Peterson Air Force Base


Peterson Air Force Base is a U.S. Air Force Base that shares an airfield with the adjacent Colorado Springs Municipal Airport, home to the North American Aerospace Defense Command, the Space Force's 21st Space Wing, elements of the Space Force's Space and Missile Systems Center, and United States Northern Command headquarters. Developed as a World War II air support base for Camp Carson, the facility conducted Army Air Forces training and supported Cold War air defense centers at the nearby Ent Air Force Base, Chidlaw Building, and Cheyenne Mountain Complex. The base was the location of the Air Force Space Command headquarters from 1987 to December 20th, 2019 and has had NORAD/NORTHCOM command center operations since the 2006 Cheyenne Mountain Realignment placed the nearby Cheyenne Mountain Complex centers on standby.
With the recent creation of the U.S Space Force, Peterson AFB and other Air Force installations that do primarily space work, are planned to be renamed to Space Force bases; effectively becoming Peterson Space Force Base.

History

Colorado military construction during the buildup of US training installations prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor included the 1940 Lowry bombardier school at Denver and Camp Carson south of Colorado Springs. Sites "in the vicinity of Colorado Springs" were assessed in the summer of 1941 for a USAAF airfield, and during April 1942 the Photographic Reconnaissance Operational Training Unit was activated in a leased facility at Colorado Springs. On May 6, 1942, the site adjacent to the airfield of the 1926 Colorado Springs Municipal Airport was selected, and the airport's airfield was subsequently leased as an "air support field"* for Camp Carson under the "air support base development program". In May 1942, units such as the 5th Mapping Squadron arrived and used city facilities. The "Second Photographic Group Reconnaissance" transferred to Colorado Springs, and the "2nd Group... headquarters was situated in a former garage across the street from the Post Office, barracks were in the city auditorium...and the mess hall was located at the busy horseshoe counter of the Sante Fe railway station." Land at the Broadmoor was used for maneuvers, and the 2nd Group initially operated without aircraft. Personnel were also "housed temporarily at Colorado College" and a youth camp near the Woodmen sanitorium.

Army Air Base, Colorado Springs

"Army Air Base, Colorado Springs",* construction began after May 10, 1942, on "nothing more than a large patch of Colorado plain", and the installation was placed under the Headquarters, United States "AAF 11 Jun 1942". The 373d Base HQ and Air Base Sq was activated as the base operating unit on 20 Jun 1942, and the base was assigned to the 2nd Air Force on 22 June. On July 7, 1942, "HQ PROTU" was on the "Army Air Base, Colorado Springs" and was ordered to provide "four to five months of training to each individual." During air base construction, the 20th Combat Mapping Squadron was activated on July 23, 1942, and used the Alamo Garage on Tejon Street. Runways were completed in August 1942, and eponym 1st Lt Edward J. Peterson crashed 8 August 1942 on take off

Peterson Field

Peterson Field was the airfield named on December 13, 1942, and included the runway used by both the municipal airport and the military installation: "Army Air Base, Peterson Field", which had begun publishing the Wingspread base newspaper by July 11, 1942. The "18 Dep Rpr Sq" was assigned to the military installation from 19 January – 29 April 1943, and the installation was assigned to the Third Air Force and by the end of the 1943 summer had tar paper barracks, an officer's club, and a theater in a Quonset. After the base transferred to Second Air Force on 1 October 1943, in June 1944 Peterson Field began fighter pilot training with P-40N Warhawks. "In March 1943 the Third Air Force took over the photographic reconnaissance Operational Training Unit which had been operating at Peterson Field...under the direct control of the Director of Photography since April 1942."

Bomber Commands

The 4th Heavy Bombardment Processing Headquarters was activated on 10 June 1943, and bomber training by the 214th AAF Base Unit began after the 383rd Bombardment Group relocated from Geiger Field, Washington on 26 October 1943. In 1944, the XXI Bomber Command was assigned to Peterson; and the "HQ and HQ Sq" of XXII Bomber Command was assigned 14 October 1944 – 13 February 1945, and by 17 August 1944, 4 bomb wings were assigned to the base—the last left on 7 June 1945. The 263rd AAF Base Unit became the Peterson "base operating unit" on 8 March 1945. The Army Air Forces Instructor School opened at Peterson Field in April 1945, and the base was one of several that transferred to Continental Air Forces on 16 April.
The base was inactivated 31 December 1945 after the 13th Bombardment Wing and VIII Bomber Command departed, and site management by the base operating unit ended on 17 December. In 1946, Peterson's last AAF Base Units were discontinued: 260th AAF Base Unit in January, the 202nd AAF Base Unit in February, and the 268th AAF Base Unit in March and the 201st in April. The 703rd AAF Base Unit moved to Kelly Field in February. Designated surplus on 29 July 1946, "the U.S. Government returned control of the field to the City of Colorado Springs". Many of the base buildings were torn down. In 1946, Tonopah AAF, Clovis AAF, and Casper AAF became detached installations of the inactive base for a short period.
During planning for the new United States Air Force, Colorado's Arlington Auxiliary Army Airfield became a detached installation of the surplus base, and the "468th Construction Co.

USAF installation

The military base at the municipal field reactivated as an off-base installation of Ent Air Force Base on 1 Jan 1951 and was operated by Ent's 4600 Air Base Group. After being assigned to Peterson on 1 March 1952, the 4602d Air Intelligence Service Squadron had subordinate organizations at the "Defense Force Headquarters Hamilton Air Force Base, California, at Kansas City, Missouri, and at Stewart Air Force Base" New York. The 4600th Group became the 4600th Air Base Wing on 8 April 1958. The 4600th was replaced by the 46th Aerospace Defense Wing on 1 April 1975. In January 1968, Air Training Command's 3253d Pilot Training Squadron at Peterson Field began light aircraft indoctrination for cadets. These operations moved to the United States Air Force Academy on 21 March 1974. The military base at Peterson Field gained its own base commander on 28 February 1975.

Primary installation

Designated Peterson Air Force Base on March 1, 1975, when Ent AFB was being closed, Peterson was the last of the April 1945 Continental Air Forces airbases to be named an air force base. Also on March 1, Peterson assumed several functions from Ent AFB, which became the "Ent Annex" of Peterson, 18 July 1975 – 7 February 1978 . During the first part of the reorganization that broke up ADCOM, the base "transferred to the Strategic Air Command" on October 1, 1979 . ADCOM HQ offices at the Chidlaw Building became the Aerospace Defense Center at Peterson on December 1, 1979.
Peterson's NORAD COC Backup Facility achieved Full Operational Capability on 16 November 1982 from the Cheyenne Mountain Complex which was placed on warm standby.
The 1st Space Wing replaced the 46th Aerospace Defense Wing on 1 April 1983. Thereafter the 1st Space Wing transferred host unit responsibility to the 3d Space Support Wing activated on 15 October 1986. Army and other units transferred from the former Ent AFB Federal Building to Peterson Building 2. On 15 May 1992, the personnel and equipment of both the 1st SW and 3d SSW merged to become the 21st Space Wing. Peterson's Space Analysis Center was at the corner of Academy & Fountain Blvds by 2004 before moving on base to bldg 1470, and in 2004 the Space Operations School used a building along I-25 at Woodmen Drive.
Posting the Colours at the Air Force birthday ceremony, September 2016.
The Cheyenne Mountain Realignment moved NORAD/USNORTHCOM operations to Peterson AFB in 2006. In 2006 the 76th Space Control Facility was constructed at Peterson. The MAFFS aircraft that fought the 2012 Waldo Canyon fire and 2013 Black Forest fire at Colorado Springs flew from Peterson AFB.
Some buildings from the Second World War have survived. Buildings remaining in 1996 were "the terminal, now the Peterson Air and Space Museum, the Broadmoor hangar, and the Spanish House" next to the museum, along with Building 391, Building 365, supply warehouses and office buildings, and aircraft hangars and maintenance shops.
The base's Retiree Activities Office has the representative for the Air Force Retiree Council Area IV.
On 20 December 2019, Air Force Space Command was redesignated as the U.S. Space Force and elevated to become an independent military branch. With the new military branch, the Fourteenth Air Force and its units became Space Force Space Operations Command and Air Force Space Command's headquarters was redesignated as the Pentagon.

Based units

Flying and notable non-flying units based at Peterson Air Force Base.
Units marked GSU are Geographically Separate Units, which although based at Peterson, are subordinate to a parent unit based at another location.

[United States Space Force] (USSF)

Space Operations Command
US Army Space & Missile Defense Command / Army Forces Strategic Command
North American Aerospace Defense Command
United States Northern Command
Air Combat Command
Direct Reporting Units
Air Mobility Command
Air Force Reserve Command
Air National Guard