Geiger can hold up

I have just returned to Spokane after 16 years away. The Geiger Correctional Facility opened a few years before I left. It was to be a temporary facility until the county could come up with something else.

It seems that the sheriff thinks that he needs a new facility. That may be true, but one of his arguments is totally false. He says that the facility is of pre-war construction. Actually, the two three-story structures were built during the 1950s. The basic construction was used at many bases including F.E.Warren AFB, Wyo.; MCAS Kanehoe, Hawaii; Travis AFB, Calif., among many more.

The structures are built and a solid slab, having concrete block walls (both interior and exterior) and a brick facade.

The north-south oriented building was the barracks for the 823 Radar Squadron and the east-west building was the barracks for the Washington Air National Guard (they flew F-102s).

The lower structures are in fact pre-war. During the 1960s, they were the orderly room and offices of the 823rd.

I know this because I lived in the barracks assigned to the 823rd during 1967-1968.

A new facility may be needed, but this is solidly built.

Beau Kleinpaste

Mead