Located in Alexandria, Louisiana, adjacent to Alexandria International Airport, the installation opened in 1942 as Alexandria Army Air Base and was renamed England AFB in 1955 to honor Lieutenant Colonel John Brooke England, a Louisiana native and World War II pilot. During the Cold War it became a key Tactical Air Command installation, home to the A-7 Corsair II and the 23rd Tactical Fighter Wing, before closing under the 1991 Base Realignment and Closure process and officially ending Air Force operations in 1992. Decades of fighter operations required aircraft hangars, maintenance shops, fire stations, and steam distribution systems, much of it built between the 1940s and 1960s.
England Air Force Base maintained an active Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting unit throughout its history, protecting fighter aircraft, fuel storage areas, and flight operations. After the Air Force adopted AFFF in the early 1970s as the standard agent for suppressing petroleum-based aircraft fires, firefighters assigned to the base trained with it routinely through the base's closure in 1992, repeating the same drills with live foam so their response would be automatic in a real emergency.
That training touched nearly every part of the job:
- mixing foam concentrate before scheduled drills
- operating hoses against live and simulated fuel fires
- testing foam proportioning systems as part of equipment checks
- cleaning firefighting vehicles and protective gear after every exercise
- maintaining foam storage tanks and delivery systems between training cycles
- repeating certification exercises throughout a firefighter's assignment to the base
Air Force Fire Protection Specialists and ARFF personnel handled this most directly, joined by fire instructors, firefighter trainees, civilian firefighters assigned to England AFB, and the staff responsible for keeping firefighting vehicles and foam systems operational.
Kidney cancer and testicular cancer have all been linked to PFAS chemicals found in AFFF among firefighters with this kind of sustained occupational exposure. If you trained or served as a firefighter at England Air Force Base and were later diagnosed with one of these cancers, our team can help you find out whether you're eligible to file a claim.
England Air Force Base was built and expanded during the years when asbestos was considered essential to military construction for its heat resistance and insulating properties. Materials commonly used throughout its hangars, barracks, and utility plants included:
The trades most likely to have disturbed these materials while maintaining England Air Force Base's aircraft and support facilities include:
- engineer
- fireman
- welder
- electrician
- aircraft worker
England Air Force Base operated for approximately 50 years, spanning the World War II and Cold War eras when these materials were standard throughout military construction. Personnel responsible for maintaining buildings, aircraft support facilities, and utility systems faced the greatest risk for exposure. Asbestos-related disease develops slowly: mesothelioma and lung cancer, the two conditions most consistently linked to this kind of exposure, often don't surface until 20 to 50 years after the fibers were first inhaled, which means a diagnosis today can trace back to work performed decades before anyone thought to make the connection. If your service included maintenance work at England Air Force Base and you've since received one of these diagnoses, contact our team to find out whether you're eligible to file an asbestos claim.