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Air Guard base at Sky Harbor to be renamed after Goldwater

Posted at 12:32 PM, Dec 08, 2016
and last updated 2016-12-08 18:16:59-05

The Arizona Air National Guard base on the south side of Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix is being renamed to honor Barry Goldwater, the late Arizona senator and former Air National Guard member.

A ceremony will be held Friday to rename the Phoenix Sky Harbor Air National Guard Base to Goldwater Air National Guard.

Goldwater was a five-term U.S. senator whose landslide loss in the 1964 presidential election galvanized conservative Republicans. He died May 29, 1998, in suburban Paradise Valley.

Goldwater and other World War II veterans activated a fighter squadron at Luke Field in 1946, and the unit moved to Sky Harbor in 1952.

The Sky Harbor base is now home to the 161st Air Refueling Wing. The unit's tankers refuel other aircraft in midair.