Norton Air Force Base

Norton Air Force Base was a military installation of the United States Air Force located 58 miles east of Los Angeles, California adjacent to the west side of the City of San Bernardino in San Bernardino County. It was named for Capt. Leland Norton (1920-1944. While attacking a marshalling yard on his 16th combat mission, Captain Norton's A-20 was struck by antiaircraft fire on 27 May 1944 near Amiens, France. After ordering his crew to bail out, Captain Norton perished with his Havoc.

The base was (since 1962) one of six Military Airlift Command strategic-airlift bases, supporting US Army and Marine Corps' airlift requirements among other functions. It was placed on the Department of Defense's base closure list in 1989 (the same year that the DoD signed the Federal Facilities Agreement with the EPA), and the last of the facilities on the base were closed in 1995.

The aviation facilities of the base were converted into San Bernardino International Airport, and 3 of the 4 stationed squadrons (all 4 of which were part of the 63rd and 445th Military Airlift Wings) - C-141 Starlifter, C-21, and C-12 Huron aircraft - were moved to nearby March Air Force Base, while the remaining squadron - C-141 aircraft - was moved to McChord Air Force Base, Washington.

SAMSO, the Space and Missile Systems Organization, which managed the Minuteman and Peacekeeper programs, was located at Norton from the 1970s. Upon base closure, the mission was transferred to Los Angeles Air Force Station, later, Los Angeles Air Force Base.

Discrete C-130 Hercules modification tests were conducted out of Area II of the base in the late 1960s, with the 1198th Operational Evaluation and Test Squadron flying electronic C-130 testbeds modified at Lockheed Air Services, at near-by Ontario Airport.

The closure was cited as due to environmental wastes, inadequate facilities, and air traffic congestion (due to air traffic from Ontario International Airport, twenty miles west, and Los Angeles International Airport, 60 miles west) .

Several major projects for the former air base and surrounding area are imminent or already under way, including:

• Stater Bros. Markets is set to move its corporate headquarters from Colton to the former air base site in September 2007. The 170,000-square-foot offices are being "completed as we speak," said CEO Jack Brown. Stater Bros. will begin moving warehousing and distribution operations into a 2.1 million-square-foot facility beginning in February 2007. Part of a $300 million-plus total investment in the city, the warehouse will be the largest supermarket distribution facility in the nation, Brown said.

Trivia

• Norton AFB served as the last assignment for Chuck Yeager. He retired at the base on June 1, 1975.
• Norton AFB is mentioned in the 1992 Film Sneakers. Dan Aykroyd's character Mother states "O.K., boss, this LTX-27 concealable mike is part of the same system that NASA used when they faked the Apollo moon landings. Yeah, the astronauts broadcast around the world from a soundstage at Norton Air Force Base in San Bernadino, California. So it worked for them, shouldn't give us too many problems."
• The famed C-141 Starlifter Hanoi Taxi was based at Norton AFB at the time of its famous missions as part of Operation Homecoming.

See also

• San Bernardino International Airport

External links

• BRAC Recommendation for Closure of Norton Air Force Base
• EPA Page on Norton Air Force Base
• Old Norton Air Force Base to Become Industrial Park