Westover Metropolitan Airport is a civilian airport located in the Massachusetts communities of Chicopee, Granby, and Ludlow, near the cities of Springfield and Holyoke, Massachusetts. The complex is considered intermodal because it borders the Massachusetts Turnpike and is accessible by several industrial rail spurs. It was named for General Oscar Westover, commanding officer of the Army Air Corps in the 1930s. Joint use The Westover complex is composed of the civilian airport and the Westover Air Reserve Base. The core aviation facilities at Westover are owned by the Department of Defense while are under private ownership. History Westover Field was created by a war-readiness appropriation signed by president Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939. It became the largest military air facility in the Northeast during the course of World War II. The post-war Berlin Airlift was based in large part at Westover. It was renamed Westover Air Force Base after that agency's creation and became instrumental in waging the Cold War. The Eighth Air Force and its 99th Bombardment Wing were headquartered at Westover in order to provide range and support to nuclear bombers. As a former Strategic Air Command (SAC) B-52 and KC-135 base, this military center was one of the Soviet Union's top targets during the Cold War. The SAC constructed a secret underground bunker several miles away in Hadley, Massachusetts to coordinate Westover's operations during a nuclear war. The command post was linked to the main base by buried cables and microwave antennae. The U-2 spy plane film that set off the Cuban Missile Crisis was developed at Westover. It was a base of operations for the Air Force in both the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Bombing and cargo missions in Vietnam were made directly from Westover. Eight fully armed nuclear bombers stood ready in Christmas tree formation to scramble if a conflict broke out with the Soviet Union. In 1974, as the last Vietnam War veterans stepped onto Westover's tarmac, the base was turned over to the Air Force Reserve. The decision followed four years after the Eighth Air Force was moved from Westover by President Richard Nixon. On May 30, 2007, Skybus Airlines announced it would begin once-daily flights to Columbus, OH utilizing 144-seat Airbus A319 jets. On July 16, 2007, the first revenue flight bound for Columbus took off from Westover. This marked the first commercial service at the airport since the late