Living Sites

Living Sites

A couple miles south of the runway, living sites housed the average 3,000 airmen and ground crew on base at any given point of the war.

For airmen, living sites were organized by squadron: 66th, 67th, 68th, and 506th.

Each living site consisted of temporary buildings erected on former farmland. There was no electricity. Fences surrounded each, and a picket post secured the entrance. Nissen Huts, aluminum half-dome structures, housed a few dozen airmen. Each man had an assigned cot and foot locker. There was no heating, apart from an inadequate and poorly stoked coal stove. A few toilet huts were on each living site, but no showers - those were available only on the communal site.