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Aviano has been inhabited since the 900s. However, evidence of a human presence dates to before the Romans entered the area in 186 BC. Most historians believe that Aviano developed with a commercial center located where present day Aviano is situated and a cultural and defensive center in the castle (Castello d'Aviano) area. Aviano was a possession of the Proto-Christian Catholic Church of Aquileia, a small Roman town located on the Adriatic Sea, until 1420 when it came under the influence of the Venetian Republic. Aviano became a part of the Italian State in 1866.

There has been an airport facility in Aviano since 1911. The 2 area airfields were used as training bases for Italian pilots and construction facilities for aircraft parts. The Aviano airfield and one located just outside Pordenone were over run by the Austro-German army during the First World War. The Pordenone airfield was completely destroyed and has only just been reopened in the last several years as a private air club, "La Comina Airfield".

Aviano's larger airfield was less damaged and reopened after the war. Between the two wars the airfields were again used as a training base. The Germans took over the airfield in 1943 and held it until it fell to the Americans and British in 1945.

Since 1945 at the end of World War II there has been an American presence at Aviano Air Base. In 1954 the Italian and American governments signed a joint use agreement and by 1955, HQ United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) had moved its Italian operations from Udine to Aviano. The base went through a period of hosting rotational fighter squadrons. With the declining use of the Italian live fire range, the rotational squadrons became a thing of the past. Aviano became a war reserve material storage base and played a big part in Desert Storm. In 1992, HQ 16th Air Force and the 401st Fighter Wing moved from Torrejon Air Base, Spain to Aviano. In 1994 the 401st FW was deactivated and the 31st FW reactivated.

The numerous divided areas of Aviano Air Base stretch between Aviano and Roveredo in Piano. The town of Aviano is at the base of the Italian Alps about 9 miles north of the city of Pordenone (population approximately 60,000), provincial capital of Pordenone province. The most northeastern region of Italy in which both Aviano and Pordenone are located is called Friuli Venezia Giulia.

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