Tinker Air Force Base

Tinker Air Force Base is a major U.S. Air Force base, with Navy and Department of Defense missions, located in the southeast Oklahoma City area, directly south of the suburb of Midwest City, Oklahoma. The base is named in honor of Oklahoma native Major General Clarence L. Tinker, the first Native American Major General. The base has more than 26,000 military and civilian employees and is the largest single-site employer in the state of Oklahoma. The installation covers approx. 9 square miles (23 km2) and has 760 buildings with a building floor space of over 15,200,000 square feet (1,410,000 m2).[citation needed] The base is bounded by I-40 on the north and I-240 on the south.

Tinker is the headquarters of the Air Force Materiel Command's (AFMC) Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center (OC-ALC), which is the worldwide manager for a wide range of aircraft, engines, missiles, software and avionics and accessories components. The commander of OC-ALC is Major General P. David Gillett, Jr. It is one of three Air Force ALCs, the others being Ogden Air Logistics Center (OO-ALC) at Hill AFB, Utah and Warner Robins Air Logistics Center (WR-ALC) at Robins AFB, Georgia.

The host unit at Tinker is the 72d Air Base Wing (72 ABW) which provides services and support for the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center and its tenant organizations. The Wing and Installation Commander of Tinker Air Force Base is Colonel Allen Jamerson.

Tinker is also the home of the Navy's Strategic Communications Wing One (TACAMO), a Navy Air Wing which is fully integrated in the Air Force Base, and employs over 1,300 active-duty sailors and 100 contractors to provide maintenance, security, operations, administration, training and logistic support for the Navy's E-6B Mercury aircraft fleet. The Mercury aircraft enables the President of the United States and the Secretary of Defense to directly contact submarines, bombers and missile silos enforcing the country's national security through nuclear deterrence.

With the City of Oklahoma City and Oklahoma County owning several square miles of land adjacent to the base, Tinker is one of the few military bases in a major metropolitan area with sufficient room for expansion. Furthermore, Tinker is located in a community that supports expansion; Oklahoma County voters approved a 2008 measure to purchase the former GM Oklahoma City Assembly plant (located adjacent to the base) and lease it to Tinker for future expansion.