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    McGuire Air Force Base
    McGuire Air Force Base
    McGuire Air Force Base
    Ebook157 pages41 minutes

    McGuire Air Force Base

    By G.W. Boyd

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    About this ebook

    McGuire Air Force Base, built on property ceded by the Boy Scouts of America, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and the contiguous Fort Dix, has served the nation proudly for decades. Originally, it was intended to be used as a home for observation antisubmarine reconnaissance aircraft and army support as Fort Dix Army Air Field, but the focus of the base quickly changed as a result of its strategic location. McGuire Air Force Base recounts the contributions of this military asset with more than two hundred photographs from the archives of the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Army. Among its many achievements, McGuire was the first American military base to become operational with the F-106 Delta Dart; the first base to operate an all-jet military transport, the C-135 Stratolifter; and finally, the first base to become operational with a ground-launched antiaircraft nuclear missile squadron. In the 1950s, McGuire became the air force's principal aerial port on the East Coast-a role it continues to this day.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 18, 2012
    ISBN9781439628645
    McGuire Air Force Base
    Author

    G.W. Boyd

    G.W. Boyd has been an air force historian for more than fifteen years. He served in Desert Storm as a historian for the A-10s at King Fahd Air Base, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in 1991 and was the U.S. Central Command Air Force Forward Enduring Freedom historian in 2002. He has coauthored two other books relating to the air force, as well as numerous articles on air-power history. He is intimately acquainted with McGuire Air Force Base and became its historian in 1997.

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    • 5/5
      This pictorial essay of McGuire's history will please all those with any association with this base.

    Book preview

    McGuire Air Force Base - G.W. Boyd

    Famous children’s television host Rex Trainer and his horse Gold Rush entertain McGuire Air Force Base children in February 1955. Trainer was an icon in the Northeast until the late 1960s.

    McGuire Air Force Base

    G.W. Boyd

    Copyright © 2003 by G.W. Boyd

    9781439628645

    Published by Arcadia Publishing

    Charleston, South Carolina

    Printed in the United States of America

    Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2002116971

    For all general information contact Arcadia Publishing at:

    Telephone 843-853-2070

    Fax 843-853-0044

    E-mail sales@arcadiapublishing.com

    For customer service and orders:

    Toll-Free 1-888-313-2665

    Visit us on the Internet at www.arcadiapublishing.com

    American Bandstand host Dick Clark, singer Cathy Linden, and musical group Jimmy J. and the Js entertained throngs of fans at McGuire in May 1959 for Armed Forces Day. (McGuire Air Force Base History Office.)

    Table of Contents

    Title Page

    Copyright Page

    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

    INTRODUCTION

    One - ORIGINS

    Two - WORLD WAR II AND FORMAL ESTABLISHMENT

    Three - THE LEGACY OF THOMAS B. MCGUIRE JR.

    Four - THE COLD WAR AND MANY MISSIONS

    Five - JET AIRLIFT AND THE VIETNAM ERA

    Six - REPRIEVE FROM CLOSURE AND THE MODERN MISSIONS

    AIRCRAFT ASSIGNED TO MCGUIRE AND FORT DIX

    MAJOR COMMAND AND MISSION OF MCGUIRE AND FORT DIX

    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

    This book is possible only through the work of numerous military photographers, historians, and archivists through the years around the world. I especially want to thank Dr. Dan Zimmerman of the Fort Dix Museum; Carolee Nesbitt of the Fort Dix Public Affairs Office; Betsy Conzo, who assisted me from the McGuire Air Force Base History Office; and Cathi Cooper and Capt. John Dorrian of the McGuire Air Force Base Public Affairs Office, who steered this project to me. One man, however, especially stands out: Don Spering of AIR Hobbies in Mount Holly, New Jersey, who has been one of the great supporters of McGuire Air Force Base through the years. He has been taking photographs of the base and its aircraft for over 50 years and generously allowed me to use some of his work. Much of his work has been incorporated into the permanent archives of the U.S. Air Force.

    This book is dedicated to the men and women who helped make McGuire great, and I have donated all my benefits from this work to the base library and airmen’s projects. Obviously, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my family, especially to my wife, Leatha, who tolerated my nights and weekends at the computer trying to pull this work together. I also extend my gratitude to Col. Randall Lanning, a great supporter of U.S. Air Force history, who encouraged me to take on this project.

    —G.W. Boyd

    January 2003

    INTRODUCTION

    TEAM MCGUIRE

    The genesis of McGuire Air Force Base is rooted in the establishment of Fort Dix during World War I. Then known as Camp Dix, it quickly became one of the most important mobilization training bases in the United States in 1917. After the war, the huge reservation continued in use as a large training ground. The first probable aircraft landing on what later comprised McGuire occurred during a mock invasion of New Jersey during maneuvers in 1925. Thereafter, an unimproved airstrip cut into the pastureland, adorned with merely a windsock and located near what became the Aero Club, augmented the infantry training under way at Fort Dix.

    In 1937, in the midst of the Great Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps built encampments on the land and later built improved concrete airstrips. The new airfield for Fort Dix was named after Guy K. Rudd, a Newark aviator who lost his life in an air crash in 1931. Rudd Field became part of the ambitious expansion plans of the U.S. Army Air Corps, and the War Department redesignated it as Fort Dix Army Air Base in 1939. It supported the training of recently activated National Guard observation units. By 1942, Fort Dix Army Airfield and nearly 15,000 acres

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