area. Upwood was also home to the USAF's 3rd AF Mathies/UK campus for the NCO Academy and NCO Leadership School for USAF enlisted Professional Military Education (PME). The Department of Defense Dependent Schools (DoDDS) operated numerous buildings as classrooms for dependent children on RAF Upwood. In the event of a NEO (Non-combatant Evacuation Order), dependents would be evacuated from the base, and the buildings would be converted into a contingency hospital with supplies and equipment stored in a climate-controlled hangar on the base. Post-Cold War With the end of the Cold War in 1991, and the phasedown of RAF Alconbury beginning in 1994, the USAF activities at Upwood were curtailed. RAF Upwood was returned to the British government control in September 1995 and with the number of airmen assigned to the area reduced, the need for housing became less and less. By 2005 the last USAF family moved out of the Upwood housing area and it was returned to the MOD. The medical facilities, however, remain open albeit in a reduced capacity as a medical flight until 16 January 2007, when the 423rd Medical Squadron was formed. The squadron provided some outpatient medical and dental care for the community. The host unit for RAF Upwood was the 423d Air Base Group, headquartered at nearby RAF Alconbury. RAF Upwood was the home of the 423rd Medical Squadron. The squadron operated a medical complex which housed out-patient and dental care facilities for active-duty, dependents of active duty, Department of Defense civilians, and retired military personnel stationed in the Tri-base area. Most standard medical care was available. Complex medical cases could be referred to RAF Croughton (approximately west of RAF Alconbury) for care which is unavailable at RAF Upwood, or to local British civilian National Health Service facilities. On 26 October 2012 RAF Upwood 423rd MDS closed its door to patients for the last time and merged with its sister station and became part of RAF Alconbury. In 1999 the entire NCO married quarter estate including both pre war and post housing and the former NAAFI building were sold to Roger Byron-Collins' the Welbeck Estate Group and were renamed Fairmead Park and underwent a major upgrading. Current status Since 1982, the Nene Valley Gliding Club has conducted its glider operations from a field that occupies the site of the old runways. Initially these operations were under an agreement with the Ministry of Defence.