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McConnell Air Force Base
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McConnell Air Force Base (IATA: IAB, ICAO: KIAB) is a United States Air Force base located in Wichita, Kansas.
Today, McConnell is home to the 22d Air Refueling Wing, the AFRC's 931st Air Refueling Group, and the Kansas Air National Guard's 184th Wing.
It is located at the site of Wichita's original municipal airport, which was acquired by the United States in 1951. The site was selected in part because it shared a runway with Boeing's Wichita facility. Originally named Wichita Air Force Base, the name was changed to McConnell Air Force Base after less than a year in honor of Wichita brothers Fred and Thomas McConnell, both Air Force pilots and World War Two veterans who died in airplane crashes during the war. Fred was survived by his widow, the former Mary Louise Klein of Wichita, and left two children when he was killed; Kittie Lou and Thomas Lance McConnell.
In the 1950s Strategic Air Command selected the site for 18 Titan II missile complexes, which were at McConnell until 1986. The 381st Strategic Missile Wing was inactivated on 8 August 1986. Deactivation of all Titan II ICBM systems began in July 1982 and was completed in June 1987. From 1962 until 1964 McConnell hosted and flew the F-100 Super Sabre, and later the F-105 Thunderchief. Then in April 1971, with the arrival of KC-135 Stratotanker, the base began its new refueling mission.
In early 1983, McConnell learned that it would be the first to receive the B-1B Lancer bomber. The first one touched down at McConnell on 4 January 1988 and one year later the first Lancer aircrew and aircraft assumed alert duty. In 2002, as part of a plan to reduce and consolidate the Air Force's B-1 fleet, the B-1s were transferred to other bases.
On April 26, 1991, a tornado devastated McConnell during the Andover, Kansas Tornado Outbreak. As a result of the tornado, the base constructed new facilities to replace the destroyed base services.
