Ladd Air Force Base

Ladd Army Airfield (Ladd Air Force Base)
IATA: FBK ICAO: PAFB FAA LID: FBK
Summary
Airport type	Military: Army Airfield
Operator	United States Army
Serves	Fort Wainwright
Location	Fairbanks, Alaska
Built	1938
Elevation AMSL	454 ft / 138 m
Coordinates	64°50′15″N 147°36′52″W / 64.83750°N 147.61444°W / 64.83750; -147.61444Coordinates: 64°50′15″N 147°36′52″W / 64.83750°N 147.61444°W / 64.83750; -147.61444
Website	www.wainwright.army.mil
Map
FBK Location of airport in Alaska
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 6/24 8,575 2,614 Asphalt/Concrete
Source: Federal Aviation Administration

Ladd Field
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
NRHP Reference #	85002730
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	February 4, 1985
Designated NHL	February 4, 1985

Ladd Army Airfield (IATA: FBK, ICAO: PAFB, FAA LID: FBK) is the military airfield located at Fort Jonathan Wainwright, located in Fairbanks, Alaska. It was originally called Fairbanks Air Base, but was renamed Ladd Field on 1 December 1939, in honor of Major Arthur K. Ladd, a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps who died in a plane crash near Dale, South Carolina on 13 December 1935.

The U.S. government began, for the first time, serious infrastructure expenditures in Alaska during the 1930s. Most prominent was an increase in the military presence. For most of the early 20th century, the only Army post in Alaska was Chilkoot Barracks/Fort Seward, located just outside Haines. With the threat of war looming as the 1930s ended, the need was established to develop multiple facilities as a means of defending Alaska against possible enemy attack.

The U.S. government acquired homesteads southeast of the town of Fairbanks beginning in 1938. From this land, totalling about 6 square miles (16 km²), was created Ladd Field. The first aircraft to land at Ladd was Douglas O-38F, 33-324, c/n 1177, in October 1940, which is now preserved in the National Museum of the United States Air Force. Major construction of facilities began in 1941 and 1942, after the U.S. entered World War II. The initial construction occurred several miles from Fairbanks along a bend of the Chena River, consisting of an airfield, hangars, housing and support buildings. Many of these buildings still stand today.

Alaska's transportation infrastructure at the time was so limited and the problem of military supply so acute, it also made sense to concentrate the bases along existing supply lines near Anchorage and Fairbanks. Ladd's location near Fairbanks, the Richardson Highway and the Alaska Railroad, its access to fuel from the CANOL pipeline, and its position at the time as one of the United States' northernmost developed airbases were important factors in securing its early Cold War prominence.

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Wikipedia