JBER

Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson (IATA: EDF, ICAO: PAED, FAA LID: EDF) is a United States military facility in Anchorage, the largest city in Alaska. It is an amalgamation of the United States Air Force's Elmendorf Air Force Base and the United States Army's Fort Richardson, which were merged in 2010.[2]

The adjacent facilities were officially combined by the 2005 Base Closure and Realignment Commission. Its mission is to support and defend U.S. interests in the Asia Pacific region and around the world by providing units who are ready for worldwide air power projection and a base that is capable of meeting PACOM's theater staging and throughput requirements.[3]

It is the home of the Headquarters, Alaskan Command (ALCOM), Alaskan NORAD Region (ANR), Joint Task Force-Alaska (JTF-AK), Eleventh Air Force (11 AF), the 673d Air Base Wing, the 3rd Wing, the 176th Wing and other Tenant Units.[4]

Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson (JBER), holds the distinction of being one of 12 Joint Bases that were created in BRAC 2005.[5] The 673d ABW consists of four groups that operate and maintain the joint base for air sovereignty, combat training, force staging and throughput operations in support of worldwide contingencies.[6]

The installation hosts the headquarters for the United States Alaskan Command, 11th Air Force, U.S. Army Alaska, and the Alaskan North American Aerospace Defense Command Region.

Major units assigned are:

On September 22, 1995, a United States Air Force Boeing E-3 Sentry airborne early warning aircraft crashed on departure from (previously named) Elmendorf Air Force Base with the loss of all 24 on board. The aircraft, serial number 77-0354, and using call sign Yukla 27, struck birds during takeoff and lost power in two of the aircraft's four engines, subsequently crashing into a wooded area less than a mile from the end of the runway.[11]

On July 28, 2010, a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III cargo aircraft practicing for an upcoming airshow crashed into a wooded area within the base, killing all four aircrew members; three from the Alaska Air National Guard and one from the USAF.[12][13] The cause of the accident has been reported to be pilot error. The pilot performed an aggressive righthand turn and ignored the aircraft's stall warning, continuing the turn until the aircraft stalled due to lack of airspeed. The low altitude of the turn made it impossible for the crew to recover from the stall in time to avoid impacting the ground. The C-17 crashed just 100 yards from the site of the 1995 E-3 AWACS crash.[14]

On November 16, 2010, a Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor took off for a training mission. At approximately 1900 hours, the base reported that the aircraft was overdue and missing. Air Force rescue teams were reported to be concentrating their search for the missing plane and pilot in Denali National Park. The F-22's crash site was found about 100 miles north of Anchorage near the town of Cantwell, Alaska. The pilot, part of the US Air Force's 525th Fighter Squadron, was killed in the crash.[15]

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/.