Dover Air Force Base or
Dover AFB is a United States Air Force base located
two miles southeast of the city of Dover, Delaware
.
Units
Dover AFB is home to the
436th
Airlift Wing (436 AW) of the
Air Mobility Command (AMC), known as
the "Eagle Wing", and the AMC-gained
512th Airlift Wing (512 AW) of the
Air Force Reserve Command
(AFRC), referred to as the "Liberty Wing". It was the only base to
solely operate the massive
C-5 Galaxy,
with two active flying squadrons (the
3rd Airlift Squadron, which now operates
the
C-17 Globemaster III, and
9th Airlift Squadron) and two
Air Force Reserve flying squadrons
(the 326th Airlift Squadron and the 709th Airlift Squadron).
Dover AFB
is also the home for the largest military mortuary in the Department of
Defense
, and has been used for processing military
personnel killed in both war and peacetime. The
Charles C.
Carson Center for
Mortuary Affairs was used in 1978 for the victims of the
Jonestown
mass murder/suicide, 1986 for identifying the
remains of the crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger,
and in 2003 for the crew of the Space Shuttle
Columbia. It was also a major site for
identifying the remains of military personnel killed in the 9/11
attacks. It is also home to the
Air Mobility Command Museum.
During the night of October 28, 2009, before making a decision on
the committal of further troops to Afghanistan, President Barack
Obama visited the base to receive the bodies of several American
soldiers killed in Afghanistan.
Two sections of the 436th Aerial Port Squadron warehouse collapsed
on February 18, 2003, as a result of a record snow storm. No one
was injured in the collapse that caused more than an estimated $1
million in damages. The damage covered two of the six cargo
processing bays in the facility
History
Construction of
Municipal Airport, Dover Airdrome
began in March 1941 and the facility was opened on December 17,
1941. It was converted to an Army Air Corps airfield just weeks
after December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. It was renamed Dover
Army Airbase on April 8, 1943; *Dover Subbase on June 6, 1943 and
Dover Army Airfield on February 2, 1944. With the establishment of
the
United States Air Force
on September 18, 1947, the facility was renamed
Dover Air
Force Base on January 13, 1948.
*
Was a subbase of Camp Springs
AAF
, Maryland
, June 6,
1943 – April 15, 1944.
Major commands
- Redesignated: Strategic Air
Command, March 21, 1946
- Redesignated: Military
Airlift Command, January 1, 1966
* Base put on temporary inactive status, September 1, 1946 –
August 1, 1950. During inactive status, field
remained under major command jurisdiction.
Major units
- 45th Bombardment Group, May 16 –
August 30, 1942
- 312th Air Base and HQ Sq, August 31, 1942 – April 10, 1944
- 365th Fighter Group, August
12 – November 19, 1943
- 83d Fighter Group, November
22, 1943 – April 10, 1944
- Redesignated: 125th Base Unit, April 10, 1944 – September 15,
1944
- Redesignated: 125th AAF Base Unit, September 15, 1944 – March
31, 1946
- 320th AAF Base Unit, April 1, 1946 – August 23, 1948
- Redesignated 4404th Standby Base Sq, August 23, 1948 – November
27, 1949
- 80th Air Base Sq, February 1, 1952 – August 1, 1953
- 1607th Air Transport Wing, January 1, 1954 – January 8,
1966
- Aerial Port of Embarkation, May 1, 1954 – February 15,
1978
- 98th
Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, March 8, 1956 – June 20,
1963
- 4728th Air Defense
Group, February 8, 1957 – July 1, 1958
- 95th Fighter-Interceptor
Squadron, July 1, 1963 – January 31, 1973
- 436th Military Airlift Wing,
November 8, 1966 – Present
- 912th Military Airlift Group, September 25, 1968 – July 1,
1973
- 512th Military Airlift Wing,
July 1, 1973 – Present
References for history introduction, major commands and
major units
Operational history
World War II
The origns
of Dover Air Force Base begin in March 1941 when the United States Army Air Corps
indicated a need for the airfield as a training airfield and
assumed jurisdiction over the municipal airport at Dover, Delaware
.
Once the airport came under military control an immediate
construction program began to turn the civil airport into a
military airfield. Construction involved runways and airplane
hangars, with three concrete runways, several taxiways and a large
parking apron and a control tower. Several large hangars were also
constructed. Buildings were ultimately utilitarian and quickly
assembled. Most base buildings, not meant for long-term use, were
constructed of temporary or semi-permanent materials. Although some
hangars had steel frames and the occasional brick or tile brick
building could be seen, most support buildings sat on concrete
foundations but were of frame construction clad in little more than
plywood and tarpaper. Initially under USAAC, the name of the
facility was
Municipal Airport, Dover Airdrome and
the airfield opened on 17 December 1941. The airfield was assigned
to
First Air Force
On 20 December the first military unit arrived at Dover’s new
airfield: the 112th Observation Squadron of the
Ohio National Guard which flew
anti-submarine patrols off the Delaware Coast. In early 1942, three
B-25 Mitchell bomber squadrons arrived
with the
45th Bombardment
Group from
I Bomber Command
and later
Army Air
Forces Antisubmarine Command with a mission to patrol the
Atlantic coast, locate and assumed the anti-submarine
mission.
On 8 April 1943, the name of the airfield was changed to
Dover Army Air Base. The antisubmarine mission
ended on 6 June and construction crews moved back to the base for a
major upgrading project thatthat lengthened the main runway to
7,000 feet.
During the construction period and continuing
into June 1944, Dover AAB became a sub-base of Camp Springs Army Airfield
, Maryland
.
Full operational capability was restored to Dover in September, and
seven
P-47 Thunderbolt squadrons
arrived for training in preparation for eventual involvement in the
European Theater. The
83d Fighter
Group was assigned to Dover as the Operational Training Unit.
The 83d was redesignated the 125th Base Unit on 10 April 1944 with
little change in its mission. It was further redesignated as the
125th Army Air Force base Unit on 15 September 1944.
In 1944 the Air Technical Service Command chose Dover as a site to
engineer, develop, and conduct classified air launched rocket
tests. The information collected during these experiments resulted
in the effective deployment of air-to-surface rockets in both the
European and Pacific combat theaters.
On 1 September 1946 as a result of the drawdown of United States
forces after World War II, Dover Army Airfield, was placed on
temporary inactive status. A small housekeeping unit, the 4404th
Base Standby Squadron, remained on the airfield for care and
maintenance of the facility.
Cold War
Dover Airfield was reactivated on 1 August 1950 as a result of the
Korean War and the expansion of the
United States Air Force in
response to the Soviet threat in the
Cold
War. On February 1, 1951, the 148th Fighter Interceptor
Squadron of the
Pennsylvania Air National
Guard arrived with
P-51 Mustangs.
During the 1950s problems developed with many of the facilities in
Dover, which had been hastily constructed to support its World War
II mission. As a result a massive Civil Engineering project was
undertaken to modernize the base.
On April 1, 1952 Dover was transferred to the
Military Air Transport
Service (MATS) and became home to 1607th Air Transport Wing. A
full function hospital was completed in 1958 and base housing was
expanded to handle 1,200 families in 1961. On January 1, 1966, the
Military Air Transport Service was redesignated the
Military Airlift Command (MAC).
Along with the reorganization, the 1607 ATW was deactivated and the
436th Military Airlift Wing (436 MAW) activated and assumed the
mission at Dover. The 436 MAW started replacing
C-141 Starlifters and
C-133 Cargomasters with the new
C-5 Galaxy in 1971.
Two years later Dover
became the first all C-5 equipped wing in the Air Force, trading
the last of its C-141 to Charleston AFB
, South Carolina.
When war broke out between Israel and the combine forces of Egypt
and Syria on October 13, 1973 (the
Yom
Kippur War) the 436 MAW responded with a 32-day airlift that
delivered 22,305 tons of munitions and military equipment to
Israel.
The 436 MAW also assisted in the evacuation
of Americans from Iran
on December
9, 1978 following the Islamic Revolution. That year, Dover Air
Force Base was also used to store hundreds of bodies from the mass
murder and suicide of the Jonestown
community in Guyana
.
Some of
the more memorable flights during the post-war period included the
airdrop and test firing of a Minuteman I
intercontinental ballistic missile and the delivery of a 40-ton
superconducting magnet to
Moscow
during the Cold War, for which the crew received
the Mackay Trophy.
It is one of only seven airports in the country that serve as
launch abort facilities for the
Space
Shuttle.
In March 1989, C-5s from Dover delivered special equipment used to
clean up the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound. On
June 7, 1989, while attending the
Airlift Rodeo, a 436 MAW C-5 set a world
record when it airdropped 190,346 pounds and 73 paratroopers. In
October 1983, the wing flew 24 missions in support of Operation
Urgent Fury, the Grenada rescue operation and later flew 16
missions to support Operation Just Cause, the invasion of Panama,
in August 1989.
During Desert Shield, the wing flew approximately 17,000 flying
hours and airlifted a total of 131,275 tons of cargo in support of
combat operations to free the Kingdom of Kuwait.
Modern era
In 1992, with the disestablishment of Military Air Command, Dover
AFB was transferred to the newly established
Air Mobility Command (AMC) and the 436
MAW and 512 MAW (Associate) were redesignated as the
436th Airlift Wing (436 AW) and the
512th Airlift Wing (512 AW),
respectively. Dover also served as a major port of entry and exit
for the conflicts in the Balkans and Somalia during the latter half
of the 1990s.
Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the 436 AW and 512 AW
became major participants in
Operation Enduring Freedom and
Operation Iraqi Freedom. An
aircrew from Dover's 3rd Airlift Squadron landed the first C-5 in
Iraq in late 2003 when they landed at Baghdad International Airport
and the two wings continue to support operations in the
region.
By 2008, the
air traffic tower
serving the airfield, built in 1955, was the oldest such tower in
use in the United States Air Force.
Geography
According to the
United
States Census Bureau, the base has a total area of
0.7 square miles (1.7 km²), all of it land.
It is
part of the Dover,
Delaware
Metropolitan Statistical
Area. Part of the base was a
census-designated place (CDP), which
had a population of 3,394 at the
2000 census.
As of the
census of 2000, there were 3,394
people, 1,032 households, and 1,017 families residing in the base.
The
population density was
5,061.6 people per square mile (1,955.9/km²). There were 1,245
housing units at an average density of 1,856.7/sq mi
(717.5/km²). The racial makeup of the base was 72.57%
White, 16.59%
African American, 0.77%
Native American, 1.86%
Asian, 0.12%
Pacific Islander, 2.80% from
other races, and 5.30%
from two or more races.
Hispanic or
Latino of any race were 7.75% of the
population.
There were 6,032 households out of which 76.1% had children under
the age of 18 living with them, 90.2% were
married couples living together, 5.4% had a female
householder with no husband present, and 1.4% were non-families.
1.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 0.2% had
someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average
household size was 3.29 and the average family size was 3.30.
In the base the population was spread out with 40.2% under the age
of 18, 16.5% from 18 to 24, 41.5% from 25 to 44, 1.7% from 45 to
64, and 0.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was
23 years. For every 100 females there were 103.0 males. For every
100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.5 males.
The median income for a household in the base was $34,318, and the
median income for a family was $34,659. Males had a median income
of $26,322 versus $20,444 for females. The
per capita income for the base was
$12,119. About 5.2% of families and 4.2% of the population were
below the
poverty line, including 3.5%
of those under age 18 and none of those age 65 or over.
The base is treated as a
census-designated place named "Dover
Base Housing." Since 1997, the base has been served by three
highway exits with
Delaware Route
1, allowing quick access to Dover and to southern Delaware from
the complex. Dover AFB provides almost $470 million a year in
revenue to the city of Dover, making it the third largest industry
in Delaware.
Museum

C-54 with visitors at the AMC
museum
Hangar 1301 at Dover Air Force Base is home to the Air Mobility
Command museum. The museum is dedicated to military airlift and air
refueling aircraft and the people who maintain them. It has a large
collection of fully restored cargo and tanker aircraft. Tours are
conducted during the day by volunteers, many of whom are retired
pilots who provide first-person narratives of actual events. The
hangar encloses over of aircraft display gallery plus of exhibit
rooms. An attached building houses a theater, museum store, exhibit
workshop, and various offices. A ramp allows close-up inspection of
the outside aircraft. The museum also maintains archives related to
the history of the Air Mobility Command and Dover AFB.
See also
References
- Mueller, Robert (1989). Volume 1: Active Air Force Bases Within
the United States of America on 17 September 1982. USAF Reference
Series, Office of Air Force History, United States Air Force,
Washington, D.C. ISBN 0912799536; 0160022614
-
http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/JonestownReport/Volume3/9.htm
-
http://books.google.com/books?id=0PjuRRWqjXoC&pg=PA166&lpg=PA166&dq=dover+air+force+base+jonestown&source=web&ots=FNkz4SPfUt&sig=mQEleQlei5OFc_zBoQuzqgg_mKo&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result
- Space Shuttle Emergency Landing Sites
- http://www.amcmuseum.org/Index.htm
External links