Barksdale Air Force Base


Barksdale Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base in Bossier Parish, Louisiana, in northwest Louisiana. Much of the base is within the city limits of Bossier City, Louisiana, along the base's western and northwestern edge. Barksdale AFB occupies more than east of Bossier City and along the southern edge of Interstate 20. More than 15,000 active-duty and Air Force Reserve Command members serve at Barksdale.
The host unit at Barksdale is the 2nd Bomb Wing, the oldest bomb wing in the U.S. Air Force. It is assigned to the Air Force Global Strike Command's Eighth Air Force. Equipped with about 44 B-52H Stratofortress bombers, 2 BW provides flexible, responsive global combat capability and trains all AFGSC and AFRC Boeing B-52 Stratofortress crews.
The base was established in 1932 as Barksdale Field, named for World War I aviator and test pilot Lieutenant Eugene Hoy Barksdale.

Role and operations

Units at Barksdale include the oldest bomb wing in the USAF, the 2nd Bomb Wing. The 2nd participated in Brig Gen Billy Mitchell's 1921 off-shore bombing test.F
Components of the 2nd Bomb Wing are:
The commander of the 2nd Bomb Wing is Colonel Michael A. Miller. He also functions as the installation commander of Barksdale Air Force Base. The vice commander is Colonel Scott Weyermuller.
Other assigned units at Barksdale are:
The base is closed to the public. However, the base is home to the Barksdale Global Power Museum, which hosts static displays of numerous aircraft including a Royal Air Force Avro Vulcan bomber, Consolidated B-24 Liberator, Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, North American P-51 Mustang, Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark, and multiple versions of the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress. There is an annual open house when non-Department of Defense visitors are allowed. Visitors may also tour the museum from 9:30 am to 4 pm every day except official holidays.

History

Historical Land Use

Prior to the establishment of Barksdale Field in 1932, the area consisted of large cotton plantations that operated through the forced labor of enslaved African Americans during the 19th century. Following emancipation, the land was worked predominantly by Black sharecroppers and tenant farmers under exploitative conditions common throughout the post-Reconstruction South. The creation of Barksdale Field involved the acquisition of over 22,000 acres via eminent domain, including the clearing of more than 1,400 acres of former cotton plantation fields during the initial phase of construction. This process displaced numerous Black farming families and small landowners from Bossier Parish. This aspect of the land's history has received minimal public acknowledgment in the base’s official commemorations.
Barksdale Field was named in honor of 2nd Lieutenant Eugene Hoy Barksdale on 2 February 1933. Lieutenant Barksdale received his wings in Great Britain in 1918 and flew with the British Royal Flying Corps during World War I. Barksdale died on 11 August 1926, over McCook Field near Dayton, Ohio, when testing a Douglas O-2 observation airplane for spin characteristics. He did not recover from a flat spin, and while parachuting out of the plane his parachute was caught in the wing's brace wires, causing Barksdale to fall to his death. He was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.
The name of the airfield was changed to Barksdale Air Force Base on 13 February 1948, concurrent with the establishment of the United States Air Force as a separate military branch.
Airships were still in use when field construction began, so Hangars One and Two were built large enough to accommodate them. No airships were ever assigned, but each hangar was large enough to accommodate two Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bombers wingtip to wingtip, which proved invaluable for Big Belly and Pacer Plank modifications managed by Boeing's Wichita plant between 1965 and 1973. Half of the B-52Fs were deployed from Barksdale, but never returned as they were replaced by B-52Gs after the Vietnam War.

Origins

As early as 1924, the citizens of Shreveport became interested in hosting a military flying field. In 1926, Shreveport citizens learned that the 3rd Attack Wing stationed at Fort Crockett, Texas, would be enlarged by 500 percent and would require at least to support aerial gunnery and a bombing range. The efforts to procure the government's commitment to build the facility in the Shreveport metropolitan area were spearheaded by a committee co-chaired by local civic leaders Andrew Querbes and John D. Ewing, beginning in 1927. It took a great deal of correspondence between the interested parties and the original proposal was rejected. However, in February 1928, a young crop duster, a U.S. Army Air Corps captain named Harold Ross Harris, was hired to fly over the local area in order to find a suitable site for the airfield.
Captain Harris selected what he felt was an adequate location for a military airfield. It was a sprawling section of cotton plantation near Bossier City. The site selection committee, representing the wealthiest taxpayers in the city, unanimously agreed upon the Barksdale Field location. A delegation of citizens traveled to Washington, D.C., to personally present the advantages of the proposed site to the War Department. Following the return of this delegation, a special U.S. Army board visited Shreveport and reported the location met all requirements of the Air Corps.
The site was selected 5 December 1928, as the location of the airfield. The land in Bossier Parish on which the airfield was built was unincorporated land near Bossier City that was annexed by the city of Shreveport once the site had been selected among 80 candidates. The real estate was purchased from over 800 property owners via a municipal bond issue approved by Shreveport voters in 1929 in fulfillment of the pledge that the citizens of Shreveport made to the U.S. government. The last of these bonds matured on 31 December 1959. After acquisition, Shreveport then donated the land to the federal government per their agreement, while the federal government assumed all the costs of building construction and equipment installation. Shreveport had originally proposed a site adjacent to Cross Lake, in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, but the War Department deemed this location inappropriate due to the lack of suitable terrain for the facility's future expansion. Subsequent to the establishment of the military installation, Bossier City grew and expanded southward and eastward, eventually enveloping the area surrounding the base. Technically, of course, Barksdale AFB is neither in Bossier City nor Shreveport but, like all military bases, is an autonomous community with its own infrastructure. However, the base obtains its water from the Shreveport Water system, with a connection to the Bossier City Water System as a backup supply of water in case the Shreveport System is undergoing maintenance or emergency situations.
Construction of Barksdale Field began in 1931, when hangars, runways, and billets were built. Early flying operations began on 7 November 1932, with the arrival of the 20th Pursuit Group and its three pursuit squadrons equipped with the Boeing P-12 and Boeing P-26 Peashooter. The airfield was officially opened and dedicated on 2 February 1933.
By the mid-1930s, Barksdale Field was the headquarters and main base of the 3rd Attack Wing, equipped with the Curtiss A-12 and Northrop A-17. The airfield was used by both fighter and attack pilots to hone their gunnery and bombing skills. Additional barracks were constructed 1936–1937, and light bombers replaced pursuit and attack aircraft.

World War II

Barksdale was developed as an Air Corps flying school November 1940 and the runway apron was completed mid-1941. Between 23 and 25 May 1940, Barksdale Field was host to the Army's "complete military maneuvers" simulating European combat operations. Some 320 aircraft from throughout the Army Air Corps participated, as Major General Dwight D. Eisenhower watched. General George C. Marshall, the U.S. Army Chief of Staff, also briefly visited Barksdale Field during the latter stages of the maneuvers.
During World War II, the airfield trained replacement crews and entire units between 1942 and 1945. Known units that trained at Barksdale were:
The 335th Bombardment Group took over training duties as a permanent Operational Training Unit on 17 July 1942 with Martin B-26 Marauders. On 1 May 1944, the 335th was replaced by the 331st U.S. Army Air Forces Base Unit as the OTU, being subsequently replaced by the 2621st USAAF Base Unit on 1 December 1945. The 2621st provided pilot training until 26 September 1947, when it was inactivated and replaced by the 2621st Air Force Base Unit.
Also during World War II Barksdale played host to the major contingent of the Free French Air Forces and Nationalist Chinese aircrews.