Shepherd Field Air National Guard Base

Description

Shepherd Field Air National Guard Base is the home base of the West Virginia Air National Guard 167th Airlift Wing located at the Eastern West Virginia Regional Airport, 4 miles south of Martinsburg, West Virginia. The base consists of about 380 acres and 34 buildings totaling 347,441 square feet. During peak surges, the installation population is about 1500 military personnel, consisting of both full-time Air Reserve Technicians (ART) and Active Guard and Reserve (AGR) and part-time Traditional Guardsmen (TG).

History

After World War II, the Air National Guard designated the State of West Virginia as the resident state for the 167th Fighter Squadron. On 24 May 1946, Charleston's Kanawha Airport became the home base for the renamed 167th Fighter Squadron. Early aircraft included the T-6 Texan, P-47 Thunderbolt (redesignated F-47 in late 1947) and the P-51 Mustang, redesignated F-51 in late 1947. The name, mission, size and even the site changed over the next 40 years, but the unit number "167th" has remained constant with the West Virginia Air National Guard.

Environmental issues

As of May 2016 the U.S. Air Force has been investigating whether industrial chemicals have seeped from the 167th Airlift Wing base into the groundwater.

In August 2014, the Air Force had found 10 areas where aqueous film forming foam may have entered the soil including "a former fire-training area, three hangars, two buildings, a fire-truck testing area, two storage areas and a wastewater-treatment area". The military seeks to determine if the compounds are present, and if they seeped into the groundwater.

The Eastern West Virginia Regional Airport is in the Big Springs wellhead-protection area for the city's water supply.