Galena Forward Operating Location

Galena Airport was used by the USAF 317th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron at Elmendorf AFB as a forward-deployed Base to intercept Soviet aircraft intruding on United States airspace over the Bering Sea. This aircraft, Convair F-102A-70-CO Delta Dagger 56-1257, 1965. Aircraft was retired to MASDC as FJ0367 Mar 16, 1975. Converted to QF-102A, later to PQM-102B and later expended as an aerial target during the 1980s at Holloman AFB, New Mexico

Galena Forward Operating Location is a former United States Air Force forward operating facility located adjacent to Edward G. Pitka Sr. Airport in Galena, a city in the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area of the U.S. state of Alaska.[1]

History

As Galena Airport, it was used as a military transport base during World War II, facilitating the transit of Lend-Lease aircraft to the Soviet Union.

As Galena Air Force Station, it was used by the USAF during the Cold War as an interceptor base for aircraft patrolling the western areas of Alaska. It was downsized in 1993, however the military airfield is maintained by a private contractor as a weather/emergency diversion airfield since Regular Air Force fighter-interceptor alert operations ended.[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ FAA Airport Master Record for GAL (Form 5010 PDF). Federal Aviation Administration. Effective May 31, 2012.
  2. ↑  This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/.

External links

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