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Columbus Air Force Base

US Air Force base near Mississippi, US

Image credit is listed at the end of this article.

Columbus Air Force Base (IATA: CBM, ICAO: KCBM, FAA LID: CBM) is a United States Air Force base located in unincorporated Lowndes County, Mississippi, near Columbus. The host unit at Columbus AFB is the 14th Flying Training Wing (14 FTW), which is a part of Air Education and Training Command (AETC).

The residential portion of the base is a census-designated place, with a population of 1,604 at the 2020 census.

01Base history

Columbus Air Force Base (AFB) was established in 1941, after the US War Department authorized a pilot training base near Columbus, Mississippi. It was originally named Kaye Field, after World War I flying ace Samuel Kaye Jr., but confusion with nearby Key Field in Meridian, Mississippi led to it being renamed as Columbus Army Flying School. The base was deactivated after the end of World War II, but was reactivated four years later with the beginning of the Korean War.

In 1955, Columbus AFB was transferred to Strategic Air Command (SAC) and was occupied by the 4228th Strategic Wing, which later became the 454th Bombardment Wing. In 1969, Columbus AFB was transferred back to Air Training Command, and was occupied by the 3650th Pilot Training Wing, which became the 14th Flying Training Wing in 1972.

02Based units

Flying and notable non-flying units based at Columbus Air Force Base.

Units marked GSU are Geographically Separate Units, which although based at Columbus, are subordinate to a parent unit based at another location.

United States Air Force

Air Education and Training Command (AETC)

Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC)

03Demographics

Columbus Air Force Base CDP
Census-designated place
CountryUnited States
StateMississippi
CountyLowndes
Elevation 200 ft (61 m)
Population (2020)
  Total 1,604
Time zoneUTC−6 (Central (CST))
  Summer (DST)UTC−5 (CDT)
GNIS feature ID2402790

Columbus Air Force Base CDP is a census-designated place (CDP) and the official name for an area covering the residential population of the Columbus Air Force Base, in Lowndes County, Mississippi, United States. The population at the 2020 census was 1,604.

Historical population
CensusPop.Note
20002,060,
20101,373−33.3%
20201,60416.8%
U.S. Decennial Census
2010 2020

Racial and ethnic composition

Columbus AFB CDP, Mississippi, Racial and ethnic composition
Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos may be of any race.
Race / Ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic) Pop 2000 Pop 2010 Pop 2020 % 2000 % 2010 % 2020
White alone (NH) 1,511 1,016 1,128 73.35% 74.00% 70.32%
Black or African American alone (NH) 329 154 121 15.97% 11.22% 7.54%
Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH) 14 2 6 0.68% 0.15% 0.37%
Asian alone (NH) 51 46 84 2.48% 3.35% 5.24%
Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH) 1 20 4 0.05% 1.46% 0.25%
Other race alone (NH) 1 3 9 0.05% 0.22% 0.56%
Mixed race or Multiracial (NH) 53 32 103 2.57% 2.33% 6.42%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 100 100 149 4.85% 7.28% 9.29%
Total 2,060 1,373 1,604 100.00% 100.00% 100.00%

04Education

Parents of dependent children on-post may choose to send their children to Columbus Municipal School District schools or to Lowndes County School District's Caledonia School. There are no schools located on-post.

East Mississippi Community College is the designated community college for Lowndes County.

Watch videos about Columbus Air Force BaseExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Columbus Air Force Base, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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