Glory days have passed for Rantoul's Chanute base

RANTOUL – A marmalade cat sprints through the rubble of an old Air Force operations building that fell from its own weight after termite infestation.

"That's our rodent control system," explains Rantoul village Administrator David Johnston.

The building's filled with asbestos and lead-based paint. A few hundred yards away is an even larger building– White Hall – that's also full of asbestos and lead-based paint. White Hall is better known as Buckingham Palace to hundreds of thousands of airmen who passed through it from 1939 until Chanute Air Force Base's closure in 1993.

AP Video

Also on this date

• Mom grateful son was found
• Potomac high schooler competes in National rodeo
• New home school puts focus on black males
• Uni-High gets internet upgrade
• Obituaries