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
Plattsburgh Air Force Base AFB, was an Air Force pilot at Plattsburgh AFB when he got selected by NASA in 1994. Major commands to which the base was assigned: Plattsburgh Air Force Base was designated as one of four major Atlas launching systems in the US, the only ICBM missile system deployed east of the Mississippi River. During the period 1961 and 1963, 12 "Atlas F" missile sites were constructed within a 50-mile radius of the base, thus giving the 380th the capability to launch 12 missiles. All sites were in New York state, except for two located on the other side of Lake