Pease Air National Guard Base Pease Air National Guard Base is a New Hampshire Air National Guard base located at Portsmouth International Airport at Pease . Formerly , the base was open as Pease Air Force Base until it was closed in 1991 . Before it was closed , it was under the control of the United States Air Force ' s Strategic Air Command . The base occupied land in the city of Portsmouth and the towns of Newington and Greenland , in the Seacoast Region of New Hampshire . The facility occupies in Rockingham County . It is north of Boston and south of Kittery , Maine . Pease is currently home to the New Hampshire Air National Guard ' s 157th Air Refueling Wing ( 157 ARW ) , an Air Mobility Command ( AMC ) gained Air National Guard unit currently flying the KC - 135R Stratotanker air refueling aircraft . Additionally , it is home to the 64th Air Refueling Squadron , a United States Air Force associate unit to the 157th . Pease Air National Guard Base is approximately in size and currently includes 40 facilities . The current base population is 380 full - time military personnel with a monthly surge of up to 950 military personnel . History . Pease Air Force Base started its long history as the Portsmouth Municipal Airport in the 1930s . With the onset of World War II , the U . S . Navy used an airport at the current base location . The U . S . Air Force assumed control in 1951 , when the installation was selected for development as a Strategic Air Command ( SAC ) base . Purchase of additional land needed for expansion of the base started in 1952 and was completed in 1956 . Ground breaking for the new SAC facilities took place in 1954 , and the first B - 47 Stratojet bombers arrived in 1956 . Now named Portsmouth Air Force Base , the installation formally opened on 30 June 1956 . In 1957 , the Air Force renamed the facility as Pease Air Force Base in honor of New Hampshire native Captain Harl Pease , Jr . who posthumously earned the Medal of Honor for heroism during World War II . The mission of the base was to maintain a combat - ready force capable of long - range bombardment operations with emphasis on nuclear deterrence and nuclear strike . During its history , Pease AFB was home of the 100th Bombardment Wing and the 509th Bombardment Wing , whose mission was to develop and maintain operational capacity to permit the conduct of strategic warfare in the event of war . From 1956 until its closure in 1991 , Pease Air Force Base maintained a combat - ready force for long range bombardment and nuclear strike operations . B - 47 Stratojet , B - 52 Stratofortress , and FB - 111 Aardvark bomber aircraft , KC - 97 Stratotanker and KC - 135 Stratotanker air refueling aircraft and C - 97 Stratofreighter , C - 124 Globemaster and C - 130 Hercules cargo aircraft , were all based at Pease AFB at varying times . The 100th Bombardment Wing was later converted to a strategic reconnaissance wing and transferred to Davis - Monthan AFB , Arizona , leaving the 509th Bombardment Wing as the principal host wing for Pease AFB . Arriving at Pease from Walker AFB , New Mexico , in 1958 , the 509 BW was the successor to the famed 509th Composite Group of World War II that had executed the nuclear strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki . Having transitioned to the B - 47 and KC - 97 in the mid - 1950s , the 509th was initially phased down for inactivation in 1965 . However , cognizant of the historical significance of the 509th in SAC , the wing converted to the B - 52D and KC - 135A and was redesignated as the 509th Bombardment Wing , Heavy in 1966 . The 509th supported SAC combat and contingency operations in Southeast Asia with KC – 135A aircraft and crews from 1966 to 1975 , and with B – 52D aircraft and crews from 1966 to 1970 . From 1 April to 1 October 1968 and from 26 March to 20 September 1969 , more than one - half of the wing was involved in deployed operations in Southeast Asia . By 1 December 1969 , the wing had transferred all its B - 52D aircraft to other SAC units in preparation for transition to the FB - 111A . Redesignated as the 509th Bombardment Wing , Medium , the 509th had no bomber aircraft from November 1969 until 1970 , but continued KC - 135 refueling and alert operations and performed FB - 111 ground training . The wing resumed flying training with the FB - 111 in December 1970 and assumed FB – 111 alert commitments from 1 July 1971 until September 1990 . During this time , the 509th won the SAC Bombing and Navigation Competition and the Fairchild Trophy in 1979 , 1981 , 1982 , and 1983 . The wing was also awarded the Sanders Trophy for best air refueling unit in 1982 . Following the 1988 BRAC decision to close Pease , the 509th transferred its FB - 111 assets to Tactical Air Command ( TAC ) and its KC - 135 assets to other SAC units . The wing was then administratively moved to Whiteman AFB , Missouri on 30 September 1990 , but not manned until April 1993 . Following the disestablishment of TAC and SAC , the renamed 509th Bomb Wing ( 509 BW ) became a unit of the newly established Air Combat Command ( ACC ) on 1 September 1991 . After two years of non - operational status , the 509th became operational at Whiteman AFB with delivery of its first operational B - 2 Spirit stealth bomber on 17 December 1993 , coinciding with the 49th anniversary of the founding of the original 509th Composite Group . The New Hampshire Air National Guard relocated the 157th Military Airlift Group ( 157 MAG ) from the deactivating Grenier AFB in nearby Manchester , New Hampshire , to Pease AFB in 1966 . Operating the C - 97 Stratofreighter , the group transitioned to the C - 124 Globemaster in 1968 and to the C - 130 Hercules in 1971 . The mission of the group was substantially changed in 1975 when it was designated as the 157th Air Refueling Group ( 157 ARG ) and transitioned to the KC - 135A . The 157th later transitioned to the KC - 135E and currently flies the KC - 135R . With the introduction of the USAF " objective wing " concept into the Air National Guard in the early 1990s , the 157 ARG was redesignated to its current title as the 157th Air Refueling Wing ( 157 ARW ) . Base closure . Pease Air Force Base was the first major installation recommended to be closed by the 1988 Commission on Base Closure and Realignment . In December 1988 , Pease AFB was subsequently selected as one of 86 military installations to be closed as part of the Secretary of Defense ' s Commission on Base Realignment and Closure . In 1989 , 3 , 461 active - duty military , 741 civil service workers and 347 non - appropriated fund employees were employed at Pease AFB . Of the total active duty personnel , 49 were assigned to the Air National Guard . It is estimated that the base created a total of 2 , 466 secondary jobs within the local communities . Military personnel began leaving the base in June 1990 , and Pease AFB officially closed on 31 March 1991 . Environmental issues . Under the Air Force ' s Installation Restoration Program , environmental investigations began in 1983 . Activities at Pease AFB in support of aircraft maintenance operations generated listed hazardous and potentially listed and / or characteristic hazardous waste , including spent degreasers , solvents , paint strippers , contaminated jet fuels , and perhaps minor quantities of other potentially hazardous waste . Due to environmental contamination of soils and groundwater , Pease AFB was placed on the National Priorities List in 1990 . At sites under Superfund ’ s jurisdiction where the source of contamination has been removed but the concentration of contaminants in groundwater exceed the groundwater quality standards , natural processes associated with natural attenuation should restore groundwater quality to acceptable levels in a reasonable time frame . At those Superfund sites where either the source of contamination is undergoing treatment or further migration of the contaminant plume represents a potential threat to human health and the environment , active treatment of contaminated groundwater in a treatment plant is ongoing . Pease Development Authority . The bulk of the Pease AFB , other than that property retained by the Air National Guard , was transferred to the Pease Development Authority for reuse as a civilian airport and commercial center . Renamed Pease International Tradeport , the airport opened for civilian use in 1991 and became an FAA certified airport under FAR Part 139 in October 1992 . The Air Traffic Control Tower is staffed 24 hours a day , 7 days a week . The airport has all new airfield facilities and pavements including an ILS approach to both runways . Domestic and international terminal supported passenger service was provided by the third iteration of Pan American Airways until that carrier ' s demise . At present , Pease is served by occasional charter airline flight operations . Pease offers a Foreign Trade Zone with access to the east coast and international trade corridors by land ( Interstate 95 ) , direct air cargo from Pease or by sea via the Port of New Hampshire in Portsmouth . Air cargo access is available via the airport ' s main runway . The new international / domestic passenger terminal has Federal Inspection Service including US Customs , agriculture and immigration . The 64th Air Refueling Squadron was activated at Pease on October 2 , 2009 as part of the 157th ' s active - guard associate concept . This is the first time that an active duty Air Force unit has returned to Pease since the active Air Force closed the base in 1991 .