724th, 725th, 726th and 727th Bombardment Squadrons Deployed to: Fifteenth Air Force, in Italy (B-24 Liberator) 504th Bombardment Group (March 12 – November 5, 1945) 393rd, 398th, 421st and 507th Bombardment Squadrons Deployed to: Twentieth Air Force in Tinian (B-29 Superfortress) 16th Bombardment Group (August 15, 1944 – March 7, 1945) 15th, 16th and 17th Bombardment Squadrons Deployed to: Twentieth Air Force in Guam (B-29 Superfortress) 98th Bombardment Group (May 6 – June 25, 1945) 343rd, 344th, 345th, and 415th Bombardment Squadrons Trained on B-29 Superfortresses but inactivated in November 1945 467th Bombardment Group (July 25 – August 25, 1945) 788th, 789th, 790th and 791st Bombardment Squadrons Trained on B-29 Superfortresses but inactivated in August 1946 489th Bombardment Group (July 3 – August 25, 1945) 844th, 845th, 846th and 847th Bombardment Squadrons Trained on B-29 Superfortresses but inactivated in October 1945 In September 1944 Lt. Col. Paul Tibbets visited Fairmont and selected the 393d Bombardment Squadron of the 504th to join the 509th Composite Group at Wendover AAF, Utah. This group dropped both atomic bombs on Japan. The base was inactivated on December 31, 1945. In the spring of 1946, the War Assets Administration declared the property surplus in the spring of 1946. Buildings were sold and dismantled or moved. The chapel was moved to Friend, Nebraska. The Enlisted Men's Service Club was dismantled and rebuilt in Shickley, Nebraska as St. Mary's Church. In 1946 Nebraska Department of Aeronautics acquired the Airfield from the U.S. Government for use as a state-owned civilian airport. The Fairmont Army Airfield, with its well maintained hangars, support buildings, and commander's house, was the best remaining example, as a collection of buildings, of the Army Airfields in the State of Nebraska. Due to the rural location, unencumbered by surrounding development, and the good condition of the remaining buildings, particularly the hangars, the Fairmont Army Airfield was placed on the National Register of Historic Places as an historic district. The District includes the hardstands, aprons and existing runways, all remaining buildings, extending to the edges of the roads where buildings remain. This encompasses historic landscape features such as roads and World War II-era planted trees. Facilities Fairmont State Airfield covers 687 acres (278 ha) at an elevation of 1,636 feet (499 m). It has two concrete runways: 17/35 is 4,317 by 75 feet (1,316 x 23 m) and 12/30 is 3,021 by 60 feet (921 x