Not many people realize that Nebraska played a pivotal role in WWII. Our communications bases were instrumental in gathering intelligence and our training facilities helped prepare thousands of soldiers to engage in war. Today, most of those bases and satellite locations have been inactivated, but that doesn’t mean they’re gone entirely.

McCook Army Air Base is located in Red Willow County, just outside of the city of McCook. It was activated in 1943 as one of 11 training bases in Nebraska; thousands of soldiers passed through here as they completed their final training before manning heavy bombers in the war.
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The base was inactivated in December 1945. A few years later, it was acquired by the city of McCook for the purposes of turning it into a municipal airport. Its relatively remote location proved to be a problem, though, and the 2100-acre site was given back to the state in 1952.
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Today, not much remains of the former training base. Most of the runways are gone and many of the buildings have been demolished. The land is now owned mostly by farmers and the Nebraska Bureau of Land Management, and the remaining hangars are used for storage.
By Ammodramus - Own work, Public Domain

You can make a virtual visit thanks to this drone video of the base that was filmed by Sheriff Mike Rath of Grant County. Sheriff Mike travels Nebraska with his drone to provide a unique perspective on our spectacular state. The video supplements the drone footage with photos of the base when it was operational to give an idea of just how much things have changed in 75 years.

Where’s your favorite abandoned place in Nebraska? Tell us – and share your videos! – in the comments.

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