With the departure of the 97th Bomb Wing, the Eielson Air Force Base Wing (Base Complement) was formed on April 1, 1948. On April 20, 1948, it was designated the 5010th Air Base Wing, and would be the host unit at the base until 1964.
The wing accommodated numerous SAC units on temporary deployment to Eielson, playing host to B-29s, B-36s and finally B-47s. In fact, the largest hangar on Eielson today, now used for the Air Force's Cope Thunder exercises, was originally built to house two B-36 "Peacekeeper" bombers, the largest bomber ever in Air Force inventory.
Construction boomed at Eielson AFB during the wing's tenure in the 1950s. Many of the facilities still in use today were built at that time - Amber Hall, Thunderdome, Base Exchange, Commissary, Gymnasium, Theater, Base Chapel, some of the schools and many of the dormitories, just to name a few.
Read more about 5010th Air Base Wing: Lineage
Famous quotes containing the words air, base and/or wing:
“All things are flowing, even those that seem immovable. The adamant is always passing into smoke. The plants imbibe the materials which they want from the air and the ground. They burn, that is, exhale and decompose their own bodies into the air and earth again. The animal burns, or undergoes the like perpetual consumption. The earth burns, the mountains burn and decompose, slower, but incessantly.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Report of fashions in proud Italy,
Whose manners still our tardy-apish nation
Limps after in base imitation.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Fan the sinking flame of hilarity with the wing of friendship; and pass the rosy wine.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)