Naval Air Station Albany | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Turner Field | |||||||
Albany, Georgia in the United States | |||||||
Coordinates | 31°35′38″N84°06′00″W / 31.594°N 84.100°W | ||||||
Type | Naval air station | ||||||
Site information | |||||||
Owner | Department of Defense | ||||||
Operator | US Navy | ||||||
Condition | Closed | ||||||
Site history | |||||||
Built | 1941 | ||||||
In use | 1941 – 1946 (US Army Air Forces) 1947 – 1966 (US Air Force) 1966 – 1974 (US Navy) | ||||||
Fate | Redeveloped as a brewery in 1979 by Miller Brewing Company | ||||||
Airfield information | |||||||
|
Naval Air Station Albany (formerly Turner Air Force Base and Turner Field) is a former United States Air Force and United States Navy military airfield located in Albany, Georgia.
In mid-1940 the U.S. Army Air Corps approached the city of Albany about the possibility of building a training base near Albany. The city raised the necessary money and purchased 4,900 acres of land which was then leased to the Army for $51 a year. Construction of the base and airfield, named Air Corps Advanced Flying School, Albany by the United States Army Corps of Engineers began on 25 March 1941. [1] On 21 July 1941, the field was named Turner Field in honor of Lt. Sullivan Turner, a Georgia native killed in a midair collision. [2]
Once operational, Turner Field was used for acclimatization training (for foreign trainees) and advanced flight training as part of the 30th Flying Training Wing. Primary flight training in the Boeing-Stearman PT-17 Kaydet was done at Darr Aero Tech also in Albany. [3] Under the Arnold Scheme some 5,000 Royal Air Force trainees were trained at Turner Field and Darr Aero Tech between 1941 and 1943. [4] In 1944 Turner Field began training Free French Air Forces pilots to fly the North American B-25 Mitchell of which more than 100 were based at Turner Field. [5]
Turner Field was deactivated on 15 August 1946 and maintained in caretaker status. [2]
On 1 April 1947, the airfield was reactivated. [2] On 13 January 1948, it was renamed Turner Air Force Base.
On 20 November 1947 the 31st Tactical Fighter Wing equipped with North American F-51 Mustangs moved there from Langley Field and would remain there until 25 August 1948. [6]
In 1950 the base was transferred from Continental Air Command (CAC) to Strategic Air Command (SAC). [7]
The 40th Air Division was based at Turner from 14 March 1951 to 1 April 1957. [8]
The 508th Fighter-Escort Wing (later renamed the 508th Strategic Fighter Wing) was based at Turner from July 1952 until 11 May 1956. [6] : 275
The 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing was established at Turner in May 1956 and based there until 1 April 1957.
The base was transferred from SAC to Tactical Air Command (TAC) in 1957 when SAC gave up its escort mission, however, the base would be returned to SAC on 1 January 1959 when the 822d Air Division was established there on 1 January 1959. [7] : 74–5 The 822nd Air Division would remain at Turner until it was inactivated on 2 September 1966. [9] One of the component units of the 822nd Air Division was the 4138th Strategic Wing which was activated at Turner and received its first combat aircraft when the 336th Bombardment Squadron, equipped with 15 B-52 Stratofortresses moved to Turner from Biggs AFB, Texas. In February 1963, the 4138th Strategic Wing and 336th Bombardment Squadron were inactivated and the 484th Bombardment Wing was activated at Turner to assume the mission, aircraft, personnel and equipment of the 4138th wing. [6] : 270–1
In December 1965 it was announced that Turner Air Force Base would be closed. [7] : 111
The base was recommissioned as Naval Air Station Albany on 1 July 1967. [10]
With the impending closure of Naval Air Station Sanford, Reconnaissance Attack Wing One moved to NAS Albany and it became the main operational base for the Navy's North American RA-5C Vigilante until 1974 when operations were moved to NAS Key West, Florida.
In 1979 the Miller Brewing Company purchased part of the former base as a site for a new brewery. [11]
The Eighth Air Force (Air Forces Strategic) is a numbered air force (NAF) of the United States Air Force's Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. The command serves as Air Forces Strategic – Global Strike, one of the air components of United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM). The Eighth Air Force includes the heart of America's heavy bomber force: the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, the Rockwell B-1 Lancer supersonic bomber, and the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress heavy bomber aircraft.
Hunter Army Airfield, located in Savannah, Georgia, United States, is a military airfield and subordinate installation to Fort Stewart located in Hinesville, Georgia.
Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth includes Carswell Field, a military airbase located 5 nautical miles west of the central business district of Fort Worth, in Tarrant County, Texas, United States. This military airfield is operated by the United States Navy Reserve. It is located in the cities of Fort Worth, Westworth Village, and White Settlement in the western part of the Fort Worth urban area.
The 19th Air Division is an inactive United States Air Force formation. Its last assignment was with Eighth Air Force at Carswell Air Force Base, Texas, where it was inactivated on 30 September 1988.
The 351st Missile Wing is an inactive United States Air Force unit, which was last based at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri. Assigned to Strategic Air Command for most of its existence, the wing maintained LGM-30F Minuteman II ICBMs in a state of readiness to fire, pursuant to any launch orders that might be received from the National Command Authority. It was inactivated in 1995.
The 484th Air Expeditionary Wing is a provisional United States Air Force unit assigned to Air Combat Command. It may be activated or inactivated at any time. It was activated and attached to United States Air Forces Central for the invasion of Iraq in 2003. It was headquartered at Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia.
The 95th Air Base Wing is an inactive United States Air Force unit that was last assigned to the Air Force Flight Test Center of Air Force Materiel Command at Edwards Air Force Base, California, where it was inactivated on 13 July 2012.
The 508th Aerospace Sustainment Wing was a wing of the United States Air Force based at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. It was activated in 2005, after being formed by the consolidation of two units in 1984.
The 467th Bombardment Group is an inactive United States Army Air Forces unit. Its last assignment was to the Strategic Air Command, being stationed at Clovis Army Airfield, New Mexico. It was inactivated on 4 August 1946.
The 336th Training Group is the combat survival training group of the United States Air Force. The group is located at Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington, with one subordinate unit at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, and one at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska.
The 436th Training Squadron is a non-flying training squadron of the United States Air Force. The 436th Training Squadron, located at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, is a geographically separated unit within Air Combat Command’s 552nd Air Control Wing, at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma.
The 65th Special Operations Squadron is an Air Force Special Operations Command unit which flies the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper at Hurlburt Field, Florida. The squadron was first activated as the 65th Bombardment Squadron in January 1941, one of the original squadrons of the 43rd Bombardment Group. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the squadron participated in antisubmarine patrols until January 1942, when it moved to Australia and the Southwest Pacific Theater. It moved forward with US forces through New Guinea and the Philippines, moving to Ie Shima shortly before V-J Day for operations against Japan. It earned two Distinguished Unit Citations and a Philippine Presidential Unit Citation for combat operations. During this period, a crew from the 65th became the most decorated aircrew in United States history, when their B-17 fought off twenty Japanese fighters during a photo reconnaissance mission. The squadron was inactivated in the Philippines in April 1946.
The 13th Strategic Missile Division is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with Fifteenth Air Force, based at Francis E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming. It was inactivated on 2 July 1966.
The 508th Missile Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the 351st Operations Group at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri. The squadron was equipped with the LGM-30F Minuteman II Intercontinental ballistic missile with a mission of nuclear deterrence. With the end of the Cold War, the 508th was inactivated on 28 July 1995.
The 53rd Electronic Warfare Group was a component of the 53rd Wing of the Air Force Warfare Center, Air Combat Command, headquartered at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida.
The 526th Bombardment Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the 4042d Strategic Wing at K. I. Sawyer Air Force Base, Michigan, where it was inactivated on 1 February 1963 when Strategic Air Command replaced its MAJCON wings with wings that could continue a heritage.
The 407th Air Refueling Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the 42nd Bombardment Wing at Loring Air Force Base, Maine, where it was inactivated on 1 October 1990.
The 508th Air Refueling Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was an air refueling unit that operated the Boeing KB-29 and Boeing KC-97 from at Turner Air Force Base, Georgia from 1953 to 1957.
The 336th Bombardment Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the 4138th Strategic Wing at Turner Air Force Base, Georgia on 1 February 1963.
Biggs Army Airfield is a United States Army military airbase located on the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, Texas.
This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency