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Buckley Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base in Aurora , Colorado , that was established in 1943. The host wing is the 460th Space Wing, a unit of the Air Force Space Command . Buckley's mission is to provide combatant commanders with global surveillance, worldwide missile warning, homeland defense, and expeditionary forces. HISTORY World War II During the early years of World War II the city of Denver purchased a 5,740-acre parcel of land several miles east of the city and donated it to the Department of the Army. The site was named ''Buckley Field'' after 1st Lt. John Harold Buckley, a Longmont, Colorado native, who lost his life while on a strafing mission behind enemy lines on September 17 , 1918 . Construction on the base began in early 1942 and would result in the construction of over 700 structures plus associated infrastructure. On 1 July 1942, the Army Air Corps Technical Training School opened. It consisted of bombardier and armorer training for aircrews on the B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator bombers. During the war, Buckley Field would accept and train over 50,000 airmen in initial basic training. The Cold War Years With the war over, Buckley's military role quickly diminished and in 1946 it became an auxiliary field of nearby Lowry Air Force Base . Lowry in turn transferred control of the base to the Colorado Air National Guard that same year. Their ownership lasted less than one year. In 1947 the Department Of The Navy took charge of the base and renamed it Naval Air Station-Denver. The renamed base now housed veterans and their families waiting to return to civilian life. Thousands of veterans transitioned back to civilian life over the next four years. The Navy would remain for 12 years before decommissioning the base on June 30, 1959 and returning it to the Air Force. Buckley once again became Buckley Air National Guard Base on April 18, 1960. At the same time, it became the first stand-alone Air National Guard base. The National Guard would remain in control of Buckley for the next 40 years. During the Cold War era, the Colorado Air National Guard mobilized the Buckley-based 120th Tactical Fighter Squadron for such historical events as the Cuban Missile Crisis , the Pueblo Crisis and the Vietnam Conflict . During the 1970s and 1980s, the growth of Aurora, Denver's eastern neighbor, edged toward Buckley. The facility was eventually annexed by the city. The National Guard was not the only tenant of Buckley during this time. In the early 1970s the Air Force built six large geodesic domes to house the communications and sensors arrays used by the 2nd Space Warning Squadron (2 SWS). Their mission over the past 30 plus years has been to monitor the globe to provide early warning of ballistic missile launches. These domes, which look like huge golf balls, can be seen prominently from many parts of Aurora. Other tenant units during the Cold War era included the:
Recent and Current Activities Although the Cold War ended in the early 1990s, the 120th did not see any decrease in responsibilities. The fighter unit deployed from Buckley numerous times during the decade to take part in various military operations such as Desert Storm , Northern Watch and Iraqi Freedom . In October 2000, Buckley Air National Guard base was transferred back to Air Force control and renamed Buckley Air Force Base. This change was in support of the planned consolidation of space warning missions to Buckley. There are currently 10,000 active duty and civilian support personnel assigned to the various units located at the base. Since the return of Buckley to the Air Force in 2000, the base has seen an unprecedented amount of new construction and modernization. Enlisted dormitories, commissary, base exchange and fitness center have all been completed, augmented by the completion of family housing units - the first ever constructed at the installation. CURRENT HOST UNITS
CURRENT TENANT UNITS
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