Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base

For the civilian use of this facility and airport information, see Rickenbacker International Airport.

Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base is an Ohio Air National Guard installation at Rickenbacker International Airport near Lockbourne in southern Franklin County. The base was named for the famous early aviator and Columbus native Eddie Rickenbacker.

Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base
Near Columbus, Ohio in the United States
A KC-135R Stratotanker of the Ohio Air National Guard's 121st Air Refuelling Wing touches down at Rickenbacker ANGB during 2012.
Site information
Type	Air National Guard Base
Owner	Department of Defense
Operator	US Air Force (USAF)
Controlled by	Ohio Air National Guard (ANG)
Condition	Operational
Website	www.121arw.ang.af.mil
Location
Rickenbacker ANGB Location in the United States
Coordinates	39°48′49″N 082°56′48″W
Site history
Built	1940s (as Lockbourne Army Airfield)
In use	1940s – present
Garrison information
Current commander	Colonel David B. Johnson
Garrison	121st Air Refueling Wing
Airfield information
Identifiers	IATA: LCK, ICAO: KLCK, FAA LID: LCK, WMO: 724285
Elevation	226.7 metres (744 ft) AMSL
Runways Direction Length and surface 5R/23L 3,688.6 metres (12,102 ft) Asphalt/concrete 5L/23R 3,627.7 metres (11,902 ft) Asphalt
Airfield shared with Rickenbacker International Airport. Source: Federal Aviation Administration[1]

Rickenbacker ANGB is the home of the 121st Air Refueling Wing (121 ARW), an Air National Guard (ANG) unit flying the KC-135R Stratotanker aircraft that also serves as the host wing for the installation. When placed in federal service with the United States Air Force, the wing is operationally-gained by the Air Mobility Command (AMC). Rickenbacker ANGB operates at the airport as a tenant of the Columbus Regional Airport Authority, sharing the facility with commercial airlines and other civilian aircraft operators. The air base is also a joint military facility whose own tenant activities include the Ohio Army National Guard's Army Aviation Support Facility #2, Navy Reserve and Marine Corps Reserve units, and associated facilities.

Rickenbacker ANGB Composite Squadron (OH-121), a Civil Air Patrol squadron, also operates on the base.

History

The base was built during World War II as Lockbourne Army Airfield, a U.S. Army Air Forces training base. It became Lockbourne Air Force Base in 1948, a few months after the United States Air Force was established as an independent branch of the U.S. armed forces.

In September 1951, the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Wing (Medium) of the Strategic Air Command (SAC) moved to Lockbourne AFB from Barksdale AFB, Louisiana and operated B-45 and RB-45 Tornado and B-47 and YRB-47 Stratojet aircraft, performing a worldwide aerial reconnaissance and mapping mission. The wing was inactivated in November 1957.^[2]

In April 1958, the 301st Bombardment Wing arrived at Lockbourne AFB, assuming host wing responsibilities and flying the B-47, EB-47, and RB-47 Stratojet and KC-97 Stratofreighter aircraft. In 1964, with the impending retirement of all B-47 variant aircraft from SAC and the ongoing transfer of KC-97 aircraft to the Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard, the wing transitioned to the KC-135A Stratotanker was redesignated as the 301st Air Refueling Wing (301 ARW). Following the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, the wing's KC-135 aircraft routinely deployed to Southeast Asia for support of the air war in Vietnam.

In 1974, Lockbourne AFB was renamed Rickenbacker AFB in honor of Columbus, Ohio native and World War I U.S. Army Air Service fighter ace and Medal of Honor recipient, Eddie Rickenbacker.

After the end of Vietnam War, the Air Force shrank dramatically; it shed some SAC wings and closed active bases or transferred them to the Air Force Reserve or Air National Guard. The 301 ARW was inactivated and its KC-135s distributed to various Air National Guard units on 30 November 1979; on 1 April 1980, the base was transferred to a combination of the Ohio Air National Guard with the 160th Air Refueling Group (160 ARG) as the host unit, and the civilian governmental agency known as the Rickenbacker Port Authority, now the Columbus Regional Airport Authority.