page_title: Norton Air Force Base
section_title: Strategic Airlift
hierarchical_section_title: Norton Air Force Base / History / Strategic Airlift
caption_attribution_description: English: New C-141A Starlifters on the ramp at Norton AFB, California, about 1967
context_page_description: Norton Air Force Base was a United States Air Force facility 2 miles east of downtown San Bernardino, California, in San Bernardino County.
context_section_description: A change of mission in 1966 from Air Force Logistics Command to Military Airlift Command (MAC) meant that Norton became one of six Military Airlift Command strategic-airlift bases, supporting US Army and Marine Corps' airlift requirements among other functions.  Also, a new MAC passenger terminal was built to replace the World War II era (1944) facility to better handle passenger traffic, primarily to and from Southeast Asia. The new airline-style building was activated in 1968. The base newspaper in this era was named The Globetrotter.
  Discrete C-130 Hercules modification tests were conducted out of Area II of the base in the late 1960s, with the 1198th Operational Evaluation and Training Squadron operating four highly classified C-130E(I) special operations testbeds modified at Lockheed Air Services, at near-by Ontario Airport under projects Thin Slice and Heavy Chain. Their electronics suites were developed for and identical to those of the MC-130 Combat Talon, with the addition of AN/APQ-115 Forward looking infrared, and 1198th OE&TS test missions were flown out of Takhli Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand, under project "Heavy Chain", with the aircraft painted all-black.
  A base railroad system interchanged with the Pacific Electric/Southern Pacific branch line on the south side of the installation. When base rail operations were discontinued in the late 1970s, the base diesel locomotive, a General Electric centercab B/B 90/90, USAF 8580, was donated to the Orange Empire Railway Museum at Perris, California.
caption: New 63d MAW C-141As on the ramp at Norton AFB, 1967.  Serial 66-0177 is in foreground.  This aircraft will become the "Hanoi Taxi" and today is on permanent display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force
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