Editing Loring Air Force Base (section)

====Origins====
[[File:North Atlantic Transport Route 1945.jpg|thumb|A 1945 map of [[World War II]] supply ferry routes over the [[North Atlantic Ocean]], with the location of Loring being right above Presque Isle's dot]]
Loring AFB was carved out of the woods of Maine beginning in the late forties and officially dedicated in 1953, named after Charles J. Loring, Jr., who was killed in the Korean War. The closest Air Force base on the east coast to Europe, it was originally built with a capacity of 100 B-36 Peacemaker bombers and equipped with a {{convert|10000|ft|m|adj=on}} runway.<ref name="HAERLoring" /><ref name="strategic-air-command">{{cite web|title=SAC Bases: Loring Air Force Base|url=http://www.strategic-air-command.com/bases/Loring_AFB.htm|publisher=Strategic-air-command.com|access-date=9 February 2013|year=2013}}</ref>

Loring was built on {{convert|14300|acre|km2}} of land, making it the biggest SAC base in the country. This in turn allowed for it to have the largest capacity for weapon storage and for fuel storage in all of SAC. (Its overall capacity ranked second among all 21 SAC bases). The weapons storage capacity was the highest in all of SAC, 10,247,882 NEW (Net Explosive Weight), and it was first in all of SAC in fuel storage capacity (9,193,374 gallons).<ref name="strategic-air-command" /> Fuel was delivered to the base via [[Searsport-Loring Pipeline|a 200-mile pipeline]] to [[Searsport, Maine]].<ref name="BangorDailyNews3a">{{cite news|last=Groening|first=Tom|title=Bangor Natural Gas parent buys rights to Searsport-to-Loring pipeline|url=http://bangordailynews.com/2012/07/03/business/bangor-natural-gas-parent-buys-rights-to-searsport-to-loring-pipeline/|newspaper=[[Bangor Daily News]]|access-date=7 August 2012|date=3 July 2012}}</ref> Ramp space at Loring exceeded 1.1 million square yards, which made it second among all SAC bases in total ramp space, and first in excess ramp space. Furthermore, it was one of two fully capable conventional weapons storage facilities in CONUS maintained by SAC.<ref name="strategic-air-command" />

During the [[Cold War]], new [[United States Air Force|U.S. Air Force]] bases were constructed along the northern border of the continental U.S.; their most direct route to the [[Soviet Union]] was through the [[Arctic Circle]]. These sites were high-importance strategic bases for hosting long-range missiles and aircraft. In 1947, the [[New England]] Division of the [[United States Army Corps of Engineers|U.S. Army Corps of Engineers]] chose a site in northeastern Maine, within both the [[Limestone, Maine|Limestone Township]] and [[Caswell, Maine|Caswell Plantation]]. The remote site consisted mostly of dense forest, shallow [[marsh]]es, and wild [[blueberry]] bogs, on a slight plateau over the town, which helped keep it above the fog most of the time. Only a small part of the base was suitable for farming, so there was little impact on [[Aroostook County, Maine|Aroostook County]]'s agricultural community. Additionally, Loring was not far from sources of materials for runway, taxiway, and parking apron construction. The most important benefit of the site was that it was a few hundred miles closer than any other base to potential targets in Europe.<ref name="HAERLoring" />