Travis Air Force Base

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Travis Air Force Base

IATA: SUU - ICAO: KSUU
Summary
Airport type		Military
Operator		USAF
Elevation AMSL		62 ft (18.9 m)
Coordinates		38°15′45.6″N, 121°55′39.0″W
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
03L/21R	11,001	3,353	PEM
03R/21L	10,992	3,350	Concrete

Travis Air Force Base (IATA: SUU, ICAO: KSUU) is a United States Air Force air base in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, near Fairfield, Calif. Called the "Gateway to the Pacific", Travis handles more cargo and passengers than any other military air terminal in the United States.

The base’s host unit, the 60th Air Mobility Wing, is the largest wing in the Air Force's Air Mobility Command, with a versatile fleet of 37 C-5 Galaxies, 27 KC-10 Extenders, and 13 C-17 Globemaster III aircraft. There is 1 Navy E-6B Mercury aircraft assigned to VQ3 Detachment. The base is also host to David Grant USAF Medical Center, a major Air Force teaching hospital and regional trauma center.

[edit] History

Originally named Fairfield-Suisun Army Air Base, construction began on Travis in 1942. Originally, medium attack bombers were supposed to be stationed at the base. The United States Navy had aircraft at the base for training, but this proved temporary. In October 1942, the War Department assigned the base to the Air Transport Command. The base's primary mission during World War II was ferrying aircraft and supplies to the Pacific Theater. In 1949, Strategic Air Command took over Fairfield-Suisun Air Force Base as home base for the 9th Bomb Group/9th Bomb Wing.

The base was renamed Travis Air Force Base in 1951 for Brigadier General Robert F. Travis, who was killed when a B-29 Superfortress crashed on August 5, 1950. The ensuing fire caused the 10,000 pounds of high explosives in the plane's cargo — a Mark 4 nuclear weapon — to detonate, killing Travis and 18 others. (The bomb's plutonium pit was being transported in a different plane.) [1]

In 1992, with the reorganization of the Air Force in the wake of the Cold War, the Air Mobility Command stepped in at Travis and supply once again became the primary mission.