Kirtland Air Force Base: History About One of The Largest Base in The World

Kirtland Air Force Base: History About One of The Largest Base in The World Kirtland Air Force Base was named for Colonel Roy C. Kirtland (1874–1941) in February 1942. Colonel Kirtland learned to fly in 1911 in one of the first Wright airplanes at Dayton, Ohio. During World War I he organized and commanded a regiment of mechanics, and served as an inspector of aviation facilities. Recalled from retirement in 1941 at the age of 65, the oldest military pilot in the Air Corps, he died of a heart attack on 2 May 1941 at Moffett Field, California. Kirtland Air Force Base has changed a great deal since its establishment as a US Army airfield in 1941. It has evolved from a hastily constructed training and testing facility necessitated by the onset of World War II to a significant USAF center for R&D. What began as a 2,000-acre air base has grown into a 51,800-plus-acre facility. Kirtland Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located in the southeast quadrant of the Albuquerque, New Mexico urban area, adjacent to the Albuquerque International Sunport. The base was named for the early Army aviator Col. Roy C. Kirtland. The military and the international airport share the same runways, making ABQ a joint civil-military airport. Kirtland AFB is the largest installation in Air Force Global Strike Command and sixth largest in the Air Force. The base occupies 51,558 acres and employs over 23,000 people, including more than 4,200 active duty and 1,000 Guard, plus 3,200 part-time Reserve personnel. In 2000, Kirtland AFB’s economic impact on the City of Albuquerque was over $2.7 billion. Kirtland is the home of the Air Force Materiel Command’s Nuclear Weapons Center (NWC). The NWC’s responsibilities include acquisition, modernization and sustainment of nuclear system programs for both the Department of Defense and Department of NWC is composed of two wings–the 377th Air Base Wing and 498th Nuclear Systems Wing–along with ten groups and 7 squadrons. Kirtland is home to the 58th Special Operations Wing (58 SOW), an Air Education and Training Command (AETC) unit that provides formal aircraft type/model/series training. The 58 SOW operates the HC-130J, MC-130J, UH-1N Huey, HH-60G Pave Hawk and CV-22 Osprey aircraft. Headquarters, Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center is also located at Kirtland AFB. The 150th Special Operations Wing of the New Mexico Air National Guard, an Air Combat Command (ACC)-gained unit, is also home-based at Kirtland. origins. Kirtland Air Force Base’s beginnings stem from three private airfields of 1928-1939 and are similar to that of other installations choosing to adapt existing runways and hangars for military use. In 1928, Frank G. Speakman and William L. Franklin, two Santa Fe Railroad employees, had inaugurated a private venture for an airport. Working with the town of Albuquerque, they graded two runways on East Mesa with one approximately 5,300 feet long and the other just under 4,000 feet. Albuquerque Airport was wholly a private venture, irrespective of the town’s involvement. Immediately following construction of the airport, other individuals and promoters became interested in Albuquerque as a crossroads location for southwestern air traffic. James G. Oxnard, a New York entrepreneur, bought Franklin’s interest in Albuquerque Airport, expanding the facility toward the end of 1928. The airfield soon drew business from private flyers, as well as Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT) and Western Air Express (WAE), commercial airlines that set up operations at the new airport. The city’s viability as a crossroads of air traffic in the Southwest was confirmed by this early success. As the 1920s closed, two airlines initiated competitive passenger, mail and cargo service between the Midwest and California, positioning Albuquerque as an important transcontinental airfield. WAE soon moved to the West Mesa Airport and was joined by TAT as the two airlines merged to become Trans World Airlines (TWA). This new facility, also private, became known as Albuquerque Airport, and the first, which was renamed Oxnard Field, also continued to service general aviation needs. In the mid-1930s, Mayor Tingley, other city officials, and TWA management began to conceive of a municipal airport, the next necessary step in confirming Albuquerque’s status as a “Crossroads of the Southwest.” With the help of President Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA) funds, a new airport was begun four miles west of Oxnard Field and completed in 1939, on the cusp of World War II.