Izmir Air Station is 200 miles from Istanbul and located on the western side of Turkey and houses the United States military forces simultaneously when the allied Land Forces Southeast Europe was activated and the arrival of the Sixth Allied Tac AF on October 1953. The presence of the United States Air Forces in Europe is responsible for all the NATO and United States units that are present in Izmir. This has been under the different control of the French, Greek, Americans, Canadian and Turkish military commanders that had served since they started the operation. The Izmir Air Station also supports the Cigli Air Base which is near the Turkish Air Force Base.
On 1970, the Turkish Air Force gained control of Cigli AB. This started the Izmir Air Base the full responsibility in their support for the USAF and US wherein Cigli was delegated as the standby base. There are two minor and two major military units owned by the Americans that are assigned at the base. The two major units are 425th Squadron Air Base, Transportation Battalion of 840th US Army and the United States Army Element. Squadron base gives its full support in terms of personnel in the Izmir as well as it provides support to the support facilities in the entire base.
Izmir Air Base employs 1,300 personnel despite that it has no formal area that they can call their own base. The facilities that a base should have like the offices, schools, commissaries and other basic facilities are found within the city. It has also a Base Exchange and a chapel located in the city. The military employees together with their families lived among the civilians who are living within the city boundary.
On 2002, the school who educated the children of the US military servicemen for about fifty years closed down because the base was transported in a solitary tour.
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