Hunter Army Airfield Hunter Army Airfield , located in Savannah , Georgia , United States , is a military airfield and subordinate installation to Fort Stewart located in Hinesville , Georgia . Hunter features a runway that is 11 , 375 feet ( 3 , 468 m ) long and an aircraft parking area that is more than 350 acres ( 1 . 4 km² ) . The runway and apron , combined with the 72 , 000 sq ft ( 6 , 689 m² ) Arrival / Departure Airfield Control Group ( A / DACG ) Facility and nearby railhead , allow the 3rd Infantry Division from nearby Fort Stewart to efficiently deploy soldiers and cargo worldwide . NASA identified Hunter as an alternate landing site for the Space Shuttle orbiters . Tenants . Currently , Hunter Army Airfield has approximately 5 , 000 soldiers , airmen and coast guardsmen on station . It is home for the aviation units of the 3rd Infantry Division ( Mechanized ) headquartered at Fort Stewart . There are also a number of non - divisional units assigned to Hunter as well . Coast Guard Air Station Savannah . Coast Guard Air Station Savannah is also located on Hunter Army Airfield . Equipped with HH - 65 Dolphin helicopters , the Air Station provides Savannah , Coastal Georgia and South Carolina with round - the - clock search and rescue coverage of the area . Gulf War . The Division ’ s rapid deployment capability was put to the supreme test in 1990 after Iraq invaded Kuwait . Alerted on 7 August , the first soldiers of the division deployed from Hunter Army Airfield in just six days . History . Origins . In 1929 , the General Aviation Committee of the Savannah City Council recommended that the 730 acre ( 3 km² ) Belmont Tract , belonging to J . C . Lewis , be accepted by the Council as the future site of the Savannah Municipal Airport . The cost of the land was $ 35 , 000 . By September 1929 , the runway and several buildings were ready and the city officially opened the new facility , known as Savannah Municipal Airport . The airport became a part of Eastern Air Transport Incorporated air route on 2 December 1931 , when Ida Hoynes , daughter of the Mayor , Thomas M . Hoynes , broke a bottle of Savannah River water on a propeller blade of an 18 - passenger Curtiss Condor II during the christening ceremony . The airport was named Hunter Municipal Airfield during Savannah Aviation Week in May 1940 , in honor of Lieutenant Colonel ( Lt . Col . ) Frank O ’ Driscoll Hunter , a native of Savannah and a World War I flying ace . Lt . Col . Hunter was not scheduled to appear in Savannah that week ; However , he paid a surprise visit to the field on the first day of Aviation Week while en route to France to serve as a United States Military Air Attaché . Savannah Army Air Base . On 30 August 1940 , the United States Army Air Corps received approval to build a base at Hunter Municipal Airifeld . Official dedication of the airfield as Savannah Army Air Base took place 19 February 1941 . The Army Air Corps assigned Savannah AAB initially to the Southeast Air District ( later Third Air Force ) , III Air Support Command . The 27th Bombardment Group , equipped with Douglas B - 18 Bolo medium bomber aircraft was the first assigned unit to the new airfield . The 27th was reassigned to the field from Barksdale Field , Louisiana . The group consisted of the 15th , 16th and 17th Bombardment Squadrons . In 1941 , the group was reequipped with Douglas A - 24 Dauntless Dive Bombers , and on 21 October 1941 the group was ordered to the Philippine Islands in response to the growing crisis in the Pacific . The 27th returned to Hunter , without personnel or equipment on 4 May 1942 after being severely depleted in strength during the Battle of the Philippines ( 1942 ) , and subsequent combat in the Dutch East Indies and New Guinea Campaigns ( 1942 ) . The unit was reequipped with A - 20 Havoc s , remanned and retrained at Hunter . It was then deployed for combat with Twelfth Air Force in North Africa in July 1942 . During early 1942 after the Pearl Harbor Attack , Savannah AAB became a base for several Antisubmarine groups and squadrons of I Bomber Command and later Army Air Forces Antisubmarine Command with a mission to patrol the Atlantic coast , locate and attack German U - Boat s . Throughout 1942 , light bomber and dive bomber groups received combat training at Savannah AAB before being deployed to the combat zones overseas . Units assigned were : With the U - Boat mission taken over by the Navy after mid - 1943 , Savannah AAB became a training base for B - 26 Marauder medium bomber crews . Marauder groups which received final combat training were : At the end of the war , Savannah AAB was used as a Separation Center for the discharge and furlough of service members returning from Europe . In June 1946 , the airfield was returned to the City of Savannah . From 1946 to 1949 , many of its buildings were leased to industrial plants . Some of the buildings were used as apartment houses , and an orphanage was located in the former commanding officer ’ s quarters . The University of Georgia established an extension campus on part of the old base , as well . United States Air Force . On 1 March 1949 , Chatham Air Force Base , located eight miles ( 13 km ) northwest of Savannah , was reopened by the United States Air Force Strategic Air Command . The 2d Bombardment Group was reassigned from Davis - Monthan AFB , Arizona to Chatham , with B - 50s . The limited facilities at Chatham made the base unfit for permanent use . Plans were made to close the base and move the B - 50s to more suitable facilities . Rather than see the Air Force move elsewhere , Savannah offered to exchange airfields with the federal government along with 3 , 500 acres ( 14 km² ) of additional land around Hunter for future base expansions . This arrangement was agreed upon and on 29 September 1950 , the 2d Bomb Group moved to the base , reopened as Hunter Air Force Base and Chatham was turned over to the City of Savannah . At the time , Hunter AFB became the only U . S . military installation named for a living American , Major General ( Retired ) Frank Hunter . Strategic Air Command . Hunter AFB was assigned to the Strategic Air Command ' s ( SAC ) Second Air Force . Two major SAC medium bombardment wings were assigned to Hunter during the 1950s . Both came under the 38th Air Division which was also headquartered at Hunter . On 11 March 1958 . a B - 47E which departed Hunter on a simulated combat mission , accidentally dropped a Mark 6 fission bomb minus its nuclear component near Florence , South Carolina . A home was destroyed and several people were injured . Military Air Transport Service . The phaseout of SAC Medium Bomber ( B - 47 Wings ) in the early 1960s resulted in SAC leaving Hunter in 1963 . The base was reassigned to the Military Air Transport Service ( MATS ) . The MATS Eastern Transport Air Force 63d Troop Carrier Wing , Heavy was assigned to Hunter from Donaldson AFB , South Carolina which was closing . From Hunter , the 63d flew the C - 124 Globemaster II intercontinental cargo aircraft to points around the world . Air Defense Command . Beginning in 1955 Air Defense Command designated Hunter AFB as part of a planned deployment of forty - four Phase I Mobile Radar stations . It was one of twenty - nine stations which were sited around the perimeter of the country to support the permanent ADC network of seventy - five stations . The ADC radar site at Hunter was given designation M - 112 . On 1 March 1955 the 702d Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron began operating AN / MPS - 7 , AN / TPS - 10 D , and AN / MPS - 14 radars at Hunter , 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 . From 1956 to 1958 , an AN / GPS - 3 also saw service . By 1959 only AN / FPS - 20 A and AN / MPS - 14 sets were operating . Circa 1961 Hunter received an AN / FPS - 26 height - finder radar . During late 1961 Hunter AFB joined the Semi Automatic Ground Environment ( SAGE ) system , feeding data to DC - 09 at Gunter AFB , Alabama . After joining , the squadron was re - designated as the 702d Radar Squadron ( SAGE ) on 1 February 1962 . The radar squadron provided information 24 / 7 the SAGE Direction Center where it was analyzed to determine range , direction altitude speed and whether or not aircraft were friendly or hostile . Later that year , the AN / FPS - 20A was upgraded to become an AN / FPS - 6 7 , and on 31 July 1963 , the site was redesignated as NORAD ID Z - 112 . The AN / FPS - 67 was upgraded to an AN / FPS - 67 B in 1966 , and the AN / MPS - 14 was removed in 1968 . In addition to the main facility , Air Defense Command at Hunter operated three unmanned AN / FPS - 18 Gap Filler sites : When Hunter AFB was transferred to the US Army in 1967 becoming Hunter Army Airfield , the radar site was renamed Savannah Air Force Station ( AFS ) . The 702nd Radar Squadron continued routine operations for many years , and , the equipment at the station was upgraded or modified to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the information gathered by the radars . The station was deactivated on 5 June 1979 . United States Army Airfield . In 1964 , the Department of Defense announced that the base would be closed , along with 94 other military installations . The Air Force was given a period of three years to phase out operations . In December 1966 , at the height of the Vietnam War , the Department of the Army announced that the Secretary of Defense had approved an increase in the number of Army helicopter pilots to be trained . At the time , the United States Army Aviation School at Fort Rucker , Alabama was operating at capacity and additional facilities were needed . Hunter Air Force Base was turned over to the Army and operated in conjunction with Fort Stewart , located southwest of Hunter . Brigadier General Frank Meszar , Commanding General of Fort Stewart , formally accepted the base from Colonel James A . Evans Jr . , Commander of Hunter AFB , in a formal change of command and service ceremony on 1 April 1967 , at which point the facility was renamed Hunter Army Air Field ( Hunter AAF ) . The headquarters of the Army Aviation School Element moved to Hunter from Fort Stewart , where it had been established during the summer of 1966 . The element ' s mission was to coordinate the training of fixed - wing and rotary - wing aviators as an extension of the Army ’ s training programs at Fort Rucker and Fort Wolters , Texas . On 28 July 1967 , the combined facilities of Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield were re - designated the United States Army Flight Training Center . Included was the Attack Helicopter Training Department ( " Cobra Hall " ) , the Army ' s first attack helicopter school whose purpose was to train pilots in the AH - 1G Cobra , the world ' s first purpose - built attack helicopter . The first class of Republic of Vietnam Air Force students began Advanced helicopter training at Hunter on 13 March 1970 . As the number of Vietnamese flight students increased , flight training for U . S . Army officers and warrant officers at Hunter was gradually phased out , ending on 16 June 1970 . In 1973 , Hunter AAF was deactivated , but it was later reopened in 1975 , serving as a support facility for the 24th Infantry Division ( Mechanized ) , at Fort Stewart . The 24th Infantry Division , or Victory Division , became part of the nation ’ s Rapid Deployment Force on 1 October 1980 . The Victory Division ’ s ability to deploy on short notice was enhanced by its large runway ( the Army ’ s longest runway east of the Mississippi River ) , Savannah ’ s deep - water port facility and excellent rail and road networks . Military jet and turboprop aircraft based at Moody AFB , Robins AFB , Dobbins ARB and Savannah ANGB in Georgia ; NAS Jacksonville and Jacksonville ANGB in Florida ; and MCAS Beaufort , Charleston AFB and Shaw AFB in South Carolina also continue to make regular use of Hunter AAF ' s long runway for local training , to include practice approaches and landings .