Post by Clipper on Aug 11, 2022 9:25:00 GMT -5
wibx950.com/netflix-series-on-romes-woodstock-99-is-tough-to-watch/
If you are a Netflix subscriber watch the video. I can only describe it as unbelievably disturbing.
I watched the video and it left me deeply saddened having spent 20+ years working at Griffiss. I am sure it was heartbreaking for many others who have fond memories of Griffiss as an active air force base with well maintained facilities. In reality a military base is a gated and self contained community, relatively complete with all the necessities and amenities to be self- sufficient. Chapel, theater, hospital, fire department, grocery store, restaurants, etc. etc. etc.Griffiss was always maintained in a presentable state. Lawns were mowed, flower beds were maintained, buildings were kept clean, painted, and maintained. A city within a city. All those years of care and pride by the Air Force and those that worked and lived on the base suffered significant physical damage as a result of an overly promoted, overwhelmingly disorganized mess brought to town by a greedy promoter who took his money and run, pocketing millions and leaving the smoking remnants of trailers and stages, and acres of trash, filth, and devastation in his wake.
One of the sadder images for me was seeing the land between the runways as well as the flightline area around the hangers devastated and looking like a tornado had passed through. Acres and acres of trash, sewage in picnic coolers, abandoned tents, blankets clothing, and just plain garbage. I drove though the base the day after the festival and the damage to the flightline area made me want to vomit.
In the late 70's when I worked at the base fire department one of the civil engineering squadron's commanders instituted a program to plant evergreen saplings in the open areas between the runway and the taxiways. They grew into a pristine mini forest, who's main purpose was noise abatement, suppressing some of the sound of the jets. It was so very sad that they actually cut down all those trees, leaving a field of stumps, in order to accommodate the needs and desires of the promoters and attendees.
I was working as transportation manager at the OD at the time. The OD printed thousands copies of a commemorative edition. We placed a large number of newspaper vending machines all around the base to make the papers available to the attendees. It was a nightmare trying to keep the machines serviced and stocked, and there was a lot of theft and vandalism. The machines operate by putting your coins in the mechanism that in turn unlocks the door. Thieves were paying for one paper and when they opened the machine they emptied it completely for the price of one paper. One of the machines was set on fire and destroyed, and another was stolen.
It certainly wasn't the peaceful original music festival in Woodstock NY. It turned into a poorly planned, commercialized rip off and a chaotic mess. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll rapidly morphed into rape, overdoses, drunken brawls, assaults, robberies, and eventually ending in arson and out of control chaos.
Area merchants and residents who were led to believe the festival would be a positive thing and economic boost were left eager for the mess to be over and for the attendees to be gone.
A guy that worked for me at the 485th went on to work at the golf course when the base closed. He took part in the cleanup and he said there were five gallon buckets and picnic coolers full of feces and urine, dirty clothing, maggot infested garbage, overturned porta-potties and overall filth.
If you are a Netflix subscriber watch the video. I can only describe it as unbelievably disturbing.
I watched the video and it left me deeply saddened having spent 20+ years working at Griffiss. I am sure it was heartbreaking for many others who have fond memories of Griffiss as an active air force base with well maintained facilities. In reality a military base is a gated and self contained community, relatively complete with all the necessities and amenities to be self- sufficient. Chapel, theater, hospital, fire department, grocery store, restaurants, etc. etc. etc.Griffiss was always maintained in a presentable state. Lawns were mowed, flower beds were maintained, buildings were kept clean, painted, and maintained. A city within a city. All those years of care and pride by the Air Force and those that worked and lived on the base suffered significant physical damage as a result of an overly promoted, overwhelmingly disorganized mess brought to town by a greedy promoter who took his money and run, pocketing millions and leaving the smoking remnants of trailers and stages, and acres of trash, filth, and devastation in his wake.
One of the sadder images for me was seeing the land between the runways as well as the flightline area around the hangers devastated and looking like a tornado had passed through. Acres and acres of trash, sewage in picnic coolers, abandoned tents, blankets clothing, and just plain garbage. I drove though the base the day after the festival and the damage to the flightline area made me want to vomit.
In the late 70's when I worked at the base fire department one of the civil engineering squadron's commanders instituted a program to plant evergreen saplings in the open areas between the runway and the taxiways. They grew into a pristine mini forest, who's main purpose was noise abatement, suppressing some of the sound of the jets. It was so very sad that they actually cut down all those trees, leaving a field of stumps, in order to accommodate the needs and desires of the promoters and attendees.
I was working as transportation manager at the OD at the time. The OD printed thousands copies of a commemorative edition. We placed a large number of newspaper vending machines all around the base to make the papers available to the attendees. It was a nightmare trying to keep the machines serviced and stocked, and there was a lot of theft and vandalism. The machines operate by putting your coins in the mechanism that in turn unlocks the door. Thieves were paying for one paper and when they opened the machine they emptied it completely for the price of one paper. One of the machines was set on fire and destroyed, and another was stolen.
It certainly wasn't the peaceful original music festival in Woodstock NY. It turned into a poorly planned, commercialized rip off and a chaotic mess. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll rapidly morphed into rape, overdoses, drunken brawls, assaults, robberies, and eventually ending in arson and out of control chaos.
Area merchants and residents who were led to believe the festival would be a positive thing and economic boost were left eager for the mess to be over and for the attendees to be gone.
A guy that worked for me at the 485th went on to work at the golf course when the base closed. He took part in the cleanup and he said there were five gallon buckets and picnic coolers full of feces and urine, dirty clothing, maggot infested garbage, overturned porta-potties and overall filth.
