Richards-Gebaur Air Reserve Station 3.31

Richards-Gebaur Air Reserve Station is a closed United States Air Force base. It was located 17.7mi south of Kansas City, Missouri. It was closed in 1994.Opened in 1941 as a civil airport, Grandview Airport was used by both the Army Air Forces and the United States Navy during World War II as an overflow training airfield for Sedalia Army Airfield and Naval Air Station Olathe beginning in March 1944. The airport was acquired by the Army Air Forces Continental Air Forces, becoming an entirely military installation in February 1945. It later became a major United States Air Force base during the Cold War.HistoryRichards-Gebaur Air Force Base was named on 27 April 1957 in honor of Kansas City natives 1st Lieutenant John Francisco Richards II (1894–1918) and Lieutenant Colonel Arthur William Gebaur Jr. (1919–1952). Lieutenant Richards's Nieuport was shot down on 26 September 1918 during an artillery surveillance mission on the last day of the World War I Meuse-Argonne Offensive.Prior to its renaming in 1957, the facility was designated Grandview Airport from the date of its acquisition by the Army Air Forces in March 1944, then Grandview Air Force Base beginning on 1 October 1952.