Phone +1 614-492-4200 Garrison 121st Air Refueling Wing | Controlled by United States Air Force | |
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Address Rickenbacker International Airport, Bldg 875, 7370 Minuteman Way, Columbus, OH 43137, USA Similar US Air National Guard, Rickenba Internatio Airport, US Army Departme, Ohio National Guard As, United States Navy Dep | ||
Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base (1942–present) is an Air National Guard facility of the Ohio Air National Guard. The base was named for the famous early aviator and Columbus native Eddie Rickenbacker. It is the home of the United States Air Force's 121st Air Refueling Wing (121 ARW), which serves as the host wing and is an Air National Guard (ANG) unit operationally-gained by the Air Mobility Command (AMC).
Rickenbacker ANGB is part of a joint airfield operation as a tenant activity of the Columbus Regional Airport Authority in a joint civil-military airfield arrangement with commercial airlines and other civilian aircraft operators utilizing the colocated Rickenbacker International Airport. Rickenbacker ANGB is also a joint military facility, with tenant activities of the Ohio Army National Guard (Army Aviation Support Facility #2), as well as Navy Reserve and Marine Corps Reserve units and associated facilities.
During World War II, the installation was a U.S. Army Air Forces training base known as Lockbourne Army Airfield, becoming an air force base in 1948 a few months following the establishment of the U.S. Air Force as an independent branch of the U.S. armed forces. Rickenbacker ANGB is a former Strategic Air Command (SAC) base previously named Lockbourne AFB from 1948 to 1974 and later Rickenbacker AFB from 1974 to 1980. The facility was transferred from SAC and the active duty Air Force on 1 April 1980 and turned over to the Air National Guard.