Lincoln Air National Guard Base Lincoln Air National Guard Base , previously Lincoln Air Force Base , is a Nebraska Air National Guard installation located approximately northwest of Lincoln , Nebraska . The facility is a joint use civil airport / military base with the Lincoln Airport which provides airline , charter and general aviation service to the public . It is located within the city limits of Lincoln . Overview . A World War II Army Airfield , a Cold War naval air station , and later a United States Air Force installation under the Strategic Air Command ( SAC ) , most of the original airfield and base is now owned by the City of Lincoln , Nebraska . It is used for general , commercial , and military aviation activities , as well as a colocated industrial park and public and private housing . Lincoln Airport , established in 1960 , was built on the east side of the former Lincoln Air Force Base main runway . With the closure of Lincoln Air Force Base in 1966 , the City of Lincoln assumed possession of those airfield facilities of the former military base not retained by the Nebraska Air National Guard or the Nebraska Army National Guard . The current facility is home to the Nebraska Air National Guard ' s 155th Air Refueling Wing ( 155 ARW ) , an Air Mobility Command ( AMC ) - gained Air National Guard unit flying the KC - 135R Stratotanker . The 155 ARW is the nation ' s second oldest Air National Guard unit , being offered federal recognition on 26 July 1946 as the 173rd Fighter Squadron . It operates from a new facility built on the southeast side of the main runway . The 155th Air Refueling Wing is commanded by Colonel Keith Schell . Several Nebraska Army National Guard units are also collocated at the installation , located just east of Runway 36 , alongside Taxiway Delta . The Air National Guard ' s tarmac is closed to general aviation and is guarded by the 155th Security Forces Squadron ( 155 SFS ) , an Air Force Security Forces unit , 24 hours a day . Lincoln Airport previously served as an alternate landing site for the NASA Space Shuttle orbiter . Air National Guard and other military aircraft land on the same runways as commercial or general aviation aircraft destined for their respective terminals , but their crews & passengers are never deplaned into the Lincoln Airport Terminal , with military aircraft taxiing directly to Air National Guard facilities . History . What would become Lincoln Airport began in the early 1920s when the city selected a plot of land Northwest of the city to be used as a municipal airport . Charles Lindbergh learned flying at Lincoln Airfield in 1923 . The airfield became an air mail stop in 1928 and became a United Airlines stop during 1927 , it continues its service to Lincoln to this day . On 1 July 1939 , the Lincoln Airplane and Flying School was established at Lincoln Airfield . It was one of nine civilian contract flight schools contracted by the United States Army Air Corps for basic flight training of air cadets under the 4500 pilot training expansion program . It was operated by the Reverend J . E . Sias . However , due to the short summer flying season , it was closed on 15 November 1940 . It was moved to Drane Field , Lakeland , Florida where it reopened under the name " Lakeland School of Aeronautics " and continued Army contract pilot training . As part of the contract flying school , the Air Corps established the 47th Training Detachment to command the military flight cadets at the school , which apparently also moved to Lakeland along with the school . World War II . With war clouds forming in 1941 , the United States Army Air Corps needed airfields for training flight and ground personnel . On 27 February 1942 Lincoln Airfield was announced to be home of an Army Airfield training field . Lincoln Army Airfield ( AAF ) was one of eleven USAAF training bases in Nebraska during World War II . Building construction was of wood , tar paper , and non - masonry siding . The use of concrete and steel was limited because of the critical need elsewhere . Most buildings were hot and dusty in the summer and very cold in the winter . Buildings consisted of hangars , barracks , warehouses , hospitals , dental clinics , dining halls , and maintenance shops . There were libraries , social clubs for officers , and enlisted men , and stores to buy living necessities . A large concrete aircraft parking ramp was poured along with four concrete runways . Their dimensions and directions were : 7000x150 ( N / S ) , 5500x150 ( NE / SW ) ; 5500x150 ( E / W ) , and 7000x150 ( NW / SE ) . The airfield was completed 151 days after the announcement with construction including barracks , paved streets , hangars and shops . 1 , 016 buildings and structures were constructed . Lincoln AAF was assigned to Army Air Forces Training Command , Western Technical Training Command with a mission to conduct flying training , basic military training and technical training . The plan consolidated a number of technical schools that were scattered throughout the country at that time . The first trainees arrived on 2 June 1942 . Classrooms functioned 24 hours a day , seven days a week . The 331st Army Air Force Base Unit commanded the support elements at Lincoln AAF as part of Air Technical Service Command , which was assigned to the 21st Bombardment Wing . It was also the home of the 12th Heavy Bombardment Processing Headquarters . On 15 April 1944 , the airfield was transferred to Second Air Force , initially providing B - 25 Mitchell medium bomber replacement training ( 10th Bombardment Squadron ) . It also was a testing center for the new P - 80 Shooting Star jet fighter ( 29th , 31st , 52d Fighter Squadrons ) during April and May , with the squadrons moving to Muroc AAF California . However in the summer of 1944 , Lincoln AAF became a B - 29 Superfortress aircrew training and transition center . The 489th Bombardment Group arrived from Bradley Field , Connecticut on 17 December 1944 for training . The group stayed until April 1945 then transferred to Great Bend AAF Kansas . The group was alerted for movement overseas in the summer of 1945 , but war with Japan ended before the group left the US . It was inactivated on 17 October 1945 . On 15 March 1945 , Lincoln Field was reassigned from Second Air Force back to AAF Training Command and became a combat crew processing and distribution center until inactivated 15 December 1945 when Lincoln AAF was placed on inactive status . The airfield was transferred to the Army Corps of Engineers on 23 November 1946 for disposal . Postwar years . In 1946 the facility was returned to its prewar civil use as an airport . Along with its civil use , Lincoln Airport became host to a flying unit of the newly formed Nebraska Air National Guard along with a Naval Reserve unit flying patrol aircraft . The 173rd Fighter Squadron became the host unit of what became known as Lincoln Air National Guard Base . Equipped with P - 51 Mustang fighters in 1946 , it was the second Air National Guard unit established . A few years later , F - 80 C Shooting Star jet fighters would replace the unit ' s F - 51 s until the advent of the Korean War . Concurrently , the Naval Reserve established Naval Air Station Lincoln ( NAS Lincoln ) on the airport , primarily as home to Patrol Squadron 762 ( VP - 762 ) and its P - 2 Neptune aircraft . Strategic Air Command . With the outbreak of the Korean War , the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce proposed the idea to Nebraska Senator Kenneth S . Wherry to reactivate Lincoln Airport as an active United States Air Force base . Senator Wherry fought for its activation and Lincoln Air Force Base was on a bill to be passed by the Congress until a few days before it was to be passed . Only an envoy of Lincoln residents and its mayor were between reactivation and failure . They lobbied only hours before the vote and were victorious . USAF Strategic Air Command officers would soon survey the land that would become Lincoln Air Force Base . On 21 February 1952 the provisional 4120th Air Base Group was activated at Lincoln AFB to begin work on the base . The unit was placed under the command of the Fifteenth Air Force . On 1 February 1954 Lincoln AFB was officially activated and so was the 98th Air Base Group to assume control of the base and support units from the provisional 4120th ABG . On 16 April 1954 , the 98th Air Refueling Squadron arrived at the new Lincoln AFB from Fairchild AFB , Washington with KC - 97 Stratotanker s , being the first operational flying unit at the base . On 25 July 1954 , the B - 29 Superfortress - equipped 98th Bombardment Wing was reassigned to Lincoln from Yokota AB , Japan . The 98th BMW had been assigned to Far East Air Force during the Korean War , where its 98th Bombardment Group had been engaged in combat operations since 1950 . Its B - 29s were somewhat war - weary after seeing combat in World War II and for the past four years over Korea , and the unit was brought to Lincoln to reorganize and re - equip . Four months later , a second B - 29 unit , the 307th Bombardment Wing arrived from Kadena AB , Okinawa , where its group had seen combat in the Korean War under Far East Air Force . The 98th and 307th brought a total of six combat bombardment squadrons to Lincoln , including one air refueling squadron . To complete the complement of SAC units at Lincoln AFB , Fifteenth Air Force activated the 818th Air Division at the base on 11 October 1954 . The 818th assumed control of the base support units from the 98th Air Base Group and was the intermediate command and control organization over the 98th and 307th Bombardment Wings . Its mission was to direct both wings in numerous tactical training exercises as directed by headquarters , Fifteenth Air Force and headquarters , Strategic Air Command . On 15 October 1954 , the 98th Bombardment Wing began receiving the new B - 47E Stratojet , the replacement for its B - 29s . The B - 47 was the USAF ' s first swept - wing jet bomber , it was lightly armed however had a top speed of over 600 Miles Per Hour . It had a range of almost 5 , 000 miles and could fly at over 40 , 000 feet . Its mission was to penetrate the airspace of the Soviet Union and attack military targets . The 307th Bombardment Wing began receiving B - 47Es in November and by the end of 1954 , almost all B - 29s had been sent to storage in Arizona . With the arrival of the B - 47s , Lincoln AFB , and the 818th Air Division was reassigned to SAC ' s Eighth Air Force on 1 January 1955 . The 98th would become combat - ready with the new jet bomber in April 1955 and the 307th in June , with a total of 90 B - 47s eventually being stationed at Lincoln . Throughout the 1950s , Lincoln AFB became a major Strategic Air Command base and a very powerful asset to American nuclear forces . Its B - 47 complement would reach 120 before 1961 . Both wings conducted strategic bombardment training and air refueling operations to meet SAC ' s global commitments . On 1 January 1959 , in a realignment of SAC units , the 818th AD was reassigned to SAC ' s Second Air Force . To provide air defense of the base , United States Army Nike - Hercules Surface - to - air missiles of the 6th Missile Battalion , 43rd Artillery protected the base from 1960 to 1966 . Batteries were constructed near Crete and Davey , Nebraska and were armed with 12 missiles each . Lincoln AFB was at its peak from 1960 to 1963 , some of the hottest years of the Cold War . The planes stood on alert during the 1961 Berlin Crisis and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 , maintaining readiness for their principal mission , the destruction of the Soviet Union . Army Nike - Hercules Surface - to - air missiles of the 6th Missile Battalion , 43rd Artillery also protected the base from 1960 to 1966 . Batteries were constructed near Crete ( LL - 50 ) and Davey ( LL - 01 ) , Nebraska and were armed with 12 missiles each . In 1960 , a third USAF combat organization was announced to be assigned to Lincoln AFB . The 551st Strategic Missile Squadron was to be activated under the 818th Air Division on 1 April 1961 . It would be headquartered at the base and control twelve SM - 65F Atlas Intercontinental ballistic missile s . Planning for Atlas missile deployment at Lincoln had begun in 1958 , and were originally slated to receive horizontal Atlas - E launchers . Site selection for three complexes of three missiles each ( 3 x 3 ) was completed in the fall of 1958 . In early 1959 , a decision to deploy Atlas - F missiles to nine separate sites as a defensive measure against an enemy first - strike attack required additional site surveys . The missiles and their launch crews would eventually be located near the towns of Elmwood , Avoca , Eagle , Nebraska City , Palmyra , Tecumseh , Cortland , Beatrice , Wilber , Seward , York and Brainard , Nebraska . In 1963 the City of Lincoln and Strategic Air Command who used facilities of Lincoln Air Force Base , reached an unprecedented cooperative agreement in which the two entities shared base facilities . This was based on a similar arrangement executed at another SAC base the year prior , where McCoy AFB in Orlando , Florida opened up its airfield facilities to commercial jet traffic under a joint civil - military status as Orlando Jetport at McCoy , later Orlando International Airport . With this new arrangement , the City of Lincoln could then make expansion plans for their municipal airport . On 15 May 1964 , Secretary of Defense McNamara directed the accelerated phase - out of Atlas and Titan I ICBM s . Later that year , the 551st Strategic Missile Squadron received the last Operational Readiness Inspection ( ORI ) for such a unit . The Lincoln Atlas F missiles were deactivated on 12 April 1965 , completing the phase - out of this weapon system . Meanwhile , the B - 47s were also being phased out of the SAC arsenal . In January 1965 the 307th Bomb Wing began phasing down and was inactivated on 25 March 1965 , being reactivated at U - Tapao Royal Thai Navy Airfield Thailand for forward deployed B - 52 aircraft supporting combat operations in Vietnam . The 98th Bomb Wing was inactivated on 5 June 1966 at Lincoln AFB , but activated the same day at Torrejon Air Base , Spain replacing the 3970th Strategic Wing . Lincoln Air Force Base was closed on 6 June 1966 and returned to its original role , that of a municipal airport with a collocated Air National Guard Base . Today . Lincoln Airport and the Air National Guard facilities today use new facilities on the east and southeast side of the former SAC airfield . Located to the west side of the airfield , some of the large SAC hangars still are used , while others have been razed . The B - 47 parking ramp is deserted , as well as the former B - 47 alert pads , still in evidence along the Runway 32 end of the northwest runway . The odd pieces of concrete in the airfield area , disconnected from the runways and taxiways are historic reminders of the World War II era , being parts of the old wartime airfield from the 1940s . What was the base area of the air force base today is a quiet place , largely unused . The former Lincoln Air Force Base hangars and ground station are under private ownership of numerous businesses and individuals . The old Fire Station is still in use . The streets of the base still are in evidence , but many of the old military buildings have been torn down , leaving large vacant grass areas . The former military family housing area is now a part of the Arnold Heights Park community , and new housing has been built on the south side of the base . Some new construction of businesses has been made , but the sounds of SAC jet B - 47 bombers taking off from Lincoln AFB with JATO bottles has long ago faded into history . SM - 65F Atlas Missile Sites . The 551st Strategic Missile Squadron Operated twelve missile sites , of one missile at each site