Offutt Air Force Base (IATA: OFF, ICAO: KOFF, FAA LID: OFF) is a U.S. Air Force installation near Omaha, and lies adjacent to Bellevue in Sarpy County, Nebraska. It is the headquarters of the U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), the Air Force Weather Agency, and the 55th Wing (55 WG) of the Air Combat Command (ACC), the latter serving as the host unit.
Aviation use at Offutt began in September 1918 during World War I as a Army Air Service balloon field. It was renamed in honor of World War I pilot and Omaha native 1st Lt. Jarvis Offutt in 1924.
Offutt AFB's legacy includes the construction of the first two bombers to drop atomic bombs and over 40 years as the headquarters for the former Strategic Air Command (SAC) and home for its associated ground and aerial command centers for the U.S. in case of nuclear war during the Cold War. The population was 8,901 at the 2000 census.
Read more about Offutt Air Force Base: Overview, History, General's Row, Offutt in Popular Culture, Geography, Demographics
Famous quotes containing the words air, force and/or base:
“Now Air is hush’d, save where the weak-ey’d Bat,
With short shrill Shriek flits by on leathern Wing,
Or where the Beetle winds
His small but sullen Horn,”
—William Collins (1721–1759)
“The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer.”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
“When a man speaks the truth in the spirit of truth, his eye is as clear as the heavens. When he has base ends, and speaks falsely, the eye is muddy and sometimes asquint.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)