Peterson Air Force Base is a
base of the United States Air Force located at
Colorado
Springs
in El Paso County
, Colorado
, United States
and it provides runways for the adjacent City of Colorado
Springs Municipal Airport under a shared joint civil-military
airport arrangement. It was named in honor of 1st Lt Edward
Joseph Peterson who was killed in a crash at the base.
Peterson
AFB is home to the United
States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM), North
American Aerospace Defense Command
(NORAD
), Air Force Space Command (AFSPC),
AFSPC's 21st Space Wing (21 SW),
Army Space
Command, and the Air Force
Reserve Command's 302d Airlift
Wing (302 AW). The 21 SW serves as host unit for
Peterson AFB.
The
Colorado
Springs Post Office (ZIP Code
80914) serves Peterson AFB postal addresses.
History
Peterson AFB was established on May 6, 1942 at the
Colorado Springs Municipal
Airport. It was renamed on December 13, 1942 from Colorado
Springs Army Air Base to Peterson Field in honor of 1st Lt Edward
Joseph Peterson who was killed in the crash of a F-4 "Photo
Lightning" reconnaissance aircraft. The F-4 was the reconnaissance
version of Lockheed's P-38 "Lightning" twin-engine fighter, when it
suffered engine failure on take-off on August 8, 1942 from the
base.
Initially, Colorado Springs AAF was a center for Reconnaissance
pilot training. The 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th
Reconnaissance Groups trained there in 1942 and early 1943 before
being reassigned to one of the overseas theaters. In 1943, the base
began heavy bomber combat crew training utilizing the
B-24 Liberator. In June
1944 the mission at the base changed again, this time
to fighter pilot training employing
P–40
Warhawks.
On 31 December
1945, the Army inactivated the
base, turning the property over to the City of Colorado Springs.
During the next six years the base was deactivated and reactivated
several times, until it finally reactivated for good in
1951 as a joint civil-military airport.
In this capacity, it
served as the operational airfield supporting the former Ent AFB
and later
the United States Air
Force Academy, NORAD's Cheyenne
Mountain
Complex and
Schriever
AFB
, a role it continues to perform today. On 1
March 1976, Peterson Field was renamed Peterson Air Force Base
while still retaining its joint civil-military status with the City
of Colorado Springs Municipal Airport.
Strategic Air Command (SAC)
assumed control of the base on 1 October 1979. On 1 September 1982,
control was transferred from SAC to the newly-established
Air Force Space Command (AFSPC),
which was activated at Peterson AFB the same day. On 15 May 1992,
the
21st Space Wing was activated at
Peterson to replace two other previous wings.
Principal military flight operations at Peterson AFB are currently
conducted by the
302d Airlift Wing
(302 AW), an
Air Mobility
Command (AMC)-gained unit of the
Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC).
Previously
stationed at the former Rickenbacker AFB
, Ohio, the 302 AW relocated to Peterson in 1985
when Rickenbacker converted to an Air
National Guard installation. The 302 AW consists of over
1,200 traditional part-time Air Force Reservists and over 200
full-time Air Reserve Technician (ART), Active Guard and Reserve
(AGR) and USAF civil service personnel operating and maintaining 13
C-130H Hercules aircraft.
On 28 July
2006, operations formerly conducted in Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado by the
North American Aerospace Defense
Command (NORAD) were
relocated to Peterson Air Force Base for purposes of
efficiency. The Cheyenne Mountain Complex will be left on
warm standby until such time the protection of the mountain is
again required. NORAD officials no longer feel there is a threat of
an intercontinental nuclear attack which could disrupt NORAD's
operations.
Current tenant units
See also
References
External links
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