Oscoda-Wurtsmith Airport

OSCODA–WURTSMI TH A I RPORT surveillance systems and weapon capabilities rendered many military installations unnecessary. As a result, Wurtsmith A.F.B. was deactivated and closed as of June 30, 1993. The airfield, aircraft maintenance facilities, and industrial properties were transferred to Oscoda Wurtsmith Airport Authority. The Airport Authority includes representation and partnership among five local municipalities which include Alcona County, Iosco County, Charter Township of AuSable, Charter Township of Oscoda, and Greenbush Township. Over the past 27 years, since the base closure, the Airport Authority has been responsible for repurposing and further developing former military facilities in support of civil aircraft operations. Today, the Airport has no scheduled passenger service. Instead, the airfield and large hangar facilities are utilized in support of heavy aircraft maintenance and overhaul services. Its major employer, and operator of former military hangars, is an aircraft maintenance company called Kalitta Air. Kalitta Air maintains both its own fleet of aircraft, as well as third-party Squadron. It operated as an auxiliary airfield of the Selfridge Army Air Base. The missions included defense of shipping lanes at Sault Sainte Marie and the Straits of Mackinac. It was also used to train both Afro-American aviators, as well as pilots of the Free French Air Force. The base was renamed Wurtsmith Air Force Base in 1953 after Michigan native, Major General Paul Wurtsmith, who was killed when his aircraft crashed near Cold Mountain, North Carolina in September 1946. Wurtsmith AFB was considered a vital Air Defense Command base. It was equipped and manned with interceptor aircraft which were ready for 24/7 response to unknown aircraft flying over the North Pole from the Soviet Union. In 1960, the jurisdiction of Wurtsmith AFB was transferred from the Air Defense Command to the Strategic Air Command (SAC). As a SAC base, Wurtsmith became home to nuclear weapon- capable B-52 bombers and KC-135 Strato- tankers that provided airborne refueling. The 1991 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process determined that new long-range satellite