Kincheloe Air Force Base

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Kincheloe Air Force Base was a U.S. Air Force base during the Cold War. The base was known by various names, including Kinross Municipal Airport, Kinross Army Air Field, Kinross Air Field, Kinross Air Force Auxiliary Field, and Kinross Air Force Base. The community of Kincheloe, Michigan is located on the site of the base.

[edit] History

During World War II, the Soo Locks were considered vital to the war efforts. An airport was planned in Kinross as early as June 1941 and construction began in 1943. The base was then designated the Kinross Auxiliary Air Field, and was to serve as a refueling stop for aircraft headed for Alaska as well as to defend the locks. However, no tactical units were assigned to the base during the war. The base was controlled by the 4250th Army Air Force Base Unit of the U.S. Army, which also operated the air field in Alpena.

After the war, the city of Sault Ste. Marie, along with Capital Airlines and Trans-Canada Airlines, leased the property and used it for commercial air service from 1945 to 1952. With the increasing tensions of the Cold War and the outbreak of the Korean War, the 4685th Air Base Squadron was assigned to the reactivated airfield in October 1952. The units based there changed designations several times in the following months, with the base ultimately becoming operational as a United States Air Force facility in July 1953.

The air base expanded throughout the 1950s, and in September, 1959, was officially renamed Kincheloe AFB after Captain Iven C. Kincheloe Jr., a native of Cassopolis, veteran of the Korean War and test pilot for the F-100 Super Sabre, F-104 Starfighter, and Bell X-2.

The base was a component of NORAD (North American Air Defense) and the Strategic Air Command, having its runway extended to 12,000 feet to accommodate 15 B-52H bombers and ten KC-135 tankers.

Other SAC bases with B-52's in the vicinity were K.I. Sawyer AFB, one hundred miles to the west (closed in 1995), and Wurtsmith AFB in the Lower Peninsula on Lake Huron just north of Saginaw Bay, near Oscoda. Wurtsmith closed in 1993.

In December 1965, the U.S. Department of Defense announced a decision to close Kincheloe by October 1971. The units located there were either deactivated or relocated by 1968; however, in May 1971, the decision to close the base was reversed and it was again a component of the Strategic Air Command. But this proved to be only a six-year reprieve, as the base was inactivated on September 30, 1977. Portions of the base had already been transferred to local authorities, and following the deactivation all the remaining property was transferred, although the U.S. Federal Government reserved the right to have exclusive or non-exclusive use of the airport facilities during a declared emergency.

Despite the loss of approximately 10,000 personnel living in the area, the base has been successfully redeveloped since closing. Chippewa County International Airport, Kinross Correctional Facility, Kinross Manufacturing, American Kinross, Inc. and Pickford Township Schools are now located on the property. In all, the local tax base had doubled, and the civilian payroll created by the new ventures had reached $110 million.