Arkansas is a beautiful southern state home to former president Bill and Hillary Clinton. Below are some of the military bases in Arkansas.
Map of Military Bases in Arkansas
Little Rock Air Force Base
This base is located just a few miles away from Little Rock, Arkansas, and was built in 1955. It is primarily a training base for the C-130 Hercules aircraft. Anyone from navigators to loadmasters to pilots in all branches of the military come here to train with the C-130 Hercules. The Little Rock AFB is actually home to the C-130 Center of Excellence, and the largest fleet of C-130 Hercules aircraft is provided here. The 19th Airlift Wing (the host unit at this base) frequently performs humanitarian airlift operations to disaster victims, and it helps to airdrop troops and supplies into hostile areas. The troops and aircraft from the Little Rock AFB have played major roles in aiding U.S. military efforts throughout several wars and conflicts since the base’s creation.
Camp Joseph T. Robinson
This base is the main training ground for the Arkansas National Guard. It is located in North Little Rock and used to be called Camp Pike after General Zebulon Montgomery Pike. During WWI and WWII, the camp housed and trained thousands of U.S. troops and even became a prisoner of war camp for German soldiers. To support this base between wars, any unneeded material from the original post was sold. Interestingly, several portions of the base have been divied up to other causes. Some examples include the area designated for wildlife management and the section of land where the North Little Rock Airport now sits. Another area that used to be a part of the base is now used as a national cemetery. The remainder of the base still operates for National Guard training.
Fort Chaffee Maneuver Training Center
This Army National Guard station was founded in 1941 as Camp Chaffee and renamed Fort Chaffee in 1956. It has served multiple functions over the course of its life including as a refugee camp, a training camp, Army base, and prisoner-of-war camp. Its time as a refugee camp occurred three times: once for refugees from Southeast Asia after the Vietnam and Cambodia wars; a second time for Cuban refugees; and a third time for Americans fleeing the damage from Hurricane Katrina. Another interesting fact is that Fort Chaffee has been used as a movie set for The Tuskegee Airmen (1995), Biloxi Blues (1988), and A Soldier’s Story (1984).
Pine Bluff Arsenal
This base is operated by the Army and is located in Jefferson County, Arkansas. This base was founded in 1941 and sits on over 13,000 acres of land. The arsenal stores chemical weapons and is just one of nine Army locations that does so. The PBA specializes in test equipment and chemical defense among many other chemical operations. From about 1954 to 1967, this installation conducted the creation of at least seven biological weapons, but after pushback from the public, all were destroyed. At one point in time, the PBA even housed around 12 percent of all the chemical weapons in the nation. Now, the Pine Bluff Arsenal also operates as a technology center. Its mission as designed by Homeland Security outlines its training in first-responder equipment.
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