Andrews Air Force Base

Andrews Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base near Washington, DC, best known as the home base of Air Force One, the President of the United States' airplane, as well as the location of the 89th Airlift Wing.

The base is a few miles southeast of Washington, in the state of Maryland. The United States Census Bureau identifies it as a "town" named Andrews AFB, Maryland.

The base is often mentioned and seen in the news, because the President's trips, both domestic and foreign, almost always leave from and arrive at Andrews, the trip to and from the White House being by helicopter, so the photo-ops of the President with Air Force One have Andrews in the background.

Andrews is also the home of the 2045th Communication Group, a unit that provides communications to military installations all over the world. The technical control facility is one of the largest in the world, and hosts a myriad of sophisticated telecommunications equipment.

Andrews was originally "Camp Springs Army Air Base", and was renamed "Andrews Field" in 1945 after Frank Andrews, a pivotal figure in the development of the U.S. Air Force, who had died in 1943.

External links

• Andrews AFB homepage (http://www.andrews.af.mil)
• Global Security (http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/andrews.htm)
• MapQuest's map of Andrews AFB (http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?address=&city=&state=&zip=20762&country=US)