McClellan Air Force Base

For the civil use of this facility after 2001, see McClellan Airfield.

McClellan Air Force Base
Part of Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC)
Sacramento County, California
McClellan AFB, 9 May 2002
McClellan AFB
Coordinates
Type	Air Force Base
Site information
Controlled by	United States Air Force
Site history
Built	1935-1938
In use	Open 1938 - IN USE 1948-IN USE (as McClellan AFB)
Garrison information
Garrison	Air Force Materiel Command

Bell P-39 Repair Line.
To step up its delivery of Speedy Bell P-39 "Airacobra" fighter airplanes to American pilots in the South Pacific, the Army Air Forces Air Service Command put American production line methods to work in its repair docks at McClellan Field, California. Two and one-half million dollars worth of airplanes were overhauled by civilian Air Service Command workers at Sacramento, California preparatory to being sent against the enemy.

File:Mcclellan afb 8-10-2006 1-45-06 PM.JPG

Memorial Plaque of McClellan AFB

McClellan Air Force Base (1935–2001) is a former United States Air Force base located in the North Highlands area of Sacramento County, 7 miles (11 km) northeast of Sacramento, California. For the vast majority of its operational lifetime, McClellan was a logistics and maintenance facility for a wide variety of military aircraft, equipment and supplies, primarily under the cognizance of the Air Force Logistics Command (AFLC) and later the Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC). The United States Coast Guard previously operated Coast Guard Air Station Sacramento at McClellan AFB as a tenant activity, operating and maintaining several HC-130 Hercules aircraft. CGAS Sacramento continues to operate at McClellan following its closure as an Air Force Base and is the only remaining military aviation unit and installation on the airfield.

Environmental contamination

McClellan has been designated as a Superfund site, because the Environmental Protection Agency has identified 326 waste areas on the base. Water wells closest to the base in the Rio Linda-Elverta district, have had the highest levels of hexavalent chromium, which is a known carcinogen. Water from six of 11 wells tested above the state’s maximum contaminant levels for chromium-6, which is 10 parts per billion.

Names

• Pacific Air Depot, 1935 - 1 February 1937
• Sacramento Air Depot 1 February 1937 - 1 December 1939
• McClellan Field, 1 December 1939 - 13 January 1948

Major command assignments

• Materiel Division, United States Army Air Corps, 24 August 1938 - 11 December 1941
• Air Service Command, 11 December 1941 - 17 July 1944
• Army Air Forces Materiel and Services Command, 17 July 1944 - 31 August 1944
• Army Air Forces Technical Service Command, 31 August 1944 - 1 July 1945
• Air Technical Service Command, 1 July 1945 - 9 March 1946
• Air Materiel Command, 9 March 1946 - 1 April 1961
• Air Force Logistics Command, 1 April 1961 - 1 July 1992
• Air Force Materiel Command, 1 July 1992 - 13 July 2001

Aerospace Museum of California

Main article: Aerospace Museum of California

McClellan Airfield is also the home of the Aerospace Museum of California. The museum itself was originally set up as the McClellan Aviation Museum in 1986 (before the McClellan AFB closed). It was chartered by the National Museum of the United States Air Force and in 2005 it changed its name to the California Aerospace Museum. Various military aircraft sit on display inside one of the hangars, and many more are outside on the tarmac. The museum has displays which highlight the mission of the base when it was active, as well as neighboring bases such as Beale AFB, Travis AFB and the since closed Mather AFB. The museum hosts educational programs to schools in the local area.

See also

• California World War II Army Airfields
• Western Air Defense Force (Air Defense Command)
• 8th Air Division
• Doolittle Raid

External links

• Global Security - McClellan Air Force Base
• Aerospace Museum of California website
• Oroville Mercury Register re: Aero Union move to McClellan

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.