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Revision as of 11:50, 8 July 2007
Kunsan Air Base (IATA: KUV, ICAO: RKJK), a base of the United States Air Force, is located on the western side of the South Korean peninsula bordered by the Yellow Sea. It is at the town of Kunsan (also romanized as Gunsan) approximately 150 miles (240 km) south of Seoul. Kunsan Air Base is home to the 8th Fighter Wing.
Kunsan Air Base is one of two major Air Force installations operated by the United States in Korea, the other being Osan Air Base.
History
In 1938, Japanese forces occupying Korea built a base near Kunsan for fighter aircraft. The base was first used by the United States in 1945, and from then until 1950, the Army and later the Air Force intermittently operated from Kunsan.
At the beginng of the Korean War Kunsan Air Base still had no United States flying unit assigned. The base was captured by North Koreans on 13 July 1950. The 24th Infantry Division (United States) retook Kunsan in October 1950. The first Air Force unit assigned to the base, the 27th Air Base Group, arrived on 1 April 1951 and oversaw construction. By August, construction had progressed to the point that the Air Force assigned the 3d Bomb Wing to Kunsan. B-26 bombers were from Kunsan during the war, and remaining at Kunsan until October 1954.
During the Korean War, the Air Force used alphanumeric identifiers for bases in addition to their proper designations. Kunsan received the number K-8, while Osan Air Base was also known as K-55.
The base began to draw down after the war. The F-84 forces of the 49th Fighter-Bomber Wing left in November 1953, and by October 1954 the 3d Bomb Wing also departed. For the next several years Kunsan merely hosted periodic rotations, with base facilities maintained and operated by an air base group.
Until the late 1960s Kunsan remained relatively dormant. In 1965, the Republic of Korea Air Force assigned a squadron of F-86 fighters to the base.
The 354th Tactical Fighter Wing, flying the F-100 Super Sabre, arrived at Kunsan in July 1968, as part of the buildup of forces in Korea in the wake of the seizure of the USS Pueblo by the North Koreans. In 1969 the wing began a transition from the F-100 to the F-4 Phantom. The 354th remained until June 1970, when the base again returned to hosting temporary deployments.
In September 1974 the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing moved from Ubon Air Base, Thailand to Kunsan.