Offutt Air Force Base and the Great War

By Editor/Publisher Mike Hanlon

I spent three formative years of my life stationed at Offutt, AFB, Nebraska. Back then, it was known for being the Headquarters, Strategic Air Command, and for its starring roles in the Cold War classic films Fail Safe and Dr. Strangelove.  Most important for my post-Air Force career was my service there under three memorable lt. colonels. Two were great bosses, Colonels Cooke Leutwyler and Tom Madigan.  One was not, but the lessons I learned from him may have been the most valuable I carried over from my military service.

Anyway, it popped into my head recently that the airfield for what was way back then the Army's Fort Crook had been active during the Great War and that it had been dedicated sometime after the Armistice in honor of a local aviator, Jarvis Offutt, who had died in the war. I decided to check out how my old duty station remembered its WWI service during the Centennial and discovered these very nicely done graphics prepared by the Air Force. These the story of Fort Crook, Lt. Offutt, and of the units associated with Offutt AFB today that can trace their lineage back to World War I.  

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