Vandenberg Air Force Base present . Today, Vandenberg stands as the third-largest Air Force base after Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, and Edwards Air Force Base in California. On 4 October 1958, Cooke AFB was renamed Vandenberg AFB, in honor of General Vandenberg, the Air Force's second Chief of Staff. The transition from Army camp to missile base solidified on 15 December 1958 when Vandenberg AFB successfully launched its first missile, a PGM-17 Thor IRBM (Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile) The launch from Vandenberg inaugurated the intermediate-range ballistic missile portion of the Pacific Missile Range and was fired by a crew from the 1st
Andersen Air Force Base on Tuesday, 12 February 2013 when the base was circled by two Russian Tupolev Tu-95 Bear-H bombers, mere hours prior to President Obama's State of the Union Address. Their flight was monitored by US F-15 fighter jets and eventually the Russian bombers left the area in a northbound direction. As tensions escalate between the US and the North-Korean regime, the latter threaten to strike the island. A total of 816,393 munitions assets valued at over $95 million dollars were delivered to Andersen Air Force Base between August 21 and September 30, 2017. Andersen Air Force Base is home to Andersen