Fort McClellan Army Airfield is a closed military airfield located north-northeast of
Anniston, Alabama
Anniston is the county seat of Calhoun County in Alabama and is one of two urban centers/principal cities of and included in the Anniston-Oxford Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 23,106. Acco ...
, United States.
History
The airfield was built in the 1930s to support Army activities at
Fort McClellan
Fort McClellan, originally Camp McClellan, is a decommissioned United States Army post located adjacent to the city of Anniston, Alabama. During World War II, it was one of the largest U.S. Army installations, training an estimated half-million tr ...
, used by observation aircraft for artillery spotting and general surveillance of maneuvers. It was named in honor of
Henry J. Reilly, a soldier and journalist.
In 1942–1943, the airfield was phased down and left unused for many years.
During the 1960s Vietnam War, the Army reactivated the airfield for used by helicopters and light observations aircraft. It also hosted flights of CH-47 Chinooks from Fort Benning on maneuvers. It was used in support of the chemical and WAC facilities during the late 60s until at least late 1973. From 1975 to 1999, the airfield was used for defensive driving training by the Military Police School at Fort McClellan. Although unused, aerial imagery showed that the runways were intact in 2006.
As of 2021, Google satellite imagery shows construction crews demolishing the runways of the air field.
See also
*
Alabama World War II Army Airfields
During World War II, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) established numerous airfields in Alabama for antisubmarine defense in the Gulf of Mexico and for training pilots and aircrews of AAF fighters and bombers.
Most of these airfields we ...
References
Abandoned Airfields: Fort McClellan Army Airfield
External links
Defunct airports in Alabama
Airports in Alabama
Transportation buildings and structures in Calhoun County, Alabama
{{Alabama-airport-stub