Columbus Air Force Base

Columbus Air Force Base
Part of Air Education and Training Command (AETC)
Located near: Columbus, Mississippi
14th OG T-6 Texan IIs over Columbus Mississippi
Coordinates	33°38′38″N 088°26′38″W / 33.64389°N 88.44389°W / 33.64389; -88.44389 (Columbus AFB)
Site information
Controlled by	United States Air Force
Site history
Built	1941
In use	1941 – present
Garrison information
Current commander	Col. Douglas C. Gosney
Garrison	14th Flying Training Wing

Airfield information
IATA: CBM ICAO: KCBM FAA LID: CBM
Summary
Elevation AMSL	219 ft / 67 m
Coordinates	33°38′38″N 088°26′38″W / 33.64389°N 88.44389°W / 33.64389; -88.44389Coordinates: 33°38′38″N 088°26′38″W / 33.64389°N 88.44389°W / 33.64389; -88.44389
Website	www.columbus.af.mil
Map
KCBM Location of Columbus Air Force Base
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 13C/31C 12,004 3,658 Concrete 13L/31R 8,001 2,438 Asphalt/Concrete 13R/31L 6,315 1,920 Concrete

Columbus Air Force Base (AFB) (IATA: CBM, ICAO: KCBM, FAA LID: CBM) is a United States Air Force base located approximately 9 miles (14 km) north of Columbus, Mississippi.

The host unit at Columbus is the 14th Flying Training Wing (14 FTW) assigned to the Air Education and Training Command. The 14 FTW's mission is to provide specialized undergraduate pilot training for U.S. Air Force and allied officers.

Columbus AFB was established in 1941 as Air Corps Advanced Flying School, Columbus, Mississippi. The commander of the 14 FTW is Colonel Douglas C. Gosney.

Columbus AFB has been training Air Force pilots since World War II, and that mission continues today. The base closed after the war and remained inactive until 1951 when it was reopened as a contract flying school to train pilots during the Korean War. Four years later, the base was transferred from Air Training Command to Strategic Air Command. Columbus became home to a SAC strategic wing with a KC-135 Stratotanker tanker squadron and a B-52 Stratofortress bomber squadron in the late 1950s. This wing was later redesignated a bombardment wing in the 1960s. In 1969, the SAC bomber mission at Columbus was inactivated and the base transferred back to the then-Air Training Command as an Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT) base. Columbus AFB then resumed the mission for which it originally activated – training pilots, and has continued to do so for the past 40 years.