and the airfield and its improvements were made available to the City of Dothan and Houston County under an Agreement in 1946 which was jointly accepted. The airport lands lay dormant for about 20 years and Houston County later turned its share of Napier Field to the City. In the early 1960s, a complete overhaul of the facility commenced with the old USAAF airfield layout being largely dug up and converted into reinforced hard surface for new jet runways, buildings and other facilities for a civil airport. Dothan Regional Airport opened to commercial activity on February 15, 1965. In 2004 the Air Force returned to the airport in the form of a non-flying unit, the 280th Combat Communications Squadron (280 CCS), an Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC)-gained unit of the Alabama Air National Guard, which established Dothan Regional Airport Air National Guard Station on the airport. Until 1965 the municipal airport was three miles west of town, where the Westgate Rec Center is now. It had three runways, all 4006 feet or less. Eastern Airlines stopped there from 1945 to 1964; Southern Airways arrived in 1956 and continued at the new airport. Facilities Dothan Regional Airport covers 1,150 acres (465 ha) at an elevation of 401 feet (122 m). It has two asphalt runways: 14/32 is 8,499 by 150 feet (2,590 x 46 m) and 18/36 is 5,498 by 100 feet (1,676 x 30 m). In 2011 the airport had 85,201 aircraft operations, an average of 233 per day: 55% military, 40% general aviation, 4% airline, and 1% air taxi. 91 aircraft were then based at this airport: 52% single-engine, 40% multi-engine, 8% jet, and 1% helicopter. Airline and destination Statistics Top destinations Annual enplanement Incidents In November 1985, a former US Air Force C-131H, AF Ser. No. 54-2817, which was in the process of being transferred from the Air Force to the US Navy's Fleet Air Logistics Squadron 48 (VR-48) at Andrews AFB/NAF Washington, Maryland, crashed on takeoff during a post-contract maintenance acceptance flight, killing the crew of 3 on board. Poor civilian contract maintenance on the elevator control cables was determined as the cause of the mishap. See also List of airports in Alabama Alabama World War II Army Airfields 28th Flying Training Wing (World War II) Dothan Municipal Airport References External links Fly Dothan, official site Aerial image as of January 1998 from USGS The National