The base was built during
World War II as
Lockbourne Army Airfield, a
U.S. Army Air Forces training base. It became
Lockbourne Air Force Base in 1948, a few months after the
United States Air Force was established as an independent branch of the U.S. armed forces. In September 1951, the
91st Strategic Reconnaissance Wing (Medium) of the
Strategic Air Command (SAC) moved to Lockbourne AFB from
Barksdale AFB, Louisiana and operated
B-45 and RB-45 Tornado and
B-47 and YRB-47 Stratojet aircraft, performing a worldwide aerial reconnaissance and mapping mission. The wing was inactivated in November 1957. In April 1958, the
301st Bombardment Wing arrived at Lockbourne AFB, assuming host wing responsibilities and flying the
B-47,
EB-47, and
RB-47 Stratojet and
KC-97 Stratofreighter aircraft. In 1964, with the impending retirement of all B-47 variant aircraft from SAC and the ongoing transfer of KC-97 aircraft to the
Air Force Reserve and
Air National Guard, the wing transitioned to the KC-135A Stratotanker was redesignated as the
301st Air Refueling Wing (301 ARW). Following the
Tonkin Gulf Resolution, the wing's KC-135 aircraft routinely deployed to Southeast Asia for support of the air war in Vietnam. In 1974, Lockbourne AFB was renamed
Rickenbacker AFB in honor of Columbus, Ohio native and
World War I U.S. Army Air Service fighter ace and
Medal of Honor recipient,
Eddie Rickenbacker. After the end of Vietnam War, the Air Force shrank dramatically; it shed some SAC wings and closed active bases or transferred them to the Air Force Reserve or Air National Guard. The 301 ARW was inactivated and its KC-135s distributed to various Air National Guard units on 30 November 1979; on 1 April 1980, the base was transferred to a combination of the
Ohio Air National Guard with the
160th Air Refueling Group (160 ARG) as the host unit, and the civilian governmental agency known as the Rickenbacker Port Authority, now the
Columbus Regional Airport Authority. ==Further reading==