Airbase history

On Sep.20, 1929, a six-seater Bellanca CH-300 Pacemaker named “The City of Savannah” became the first aircraft to land at the Savannah Airport, inaugurating the Eastern Air Express New York to Miami air service.

By 1930 nearly 1700 civilian airports had been established in the nation.

In spite of the depression, the city undertook a number of improvements to the airfield throughout the decade, including the 1932 construction of Wilson Boulevard, named after Judge Horace Emmett Wilson, chairman of the city’s airport commission.

A crowd views a Strachan Skyways aircraft on display at the Savannah Municipal Airport hangar on February 13, 1937.

When Hitler invaded Poland in September 1939, the United States Army had 175,000 men, ranking 17th in the world—weaker than both the Dutch and Romanian armies.

On 19 May 1940, the city officially dedicated the airport as “Hunter Field.”

Groundbreaking on the airfield took place on December 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

The base was originally called Altus Army Air Field (AAF); construction began in May 1942.

In addition to the photos is the original notation written by Hunter that reads "Queen Mary and group of RAF and American officers at RAF station in England, 1943. (Photo from the collection of Ms.

James Fitzmaurice (a colonel at the time) stands with Savannah Mayor Thomas Gamble, examining a plane at the City of Savannah Airport in 1945. (Photo from the Jim Blaes Collection, courtesy Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum)

In 1947, President Truman signed the National Security Act (NSA), reorganizing the United States defense and intelligence establishments and making the Air Force a completely independent branch of service.

The onset of the Korean War in June 1950 created the need for more men to fly and service aircraft.

Aldrin came to Bartow in 1951 to receive his first flight training after graduating from West Point.

By 1953 both the Soviet Union and the United States had developed thermonuclear, or hydrogen bombs, hundreds of times more destructive than atomic bombs.

In 1956, SAC headquarters designated Hunter AFB as the first test site for this concept.

The latter program was called the Bombs on Base (BOB) program—fifteen facilities built in the current ammunition area were constructed as part of BOB in 1957.

By 1958, Hunter AFB began both home station alert and Reflex operations.

Bartow Airbase officially closed in 1961 and control was returned to the City of Bartow.

Two years into Kennedy’s presidency, in October 1962 (six months before SAC was scheduled to leave Hunter AFB), the Soviets began installing medium-range nuclear missiles in Cuba.

Within six months of the end of the Cuban Missile Crisis, all SAC aircraft had left Hunter AFB. In April 1963, SAC transferred Hunter AFB to the 63rd Troop Carrier Wing of MATS (Materiel Air Transport Service), which stationed 60 C-124 cargo planes and 4,300 men to the installation.

The City made a formal request to the FAA in 1964 for authority to convert a large building area into an industrial park which was subsequently approved resulting in the opening of the industrial park.

In December 1966, the Department of Defense announced that the official new home of the Army’s Advanced Flight Training Center (AFTC) would be Hunter Army Airfield (HAAF) and Fort Stewart.

The City passed an ordinance that established an airport authority in 1967.

That was years before he would become an astronaut, flying on Gemini and Apollo missions, including the first moonwalk mission, on July 20, 1969.

The Army reopened Hunter in 1974 and designated it a sub-post of Fort Stewart and a base for the 24th Infantry Division’s helicopter and support elements.

In addition, from the 1980’s, Lowry Air Force Base remained one of Colorado’s largest employers, with approximately 10,000 military and civilian men and women, providing an economic impact approaching $1 billion annually.

In 1996 the latest addition to Altus AFB, the agile C-17 Globemaster III, arrived.

Office of History, A Brief History of the 97th Air Mobility Wing and Altus Air Force Base (Altus, Okla.: Altus AFB, 2000)

President George W. Bush, and wife Laura, arrive at Hunter Army Airfield in 2004 to attend the G-8 World Summit at Sea Island, GA. June 6-10. (Photo courtesy United States Army)

In the fall 2009, 3rd ID Headquarters, 2nd Brigade Combat Team and 3rd Brigade Combat Team deployed to Iraq for their fourth tour in that country while other units followed.