the NH State Legislature created the New Hampshire State Port Authority as an autonomous state agency overseen by a board of directors appointed by the Governor and Executive Council. The mission of the Port Authority is to develop and manage the state's tidal waters in order to stimulate commerce and to cooperate with other state and federal government agencies in planning the maintenance, development and use of the port, harbors and navigable rivers. The Port Authority fulfills its mission in ongoing harbor management, port development, port marketing, trade development and Foreign Trade Zone operation.
On January 1, 1956, the 100th Bomb Wing (BW) was activated at Portsmouth AFB under the command of Col. James W. Chapman, Jr. This establishment had the distinction of being the thirty-third and last B-47 wing to activate, and was comprised of the 349th, 350th, and 351st Bomb Squadrons (BS), of 15 aircraft each. The base was far from complete physically, but this did not slow organizational expansion. The 100th Air Refueling Squadron (ARS), which operated 18 Boeing KC-97 tankers, was assigned to the 100th BW on August 15, 1956.
The growing seacoast facility was renamed Pease AFB in honor of Capt. Harl Pease, Jr. on September 7, 1957. Pease and his crew successfully bombed an enemy airfield during a 1942 mission over Rabaul in the Pacific. Enemy fighter opposition was heavy, and although the B-17's gunners downed several of the enemy planes, the bomber failed to return to home base. Harl Pease posthumously received the Medal of Honor for this action.
Construction of a badly needed 1,100-unit Capehart housing project was begun in 1957. The importance of these and other expansions to Pease AFB became obvious on July 1, 1958, when the 509th BW arrived on permanent assignment from Roswell, New Mexico. This new organization was a descendent of the 509th Composite Group, which had dropped the atomic bombs on Japan in 1945. The wing's 393rd, 715th, and 830th Bomb Squadrons had flown the B-47 for several years, and were quickly joined by the 509th ARS, a tanker unit that had been at Pease for several months on temporary assignment to the 100th BW.
the Portsmouth Country Club reopened at its new location in Greenland NH after being forced from their former location by the US Government. Their prior location was taken for eminent domain when the US Air Force decided to build a bomber base at the prior location and took over the golf course for themselves. The present property was bought for $40,000. Renowned golf course architect Robert Trent Jones was hired to lay out an 18 hole course.
. On 6/19/1957, a category 2 (max. wind speeds 113-157 mph) tornado 5.2 miles away from the town center injured one person and caused between $5000 and $50,000 in damages.
a Skate-class submarine, was the second submarine of the United States Navy named for the swordfish, a large fish with a long, swordlike beak and a high dorsal fin. (The first was USS Swordfish (SS-193).) The contract to build her was awarded to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard of Portsmouth, New Hampshire on 18 July1955, and her keel was laid down on 25 January1956. She was launched on 27 August1957 sponsored by Mrs. Eugene C. Riders, and commissioned on 15 September1958 with Commander Shannon D. Cramer, Jr., in command
Dorothy M. Vaughan, Portsmouth librarian, was invited to address the local Rotary Club. As she later recalled, "I decided to lay it right on the line, and tell them what Portsmouth was throwing away each time a house was torn down or a piece of furniture was sold out of town." Almost before she had finished, a committee was created to see what could be done to save Portsmouth's heritage. The result was a radical new combination of urban renewal and historic preservation. The Puddle Dock neighborhood was to be saved as a historic museum.
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