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Army Air Fields (WWII) · from 1918

Offutt Air Force Base

US Air Force base near Omaha, Nebraska.

History

Offutt Air Force Base (IATA: OFF, ICAO: KOFF, FAA LID: OFF) is a U.S. Air Force base south of Omaha, adjacent to Bellevue in Sarpy County, Nebraska. It is the headquarters of the U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), the 557th Weather Wing, and the 55th Wing (55 WG) of the Air Combat Command (ACC), the latter serving as the host unit.

Aviation use at Offutt began in September 1918 during World War I as an Army Air Service balloon field. Originally named Fort Crook, it was renamed in honor of World War I pilot and Omaha native 1st Lt. Jarvis Offutt in 1924.

Offutt AFB's legacy includes the construction of the Enola Gay and Bockscar, the planes that dropped Little Boy and Fat Man over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II. Offutt served over 40 years as the headquarters for the former Strategic Air Command (SAC) and home for its associated ground and aerial command centers for the United States in the case of nuclear war during the Cold War. The population was 8,901 at the 2000 census.

Text from Wikipedia: Offutt Air Force Base, CC BY-SA 4.0, lightly trimmed.

Key dates

  1. 1894
    Offutt AFB is named in honor of First Lieutenant Jarvis Jenness Offutt (26 October 1894 – 13 August 1918).
  2. 1939
    The squadron was inactivated on 2 October 1939 by relief of personnel, and disbanded on 31 May 1942.
  3. 1945
    Production ended on 18 September 1945, when the last B-29 rolled out of the assembly building.
  4. 1948
    On 9 November 1948, Offutt became the host base for Headquarters Strategic Air Command, which was moved from Andrews AFB, Maryland.
  5. 1958
    Beginning in 1958, the Army Corps of Engineers began planning for the sites, and construction began in 1959.
  6. 1961
    During the Cold War, a general and various support personnel from the base were airborne 24 hours a day on an EC-135 from 3 February 1961 to 24 July 1990 in Operation Looking Glass, creating an airborne command post in case of war.
  7. 1998
    In 1998, the Strategic Air and Space Museum moved thirty miles (50 km) southwest to Ashland, just off Interstate 80, midway between Omaha and Lincoln.
  8. 2011
    In May 2011, base civilian employee George Sarris successfully settled with the government over claims that he was subjected to retaliation for talking to the media in 2008 about poor maintenance of RC-135 aircraft at the base.
  9. 2016
    The 595th Command and Control Group (C2G) was activated in a ceremony held on 6 October 2016.

Dates and events quoted from the same Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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