This week in AFLCMC history and spotlight on Hill AFB

  • Published
  • By Air Force Life Cycle Management Center History Office
In this edition of Heritage Hangar, you'll learn about old and new airplanes and tidbits of what happened this week many years ago. Plus a nice look at Hill AFB. Click to read as a PDF.  Installation spotlight on Hill AFB follows below. 

The origins of Hill Air Force Base can be traced back to the Army Air Corps’ brief role in delivering the country’s airmail; a temporary depot was established in Salt Lake City, Utah to support airmail operations. In July 1934, the Air Corps’ Materiel Division recommended that a permanent Air Corps de-pot be established in the Salt Lake City area of Utah. In January 1936 the Army Air Corps attained the funds to begin the rehabilitation of Ogden Ordnance Depot, Ogden, UT (40 miles north of Salt Lake City). Over the course of the next four years, additional federal funding and was appropriated to acquire and develop land adjacent to Ogden Ordnance Depot. In 1939, the War Department named the site Hill Field in honor of Maj Ployer Hill, an Army Air Corps test pilot killed at Wright Field, OH, testing a B-17 prototype. 

As construction of Hill Field began in 1940, Germany would invade France, while fighting between China and Japan would continue unabated. Operations at Hill Field began in 1941 and during World War II, Ogden Air Depot played an important role in maintaining and a variety of aircraft and engines, while Hill provided critical support to nearby Wendover Field, where bomber crews trained on its bombing and gunnery range. 

After World War II, the U.S. Army Air Service was granted independence (18 September 1947), Hill Field was renamed Hill Air Force Base on 5 February 1948. As it had in World War II, Hill AFB’s depot maintained USAF fighters (F-84s, F-89s, F-101s, and F-102s) and bombers (B-26s and B-29s) throughout the Korean War. In the years immediately following, Hill AFB saw a significant expansion of its mission set. In 1955, the U.S. Army’s Ogden Arsenal was transferred to Hill AFB. In 1959, Hill assumed responsibility for the Minuteman ICBM. The 2705th Airmunitions Wing became responsible for all Air Force munitions operations in 1960. Hill AFB was also assigned the maintenance of the Air Force’s F-4 Phantoms in 1962. In 1974, Hill would also gain maintenance responsibility for the F-16 Fighting Falcon. In the early 1980s, it would take on a sizeable portion of maintenance duties for C-130 Hercules fleet, while as serving as the system man-ager for the Peacekeeper ICBM program. 

Naturally these responsibilities ebbed and flowed through various Air Force reorganizations, base closures, system retirements (e.g F-4, Peacekeeper ICBMs, etc.), and new system acquisitions, such as the F-117, B-2, F-22 and the F-35, as well as the Minuteman III ICBMs. 

A number of AFLCMC divisions operate at Hill AFB, providing life cycle support for the F-22, F-35, A-10, and F-16 fleets as well as divisions of the Digital, Armament, Mobility, Acquisition, Logistics, Intelligence, Agile Combat Support, and Engineering Directorates. 

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