The War Department, in search of a site for an Army Air Corps Depot, selected the sleepy whistle-stop town known as Wellston, Georgia, 18 miles south of Macon. Army Colonel Charles Thomas, originally from Atlanta, landed at the Herbert Smart Airport near Camp Wheeler near Macon in October 1941 to oversee the building of the location which would later become the home to Wellston Air Depot at Robins Field (later to become Robins AFB). It was Col. Thomas who chose the name Robins for his mentor Brig. Gen.
Augustine Warner Robins. Brig. Gen. Robins is considered the "father of logistics" in the United States Air Force for his system of cataloging supplies and materials. He had a lengthy military career prior to becoming the chief of the Air Corps Materiel Division. Robins traveled in China disguised as a millionaire tourist, collecting intelligence for the Army. He also went to Mexico where he served under Gen.
John J. Pershing in the Army's campaign against
Pancho Villa. He trained during World War I to become a pilot earning his wings in June 1918. He didn't get to see combat because the war was ending. Robins suffered a near-fatal plane crash in 1921 in which his jaw and arm were severely broken. Brig. Gen. Robins died of a heart attack on Father's Day, 16 June 1940, at Randolph Field, Texas, while he was Commandant of the Air Corps Training Center. When the Air Force closed down its maintenance depots at the former
Brookley AFB in
Mobile, Alabama, and the former
Olmsted AFB in
Middleton Township,
Pennsylvania, Robins AFB assumed the workload of these depots. On 28 October 1949, Robins AFB became the headquarters of the
14th Air Force, the
numbered air force responsible for administering the
Air Force Reserve and the
Air National Guard. Some Robins AFB SAC units went to
Guam or Vietnam during the
Vietnam War and took part in many of the bombing missions. Maintenance teams from Robins frequently traveled to Southeast Asia to repair severely damaged aircraft. Robins AFB eventually managed the Lockheed C-141, C-7, and the F-15 Eagle as well as modifying the C-130s to the gunship configuration. Robins played a key role in the
Vietnam War (1964–73), supplying troops and materiel through the Southeast Asian Pipeline and modifying AC-119G/K and AC-130 gunships. Also playing a role were the C-141, the C-130, the C-123, and the C-124 cargo aircraft—all maintained at Robins. In 1973 these same C-141s supported the resupply of Israel in the
Yom Kippur War. In October 1983, C-130s from Robins supported U.S. forces in the
invasion of Grenada. Between 1977 and 1981, Robins was the air base used by former President
Jimmy Carter during his tenure on visits to his hometown of
Plains. SAC's B-52s left Robins in 1983 leaving the 19th Wing as the sole SAC unit on the base with its KC-135s.
Modern era hugs a
trick-or-treater Tuesday, 31 October 2006, during a Halloween visit to a
housing development on base. In 1990–91, during the
Persian Gulf War, Robins provided record numbers of parts, repairs, and personnel to coalition forces in the Persian Gulf. Robins-maintained
F-15 Eagles and the
E-8 Joint STARS played key roles in defeating the Iraqi military powers. In March–June 1999, during Operation Allied Force, the same employees and weapon systems played a decisive role in defeating the forces of the
Yugoslavian president
Slobodan Milosevic. In 1996, the
Georgia Air National Guard's
116th Fighter Wing at
Dobbins AFB relinquished their
F-15 aircraft and moved to Robins, transitioning to
B-1 Lancer bombers and being redesignated as the
116th Bomb Wing. That same year, the former
93rd Bomb Wing at Robins was reactivated as the
93rd Air Control Wing with the
E-8 Joint STARS aircraft. In 2001, the B-1 bombers left Robins AFB and the Georgia Air National Guard entered into a merged Active-Guard "associate" wing arrangement in the Joint STARS mission with the active Air Force, with the
Air National Guard holding lead responsibility as the
116th Air Control Wing. The Warner Robins Air Logistic Complex and Robins AFB form the largest single industrial complex in the State of Georgia. The 23,000 civilian employees have an annual payroll over $1 billion. The Logistic Complex manages and overhauls the
F-15,
C-5 Galaxy,
C-130 Hercules, and the
AC-130 gunships—and all of the Air Force's helicopters. In addition, the Complex also supports the
C-17 Globemaster III and
U-2 aircraft. Until June 2008, Robins was also the home of the
KC-135s of the
19th Air Refueling Group, when the unit was inactivated, then reactivated a month later as the
19th Airlift Wing at
Little Rock AFB, Arkansas. The E-8s of the
116th Air Control Wing continues to operate at Robins as a combined Regular Air Force and
Georgia Air National Guard air control wing, and the headquarters of the
Air Force Reserve Command is also located on the base. The metropolis of
Warner Robins, Georgia, has grown in proportion to become the sixth largest city in Georgia. For a brief period, Robins AFB was the home of the
C-27J Schoolhouse. The schoolhouse officially began classes at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia on 9 September 2009. L-3 Link (a subsidiary of the former
L3 Technologies) operated the official C-27J schoolhouse at the
Georgia Department of Defense's Fixed Wing Flight Facility at Robins AFB. This flight facility included training classrooms, computer learning center, a 100-person auditorium, flight planning, and fight operations areas. The facility also housed the resident
Government Flight Representative and Aviation Program Team assigned to the C-27J contract. Fixed Wing Flight Facility Robins AFB is also home of Hotel Company, 171st Aviation Regiment,
Georgia Army National Guard, flying the cargo delivery
Short C-23 Sherpa. The schoolhouse was deactivated when the Air Force divested its C-27J fleet as part of the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act. On 1 April 2016, an EF-1 tornado ripped through the northeast corner of Centerville and continued over Robins Air Force Base, ripping off hangar roofs. Robins was one of several filming locations used in the 2020 disaster film
Greenland, with the protagonist and his family being sent to the base to be evacuated in advance of a
catastrophic comet impact.
Major commands • Air Service Command, 22 July 1942 : Redesignated: Army Air Forces Materiel and Services Command, 17 July 1944 : Redesignated: Army Air Forces Technical Service Command, 31 August 1944 : Redesignated: Air Technical Service Command, 1 July 1945 : Redesignated: Air Materiel Command, 9 March 1946 : Redesignated:
Air Force Logistics Command, 1 April 1961 – 1 July 1992 •
Air Force Materiel Command, 1 June 1992 – present • Air Force Reserve Command, 17 February 1997–present
Major units assigned • 4th Station Complement Squadron : Operating from
Herbert Smart Airport,
Macon, Georgia, 11 April 1942 – 18 August 1942 : Operating from Robins Field, 18 August 1942 – 4 January 1943 • Wellston Air Depot : Redesignated: Warner Robins Air Depot, 22 June 1942 : Redesignated: Warner Robins Depot Area Command, 3 January 1945 : Redesignated: Warner Robins Air Service Center, TBD : Redesignated: Warner Robins Air Technical Service Center, TBD : Redesignated: Warner Robins Air Material Area, 21 May 1951 : Redesignated: Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, 1 April 1961 – present • 469th Base HQ and Air Base Sq, 4 January 1943 – 16 June 1943 • HQ Robins Fld, 16 June 1943 – 1 April 1944 • 4117th AAF Base Unit, 3 January 1945 : Redesignated: 4117th AF Base Unit, 26 September 1947 : Redesignated: HQ, Warner Robins Air Materiel Area, 28 August 1948 : Redesignated: HQ, Warner Robins Air Materiel Area, 21 May 1951 : Redesignated: HQ, Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, 1 April 1961 – present • 2104th Air Weather Group (
Military Air Transport Service (MATS)), 1 June 1948 – 24 October 1950 • 1727th Air Transport Squadron (MATS), 9 October 1948 – 1 November 1954 • HQ,
Fourteenth Air Force, 29 October 1949 – 1 September 1960 • 2853d Air Base Wing, 1 August 1953 : Redesignated: 2853d Air Base Gp, 16 October 1964–1994 • 7th Air Transport Squadron (MATS), 18 October 1954 – 8 January 1966 • 4137th Strategic Wing (
Strategic Air Command (SAC)), 1 February 1959 – 1 February 1963 • HQ,
Continental Air Command, 16 April 1961 – 1 August 1968 •
465th Bombardment Wing (SAC), 1 February 1963 – 25 July 1968 • 58th Military Airlift Squadron (MAC), 6 January 1966 – 15 August 1971 •
19th Bombardment Wing (SAC), 25 July 1968 : Redesignated: 19th Air Refueling Wing (SAC), 1 October 1983 : Redesignated: 19th Air Refueling Group (Air Mobility Command), 1 July 1996 – 30 September 2008 • HQ, Air Force Reserve (Agency), 1 August 1968 : Redesignated: HQ,
Air Force Reserve Command (MAJCOM), 17 February 1997 – present •
78th Air Base Wing, 1 October 1994–present •
461st Air Control Wing, 2011–present •
116th Air Control Wing, 1995–present •
330th Aircraft Sustainment Wing, 2005 – 2010 •
402d Maintenance Wing, 2005 – 2012 •
542d Combat Sustainment Wing, 2005 – 2010 == Role and operations ==