Offutt Air Force Base’s new $168.9 million runway is scheduled to reopen on Friday. The 55th Wing has been operating their flying mission from the Lincoln Airport for the past 18 months while the base’s runway has undergone a complete replacement.
“It is almost hard to believe that we are finally here,” says Colonel Kristen Thompson, 55th Wing commander. “The past year-and-a-half has been challenging, but our Airmen never once backed down, they made the mission happen and they learned some valuable lessons along the way.”
Beginning Friday, the RC-135 reconnaissance jets and E-4B aircraft will leave Lincoln and return to the base in Bellevue. “We could not have asked for better partners on this project,” says Major Brian Ross, 55th Wing Runway program management office director. “The Lincoln Airport Authority, Nebraska National Guard and the city of Lincoln bent over backwards to ensure we had what we needed.”
On Feb. 1, 2021, the first Offutt jet landed at the Lincoln Airport, officially marking the beginning of the wing’s transition to Lincoln.
Offutt personnel have spent more than 500 days on the road with roughly 750 of them making the trip back and forth from Bellevue to Lincoln daily. There were 19,000 bus trips that racked up 1.2 million miles across I-80.
(Photo: Offutt Air Force Base)