Lincoln Air Force Base
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| Lincoln Air National Guard Base
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| IATA: LNK – ICAO: KLNK | |||
| Summary | |||
| Airport type | Public/Miliary | ||
| Owner | Lincoln Airport Authority Nebraska Air National Guard |
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| Location | Lincoln, Nebraska | ||
| Elevation AMSL | 1,219 ft / 371 m | ||
| Coordinates | |||
| Runways | |||
| Direction | Length | Surface | |
| ft | m | ||
| 18/36 | 12,901 | 3,932 | Asphalt/Concrete |
| 14/32 | 8,649 | 2,636 | Asphalt/Concrete |
| 17/35 | 5,400 | 5,400 | Asphalt/Concrete |
- For the civil use of this facility, see Lincoln Airport
Lincoln Air National Guard Base is home to the Nebraska Air National Guard's 155th Air Refueling Wing and several Nebraska Army National Guard units located near Lincoln, Nebraska.
The National Guard facility is located just east of Runway 36, right alongside taxiway Delta on a portion of Lincoln Airport. The Air National Guard's tarmac is closed to general aviation and is guarded by the wing's Air Force Security Forcessquadron 24 hours a day.
Prior to its current civil and National Guard use, Lincoln Airport was known as Lincoln Air Force Base, and was a major United States Air Force Strategic Air Command bomber and missile base, being the home of the 818th Air Division. It was activated on 1 February 1954 and closed on 25 June 1966.
During World War II, the airport was known as Lincoln Army Airfield and was a staging base for B-24 crews and aircraft. The 331st Army Air Force Base Unit commanded the support elements at Lincoln AAF as part of Air Technical Service Command, which was assigned to the 21st Bombardment Wing . It was also the home of the 12th Heavy Bombardment Processing Headquarters.
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[edit] History
What would become Lincoln Airport began in the early 1920s when the city selected a plot of land Northwest of the city to be used as a municipal airport. Charles Lindbergh learned flying at Lincoln Airfield in 1923. The airfield became an air mail stop during the 1928 and became a United Airlines stop during 1927, it continues its service to Lincoln to this day.
[edit] World War II
With war clouds forming in 1941, the United States Army Air Force needed airfields for training flight and ground personnel. On 27 February 1942 Lincoln Airfield was announced to be home of an Army Airfield training base.
Lincoln AAF was a noted mechanics school but also trainned air crews of B-17 Flying Fortresses, Consolodated B-24 Liberators and Boeing B-29 Superfortresses. The base was one of eleven USAAF training bases in Nebraska during World War II. The base was under the command of Second Air Force Headquarters, Colorado Springs, Colorado.
On 17 December 1944 the 489th Bombardment Group arrived at Lincoln from Bradley AAF Connecticut to begin B-29 conversion. The group stayed until April 1945 then transferred to Great Bend AAF Kansas. The group was alerted for movement overseas in the summer of 1945, but war with Japan ended before the group left the US. It was inactivated on 17 October 1945.
[edit] Postwar Years
With the end of the war in 1945 Lincoln AAF began ending its training misison and became a homecoming transfer base for crews returning from Europe. In December 1945 the USAAF use of the airfield was ended and the faciilty returned to its prewar civil use as an airport.
Along with its civil use, Lincoln Airport became host to the newly formed Nebraska Air National Guard along with a Naval Reserve unit. The 173rd Fighter Squadron was equipped with P-51 Mustang fighters in 1946 and was the second air national guard unit ever created. A few years later, F-80C Shooting Star jet fighters would replace the unit's F-51s until the advent of the Korean War.
[edit] Cold War
With the outbreak of the Korean War, the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce proposed the idea to Nebraska Senator Kenneth Wherry to recativate Lincoln Airport as an active United States Air Force base. Senator Wherry fought for its activation and Lincoln Air Force Base was on a bill to be passed by the Congress until a few days before it was to be passed. Only an envoy of Lincoln residents and its mayor were between reactivation and failure. They lobbied only hours before the vote and were victorious. USAF Strategic Air Command officers would soon survey the land that would become Lincoln Air Force Base. On 21 February 1952 the 4120th Air Base Group was activated at Lincoln AFB to begin work on the base. The unit was placed under the command of the Fifteenth Air Force.
On 1 February 1954 Lincoln AFB was officially activated and so was the 98th Air Base Group. The 98th Air Refueling Squadron flying the Boeing KC-97 Stratotanker arrived at Lincoln in April.
In July the 98th Bomb Wing arrived from Davis-Monthan AFB Arizona flying B-29s from Japan that had been used in the Korean War. Later, during November 1954, the 307th Bomb Wing arrived from Kadena Air Base, Okinawa also after the unit's action over Korea.
Also in November, the 98th ABG was deactivated, being replaced by the 818th Air Division to become the host unit at Lincoln, commanding both the 307th and 98th Bomb Wings. Lincoln AFB was then transferred to SAC's Eighth Air Force.
On 7 December, the first Boeing B-47 Stratojet arrived to equip the 307th BW and 98th BW. The 98th would become combat-ready in April 1955 and the 307th in June, with a total of 90 B-47s eventually being stationed at Lincoln AFB.
Units of the 98th Bomb Wing were:
- 343rd Bombardment Squadron
- 344th Bombardment Squadron
- 345th Bombardment Squadron
- 415th Bombardment Squadron (1 September 1958 - 1 January 1962)
- 98th Air Refueling Squadron
Units of the 307th Bomb Wing were:
- 370th Bombardment Squadron
- 371st Bombardment Squadron
- 372rd Bombardment Squadron
- 424th Bombardment Squadron (1 September 1958 - 1 January 1962)
- 307th Air Refueling Squadron
- 4362nd Post-Attack Command and Control Squadron (July 1962 - December 1964)
Throughout the 1950s, Lincoln AFB became a major Strategic Air Command base and a very powerful asset to American nuclear forces. Its B-47 complement would reach 120 before 1961. Both wings onducted strategic bombardment training and air refueling operations to meet SAC's global commitments.
Lincoln AFB was at its peak from 1960 to 1963, some of the hottest years of the Cold War. The planes stood on alert during the 1961 Berlin Crisis and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, maintaining readiness for their principal mission, the destruction of the Soviet Union.
In addition, the 551st Strategic Missile Squadron was activated at the base during 1961. This squadron controlled 12 Atlas-F ICBMs based in silos near the towns of Elmwood, Avoca, Eagle, Nebraska City, Palmyra, Tecumseh, Cortland, Beatrice, Wilber, Seward, York and Brainard, Nebraska.
Army Nike-Hercules Surface-to-air missiles of the 6th Missile Battalion, 43rd Artillery also protected the base from 1960 to 1966. Batteries were constructed near Crete and Davey, Nebraska and were armed with 12 missiles each.
On 15 May 1964, Secretary of Defense McNamara directed the accelerated phase-out of Atlas and Titan I ICBMs. Later that year, the 551st Strategic Missile Squadron received the last Operational Readiness Inspection (ORI) for such a unit. The Lincoln Atlas F missiles were deactivated on April 12, 1965, completing the phase-out of this weapon system.
Meanwhile, the B-47s were also being phased out of the SAC arsenal. In January 1965 the 307th Bomb Wing began phasing down. It was discontinued and inactivated on 25 March 1965, being reactivated at U-Tapao Royal Thai Navy Airfield Thailand for forward deployed B-52 aircraft supporting combat operations in Vietnam.
The 98th Bomb Wing was inactivated on 5 June 1966 at Lincoln AFB, but activated the same day at Torrejon Air Base, Spain replacing the 3970th Strategic Wing.
Lincoln Air Force Base was closed on 6 June 1966 and returned to its original role, that of a municipal airport.
The Lincoln Air Park West Industrial Park contains over 1,000 acres (4 km²) and was originally the site of the Lincoln Air Force Base. Today, Lincoln Air Park West is owned and operated by the Lincoln Airport Authority with Industrial Park revenue either returning to improve and/or expand the Park or to help in support of the operation of the airfield.
Lincoln Airport is also an alternate landing site for the NASA Space Shuttle orbiter, and home base for the Nebraska Air National Guard's 155th Air Refueling Wing, operating the KC-135 Stratotanker. Air National Guard aircraft land on the same runways, but their crews & passengers are never de-planed into the Lincoln Airport Terminal, with military aircraft taxiing directly to Air National Guard facilities.
[edit] See also
- Nebraska World War II Army Airfields
- Strategic Air Command
- Eighth Air Force
- Nebraska Air National Guard
[edit] References
- Morgan, Mark L., & Berhow, Mark A., Rings of Supersonic Steel, Second Edition, Fort MacArthur Press, 2002, ISBN 0-615-12012-1.
- Maurer Maurer, Air Force Combat Units Of World War II, Office of Air Force History, 1983
- Ravenstein, Charles A., Air Force Combat Wings Lineage and Honors Histories 1947-1977, Office of Air Force History, 1984
- A History of the former Lincoln Air Force Base
- ArmyAirForces.Com
- StrategicAirCommand.Com
[edit] External links
- Scott Murdock's page of U.S. Air Force Bases
- 307th Bombardment Wing Association
- 551st Strategic Missile Squadron Association
- Lincoln Airport homepage
