[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 171 (Tuesday, December 11, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12857-S12858]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DOVER AIR FORCE BASE

  Mr. BIDEN. Madam President, on December 20, 1941, the 112th 
Observation Squadron of the Ohio National Guard arrived in Dover, DE, 
to begin conducting anti-submarine patrols. It was the first military 
unit to serve at what is now known as the Dover Air Force Base.
  The history of the Base actually goes back 2 years further, to 1939, 
when in response to the Nazi invasion of Poland, the Civilian Aviation 
Administration, CAA, offered State and local governments on both coasts 
financial help to build municipal airports. The CAA offered to build 
one airfield in each of Delaware's three counties; the State did not 
pursue the offer, but New Castle and Sussex Counties accepted. Kent 
County passed the issue to the city of Dover, our State capital, and 
the Dover leaders agreed and purchased the land for a new airfield, in 
what has been hailed many times since as ``the best investment the city 
ever made.''
  In addition to the anti-submarine mission during World War II, 
Dover's airfield was used, once the Corps of Engineers had done some of 
its magic, to train fighter squadrons and then, in 1944, as the site 
for classified air-launched rocket tests, experiments that led to the 
use of air-to-surface rockets in both the European and the Pacific 
Theaters.
  After the war, the airfield was placed on caretaker status, and 
although it remained inactive for the rest of the 1940s, the name was 
officially changed to Dover Air Force Base in January 13, 1948. Control 
of the Base was transferred to the Ninth Air Force in February 1949. In 
February 1951, the Dover Air Force Base was reactivated and put under 
the jurisdiction of the Air Defense Command, ADC, with different 
fighter squadrons using the airfield over the course of the next 7 
years.
  The foundation for a permanent mission was laid when, recognizing 
Dover's strategic location, the Military Air Transport Service, MATS, 
assumed control and began, with an appropriation from Congress, to 
transform the Base into the East Coast embarkation point and foreign 
clearing base. Four units of the Atlantic Division were organized at 
Dover: the 1607th Air Base Group, the 1607th Air Base Squadron, the 
1607th Maintenance and Supply Squadron, and the 1607th Medical Group. 
In November 1953, the first two transport squadrons were assigned, 
forming the core of the 1607th Air Transport Wing, and in December of 
that year, the Secretary of the Air Force designated the Dover Air 
Force Base as a permanent military installation.
  In 1955, the Aerial Port Mortuary responsibilities were transferred 
to Dover, and many Americans have become familiar with the Base for its 
prominence and exceptional service in fulfilling that duty. To offer an 
incomplete list, the Port Mortuary has received the remains of 
casualties of the war in Vietnam, a number of plane and helicopter 
crashes involving military personnel, the mass suicide in Guyana, the 
attack on the Marine barracks in Beirut, the Challenger explosion, the 
USS Stark, Pan Am 103, the USS Iowa, the Khobar Towers bombing, the 
1998 bombing in Kenya, and most recently, victims of the September 11 
attack on the Pentagon.

  From the mid-1950s to the mid-Sixties, to offer another incomplete 
list, Dover Air Force Base participated in Project Ice Cube to 
construct a Defense Early Warning Network in Northern Canada; the 
airlift to help combat a polio outbreak in Argentina; Operation Good 
Hope to Jordan; the Amigo Airlift in response to a devastating 
earthquake in Chile; an airlift of relief supplies to Honduras after 
Hurricane Hattie; the airlift of United Nations peace-keepers to the 
Belgian Congo; the Cuban Missile Crisis; the relief airlift following 
the Great Alaskan Earthquake; and the delivery of supplies to 
Guadeloupe Island after Hurricane Cleo, as well as supporting the 
deepening involvement in Vietnam.
  In January 1966, a reorganization led to the designation of the 
Military Airlift Command and the activation of the 436th Military 
Airlift Wing to assume command of the Base. The 436th, by the way, has 
its own proud history, going back to the famed 436th Troop Carrier 
Group, TCG, which participated in just about every major European 
campaign of World War II, from Normandy to Operation Market Garden to 
Bastogne to Operation Varsity.
  In 1968, the 912th Military Airlift Group, Associate, along with the 
326th Military Airlift, the 912th Support, and the 912th Material 
Squadrons, were activated at Dover, giving the Base a total of four 
active and one reserve military airlift squadrons. In 1973, the 512th 
Military Airlift Wing, A, which is now the 512th Airlift Wing, A, was 
activated as a replacement to the 912th and its subordinates; the 512th 
AW remains a key part of Dover's mission. From 1971 to 1973, the 
transition was undertaken to make Dover home to the first all C-5 
equipped wing in the Air Force.
  During the Vietnam war, Dover aircrews participated in, among others, 
Operation Blue Light in January 1966 and Operation Eagle Thrust in 
1967, an incredibly ambitious military airlift into a combat zone for 
which Dover personnel received their first Air Force Outstanding Unit 
Award.
  Among other most notable missions in which Dover crews have 
participated are Operation Nickel Grass, during which Dover's C-5s flew 
71 missions, more than 2,000 hours, delivering more than 5,000 tons of 
cargo. That operation is considered by many to have been the first real 
test of the C-5 aircraft. Dover crews also successfully dropped and 
test-fired a Minuteman I ICBM in 1974, and delivered a 40-ton 
superconducting magnet to Moscow in 1977 as part of a joint energy 
research program. The mission to Moscow earned the crew the Mackay 
Trophy for the most meritorious flight of the year. Missions to Zaire 
and, in the cause of joint verification, another to the Soviet Union 
also earned Mackay Trophies for Dover captains and crews.
  Dover crews helped evacuate Americans from Iran in 1978, and 
supported the Marine operation in Lebanon in 1983-84. Dover's C-5s flew 
27 missions in the invasion on Grenada also in 1983, and assisted with 
the clean-up after the Valdez oil spill in 1989. Eighteen missions were 
flown by Dover crews in Operation Just Cause in Panama, and in 
Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, the Persian Gulf War, 
Dover's C-5s logged more than 30,000 flying hours. Since then, Dover 
crews have flown in Operation Restore Hope in Somalia; in Operation 
Joint Endeavor in Bosnia-Herzegovina, in Operations Desert Thunder and 
Desert Fox in 1998; and in Operation Allied Force against the military 
structure of Slobodan Milosevic.

  Among recent humanitarian missions have been the airlift to Central 
America following Hurricane Mitch; Joint Task Force Shining Hope to aid 
Kosovar refugees; airlifts to Turkey following the earthquakes of 1999; 
the 436 AW also responded to the earthquake that same year in Taiwan; 
and Operation Atlas Response in Mozambique after the devastating 
flooding there last year.
  And, of course, there is Operation Enduring Freedom, our common cause 
in which our military men and women bear so much of the burden, the 
risk and the sacrifice. Our prayers and thanks are with them every day, 
including the 200 men and women from the 512 Air Reserve Wing who have 
been activated. I would also note that the 436th Airlift Wing received 
its 13th Air Force Outstanding Unity Award in October.

[[Page S12858]]

  I share this history with my colleagues and with the Nation today, 
not only because the 60th anniversary of the Dover Air Force Base 
represents our proud military tradition so well, but also because the 
history of the Dover Air Force Base is very much a part of the history 
of Delaware. We do not merely co-exist with the Base; it is a part of 
our State family, a part of our community of friends and neighbors. And 
so we are especially proud, and so very grateful to those who have 
served.
  Congratulations to Colonel Scott Wuesthoff, the current Commander of 
the 436th Airlift Wing, to Colonel Bruce Davis, who just assumed 
command of the 512th Airlift Wing, and to all personnel who serve out 
of Dover, on the 60th anniversary of the Air Force Base, with the 
respect and thanks of your neighbors in Delaware, and of all your 
fellow citizens.

                          ____________________