Marks Air Force Base is a former

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

facility located two

nautical mile A nautical mile is a unit of length used in air, marine, and space navigation, and for the definition of territorial waters. Historically, it was defined as the meridian arc length corresponding to one minute ( of a degree) of latitude. Today ...

s (4 km) west of the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

of Nome, a city in the

Nome Census Area Nome Census Area is a census area located in the U.S. state of Alaska, mostly overlapping with the Seward Peninsula. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 10,046, up from 9,492 in 2010. It is part of the unorganiz ...

of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

. It was named in honor of Major Jack S. Marks, a

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

pilot based at

Ladd Army Airfield Ladd Army Airfield is the military airfield located at Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks, Alaska. It was originally called Fairbanks Air Base, but was renamed Ladd Field on 1 December 1939, in honor of Major Arthur K. Ladd, a pilot in the U.S. Ar ...

who died when his aircraft was shot down over the Aleutians in July 1942. Following its closure, it was redeveloped into

Nome Airport Nome Airport is a state-owned public-use airport located two nautical miles (4 km) west of the central business district of Nome, a city in the Nome Census Area of the U.S. state of Alaska. As per Federal Aviation Administration reco ...

History

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the civilian Nome Airport shared use of the runway with Marks Army Airfield for transfer of

Lend-Lease Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (), was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, ...

aircraft to the Soviet Union and in 1942, for air defense of the western coast of Alaska. Marks AAF units included the

404th Bombardment Squadron 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

(July 18–28, 1942) of the

28th Bombardment Group Antigua and Barbuda (, ) is a sovereign country in the West Indies. It lies at the juncture of the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean in the Leeward Islands part of the Lesser Antilles, at 17°N latitude. The country consists of two major ...

and the 56th Fighter Squadron (June 20 – October 20, 1942) of the

54th Fighter Group The 54th Fighter Group is an active unit of the United States Air Force stationed at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico and assigned to the 49th Wing of Air Education and Training Command. The group was reactivated in March 2014. The group was ...

. On August 15, 1947, the

Arctic Indoctrination Survival School The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...

(colloquially known as "Cool School") was formed at Marks Army Air Base.(Hist, AAC, 1946-1947, p. 94; Maxwell, Hist, AAC, 1948, p. 59.) http://www.alaskawingcaf.org/Alaska%20Heritage/August%2013-19.pdf "under the leadership of Capt Harold W. Strong. Plans called for it to be manned by 9 officers and 42 enlisted with the students limited to 60 a week. The training was directed to air crews with subjects taught on survival on sea ice and tundra." Renamed Marks Air Force Base in 1948, the military installation was used as a fighter-interceptor forward base until they were pulled back to

Galena Airport Galena, also called lead glance, is the natural mineral form of lead(II) sulfide (PbS). It is the most important ore of lead and an important source of silver. Galena is one of the most abundant and widely distributed sulfide minerals. It cryst ...

. Marks AFB closed in 1950 and an air base squadron was at

until December 1956.

Facilities and aircraft

Marks Air Force Base resided at

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

of 38 feet (11 m) above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. ...

. It has two

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

s with

asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...

surfaces: Runway 10/28 is 6,000 by 150 feet (1,829 x 46 m) and Runway 3/21 is 6,175 by 150 feet (1,882 x 46 m).

References

Other sources

* * Maurer, Maurer (1983). Air Force Combat Units Of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History. . * Maurer, Maurer (1969), Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II, Air Force Historical Studies Office, Maxwell AFB, Alabama. .

External links

Topographic map
from

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...

The National Map ''The National Map'' is a collaborative effort of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and other federal, state, and local agencies to improve and deliver topographic information for the United States. The purpose of the effort is to prov ...

'' {{USAAF 11th Air Force World War II Installations of the United States Air Force in Alaska Nome, Alaska Military installations closed in 1950

History

Facilities and aircraft

See also

References

Other sources

External links