Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center is a Michigan Air National Guard training facility. It is located west-northwest of Alpena, Michigan.
Overview
The Alpena CRTC is a year-round training facility. It provides premier support, facilities, instruction and airspace to Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Coalition and emergency responders to meet the mission requirements of combatant commanders and civil authorities.
It is one of four Combat Readiness Training Centers in the United States. (The others are at Volk Field in Wisconsin; Gulfport, Mississippi; and Savannah, Georgia.) The Alpena CRTC boasts the largest airspace east of the Mississippi River, has 147,000 acres available for ground maneuver units, and trains over 20,000 joint and coalition personnel annually.
The Alpena CRTC is the second organization in the Air National Guard to be certified as a Joint National Training Center. The base has three JTE's, offers JTAC Training, and operates a JTAC 4m dome simulator.
The Alpena County Regional Airport is a shared use airport between the Alpena CRTC and the Alpena County, allowing for both civilian aircraft operations and military aircraft operations.
Mission statement
"Our mission at the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center (CRTC) is to provide premiere support, facilities, instruction, and airspace to the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Coalition Forces, and Emergency Responders in order to meet the mission requirements of Combatant Commanders and Civil Authorities."
History
Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center (CRTC), formerly named Phelps Collins Field and the Phelps Collins Air National Guard Base, has a long interesting history beginning in the early 20th century. Before that date, the area had a reputation for yielding blueberries in abundance to local Indians and early settlers in the area. In the early 20th century, the area was known as the "Seven Mile Plains" named because the flat open area stretching from the Seven Mile Dam to M-32.
During the early part of the 20th century, flying machines began to appear in the sky over most of the country including the Alpena area. It didn't take long for the early aeronautical risk takers to realize the flat open area was just what they needed to land and take off with their aircraft known as Jennies. The landing area was a bit rough going, but so was the practice of flying in general during those early years.
Around the same time, local developers and land owners realized the potential of the flat area and foresaw the need for a landing strip as a result of the onset of air travel. Thus the idea of an airport was born. Harry Fletcher and his brother Philip (Nephews of Alan M. Fletcher, founder of Fletcher Paper Co.) began negotiations along with Robert Scott (then president of Scott Engineering) and James McQuarrie, who later sat on the County Board's Airport Committee. These individuals were fundamental in developing the plan and getting the state on board.
The tract of 80 acres, previously surveyed by the Army Corps of Engineers, was donated by Harry and Phillip. Several other 40 acres plots donated by Alpena Power Company set the proposed plan into action.
During that same time, Works Progress Administration (WPA) crews were working on projects around the country. They were pressed into service to begin the clearing of the underbrush and leveling out the land in preparation for the first landing area, which would later become the main part of the runway now in existence.
On 31 August 1931, the airport was formally dedicated as Captain Phelps Collins Field in honor of Alpena's World War I hero, who in May 1917 volunteered to the French Air Service and fought with the celebrated French Escadrille 103. On 7 January 1918, he transferred to the famed American 103d Aero Squadron, a successor to Lafayette Escadrille, and died while defending the airspace over Paris on 12 March 1918. Governor Wilber M. Brucker flew in to formally accept the Airport and it became Michigan's first State owned airport. Phelps had spent a lot of time in Alpena as a youth shortly before he became interested in flying. There is a monument in France honoring the escadrille and his name appears on it.
Construction of the first hangar, a 40x90 foot structure built of cobblestone, began in 1935 and was completed in 1937. It could accommodate four average size aircraft of the era.