Sampson Air Force Base
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Sampson Air Force Base is a closed United States military facility, last used by the
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 ...
Air Training Command Air Training Command (ATC) is a former United States Air Force (USAF) Major Command designation. It was headquartered at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, but was initially formed at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. It was re-designated as Ai ...
as a Basic Military Training Center. It was closed in 1956 and put into caretaker status. As of at least the 2000s, parts of the facility have been converted to a civil picnic area called
Sampson State Park Sampson State Park (along with Sampson State Park Beach) is a state park located in Seneca County, New York. The park is south of the city of Geneva in the Town of Romulus on the east shore of Seneca Lake, one of the Finger Lakes. The park ...
. In addition, the
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
operates the
Naval Undersea Warfare Center The Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) is the United States Navy's full-spectrum research, development, test and evaluation, engineering and fleet support center for submarines, autonomous underwater systems, and offensive and defensive weapons ...
(NUWC) sonar test facility on a part of the facility. However, most of the former base is abandoned.


History


USNTS Sampson

The facility was established initially by the
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
as a Naval Training Station (USNTS Sampson) in 1942. The station was named after Rear Admiral William T. Sampson. The Navy obtained 2,600 acres of former farmland and also vineyards for the facility on the east side of Seneca Lake, New York. Construction of the facility took 270 days to complete. Along with the training station, a 1,500-bed hospital was constructed. The mission of USNTS Sampson was Naval basic training for large numbers of new recruits. During the war, over 411,000 recruits were trained at the station In conjunction with the building of Sampson, the
United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
established its
Seneca Army Depot The former Seneca Army Depot occupied between Seneca Lake and Cayuga Lake in Seneca County, New York. It was used as a munitions storage and disposal facility by the United States Army from 1941 until the 1990s. The Depot was listed in the ...
adjacent to the Naval Station which was used to store a wide variety of Ammunition.


Postwar use

With the end of the war, USNTS Sampson was closed, and turned over to 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 1946. Most of the facility was taken over by New York State, which planned to establish a two-year junior community college on the facility, keeping most of the buildings and using it as a campus. The USN Hospital was eventually taken over by the state of New York, renaming it the Willard State Hospital Sampson Annex in 1947. The station was used by NYS as a temporary college for 15,000 GI Bill students in July 1946. (5 barracks were moved to Hobart College in Geneva, New York, 7 were moved to
Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...
) Sampson College operated from September 1946 to June 1949 and had matriculated 7,500 students of which 950 received two-year degrees. In 1949, the former naval station was turned over to the
United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, ...
, which used the buildings as warehouses and granaries. More than 110,000 bushels of excess wheat and 15,000 sacks of excess beans were stored at Sampson. In addition, the State of New York, realizing the scenic location of the former Naval Station, appropriated $50,000 for the creation of a state park at Sampson.


Sampson AFB

With the outbreak of the
Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
, the United States Air Force took interest in the former Naval Station for use as a Basic Military Training (BMT) Base. Custody of the most of the property of the training center was transferred to the Air Force in 1950, and the Air Force named the facility Sampson Air Force Base on 15 November 1950. With the Air Force establishing Sampson AFB, the park project was cancelled. The Air Force spent about $6 million on renovations and beginning in February 1951 started training what would be 16,000 Air Force recruits. Air Training Command (ATC) established the 3650th Indoctrination (later Military Training) Wing to manage the base and conduct Basic Training, as its major facility at
Lackland AFB Lackland Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) base located in Bexar County, Texas. The base is under the jurisdiction of the 802d Mission Support Group, Air Education and Training Command (AETC) and an enclave of the city of Sa ...
, Texas was overflowing. During the first two weeks of 1951, the population at Lackland AFB jumped from 36,513 to over 70,000 people. In addition, a third BMT center was established at
Parks AFB Parks Reserve Forces Training Area (PRFTA), commonly known as Camp Parks, is a United States Army base located in Dublin, California, that is currently an active military and training center for U.S. Army Reserve personnel to be used in case o ...
, California to accommodate new enlistees. The mission of Sampson AFB was to provide formal basic training for all male and female enlisted personnel not having sufficient previous military training; to establish and operate such assembly, processing and separation station as specifically directed; to provide a comprehensive counseling program for Basic Indoctrinee personnel in order that these airmen may be most effectively assigned in accordance with Air Force requirements; and to maintain training programs for accomplishing rehabilitation of garrison prisoners. The first trainees arrived on 1 Feb 1951. The base employed about 700 civilians and had 600 permanent party troops. During the years before the Korean War, basic military training had lasted anywhere from 4 to 13 weeks. In the rush to flow recruits through the training system and into the theater of conflict, ATC reduced the course to seven weeks in 1950 and then to two weeks in January 1951. With the opening of Sampson and Parks AFB for BMT, Shortly thereafter, ATC increased basic military training from seven weeks to eight. In July 1952 the Air Staff approved a 12-week course, which ATC implemented on 1 August at Lackland and Parks and on 1 September at Sampson. However, after only two months, the Air Staff decided that the course should be shortened, and ATC developed an 11-week program to begin in January 1953. The host organization at Sampson was redesigned as the 3650th Military Training Wing, Air Training Command, in March 1953. The Air Force also built a runway and other facilities at Sampson and converted the base to its needs. By 1953, a single paved 5,000 foot north–south runway (Rwwy 17/35) was completed and a control tower, fire station and aircraft parking ramp was built on the west side, with
B-25 Mitchell The North American B-25 Mitchell is an American medium bomber that was introduced in 1941 and named in honor of Major General William "Billy" Mitchell, a pioneer of U.S. military aviation. Used by many Allied air forces, the B-25 served in ...
,
C-47 Skytrain The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota (Royal Air Force, RAF, Royal Australian Air Force, RAAF, Royal Canadian Air Force, RCAF, Royal New Zealand Air Force, RNZAF, and South African Air Force, SAAF designation) is a airlift, military transport ai ...
, and
C-45 Expeditor The Beechcraft Model 18 (or "Twin Beech", as it is also known) is a 6- to 11-seat, twin-engined, low-wing, tailwheel light aircraft manufactured by the Beech Aircraft Corporation of Wichita, Kansas. Continuously produced from 1937 to November ...
aircraft assigned. With the end of the Korean War and cutbacks in the military budget afterwards, Air Training Command discontinued its basic training school at Sampson AFB on 1 July 1956. Shortly thereafter, ATC discontinued Sampson's 3650th Military Training Wing. By the time it was closed, over 300,000 airmen received basic training at Sampson AFB in preparation for service in the Korean War, as well as service in USAFE, Far East Air Force, and other United States Air Force major commands both in the United States and around the world. Three months later, on 1 October 1956, control of Sampson AFB was transferred to the Rome Air Force Depot,
Air Materiel Command Air Materiel Command (AMC) was a United States Army Air Forces and United States Air Force command. Its headquarters was located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. In 1961, the command was redesignated the Air Force Logistics Command wi ...
and the base was placed in standby status. The airfield was briefly served by
Mohawk Airlines Mohawk Airlines was a regional passenger airline operating in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, mainly in New York and Pennsylvania, from the mid-1940s until its acquisition by Allegheny Airlines in 1972. At its height, it employe ...
from 1954-1956.Mohawk Airlines timetable, April 25, 1954


Post military use

Starting in 1957 to 1960 the airfield and some officer housing on the lake shore (449 acres) were transferred to the
Seneca Army Depot The former Seneca Army Depot occupied between Seneca Lake and Cayuga Lake in Seneca County, New York. It was used as a munitions storage and disposal facility by the United States Army from 1941 until the 1990s. The Depot was listed in the ...
, the facility being renamed Sampson Army Airfield and used to support the depot. The former hospital area was operated as a state school. In 1971, the State of New York closed the School due to budget cuts and while empty, a fire destroyed most of the main hospital complex. Contaminated by asbestos, the site was cleaned and is still owned by the Department of Mental Hygiene when it burned down in 1989. In 1960 the State of New York purchased and assumed ownership of all tracts of land on the former base at a cost of $500,000. Most of the buildings were dismantled and materials were sold for re-usage throughout the Finger Lakes Region. One of the Drill Halls is now in use at Middlebury College, Vermont. Major roads and identification signs remain today on the base. At some point in the mid-1960s, the airfield was opened to civil use as North Star Seneca Airpark. The duration of the civilian use of the Seneca airfield has not been determined, but it was evidently a brief period as the Army returned it to military control during the Vietnam War and renamed it Seneca Army Airfield. It was used for security at Seneca Army Depot, with the former fire station being used as hangars for the helicopters supporting depot security. Air Force
C-123 The Fairchild C-123 Provider is an American military transport aircraft designed by Chase Aircraft and then built by Fairchild Aircraft for the U.S. Air Force. In addition to its USAF service, which included later service with the Air Force Rese ...
and
C-130 The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin). Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 was originally desig ...
cargo aircraft also used the runway on occasion for transporting personnel and material to the depot. The Seneca Army Depot was identified for closure in 1995 as part of the BRAC process and Seneca AAF was closed by 2000.


Today

Today the airfield is being developed into an emergency services training site. Just inside the gate is a brand new State Police barracks, and sharing the building is a police & fire training center. A new fire training tower was built southeast of the control tower, and the 7,000-foot runway is used for high-speed police pursuit training. The control tower & fire station are empty. The majority of the former Air Force base today is now abandoned. While the streets exist, most of the land is vacant as a result of the 1960 New York State facilities removal. However, a large cluster of buildings in the northeast part of the base remain in a very deteriorated condition, some having roofs, some not. The main gate on Sampson State Park Road, west of the intersection with NY Highway 96A , still stands guard over the base. Th
Sampson Air Force Museum
is currently located in the building which was formerly the old stockade/brig. The displays are quite extensive, including a restored
T-33 Shooting Star The Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star (or T-Bird) is an American subsonic jet trainer. It was produced by Lockheed and made its first flight in 1948. The T-33 was developed from the Lockheed P-80/F-80 starting as TP-80C/TF-80C in development, then d ...
aircraft on static display and a Falcon Memorial statue.


References

* Manning, Thomas A. (2005), ''History of Air Education and Training Command, 1942–2002''. Office of History and Research, Headquarters, AETC, Randolph AFB, Texas
SampsonVets


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) ...
: Sampson AFB / Seneca AAF
Sampson Naval Training Center
{{Authority control Defunct airports in New York (state) Installations of the United States Air Force in New York (state) 1942 establishments in New York (state) 1956 disestablishments in New York (state) Military installations closed in 1956 Military airbases established in 1942