Myrtle Beach Air Force Base
On 16 October 1939, Myrtle Beach Town Council agreed that the community "is in dire need of a modern municipal airport".[3][5][6] A phaseout of the A-7D at Myrtle Beach AFB started in the summer of 1974, with the A-7D's being transferred to Air National Guard units.[2] In 1991, after the National Defense Authorization Act, the announcement came that Myrtle Beach Air Force Base would close.[2] The Myrtle Beach base used the A-10 Warthog jet, and Pat McCullough of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission said the Air Force considered the jet "limited to a low-threat environment", while the Army believed it was "a very powerful close-air support asset."A Wall Street Journal article and a new vision for tourism-related development from Burroughs & Chapin helped the area replace the jobs lost.Later, the federal government changed the rules for helping communities affected by base closings, and Myrtle Beach received what was needed.The state legislature also made it possible to issue $41 million in bonds using the base land as a tax increment financing district.[8] 20 years after the closing, the 3,937 acres that were once the base included more than 1,200 homes, several parks and sports facilities, an American Red Cross headquarters, a Veterans Affairs clinic, International Technology and Aerospace Park (ITAP), new terminals at Myrtle Beach International Airport,[8] and The Market Common, a retail complex.[8] Warbird Park includes a Wall of Service on which anyone who served honorably from 1941 to 1993 could receive a granite nameplate.