OtherUS US Marine Corps Air Station Yuma AZ
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Marine Corps Air Station Yuma or MCAS Yuma is a United States Marine Corps Air Station. It is the home of multiple squadrons of AV-8B Harrier IIs and F-35B Lightning IIs of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron 1 (MAWTS-1), Marine Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron 1 (VMX-1) and Marine Fighter Training Squadron 401 (VMFT-401), an air combat adversary squadron of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing of the Marine Corps Reserve. The station is 2 miles from the city of Yuma, Arizona. A joint use civilian-military airport, MCAS Yuma shares airfield facilities with Yuma International Airport and occupies approximately 3,000 acres, most of which is flat desert.
In 1928, the federal government purchased 640 acres near Yuma at the recommendation of Colonel Benjamin F. Fly. Temporary dirt runways were installed for usage by military and civilian planes. It was called Fly Field. The outbreak of World War II transformed the civilian airport into the Yuma Army Airfield. Construction of facilities began on 1 June 1942 and was activated on 15 December 1942. The base was closed on 1 November 1945. After the war, the airfield was turned over to the Department of the Interior as a headquarters for the Bureau of Land Reclamation.
On 1 January 1954, Yuma County Airport was reactivated by the United States Air Force Air Defense Command (ADC) as a training facility. In the mid-1950s, ADC was equipped almost solely with rocket-firing F-86D Sabre and F-89C Scorpion interceptors, and Headquarters USAF decided they should have their own training base. Yuma AFB was renamed on 13 October 1956 as Vincent Air Force Base, the installation was named for Brigadier General Clinton D. "Casey" Vincent, one of Major General Claire Chennault's top fighter leaders in the China-Burma Theater and the second youngest General Officer in U.S. Air Force history.
The 4750th Air Defense Wing was inactivated at Vincent AFB on 15 June 1959 and control of the base was passed over to the United States Navy. Nine days later the base was turned over to the United States Marine Corps as Marine Corps Auxiliary Air Station Yuma. The base was renamed Marine Corps Air Station Yuma (Vincent Field) on July 20, 1962.
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1959-11-02 |
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Collectors request |
From the Greg Ciesielski collection.
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