McConnell Air Force Base (IATA: IAB, ICAO: KIAB, FAA LID: IAB) is a United States Air Force base located four miles (6 km) southeast of the central business district of Wichita, a city in Sedgwick County, Kansas, United States. The base was named in honor of Wichita brothers Fred and Thomas McConnell, both Air Force pilots and World War II veterans. It is the home of Air Mobility Command's 22d Air Refueling Wing (22 ARW), Air Force Reserve Command's 931st Air Refueling Group (931 ARG), and the Kansas Air National Guard's 184th Intelligence Wing (184 IW).
McConnell's primary mission is to provide global reach by conducting air refueling and airlift where and when needed. The Commander of the 22d ARW is Colonel Ricky N. Rupp, the Vice-Commander is Colonel Douglas K. Lamberth and the Command Chief is Chief Master Sergeant Michael H. Edwards.
Famous quotes containing the words air, force and/or base:
“Music, in performance, is a type of sculpture. The air in the performance is sculpted into something.”
—Frank Zappa (1940–1994)
“He saw, he wish’d, and to the prize aspir’d.
Resolv’d to win, he meditates the way,
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For when success a lover’s toil attends,
Few ask, if fraud or force attain’d his ends.”
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744)
“What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord,
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That beetles o’er his base into the sea,
And there assume some other horrible form
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—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)