Exploring Chanute AFB (warning: lots of pics)

This is great reading all these posts about Chanute AFB. I was there from May to June 1976 going to F-111/B-52 Instrument/Autopilot School. Here is what I remember: flying in over government grown pot fields. The very first day on base getting my in-processing brief and being told not to get caught in those pot fields..:). I remember missiles being displayed near the front gate as well. I was married at the time and so as a young airman I lived off the base in a trailer park on Tanner Rd. I would walk to the base every day and line up for the march to class, it was so hot that the tar in between the cement on the ramp would stick on your boots. When we got to class people would yell out PING, PING (Person In Need of Training). Half my class were Iranian officers as we were about to sell them F-16s. After class we all headed to the Pit & Ping Airmans club. The NCO club was called the "Chevron Club" and had strippers on the weekends. I remember climbing inside the B-36 which was only 3/4 as long because it broke on landing. While I was there they landed a B-52 to be used by the folks doing fire training and it ate up all the runway and then some before it could stop. I also remember a B-58 sitting on display wonder what happened to it. One day we were told to go to one of the hangars for a US vs Russian propaganda film. To me the hanger looked abandoned from the outside until we got inside and wow you would have never known they were doing minuteman missle work inside. We had to walk along the wall to get to our briefing and at one point a guy opened a door and he said get a good look you won't see this again and it was a bunch of minuteman missle warheads. Also saw about 3 or 4 of what looked to be brand new T-38s in the hanger for training. In June I got orders to my first duty station at Luke AFB working F-15s as a B-Shopper. I rode a Greyhound bus there in my blues...lol. Sure was a long time ago somewhere I have pictures of the aircraft that were on the flight line. I also remember going to the USO Club (off base?) for free punch and cookies..lol

Some great reading here. This is a photo I found of my Dad training on B-29s back in '52 or '53. He's standing 3rd from the right.

Looks like a couple of those guys got busted and lost their stripes. Back row center guy and 2nd guy from right back row . On their slieve one can see where the stripes were.

They're awful happy for having been busted down!


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I went to Chanute in July 1984 for Crew Life Support Tech training(F-4 Phantom). Five or six week school. I'd been prior Navy and thought the barracks were like living in a hotel with maid service. They didn't call them barracks but they had they dinning hall on the ground floor.

I was a civilian pilot at the time and the Aero Club helped get authorization to fly into the base. The runway was crumbling on one end but it was so long even with the displaced threshold you could land a Cessna 210 there with tons of runway left over. Pilots could get checked out to rent the Aero Club aircraft too.

Chemical Warfare Decontamination training was part of that course. Most depressing thing I've ever done. I loved the little town outside the base.

Can you still get on base to ride around? I'd like to do that if it's possible and there's anything left to see.

Thanks for pics.

The base is now a residential and business area. No more fences. I don't know what structures are still standing from my last trip but I'd guess a fair number.


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After 8 weeks of basic training at Lackland we finished up 3 weeks at Chanute before attending flight simulator maintenance school from May 1960 until November 1960. Also, had a short school at Chanute a few year later in 1963, I think. A long time ago and I still remember that cold and windy place fondly.

White Hall is now gone, Just a grass field. The old steam plant that provided heat for the base as well. Some of the other buildings that were deteriorating, gone too. The process of reclamation is going slowly. All of the steam plant vaults around the base are removed and filled in also.
We came here when the base was still open, and sometimes miss Revelry (sic) in the morning and Taps at night. Rantoul is coming back with new hotels, restaurants, and other businesses. If our state government would get their heads on straight, much more can come of our town.

Just curious if anyone has been through this place lately. I used to go there back in the mid 80s. It was quite the place for an Army guy to go to. Big change from what we were used to at that time.

I was there in 1979 for avionic instrument training. We had classes at White Hall (now demolished) . I roomed in one of the buildings with the "correctional custody" building. No, I was not in the that program but probably should have been. It looks like there are actually 4 buildings in that group according to Google maps. I remember the men's building being directly across from the ladies building. In the ladies basement was a rec hall that had pool tables, ping pong tables and a beloved beer machine. Yep, an RC cola machine fully stocked with beer! $1.00 a can as I recall. There was also a small TV room down there as well.
I went to the night club (Pit and Ping) a few times to listen to Donna Summer songs and watch the drunk airmen try to dance. Most of my nights were spent at the bowling alley playing a pinpall machine. I got pretty good at this and could usually play all night for 1 quarter. I learned piano at the theater where there was one beside the stage. If that one wasn't available there was another at the small church near the base entrance. There was an airman's mess hall just north of the dorm where I stayed. Thanks for the pics! You have the only ones I could find online that showed my dorm.

Just found you’re thread spaceman. I worked for the local telephone company in Rantoul for 42 years. When it was still a base we had lines going into White Hall and the airmen did all the base work. After it closed we took over so I’ve been all over it. Us older guys still refer to it as the base but some of the newer techs have no idea what we are talking about. Sure was interesting reading all the stories on here. There was also a lot of cheap off base housing in Rantoul. The city is making a comeback. Bell just built a huge plant a few years ago.

The power plant pic is of the old 'heat plant' which was a steam generation plant using coal fired industrial boilers. I was stationed there and worked in the plant from '83-'90. The steam was used for both heating and air conditioning for a lot of the older buildings on the base. It was the best of times and the worst of times. There was not a day we wouldn't be covered in coal dust. Some who were stationed there might remember the coal piles out on the flight line, those were reserves in the event we could not get coal deliveries. I have great memories of Chanute, met some of the best friends and married the gal of my dreams. We lived on Circle Drive and were within walking distance to most of our friends and co-workers. I recall golfing on the course on Christmas day and it was cold as hell; like trying to drive a boulder down the fairway. The hanger directly across from the heat plant was used for the fire suppression school. I also used to work part time delivering pizzas for Pizza World and DJ'd for Master Blaster at the Airmen's Club when it was moved to the Tradewinds Rec Center. Ahh, the memories. Thanks for posting the pictures; definitely a stroll down memory lane.