The Story of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base 1940: 1976, Strategic Air Command, B-29, B-50, U-2, A-10, Lucky Lady II, Tactical Air Command, F-4C Fighter, Tucson Arizona Community, Aircraft Storage

On the 2nd of December, 1940, Tucson officials received a Western Union telegram from the War Department notifying them that a decision had been made to establish a military airfield at the city's municipal airport. This marked the culmination of an intense eleven-year effort on the part of many of the Old Pueblo's most prominent citizens to get an air base established at Tucson.

Throughout the subsequent years, the fledgling installation grew in spurts; prompted first by the outbreak of World War II and then by the buildup of the Strategic Air Command (SAC) in the era of the Cold War. The missions supported by the base have gone full circle over the years. Its first mission was strategic bombardment and reconnaissance. That ended with the attack on Pearl Harbor, after which the field was tasked with the training of combat crews for the big B-17, B-24, and B-29 bombers used during the war. With the creation of the Strategic Air Command in 1946, Davis-Monthan Field took on an new strategic role involving B-29s, B-50s, and later the all-jet B-47 bombers. The importance of the base was bolstered during the 1960s with the addition of the nation's first Titan II intercontinental ballistic missile wing and a high-technology reconnaissance unit. The strategic bombardment mission, however, was lost during that period. Within the same decade, the Tactical Air Command first appeared at the base as a tenant unit charged with the training of combat crews for the F-4C jet fighter-bomber.

The prominence of the Tactical Air Command at Davis-Monthan AFB became much more pronounced in the early 1970s with the arrival of the 355th Tactical Fighter Wing and its inventory of A-7Ds and later A-10s. With the final wind down of the Southeast Asian conflict, the base lost its reconnaissance mission and only the Titan II wing remained to represent the Strategic Air Command. After 30 years of SAC stewardship, the base was turned over to the Tactical Air Command on 30 September 1976.

CHAPTER I - AN ARIZONA BACKGROUND * PREHISTORY * THE SPANISH YEARS 1539-1821 * The Missionary Effort * The Founding of Tucson * Indian Control * THE MEXICAN YEARS 1821-1854 * The Mexican War * THE FRONTIER YEARS 1854-1912 * Cochise and the Chiricahua Apaches * The War Between the States * Fort Lowell * The Indian Wars * Camp Grant Massacre Crook's Forces * Passing of the Frontier * Statehood * CHAPTER II - EARLY AVIATION ERA * AN IDEAL PLACE FOR AVIATORS * AN AERIAL FIELD * DAVIS-MONTHAN FIELD (MUNICIPAL AIRPORT) * Lieutenants Davis and Monthan * Early Airport Operations * Continued Negotiations * CHAPTER III - WORLD WAR II ERA * TUCSON AIR BASE * Community Acceptance * AN OLD NAME - BUT A NEW WAR * Colonel Lowell H. Smith * The Colonel's Dog * Community Participation In The War Effort * Expansion and Construction * Combat Crew Training * The Price of Vigilance * Conversion to the B-29 Superfortress * Solo in a Superfortress * D-M SOLDIER HANGED * WOMEN ALSO SERVED * DEWEY SIMPSON RETIRES * PRISONER-OF-WAR CAMP * SEPARATION CENTER * CHAPTER IV - THIRTY YEARS OF SAC STEWARDSHIP * A NEW STRATEGIC ROLE * Jackson City * 43rd Bombardment Group * EIGHTH AIR FORCE ERA * Major Operations * Historic Flights * Pacusan Dreamboat * Hawaii to Cairo Flight * International 10,000 Kilometer Speed Record * International Closed Course Distance Record * Lucky Lady and Gas Gobbler * B-36/B-50 Round-Trip Flight to Hawaii * Lucky Lady II * FIFTEENTH AIR FORCE ERA * Reorganization * Beginning the Jet Age * B-47 Distance and Endurance Record * The Air Defense Mission * Major Construction * A PERIOD OF NEW ROLES 1960-1970 * The Missile Era Arrives * Missile Site Construction and Activation * 12th Air Division Arrives * Return of the Reconnaissance Mission * Return of the Combat Crew Training Mission * Multi-Mission Operations * Flying Operations * Missile Operations * REVERSAL OF ROLES 1971-1976 * Flying Operations

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