Barksdale Air Force Base
| Barksdale Air Force Base | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Characteristics | |
| ICAO code | KBAD |
| IATA code | BATH |
| Coordinates | |
| Height above MSL | 51 m (167 ft ) |
| Transport links | |
| Distance from the city center | 16 km east of Shreveport |
| Street | I-20 / US 71 |
| Basic data | |
| opening | 1932 |
| operator | United States Air Force |
| surface | 1620 ha |
| Start-and runway | |
| 15/33 | 3583 m × 91 m |
The Barksdale Air Force Base is a base of the US Air Force immediately in Bossier City , 16 kilometers east of Shreveport , Louisiana .
It belongs to the Air Combat Command and is the larger of two remaining B-52 bases. This is where the training of the B-52 teams takes place. The base has a runway (15/33) of 3,583 meters in length and employs 7,400 people, including around 1,100 civilian employees.
history
When the Army Air Corps was looking for a replacement for the too small Fort Crockett in Texas in 1926 , the city of Shreveport in Louisiana offered it an area of around 90 km². This location - until then mainly cotton fields - was officially selected on December 5, 1928. Construction began on January 19, 1931, and the runway and hangars were completed by the end of the year. The inauguration took place on October 31, 1932, and regular flight operations started a week later.
On February 2, 1933, the new base was officially named Barksdale Field , named after Lieutenant Eugene Hoy Barksdale , who crashed on August 11, 1926 during a test flight with a Douglas O-2 in Ohio.
The Luftwaffe initially stationed fighter planes ( Boeing P-12 ) here and used the extensive area for shooting training and bomb-dropping exercises. From 1939, light bombers replaced fighter planes. In the 1940s, training sessions for bomber crews, including French and Chinese, took place in Barksdale. From November 1945 to November 1949 the base was the headquarters of the Air Training Command , after which it was part of the Strategic Air Command .
On February 13, 1948, the U.S. Air Force renamed the base Barksdale Air Force Base . The first B-52 reached Barksdale on August 14, 1958, followed shortly thereafter by the KC-135 tanker aircraft supporting them . In 1959 a new runway was built.
A Douglas C-124 with a nuclear weapon on board crashed near the base on July 6, 1959, the aircraft was completely destroyed and there was little contamination.
The headquarters of the 8th Air Force has been located here since 1975 . Three years later, the 8th Air Force Museum was built on the base, now known as the Barksdale Global Power Museum.
Since the dissolution of Strategic Air Command in July 1992, Barksdale Air Force Base has belonged to Air Combat Command.
After the 9/11 attacks, Air Force One landed there.
Web links
Individual evidence
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Military: Barksdale | New Orleans