GOVERNMENT
Dobbins Air Base: A ‘shared purpose’
Staff reports
Dobbins Air Reserve Base has more than
just members of the Air Force on its premises,
and its impact reaches well beyond the base’s
boundaries.
One of only nine standalone Reserve bases
in the Air Force Reserve, the base in Marietta
is home to the 94th Airlift Wing, 22nd Air
Force Headquarters, Lockheed Martin Plant
6, Georgia National Guard Headquarters,
Navy Operational Support Center Atlanta
and units of the Army Reserve, Marine Corp
Reserve and Civil Air Patrol.
Goings-on at the base attract a variety of
aircraft, according to 1st Lt. Alan Abernethy
of public affairs for the 94th Airlift Wing.
“The runway at Dobbins continually
supports base assets including the C-130H3
Hercules, UH-60 Black Hawk, UH-72
Lakota, UC-35 Citation V along with many
other transit aircraft,” Abernethy said. “(Our)
operational schedules vary due to our diverse
mission requirements.”
The 94th Airlift Wing is the installation
host and an operational flying unit with
eight C-130H3 Hercules aircraft, and more
than 2,000 Air Force Reserve and civilian
personnel, while the total manpower from all
100 FACTBOOK 2020
Dobbins ARB units includes more than 5,700
personnel, according to Abernethy.
After assuming command of the 22nd
Air Force during a ceremony at Dobbins Air
Reserve Base in July, Maj. Gen. John P. Healy
said word of the reputation of Cobb County
had preceded his arrival.
“I think there’s a long history, an immensely
strong relationship between Cobb County, its
civic leaders, its local leaders, and not only the
host unit, the 94th Airlift Wing in Dobbins —
the 22nd Air Force is one of the tenants with
headquarters on the base — it’s an absolutely
fantastic relationship,” Healy said.
Dobbins has not been the target of any
recent federal Base Realignment and Closure
Act action, or BRAC. Should a new BRAC
emerge and Dobbins be affected, it could
affect the base’s personnel.
“(Lockheed Martin and Dobbins), we have
a shared purpose in what we use the campus
at large for,” said Rod McLean, vice president
of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics and general
manager of the company’s Marietta plant.
“If, by some chance, there was a BRAC, we
don’t know how that other space would be
utilized — would it be non-military, could it
be a commercial entity that would then have
restrictions on flight operations? So those are
the things that we’re very concerned about
because we will continue to develop and
build and fly airplanes out of the runway, so
anything that would move into that campus
that would restrict those operations would
be a challenge because we have monthly
commitments to deliver aircraft and when the
airplane is ready to fly, we need to make sure
it’s ready to fly.”
Dobbins’ history spans back about eight
decades. In the late 1930s, the future Dobbins
Air Reserve Base was built as Rickenbacker
Field, intended to be a commercial airport.
Its namesake, World War I flying ace Eddie
Rickenbacker, had been head of Atlanta
based Eastern Airlines at the time.
On Feb. 19, 1942, the U.S. War Department
selected Marietta for the site of the Bell
Bomber plant. Paid for by the War Department,
it is built directly adjacent to the airfield.
In March of that year, construction began to
convert Rickenbacker into the Marietta Army
Airfield, and it was completed in June of the
following year.
The name Dobbins came from a Word
War II pilot, Capt. Charles Dobbins of Marietta,
who was killed when his C-47 aircraft was
shot down over the Mediterranean Sea. The
base was named after him in 1950.
The base became Dobbins Air Reserve
Base in June of 1992.
Today, Dobbins is the only major military
installation in north Georgia, contributing
nearly $181 million to the local economy,
Abernethy said.
“The local community is a robust supporter
of Dobbins personnel, units and mission sets,”
he added. “We greatly appreciate the strong
support we receive from the Cobb County
and local area.”
FACTBOX
DOBBINS AIR RESERVE BASE
Year opened: 1943
Number of flights: At fiscal year 2018’s
end in September 2018, the base for the
year had conducted operations with nearly
42,000 flights in the surrounding airspace
Length of runway: 10,002 feet
Vice President Mike Pence visited Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta in August 2019.