In 1928, the citizens of Klamath Falls approved the sale of $50,000 worth of bonds to build Klamath Falls Municipal Airport. It had gravel runways and one Fixed-Base Operator; in 1942, it was selected for a
Naval Air Station later named
NAS Klamath Falls. In 1945, the airport was transferred back to civil use; the January 1952 C&GS diagram shows runway 7 (5258 ft long), 14 (7134 ft) and 18 (5164 ft). In 1954, the airport was selected as a U.S. Air Force
Air Defense Command base, becoming a joint-use civil-military location. The
408th Fighter Group arrived to supervise these activities, authorized
Mighty Mouse rocket and airborne intercept
radar equipped
North American F-86 Sabres. But for some years the assigned
518th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron was not made operational, remaining inactive. In 1957 the airport was dedicated as Kingsley Field in honor of 2nd Lieutenant
David R. Kingsley, USAAF, an Oregonian killed in action on June 23, 1944, after a
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombing mission over the oil fields of
Ploiesti,
Roumania. The
827th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron (later 827th Radar Squadron) was activated at Kingsley Field the same year. While the administrative and support sections of the squadron were located on the airfield, the squadrons operational element and radars were located nearby at what was named
Keno Air Force Station in February 1959. The
408th Fighter Group was reassigned to the
25th Air Division on 1 March 1959; to the
Portland Air Defense Sector on 15 April 1960; to the
26th Air Division on 1 April 1966; and the 25th Air Division on 15 September 1969. The group was inactivated on 1 October 1970. Fighter-interceptor squadrons which operated from Kingsley Field were: •
322d Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, 1 April 1959 – 30 September 1968 (
F-101B Voodoo) •
59th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, 30 September 1968 – 17 December 1969 (F-101B/F Voodoo]) •
460th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, 1 December 1969 – 16 April 1971 (
F-106A/B Delta Dart) In 1976, ADC was inactivated and control passed to
Tactical Air Command (TAC). In 1978, the Department of Defense transferred the facilities from the
active duty Air Force to the
Oregon Air National Guard. The now-
827th Radar Squadron was inactivated on 1 October 1979. In August 2020, it was announced that Kingsley Field would host the Air Force's first
F-15EX formal training unit from 2022. The F-15EX is intended to replace the aging F-15C/D Eagle, which is expected to run out of service life by the mid-2020s. These plans were revised in May 2023, with it being announced that Kingsley Field would instead host a
Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II training unit. It is intended that 20 of the type will be based at Kingsley Field from approximately 2025. ==Facilities==