Air Base Ca Force March
Air Base Ca Force March
March JRB
Location of March Joint Air Reserve Base, California
March Joint Air Reserve Base (IATA: RIV , ICAO: KRIV , FAA LID: RIV ) is located in Riverside County, California between the cities of Riverside and Moreno Valley. It is the home to the Air Force Reserve Command's 4th Air Force (4 AF) Headquarters and the 452d Air Mobility Wing (452 AMW), the largest air mobility wing of the 4th Air Force. In addition to multiple units of the Air Force Reserve Command supporting Air Mobility Command, Air Combat Command and Pacific Air Forces, March ARB is also home to units from the Army Reserve, Navy Reserve, Marine Corps Reserve and the California Air National Guard. For almost 50 years, March AFB was a Strategic Air Command base during the Cold War.
March is one of the oldest airfields operated by the United States military, being established as Alessandro Flying Training Field in February 1918, being renamed March Field the following month (for 2nd Lt Peyton C. March, Jr., the recently deceased son of then-Army Chief of Staff Peyton C. March), killed in an air crash in Texas just fifteen days after being commissioned.
Major commands
- United States Army Air Service, 6 March 1918 - April 1923
- United States Army Air Corps, March 1927 - 1 March 1935
- General Headquarters (GHQ) Air Force, 1 March 1935 - 31 March 1941
- Fourth Air Force, 31 March 1941 - 13 April 1945
- Continental Air Forces, 13 April 1945 - 21 March 1946
- Strategic Air Command, 21 March 1946 - 1 April 1946
- Tactical Air Command, 1 April 1946 - 1 December 1948
- Continental Air Command, 1 December 1948 - 1 May 1949
- Strategic Air Command, 1 May 1949 - 1 June 1992
- Air Combat Command, 1 June 1992 - 30 June 1996
- Air Force Reserve Command, 1 Jul 1996 - Present
Major units
United States Army Air Service (1918-1923)
- Det, 818th Aero Sq, 1 March 1918 - 22 July 1919
- 9th Aero Squadron, 22 July - 11 December 1919
- 23d Aero Squadron, 1 October 1921 - 21 March 1922
- 19th Aero Squadron, 1 October 1921 - 29 June 1922
United States Army Air Corps (1927-1941)
- 11th Bomb Squadron, 3 June - 31 July 1927
- 95th Pursuit Squadron, 7 June - 31 July 1927
- 44th Observation Squadron, 25 June - 31 July 1927
- 13th School Group, 31 July 1927 - 30 April 1931
- 7th Bombardment Group, 29 October 1931 - 4 December 1934
- 17th Pursuit (Later Bombardment) Group, 15 July 1931 - 24 June 1940
- 19th Bombardment Group, 25 October 1935 - 4 June 1941
- 30th Bombardment Group, 15 January - 20 May 1941
- 41st Bombardment Group, 15 January - 20 May 1941
- 14th Pursuit Group, 10 June 1941 - 7 February 1942
- 51st Pursuit Group, 10 June 1941 - 7 February 1942
United States Army Air Forces (1941-1947)
- 30th Bombardment Group, 11 March 1942 - 28 September 1943
- 20th Fighter Group, 4 January - 11 August 1943
- 453rd Bombardment Group, 1 October - 2 December 1943
- 479th Fighter Group, 28 October 1943 - 7 April 1944
- 473d Fighter Group, 1 November 1943 - 31 March 1944
- 399th Bombardment Group, 3 December 1943 - 31 March 1944
- 420th Army Air Force Base Unit, 1 April 1944 - 9 April 1946
United States Air Force (1947-1996)
-
1st Fighter Group, 1 April 1946 - 15 August 1947
- Established as: 1st Fighter Wing (later Fighter-Interceptor Wing), 15 August 1947 - 18 July 1950
-
67th Tactical Reconnaissance Group, 25 July - 25 November 1947
- Established as: 67th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, 25 November 1947 - 28 March 1949
-
22d Bombardment Wing, 10 May 1949 - 1 October 1982
- Redesignated: 22d Air Refueling Wing, 1 October 1982 - 1 January 1994
- Fifteenth Air Force, 7 November 1949 - 1 January 1992
- 330th Bombardment Wing, 25 June 1949 - 16 June 1951
- 44th Bombardment Wing, 2 January - 1 August 1951
- 12th Air Division, 10 February 1951 - 1 January 1962
- 106th Bombardment Group, 28 March 1951 - 1 December 1952
- 320th Bombardment Wing, 1 December 1952 - 15 December 1960
- 452d Troop Carrier (later Military Airlift) Wing (AFRES), 1 November 1960 - 1 January 1972
- 452d Tactical Airlift (later Air Refueling) Wing (AFRES), 1 January 1976 - 1 April 1994
- Southwest Air Defense Sector, 1 Jul 1987-31 Dec 1994
- 445th Military Airlift Wing (AFRES), 30 March 1994 - 1 May 1994
History
Origins
The story of March Air Force Base begins at a time when the United States was rushing to build up its military forces in anticipation of an entry into World War I.
News from the Western Front in Europe to those at home had not been good as it explained the horror and boundless human misery associated with stalemated trench warfare. Several European news sources reported significant German efforts at this time to build a fleet of flying machines that could well alter the nature of modern warfare and possibly carry the war to the skies.
In response, Congressional appropriations in early 1917 in the neighborhood of $640,000,000 attempted to back the plans of General George O. Squier, the Army's chief signal officer, to "put the Yankee punch into the war by building an army in the air."
At the same time, the War Department announced its intentions to build several new military installations. Efforts by Frank Miller, then owner of the Mission Inn in Riverside, California, Hiram Johnson and other California notables, succeeded in gaining War Department approval to construct an airfield at Alessandro Field located near Riverside, an airstrip used by aviators from Rockwell Field on cross-country flights from San Diego. A parade in Riverside on 9 February 1918 gave notice than an army flying field would soon be coming to Riverside.
The Army wasted no time in establishing a new airfield. Sergeant Charles E. Garlick, who had landed at Alessandro Field in a Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny" in November 1917, was selected to lead the advance contingent of four men to the new base from Rockwell Field. On 26 February 1918, Garlick and his crew and a group of muleskinners from nearby Colton, known to be experts in clearing land as well as for their colorful syntax, began the task of excavating the building foundations, and on 1 March 1918, Alessandro Flying Training Field was opened.
United States Army Air Service use
On 20 March 1918, Alessandro Flying Training Field became March Field , named in honor of Second Lieutenant Peyton C. March, Jr., son of the Army Chief of Staff, who had been killed when his Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny" crashed in Fort Worth, Texas the previous month. His crash occurred on 12 February 1918, two weeks after he had been commissioned in the regular United States Army Air Service. By late April 1918, enough progress had been made in the construction of the new field to allow the arrival of the first troops. The commander of the 818th Aero Squadron detachment, Captain William Carruthers, took over as the field's first commander and for a time operated out of an office in the Mission Inn. Within a record 60 days, the grain stubble-covered plain of Moreno Valley had been partially transformed to include twelve hangars, six barracks equipped for 150 men each, mess halls, a machine shop, post exchange, hospital, a supply depot, an aero repair building, bachelor officer's quarters and a residence for the commanding officer.
March Field's first primary mission was pilot training. On 15 May when the first JN-4D "Jenny" took off, March Field seemed to have come into its own as a training installation. The signing of the armistice on 11 November 1918, did not halt training at March Field initially but by 1921, the decision had been made to phase down all activities at the new base in accordance with sharply reduced military budgets. Known training units at March Field during this era were:
- 215th Aero Sq (Sq B) Mar - November 1918
- 68th Aero Sq (Sq A) Jun - November 1918
- 289th Aero Sq Aug - November 1918
- 293th Aero Sq (Sq D) Jun - November 1918
- 311th Aero Sq (Sq E) Jun - November 1918
- 311th Aero Sq (Sq C) Jun - November 1918
- 9th Aero Sq 22 July - 2 Aug, 15 November - 11 December 1919
- 19th Aero Sq 1 October - 29 June 1921
- 23d Aero Sq 1 October 1921 - 21 March 1922
In April 1923, March Field closed its doors with one sergeant left in charge.
United States Army Air Corps use
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