Bakalar Air Force Base

Bakalar Air Force Base
Part of Continental Air Command (ConAc) Air Force Reserve (AFRES)
Located near: Columbus, Indiana
Jeep being dropped by Fairchild C-119G Flying Boxcar, AF Ser. No. 52-6024 of the 434th Troop Carrier Wing, Bakalar AFB, Indiana, circa 1954 (note that the parachute has not yet opened).
Bakalar AFB Location of Bakalar Air Force Base, Indiana
Coordinates	39°15′43″N 085°53′47″W / 39.26194°N 85.89639°W / 39.26194; -85.89639 (Bakalar AFB)Coordinates: 39°15′43″N 085°53′47″W / 39.26194°N 85.89639°W / 39.26194; -85.89639 (Bakalar AFB)
Type	Air Reserve Base
Site information
Controlled by	United States Air Force
Site history
Built	1942
In use	1943-1970
Garrison information
Garrison	434th Tactical Airlift Wing

Bakalar Air Force Base is a former U.S. Air Force base located 4.4 miles (7.1 km) northeast of Columbus, Indiana. During World War II, the base was known as Atterbury Air Field and Atterbury Army Air Base (named in memory of Brigadier General William Wallace Atterbury), but it was renamed Bakalar Air Force Base in 1954 in honor of First Lieutenant John Edmond Bakalar, USAAF. Established in 1942, the airfield served as a training base for medium-range C-46 Commando and C-47 Skytrain troop carrier planes and glider pilots. It also was used for training B-25 Mitchell and B-26 Marauder bomber crews. Reactivated during the Cold War, it was used as an Air Force Reserve training base for troop carrier, tactical airlift, and special operations flying units. The military base was closed in 1970. The present-day facility operates as the Columbus, Indiana, municipal airport.

In June 1942 it was announced that a new airfield would be established near Camp Atterbury, a military training camp in south-central Indiana, approximately 12 miles (19 km) north of Columbus and 4 miles (6.4 km) west of Edinburgh. The 2,000-acre (8.1 km²) airfield was initially called the Columbus Air Support Command base.

To make room for the new airbase, fourteen families were forced to sell their property to the U.S. government. Construction for the airfield began in August 1942. Pearson Construction Company of Benton Harbor, Michigan, was the contractor for the project. The airfield's initial construction cost was $4 million ($58,028,513) to $5 million ($72,535,642) in 2015 chained dollars. More than 1,000 workers employed during its construction. Captain Stratton Hammon, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, supervised the construction, which began on 13 August 1942. Plans for the airbase included more than one hundred buildings, all of them were intended to be temporary.