Dobbins ARB has two runways which it shares with the General Lucius D. Clay National Guard Center (formerly Naval Air Station Atlanta) to its south.

This was named for the former U.S. Army Air Corps top flying ace of World War I, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker.

The push to build this airport came in 1940 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt selected General Lucius D. Clay of the Army Air Corps to be the chief of the new Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA), which was engaged in a huge program of airfield construction.

About 450 to 500 of these were built in preparation for any possible war against the United States - from the east (Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy) or from the west (the Empire of Japan).

In 1940, the CAA offered to build a modern paved airport in Cobb County if the local governments provided the land.

On October 24, the government of Cobb County announced the existence of this airport project, and it also revealed that purchase options had been signed for three prospective sites.

In the next month, the Gulf Oil Corporation and Georgia Air Services agreed to lease the airport, once completed, for $12,000 per year.

(During World War II, the Navy established an auxiliary naval air station at Gainesville, Georgia, just northeast of Atlanta.)

Also in 1942, the City of Atlanta began work on its contribution: a pipeline to supply the new factory with water from the Chattahoochee River.

In addition to taking over Rickenbacker Field, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) purchased a parcel of land just north of the airfield for a cantonment area.

The Marietta Army Airfield was activated on June 6, 1943, with its personnel housed in tents as part of the 58th Bombardment Operational Training Wing.

For a period of time, the Marietta Army Airfield was assigned to the USAAF's Second Air Force under the XX Bomber Command.

The production of B-29s at this factory increased slowly during 1944, and by the fall of 1944, Bell Aircraft's output of new B-29s began to meet and exceed the goals of the Department of War.

After the completion of the last one of these, the production in Marietta was switched to the B-29B Superfortress, which was a simplified version of the B-29 without the computerized gun system and other components that raised the allowable bomb load from 11,000 to 18,000 pounds.

The 315th Bombardment Wing based at Northwest Field, Guam, received most of the B-29Bs for night low altitude pathfinder led missions against Japan.

In 1948, part of the land and barracks at the original Naval Air Station Atlanta in nearby Chamblee were given to the state for the purpose of creating an engineering technology school that could rapidly train returning soldiers for civilian work in various technical fields.

Captain Dobbins died near Sicily on July 11, 1943, when US Navy gunners who had earlier suffered a Luftwaffe (German air force) attack mistakenly downed his C-47.

Numerous evacuees also came to metro Atlanta through Dobbins JARB, including many medevaced medical patients taken in by local hospitals.

Like most U.S. bases, Dobbins ARB has had to fend off several attempts at closing it, as part of streamlining the country's military and reducing unnecessary spending.

Public complaints about the noise continue, and attempts to close the facility have been thwarted so far by powerful local politicians, such as former U.S.

Dobbins ARB is the only U.S. military facility left in northern Georgia after the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) recommendations were enacted.

The 248th Medical Company (Air Ambulance) and elements of the 151st Aviation Regiment of the Army National Guard are also based there.

[8] Near Dobbins ARB's main gate stands a Wichita-built B-29 named "Sweet Eloise" (B-29-80-BW, AAF Ser.