page_title: Eielson Air Force Base
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Eielson Air Force Base / History / World War II
caption_attribution_description: English: 26 Mile Field - now Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska.
context_page_description: Eielson Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located approximately 26 miles southeast of Fairbanks, Alaska and just southeast of Moose Creek, Alaska. It was established in 1943 as Mile 26 Satellite Field and taken off deployment in 2007. It has been a Superfund site since 1989. Eielson AFB was named in honor of polar pilot Carl Ben Eielson.
  Its host unit is the 354th Fighter Wing assigned to the Eleventh Air Force of the Pacific Air Forces. The 354 FW's primary mission is to support Red Flag – Alaska, a series of Pacific Air Forces commander–directed field training exercises for U.S. Forces, joint offensive counter-air, interdiction, close-air support, and large force employment training in a simulated combat environment. These exercises are conducted on the Joint Pacific Alaskan Range complex with air operations flown out of the two bases.
  Eielson was projected to have 54 F-35s arriving in April 2020 and continuing through 2022. The planes were to come with an estimated 3,500 personnel, to include airmen and their families as well as civilian personnel.
context_section_description: On 7 June 1943, the Western Defense Command ordered construction of a new airfield near present-day Fort Wainwright, then an Army airfield named after Major Arthur K. Ladd. Because of its hazard-free approaches and relatively flat terrain, surveyor reports indicated a site a little more than twenty-five miles southeast of Ladd Army Airfield to be the best in the vicinity for military aviation. The field became known as "Mile 26" because of its proximity to a US Army Signal Corps telegraph station and a Richardson Highway milepost marker using the same designation.
  A month later, contractors and civilian crews from Ladd Field started laying out the new airfield. Actual construction began on 25 August 1943. Crews built two parallel runways, 165 feet (50 m) across and 6,625 feet (2,019 m) long. Other facilities included an operations building, housing for 108 officer and 330 enlisted personnel, and a ten-bed dispensary. The garrison and airfield totaled about 600 acres (2.4 km²). Completed on 17 October 1944, the 14-month project cost about eight-million dollars.
  Operational uses of Mile 26 were few. Ladd Field served as the debarkation point for the Alaska-Siberia Ferry Route of the lend-lease program and was the hub of activity. Lend-lease aircraft would occasionally land at Mile 26, but there are no records to indicate any lend-lease aircraft ever used the airfield to take off for Russia. Mile 26 closed when the war ended.
caption: Mile 26 Satellite Field (now Eielson AFB) 1945
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