<item><hi format=bold>Location and Origin of Name:</hi> nine miles southeast of Riverside, and named for Second Lieutenant Payton C. March who was killed on 12 February 1918 in the crash of a Curtiss JN-4 at Fort Worth, Texas
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<p>The base was established as Alesandro Aviation Field in March 1918, and renamed March Field the same month. It performed pilot training in 1917 and upgraded for heavy bomber crew training in World War II. Postwar, the base was assigned to SAC with the 22nd BW activated May 1949. It expanded prior to the introduction of the B-47 and KC-97 in 1952/53 and the B-52B in 1963. The unit became an Air Refueling Wing in 1983 with the KC-135A, and later the KC-10A. The 22nd ARW moved to McConnell AFB in January 1994, with the 722nd ARW activated to administer the run-down of active-duty operations at March AFB. Various other bomb wings were assigned for short periods, including the 330th BW in 1949/51, 44th BW in 1951, and 320th BW 1952/60. The 452nd TCW (later MAW and ARW) formed at March in November 1960 and has been assigned ever since, apart from the period between 1972 and 1976 when it relocated to Hamilton AFB, California. The unit became an Air Mobility Wing in 1994 with the amalgamation of the 445th AW and the 452nd ARW.
