Chanute Air Force Base

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Chanute Air Force Base
Part of Air Training Command (ATC)
Located in Rantoul, Illinois
Chanute AFB, 12 April 1998 Location of Chanute Air Force Base
Type	Air Force Base
Coordinates	40°17′40″N 088°08′35″W / 40.29444, -88.14306
Built	1917
In use	1917-1993
Controlled by	United States Air Force
Garrison	3345th Air Base Group, (1948 - 1993)

Chanute Air Force Base Headquarters and Administrative Building.

Chanute Air Force Base Hangar Number 1.

Chanute Air Force Base (1917-1993) is a former United States Air Force base located South of and adjacent to Rantoul, Illinois, about 100 miles South of Chicago. It's primary mission throughout its existence was Air Force technical training.

The base was closed as a result of BRAC in 1993.

1 Current Status
2 History
- 2.1 Base Operating Units
- 2.2 Beginnings
3 World War II and ties to Tuskegee Airman
- 3.1 Post-War
- 3.2 Closing
4 People
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Current Status

Many of the Air Force Base's buildings and facilities have found new life, with purposes that range from motels, retirement communities, restaurants, a fitness center, an Aerospace Museum, prominent datacenter and several light manufacturing facilities.^{[citation needed]} The Golf Course, once only available to servicemembers and their guests, is now one of the most popular in East Central Illinois.^{[citation needed]} The housing on base, once homes for airmen with families, are now occupied by civilians.^{[citation needed]} Even so, many buildings remain unoccupied, and they are slowly falling apart due to lack of maintenance.

Parts of Chanute AFB has been converted into civilian use including a museum Octave Chanute Aerospace Museum, an airport Rantoul National Aviation Center and a 6 month military boot camp academy for youths ages 16-18. This program is called Lincoln's Challenge Academy.

[edit] History

Chanute AFB was named in honor of Octave Chanute (1832-1910), a pioneer aeronautical engineer and experimenter, and friend and adviser to the Wright Brothers. Chanute's Biplane Glider (1896) with "two arched wings held rigidly together by vertical struts and diagonal wire bracing" (the principle of the Pratt truss used in the railroad bridges which Chanute constructed) served as a prototype design for airplanes.

[edit] Base Operating Units

10th Aero Sq, 7 Jul 1917 - 18 Apr 1921
Army Air Corps Technical School, 18 Apr 1921 - 1 Aug 1933
98th School Sq, 1 Aug 1933 - 1 Sep 1936
10th Air Base Sq (Special), 1 Sep 1936 - 17 Feb 1941
9th Air Base Sq (Special), 17 Feb 1941 - 1 May 1944
3502d AAF Base Unit (Technical School), 1 May 1944 - 26 Aug 1948
3345th Air Base Gp, 26 Aug 1948 - 1993
3496th Air Training Command Headquarters 1950 - 1958
Naval Technical Training Unit Chanute UNK - 01 Dec 1992

[edit] Beginnings

In May 1917, Rantoul was chosen to be the site of Rantoul Aviation Field, however on 6 June 1917 the name was changed to Chanute Field. Rantoul was selected due to its proximity to the Illinois Central Railroad and the War Department’s ground school housed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. During World War I, Chanute was a pilot training school for the Army Air Service. With the end of the war, the facility was closed in January 1919 and used as a storage depot for suplus war material.

In Februay 1921 Chanute Field was reopened as a technical training center for the Air Service with various types of training being transfered from Kelly Field, Texas to Chanute. Nine steel hangars were constructed to serve as classrooms by 1924, however diminishing funds to the Air Service resulted in a sharp decline in the number of students and the use of the airfield during the Great Depression of the early 1930s.

[edit] World War II and ties to Tuskegee Airman

United States Army Air Service Technical Training Command was established at Chanute in 1941, and During World War II, thousands of airmen were stationed there to train new recruits who cycled in and out.

On March 19, 1941, the 99th Pursuit Squadron (Pursuit being an early World War II synonym for "Fighter") was activated at Chanute Field in Rantoul, Illinois. Over 250 enlisted men were trained at Chanute in aircraft ground support trades. This small number of enlisted men was to become the core of other black squadrons forming at Tuskegee and Maxwell Fields in Alabama — the famed Tuskegee Airmen.

[edit] Post-War

After World War II, with the formation of the Air Force, Chanute Field was renamed Chanute Air Force Base. It served as a major training facility for Air Force aircraft maintenance officers; Air Force and Navy meteorology; and enlisted technical training for Air Force aircraft maintenance, flight simulator maintenance, fuel system maintenance and missile system maintenance. Additionally, Chanute AFB was the site for training firefighters, life support specialists (ejection seat, aircrew survival equipment, parachute riggers, etc.), weldors, Non-destructive inspection (of materials) and airframe repair.

[edit] Closing

The base was recommended for closure in 1988 and officially closed in 1993. Despite short term blows to the local economy in the years leading up to and immediately after closing, in many ways, the transition of Chanute Air Force Base from military to civilian use has been successful.^{[citation needed]} However, the township of Rantoul is still left with cleaning up the abandoned base.^{[citation needed]} There are several condemned areas that are environmental safety issues including an area in southeast corner of the base, Heritage Lake, which was a dumping ground, and numerous buildings containing asbestos.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] People

Science fiction author Michael Z. Williamson was based at Chanute from 1986 to 1990.^{[citation needed]}
Authors Jack Williamson and Frederick Pohl trained there during World War II.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] See also

[edit] References

Botner, John K., http://www.angelfire.com/nc/johninraleigh/Chanute.html, pictures of the base as it stand now.
Ravenstein, Charles A., Air Force Combat Wings Lineage and Honors Histories 1947-1977, Office of Air Force History, 1984
Mueller, Robert, Air Force Bases Volume I, Active Air Force Bases Within the United States of America on 17 September 1982, Office of Air Force History, 1989
Endicott, Judy G., USAF Active Flying, Space, and Missile Squadrons as of 1 October 1995. Office of Air Force History