Offutt AFB is named in honor of
First Lieutenant Jarvis Jenness Offutt (26 October 1894 – 13 August 1918). The first native of Omaha to become a casualty in
World War I, Lieutenant Offutt died of injuries sustained when his
SE-5 fighter crashed during a training flight near
Valheureux, France. The airfield portion of Fort Crook was designated Offutt Field on 6 May 1924.
Fort Crook Offutt's history began with the commissioning by the
War Department in 1890 of Fort Crook. Located some 10 miles south of Omaha and two miles west of the
Missouri River, the fort was constructed between 1894 and 1896. The fort's namesake was
Major General George Crook, a veteran of the
Civil War and
Indian Wars. It was first used as a dispatch point for
Indian conflicts on the
Great Plains. Troops from Fort Crook fought during the
Spanish–American War when the 22nd Regiment under
Charles A. Wikoff was dispatched to Cuba. The regiment suffered heavy casualties in the
Battle of El Caney. Only 165 of the 513 regiment members survived with most succumbing to
tropical diseases after the battle. The oldest surviving portion of Fort Crook is the
parade grounds and surrounding red brick buildings that were constructed between 1894 and 1896. These structures are still in active use today as squadron headquarters, living quarters for high-ranking generals (Generals’ Row), and Nebraska's oldest operational jail.
Offutt Field In 1918, the 61st Balloon Company of the
Army Air Corps, which performed combat reconnaissance training, was assigned to Fort Crook at the close of
World War I. In the spring of 1921, the plowing, leveling, and seeding of 260 acres of land at Fort Crook created a grass airfield suitable for frequent takeoffs and landings and as a refueling stop for
Post Office Department airmail flights and transcontinental flights. The first permanent aircraft hangars were also completed in 1921. Other known organizations assigned to the field were the 74th Balloon Company in November 1918; 60th Balloon Company in December 1918. A small detachment of enlisted men (detached service) from Marshall Field and Fort Riley, Kansas, constituted the only regular military presence on the field between 1935 and 1940. On 6 May 1924, the airfield was officially named "Offutt Field". During the 1920s and 1930s, the field was used for inactive training period meetings by personnel of the 314th Observation Squadron,
89th Division, one of the few
Organized Reserve flying squadrons that actually possessed facilities, equipment, and aircraft; the pilots conducted annual training at either
Marshall Field,
Fort Riley,
Kansas, or
Richards Field,
Kansas City,
Missouri. The squadron was inactivated on 2 October 1939 by relief of personnel, and disbanded on 31 May 1942.
Glenn L. Martin Bomber Plant In 1940 as American involvement in World War II loomed, the Army Air Corps chose Offutt Field as the site for a new bomber plant that was to be operated by the
Glenn L. Martin Company. The plant's construction included a two-mile (3.2 km)-long concrete runway, six large hangars, and a aircraft-assembly building. Production switched to
B-29 Superfortress very heavy bombers in 1944, and 531 Superfortresses were produced before the end of
World War II. Among these were the
Enola Gay and
Bockscar, the B-29s that dropped the
first atomic weapons to be used in a military action (against the cities of
Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, Japan). Production ended on 18 September 1945, when the last B-29 rolled out of the assembly building. With the manufacturing plant's closure, custody of the airfield and ground facilities were assumed by the 4131st Army Air Force Base Unit, Air Materiel Command.
Postwar use In the initial months after the end of World War II, Offutt was used by the 2474th Separation Processing squadron to demobilize service members out of the armed forces after their return from overseas duty. In June 1946, the Army Air Force re-designated Fort Crook and the Martin-Nebraska facilities as Offutt Field. It became the headquarters for the
Air Defense Command Second Air Force on 6 June. In 1947, the airfield opened for operational use, with the
381st Bombardment Group being assigned to the field with one squadron of B-29 Superfortresses, although the facility remained primarily a separation center. The newly established United States Air Force took control of the facility in September 1947, and on 13 January 1948, it was renamed Offutt Air Force Base. Later that same year, on 26 September, the 3902nd Air Base Group (later Wing) became the host unit at Offutt under
A. J. Beck.
Strategic Air Command On 9 November 1948, Offutt became the host base for Headquarters
Strategic Air Command, which was moved from
Andrews AFB, Maryland.
Secretary of the Air Force Stuart Symington chose to locate the Air Force's long-range atomic strike force at Offutt primarily because the base was centrally located on the North American continent, placing it well beyond the existing range of long-range, nuclear-armed bombers to (then) stay safely out of range of hostile missiles or bomber aircraft. Offutt's population and facilities grew dramatically to keep pace with the increased operational demands during the
Cold War. Several new dormitories and more than 2,000 family housing units – built in the late 1950s and 1960s under incremental Wherry and Capehart projects – quickly replaced the old quarters of Fort Crook. Headquarters SAC moved from the Martin-Nebraska complex to Building 500 in 1957, and new base facilities in the 1960s and 1970s included a hospital, main exchange, commissary, and library. During the late 1950s, Offutt housed a
Royal Air Force facility for servicing
Avro Vulcans, which visited the air base frequently while on exercise with SAC. Operational use of Offutt Air Force Base included the basing of alert tankers in the late 1950s and 1960s, support for intercontinental ballistic missile sites in Nebraska and Iowa in the 1960s, and worldwide reconnaissance from the mid-1960s to the present. To provide air defense of the base, the United States Army established the
Offutt AFB Defense Area, and
Nike-Hercules surface-to-air missile sites were constructed during 1959. Sites were located near Cedar Creek, Nebraska (OF-60) , and Council Bluffs, Iowa (OF-10) . They were operational between November 1960 and March 1966. The missiles were operated by the 6th Battalion,
43rd Artillery. During the Cold War, a
general and various support personnel from the base were airborne 24 hours a day on an
EC-135 from 3 February 1961 to 24 July 1990 in
Operation Looking Glass, creating an airborne command post in case of war. The 3902d Air Base Wing was inactivated on 1 March 1986, and the
55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing assumed host-unit responsibilities for Offutt. Increased defense spending during the 1980s brought additional operational improvements to Offutt, including the
Bennie Davis Aircraft Maintenance Hangar, and a new command center for Headquarters SAC.
U.S. Strategic Command Headquarters Offutt again faced changes in 1992 when the easing of world tensions allowed the United States to reorganize the Air Force. The
Strategic Air Command was inactivated on 1 June, succeeded by the
U.S. Strategic Command (
USSTRATCOM), a
Unified Combatant Command of the
Department of Defense. The 55th Strategic Wing then became the
55th Wing, under the newly created
Air Combat Command. In 1998, the
Strategic Air and Space Museum moved 30 miles (48 km) southwest to
Ashland, just off
Interstate 80, midway between Omaha and
Lincoln. In 2005, Offutt began several major renovations. The on-base
Wherry housing area was demolished for replacement with new housing. A new fire house,
AAFES mini-mall, and U.S. Post Office were completed in 2006. Additionally, the Air Force Weather Agency broke ground on a new facility which was completed in 2008. The new headquarters for STRATCOM, the Command and Control Facility (C2F), is expected to be operational in September 2018. The base sustained significant damage in the spring of 2019 as a result of the
Missouri River flooding; at one point, almost half of the base's runway was underwater. Flight operations and some support staff were temporarily relocated to nearby
Lincoln Air National Guard Base while repairs (as well as some pre-planned construction projects) were undertaken.
President Bush Offutt Conference on September 11, 2001 On September 11, 2001, President
George W. Bush conducted one of the first major strategy sessions for the response to the
September 11 attacks from a bunker at the base. Bush, who was in Florida at the
Emma Booker Elementary School in
Sarasota Air Force One left Barksdale AFB for Offutt AFB around 1:30 p.m. The Air Force One entourage was pared down to a few essential staffers such as
Ari Fleischer,
Andrew Card,
Karl Rove,
Dan Bartlett, Brian Montgomery, and
Gordon Johndroe, plus about five reporters. During the flight, Bush remained in "continuous contact" with both the
White House Situation Room and Vice President
Dick Cheney in the
Presidential Emergency Operations Center. Air Force One landed at Offutt shortly before 3:00 p.m. The White House staff was preparing for Bush to address the nation from the Offutt bunker, but Bush decided instead to return to Washington. After retiring, Sarris published a book titled,
Cowardice in Leadership – A Lesson in Harassment, Intimidation, and Reprisals. Ten years after Sarris blew the whistle, the
Omaha World Herald published a three-part series titled "In-flight emergency", which confirmed his earlier claims.
Previous names • Fort Crook, 3 March 1891 • Offutt Flying Field, Fort Crook, 1920 • Offutt Field, 6 May 1924 being shuttled through Offutt following a mission on 1 July 2007
Major commands to which assigned • Seventh Corps Area, United States Army, 1920 • Army Air Forces Materiel Command, 13 October 1942 • Army Air Forces Materiel and Services Command, 1944 : Redesignated: AAF Technical Service Comd, 31 August 1944 : Redesignated: Air Technical Service Command, 1945 : Redesignated: Air Materiel Command, 9 March 1946 : : The United States Army Seventh Service Command exercised overall jurisdiction until 11 June 1946 •
Air Defense Command, 11 June 1946 •
Strategic Air Command, 1 October 1948 •
Air Combat Command, 1 June 1992
Major units assigned •
Second Air Force, 6 June 1946 – 1 July 1948 •
381st Bombardment Group, 24 July 1947 – 27 June 1949 •
Tenth Air Force, 1 July – 24 August 1948 • 3902d Air Base Group (later Wing), 26 September 1948 – 1 March 1986 •
Strategic Air Command, 8 November 1948 – 1 June 1992 •
438th Troop Carrier Wing, 27 June 1949 – 14 March 1951 •
5th Air Division, 14 January – 25 May 1951 • 1st Weather Group, 20 April 1952 – 8 October 1956 •
544th Strategic Intelligence Wing, 12 April 1952 – 1 June 1992 • 3d Weather Wing, 8 October 1956 – 1 June 1992 •
34th Air Refueling Squadron, 1 October 1958 – 25 June 1966 •
4321st Strategic Wing, 1 October 1959 – 1 January 1963 •
549th Strategic Missile Squadron, 1 July 1961 – 15 December 1964 •
385th Strategic Aerospace Wing, 1 January 1963 – 15 December 1964 •
55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing (and subsequent redesignations), 16 August 1966 – present •
Air Force Global Weather Center (and subsequent redesignations), 8 July 1969 – present •
1st Airborne Command and Control Squadron (and subsequent redesignations), 1 July 1977 – present •
United States Strategic Command, 1 June 1992 – present •
55th Electronic Combat Group, 1 April 1992 – present • General Curtis Lemay Offutt Composite Squadron
Civil Air Patrol •
595th Command and Control Group, 16 October 2016 – present •
95th Wing, 1 November 2024 – present •
1st Air COMM Group, then 1st Air Comm Wing, then 1st Air Information Systems Wing at least August 1984 – April 1988. The Squadrons were 390th, 1850th, 1851st, and the 1853rd.
Intercontinental ballistic missile facilities The
549th Strategic Missile Squadron operated three
SM-65D Atlas ICBM sites (1 October 1960 – 15 December 1964). Each site was composed of three missile silos (9 total). • 549-A, 3.4 mi SE of Mead, NE • 549-B, 3.6 mi NE of Arlington, NE • 549-C, 4.3 mi SE of Missouri Valley, IA Beginning in 1958, the
Army Corps of Engineers began planning for the sites, and construction began in 1959. The construction project was completed on 28 July 1960. In April and May 1961, the three complexes became the last Atlas D missiles to go on alert. The missiles were manned by the 549th Strategic Missile Squadron which was activated on 1 October 1960. The squadron began to phase down with the inactivation of the
Atlas-D on 1 October 1964, and was inactivated 14 December 1964. Confusingly, the squadron was originally the 566th but on 1 July 1961 SAC swapped designators with the 549th at F.E. Warren AFB. The 549th SMS was under the 385th Strategic Aerospace Wing. Site "A" was abandoned for many years, until the late 1970s when the Nebraska National Guard took over ownership of the site to establish a training area called the Mead Training Site. The site is managed by the
Camp Ashland Training Site Command. The training area has been used by the National Guard, United States Air Force, local law enforcement, and other entities as a training site for many years. 3/209th RTI out of
Camp Ashland began using Mead Training Site in 2008 as the primary training facility for their 88M military occupational specialty reclassification school and continues to use the site year round. A
MOUT site (
Military Operations in Urban Terrain) was constructed at the site in 2009. Two Nebraska National Guard armories were built directly alongside the training area in 2012. Many other National Guard units use the site for drill weekends and annual trainings. Airmen out of Offutt Air Force Base practice
Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) Training at the site several weekends a year. Site "B" is in use for agricultural storage. Site "C" has been demolished, with only the access roads remaining.
2019 shooting In September 2019, a shooting took place in Offutt's private housing community, in which Sgt. Zachary Firlik and his wife Kari Firlik were killed. The case was identified as a murder-suicide. The shooter, Zachary Firlik, was an active off-duty airman who killed his wife and then himself. Their five year-old daughter was downstairs at the time, and fled the house after hearing gunshots.
Unauthorized photographs In April 2026, a Chinese student was arrested and charged with illegally taking photos of an
RC-135 and
E-4B from outside the base. ==Role and operations==