McChord Air Force Base
| McChord Air Force Base | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Characteristics | |
| ICAO code | KTCM |
| IATA code | TCM |
| Coordinates | |
| Height above MSL | 98 m (322 ft )
|
| Runways | |
| 16/34 | 3081 m asphalt / concrete |
| 16/34 (no longer in operation) | 914 m asphalt |
| website | |
| http://www.62aw.af.mil | |
McChord Field (1948-2010 McChord Air Force Base ) is in Pierce County south of Tacoma located base of the US Air Force . Today it forms the Joint Base Lewis-McChord together with Fort Lewis .
history
founding
The citizens of Pierce County decided in 1917 to borrow $ 2 million to purchase 283.28 km² of land to be donated to the federal government. The purpose was to station the US Army. Initially the facility was called Camp Lewis, and later Fort Lewis . In 1927 another loan was decided to set up a military airfield north of Fort Lewis.
The airfield was named McChord Field on July 3, 1940, in honor of Colonel William Caldwell McChord (1881-1937), who was killed in a failed emergency landing of his Northrop A-17 near Maidens, Virginia . At the time of his death, he was the head of the Training and Operations Division of the US Army Air Corps .
Over the next two decades, McChord Field was enlarged by approximately 12 km². When the US Army Air Force was spun off from the army in 1947 to form the US Air Force , McChord Field became independent from Fort Lewis to the south. In 1948 the base was rededicated to McChord Air Force Base .
Second World War
In 1940 McChord Field became the headquarters of the Northwest Air District , which was responsible for the defense of the northern Pacific coast as well as the Upper Great Plains (eastern Montana, large parts of South and North Dakotas, northeastern Wyoming). The 17th Bombardment Group with its B-18 bombers was relocated from March Field to McChord, and after the attack on Pearl Harbor , the same unit carried out patrols against Japanese submarines with medium-weight B-25 bombers . On December 24, 1941, one of the B-25s dropped four 300-pound bombs on a Japanese submarine located near the mouth of the Columbia River .
After the 17th Bombardment Group moved away , McChord became the home base of the Second Air Force , which mainly trained crews of heavy B-17 and B-24 bombers. In the middle of 1943 this training was shut down in favor of training flights by B-29 crews.
At the end of the war, the base workshops were used to convert the P-39 Airacobra , which were made available to the Soviet armed forces as part of the loan and lease program .
Cold War
Air defense
With the threat of Soviet atomic bombs, McChord became the location of various early warning radars. While some radar systems were outsourced to other locations, an AN / FSQ-7 computer was operated to evaluate the radar data until 1983 .
Today, the Western Air Defense Sector is still an early warning station and an air defense center on McChord. It is operated jointly by the Washington Air National Guard and the Canadian Air Force and reports to NORAD .
Air transport
In the 1950s, McChord supported the French troops in the Indochina War ; Goods such as blood plasma, medical supplies, aircraft spare parts and ammunition were flown to Indochina - and in April 1954 even a complete garrison was flown to Dien Bien Phu .
After 1955, McChord pilots made numerous flights to set up and maintain the radar systems of the Distant Early Warning Line . Equipment was flown to the Arctic Ocean for the International Geophysical Year 1957–1958; some of the planes landed on the pack ice, some were dropped on parachutes.
From 1963 to 1971, the McChord-based 62nd Troop Carrier Wing was commissioned to provide air transport for American nuclear weapons .
1990s and later
In the 1990s, the C-141 cargo aircraft were replaced by the C-17 Globemaster III .
On February 1, 2010, McChord Air Force Base was merged again with Fort Lewis; the entire facility is now operated jointly with the US Army under the name Joint Base Lewis-McChord. The reason for this were austerity measures that were introduced in 2005 (Base Realignment and Closure Round).
Today Lewis-McChord is the base of the 62nd Airlift Wing and operates C-17 aircraft in three squadrons (4th, 7th and 8th Airlift Squadron).
Incidents
- On January 15, 1957, two maintenance hangars burned out at McChord Air Force Base. A C-124A Globemaster II (registration number 52-1027 ) and a Douglas DC-6 / C-118A ( 53-3263 ) were destroyed and a Lockheed T-33 and a de Havilland Canada DHC-2 / L-20 Beaver were damaged . The people present were able to save themselves in time.
- On May 24, 1961, a C-124A Globemaster II (registration number 51-0174 ) with 16 soldiers as passengers, a truck, jeep and two trailers on board crashed shortly after taking off from McChord Air Force Base. 18 of the 22 occupants were killed, including the entire six-person crew. The plane was destroyed.
- On September 7, 1966, maintenance technicians on a Lockheed C-141A Starlifter (65-0281) at McChord Air Force Base shorted a partially depleted fuel tank. In the resulting explosion, three people were killed and the almost brand-new aircraft was destroyed.
swell
- McChord Air Museum - Our History. In: McChord Air Museum. Retrieved November 30, 2018 .
Individual evidence
- ^ McChord Air Museum: Our History, 1945-1950. Retrieved December 8, 2018.
- ↑ accident report C-124C 52-1027 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on 11 December 2018th
- ^ Accident report DC-6 / C-118A 53-3263 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on December 11, 2018.
- ^ Accident report C-124A Globemaster II 51-0174 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on December 11, 2018.
- ↑ accident report C-141A 65-0281 , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on 11 December 2018th