Bolling Air Force Base
| Bolling Air Force Base | |
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| Part of Joint Base Anacostia–Bolling | |
| Located in: Washington, D.C. | |
Bolling Air Force Base main gate
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 Bolling AFB
Location of Bolling Air Force Base, D.C.
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| Coordinates | 38°50′34″N 077°00′58″W / 38.84278°N 77.01611°WCoordinates: 38°50′34″N 077°00′58″W / 38.84278°N 77.01611°W |
| Type | Air Force Base |
| Site information | |
| Controlled by |
 United States Air Force
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| Site history | |
| Built | 1917 |
| In use | 1917–present |
Bolling Air Force Base was a United States Air Force base in Washington, D.C. In 2010 it was merged with Naval Support Facility Anacostia to form Joint Base Anacostia–Bolling.
Bolling's property has been a Department of Defense (DOD) asset since 1917. From its beginning, the installation has included the Army Air Corps (predecessor to today's Air Force) and Navy aviation and support elements. The tract of land selected for the base was scouted by William C. Ocker at the direction of General Billy Mitchell. The base began near Anacostia in 1918, as the only military airfield near the United States Capitol and was originally named The Flying Field at Anacostia on 2 October 1917. It was renamed Anacostia Experimental Flying Field in June 1918.
Not long after its acquisition by the military, the single installation evolved into two separate, adjoining bases; one Army (later Air Force) and one Navy. Bolling Field was officially opened 1 July 1918 and was named in honor of the first high-ranking air service officer killed in World War I, Colonel Raynal C. Bolling. Colonel Bolling was the Assistant Chief of the Air Service, and was killed in action near Amiens, France, on 26 March 1918 while defending himself and his driver, Private Paul L. Holder, from an attack by German soldiers.
In the late 1940s, Bolling Field's property became Naval Air Station Anacostia and a new Air Force base, named Bolling Air Force Base, was constructed just to the south on 24 June 1948.
Bolling AFB has served as a research and testing ground for new aviation equipment and its first mission provided aerial defense of the capital. It moved to its present location, along the Potomac in the city's southwest quadrant, in the 1930s.
Over the years, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and National Guard units, as well as DOD and federal agencies also found the installation to be an ideal place from which to operate.
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