Misplaced Pages

#633366

117-624: This return was the result of the general drawdown of US bases in Europe and improvement in space surveillance technology. The base near the southeastern city of Diyarbakir housed sensitive electronic intelligence-gathering systems for listening on the Middle East, Caucasus and Russia . The Pirinçlik sensor system consisted of two radio frequency (RF) mechanical radar systems providing radar intelligence, space surveillance, and missile warning data to multiple users. Observations from Diyarbakır were normally

234-561: A customs union . A large bloc of countries, the Schengen Area , have also abolished internal border and immigration controls. Regular popular elections take place every five years within the EU; they are considered to be the second-largest democratic elections in the world after India's . The EU is the third-largest economy in the world. The place name Evros was first used by the ancient Greeks to refer to their northernmost province, which bears

351-842: A German naturalist, Peter Simon Pallas , as a valley that once connected the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, and subsequently was proposed as a natural boundary between continents. By the mid-19th century, there were three main conventions, one following the Don, the Volga–Don Canal and the Volga, the other following the Kuma–Manych Depression to the Caspian and then the Ural River, and the third abandoning

468-631: A Semitic term for west , this being either Akkadian erebu meaning 'to go down, set' (said of the sun) or Phoenician 'ereb 'evening, west', which is at the origin of Arabic maghreb and Hebrew ma'arav . Martin Litchfield West stated that "phonologically, the match between Europa's name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor", while Beekes considers a connection to Semitic languages improbable. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to

585-791: A boundary along the Terek and Kuban rivers, so southwards from the Kuma and the Manych, but still with the Caucasus entirely in Asia. However, most geographers in the Soviet Union favoured the boundary along the Caucasus crest, and this became the common convention in the later 20th century, although the Kuma–Manych boundary remained in use in some 20th-century maps. Some view the separation of Eurasia into Asia and Europe as

702-406: A large land mass completely or almost completely surrounded by water at its borders. Prior to the adoption of the current convention that includes mountain divides, the border between Europe and Asia had been redefined several times since its first conception in classical antiquity , but always as a series of rivers, seas and straits that were believed to extend an unknown distance east and north from

819-632: A maximum detection range in excess of 4,300 kilometers. Lincoln Laboratory ’s phase-coded pulse-modulation receiver/exciter for the VHF AN/FPS-17 radar, built at the Pirinçlik site in eastern Turkey by the General Electric Company , allowed U.S. observers to monitor missile test launches from Kapustin Yar , deep within the Soviet Union.[2] Subsequent installation of another AN/FPS-17 radar on Shemya ,

936-730: A precise eastern boundary of Europe arises in the Early Modern period, as the eastern extension of Muscovy began to include North Asia . Throughout the Middle Ages and into the 18th century, the traditional division of the landmass of Eurasia into two continents, Europe and Asia, followed Ptolemy, with the boundary following the Turkish Straits , the Black Sea , the Kerch Strait , the Sea of Azov and

1053-526: A range of national and regional cultures, which form the central roots of the wider Western civilisation , and together commonly reference ancient Greece and ancient Rome , particularly through their Christian successors , as crucial and shared roots. Beginning with the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE, Christian consolidation of Europe in the wake of the Migration Period marked

1170-701: A residue of Eurocentrism : "In physical, cultural and historical diversity, China and India are comparable to the entire European landmass, not to a single European country. [...]." During the 2.5 million years of the Pleistocene , numerous cold phases called glacials ( Quaternary ice age ), or significant advances of continental ice sheets, in Europe and North America, occurred at intervals of approximately 40,000 to 100,000 years. The long glacial periods were separated by more temperate and shorter interglacials which lasted about 10,000–15,000 years. The last cold episode of

1287-661: A result, the Reconquista took the greater part of eight hundred years, in which period a long list of Alfonsos, Sanchos, Ordoños, Ramiros, Fernandos, and Bermudos would be fighting their Christian rivals as much as the Muslim invaders. During the Dark Ages, the Western Roman Empire fell under the control of various tribes. The Germanic and Slav tribes established their domains over Western and Eastern Europe, respectively. Eventually

SECTION 10

#1732852683634

1404-465: A western island in the chain of Aleutian Islands off Alaska , made it possible for U.S. observers to monitor Soviet missile test flights to the Kamchatka peninsula . The AN/FPS-17 radar was the first demonstration of pulse compression in an operational radar system. In 1970, the name Diyarbakir Air Station was changed to that of Pirinçlik, the name of the small village 30 km west of Diyarbakir where

1521-602: Is a United States Space Force base that shares an airfield with the adjacent Colorado Springs Municipal Airport and is home to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), the Space Force 's 21st Space Wing , elements of the Space Force's Space Systems Command , and United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) headquarters. Developed as a World War II air support base for Camp Carson ,

1638-401: Is also evidence that Homo sapiens arrived in Europe around 54,000 years ago, some 10,000 years earlier than previously thought. The earliest sites in Europe dated 48,000 years ago are Riparo Mochi (Italy), Geissenklösterle (Germany) and Isturitz (France). The European Neolithic period—marked by the cultivation of crops and the raising of livestock, increased numbers of settlements and

1755-798: Is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east. Europe shares the landmass of Eurasia with Asia, and of Afro-Eurasia with both Asia and Africa . Europe is commonly considered to be separated from Asia by the watershed of the Ural Mountains , the Ural River , the Caspian Sea , the Greater Caucasus ,

1872-481: Is closest to Anatolia (or Asia Minor), but is considered part of Europe politically and it is a member state of the EU. Malta was considered an island of North-western Africa for centuries, but now it is considered to be part of Europe as well. "Europe", as used specifically in British English , may also refer to Continental Europe exclusively. The term "continent" usually implies the physical geography of

1989-556: Is generally considered a transcontinental country divided entirely by water, while Russia and Kazakhstan are only partly divided by waterways. France, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain are also transcontinental (or more properly, intercontinental, when oceans or large seas are involved) in that their main land areas are in Europe while pockets of their territories are located on other continents separated from Europe by large bodies of water. Spain, for example, has territories south of

2106-470: Is sometimes considered to mark the end of antiquity; alternatively antiquity is considered to end with the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE; the closure of the pagan Platonic Academy of Athens in 529 CE; or the rise of Islam in the early 7th century CE. During most of its existence, the Byzantine Empire was one of the most powerful economic, cultural, and military forces in Europe. During

2223-422: Is somewhat arbitrary and inconsistent compared to any clear-cut definition of the term "continent". The current division of Eurasia into two continents now reflects East-West cultural, linguistic and ethnic differences which vary on a spectrum rather than with a sharp dividing line. The geographic border between Europe and Asia does not follow any state boundaries and now only follows a few bodies of water. Turkey

2340-615: The 4600th Air Base Wing on 8 April 1958 (moved to Peterson on 18 October 1972). The 4600th was replaced by the 46th Aerospace Defense Wing on 1 April 1975. In January 1968, Air Training Command 's 3253d Pilot Training Squadron at Peterson Field began light aircraft indoctrination for cadets. These operations moved to the United States Air Force Academy on 21 March 1974. The military base at Peterson Field gained its own base commander on 28 February 1975. Designated Peterson Air Force Base on 1 March 1975, when Ent AFB

2457-578: The 76th Space Control Facility was constructed at Peterson (the squadron activated 22 January 2008). The MAFFS aircraft that fought the 2012 Waldo Canyon fire and 2013 Black Forest fire at Colorado Springs flew from Peterson AFB. Some buildings from the Second World War have survived. Buildings remaining in 1996 were "the terminal, now the Peterson Air and Space Museum , the Broadmoor hangar, and

SECTION 20

#1732852683634

2574-759: The Americas , almost all of Africa and Oceania , and the majority of Asia. The Age of Enlightenment , the French Revolution , and the Napoleonic Wars shaped the continent culturally, politically, and economically from the end of the 17th century until the first half of the 19th century. The Industrial Revolution , which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to radical economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe and eventually

2691-467: The Black Sea , and the waterway of the Bosporus Strait . Europe covers about 10.18 million km (3.93 million sq mi), or 2% of Earth's surface (6.8% of land area), making it the second-smallest continent (using the seven-continent model ). Politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states , of which Russia is the largest and most populous , spanning 39% of

2808-809: The Carolingian Renaissance of the 9th century. From that time, the term designated the sphere of influence of the Western Church , as opposed to both the Eastern Orthodox churches and to the Islamic world . A cultural definition of Europe as the lands of Latin Christendom coalesced in the 8th century, signifying the new cultural condominium created through the confluence of Germanic traditions and Christian-Latin culture, defined partly in contrast with Byzantium and Islam , and limited to northern Iberia ,

2925-631: The Cheyenne Mountain Complex which was placed on warm standby. The 1st Space Wing replaced the 46th Aerospace Defense Wing on 1 April 1983. Thereafter the 1st Space Wing transferred host unit responsibility to the 3d Space Support Wing activated on 15 October 1986. Army and other units transferred from the former Ent AFB Federal Building to Peterson Building 2 (renamed the Eberhart-Findley Building in October 2012). On 15 May 1992,

3042-509: The Don (ancient Tanais ). But maps produced during the 16th to 18th centuries tended to differ in how to continue the boundary beyond the Don bend at Kalach-na-Donu (where it is closest to the Volga, now joined with it by the Volga–Don Canal ), into territory not described in any detail by the ancient geographers. Around 1715, Herman Moll produced a map showing the northern part of the Ob River and

3159-665: The East . This divide ended with the Revolutions of 1989 , the fall of the Berlin Wall , and the dissolution of the Soviet Union , which allowed European integration to advance significantly. European integration is being advanced institutionally since 1948 with the founding of the Council of Europe , and significantly through the realisation of the European Union (EU), which represents today

3276-607: The European population at the time. The plague had a devastating effect on Europe's social structure; it induced people to live for the moment as illustrated by Giovanni Boccaccio in The Decameron (1353). It was a serious blow to the Roman Catholic Church and led to increased persecution of Jews , beggars and lepers . The plague is thought to have returned every generation with varying virulence and mortalities until

3393-508: The Greeks and Phoenicians gave rise to early Mediterranean cities. Early Iron Age Italy and Greece from around the 8th century BCE gradually gave rise to historical Classical antiquity, whose beginning is sometimes dated to 776 BCE, the year of the first Olympic Games . Ancient Greece was the founding culture of Western civilisation. Western democratic and rationalist culture are often attributed to Ancient Greece. The Greek city-state,

3510-612: The Inquisition against heretics. In the Iberian Peninsula , the Reconquista concluded with the fall of Granada in 1492 , ending over seven centuries of Islamic rule in the south-western peninsula. In the east, a resurgent Byzantine Empire recaptured Crete and Cyprus from the Muslims, and reconquered the Balkans. Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest city in Europe from the 9th to

3627-706: The Irtysh River , a major tributary of the Ob, as components of a series of partly-joined waterways taking the boundary between Europe and Asia from the Turkish Straits, and the Don River all the way to the Arctic Ocean. In 1721, he produced a more up to date map that was easier to read. However, his proposal to adhere to major rivers as the line of demarcation was never taken up by other geographers who were beginning to move away from

Pirinçlik Air Base - Misplaced Pages Continue

3744-473: The Mediterranean Sea —namely, Ceuta and Melilla —which are parts of Africa and share a border with Morocco. According to the current convention, Georgia and Azerbaijan are transcontinental countries where waterways have been completely replaced by mountains as the divide between continents. The first recorded usage of Eurṓpē as a geographic term is in the Homeric Hymn to Delian Apollo , in reference to

3861-680: The Megalithic Temples of Malta and Stonehenge , were constructed throughout Western and Southern Europe. The modern native populations of Europe largely descend from three distinct lineages: Mesolithic hunter-gatherers , descended from populations associated with the Paleolithic Epigravettian culture; Neolithic Early European Farmers who migrated from Anatolia during the Neolithic Revolution 9,000 years ago; and Yamnaya Steppe herders who expanded into Europe from

3978-588: The Neandertal valley in Germany ) appeared in Europe 150,000 years ago (115,000 years ago it is found already in the territory of present-day Poland ) and disappeared from the fossil record about 40,000 years ago, with their final refuge being the Iberian Peninsula. The Neanderthals were supplanted by modern humans ( Cro-Magnons ), who seem to have appeared in Europe around 43,000 to 40,000 years ago. However, there

4095-635: The Pechenegs and the Cuman-Kipchaks , caused a massive migration of Slavic populations to the safer, heavily forested regions of the north, and temporarily halted the expansion of the Rus' state to the south and east. Like many other parts of Eurasia , these territories were overrun by the Mongols . The invaders, who became known as Tatars , were mostly Turkic-speaking peoples under Mongol suzerainty. They established

4212-409: The Pontic–Caspian steppe of Ukraine and southern Russia in the context of Indo-European migrations 5,000 years ago. The European Bronze Age began c. 3200 BCE in Greece with the Minoan civilisation on Crete , the first advanced civilisation in Europe. The Minoans were followed by the Myceneans , who collapsed suddenly around 1200 BCE, ushering the European Iron Age . Iron Age colonisation by

4329-406: The Serbian Principality (later Kingdom and Empire ), and the Duchy of Croatia (later Kingdom of Croatia ). To the east, Kievan Rus' expanded from its capital in Kiev to become the largest state in Europe by the 10th century. In 988, Vladimir the Great adopted Orthodox Christianity as the religion of state. Further east, Volga Bulgaria became an Islamic state in the 10th century, but

4446-465: The Third Air Force (5 March – 1 October 1943) and by the end of the 1943 summer had tar paper barracks, an officer's club, and a theater in a Quonset . After the base transferred to Second Air Force on 1 October 1943, in June 1944 Peterson Field began fighter pilot training with P-40N Warhawks . "In March 1943 the Third Air Force took over the photographic reconnaissance Operational Training Unit which had been operating at Peterson Field ... under

4563-415: The U.S. Department of Defense would end or reduce operations at seven European installations as a result of the latest round of base and force realignment actions. The phrase "return" means the entire installation is vacated by U.S. forces and returned to the control of the host nation. This round included six installations in Germany and one in Turkey—Pirinçlik Air Base. This action began immediately, with

4680-487: The XXI Bomber Command was assigned to Peterson; and the "HQ and HQ Sq" of XXII Bomber Command was assigned 14 October 1944 – 13 February 1945, and by 17 August 1944, 4 bomb wings (313th through 316th) were assigned to the base — the last left on 7 June 1945. The 263rd AAF Base Unit became the Peterson "base operating unit" on 8 March 1945 (transferred to Andrews Field on 17 March 1946). The Army Air Forces Instructor School opened at Peterson Field in April 1945, and

4797-405: The city auditorium ... and the mess hall was located at the busy horseshoe counter of the Santa Fe railway station ." Land at the Broadmoor was used for maneuvers, and the 2nd Group initially operated without aircraft. Personnel were also "housed temporarily at Colorado College " and a youth camp near the Woodmen sanitorium. (the 14th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron was located at

Pirinçlik Air Base - Misplaced Pages Continue

4914-426: The decline of the Roman Empire , Europe entered a long period of change arising from what historians call the " Age of Migrations ". There were numerous invasions and migrations amongst the Ostrogoths , Visigoths , Goths , Vandals , Huns , Franks , Angles , Saxons , Slavs , Avars , Bulgars , Vikings , Pechenegs , Cumans , and Magyars . Renaissance thinkers such as Petrarch would later refer to this as

5031-432: The last glacial period ended about 10,000 years ago. Earth is currently in an interglacial period of the Quaternary, called the Holocene . Homo erectus georgicus , which lived roughly 1.8 million years ago in Georgia , is the earliest hominin to have been discovered in Europe. Other hominin remains, dating back roughly 1 million years, have been discovered in Atapuerca , Spain . Neanderthal man (named after

5148-517: The polis , was the fundamental political unit of classical Greece. In 508 BCE, Cleisthenes instituted the world's first democratic system of government in Athens . The Greek political ideals were rediscovered in the late 18th century by European philosophers and idealists. Greece also generated many cultural contributions: in philosophy , humanism and rationalism under Aristotle , Socrates and Plato ; in history with Herodotus and Thucydides ; in dramatic and narrative verse, starting with

5265-563: The "4600 Maint & Sup Sq" was established at the surplus base on 1 December 1950). The military base at the municipal field reactivated as an off-base installation of Ent Air Force Base on 1 January 1951 and was operated by Ent's 4600 Air Base Group. After being assigned to Peterson on 1 March 1952, the 4602d Air Intelligence Service Squadron had subordinate organizations at the "Defense Force Headquarters [on] Hamilton Air Force Base , California, at Kansas City, Missouri , and at Stewart Air Force Base " New York. The 4600th Group became

5382-402: The "Dark Ages". Isolated monastic communities were the only places to safeguard and compile written knowledge accumulated previously; apart from this, very few written records survive. Much literature, philosophy, mathematics, and other thinking from the classical period disappeared from Western Europe, though they were preserved in the east, in the Byzantine Empire. While the Roman empire in

5499-408: The "air support base development program". In May 1942, units such as the 5th Mapping Squadron (from Bradley Field ) arrived and used city facilities. The " Second Photographic Group Reconnaissance " (activated 7 May 1942 at Will Rogers Field ) transferred to Colorado Springs, and the "2nd Group ... headquarters was situated in a former garage across the street from the Post Office, barracks were in

5616-461: The 12th centuries, with a population of approximately 400,000. The Empire was weakened following the defeat at Manzikert , and was weakened considerably by the sack of Constantinople in 1204 , during the Fourth Crusade . Although it would recover Constantinople in 1261, Byzantium fell in 1453 when Constantinople was taken by the Ottoman Empire . In the 11th and 12th centuries, constant incursions by nomadic Turkic tribes, such as

5733-401: The 12th to the 15th centuries, the Grand Duchy of Moscow grew from a small principality under Mongol rule to the largest state in Europe, overthrowing the Mongols in 1480, and eventually becoming the Tsardom of Russia . The state was consolidated under Ivan III the Great and Ivan the Terrible , steadily expanding to the east and south over the next centuries. The Great Famine of 1315–1317

5850-585: The 14th and 16th centuries: it saw the flowering of art , philosophy , music , and the sciences , under the joint patronage of royalty , the nobility, the Roman Catholic Church and an emerging merchant class. Patrons in Italy, including the Medici family of Florentine bankers and the Popes in Rome , funded prolific quattrocento and cinquecento artists such as Raphael , Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci . Peterson AFB Peterson Space Force Base , previously Peterson Air Force Base , Peterson Field , and Army Air Base, Colorado Springs ,

5967-444: The 18th century. During this period, more than 100 plague epidemics swept across Europe. The Renaissance was a period of cultural change originating in Florence , and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The rise of a new humanism was accompanied by the recovery of forgotten classical Greek and Arabic knowledge from monastic libraries, often translated from Arabic into Latin . The Renaissance spread across Europe between

SECTION 50

#1732852683634

6084-416: The 202nd AAF Base Unit (Special) in February, and the 268th AAF Base Unit (Instrument Instructor Unit) in March and the 201st (Headquarters Base Unit) in April (the 72nd Fighter Wing was at the base from "4 January 1946 - 9 April 1946"). The 703rd AAF Base Unit (Hq, 53d AACS Group) moved to Kelly Field in February. Designated surplus on 29 July 1946, "the U.S. Government returned control of the [air]field to

6201-400: The 50 years of peace that followed are known as Golden Age of Athens , the seminal period of ancient Greece that laid many of the foundations of Western civilisation. Greece was followed by Rome , which left its mark on law , politics , language , engineering , architecture , government , and many more key aspects in western civilisation. By 200 BCE, Rome had conquered Italy and over

6318-421: The British Isles, France, Christianised western Germany, the Alpine regions and northern and central Italy. The concept is one of the lasting legacies of the Carolingian Renaissance : Europa often figures in the letters of Charlemagne's court scholar, Alcuin . The transition of Europe to being a cultural term as well as a geographic one led to the borders of Europe being affected by cultural considerations in

6435-413: The City of Colorado Springs". Many of the base buildings were torn down. In 1946, Tonopah AAF (Nevada, on 1 October), Clovis AAF (New Mexico, 16 October), and Casper AAF (Wyoming, on 15 December) became detached installations of the inactive base for a short period. During planning for the new United States Air Force , Colorado's Arlington Auxiliary Army Airfield became a detached installation of

6552-448: The Don altogether, following the Greater Caucasus watershed to the Caspian. The question was still treated as a "controversy" in geographical literature of the 1860s, with Douglas Freshfield advocating the Caucasus crest boundary as the "best possible", citing support from various "modern geographers". In Russia and the Soviet Union , the boundary along the Kuma–Manych Depression was the most commonly used as early as 1906. In 1958,

6669-427: The Early Middle Ages, and soon spread throughout Europe. A struggle for influence between the nobility and the monarchy in England led to the writing of Magna Carta and the establishment of a parliament . The primary source of culture in this period came from the Roman Catholic Church . Through monasteries and cathedral schools , the Church was responsible for education in much of Europe. The Papacy reached

6786-452: The East, especially relating to areas under Byzantine, Ottoman, and Russian influence. Such questions were affected by the positive connotations associated with the term Europe by its users. Such cultural considerations were not applied to the Americas, despite their conquest and settlement by European states. Instead, the concept of "Western civilization" emerged as a way of grouping together Europe and these colonies. The question of defining

6903-427: The European post-classical Middle Ages . The Italian Renaissance spread in the continent a new humanist interest in art and science which led to the modern era . Since the Age of Discovery , led by Spain and Portugal , Europe played a predominant role in global affairs with multiple explorations and conquests around the world. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers colonised at various times

7020-421: The Frankish tribes were united under Clovis I . Charlemagne , a Frankish king of the Carolingian dynasty who had conquered most of Western Europe, was anointed " Holy Roman Emperor " by the Pope in 800. This led in 962 to the founding of the Holy Roman Empire , which eventually became centred in the German principalities of central Europe. East Central Europe saw the creation of the first Slavic states and

7137-404: The Great 's efforts to make Russia more European, ignored the whole boundary question with his claim that neither Russia, Scandinavia, northern Germany, nor Poland were fully part of Europe. Since then, many modern analytical geographers like Halford Mackinder have declared that they see little validity in the Ural Mountains as a boundary between continents. The mapmakers continued to differ on

SECTION 60

#1732852683634

7254-414: The Kaufman Building on Tejon St.) " Army Air Base, Colorado Springs ",* construction began after 10 May 1942, on "nothing more than a large patch of Colorado plain", and the installation was placed under the Headquarters, United States "AAF [on] 11 June 1942". The 373d Base HQ and Air Base Sq was activated as the base operating unit on 20 June 1942 (replaced by the 214th AAF Base Unit in 1944), and

7371-427: The Levant and North Africa and making inroads into Asia Minor . In the mid-7th century, following the Muslim conquest of Persia , Islam penetrated into the Caucasus region. Over the next centuries Muslim forces took Cyprus , Malta , Crete , Sicily , and parts of southern Italy . Between 711 and 720, most of the lands of the Visigothic Kingdom of Iberia were brought under Muslim rule—save for small areas in

7488-414: The Mediterranean Sea without the inclusion of any mountain ranges. Cartographer Herman Moll suggested in 1715 Europe was bounded by a series of partly-joined waterways directed towards the Turkish straits, and the Irtysh River draining into the upper part of the Ob River and the Arctic Ocean . In contrast, the present eastern boundary of Europe partially adheres to the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, which

7605-433: The Soviet Geographical Society formally recommended that the boundary between the Europe and Asia be drawn in textbooks from Baydaratskaya Bay , on the Kara Sea , along the eastern foot of Ural Mountains, then following the Ural River until the Mugodzhar Hills , and then the Emba River ; and Kuma–Manych Depression, thus placing the Caucasus entirely in Asia and the Urals entirely in Europe. The Flora Europaea adopted

7722-481: The Soviet Union. The Air Force FPS-79 UHF tracking radar at Diyarbakir-Pirinçlik in Turkey is capable of tracking missiles during flight. The 10-meter diameter dish antenna system has a variable focus feed horn system which can provide a wide beam for target detection, and a narrow beam for tracking (other similar radars have scan rates in excess of 10 o {\displaystyle {10^{o}}} per second). Operating at 432 MHz, this radar has

7839-466: The Spanish House" next to the museum, along with Building 391, Building 365, supply warehouses and office buildings, and aircraft hangars and maintenance shops. The base's Retiree Activities Office has the representative for the Air Force Retiree Council Area IV ( Colorado , Nevada , Utah , and Wyoming ). On 20 December 2019, Air Force Space Command was redesignated as the U.S. Space Force and elevated to become an independent military branch. With

7956-400: The Tanais (the modern Don River) as the boundary. The Roman Empire did not attach a strong identity to the concept of continental divisions. However, following the fall of the Western Roman Empire , the culture that developed in its place , linked to Latin and the Catholic church, began to associate itself with the concept of "Europe". The term "Europe" is first used for a cultural sphere in

8073-422: The adoption of Christianity ( c. 1000 CE) . The powerful West Slavic state of Great Moravia spread its territory all the way south to the Balkans, reaching its largest territorial extent under Svatopluk I and causing a series of armed conflicts with East Francia . Further south, the first South Slavic states emerged in the late 7th and 8th century and adopted Christianity : the First Bulgarian Empire ,

8190-411: The airfield.) Peterson Field was the airfield named on 13 December 1942, and included the runway used by both the municipal airport and the military installation: "Army Air Base, Peterson Field", which had begun publishing the Wingspread base newspaper by 11 July 1942. The "18 Dep Rpr Sq" was assigned to the military installation from 19 January – 29 April 1943, and the installation was assigned to

8307-405: The base "transferred to the Strategic Air Command " on 1 October 1979 (units transferred included the 47th Comm Sq to AFCS and the 46th Wing and 4602nd Computer Services Sq to SAC). ADCOM HQ offices at the Chidlaw Building became the Aerospace Defense Center at Peterson on 1 December 1979. Peterson's NORAD COC Backup Facility achieved Full Operational Capability on 16 November 1982 from

8424-542: The base at night, and had few shopping or entertainment opportunities other than an occasional temporary duty to İncirlik. This site was so small that the perimeter fence was practically visible from anywhere on base. The staff consisted of 150 airmen which during the 1980s and after included about 20 or so females, 30+ officers, 120 American civilian contractors, and nearly 300 Turkish military and civilians. On September 30, 1996, Lockheed Martin Corporation , Syracuse, N.Y. ,

8541-602: The base was assigned to the 2nd Air Force on 22 June 1942. On 7 July 1942, "HQ PROTU" was on the "Army Air Base, Colorado Springs" and was ordered to provide "four to five months of training to each individual". During air base construction, the 20th Combat Mapping Squadron was activated on 23 July 1942, and used the Alamo Garage on Tejon Street. Runways were completed in August 1942, and eponym 1st Lt Edward J. Peterson crashed 8 August 1942 on take off (1st Coloradoan killed at

8658-523: The base was one of several that transferred to Continental Air Forces on 16 April 1945. ( VIII Bomber Command arrived 17 August 1945). The base was inactivated 31 December 1945 after the 13th Bombardment Wing (17 October) and VIII Bomber Command ( c.  15 December ) departed, and site management by the base operating unit ended on 17 December 1945. In 1946, Peterson's last AAF Base Units were discontinued: 260th AAF Base Unit (Fighter Wing) in January,

8775-625: The basis of many modern legal systems, funded the construction of the Hagia Sophia and brought the Christian church under state control. From the 7th century onwards, as the Byzantines and neighbouring Sasanid Persians were severely weakened due to the protracted, centuries-lasting and frequent Byzantine–Sasanian wars , the Muslim Arabs began to make inroads into historically Roman territory, taking

8892-556: The boundary between the lower Don and Samara well into the 19th century. The 1745 atlas published by the Russian Academy of Sciences has the boundary follow the Don beyond Kalach as far as Serafimovich before cutting north towards Arkhangelsk , while other 18th- to 19th-century mapmakers such as John Cary followed Strahlenberg's prescription. To the south, the Kuma–Manych Depression was identified c.  1773 by

9009-460: The continent The prevalent definition of Europe as a geographical term has been in use since the mid-19th century. Europe is taken to be bounded by large bodies of water to the north, west and south; Europe's limits to the east and north-east are usually taken to be the Ural Mountains , the Ural River , and the Caspian Sea ; to the south-east, the Caucasus Mountains , the Black Sea , and

9126-567: The continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a total population of about 745 million (about 10% of the world population ) in 2021; the third-largest after Asia and Africa. The European climate is affected by warm Atlantic currents, such as the Gulf Stream , which produce a temperate climate , tempering winters and summers, on much of the continent. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable producing more continental climates . European culture consists of

9243-561: The continent. Chinese, for example, uses the word Ōuzhōu ( 歐洲 / 欧洲 ), which is an abbreviation of the transliterated name Ōuluóbā zhōu ( 歐羅巴洲 ) ( zhōu means "continent"); a similar Chinese-derived term Ōshū ( 欧州 ) is also sometimes used in Japanese such as in the Japanese name of the European Union, Ōshū Rengō ( 欧州連合 ) , despite the katakana Yōroppa ( ヨーロッパ ) being more commonly used. In some Turkic languages,

9360-621: The continents as the lands given by Noah to his three sons; Europe was defined as stretching from the Pillars of Hercules at the Strait of Gibraltar , separating it from Northwest Africa , to the Don, separating it from Asia. The convention received by the Middle Ages and surviving into modern usage is that of the Roman era used by Roman-era authors such as Posidonius , Strabo , and Ptolemy , who took

9477-616: The development of major commercial routes along the coast of the Mediterranean and Baltic Seas . The growing wealth and independence acquired by some coastal cities gave the Maritime Republics a leading role in the European scene. The Middle Ages on the mainland were dominated by the two upper echelons of the social structure: the nobility and the clergy. Feudalism developed in France in

9594-535: The direct control of the Director of Photography since April 1942". The 4th Heavy Bombardment Processing Headquarters ("4 H Bomb Processing HQ") was activated on 10 June 1943 (the 1st B-29 landed at Peterson Field in the summer of 1943), and bomber training by the 214th AAF Base Unit (Combat Crew Training School, Heavy) B-24 Liberator ) began after the 383rd Bombardment Group relocated from Geiger Field , Washington on 26 October 1943. In 1944 (11 June – 20 October),

9711-570: The epic poems of Homer ; in drama with Sophocles and Euripides ; in medicine with Hippocrates and Galen ; and in science with Pythagoras , Euclid , and Archimedes . In the course of the 5th century BCE, several of the Greek city states would ultimately check the Achaemenid Persian advance in Europe through the Greco-Persian Wars , considered a pivotal moment in world history, as

9828-633: The facility conducted Army Air Forces training and supported Cold War air defense centers at the nearby Ent Air Force Base , Chidlaw Building , and Cheyenne Mountain Complex . The base was the location of the Air Force Space Command headquarters from 1987 to 20 December 2019 and has had NORAD / NORTHCOM command center operations since the 2006 Cheyenne Mountain Realignment placed the nearby Cheyenne Mountain Complex on standby. On 26 July 2021,

9945-409: The first radar reports of new Russian satellite launches from Kapustin Yar in the early days of satellite tracking; see Project Space Track . The site operated both a detection radar (AN/FPS-17) and a mechanical tracking radar (AN/FPS-79). Although limited by their mechanical technology, Pirinçlik's two radars gave the advantage of tracking two objects simultaneously in real time. Its location close to

10062-567: The following two centuries it conquered Greece , Hispania ( Spain and Portugal ), the North African coast, much of the Middle East , Gaul ( France and Belgium ), and Britannia ( England and Wales ). Expanding from their base in central Italy beginning in the third century BCE, the Romans gradually expanded to eventually rule the entire Mediterranean basin and Western Europe by the turn of

10179-624: The height of its power during the High Middle Ages. An East-West Schism in 1054 split the former Roman Empire religiously, with the Eastern Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire and the Roman Catholic Church in the former Western Roman Empire. In 1095 Pope Urban II called for a crusade against Muslims occupying Jerusalem and the Holy Land . In Europe itself, the Church organised

10296-499: The idea of water boundaries as the only legitimate divides between Europe and Asia. Four years later, in 1725, Philip Johan von Strahlenberg was the first to depart from the classical Don boundary. He drew a new line along the Volga , following the Volga north until the Samara Bend , along Obshchy Syrt (the drainage divide between the Volga and Ural Rivers ), then north and east along

10413-431: The installation was renamed Peterson Space Force Base to reflect its prominent role in the new space service. Colorado military construction during the buildup of US training installations prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor included the 1940 Lowry bombardier school at Denver and Camp Carson south of Colorado Springs (HQ completed on 31 January 1942). Sites "in the vicinity of Colorado Springs" were assessed in

10530-589: The latter waterway to its source in the Ural Mountains . At this point he proposed that mountain ranges could be included as boundaries between continents as alternatives to nearby waterways. Accordingly, he drew the new boundary north along Ural Mountains rather than the nearby and parallel running Ob and Irtysh rivers. This was endorsed by the Russian Empire and introduced the convention that would eventually become commonly accepted. However, this did not come without criticism. Voltaire , writing in 1760 about Peter

10647-431: The majority of Europe. The European Union is a supranational political entity that lies between a confederation and a federation and is based on a system of European treaties . The EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. A majority of its members have adopted a common currency, the euro , and participate in the European single market and

10764-567: The millennium. The Roman Republic ended in 27 BCE, when Augustus proclaimed the Roman Empire . The two centuries that followed are known as the pax romana , a period of unprecedented peace, prosperity and political stability in most of Europe. The empire continued to expand under emperors such as Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius , who spent time on the Empire's northern border fighting Germanic , Pictish and Scottish tribes. Christianity

10881-979: The new military branch, the Fourteenth Air Force and its units became Space Force Space Operations Command and Air Force Space Command's headquarters was redesignated as the Pentagon. Flying and notable non-flying units based at Peterson Space Force Base. Units marked GSU are Geographically Separate Units, which although based at Peterson, are subordinate to a parent unit based at another location. Space Base Delta 1 Space Operations Command (SpOC) Space Systems Command (SSC) US Army Space & Missile Defense Command / Army Forces Strategic Command (USASMDC / ARSTRAT) North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) Air Combat Command (ACC) Air Mobility Command (AMC) Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC) Air National Guard Despite

10998-687: The northwest ( Asturias ) and largely Basque regions in the Pyrenees . This territory, under the Arabic name Al-Andalus , became part of the expanding Umayyad Caliphate . The unsuccessful second siege of Constantinople (717) weakened the Umayyad dynasty and reduced their prestige. The Umayyads were then defeated by the Frankish leader Charles Martel at the Battle of Poitiers in 732, which ended their northward advance. In

11115-479: The originally Persian name Frangistan ("land of the Franks ") is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa . Clickable map of Europe, showing one of the most commonly used continental boundaries Key: blue : states which straddle the border between Europe and Asia ; green : countries not geographically in Europe, but closely associated with

11232-529: The personnel and equipment of both the 1st SW and 3d SSW merged to become the 21st Space Wing. Peterson's Space Analysis Center was at the corner of Academy & Fountain Blvds by 2004 before moving on base to bldg 1470, and in 2004 the Space Operations School used a building along I-25 at Woodmen Drive. The Cheyenne Mountain Realignment moved NORAD/USNORTHCOM operations to Peterson AFB in 2006. In 2006,

11349-497: The reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. An alternative view is that of Robert Beekes , who has argued in favour of a pre-Indo-European origin for the name, explaining that a derivation from eurus would yield a different toponym than Europa. Beekes has located toponyms related to that of Europa in the territory of ancient Greece, and localities such as that of Europos in ancient Macedonia . There have been attempts to connect Eurṓpē to

11466-503: The remote regions of north-western Iberia and the middle Pyrenees the power of the Muslims in the south was scarcely felt. It was here that the foundations of the Christian kingdoms of Asturias , Leon , and Galicia were laid and from where the reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula would start. However, no coordinated attempt would be made to drive the Moors out. The Christian kingdoms were mainly focused on their own internal power struggles. As

11583-541: The return of the installation to the host nation planned for September 1997. It affected about 117 U.S. Air Force personnel then assigned to the base. 37°54.1452′N 39°59.7822′E  /  37.9024200°N 39.9963700°E  / 37.9024200; 39.9963700 Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere . It

11700-685: The same name today. The principal river there – Evros (today's Maritsa ) – flows through the fertile valleys of Thrace , which itself was also called Europe, before the term meant the continent. In classical Greek mythology , Europa ( Ancient Greek : Εὐρώπη , Eurṓpē ) was a Phoenician princess. One view is that her name derives from the Ancient Greek elements εὐρύς ( eurús ) 'wide, broad', and ὤψ ( ōps , gen. ὠπός , ōpós ) 'eye, face, countenance', hence their composite Eurṓpē would mean 'wide-gazing' or 'broad of aspect'. Broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in

11817-536: The southern Soviet Union made it the only ground sensor capable of tracking actual deorbits of Soviet space hardware. In addition, the Pirinçlik radar was the only 24-hour-per-day eastern hemisphere deep-space sensor. The AN/FPS-17 Space Surveillance Radar developed by the Rome Air Development Center (RADC) was the first surveillance radar system designed to detect objects in space. The FPS-17 detection scanning radars have fixed antennae oriented toward

11934-525: The state of the Golden Horde with headquarters in Crimea, which later adopted Islam as a religion, and ruled over modern-day southern and central Russia for more than three centuries. After the collapse of Mongol dominions, the first Romanian states (principalities) emerged in the 14th century: Moldavia and Walachia . Previously, these territories were under the successive control of Pechenegs and Cumans. From

12051-497: The summer of 1941 for a USAAF airfield , and during April 1942 the Photographic Reconnaissance Operational Training Unit (PROTU) was activated in a leased facility at Colorado Springs. On 6 May 1942, the site adjacent to the airfield of the 1926 Colorado Springs Municipal Airport was selected, and the airport's airfield was subsequently leased as an "air support field"* for Camp Carson under

12168-542: The surplus base (1 January – c.  10 October 1947), and the "468th Construction Co (15th AF)" became the inactive base's operating unit in February 1947. The base with new construction was activated 29 September 1947 – 15 January 1948, then was "surplus" until after the notice in November 1950 to reactivate Air Defense Command . The "23 Photo Sq 19 May 1943-9 August 1948" remained throughout both inactive/surplus periods, and

12285-477: The unit was actually located. On 1 June 1972, the 7022d Air Base Squadron was activated, under the command of the 39th Tactical Group. On 30 July 1981, the squadron was assigned to The U.S. Logistics Group . Its mission was to support 19th Surveillance Squadron , SAC, at Pirinçlik. It received logistical support from İncirlik Air Base . Pirinçlik Air Station was a remote site, where personnel lived in quonset hut dorms, had one club for socialization, could not leave

12402-407: The waterways connecting the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea . Islands are generally grouped with the nearest continental landmass, hence Iceland is considered to be part of Europe, while the nearby island of Greenland is usually assigned to North America , although politically belonging to Denmark. Nevertheless, there are some exceptions based on sociopolitical and cultural differences. Cyprus

12519-551: The west and the north, transmitting newly acquired skills in producing copper artifacts. In Western Europe the Neolithic period was characterised not by large agricultural settlements but by field monuments, such as causewayed enclosures , burial mounds and megalithic tombs . The Corded Ware cultural horizon flourished at the transition from the Neolithic to the Chalcolithic . During this period giant megalithic monuments, such as

12636-523: The west continued to decline, Roman traditions and the Roman state remained strong in the predominantly Greek-speaking Eastern Roman Empire , also known as the Byzantine Empire . During most of its existence, the Byzantine Empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe. Emperor Justinian I presided over Constantinople's first golden age: he established a legal code that forms

12753-506: The western shore of the Aegean Sea . As a name for a part of the known world, it is first used in the 6th century BCE by Anaximander and Hecataeus . Anaximander placed the boundary between Asia and Europe along the Phasis River (the modern Rioni River on the territory of Georgia ) in the Caucasus, a convention still followed by Herodotus in the 5th century BCE. Herodotus mentioned that

12870-735: The wider world. Both world wars began and were fought to a great extent in Europe, contributing to a decline in Western European dominance in world affairs by the mid-20th century as the Soviet Union and the United States took prominence and competed over dominance in Europe and globally. The resulting Cold War divided Europe along the Iron Curtain , with NATO in the West and the Warsaw Pact in

12987-712: The widespread use of pottery—began around 7000 BCE in Greece and the Balkans , probably influenced by earlier farming practices in Anatolia and the Near East . It spread from the Balkans along the valleys of the Danube and the Rhine ( Linear Pottery culture ), and along the Mediterranean coast ( Cardial culture ). Between 4500 and 3000 BCE, these central European neolithic cultures developed further to

13104-609: The world had been divided by unknown persons into three parts—Europe, Asia, and Libya (Africa)—with the Nile and the Phasis forming their boundaries—though he also states that some considered the River Don , rather than the Phasis, as the boundary between Europe and Asia. Europe's eastern frontier was defined in the 1st century by geographer Strabo at the River Don. The Book of Jubilees described

13221-422: Was legalised by Constantine I in 313 CE after three centuries of imperial persecution . Constantine also permanently moved the capital of the empire from Rome to the city of Byzantium (modern-day Istanbul ) which was renamed Constantinople in his honour in 330 CE. Christianity became the sole official religion of the empire in 380 CE, and in 391–392 CE the emperor Theodosius outlawed pagan religions. This

13338-489: Was awarded a $ 16,221,360 face value increase to a fixed-price incentive contract to provide for FY 1997 operation, maintenance, and logistic support of the sensor facilities at Pirinclik Air Station. The work was performed at Pirinçlik Air Station. The contract was completed in September 1997. The 21st Space Wing, Peterson AFB , Colorado , was the contracting activity. The Secretary of Defense announced February 13, 1997, that

13455-466: Was being closed, Peterson was the last of the April 1945 Continental Air Forces airbases to be named an air force base. Also on 1 March, Peterson assumed several functions from Ent AFB, which became the "Ent Annex" of Peterson, 18 July 1975 – 7 February 1978 (Peterson's off-base "Temporary Military Facility" was opened for space training by 1986). During the first part of the reorganization that broke up ADCOM,

13572-597: Was eventually absorbed into Russia several centuries later. The period between the year 1000 and 1250 is known as the High Middle Ages , followed by the Late Middle Ages until c. 1500. During the High Middle Ages the population of Europe experienced significant growth, culminating in the Renaissance of the 12th century . Economic growth, together with the lack of safety on the mainland trading routes, made possible

13689-548: Was the first crisis that would strike Europe in the late Middle Ages. The period between 1348 and 1420 witnessed the heaviest loss. The population of France was reduced by half. Medieval Britain was afflicted by 95 famines, and France suffered the effects of 75 or more in the same period. Europe was devastated in the mid-14th century by the Black Death , one of the most deadly pandemics in human history which killed an estimated 25 million people in Europe alone—a third of

#633366