Talk:Fort Wainwright

Infobox

I'm going to attempt to add an infobox to this article. Derek Balsam^(talk) 01:42, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

I am not sure if this is were I would say this, but I feel if the page should have the current command for Fort Wainwright.

Merge from Ladd Army Airfield

Copying my rationale from Talk:Ladd Army Airfield:

Seems like merging with Fort Wainwright would improve the quality of both articles, and provide a better historical perspective of the post(s). Derek Balsam(talk) 01:54, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

I see that this merge was already proposed once, recently. There wasn't any discussion about it as far as I can tell. User:Nobunaga24 removed the merge tag with the comment "removing merge tag - Many AAFs have articles seperate from the main fort's article". However, just because "many" Army Air Fields have separate articles doesn't mean that is the right thing to do for this article. See for example Mackall Army Airfield and the entire List of United States Army airfields. Both Ladd Army Airfield and Fort Wainwright are very short articles, and could be improved by the merger. In addition, the term "Ladd Field" not only refers to the Ladd Army Airfield but also to the historical Ladd Air Force Base. A merged article would then give complete historical context of the installation. I'm willing to do the work.Derek Balsam(talk) 02:32, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

Therefore I believe this qualifies for merger under WP:MM#Overlap, WP:MM#Text, and WP:MM#Context.Derek Balsam^(talk) 02:49, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

While there should certainly be a section in Fort Wainwright about Ladd AAF, there are several reasons to maintain seperate pages. The original merge tag was placed on the article on 7 November 2006, and no further action or discussion was ever initiated. Unfortunately, the edit summary doesn't give you enough space to elaborate, so I'll do that now briefly. For starters, the airfield has a history independent of Wainwright, having been an air force base for a number of years, as have many army airfields. Just because now it falls under Fort Wainwright doesn't mean that it should necessarily be merged into that article. Airfields also have a unique function seperate from the usual activities on most forts. They serve as a transportation hub, and sometimes, such as at Fort Leonard Wood, serve as an airport for the surrounding community. Given its history as an Air Force base, the potential for the article to be expanded is there, though it is just a short article now. On the wikipedia side, airfields, being airports, are of interest to the aviation project on wikipedia, whereas army forts aren't. There are seperate infoboxes used for airports, there are airport diagrams, aviation incidents, etc. I think perhaps before any action is taken, input from both WikiProject Military history and Wikipedia:WikiProject Aviation should be sought, since they both have an interest in this, and perhaps the Alaska project too. For some AAFs, merging into the main fort's article might make sense, but in my opinion I don't think Ladd, given its size and history, is one of those. --Nobunaga24 02:31, 9 July 2007 (UTC)