Mountain Home Air Force Base

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Mountain Home Air Force Base (Mountain Home AFB) is a U.S. Air Force base located west of Mountain Home, Idaho in Elmore County, and fifty miles (80 km) southeast of Boise. The base is currently the home of the 366th Fighter Wing. The base is also treated by the U.S. Census as a census-designated place for statistical purposes. The elevation is 2996 feet AMSL.

1 General information
2 Geography
3 Demographics
4 External links

[edit] General information

Originally named Mountain Home Army Air Field, construction of the field began in October 1942, and it officially opened 7 August 1943. During World War II, B-24 Liberator crews trained here and briefly at the end of the war B-29 Superfortress crews. The field was shut down in October 1945 until December 1948. From late 1948 to April 1950, the base reopened to host the 5th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, then after a short closure, several resupply wings trained for covert operations. In 1953, the base was transferred to the Strategic Air Command, and hosted the 9th Bomb Wing, initially flying the B-29, then in 1954, the new B-47 (supported with KC-97 tankers). In 1959, construction of three Titan missile sites was begun. In late 1964, the B-47 was targeted to be phased out and SAC would soon be leaving the base. In 1966 the base was transferred to the Tactical Air Command and received the 47th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, then the 347th Tactical Fighter Wing for a brief period in 1971 before the 366th relocated from Vietnam. For the next two decades the base hosted F-111 Aardvark aircraft, first the "F" version, then the "A" model. Beginning in the early 1980s the electronic warfare version, the EF-111A Raven, made its home at the base as well. When the Air Force was reorganized in 1992, the new Air Combat Command took over and Mountain Home became the host of the first composite wing, employing fighters (F-15 & F-16), bombers (B-52G, later B-1B), and tankers (KC-135) together. Currently home to a mixed fighter wing with F15 and F16 airplanes the wing will be F15 only.

Mountain Home AFB is considered, by many, to be the best base for newly commissioned LTs.

[edit] Geography

Mountain Home AFB is located at 43°2′58″N, 115°51′59″W (43.049511, -115.866452)^GR1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 25.7 km² (9.9 mi²). 25.7 km² (9.9 mi²) of it is land and 0.10% is water.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^GR2 of 2000, there were 8,894 people, 1,476 households, and 1,452 families residing in the town. The population density was 346.2/km² (896.1/mi²). There were 1,590 housing units at an average density of 61.9/km² (160.2/mi²). The racial makeup of the town was 83.21% White, 6.90% Black or African American, 0.76% Native American, 2.52% Asian, 0.20% Pacific Islander, 2.70% from other races, and 3.70% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6.47% of the population.

There were 1,476 households out of which 76.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 91.9% were married couples living together, 4.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 1.6% were non-families. 1.4% of all households were made up of individuals and none had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.40 and the average family size was 3.43.

In the town the population was spread out with 24.0% under the age of 18, 24.4% from 18 to 24, 49.7% from 25 to 44, 1.8% from 45 to 64, and 0.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 25 years. For every 100 females there were 180.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 219.5 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $31,634, and the median income for a family was $31,377. Males had a median income of $24,865 versus $20,664 for females. The per capita income for the town was $17,671. About 6.5% of families and 7.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 9.1% of those under age 18 and none of those age 65 or over.