Lockbourne Air Force Base

Below are historical photos of the Lockbourne Air Force Base near Columbus, more commonly known as Rickenbacker Airport. The base was activated in June 1942 as the Northeastern Training Center of the Army Air Corps, providing basic pilot training and military support. Renamed Lockbourne Air Force Base a few years later, it was home to the 91st Bomb Wing, 70th Bomb Wing, 301st Bomb Wing, 55th Fighter Wing along with many others, including the Tuskegee Airmen's 477th Composite Group. The base's size was nearly doubled in the 1950s with the outbreak of the Korean War. New runways were built, jumbo hangers appeared, the jet age came about, and the base had stationed aircraft on full-time alert duty. During the Vietnam War, the base reach an all-time high of more than 18,000 service people in 1967. The base was renamed Rickenbacker Air Force Base after World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker in 1974. In 1978, the Strategic Air Command functions at the base transferred elsewhere and 12,000 jobs were lost. A phased closing of the base began in 1979, transferring portions of the base to the newly established Rickenbacker Port Authority and the Ohio Air National Guard. The base officially closed in 1994, transferring all of its operations. In the mid-1990s to the present, Rickenbacker Airport is now a transportation hub for commerce. The Ohio Air National Guard maintains a portion of the airport, as does the Naval Reserve. The airport is established as a Foreign-Trade zone and houses U.S. Customs offices. Major industrial development began to take place around the base in the late 1990s and into the present day.

Photographs