Aviation first came to the seacoast area shortly after World War I, when in 1919 pilots barnstormed their way into the area, providing airplane rides to local residents. The Portsmouth Fairgrounds was their airport. Early in the 1930's, Portsmouth built a 300-acre airport. One of its first commercial users was Northeast Airlines. With the onset of World War II, the airport was used by the U.S. Navy.

In early 1951 Senator Styles H. Bridges announced that the Air Force wanted to build a bomber base in New Hampshire's seacoast area, with Portsmouth Airport as the prime location. In May of 1952, the House Armed Services Committee approved construction of the air base. Shortly thereafter the Army Corps of Engineers began to acquire land from the state, cities, and private property owners. The new base was situated in the middle of a peninsula formed by the Piscataqua River, the Little Bay, and the Great Bay. It lay in Rockingham County, and was abutted by the City of Portsmouth, and the Towns of Newington and Greenland. Land from Portsmouth represented roughly 40% of the base, and land from Newington represented roughly 60% of the base. Clearing of the land began in December of 1952, and construction of the base was completed in 1956.

Officially active since January 1, 1956, Portsmouth AFB (as it was known then) was formally opened June 30 of that same year. On September 7, 1957 the Air Force dedicated and renamed the base in honor of Captain Harl Pease, Jr., a native of Plymouth, New Hampshire. Captain Pease had posthumously earned the Congressional Medal of Honor for his extraordinary heroism as a B-17 pilot during a bombing raid against the Japanese in Rabaul, New Britain, in August of 1942.

Over the years, Pease AFB was host to two SAC operational units. The 100th BMW, which flew the B-47 bomber and the KC-97 tanker, was at Pease from 1956 to 1966. The 509th BMW came to Pease in 1958, and replaced B-47s and KC-97s in 1966 with the B-52 Stratofortress and the KC-135 Stratotanker. The B-52's were replaced, in turn, by the FB-111A in 1970.

PSM  Airport

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