former civilian employee who opened the first travel agency in the building. The search team had permission from property owners at Fesette Realty to enter. Staff from the real estate firm unlocked the front door. It opened easily to the drafty maw of a long hallway stretched under ceilings that reach over 20 feet high. Unlit and silent, it seemed to echo a cadence of military purpose. Arches over distant corridors framed a few streams of sunlight. QUIET HALLS The search required flashlights and careful steps through old hallways littered in places with ceiling panels and loose linoleum. The team talked about busy days when the 100 was fully staffed to run a SAC base. In its Air Force era, the storied brick headquarters housed JAG operations, Security, Civil Engineering, Morale Welfare and Recreation (MWR), family support services, and Public Affairs along with the base commander's office and meeting quarters. Communication circuitry still stands arrayed neatly against a wall on the first floor. Wired bundles are labeled for internal base communication to buildings on the U.S. Oval and operation centers. Winding through halls to a set of stairs, Zerges knew exactly where to go. Remnants of security operations hold fast in several rooms upstairs. Barred windows still protect what was once an evidence room. Height hash marks still measure a wall used by detectives for mug shots. CACHE WAS GONE Within minutes, Zerges found the cache site. A hole already cut in the wall left the team wary. With a hammer, he strategically removed more drywall opening a vertical slice between studs. The search crew reached between the walls and peered past joists with flashlights. Clearly, someone else took the time capsule. It's a steel tube, Zerges said, about a foot long and some four inches or so in diameter. It held I.D. cards and other memorabilia among other items, and had been set standing vertically between floor support beams. Veterans who went after the cache are part of the active group that helped amass the collection at the Plattsburgh Air Force Base Museum. Historic items on display capture an evolution through some forty years of air warfare, Cold War era missile sites and everyday life on a busy Air Force base. Items have been donated by hundreds of airmen and civilians who served in Plattsburgh from 1954 to 1995, all helping to open, operate and then close a critical U.S. military installation. The quest is now on to find out what happened to the capsule. The vets said it would make a great addition to the PAFB Museum. Anyone with information about its location can contact the museum via email: plattsburghafbmuseum@gmail.com The museum manages a Facebook page: Plattsburgh Air Force Base Museum For more information, visit their website: plattsburghafbmuseum.org THE 100's LEGACY Some of Plattsburgh's Air Force story is frozen in time in the halls of the 100. The time capsule search stirred memories of paperwork, air base operations and public affairs. The first credit union set up for Plattsburgh Air Force personnel in the 100's basement was an early version of what became Dannemora Federal Credit Union. Several local Air Force veterans still hold and use those early membership numbers. The City of Plattsburgh and Fesette are working on reuse options for the historic property. First built as regimental headquarters for the U.S. Army in 1893, it was renovated several times over years of USAF. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the mid-1980s. An engraved stone marker in the front entry marks early U.S. Army dedication to fallen soldiers. The stone says: "Erected in honor of the men of the twenty first regiment United States Infantry who fell at Santiago-de-Cuba July 1898." The dedication names 10 men by company: Company A: William Davis, Fred Weisheit, Michael O'Mealley, Otto Derr. Company C: Robert McClatchey. Company D: Joseph Murphy. Company E: Edward Ploude. Company F: Benjamin F. Boling. Company H: Albert Tompkinson, Joseph May. The 21st Infantry Regiment was assigned to Plattsburgh Barracks in 1895. The regimental headquarters (the 100), guardhouse and three barracks were the first structures established as a permanent garrison near the old base parade ground in Plattsburgh in 1893.

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Search on for time capsule hidden at U.S. Oval HQ

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