Rosecrans Memorial Airport
is a joint civil-military public airport
located three miles (5 km) northwest of
the city of St. Joseph in
Buchanan
County
, Missouri
, USA
.
The airport is one of two bases for the
Missouri Air National Guard and
also serves
general aviation.
History
Rosecrans Memorial Airport is located on a field that was once
referred to as the
French Bottoms. It
was surrounded by four towns, three of which existed as late as
1979. The northern portion of the French Bottoms was settled first,
in the 1830s-50's, and has since washed away. The settlers were
French-born and/or descendants of earlier French settlers. In 1877
most of the land that now comprises the airport was located on a
river bank on what was called "made land." This land had been
formed by river deposits. By this year the French Bottoms contained
sixty houses, one church, and two schools. The rich river bottom
land, totaling approximately five thousand acres (20 km²), was
traditionally used for farming. Some of the descendants of the
early French settlers still lived in the bottoms in 1939, when the
area was razed to make way for the airport.
The airport was named in honor of Sgt
Guy Wallace Rosecrans "and comrades"
of the 153rd Aero Squadron,
U.S. Army Air Service, 1917-18. Rosecrans
was the only St. Joseph airman killed in
World War I. The new 1939 flying field was the
third airport in St. Joseph to bear the name Rosecrans. In 1922 the
first Rosecrans Field was opened at
Lake
Contrary. The second was Rosecrans Municipal Airport on the
waterworks road, abandoned because of its small size and its
dangerous proximity to the Missouri River bluffs to its east.
The 1939 airport was developed by the city as a municipal airport.
Two three-thousand-foot-long (910 m) runways were constructed in
1939, as well as an aircraft hangar located east of the runway
intersection. During World War II the federal government
established an
Army Air Forces base
at Rosecrans with numerous improvements being made between 1942 and
1943. The diagonal runways were doubled in length and a north-south
runway was constructed, while the aircraft parking apron and many
temporary buildings, including Hangar T-1020, were built. In 1948
much of the airfield's facilities were conveyed to the city, with
the exception of set aside for use by the
Air National Guard. Airport construction
during this period consisted of pump house buildings and T-hangars
(1949-50) and a terminal and administration building
(1951-52).
The
Great Flood of 1951 damaged
many of the temporary World War II airport buildings beyond
economical repair. The Missouri River changed course in the flood,
cutting off the airport from its land connection to St. Joseph.
Today,
visitors from Missouri must go through Kansas on the Pony Express
Bridge
in order to reach the airport.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers formalized the course change by
dredging cut-off channel for the river between the airport and
downtown St. Joseph. An oxbow lake (Browning Lake) was formed in
the old Bellemont Bend and Elwood Bend portions of the river
channel. The cut-off channel modified portions of Bon Ton Bend and
St. Joseph Bend, and separated the city from the airport. A bridge
and highway were later constructed to connect the two.
Construction during the next twenty years included a main hangar
building (1954), a flight office building (1960), an emergency
generator building (1963), a center taxiway (1973), and a runway
(1974-75).
The
Great Flood of 1993
destroyed the City Administration Building and the Cockpit Cafe.
Both were rebuilt. The oldest, center hangar had to be demolished.
In 1994 the diagonal runway 13-31 was rebuilt into a new assault
landing strip for the
Air National
Guard and for general aviation aircraft. A new fixed base
operator building and a hangar were also being constructed.
The last scheduled commercial airline service at the airport was in
1959. Over the years the airport has been used for/by
business-related general aviation, agricultural crop spraying,
charter passenger and cargo services, area student pilot training,
nightly mail delivery, and until its acquisition by
American Airlines, pilot training
operations by
Trans World
Airlines (TWA). Today, its primary use is as a base for the
Missouri Air National
Guard.
As previously mentioned, with the end of World War II, much of the
former
U.S. Army Air Forces installation was
transferred to the city with the exception of for the
National Guard. With the
establishment of an independent
U.S.
Air Force in 1947, the military
facilities became part of the newly-established
Air National Guard.
This facility became
the foundation for the current Rosecrans Air
National Guard Base
.
Rosecrans ANGB is currently home to the
139th Airlift Wing (139 AW), an
Air Mobility Command (AMC)-gained unit
of the
Missouri Air National
Guard, which functions as the host wing for the installation.
The 139 AW flies the
C-130 Hercules
tactical airlift aircraft.
An additional tenant command at Rosecrans ANGB is the
Advanced Airlift
Tactics Training Center (AATTC), a combined activity of both
the
Air National Guard (ANG) and
the
Air Force Reserve
Command (AFRC).
The mission of the Advanced Airlift Tactics Training Center (AATTC)
is to increase the warfighting effectiveness and survivability of
all USAF air mobility forces. AATTC is made up of full-time Air
National Guard and Air Force Reserve personnel dedicated to
increasing the warfighting effectiveness and survivability of air
mobility forces, providing advanced tactics training to tactical
airlift crews and support personnel from the
Air National Guard,
Air Force Reserve Command,
Air Mobility Command,
Air Combat Command,
Air Force Special
Operations Command, the
United States Marine Corps, and
twelve Allied nations. The AATTC functions as a clearinghouse for
gathering and disseminating airlift tactics information. Since 1983
the AATTC has hosted an annual Tactics Symposium at Rosecrans ANGB
as a forum for providing crosstalk across the tactics
community.
See also
References
External links
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