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Overview

Opened in 1942, the Moses Lake Army Air Base initially functioned as part of the the US Army Air Forces' Spokane-based Air Technical Service Command. During World War II, training on P-38 Lightning fighters and B-17s bombers occurred here. The US Army Air Force became a separate branch of the military on 09/18/1947, and the base became part of the USAF's Air Materiel Command (AMC) for one year. On 08/26/1948, responsibility for the Moses Lake base shifted to the Air Defense Command. By 1952, Moses Lake was transferred to the USAF Tactical Air Command (TAC), and by 1960, the Strategic Air Command. During its 24-year military history, the Moses Lake base was closely aligned with the flight research activities of the Boeing Company in Seattle, WA.

Building History

The United States Army Air Forces opened the Moses Lake Army Air Base (MLAAB) on 11/24/1942, part of a rapid military installation build-up after Pearl Harbor. It originally served as a training center for Lockheed's P-38 Lightning Fighter and later for Boeing's B-17 Flying Fortresses made nearby in Seattle, WA. The base was placed on standby status at the end of World War II, and then turned over to the Air Force Air Defense Command in 11/1948, its mission to patrol the skies above the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and Engineer Works, Grand Coulee Dam and the WA Coastline.

The MLAAB was renamed in 1950 to honor Yakima, WA-born fighter pilot, Donald A. Larson, who flew 57 combat missions during World War II and was lost over Germany on 08/4/1944. Larson Air Force Base became part of the Air Force's Tactical Air Command (TAC) between 04/21/1952 and 1960.

The history of the base was closely intertwined with research and development at Seattle's Boeing Company. Just after World War II, Boeing built test facilities at Moses Lake, concentrating on the development of the B-47 Stratojet Bomber and the B-50 Superfortress Strategic Bomber. On 02/08/1949, an experimental Boeing XB-47 Stratojet took off from Moses Lake en route to Andrews Air Force Base in MD. The plane, its pilot Major Russell E. Schleeh and co-pilot Joseph W. Howell traveled the 2289-mile distance in 3 hours, 46 minutes, then the fastest speeds achieved over the US. (See This Day in Aviation.com, "8 February 1949," published 02/08/2023, accessed 07/20/2023.)

Boeing's tested its B-52 Bombers in Seattle and at Moses Lake during the early-to-mid-1950s. An article in the Basin Business Journal.com, stated: The [Boeing] company built what is now its main hangar in 1956 to support flight testing for the B-52 Stratofortress bomber and KC-135 Stratotanker programs, in 1957 named the very first production model of the venerable KC-135 — which is still flying in Air Force service — “The City of Moses Lake,” the history notes." (See Charles H. Featherstone, Basin Business Journal.com, "Hangar home: Boeing puts down roots in Moses Lake," 05/04/2023, accessed 07/20/2023.) B52s were the fleet backbone in 1960 when the Strategic Air Command (SAC) took command at Moses Lake. SAC's 4170th Strategic Wing (renamed in 1963 the "462nd Strategic Aerospace Wing") tenure at Larson lasted only about six years, becaming inactive in 04/1966 and the base shuttered on 06/30/1966.

Anticipating the base's closure, Grant County officials prepared a campaign to turn Larson AFB into a county airport. An early step in this process was the creation of the "Moses Lake Port District," by a successful local ballot issue on 11/02/1965. Also crucial was the county's discussions with Boeing about its desire to continue airplane testing at the field. Rachal Pinkerton wrote in the Columbia Basin Herald.com: "One of the first things the newly elected Port of Moses Lake commissioners did was contact Boeing to see if it was interested in continuing to test planes on the base runways. Boeing had been using the site for testing for many years. The commissioners knew that they needed Boeing’s support to be able to get the runways and land from the General Services Administration (GSA)." (See Rachal Pinkerton, Columbia Basin Herald.com, "1966: Larson AFB becomes Port of Moses Lake," published 01/17/2020, accessed 07/17/2023.) Boeing provided support, and the Moses Lake Port District received the lion's share of the former Larson AFB.

The Port of Moses Lake has operated the Grant County International Airport since 1966. Passenger service to the area dwindled since the mid-2000s and ended altogether on 06/08/2010. Boeing Company has continued to use the five runways at the gigantic air field for testing its aircraft and the Air Force utilizes the facility to supplement runways at McChord Air Force Base.

Building Notes

Between the late 1960s and 2009, Japan Air Lines (JAL) used the Moses Lake airfield as a testing facility for its new pilots. One of the runways built by the Air Force to serve bombers was 13,500 feet long, one of the longest in the country. Because of this runway's length, NASA selected the Grant County International Airport as an alternative landing spot to the US Space Shuttle. In 2010, the United States Government pledged $55 million to clean up toxic solvents that leached into ground water at the airport making it a Superfund site. Lockheed Martin and Boeing also pledged $3 million in assistance for the clean-up of 1,000 acres of soil and groundwater.

Alteration

During 1959-1961, 330 units of housing were erected at the Moses Lake Air Force Base to accommodate the SAC.

PCAD id: 16119