Dobbins ARB was originally intended to be an alternate field for Atlanta, Georgia's Candler Field, and was to be named Rickenbacker Field, after World War One ace pilot Captain Eddie Rickenbacker. With the onset of World War Two, and considerable wrangling with the Navy over the field, the would-be Rickenbacker Field came into the possession of the US Army Air Force, which named the field Marietta Army Airfield, and announced the creation of a new aircraft factory nearby. This factory produced B-29 Superfortress bombers, which were then acceptance tested at Marietta Airfield. By the end of the war, the factory had produced, and Marietta Airfield had tested, 357 B29As and 311 B29Bs, for missions in Europe and the Pacific.

After the war, Marietta Army Airfield became home to units for the Georgia Air National Guard, and Air Force Reserve units. In 1948 Marietta was renamed Marietta Air Force Base, and now housed the headquarters for the 116th Fighter Group and the headquarters of the 54th Fighter Wing. The base was again renamed in 1950, to Dobbins AFB, after a World War Two pilot from Marietta GA, KIA in Sicily while dropping his third load of paratroopers in one day.

The 1990s post-Cold War base realignments and closures required the reassignment of Dobbins to the Air Reserve, and so it remains.