Malmstrom Air Force Base

Malmstrom Air Force Base Part of Air Force Space Command (AFSPC)
USGS aerial photo as of 8 July 1995
IATA: GFA ICAO: KGFA FAA LID: GFA
Summary
Airport type	Military: Air Force Base
Owner	United States Air Force
Location	Great Falls, Montana
Built	1941
In use	1941 - Present
Commander	Col. Mike Fortney
Occupants	341st Missile Wing
Elevation AMSL	3,472 ft / 1,058 m
Coordinates	47°30′17″N 111°11′14″W
Website	www.malmstrom.af.mil
Helipads
Number Length Surface ft m H1 100 30 Asphalt
Sources: Federal Aviation Administration and official site

Location of Malmstrom AFB

Malmstrom Air Force Base (IATA: GFA, ICAO: KGFA, FAA LID: GFA) is a United States Air Force base and census-designated place (CDP) in Cascade County, Montana, United States. It is the home of the 341st Missile Wing (341 MW) of the Air Force Space Command (AFSPC). As of the 2000 census, the base had a total population of 4,544. It is part of the "Great Falls, Montana Metropolitan Statistical Area".

Overview

Malmstrom AFB is one of three US Air Force Bases that maintains and operates the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile. The 341st Missile Wing reports directly to Twentieth Air Force at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming. It is part of Air Force Space Command, headquartered at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado.

Units

• 341st Missile Wing

341st Operations Group

341st Security Forces Group

341st Mission Support Group

341st Maintenance Group

341st Medical Group

341st Staff Agencies

• 819th RED HORSE Squadron

History

World War II

In 1939, the Great Falls Airport commission appealed to Harry H. Woodring, Secretary of War, to locate an Air Corps squadron at Great Falls, Montana. In 1941, the Civil Aeronautics Authority provided the money for the development of the Great Falls Municipal Airport. In May 1942, construction began on an Army Air Corps base six miles (10 km) east of Great Falls. The base was known as East Base.

While the base was assigned to Second Air Force, numerous bombardment groups were trained at Great Falls. Two of these bombardment groups, the 385th and 390th, went on to participate in decisive raids over Germany that opened the door for Allied daylight precision bombing. These bomb groups were trained in successive groups from November 1942 to October 1943.

Cold War

Colonel Einar Axel Malmstrom

On August 13, 1948, the 1701st was deactivated and replaced by both the 1300th Air Base Wing and the 582d Air Resupply and Communications Squadron. This splitting of a complex organization into more manageable parts reflected the new Air Force way of thinking and resulted in the organizational structure which still exists in some ways today.

During the Berlin Blockade a school was established at the base to train pilots in procedures specific to the airlift. Navigational aids were altered to resemble those at Tempelhof Airport.

In the Summer of 1950, the base was visited by several members of the newly-formed Project Blue Book, a government agency which studied the appearance of unidentified flying objects. While there, they studied the Mariana UFO film, which had been receiving massive media attention for the previous few months. They returned in 1952 to study the tape once more.

Even as new weapon systems were being developed and debates raged over the effectiveness of the manned bomber, the Strategic Air Command (SAC) activated the 407th Strategic Fighter Wing to provide protection for the bombers. SAC then ordered the 407th to Great Falls AFB. The base had just completed a $2 million runway in July 1952 and, with its modernized facilities, would provide an excellent strategic air base. In January 1954, SAC replaced the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) as the major command in charge of the base.

Col Lester Harris arrived as the new wing commander, accompanied by Col Einar Axel Malmstrom, his vice wing commander. The C-54 workhorses of yesterday were replaced with F-84F and G fighters and more units continued to arrive at Great Falls AFB. In March 1954, the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron, with its fleet of KB-29 aircraft, began operations at the base.

On August 21, 1954, the history of Great Falls AFB took on new meaning when a plane crash claimed the life of Colonel Malmstrom. In the short period of his tenure as vice wing commander, Colonel Malmstrom endeared himself to the local community. Saddened by the loss, the people of Great Falls began a drive to rename the base after him. On June 15, 1956, Great Falls AFB was officially dedicated as Malmstrom AFB, and the 4061st Air Refueling Wing arrived with its contingent of KC-97 tankers the next year. Malmstrom's mission changed again when SAC realized that fighter escorts would not be able to keep up with the new B-52 bombers.

Malmstrom officially entered the ICBM age with the activation of the 341st Strategic Missile Wing (341 SMW) from Dyess AFB, Texas, where it had previously operated as the 341st Bombardment Wing. The 341 SMW and Malmstrom AFB became the nation's first "Ace in the Hole," dubbed by President John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The wing has Minuteman missiles spread across 23,000 square miles (60,000 km²) of Montana. The 10th, 12th, and 490th Strategic Missile Squadron were equipped with the Minuteman II, and the 564th has the Minuteman III.

With the rapid development of the three-stage, solid-fuel Minuteman I missile in the late 1950s SAC began searching for sites to deploy this revolutionary weapon. Because Malmstrom’s location placed most strategic targets in the Soviet Union within range of Minuteman, the base was a logical choice.

On December 23, 1959, the Air Force Ballistic Missile Committee approved the selection of Malmstrom AFB to host the first Minuteman ICBM base. Although the newly formed Corps of Engineers Ballistic Missile Construction Office handled the design and supervised construction of the planned 15 control sites and 150 silos, the initial ground work required advance engineering, site feasibility studies, surveys, soil and foundation investigations, determination of utility sources, and finally land acquisition. These tasks fell on the Seattle District of the Corps of Engineers. The land acquisition, involving some 5,200 tracts scattered across an area of 20,000 square miles (50,000 km²) of north-central Montana, amounted to the largest for any single project under-taken by the Corps. At its peak, the Corps employed up to 80 people at its real estate office to deal with the approximately 1,378 owners of the desired parcels. Modifications in silo design required the District to renegotiate easements with the landowners on 12 different occasions over the 4-year span of the project.

In less than three percent of the cases, the government acquired the land through condemnation. Once construction commenced, tempers were tested as fences were cut, trenches were left open in cattle pastures, crops were destroyed, and water and power supplies were interrupted. Yet despite these problems, most of the local population understood the importance of the project to national security and they cooperated.

A joint venture of the George A. Fuller Company and the Del E. Webb Corporation won the construction contract with a bid of $61.7 million. The Fixed Price Incentive Contract was unique, featuring provisions for a target cost, target profit, and a formula for determining the final price and final profit. With cost overruns projected due to expected design modifications and unanticipated surprises, the Corps of Engineers Ballistic Missile Construction Office imposed a system in which excessive costs would be split, with the contractor picking up 25 percent of the tab. Using this formula, the final project cost would come to $79,284,385.

The March 16, 1961, groundbreaking ceremonies featured an interesting arrangement as key state and local politicians, and military, contractor, and labor leaders gathered on stage at the base theater. At the prescribed moment, eight of these officials threw switches, setting off explosive charges out on the plains. Each official received his switch as a memento.

As predicted, design changes occasionally slowed progress as did unanticipated high water tables, which required additional pumping capacity at the excavation sites. An electrician’s strike from November 1 through 12, 1961, and spring storms in 1962 also hindered progress. Still, on December 15, contractors completed work on the 10th silo, turning the silo over to the Air Force for finishing and missile installation. During construction, six workers were killed.

Home of the oldest Minuteman strategic missile squadron, Malmstrom also became home to the youngest, when in August 1964, the Air Force announced plans to build an additional 50 silos on the Montana prairie to house Minuteman II missiles. On February 23, 1965, Morrison Knudsen Company and Associates won the bid to build the additional silos. Construction started 2 weeks later. Manpower peaked in September 1965, with 1,593 men working on the sites. During construction, there were 7 work stoppages, which cost 8,808 man-days lost. Overall, the project managers could boast of a good safety record as there were 12 lost time incidents and only 1 fatality.

As construction of these new silos proceeded through 1966, the 564th Missile Squadron stood up on April 1, 1966. Just over a year later America’s 1,000th Minuteman missile would be in place and on alert at Malmstrom. This milestone marked the completion of Minuteman deployment by the United States.

In 1987, Malmstrom hosted a prototype of a small ICBM mobile launcher. Testing conducted at Malmstrom evaluated this platform’s capability to support the Midgetman missile.

On January 5, 1988, Malmstrom gained its first flying wing since the 4061st Air Refueling Wing had been inactivated in 1961. SAC's 301st Air Refueling Wing arrived from Rickenbacker AFB, Ohio and was responsible for the operation of KC-135R Stratotankers, refueling fighter, bomber, airlift, special operations and strategic reconnaissance aircraft worldwide.

Malmstrom entered another era on July 7, 1989 when the 40th Air Division was reactivated. The 40th Air Division began as the 40th Bombardment Wing on January 15, 1943, at MacDill Field, Florida. After several inactivations and reactivations, the division called Malmstrom its home for 2 years before being inactivated again on June 14, 1991, as a result of an Air Force-wide reorganization that eliminated air divisions in the force structure. Under this reorganization, the 301st Air Refueling Wing became the host unitfor Malmstrom and the 341st Strategic Missile Wing became a tenant unit.

Modern Day

With the deactivation of the Strategic Air Command on June 1, 1992, Malmstrom temporarily became an Air Mobility Command (AMC) base with the 341st Strategic Missile Wing as an Air Combat Command (ACC) tenant unit.

The 301 ARW was subsequently inactivated and replaced by the 43d Air Refueling Wing (43 ARW) as a KC-135R unit reporting to Fifteenth Air Force (15 AF), then located at March Air Force Base, California. The 341 SMW was redesignated as the 341st Missile Wing (341 MW), reporting to ACC's Twentieth Air Force (20 AF) located at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming. Following an Air Force decision to divest ACC of all ICBM units and assets, the 341 MW was subsequently transferred to Air Force Space Command located at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado. This mid-1993 move merged all missile and space operations under one command. In October 1997, the 341 MW, along with all other missile wings, was redesignated as the 341st Space Wing (341 SW).

In 1994, the 43 ARW was downgraded in status and redesignated as the 43rd Air Refueling Group (43 ARG). In 1996, the 43 ARG and its KC-135R aircraft were transferred from Malmstrom to MacDill AFB, Florida as part of a BRAC action, merging with MacDill's 6th Air Base Wing to form the current 6th Air Mobility Wing. With the loss of its only fixed-wing flying unit, Malmstrom's runway was decommissioned as a cost-savings measure following departure of the last KC-135R aircraft in 1997. Malmstrom's air traffic control tower, navigational aids and runway were closed and they remain inactive as of 2008. One hangar and a portion of the Malmstrom flight line remain operational for aviation purposes as heliport for Malmstrom's 40th Helicopter Squadron (40 HS) and its UH-1N Twin Huey helicopters supporting the 341st Space Wing's Minuteman III ICBM sites.

The airfield's runway is occasionally reopened on a temporary basis for limited fixed-wing flight operations or for air shows. This was the case during a May 18, 2007 incident when the visiting Canadian Forces aerial demonstration squadron, the "Snowbirds", were practicing when a lapbelt failed in one of the aircraft, resulting in a mishap that killed the pilot of Snowbird 2.

Recently Malmstrom has been used for the site of an experimental coal to synthetic fuel plant for potential use in USAF aircraft.

On May 6, 2008, NBC Today Show personality Al Roker broadcasted live from Malmstrom AFB as part of an "Access Granted" series centered on places the American public doesn't get to see firsthand. Roker and his crew were permitted access to a missile silo and he interviewed various squadron members about the policies and procedures should a nuclear attack be allowed by the President of the United States.

On July 1, 2008, the 341st Space Wing was re-established as the 341st Missile Wing.

Geography

Malmstrom AFB is located at 47°30′31″N 111°12′20″W (47.508604, -111.205580).Template:GR

According to the United States Census Bureau, the base CDP has a total area of 13.4 km² (5.2 mi²), all land.

Demographics

As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there were 4,544 people, 1,310 households, and 1,151 families residing on the base. The population density was 340.0/km² (879.9/mi²). There were 1,405 housing units at an average density of 105.1/km² (272.1/mi²). The racial makeup of the base is 83.19% White, 6.58% African American, 0.59% Native American, 2.33% Asian, 0.15% Pacific Islander, 3.30% from other races, and 3.85% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 7.83% of the population.

There were 1,310 households out of which 66.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 82.0% were married couples living together, 4.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 12.1% were non-families. 10.7% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 3.16 and the average family size was 3.41.

On the base the population was spread out with 36.8% under the age of 18, 23.2% from 18 to 24, 38.1% from 25 to 44, 1.8% from 45 to 64, and 0.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 22 years. For every 100 females there were 118.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 125.3 males.

The median income for a household on the base was $31,775, and the median income for a family was $33,125. Males had a median income of $24,009 versus $19,393 for females. The per capita income for the base was $11,450. About 4.9% of families and 6.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 6.0% of those under the age of 18 and none of those 65 and older.

See also

• Montana World War II Army Airfields
• Western Air Defense Force (Air Defense Command)
• Central Air Defense Force (Air Defense Command)
• 29th Air Division (United States)

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency

External links

• FAA Terminal Procedures for GFA, effective May 16, 2024
• Airport information for GFA at AirNav
• Accident history for GFA at Aviation Safety Network
• Aeronautical chart and airport information for GFA at SkyVector