[2] The base's history begins in 1936 when Works Progress Administration (WPA) funding allowed the City of Portland to purchase 700 acres of land along the Columbia River and bordering the Columbia Slough for a "Super Airport" to replace an earlier facility established in 1926.

The 28th Composite Group at Elmendorf Field, Alaska Territory stationed its 406th Bombardment Squadron at Portland during the summer and fall of 1942 as a B-25 OTU.

The 372d Fighter Group was assigned to Portland in November 1943, and performed the RTU mission with three squadrons of P-39s until March 1944.

With the departure of the fighter RTU in April 1944, Portland Army Air Base returned to its transport mission for the remainder of the war, being operated jointly with the civilian airport.

It was installed and activated on a 24-hour-a-day basis in March 1948 as an 'Interim' site to protect the air approaches to Hanford, Washington.

Operations ceased in February 1952 with the activation of site "P-12" at North Bend AFS in southern Oregon.

The 142nd Fighter Interceptor Group became the host unit of the military facilities at Portland International Airport.

In 2000, the 939 RQW began to divest itself of the CSAR mission, transitioning to the KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft and being redesignated as the 939th Air Refueling Wing (939 ARW).

The BRAC commission retained the 142 FW's Expeditionary Combat Support elements at the installation, to be renamed Portland Air National Guard Base, along with the 244th and 272d Combat Communications Squadrons (ANG), and the 304th Rescue Squadron (AFRC), the 304th to be a geographically separated unit (GSU) of the Air Force Reserve Command's 920th Rescue Wing in Florida.

[3] The fighters armed with live AIM-9 Sidewinder and AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles, intercepted and escorted the plane away from populated areas before it crashed on Ketron Island near McChord Air Force Base.

[4] Download coordinates as: This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency