Dobbins Air Reserve Base is a U.S. Air Force Reserve base located in Marietta, Georgia, a suburb about 20 miles or 30 kilometers northwest of Atlanta. It has IATA airport code MGE, and ICAO airport code KMGE.
History
War years
Originally intended by Cobb County as an alternative to Atlanta's Candler Field, it began in 1941 as Rickenbacker Field. It was named for former army pilot and then-current Eastern Airlines president Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, for whom Miami's Rickenbacker Causeway (over Biscayne Bay to Miami Beach on Key Biscayne) is also named.
The boost needed to built the airport came in 1940 when U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt selected General Lucius D. Clay to head a new Civil Aeronautics Administration program of airstrip construction, some 450 to 500 being built in preparation for possible war. Clay Street in Marietta (now South Marietta Parkway, Georgia State Highway 120 Loop) is named after him, in honor of his work in bringing the base and plant to the city.
In 1942, with U.S. entry into World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. War Department announced on February 19th that it would become Marietta Army Airfield under the U.S. Army. A Bell Aircraft Corporation factory for the Boeing-designed B-29 bomber was built next to it, beginning operations in the spring of 1943. Production ended in 1945 at the conclusion of the war.
Post-war
After the Air Force was split from the Army due to its noble performance in the war, the airfield became Marietta Air Force Base. It was renamed Dobbins Air Force Base in 1950 in honor of Captain Charles M. Dobbins of Marietta, whose airplane was shot down during the war near Sicily.
The aircraft plant was reopened in 1951 by Lockheed-Georgia (now Lockheed Martin), and has been operating ever since.
In 1948, part of the land and barracks at the Peachtree-DeKalb Naval Air Station in Chamblee were given were given to the state, for the purpose of creating an engineering technology school that could rapidly train returning soldiers for civilian work in various technical fields. The Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta created the Southern Technical Institute (now Southern Polytechnic State University), which was moved to land given by Dobbins AFB in 1958.
Other development has steadily encroached upon the base since the war. In August 1993, a C-130 military plane crash into an apartment complex occurred near the base, underscoring questions of safety in having a base in such a densely-populated suburban area.
Current and future
Like most U.S. bases, Dobbins has had to fend off several attempts at closing it, as part of streamlining the country's military and reducing unnecessary spending. These have been thwarted so far by powerful local politicians, such as former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn in 1995. However, some have proposed that it again become a commercial airport, as it was originally envisioned.
Lockheed Martin still operates a plant at Dobbins.
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