Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center is a Michigan Air National Guard training facility . It is located west - northwest of Alpena , Michigan . Overview . The Alpena CRTC is a year - round training facility and is an Air National Guard Medical Readiness Training School . It provides premier support , facilities , instruction and airspace to Department of Defense , Department of Homeland Security , Coalition and emergency responders to meet the mission requirements of combatant commanders and civil authorities . It is one of four Combat Readiness Training Centers in the United States . The Alpena CRTC boasts the largest airspace east of the Mississippi River , has 147 , 000 acres available for ground maneuver units , offers the EMEDS Formal Course Instruction and trains over 20 , 000 joint and coalition personnel annually . The Alpena CRTC is the second organization in the Air National Guard to be certified as a Joint National Training Center . The base has three JTE ' s , offers JTAC Training , operates a JTAC 4m dome simulator and provides an extensive MRTS program . History . Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center ( CRTC ) , formerly named Phelps Collins Field and the Phelps Collins Air National Guard Base , has a long interesting history beginning in the early 20th century . Before that date , the area had a reputation for yielding blueberries in abundance to local Indians and early settlers in the area . In the early 20th century , the area was known as the " Seven Mile Plains " named because the flat open area stretching from the Seven Mile Dam to M - 32 . During the early part of the 20th Century , flying machines began to appear in the sky over most of the country including the Alpena area . It didn ' t take long for the early aeronautical risk takers to realize the flat open area was just what they needed to land and take off with their aircraft known as Jennies . The landing area was a bit rough going , but so was the practice of flying in general during those early years . Around the same time , local developers and land owners realized the potential of the flat area and foresaw the need for a landing strip as a result of the onset of air travel . Thus the idea of an airport was born . Harry Fletcher and his brother Philip ( Nephews of Alan M . Fletcher , founder of Fletcher Paper Co . ) began negotiations along with Robert Scott ( then president of Scott Engineering ) and James McQuarrie , who later sat on the County Board ' s Airport Committee . These individuals were fundamental in developing the plan and getting the state on board . The tract of 80 acres , previously surveyed by the Army Corps of Engineers , was donated by Harry and Phillip . Several other 40 acres plots donated by Alpena Power Company set the proposed plan into action . During that same time , Works Progress Administration ( WPA ) crews were working on projects around the country . They were pressed into service to begin the clearing of the underbrush and leveling out the land in preparation for the first landing area , which would later become the main part of the runway now in existence . On 31 August 1931 , the airport was formally dedicated as Captain Phelps Collins Field in honor of Alpena ' s World War I hero who fought and died with the famed Lafayette Escadrille . Governor Wilber M . Brucker flew in to formally accept the Airport and it became Michigan ' s first State owned airport . Phelps had spent a lot of time in Alpena as a youth shortly before he became interested in flying . There is a monument in France honoring the escadrille and his name appears on it . Construction of the first hangar , a 40x90 foot structure built of cobblestone , began in 1935 and was completed in 1937 . It could accommodate four average size aircraft of the era . The 1st Pursuit Group out of Selfridge Field practiced flying maneuvers and gunnery training near Oscoda , Michigan . When they became aware of the facility at Alpena , they were eager to try it out . By the late 1930s , they began to use the airfield , housing their personnel in tents at the Alpena County Fairgrounds . This marked the beginning of military personnel using the site for training maneuvers as they still do today . In 1940 , 400 – 500 Selfridge men trained at Phelps Collins with a complement of 35 Seversky P - 35 ' s . With World War II looming on the horizon the training tempo increased . The next year they brought P - 40 Warhawk s and the first P - 38 ' s Lockheed Lightning fighters . World War II . As a result of World War II , the demand for training facilities became crucial and so the field was taken over by the War Assets Administration . The rough landing strip was replaced by a military airfield , with construction beginning on 29 July 1942 . When completed , Alpena Army Airfield consisted of three hard - surfaced concrete runways ( 5000x150 ( 01 / 19 ) , 5030x150 ( 70 / 250 ) , and 5030x150 ( 16 / 34 ) . Improvements included : housing for 2 , 000 personnel , two mess halls , operation buildings , a hospital and three runways over a mile long and 150 feet wide . Actual construction began in 1942 . This was a big project for Alpena . By this time the total acreage of the base had increased to 2 , 500 acres . It was activated on 19 April 1943 . The planned use of the base , along with training military personnel , was to provide air defense for the Soo Locks . Controlled by the 4250th Army Air Force Base Unit . the airfield was initially assigned to Air Transport Command as a training base for long range transport pilots . In addition , the base was also tasked with certifying and training a pool of new pilots resulting from the P - 47 Thunderbolt modifications for staging out aircraft to overseas bases . It operated two sub - bases , one being Kinross Army Airfield , which later became the Strategic Air Command Kincheloe Air Force Base and Raco Army Airfield , which later became an Air Defense Command CIM - 10 Bomarc surface - to - air missile site during the Cold War . It was transferred to Air Technical Service Command in late 1944 when the ATC training program was wound down . Designated as Alpena Army Air Base , the facility was a maintenance and overhaul facility for B - 24 Liberator bombers produced by Ford at its Willow Run , Michigan aircraft manufacturing plant . Aircraft would be sent to Alpena for modifications prior to their deployment to overseas combat units . Postwar era . In 1946 , Alpena Army Air Base was declared surplus and turned over to the War Assets Administration for disposition . It became Alpena County Regional Airport . Many of the buildings constructed in 1942 were stripped down and auctioned off and the only buildings left standing were the hospital area and big hangar built in 1943 . Some of the barracks ( which were very small ) were sold off and moved . Some were placed in neighborhoods on Alpena ' s North side and were converted into private residences . Air Defense Command . Alpena Air Force Station ( ADC ID : M - 105 ) was established in 1954 by the United States Air Force Air Defense Command as one of a planned deployment of forty - four Mobile radar stations to support the permanent ADC Radar network in the United States sited around the perimeter of the country . This deployment was projected to be operational by mid - 1952 . Funding , constant site changes , construction , and equipment delivery delayed deployment . Exercising a right of return to the facility , ADC constructed the radar station on the northwest corner of the airport on the grounds of the former Army Air Base ground station . This site became operational in December 1954 when the 677th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron was moved to the new station from Willow Run Air Force Station , Michigan . Beneficial occupancy was achieved at this Phase I mobile radar site in late 1954 . Operations began in 1956 , with an AN / TPS - 1 D radar , and initially the station functioned as a Ground - Control Intercept ( GCI ) and warning station . As a GCI station , the squadron ' s role was to guide interceptor aircraft toward unidentified intruders picked up on the unit ' s radar scopes . Budget cuts forced the station to close in 1957 . It was then replaced by an unmanned gap - filler radar site , designated P - 34E with an AN / FPS - 18 radar , located on the southwest side of the airport . It was operated as such by the 752d Radar Squadron at Empire AFS , Michigan from June 1960 until June 1968 . Today , a few buildings remain of the ADC Radar Station , and the FPS - 18 support building remains of the Gap Filler site . Air National Guard use . By January 1952 , plans were in place to have joint use with the civilian airport . The facility would be instated as an ANG Permanent Field Training Site ( PFTS ) . So began the training as we know it today . Over the years many changes have occurred , but our core mission has not changed ; and still is to train Air National Guard personnel for protection and combat . Once the ANG took over the site , they completed another round of construction projects totaling $ 2 . 5M dollars . Sixty - two concrete block buildings were built including two dining facilities and barracks to house 2 , 000 men . The North / South runway was extended to 8 , 000 feet . Most of the day to day operations were performed by the Alpena County Road Commission still occupying a few building on the base . During the 1960s , the runway taxiways were extended and an air traffic control tower was added . Also during that decade , the Air Defense Command Detachment from Wurtsmith AFB , Oscoda Michigan , had 60 persons permanently stationed here in Alpena until 1972 / 73 at which time their unit was discontinued . The original military personnel assigned in 1953 totaled seven individuals and an additional two military and two Federal Civil Service personnel were added the following year . The next major personnel change was in 1979 when the military personnel had their status changed from Federal Civil Service Technicians to Active Guard Reservists ( AGR ) . About that time the civilians employed on the base became Michigan State Civil Servants . In early 1960s , the Grayling Air - to - Ground Gunnery Range Negotiations began and early during the decade the range was constructed on 1 , 900 acres near Grayling , Michigan . Soon after , aircraft could be seen using the site to fly sorties for aircraft gunnery and bombing exercises . This added asset increased the usage and value of the base immensely . Units from all over the United States come annually to train , with Air National Guardsman totaling in the tens of thousands . In 1991 , another significant event took place ; the site was renamed the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center ( CRTC ) . This new title was more in line with the base mission of " combat training " . With the closing of Wurtsmith AFB in 1993 , the need for radar approach and control was assigned to the CRTC . Equipment and personnel to operate it were added to the facility . The mission of the CRTC was increased with the additional tasking of running an ANG Medical Readiness Training School . The schoolhouse was designed to train ANG medical units for field operations . Both of these programs added personnel to the workforce and the number of employees , military and civilian , was over 100 persons . Construction in the early 1990s was ongoing , with a major emphasis on upgrading the 1950s barracks and latrines to current standards . Thus a $ 3 . 8 million dormitory upgrade project begun and office buildings and officer quarters were all remodeled . During the period , under the command of Col Thomas G . Cuter , the base created a long range plan including a new dining facility , fire station , operations facility , squadron operations ( office ) buildings , a convention center , a new facility at the Grayling Range and new dormitories thus keeping the Alpena CRTC one of the premier training sites in the world . In 1991 , another tasking was added to the mission when the Air Combat Maneuver Instrumentation ( ACMI ) was instated . This state of the art system involves computerized communication between the aircraft and a computer satellite , providing full mission replay . With the addition of the Fire Training Site and MOUT City in early 2000 , the CRTC hosts several Fireman Schools and numerous law enforcement training courses annually . Although the CRTC ' s core mission is to train ANG units , other military train here regularly . Air Force , Army , Navy Seals Marines and Latvian and Italian military have trained at the site . In recent years the CRTC has opened its gate to numerous non - profit organizations . It is not uncommon to see canine training , emergency response training along with other training maneuvers running all at the same time . Youth programs have expanded from the traditional Civil Air Patrol Cadets to include ROTC , JRROTC , Boy Scouts of America / Girl Scouts of the USA , Freedom Academy Students , Michigan Youth Camp Cadets . With the addition of 26 Traditional Guardsman positions in 2000 , the number of total base personnel now is over 200 employees . AGR ' s , Traditional Guardsman , Michigan State Civil Service and contracted employees make up the group . Military members come from all over the United States as well as local residents . Prior to their assignment at the base , many personnel have served the Army , Air Force , Navy and Marines . Personnel have been called to give aid for local area flooding and deployed to Hurricane Katrina relief mission . Many have volunteered and been deployed overseas in support of operations : Dessert Storm , Desert Shield , Iraqi Freedom , Joint Forge , Jump Start , Enduring Freedom , Northern Watch , Northern Eagle and Deep Freeze .