Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho
Longitude: -115.8727
Origin of current name: Named after a city in Idaho
Date current name was assigned to base: 13 Jan 1948
Previous Names: Army Air Base, Mountain Home, Nov 1942; Mountain Home Army Air Field, 2 Dec 1943
Date Established: 1 Apr 1942
Date Occupied: 21 Aug 1943
Construction Began: 30 Nov 1942
Changes in Capability: Two 10,000-foot runways, taxiways, and apron completed 1943; base served as training site for heavy bombardment crews during remainder of World War IJ; for reopening (Feb 1951) buildings and flight control and communication facilities readied for VLR strategic reconnaissance operations Feb-May 1949; runways, utilities, and various buildings for B-29 operations finished 1953; 12,000-foot runway opened for B-47 operations Dec 1954; 500-unit Wherry housing project opened mid-1956; 50-bed hospital completed 1958; 270-unit Capehart housing project completed mid-1959; three Titan I ICBM complexes, spring 1962 (activated)-Jun 1964 (inactivated); construction for TAC RF-4C operations completed 1964-1965; 347th Tactical Fighter Wing, first F-111-equipped USAF organization, became base host 15 Jul 1971; 226-unit family housing project completed 16 Dec 1971; two F-111 flight simulators commissioned 24 May 1974 and 28 Dec 1977; 194-man enlisted men's dormitories completed 24 Feb 1978.
Major Changes in Status: Temporary inactive status, 5 Oct 1945; subbase of Gowen Fld, ID, 9 Oct 1945; subbase of Walla Walla Afld, WA, 31 Dec 1945-1 Oct 1946; active status, 1 Dec 1948; inactivated, 25 Apr 1950; subbase of Fairfield-Suisun (later, Travis) AFB, CA, c. 1 Apr 1950-24 Jan 1951; activated, 1 Feb 1951.
Official Base Website: mountainhome.af.mil
At about the same time the 366th Fighter Group was started in Virginia, construction of Mountain Home Army Air Field began in Idaho. Crews started building the base in November 1942 and the new field officially opened August 7, 1943. Shortly thereafter, airman at the field began training United States Army Air Force crews for World War II. The 396th Bombardment Group (Heavy) was the first unit assigned and its planned mission was to train crews for the B-17. However, before the first B-17s arrived, plans for the field changed and the 396th was transferred to Moses Lake, Washington.
Instead of training B-17 crews, Mountain Home airmen began training crews for the B-24 Liberator. The first group to do so was the 470th Bombardment Group (Heavy), which trained at Mountain Home from May 1, 1943, until January 1944, when the unit moved to Nevada. The 490th Bombardment Group (Heavy) replaced the 470th and trained B-24 crews until it deployed to England in April 1944. The 494th Bombardment Group then replaced the 490th, once more training Liberator crews.
The base also received fighter aircraft to add realism to its training. A few P-38 and P-63 pursuit planes arrived in January 1945 to simulate attacks on B-24s. In June 1945, Mountain Home also briefly served as a training base for the new B-29 Superfortress, but the end of the war in August brought a swift end to the new mission and, for a time, to the base at Mountain Home. The base was placed in inactive status in October 1945.
The base remained inactive until December 1948 when the newly independent United States Air Force assigned first the 5th Reconnaissance Group and then the 5th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing and their RB-17s to Idaho and the newly renamed Mountain Home Air Force Base. This new lease on life was short-lived, however, lasting only until April 1950, when the base once again closed.
But less than a year later, the base was reactivated, hosting the 580th, 581st, and 582nd Air Resupply and Communications Wings over the next three years. They flew C-119, B-29 and SA-16 aircraft and trained to support what we know today as covert and special operations.
When the last of these wings departed for overseas duty in 1953, the base was transferred to Strategic Air Command that assigned its 9th Bombardment Wing to Mountain Home. The 9th relocated to Mountain Home AFB in May 1953, and began flying B-29 bombers and KB-29H refueling aircraft. The 9th began converting to the new B-47 Stratojet bomber and the KC-97 tanker in September 1954, keeping alert bombers ready for war at a moments notice and continuing its mission as a deterrent force throughout the Cold War years of the 1950s and early 1960s.
In 1959, construction of three Titan missile sites began in the local area. The 569th Strategic Missile Squadron controlled these sites and was assigned to the 9th Bombardment Wing in August 1962. To prepare for the addition of missiles to its bomber forces, Air Force re-designated the wing as the 9th Strategic Aerospace Wing in April 1962.
A few years later, the Strategic Air Command mission at Mountain Home began to wind down, and in November 1964, the Air Force announced that the missile sites would be closed. In late 1965, the Air Force also began phasing out the aging B-47 bomber and announced plans to bring the 67th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing to Mountain Home.
In January 1966, with the closure of the missile sites and the move of the 67th to Mountain Home, control of the base passed from Strategic Air Command to Tactical Air Command. The 67th flew RF-4C aircraft and conducted photographic, visual, radar, and thermal reconnaissance operations. Two years later the 67th also conducted tactical fighter operations with the addition of a squadron of F-4D Phantoms. This fighter mission lasted until late 1970 when the F-4Ds were reassigned.
The 347th Tactical Fighter Wing, equipped with F-111F Aardvarks, replaced the 67th as host unit of the base in May 1971. The 347th had a short stay at Mountain Home, conducting F-111F training until October 1972, when the 366th TFW moved from Vietnam to Mountain Home. Upon its arrival, the 366th absorbed all the people and equipment of the 347th.
MAJOR OPERATIONAL UNITS ASSIGNED TO MOUNTAIN HOME AFB
BASE STATUS/UNIT DATES
ACTIVATED as Army Air Base, Mountain Home............7 Aug 42
396th Bombardment Group (Heavy)...............................16 Feb-10 Apr 43
470th Bombardment Group (Heavy)................................1 May 43-1 Jan 44
467th Bombardment Group (Heavy)...................................8 Sep 43-17 Oct 43
20th Base Headquarters and Air Base Squadron*..........28 Nov 43-25 Mar 44
REDESIGNATED Mountain Home Army Air Field.............2 Dec 43
490th Bombardment Group, Heavy.....................................4 Dec 43-20 Apr 44
213th Army Air Forces Base Unit*.......................................25 Mar 44-Feb 45
494th Bombardment Group (Heavy)...................................15 Apr-1 Jun 44
426th Army Air Forces Base Unit*.......................................Feb 45-1 Oct 46
BASE INACTIVATED...............................................................5 Oct 46
REDESIGNATED Mountain Home Air Force Base...........13 Jan 48
BASE ACTIVATED....................................................................1 Dec 48
5th Reconnaissance Group, Very Long Range, Photo....29 May-16 Jul 49
5th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing....................................16 Jul-11 Nov 49
BASE INACTIVATED................................................................25 Apr 50
BASE ACTIVATED.....................................................................1 Feb 51
1701st Air Transport Wing......................................................1 Feb 51-circa Apr 51
580th Air Resupply and Communications Wing................16 Apr 51-17 Sep 52
581st Air Resupply and Communications Wing................23 Jul 51-26 Jun 52
582nd Air Resupply and Communications Wing..............24 Sep 52-1 May 53
9th Bombardment Wing, Medium
(later 9th Strategic Aerospace Wing)....................................1 May 53-25 Jun 66
813th Air Division+....................................................................1 Jul 59-1 Jul 64
67th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing.....................................1 Jan 66-15 Jul 71
347th Tactical Fighter Wing....................................................15 May 71-31 Oct 72
366th Fighter Wing ...................................................................31 Oct 72-1 Oct 1991
REDESIGNATED 366th Wing .................................................1 Oct 1991-27 Sep 02
REDESIGNATED 366th Fighter Wing.....................................27 Sep 02-present
History of the Titan I at Mountain Home can be found here.
