McGuire AFB, NJ

McGuire AFB is a census-designated place in Burlington County, New Jersey, within the larger Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst complex. Its airfield began as Rudd Field for Camp Dix, expanded into Fort Dix Army Airfield in 1939–41, and spent World War II moving aircraft, supplies, and personnel across the Atlantic. The site also handled aircraft overhaul and classified work on guided bombs, pilotless aircraft, and ground-control radar. After the war it was reopened for the Air Force, and in 1948 it was named for Major Thomas B. McGuire Jr., a New Jersey native and Medal of Honor recipient who became one of the leading American fighter aces of World War II.

McGuire’s long-running role is airlift. The base became the “Gateway to the East” after joining the Military Air Transport Service in 1954, later sending C-141s and other transports around the world for routine missions, wars, evacuations, and humanitarian work. Its identity is shared with Fort Dix and Lakehurst, but McGuire remains the runway-and-airlift side of the joint installation. The local scoop is that a place listed as McGuire AFB is really a working aviation community with roots in a Camp Dix airfield and a name honoring a New Jersey pilot.