George Air Force Base

George Air Force Base
Victorville, California
2006 USGS airphoto
George Air Force is located in California
George Air Force
George Air Force
Coordinates34°35′41″N 117°23′03″W / 34.59472°N 117.38417°W / 34.59472; -117.38417[1]
TypeAir Force Base
Site information
Controlled byUnited States Army Air Forces
United States Air Force
ConditionCivilian Airport, private ownership
Site history
Built1941
In use1941–1992
Battles/wars
World War II

Korean War

Vietnam War

1991 Gulf War (Defense of Saudi Arabia; Liberation of Kuwait)

George Air Force Base was a United States Air Force base located within the city limits, 8 miles northwest, of central Victorville, California, about 75 miles northeast of Los Angeles, California.

Established by the United States Army Air Corps as an Advanced Flying School in June 1941, it was closed at the end of World War II. It was again activated as a training base by the United States Air Force with the outbreak of the Korean War in November 1950. It remained a training base throughout the Cold War and in the immediate post-Cold War period, primarily for the Tactical Air Command (TAC) and later the Air Combat Command (ACC), training USAF, NATO and other Allied pilots and weapon systems officers in front-line fighter aircraft until being closed in 1993.

George AFB was closed pursuant to a decision by the 1988 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission at the end of the Cold War. It is now the site of the Southern California Logistics Airport. Since 2009, the California Air National Guard's 196th Reconnaissance Squadron (96 RS) has operated an MQ-1 Predator Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) training facility at the site.[2]

  1. ^ "George Air Force Base (historical)". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
  2. ^ "Air National Guard MQ-1 Predator School House Students Fly". af.mil. Archived from the original on 27 April 2015. Retrieved 29 October 2013.