Buckley Air National Guard Base in Aurora, Colorado, will be transferred to the US Air Force Space Command on 1 Oct 2000, becoming Buckley Air Force base. The base has been supporting Space Command for years, but the increasing need for such support has required more and more active duty personnel. The 5,000 personnel of the base include 2000 active duty personnel. When the base moves into the active Air Force, another 270 active duty positions will be added. Units at Buckley include the 140th Fighter Wing (twenty National Guard F-16s), the 2nd Space Warning Squadron, and the 821st Space Group. The base has 3,000 acres and one runway. Established in 1942 by the Army Air Corps, it passed to the Air National Guard in 1948, the Navy in 1949, and back to the Air National Guard in 1959. --Stephen V Cole