Hamilton Air Force Base - Closure

Closure

The Air Force curtailed its activities on the base after October 1, 1973 when the 452d was relieved of host base responsibility, with most of the base being transferred to the U.S. Army as Hamilton Army Airfield. The Pacific Strike Team of the U.S. Coast Guard occupied two of the historic hangars. The housing was transferred to the U.S. Navy and a 411-acre (166 ha) parcel of the base being transferred to the General Services Administration (GSA) for public sale.

The 452d TAW operated low level of activity until January 11, 1976 when an agreement was finally reached to close Hamilton as part of the post-Vietnam War drawdown of the military. The base was placed in a caretaker status on that date pending final disposition. A controversy then developed over future civilian use between those supporting its adaptation into a major civilian airport, those bitterly opposed to its continued use as an airfield at all, and those holding varying intermediate degrees of opinion

The GSA public sale occurred in 1985, and finally in December 1988 The Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission recommended closure of the last 700 acres (2.8 km2) of government land at Hamilton Army Airfield. As a consequence of BRAC 1993's closure decision regarding all of the U.S. Navy's San Francisco area bases (NAS Alameda, NAS Moffett Field, Mare Island Naval Shipyard, NAVSTA Treasure Island, the Navy vacated its Hamilton housing in 1996.