STARBASE Kingsley — the Department of Defense youth STEM education program based at Kingsley Field in Klamath Falls — has closed its doors.

For years, STARBASE provided education in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) to thousands of Klamath County 5th-graders — bringing them onto the base, putting them in front of real aircraft, real fabrication shops, and real military STEM professionals, and showing them that the careers they'd been hearing about in school were tangible and reachable.

What STARBASE Was

STARBASE was a national DoD program with sites across the United States. The mission was simple and powerful:

Bring 5th-graders onto a military installation. Show them real STEM in real action. Plant the seed.

For the Klamath County School District, STARBASE Kingsley meant 5th-graders from every elementary school in the basin spending multi-day immersive STEM weeks at Kingsley Field — taking on hands-on projects, touring the 173rd Fighter Wing fabrication shop, posing in front of F-16 (and later F-15) static displays, and being mentored by people who do this work for a living.

The Photos Tell the Story

The images that accompanied STARBASE Kingsley's closure announcement capture what made the program special:

  • STARBASE students pose in front of an F-16 static display, October 24, 2024 — proud, smiling, dwarfed by the aircraft, looking at the world with the wide eyes that 10-year-olds bring to a fighter jet.
  • STARBASE students on a tour of the 173rd Fighter Wing Fabrication shop, February 14, 2025 — taking in the precision welding, the machining, the layout of an actual military fabrication operation.

The kids in those photos got to see something most American 5th-graders never see in person. For some of them, it will be the moment that locks in a future career in engineering, aerospace, or the trades.

Why the Closure Hurts

STEM programs at the elementary level matter precisely because they're early enough to plant interest before the years when kids "decide" they're not a math person or a science person.

STARBASE Kingsley closing means future Klamath County 5th-graders won't get that experience the way the kids in those photographs did. It's a loss the community will feel slowly — five and ten years down the line, when fewer Klamath kids end up in STEM career paths because they didn't get the early spark.

Thanks to the Team

To the airmen, civilian educators, volunteers, and 173rd Fighter Wing personnel who made STARBASE Kingsley happen — thank you. Generations of Klamath County kids carry that experience with them, whether they realize it or not.

What Comes Next

Klamath County still has good STEM education — through Oregon Tech, KCDDS, KCSD's CTE programs, Bonanza's pre-apprenticeship work, Henley's DECA program, and the strong science teaching across the basin's elementary and middle schools.

But STARBASE Kingsley was unique. It can't be replaced by classroom curriculum alone.

If you're a Klamath County educator, parent, or community member looking to fill some of that gap — connect with the schools, with KCDDS, with the Y, and with Oregon Tech about partnerships. The basin's kids deserve every STEM door we can hold open for them.

Thank you, STARBASE Kingsley.