Creech Air Force Base

Creech Air Force Base ("Creech" colloq.) is a USAF command and control facility used "to engage in daily Overseas Contingency Operations …of remotely piloted aircraft systems which fly missions across the globe." In addition to an airport, the military installation has the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Battlelab, associated aerial warfare ground equipment, and unmanned aerial vehicles of the type used in Afghanistan and Iraq. Creech is the aerial training site for the USAF Thunderbirds and "is one of two emergency divert airfields" for the Nevada Test and Training Range.



Description
In addition to the airfield, the base includes the "UAV-Logistic and Training Facility", the Joint Unmanned Aerial Systems Center of Excellence, and other military units/facilities. A Creech unit also operates the "Silver Flag Alpha RTC" (Regional Training Complex) "15 miles south of Indian Springs on Highway 95" with 12 small arms ranges including a MOUT...village, a bare base tent city and a maneuver area".

Units

 * Air Combat Command: 98th Southern Range Support Squadron 	432d Air Expeditionary Wing with 2 groups, 6 operational squadrons, 3 maintenance squadrons, and MQ-9 Reapers and MQ-1 Predators 	556th Test and Evaluation Squadron 	799th Air Base Group with 2 squadrons
 * Air Force Reserve: 78th Reconnaissance Squadron
 * Air Force Special Operations Command: 3d Special Operations Squadron
 * Nevada Air National Guard: 232d Operations Squadron
 * Royal Air Force: No. 39 Squadron RAF

History
After World War I, Nevada and other western inland states were surveyed by Capt. Lowell H. Smith and Sgt. William B. Whitefield for landing sites, and by "mid-1925 the Air Service possessed information on [~3,500 US] landing places, including [>2,500] emergency landing areas" (e.g., Boeing owned everything at Elko, Nevada's airfield). The United States Army Air Corps subsequently rented a large room in Reno, and the Corps used the 1929 civilian airfield near Las Vegas (named "McCarren Field" c. 1935) for 1930s training flights. A 1939 "western site board" reconnaissance was conducted near Tonopah for a practice range and in October 1940, Maj. David Schlatter surveyed the southwest United States for a military airfield (Executive Order 8578 transferred a "60 × 90 mile area at Tonopah to the War Department on 29 October 1940".) Congressional appropriations of 19 November 1941 for the Commissioner of Public Roads to build "21 flight strips" along highways for "bombing ranges or for other specialized training" included inland airstrips. "Initially a “tent city” military training camp", construction of "Indian Springs Airport" permanent facilities began in March 1942, "and by February 1943 the camp was used as a divert field and as a base for air-to-air gunnery training."

Indian Springs Army Airfield
The Nevada World War II Army Airfield at Indian Springs supported B-17 Flying Fortress & T-6 Texan aircraft and had 5 Auxiliary Army Airfields on the bombing range, e.g., Area 18 had Aux. Field #4 & Area 51 had Aux. Field #1 (Tonopah Army Airfield also had 5 auxiliary fields). In March 1945 Indian Springs AAF was placed in stand-by with a small housekeeping staff and in January 1947, was closed along with Las Vegas AAF. The Army airfield re-opened in January 1948 and in 1950, the base's 1st USAF unit was assigned to the installation.

Indian Springs Air Force Base
Indian Springs Air Force Base was designated in August 1951 and in July 1952, jurisdiction transferred from Air Training Command to the Air Force Special Weapons Center (AFSWC) of ARDC. As an AFSWC facility, "Indian Springs AFB served as a support base for projects from Operation RANGER in 1951 to Operation STORAX in 1962." "The 4935th Air Base Squadron was activated to operate the base in accordance with ARDC General Order No. 39 on 16 July 1952". The base's mission was to support AEC nuclear testing at the Nevada Proving Grounds, 30 mi southwest, as well as Nellis AFB's operation of the Nellis Air Force Gunnery and Bombing Range. "At first fewer than 300 officers and enlisted men were stationed at Indian Springs AFB, but when testing began, the population grew to more than 1,500 personnel. The base also hosted more than 100 of the most modern aircraft in the world at the time."


 * Operation Teapot: Indian Springs' support of Teapot nuclear tests included hosting media visits and "Official and Congressional Observer groups" e.g., "by agreement reached in January 1955" for flights from Washington. Aircrews at Indian Springs were briefed on weather for tests and when the "Yucca Lake airstrip" became flooded, "nuclear devices" were instead landed at the AFB until Yucca Lake "was completely dried out".  AFSWC personnel at Indian Springs AFB provided "facilities and messing for observers and experimental groups, air freight terminal services, servicing for Department of Defense and project vehicles stationed at Indian Springs AFB and transient vehicles", and support of flights between Kirtland and Indian Springs.  (The 4925th Special Weapons Group conducted the "live test drops at Nevada" and flew through and sampled "highly radioactive nuclear “clouds” after explosions" —the 4926th Test Squadron (Sampling) also tested Nevada mushroom clouds. )

The Air Base Squadron transferred under the 4950th Test Group (Nuclear) in 1956, the base launched the Shot John F-89J that fired the MB-1 Genie which detonated over Area 10, and AFSWC jurisdiction at Indian Springs AFB "continued until 1961".

Indian Springs Air Force Auxiliary Field
Indian Springs Air Force Auxiliary Field was designated on 1 April 1961 when "the USAF transferred Indian Springs AFB missions to Nellis AFB under the control of TAC".


 * Det 1, AFSWC: Detachment 1, AFSWC had all 6 aircraft stationed at Indian Springs c. 1963 to support the Nevada Test Site by transporting personnel to/from Camp Murcury and Yucca Flats and to orbit/hover over selected underground tests while monitoring for radiation leaks. Ancillary missions were carried out including target marking at the nearby bombing range for the aircraft from Nellis AFB as well as searching for and retrieving weather balloons. In 1966, the unit replaced 2 HH-43 Huskie helicopters with 2 UH-1F Huey utility helicopters.  During one bombing range support mission circa 1967-1968, the Det 1 detachment commander, Lt Col Conner, and his co-pilot, Captain Peterson, were killed when their U-6 crashed into nearby mountains (a smoke bomb may have been inadvertently dropped inside the plane.)

During the 1970s and 1980s, the primary base mission was range maintenance and the primary unit was the 57th Combat Support Squadron of civil engineers—the only assigned aircraft unit was a detachment of UH-1N Twin Huey helicopters ("Det 1"). The 1981 Indian Springs C-130 crash was "short" of the landing strip,* and the 1982 Thunderbirds Indian Springs Diamond Crash killed all 4 T-38 pilots impacting along the runway (controlled flight into terrain)--cf. 1966 Indian Springs F-105 crash. Circa 1988, "the bulk of Silver Flag Alpha [moved] to the Indian Springs Air Force Auxiliary Field" from Nellis, and Indian Springs AFAF was designated Formerly Used Defense Site NV99799F601300 by September 30, 2002  and in January 2005, No 1115 Flight was formed at the base to operate the Royal Air Force's first UAVs (became part of No. 39 Squadron RAF in March 2007.)



Creech AFB
Creech Air Force Base was named on 20 June 2005 and activated, in October 2005, the Joint Unmanned Aerial Systems Center of Excellence and the 3d Special Operations Squadron (the latter was the 1st MQ-1 Predator squadron in the AFSOC). A Creech aircraft of the 11th Reconnaissance Squadron was lost in the 2006 NTTR Predator crash,* and the 42d Attack Squadron was formed at Creech AFB on 8 November 2006 as the first Reaper squadron. By 2007, Creech personnel of the 432nd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron had been deployed to Ali Air Base, and the base transferred from a Nellis AFB unit to the 432d Wing when activated on 1 May 2007 (renamed 432d Air Expeditionary Wing on May 15, 2008.) On 5 March 2008, the 556th Test and Evaluation Squadron became operational as "the Air Force's [1st] test squadron for unmanned aerial systems". In 2008 the USGS added the military installation to the Geographic Names Information System (the airport portion of the base was separately designated in 2011).

A 2009 Nevada Desert Experience protest against drone attacks on Pakistan by the United States of America resulted in the convictions of the "Creech 14" (e.g., Father Louie Vitale, Kathy Kelly, & John Dear) arrested on the base for trespassing and sentenced on January 27, 2011 for time served  (a 2009 protest was also held.)  In 2011, keystroke logging software had infected UAV ground stations ("believed to have spread through...removable drives"),  and the Twenty-Fourth Air Force was alerted to the problem by an article in Wired Magazine (the virus "posed no threat to our operational mission".)  In 2012, the ceremony in which the 99th Security Forces Group "stands down" also activated the 799th Air Base Group at Creech.