Carswell Air Force Base

Carswell Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force (USAF) base, located northwest of Fort Worth, Texas. For most of its operational lifetime, the base's mission was to train and support heavy strategic bombing groups and wings.

Carswell was a major Strategic Air Command (SAC) base during the Cold War. It was the headquarters of several SAC intercontinental bombardment wings, equipped with the latest heavy bombers from B-29 Superfortresses; B-36 Peacemakers and B-52 Stratofortresses. The west side of the airfield is home to United States Air Force Plant 4, a 602-acre (2.44 km²) industrial complex occupied over the decades by Convair, General Dynamics, and now by Lockheed Martin. The bulk of the Air Force Convair B-36, B-58 Hustler, General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark, EF-111 Raven and F-16 Fighting Falcon fleets were built there. The F-35 Lightning II aircraft for the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and various NATO and Allied partner nations is currently built there.

With the end of the Cold War and the subsequent downsizing of the American military, the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission of 1991 recommended that Carswell AFB be closed by 1994. In lieu of outright closure, the majority of the installation was transferred to the U.S. Navy for use as a naval air station to replace the nearby Naval Air Station Dallas that was also being closed due to BRAC action.

Today, the facility is known as Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth / Carswell Field. It retains an Air Force Reserve Command presence from its previous status as an air force base that includes the headquarters for an Air Force Reserve numbered air force and a tenant Air Force Reserve fighter wing. The installation also hosts tenant Navy Reserve, Marine Corps Reserve, Army Reserve and Texas Air National Guard flying units which were formerly located at Naval Air Station Dallas.