Dobbins Air Reserve Base
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dobbins Air Reserve Base is a U.S. Air Force Reserve base located in Marietta, Georgia, a suburb about 20 miles or 30 kilometers northwest of Atlanta. It has IATA airport code MGE, and ICAO airport code KMGE.
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[edit] History
[edit] War years
Originally intended by Cobb County as an alternative to Atlanta's Candler Field, it began in 1941 as Rickenbacker Field. It was named for former army pilot and then-current Eastern Air Lines president Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, for whom Miami's Rickenbacker Causeway (over Biscayne Bay to Miami Beach on Key Biscayne) is also named.
The boost needed to build the airport came in 1940 when U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt selected General Lucius D. Clay to head a new Civil Aeronautics Administration program of airstrip construction, some 450 to 500 being built in preparation for possible war. Clay Street in Marietta (now South Marietta Parkway, State Route 120 Loop) was named after him, in honor of his work in bringing the base and plant to the city.
In 1942, with U.S. entry into World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. War Department announced on February 19th that it would become Marietta Army Airfield under the U.S. Army. A Bell Aircraft Corporation factory for the Boeing-designed B-29 bomber was built next to it, beginning operations in the spring of 1943. Production ended in 1945 at the conclusion of the war.
[edit] Post-war
After the Air Force was split from the Army due to its noble performance in the war, the airfield became Marietta Air Force Base. It was renamed Dobbins Air Force Base in 1950 in honor of Captain Charles M. Dobbins of Marietta, whose airplane was shot down during the war near Sicily.
The aircraft plant was reopened in 1951 by Lockheed-Georgia (now Lockheed Martin), and has been operating ever since.
In 1948, part of the land and barracks at the original Naval Air Station Atlanta in Chamblee were given to the state, for the purpose of creating an engineering technology school that could rapidly train returning soldiers for civilian work in various technical fields. The Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta created the Southern Technical Institute (now Southern Polytechnic State University), which was moved to land given by Dobbins AFB in 1958. NAS Atlanta also moved next to Dobbins around that time, leaving the original site to DeKalb-Peachtree Airport.
Other development has steadily encroached upon the base since the war. 1989 A-7 Corsair II and 1993 C-130 Hercules crashes into residential areas near the base raised questions of safety in having a base in such a densely-populated suburban area.
Until the late 20th century, the oldest building on base was part of the Lockheed complex, and was built before the Civil War. Legend has it that the only reason the building wasn't burned to the ground during Union General William Tecumseh Sherman's "March to the Sea" in 1864 was because the building's owner, a British citizen, had flown the British flag during the occupation of Marietta.
[edit] Current and future
Like most U.S. bases, Dobbins has had to fend off several attempts at closing it, as part of streamlining the country's military and reducing unnecessary spending. These have been thwarted so far by powerful local politicians, such as former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn in 1995. However, some have proposed that it again become a commercial airport, as it was originally envisioned. Dobbins will be the only U.S. military facility left in northern Georgia if the 2005 BRAC final recommendations are enacted.
Lockheed Martin still operates a plant (USAF # 6) at Dobbins.
In September 2005, the Hurricane Hunters flew out of Dobbins after Hurricane Katrina did major damage to their normal home at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi. Numerous evacuees also came to metro Atlanta through Dobbins, including many medical patients taken in by local hospitals.
