Barksdale Air Force Base

Barksdale Air Force Base
Bossier City, Louisiana, in the United States of America
File:Barksdale participates in exercise 120605-F-KN424-052.jpg Three Boeing B-52H Stratofortress bombers sit on the flight-line at Barksdale Air Force Base during 2012.
Type	US Air Force base
Site information
Owner	Department of Defense
Operator	US Air Force
Controlled by	Air Force Global Strike Command
Condition	Operational
Website	http://www.barksdale.af.mil
Site history
Built	1931 (1931)–1933
In use	1933 – present
Garrison information
Current commander	Colonel Mark C. Dmytryszyn
Garrison	2nd Bomb Wing (Host) 307th Bomb Wing
Occupants	11th Bomb Squadron 20th Bomb Squadron 93rd Bomb Squadron 96th Bomb Squadron 343d Bomb Squadron See Based units section for full list.
Airfield information
Identifiers	IATA: BAD, ICAO: KBAD, FAA LID: BAD, WMO: 722485
Elevation	50.2 metres (165 ft) AMSL
Runways Direction Length and surface 15/33 3,583.8 metres (11,758 ft) PEM
Source: Federal Aviation Administration

Barksdale Air Force Base (Barksdale AFB) (IATA: BAD, ICAO: KBAD, FAA LID: BAD) is a United States Air Force (USAF) base in Bossier Parish, Louisiana in northwest Louisiana. It is contiguous to Bossier City, Louisiana, along the base's western and northwestern edge. Barksdale AFB occupies more than 22,000 acres (89 km²) east of Bossier City and along the southern edge of Interstate 20. More than 15,000 active-duty and Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC) members serve at Barksdale.

The host unit at Barksdale is the 2nd Bomb Wing (2 BW), the oldest bomb wing in the U.S. Air Force. It is assigned to the Air Force Global Strike Command's (AFGSC) Eighth Air Force (8 AF). Equipped with about 44 B-52H Stratofortress bombers, 2 BW provides flexible, responsive global combat capability and trains all AFGSC and AFRC Boeing B-52 Stratofortress crews.

The base was established in 1932 as Barksdale Field, named for World War I aviator and test pilot Lieutenant Eugene Hoy Barksdale (1896–1926).