10 Facts About McChord Field

McChord Field is a United States Air Force base in the northwest United States, in Pierce County, Washington.

South of Tacoma, McChord Field is the home of the 62d Airlift Wing, Air Mobility Command, the field's primary mission being worldwide strategic airlift.

In 1940, McChord Field became the headquarters of the GHQ Air Force Northwest Air District, with a mission for the defense of the Pacific Northwest and Upper Great Plains regions of the United States.

McChord Field trained numerous bombardment squadrons during the war, receiving graduates of AAF Training Command's flight and technical schools and forming them into operational squadrons which were then sent on to second and third phase training prior to being deployed to the overseas combat air forces.

McChord Field had large maintenance facilities for Air Technical Service Command during the war, serving as a P-39 Airacobra modification center April 1944 – May 1945 for lend-lease aircraft being sent to Russia via the Alaska Territory.

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In 1945 McChord Field was designated as a permanent station by the Army Air Forces.

On 1 August 1946, McChord Field was assigned to the new Air Defense Command, with a mission of air defense of the United States.

Today, the successor organization to the 25th AD, the Western Air Defense Sector, is a major tenant organization at McChord Field, being one of two air defense sectors responsible for the security and integrity of continental United States air space.

In 1968, McChord Field AFB was relieved of its assignment to the subsequently renamed Aerospace Defense Command and was reassigned to Military Airlift Command as one of three MAC bases in the western United States operating the Lockheed C-141 Starlifter.

In 1988 McChord Field became involved in combating devastating Yellowstone National Park forest fires, carrying troops from Fort Lewis to the fire areas.