Base continually has changed with times

Journal of Business, Jul 01, 2004

Spokane civic leaders' efforts to keep Fairchild Air Force Base off the Pentagon's base-closure list are reminiscent of how the West Plains base got its start.

In early 1942, business and civic leaders here raised $125,000 - a lot of money back then - to buy 1,400 acres of land on the West Plains and donate the property to the War Department. In the early part of World War II, the department had been looking for a location to build an air depot in the Northwest where warplanes from the Pacific Theater could be repaired. Spokane was competing with Seattle and Everett for the base, and Spokane ended up winning out, partly because weather conditions were thought to be better here and because the West Plains' location - 300 miles from the coast and on the other side of the Cascade Mountains-provided a natural barrier against possible Japanese attack.

The U.S. government that year dedicated another $14 million to buy more land on the West Plains and to begin construction of what would become the Spokane Army Air Depot.

Four years later, the base was transferred to the Strategic Air Command, and assigned to the Air Force, and November 1947, the 92nd and 98th Bomb Groups arrived there. Both units flew the most advanced bomber of the day, the B-29 Superfortress. Soon after, the base was renamed Spokane Air Force Base.

Both Bomb Groups were deployed to Japan and Guam, due to the hostilities in Korea at the time, but the 92nd was released back to Spokane after just a few weeks, where it was renamed the 92nd Bombardment Wing (Heavy). The 98th remained in the Far East for some time, and then was reassigned to a base in Nebraska.

In November 1950, the base here was renamed Fairchild Air Force Base in memory of Gen. Muir S. Fairchild, the Air Force's late vice chief of staff and native of Bellingham, Wash. The ceremony for that change took place a few months later, in the summer of 1951, and coincided with the arrival of the wing's first B-36 bomber.

By 1956 the wing began a conversion to the B-52 Stratofortress bombers, which became a fixture in the Spokane skies for the next 38 years.

The KC-135 Stratotankers, used to fuel B-52s and other aircraft during flight, also began arriving at the base in the late 1950s.

In 1961, the 92nd Bombardment Wing became the first "aerospace" wing in the nation with the addition of Atlas intercontinental ballistic missiles here. With that addition, the wing was redesignated the 92nd Strategic Aerospace Wing. The Atlas missiles were removed just four years later.

In early 1966, the 3636th Combat Crew Training Group, what today is called the 336th Training Group and known as the survival school, was activated at Fairchild. Five years later, it assumed control over all Air Force survival schools. It continues to operate as a separate unit from the wing command.

The base received another tenant in late 1974, when the Air Force announced plans to convert the Washington Air National Guard's 141st Fighter Interceptor Group, which was based nearby at Geiger Field, to the 141st Air Refueling Wing. In connection with the conversion, the National Guard wing was moved to Fairchild, and by 1976, it had its first eight KC135 tankers.

Organizational changes in the Air Force caused Fairchild's 92nd Bombardment Wing to be renamed simply the 92nd Wing in 1991, to reflect its dual bombing and refueling role, and the following year, the wing became part of the Air Combat Command and was redesignated again to the 92nd Bomb Wing.

Then, in late 1993, perhaps Fairchild's biggest changes began to unfold, as the Air Force began moving its B-52 bombers to other bases under the Air Combat Command and leaving in place Fairchild's tankers, which then were assigned to the Air Mobility Command.

The last B-52 left Fairchild on May 25, 1994, marking the end of 52 years that the West Plains base had served as a home to bombers.

That summer, the 92nd Bomb Wing became the 92nd Air Refueling Wing, creating one of the largest airrefueling wings in the Air Force.