Homestead Air Reserve Base
In the autumn of 1942, Lt. Col. William L. Plummer, with a handful of officers and enlisted men, made his way through the long pines and palmetto scrub of rural South Dade County to assume control of an isolated airstrip located about a mile inland from the shore of Biscayne Bay. The airstrip had been turned over to the government by Coconut Grove-based Pan American Ferries, Inc., which had carved it out of the rocky terrain in the early 1940s. Shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Army Air Corps officials decided the site would better serve the country's defense needs as a maintenance stopover point for aircraft being ferried to the Caribbean and North Africa. In September, officers with the Caribbean Wing of the Air Transport Command sent Colonel Plummer to the site to begin construction of a fully operational military base. Homestead Army Air Field (HAAF) was officially activated on 16 September 1942.
Homestead ARB has assisted and continues to engage the globe in a myriad of missions in the Global War on Terror with numerous individual and unit deployments to include: Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, Noble Eagle Air Defense Alert, Viper Javelin, and Operation New Dawn, Operation Freedom Sentinel, and
Operation Inherent Resolve.
Today, the 482nd FW, the host unit of Homestead ARB, continues to support contingency and training operations of U.S. Southern Command and a number of tenant units, including Headquarters Special Operations Command South, the U.S. Coast Guard Maritime Safety and Security Team, and an air and maritime unit of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. In addition, Homestead ARB is home to the most active NORAD alert site in the continental United States, operated by a detachment of F-15 fighter interceptors from the 125th FW of the Florida Air National Guard. The 482nd FW continues to provide the Department of Defense with an efficient, cost-effective air reserve base on the rim of the Caribbean Basin. Its strategic presence at the southernmost tip of the continental United States provides an invaluable platform from which to launch its full range of capabilities. Poised to protect and defend, readiness is its primary mission. Whether responding to real-world contingencies and tasks in support of homeland defense or performing its on-going mission of training America's finest citizen Airmen, the 482nd FW is “Ready to Win”, and consistently lives its vision of service before self, integrity first, and excellence in all they do.
Learn more: Homestead Air Reserve Base
