Historic California Posts, Camps,
Stations and Airfields
Travis Air Force Base
(Fairfield-Suisun
Army Air Base, Fairfield-Suisun Air Force Base)
Travis AFB is named in honor of Brigadier
General Robert F. Travis, who was killed in a B-29 crash at
the installation on 5 August 1950. At the time of his death,
the general was commander of the 9th Heavy Bombardment Wing
and was the base's commanding general. Formal dedication
ceremonies were held on 21 April 1951.
Although today Travis is the home of the
largest airlift organization in the Air Force, it began as an
isolated airstrip with a few tar paper shacks set in the
middle of a wind-swept prairie during World War II. Activated
on 11 May 1943, the field was named Fairfield-Suisun Army Air
Base, after the two closest--mostly agricultural--towns.
Planned shortly after Pearl Harbor, the base served as home
for medium bombers and fighters assigned to defend the West
Coast. The first runway and temporary buildings were
constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers in the summer of
1942. They were used initially by Army and Navy fighter planes
for takeoff and landing practice. For a few months, the
outline of an aircraft carrier's deck was painted on the
runway to help newly-commissioned Navy pilots practice
maneuvers. The strong local prevailing winds nearly duplicated
those at sea.
Shortly after construction began, however,
the base's potential as a major aerial port and supply
transfer point for the Pacific theater led the Army Air Corps
to assign it to the newly-designated Air Transport Command.
The base officially opened 1 June 1943, with a primary mission
of servicing and ferrying tactical aircraft from California
across the Pacific to the war zone. By 1945, the base had
become the West Coast's largest aerial port. The airlift of
troops and supplies to occupied Japan and Korea, and the
processing of war-weary returning GIs, had become the primary
mission. On 1 June 1948, the Military Air Transport Service
assumed jurisdiction. In July, two of the base's air transport
squadrons left for Europe to assist in the Berlin Airlift.
On 1 May 1949, the Strategic Air Command
became the parent major command for the base, turning it into
a major long-range reconnaissance and intercontinental bombing
installation. For the next nine years, airlift operations
became secondary while the base served as home for SAC bombers
such as the B-29, B-36, and eventually, the B-52. During this
period, new hangers appeared, runways were added and widened,
and permanent barracks and family living quarters were built.
The base grew to its present size which encompasses 6,258
acres.
MATS resumed command of Travis AFB on 1
July 1958, after SAC's new dispersal policy led to the
transfer of the 14th Air Division to Beale AFB, California.
The base became headquarters the 1501st Air Transport
Wing--1955; for MATS's Western Transport Air Force (later
Twenty-Second Air Force)--1958; and the 60th Military Airlift
Wing (later the 60th Airlift Wing, later the 60th Air Mobility
Wing)--1966. The 60th replaced the 1501st as the host unit on
Travis on 8 January 1966. The 349 MAW (USAF Reserve) joined
with the 60th when it moved from Hamilton AFB, California, in
1969.
Travis became part of the Air Mobility
Command on 1 June 1992, when assets from MAC and SAC were
fused into a single team. AMC's primary mission is mobility
for America's armed forces. Travis supports this capability by
deploying air and air mobile forces anywhere in the world, and
sustains them in a conflict. The base has become the largest
in AMC in terms of aircraft and personnel. The only wing to
fly both the C-5 "Galaxy" and the C-141 "Starlifter," the base
added the KC-10 "Extender" to its inventory in 1994.
With the addition of the KC-10 community,
and with other force structure changes, Travis AFB's
construction budget for Fiscal Years 1993 through 1997 totaled
nearly $1 billion.
Two major facilities completed in 1995
included a new Child Development Center and the largest Base
Exchange in the Army and Air Force Exchange System.
Known as the "Gateway to the Pacific,"
Travis handles more cargo and passenger traffic through its
aerial port than any other military air terminal in the United
States. Additionally, the base has had a long and proud
history of supporting humanitarian airlift at home and around
the world. Today, the Travis Team includes approximately 7,260
active military, 3,770 civilians, and 4,250 reservists.
Fairfield-Suisun AAF by Justin M. Ruhge
Located at Fairfield, the airfield was
established on May 17, 1943. Construction began on July 6
1942. The field was occupied on June 1,1943 by the 23rd
Ferrying Group. It became the Fairfield-Suisun Air Force Base
on January 13, 1948. The name was changed to Travis Air Force
Base on October 20, 1950 and named in honor of Brigadier
General Robert Falligant Travis who commanded the 8th Air
Force's 41st Combat Wing during World War II. He personally
led 35 combat missions. He was Commander of the 9th Heavy
Bombardment Wing in Strategic Air Command's 15th Air Force
when he died on August 5, 1950 in a crash of a B-29 at the
field that bears his name.
Operations changed from processing and
ferrying of tactical aircraft to airlifting troops and cargo
after November 1944. Major construction programs included
replacement of temporary buildings with permanent structures,
installing underground fuel pipelines to Suisun Wharf and
expansion of hangars, runways and parking aprons between 1945
and 1946. A hospital and other facilities were added in
mid-1945, which enabled the base to serve as the west coast's
aerial embarkation and debarkation point for the Pacific
Theater. The primary base mission was changed to long-range
reconnaissance and strategic bombing when the Strategic Air
Command (SAC) assumed jurisdiction of the base in May 1949.