Volk Field Air National Guard Base Volk Field Air National Guard Base is a military airport located just outside the village of Camp Douglas , in Juneau County , Wisconsin , United States . It is also known as the Volk Field Combat Readiness Training Center ( CRTC ) . The base also houses Camp Williams , which is supported by the Wisconsin Army National Guard . History . The origin of the Volk Field Combat Readiness Training Center ( CRTC ) can be traced back to 1888 when the State Adjutant General , General Chandler Chapman , purchased a site for a rifle range and offered it to the state for a camp . In 1889 the State Legislature authorized the Governor to purchase land near the site for a permanent campground and rifle range for the Wisconsin National Guard . By 1903 the camp had expanded to over and was used for training by the then reorganized National Guard . From that date until the Federal Call of 1916 the camp was frequently visited by officials of other states who came to observe the model Wisconsin National Guard . The site was named Camp Williams in 1927 in honor of Lieutenant Colonel Charles R . Williams , the Chief Quartermaster of the post from 1917 until his death in 1926 . Camp Williams grew slowly following the First World War , but with the increasing development of the airplane , it was all but inevitable that an airstrip would be built , and in 1935 and 1936 , the first hard - surface runways were constructed . In 1954 the federal government leased the field from the State of Wisconsin for use as a permanent field training site . That same year work began on the air - to - ground gunnery range near Finley , Wisconsin . In 1957 , the Wisconsin Legislature officially designated the facility a Permanent Field Training Site and named it in memory of 1st Lieutenant Jerome A . Volk , the first Wisconsin Air National Guard pilot killed in combat in the Korean War . In 1989 the site was re - designated a Combat Readiness Training Center ( CRTC ) . The 128th Air Control Squadron , Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation system ( ACMI ) , Air Base Operability and Ability to Survive and Operate ( ATSO ) training missions were added in 1991 . Facilities . Volk Field has one asphalt and concrete paved runway ( 9 / 27 ) measuring 9 , 000 x . ( 2 , 743 x 46 m ) . Bear incident . During the Cuban missile crisis a majority of B - 47 bombers with capability to drop nuclear payloads were " dispersed " to Volk , among other bases , to make it harder for the Soviets to threaten USAF assets . At around midnight on 25 October 1962 , a guard at the Duluth Sector Direction Center saw a figure climbing the security fence . He shot at it , and activated the " sabotage alarm . " This automatically set off sabotage alarms at all bases in the area . At Volk Field , Wisconsin , the alarm was incorrectly wired , and the Klaxon sounded which ordered nuclear armed F - 106A interceptors to take off . The interceptor crews had not been notified that the Strategic Air Command had increased its patrols of nuclear - armed bombers , some of which were airborne near Volk , threatening the possibility of nuclear friendly fire . Immediate communication with Duluth showed there was an error . By this time aircraft were starting down the runway and Volk was too small for a control tower ( its aircraft were dispatched from Duluth away ) . A truck raced from the command center and successfully signaled the aircraft to stop . The intruder was later identified as a black bear , not the Soviet saboteurs in advance of a nuclear attack the sentry was expecting .