Davis–Monthan Air Force Base


Davis–Monthan Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base southeast of downtown Tucson, Arizona. It was established in 1925 as Davis–Monthan Landing Field. The host unit for Davis–Monthan AFB is the 355th Wing assigned to Twelfth Air Force, part of Air Combat Command. The base is best known as the location of the Air Force Materiel Command's 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, the Aircraft graveyard for all excess military and U.S. government aircraft and aerospace vehicles.
Davis–Monthan Air Force Base is a key ACC installation. The 355th Wing provides A-10 Thunderbolt II close air support and OA-10 forward air controllers to ground forces worldwide. The 355 WG is the host unit, providing medical, logistical, mission, and operational support to assigned units. The 355 WG is the sole formal training unit for the A-10 aircraft, providing initial and recurrent training to all U.S. Air Force A-10 and OA-10 pilots, to include those in the Air Force Reserve Command and the Air National Guard. The 355th is ACC's executive agent for INF and START treaty compliance. In October 2018, the 563rd Rescue Group, previously a geographically separated unit of the 23rd Wing at Moody AFB, Georgia, was transferred to the 355th Wing, along with its HC-130J COMBAT KING II and HH-60G Pave Hawk aircraft.
One of the wing's tenant units, the 55th Electronic Combat Group, is a geographically separated unit of the 55th Wing at Offutt AFB, Nebraska. Tasked to provide offensive counter-information and electronic attack capabilities in support of U.S. and coalition tactical air, surface, and special operations forces, the 55 ECG unit employs its Lockheed EC-130H Compass Call aircraft worldwide in tactical air operations in war and other contingencies. It also provides initial and recurrent training to all EC-130H Compass Call pilots, navigators, electronic warfare officers, and aircrew.
Two other major tenant units are assigned to the AFRC. The 943rd Rescue Group of the Air Force Materiel Command. As the main location for the 309 AMARG, Davis–Monthan AFB is the sole aircraft boneyard for excess military and U.S. government aircraft and other aerospace vehicles such as ballistic missiles. Tucson's dry climate and alkaline soil make it an ideal location to store and preserve aircraft; more than 4,000 military aircraft are parked on the base.

History

Namesakes

The base was named in honor of World War I pilots Lieutenants Samuel H. Davis and Chief Engineer Oscar Monthan, both Tucson natives. Monthan enlisted in the Army as a private in 1917, was commissioned as a ground officer in 1918, and later became a pilot; he was killed in the crash of a Martin B2 bomber in Hawaii on March 27, 1924.
First Lieutenant Samuel Howard Davis was a pilot and United States Army Air Service officer. Born to Sam and Effie Davis in 1896 in Dyer County, Tennessee, Davis was known by his middle name, Howard. He attended public schools in Tucson. As a young man, his hobbies included horseback riding and shooting; he was a good marksman.
Davis enrolled at A&M College of Texas in 1915 as a student of mechanical engineering, having previously attended the University of Arizona in Tucson. After enlisting in the military in 1917, he was briefly assigned to Fort Hauchuca in Arizona before being transferred to College Station, Texas, to complete his academic studies. He returned to the military after graduation in 1918, assembling airplanes at Kelly Field in San Antonio, Texas. He trained pilots during the first World War, including some pilots who took down German planes. He reached the rank of second lieutenant. Davis was honorably discharged from the military about 1919 with the rank of First Lieutenant in the reserve corps. For a time he worked commercial aviation as a manager with the Arizona Aviation Company, where he piloted Orioles and standard-manufacture airplanes. Davis married Marjorie Cameron of San Antonio in 1920.
Davis returned to the Army Air Service in August 1921. He died in a military aircraft accident completing a training mission on December 28, 1921, while a passenger in a Curtiss JN-6HG at Carlstrom Field, near Arcadia, Florida. One other person, William C. Sinclair, was also killed. They were hunting ducks at the time; Sinclair was piloting and Davis was shooting. After a funeral at the home of his parents, Davis was buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Tucson. He was survived by his widow, his parents, and a brother, Wilton.
Davis's father was in attendance at the 1925 dedication of the base, as was Governor G.W.P. Hunt, who spoke at the dedication.

Origins

In 1919, the Tucson Chamber of Commerce aviation committee established the nation's first municipally owned airfield at the current site of the Tucson Rodeo Grounds. The rapid increase in aviation activities meant a move in 1927 to the site which is now Davis–Monthan Air Force Base. The City of Tucson acquired land southeast of town for a runway and dedicated the field in 1925. Charles Lindbergh, fresh from his nonstop crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, flew his Spirit of St. Louis to Tucson in 1927 to dedicate the airport at Davis–Monthan Field, then the largest municipal airport in the United States.
Military presence at the field began when Sergeant Simpson relocated his fuel and service operation to the site on 6 October 1927. He kept a log containing names of the field's customers, including Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Benjamin Foulois, and Jimmy Doolittle. Doolittle, awarded the Medal of Honor for his 1942 Tokyo raid, was the first military customer at the field on 9 October 1927. The combination of civil and military operations worked well until the early 1940s, when military requirements began to require the relocation of civil-aviation activities.

World War II

Davis–Monthan Airport became Tucson Army Air Field in 1940, as the United States prepared for World War II. The first assigned U.S. Army Air Corps units were the 1st Bomb Wing, 41st Bomb Group, and 31st Air Base Group, activating on 30 April 1941 with Lieutenant Colonel Ames S. Albro Sr. as commanding officer. In its military role, the base became known as Davis–Monthan Army Air Field on 3 December 1941. U.S. Army Air Forces leaders then used the airfield for heavy bomber operation, sending Douglas B-18 Bolo, Consolidated B-24 Liberator, and Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers, for training and observation missions.
Among the bombardment groups trained at the base during the war were:
Training at the airfield came to a halt on 14 August 1945, when the Japanese surrendered. Davis–Monthan played a postwar role by housing German prisoners of war from June 1945 to March 1946. It also served as a separation center, which brought the base populace to a high of 11,614 in September 1945.
With the end of the war, operations at the base came to a virtual standstill. Then, the base was selected as a storage site for hundreds of decommissioned aircraft, with the activation of the 4105th Army Air Force Unit, which oversaw the storage of excess B-29s and C-47 "Gooney Birds". Tucson's low humidity and alkaline soil made it an ideal location for aircraft storage and preservation, awaiting cannibalization or possible reuse—a mission that has continued to this day.

Cold War

Strategic Air Command

The Cold War era was ushered in at Davis–Monthan on 21 March 1946, with the installation placed under the claimancy of the recently established Strategic Air Command, whose presence at the base began in the form of the 40th and 444th Bombardment Groups, both equipped with B-29s. As part of the postwar austerity, these groups were later inactivated, with the personnel and equipment being consolidated into the 43d Bombardment Group in October. On 11 January 1948, with the establishment of the United States Air Force as independent service four months earlier, the facility was renamed Davis–Monthan Air Force Base. On 30 June 1948, the Air Force activated the 43rd Air Refueling Squadron, whose KB-29Ms were newly equipped with aerial refueling equipment purchased from the British firm FRL. The 43rd ARS, along with the 509th ARS at Walker AFB, New Mexico, was the first dedicated air refueling unit in history.
On 2 March 1949, the Lucky Lady II, a B-50A of the 43d Bombardment Wing, completed the first nonstop round-the-world flight, having covered in 94 hours and 1 minute. Lucky Lady II was refueled four times in the air by KB-29 tankers of the 43d Air Refueling Squadron, which had made only one operational air refueling contact before the mission. For this outstanding flight, the Lucky Lady IIs crew received the Mackay Trophy, given annually by the National Aeronautic Association for the outstanding flight of the year, and the Air Age Trophy, an Air Force Association award, given each year in recognition of significant contributions to the public understanding of the air age.
In 1953, the jet age came to Davis–Monthan when SAC units on the base converted to the new Boeing B-47 Stratojet. The 303d Bombardment Wing, Medium, was initially established on 27 August 1951, and activated at Davis–Monthan AFB on 4 September 1951. The wing operated B-29s until January 1952, when it was equipped with KB-29s. On 20 January 1953, the 303d transitioned to the Boeing B-47 Stratojet for its three bomb squadrons, while an additional air refueling squadron equipped with KC-97s was assigned to the wing between 18 February 1953, and 1 February 1956. A standard SAC Alert Area ramp was constructed in the southeast corner of the base adjacent to the runway and the 303d assumed nuclear alert responsibilities when final conversion and checkout in the B-47 was complete.
In April 1953, the Air Defense Command's 15th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron was activated with F-86A Sabres. A year later, the unit transitioned into F-86Ds followed by a transition to F-86Ls in the fall of 1957. In the spring of 1959, the unit received Northrop F-89J interceptors which it flew for only a year when it transitioned into McDonnell F-101Bs. On 24 December 1964, the 15th FIS was inactivated.
In 1962, SAC's 390th Strategic Missile Wing and its 18 Titan II ICBM sites around Tucson were activated. The 390 SMW was one of only three Titan II missile wings in SAC and represented the heaviest land-based missile and the largest single warhead ever fielded by U.S. strategic deterrent forces.
In July 1963, the 4028th Strategic Reconnaissance Weather Wing, equipped with U-2 strategic reconnaissance aircraft, began flying global missions from Davis–Monthan. Following the Cuban missile crisis in 1963, the 4080th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Laughlin AFB, Texas, relocated to the base and assumed responsibility for all U-2 operations, emphasizing long-range strategic reconnaissance and intelligence collection. As a SAC unit, the 4080th was later redesignated the 100th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing and also acquired Lockheed DC-130 Hercules aircraft for launch and control of Firebee reconnaissance drones that were the precursors of contemporary unmanned aerial systems. The DC-130s and U-2s remained at the Davis–Monthan until 1976, when the 100 SRW was inactivated, its DC-130s transferred to Tactical Air Command's 432d Tactical Drone Group, and its U-2s transferred to SAC's 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base, California, where U-2 Dragon Lady operations were consolidated with SR-71 Blackbird operations.
On 15 June 1964, Davis–Monthan's 303d Bombardment Wing was inactivated as part of the retirement of the B-47 Stratojet from active service. The year 1964 brought back the combat crew training mission of the World War II years with the 4453d Combat Crew Training Wing of the Tactical Air Command equipped with the Air Force's newest and most sophisticated fighter, the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II. In July 1971, the 355th Tactical Fighter Wing, flying the A-7 Corsair II aircraft, was activated at the base and the previously assigned F-4s were moved to Luke AFB, near Phoenix, Arizona.