Strategic Air Command
On 18 December 1953, Great Falls AFB was transferred from Military Air Transport Service to Strategic Air Command (SAC), although MATS units remained at the base for several years. SAC activated the 407th Strategic Fighter Wing at Great Falls with a mission to provide fighter escort for SAC's long-range B-36 Peacemaker The 407th SFW was assigned to Fifteenth Air Force, 39th Air Division and flew F-84 Thunderjets.
On 21 August 1954 the 407th SFW Vice Commander, Col. Einar Axel Malmstrom, died when his T-33 Shooting Star trainer crashed approximately one mile west of the Great Falls Municipal Airport. Although his tenure was short, he was well liked by the local community. It was the local civilian community that led the efforts to rename Great Falls AFB for Col. Malmstrom. On 15 June 1956, the base was officially dedicated as Malmstrom Air Force Base.
With the phaseout of the B-36 from the inventory in the late 1950s, the need for fighter escorts of SAC bombers was eliminated. The new B-52 Stratofortress and B-47 Stratojet bombers flew higher and faster than the F-84 escort fighters and instead of flying in formations, SAC's bombers flew individually to their selected targets. The 407th SFW was inactivated in 1957 and replaced by the 4061st Air Refueling Wing (ARW) was activated flying KB-29J Superfortresss re-engineered into aerial tankers. The 407th Air Refueling Squadron (ARS) were joined by the 97th ARS and their KC-97 Stratotankers to form the wing. The 4061st ARW flew their missions from Malmstrom AFB until July 1961.
Read more about this topic: Malmstrom Air Force Base, History
Famous quotes containing the words strategic, air and/or command:
“The practice of S/M is the creation of pleasure.... And that’s why S/M is really a subculture. It’s a process of invention. S/M is the use of a strategic relationship as a source of pleasure.”
—Michel Foucault (1926–1984)
““With your air indifferent and imperious
At a stroke our mad poetics to confute—”
And—”Are we then so serious?””
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“Children from humble families must be taught how to command just as other children must be taught how to obey.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)