Joint Base Andrews (ADW/KADW)

Home to Air Force One (President's 747), DC Air National Guard, etc.

Andrews Air Force Base (ICAO code KADW) is a United States Air Force base near Washington, DC and the home base of the U.S. presidential aircraft, Air Force One. Originally known as Camp Springs Army Air Base, the base was renamed to Andrews Field in 1945 after Frank Maxwell Andrews, a pivotal figure in the development of the U.S. Air Force, who had died in an airplane accident in 1943.

The base is located a few miles southeast of Washington, in Prince George's County, Maryland near the town of Morningside. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 17.7 km² (6.8 mi²). 17.7 km² (6.8 mi²) of it is land and none of it is covered by water. There are two runways on the base; the western runway is 3,440 meters in length, and the eastern runway is 3,570 meters in length.

The host unit for Andrews AFB is the 89th Airlift Wing which falls under Air Mobility Command. The primary mission at Andrews AFB is to transport the President of the United States.

The base is also tasked, under what is known as "SAM FOX", to provide worldwide airlift for the vice president, the president's Cabinet, members of Congress, military leaders and other high ranking dignitaries. At one time, "SAM FOX", was used as a prefix to an aircraft tail number, during radio transmissions to identify Air Force aircraft that were transporting high-ranking VIPs, typically on foreign flights.

The call sign prefix was constructed from the acronym SAM (Special Air Mission) and the initial F (Foreign), which at the time was represented by the phonetic word "Fox."

Andrews is also the home of the 89th Communication Group, a unit that provides communications to military installations all over the world. The technical control facility is one of the largest in the world, and hosts a myriad of sophisticated telecommunications equipment.

One of the squadrons within the 89th Communications Group is the 789th Communications Squadron, whose CNCS remotely operates 15 HF Global radio stations from around the Globe.

It was renamed Joint Base Andrews in 2009.

www.andrews.af.mil
www.airnav.com/airport/KADW

 air force basemilitary