Five years have passed since the Navy transferred all its personnel and aircraft from the Brunswick Naval Air Station to other military bases around the country.
Now a group of people who either worked on the base or grew up near the sprawling 1,487-acre installation want to remember its achievements and celebrate its history.
More than 70 Navy personnel and retirees have signed up to attend a reunion in Brunswick on the weekend of July 15-17.
Reunion spokesman Jeff Simpson, who grew up in Topsham and watched Navy airplanes fly over his home, promises the event will be a walk down memory lane for the people who served there before the base closed on May 31, 2011. The Brunswick Naval Air Station opened on April 15, 1943.
“People from all over the country will be attending,” Simpson said. He has received reservations from reunion attendees living as far away as Hawaii, Florida and Georgia.
As word about the reunion starts to spread, Simpson said he expects more people to place reservations. Tens of thousands of men and women served in Brunswick along with hundreds of civilians.
So far, the reunion committee has scheduled bowling at Yankee Lanes, a round of golf at Mere Creek golf course, a dinner and dance, a chapel service, and a tour of the former base, which is now known as Brunswick Landing.
Since the Navy left Brunswick, the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority has been recruiting new tenants and refurbishing buildings.
Southern Maine Community College operates a campus at Brunswick Landing. Other new tenants include the U.S. Marine Reserve Center, retailer Wayfair, Seeds of Independence, Oxford Networks, Molnlycke Health Care and a branch of the Bath Area YMCA.
Donations are being accepted and reunion participants can order a $10 commemorative patch online that reads: “NASB Brunswick, Maine. Saluting 68 years of Aviation Excellence. Gone But Not Forgotten.” For more information, a list of places to stay and updates about the reunion, go to www.bnasreunion.org.
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