Joint Base Lewis–McChord


Joint Base Lewis–McChord is a U.S. military installation home to I Corps and 62nd Airlift Wing located south-southwest of Tacoma, Washington under the jurisdiction of the United States Army Joint Base Headquarters, Joint Base Lewis–McChord. The facility is an amalgamation of the United States Army's Fort Lewis and the United States Air Force's McChord Air Force Base which merged on 1 February 2010 into a Joint Base as a result of Base Realignment and Closure Commission recommendations of 2005.
Joint Base Lewis–McChord is a training and mobilization center for all services and is the only Army power projection base west of the Rocky Mountains in the Continental United States. Its geographic location provides rapid access to the deepwater ports of Tacoma, Olympia, and Seattle for deploying equipment. Units can be deployed from McChord Field, and individuals and small groups can also use nearby Sea-Tac Airport. The strategic location of the base provides Air Force units with the ability to conduct combat and humanitarian airlift with the C-17 Globemaster III.

Fort Lewis

Fort Lewis is a United States Army base located 9.1 miles south-southwest of Tacoma, Washington. Fort Lewis was merged with McChord Air Force Base on February 1, 2010 to form Joint Base Lewis–McChord.
Fort Lewis, named after Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, was one of the largest and most modern military reservations in the United States, consisting of 87,000 acres of prairie land cut from the glacier-flattened Nisqually Plain. It is the premier military installation in the northwest and is the most requested duty station in the Army.
Joint Base Lewis–McChord is a major Army installation, with much of the 2nd Infantry Division in residence, along with Headquarters, 7th Infantry Division; 593rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command; 1st Special Forces Group; and 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment. However, the Headquarters of the 7th Infantry Division is primarily a garrison management body. Fort Lewis's geographic location provides rapid access to the deep water ports of Tacoma, Olympia and Seattle for deploying equipment. Units can be deployed from McChord Field, and individuals and small groups can also use nearby Sea-Tac Airport. The strategic location of the base provide Air Force units with the ability to conduct combat and humanitarian airlifts with the C-17 Globemaster III.

Fort Lewis Major units

The United States Army's I Corps commands most Army units at Joint Base Lewis–McChord, and conducts planning and liaison with other assigned active and Reserve component units in the continental United States. It is one of the active Army's contingency corps. I Corps stays prepared to deploy on short notice worldwide to command up to five divisions or a joint task force.
In 1981, I Corps was reactivated at Fort Lewis. On 12 October 1999, General Eric K. Shinseki, Chief of Staff of the Army, announced I Corps would lead the acceleration of Army transformation, training and the initial creation of the first two Stryker Brigade Combat Teams at Fort Lewis. Since 11 September 2001, I Corps and Fort Lewis assets have been active in providing support for global war on terrorism operations, including Operation Noble Eagle, Operation Enduring Freedom and the Iraq War.
On 5 February 2004, Task Force Olympia was activated, as a sub-element of I Corps headquarters with the mission to command forward-deployed units in Iraq. This marked the first time that I Corps had forward soldiers in combat since the end of the Korean War. Task Force Olympia included units from all three components of the Army as well as Marine and Australian officers. Task Force Olympia's subordinate units included the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, which deployed for Iraq on 8 November 2003, and returned to Fort Lewis after one year of combat duty, and the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, which departed Fort Lewis on 15 September 2004, for one year and returned September 2005. On 1 June 2006, the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division cased its colors and became the 2d Cavalry Regiment – Stryker Brigade Combat Team with its home station in Germany. A new unit then uncased the colors of its new designation on 1 June 2006 – the 4th Brigade, 2d Infantry Division.
Subordinate units assigned to Fort Lewis are:
The McChord Air Force Base is a United States Air Force controlled base in the northwest United States, in Pierce County, Washington. South of Tacoma, McChord AFB is the home of the 62d Airlift Wing, Air Mobility Command, the airbase’s primary mission being worldwide strategic airlift.
The facility was consolidated with the U.S. Army's Fort Lewis on 1 February 2010 to become part of the Joint Base Lewis–McChord complex. This initiative was driven by the Base Realignment and Closure Round in 2005 and is designed to combine current infrastructure into one maximizing war fighting capability and efficiency, while saving taxpayer dollars.

62d Airlift Wing

The 62nd Airlift Wing is the host unit at McChord AFB. It is assigned to the Eighteenth Air Force and is composed of more than 7,200 active duty military and civilian personnel. It is tasked with supporting worldwide combat and humanitarian airlift contingencies. Aircraft of the 62d fly around the globe, conducting airdrop training; it also carries out the Antarctic resupply missions.

Components

The 62d Operations Group flies the C-17 Globemaster III transport from McChord Field. It consists of three airlift squadrons and an Operations Support Squadron.
Air Mobility Command
Other major units stationed at McChord Field are:
Air Force Special Operations Command
Air Force Reserve Command

Fort Lewis

In 1916, a combination of local civilian businessmen seeking the creation of a military base in the Puget Sound area and a military survey team approved a military post to be constructed near American Lake. Businessmen and Washington voters approved a donation of the land near American Lake to the United States government. The base would serve as a vital training base for United States soldiers during World War I. This base would be known as one of the most well-managed and cheaply funded bases that were constructed during World War I. Additional construction of the camp would officially commemorate a renaming of Camp Lewis to Fort Lewis in 1927.
The construction of the base also included the seizure of Nisqually tribe reservation lands for their use as an artillery field. Legal seizure of the lands occurred through eminent domain and seizure, which resulted in tribal members being forced from their homes.
Units trained at Fort Lewis would serve with distinction in both the Pacific and European theaters during World War II. Prisoner of war compounds were constructed to house German and Italian POWs until the end of the war. Fort Lewis units also participated in major operations in the modern-day, including Operation Just Cause and Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

McChord Air Force Base

McChord Air Force Base was originally named Tacoma Field in 1927 when a local voting measure voted to create a municipal airport. This airport would be purchased by the United States government in 1938 and renamed McChord Field in May 1938 in honor of Colonel William McChord, who had died in an aircraft accident in Virginia. The early work and construction of the base prior to the start of World War II occurred under the Works Projects Administration. McChord Field served as a critical piece of defense infrastructure during World War II, training bomber aircraft pilots who would participate in the allied invasion of Italy, southern France, and the Doolittle Raid. McChord Field became McChord Air Force Base in 1948 with the formation of the United States Air Force as a separate division of the armed forces from the United States Army.
McChord Air Force Base served as an airlift base since the end of World War II. The base functions as a strategic airlift base participating in transport, humanitarian, and air defense roles.
Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base officially joined to form Joint Base Lewis McChord in 2010 following the apolitical Base Realignment and Closure Commissions recommendations in 2005.