George Air Force Base | |
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Victorville, California | |
2006 USGS airphoto
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Coordinates | 34°35′41″N 117°23′03″W / 34.59472°N 117.38417°WCoordinates: 34°35′41″N 117°23′03″W / 34.59472°N 117.38417°W |
Type | Air Force Base |
Site information | |
Controlled by |
United States Army Air Forces United States Air Force |
Condition | Civilian Airport, private ownership |
Site history | |
Built | 1941 |
In use | 1941–1992 |
Battles/wars |
World War II Korean War Vietnam War 1991 Gulf War (Defense of Saudi Arabia; Liberation of Kuwait) |
George Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force base located within the city limits, 8 miles northwest, of central Victorville, California, about 75 miles northeast of Los Angeles, California.
George AFB was closed pursuant to a decision by the 1988 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission at the end of the Cold War. It is now the site of the Southern California Logistics Airport.
Established by the United States Army Air Corps as an Advanced Flying School in June 1941, it was closed at the end of World War II. It was again activated as a training base by the United States Air Force with the outbreak of the Korean War in November 1950. It remained a training base throughout the Cold War and in the immediate post-Cold War period, primarily for the Tactical Air Command (TAC) and later the Air Combat Command (ACC), training USAF, NATO and other Allied pilots and weapon systems officers in front-line fighter aircraft until being closed in 1993.
Since 2009, the California Air National Guard's 196th Reconnaissance Squadron (96 RS) has operated an MQ-1 Predator Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) training facility at the Southern California Logistics Airport.
George Air Force Base was named in honor of Brigadier General Harold Huston George. He was a World War I fighter ace, serving with the 185th and 139th Aero Squadrons. At the beginning of World War II he was assigned to the V Interceptor Command, Far East Air Force in the Philippines. There, he directed air operations in defense of the fortified islands in Manila Bay. Withdrawn to Australia, he died on 29 April 1942 in an aircraft accident near Darwin, Northern Territory.