McCook Army Airfield was activated on 1 April 1943. It is located nine miles (14 km) northwest of McCook, a city in Red Willow County,

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

, United States and is southwest of North Platte, Nebraska. It was constructed in 1943 . The site is bordered on all sides by level farm ground.

History

McCook AAF was one of eleven

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 ...

training bases in

during

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 base included three 150 by concrete runways, five hangars, and barracks for 5,000 men. It operated with three divisions: Base Services (hospital, chapel, theater, band, gymnasium, fire station, post office, photo lab, library, and military police); Maintenance and Supply (air service groups, post engineers, machine shop, warehouses); and Training (celestial navigation, gunnery and bombing, communications, radar, and aircraft maintenance). Approximately 110 buildings and structures were constructed. The airfield was activated on 1 April 1943, under the command of

Second Air Force The Second Air Force (2 AF; ''2d Air Force'' in 1942) is a USAF numbered air force responsible for conducting basic military and technical training for Air Force enlisted members and non-flying officers. In World War II the CONUS unit defended ...

Headquarters, Colorado Springs,

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. The host unit at the airfield was the 520th Operational Training Unit as part of

Air Technical Service Command The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing for ...

. The 520th was assigned to the

16th Bombardment Operational Training Wing The 540th Combat Crew Replacement Wing is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last active in 1946 at Colorado Springs, assigned to Continental Air Forces. History Prewar The 16th Bombardment Wing was first activated at Langley Fie ...

(August 1943 - March 1944), then transferred to the

17th Bombardment Training Wing The 17th Air Division is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with Pacific Air Forces, stationed at U-Tapao Royal Thai Navy Airfield, Thailand, where it was inactivated on 1 January 1976. History The air division w ...

in March 1944 for B-29 training. McCook provided final training of heavy bomber crews for the

B-17 Flying Fortress The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...

Consolidated B-24 Liberator The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models des ...

and Boeing B-29 Super Fortress. Some 15,000 servicemen and 500 civilians were stationed at McCook. Bomber crew members received final proficiency training at the field before deployment in

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

, Europe, and Pacific Theater of Operations. Among the bomb groups trained at McCook were elements of the

8th 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...

15th 15 (fifteen) is the natural number following 14 (number), 14 and preceding 16 (number), 16. Mathematics 15 is: * A composite number, and the sixth semiprime; its proper divisors being , and . * A deficient number, a smooth number, a lucky ...

, and 20th Air Forces. These bomb groups saw combat in the

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, and Pacific Theaters. The following USAAF Groups were stationed at McCook: * 454th Bombardment Group (Heavy) (July - October 1943) : 736th, 737th, 738th and 739th Bombardment Squadrons : Deployed to

Fifteenth Air Force The Fifteenth Air Force (15 AF) is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force's Air Combat Command (ACC). It is headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base. It was reactivated on 20 August 2020, merging the previous units of the Ninth Air Force ...

in Italy (

B-24 Liberator The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models des ...

) * 486th Bombardment Group (Heavy) (September - November 1943) : 832nd, 833rd, 834th and 835th Bombardment Squadrons : Deployed to

Eighth Air Force The Eighth Air Force (Air Forces Strategic) is a numbered air force (NAF) of the United States Air Force's Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. The command serves as Air Force ...

in England (

) * 465th Bombardment Group (Heavy) (October 1943 - February 1944) : 780th, 781st, 782nd and 783rd Bombardment Squadrons : Deployed to

in Italy (

) * 493d Bombardment Group (Heavy) (November 1943 - January 1944) : 860th, 861st, 862nd and 863rd Bombardment Squadrons : Deployed to

in England (

) * 9th Bombardment Group (Very Heavy) (May - November 1944) : 1st, 5th, 99th and 430th Bombardment Squadrons : Deployed to Twentieth Air Force in Tinian (

B-29 Superfortress The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 Fl ...

) * 331st Bombardment Group (Very Heavy) (November 1944 - April 1945) : 355th, 356th, and Bombardment 357th Squadrons : Deployed to Twentieth Air Force in

Guam Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...

(

) * 98th Bombardment Group (Very Heavy) (25 June-1- November 1945) : 343rd, 344th, 345th and 415th Bombardment Squadrons (

) : Inactivated 18 November 1945 *

448th Bombardment Group 448th may refer to: * 448th (Northumbrian) Field Company, Royal Engineers, in the 1st Newcastle Engineers in the British Territorial Army * 448th Fighter Squadron, inactive United States Air Force unit * 448th Missile Squadron, inactive United Stat ...

(Very Heavy) (8 September- 4 December 1945) : 712th, 713th, 714th, and 715th Bombardment Squadrons : Inactivated 4 December 1945 With the inactivation of the 448th Bomb Group, McCook AAF was inactivated and placed in reserve status under supervision of the 2347th Air Force Reserve Training Center. The Airfield closed on 31 December 1945, and was acquired by the state of Nebraska from the

War Assets Administration The War Assets Administration (WAA) was created to dispose of United States government-owned surplus material and property from World War II. The WAA was established in the Office for Emergency Management, effective March 25, 1946, by Executive Ord ...

in 1947.

In 1950, the city of McCook took possession of the airfield for a municipal airport, however, found that its distant location from the city made it inconvenient. The city of McCook turned the McCook airfield back to the State of Nebraska in 1952. Today the land is owned primarily by farmers and the Nebraska Bureau of Land Management. Most of the concrete runways have been removed except for a 20' strip on the E-W and SW-NE runways. About a dozen World War II-era buildings still exist at the former airfield in various states of deterioration including all the hangars.

References

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

External links

Nebraska's Army Airfields

Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields is an online database An online database is a database accessible from a local network or the Internet, as opposed to one that is stored locally on an individual computer or its attached storage (such as a CD) ...

: Western Nebraska
Image of McCook Army Airfield on Google Maps

Aviation: From Sand Dunes to Sonic Booms, a National Park Service ''Discover Our Shared Heritage'' Travel Itinerary

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mccook Army Airfield 1942 establishments in Nebraska Airports established in 1942 Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in Nebraska Defunct airports in Nebraska Airports in Nebraska Buildings and structures in Red Willow County, Nebraska 1945 disestablishments in Nebraska Airports disestablished in 1945

History

See also

References

External links