Hey Cali folks, I lived on the now abandoned George Air Force Base, Victorville in the late 1980s and wonder how accessible the old base is now?  I've seen photos/video of people investigating it, and just curious what one would need to know before entering.  It was closed for public health reasons and I have spent much time with CERCLA remediation of DOD sites, so I'm particularly interested in my old home place.  My mother developed 2 forms of cancer at age 30 and I only recently found about the contaminated soils around base housing.

The old housing area is a rotting mess. The homeless don't even use it anymore. Someone set a couple of fires there a while ago, that burned down a bunch of the old houses. Kids get popped playing paintball every once in a while, and the Military was using it to train some HSLD people a few years ago. Other than that, the golf course has been taken over by the city, a bunch of warehouses have been build on the site, and they paint and do maintenance on a lot of planes there.

Interesting.  Is it open to the public, or just seemingly that trespass is not enforced?  Does the USAF still own the property?

I'm sure it would be depressing to see.  Back in the 80s it really was livelihood of the area. Good times.

 
It's still federal no-trespassing land. They still remove people there for trespassing. Here are a few pictures I found on the interweb of what it looks like now.

Yeah, it's on the EPA's NPL for remediation.  I use to be a project manager doing this for military sites here.  I'm kind of surprised that the place appears so accessible as it was polluted residential areas that caused it's closure. In VA we seemed to be much more relaxed about stuff than Cali, but NPL sites are big no-no.  I remember all the war games out there, I know there's UXO.  I'm planning a road trip next month, I might just be checking the ole base out.

As mentioned, old housing area trashed and they try to keep what's left fenced off.  The old chapel is still a church of one sort or another.  The flightline and hangers are used as a freight airport, and aircraft repair facility.  Last I was there they had quite a few old aircraft stored.

Now across Airport road (formerly Airbase road) the federal bureau of prisons has built four prisons.  A woman's minimum, a men's medium, medium maximum and a maximum security prisons.

I was stationed at March in the mid 1980's.  The USAF had a large presence in the area with Norton, George, March, and Edwards.  I moved in the late 1980's and recently returned.  March is a small fraction of what it used to be and it appears Moreno Valley has suffered from the loss.  Might not be true, but that is what it looks like.  The place is a mess.  Victorville can survive without the base, but it looks like prisons took over, which do feed the economy.  Haven't been over to the area of Norton.  No real need to go into downtown San Bernardino I guess.

My family has had many USAF members including myself.  Kind of sad to see the old bases going by the way side.

I used to road bike around phantom and back out to national trails.

But, I've seen cars parked in front of the hospital and people going in through an open door snapping pics or ghost hunting. The park there is still active and a community center looks like something is going on.

I haven't heard of any real enforcement but ymmv