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Davis-Monthan Air Force Base by: Eric Roach 1

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Overview Base History Namesake Early Years WWII Era Postwar years Cold War Modern Era Base Info Summary 3

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Namesake 2 nd Lt. Samuel H. Davis Native Tusconian, Attended UofA, then joined the Army Air Service in 1917 Was killed in an aircraft accident while serving in Florida while on a training mission in a JN-6 in 1921 4

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Namesake 1 st Lt. Oscar Monthan Born in Dewsbury, England. Moved to AZ in 1900 In 1917 Joined Army Air Corps. Graduated from Boston School of Technology and became the Chief Engineer at Rockwell Field, CA Was considered one of the foremost aero-engineers Died in crash of B2-Bomber during a training mission 1924 5

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Early Years In 1919 Tucson Chamber of commerce established the nations first municipally-owned airfield at the present day rodeo grounds Rapid growth in aviation meant a move to its present site and a runway was built when the city acquired the land for it Davis-Monthan Field was dedicated in 1927 by Charles Lindbergh and it became the largest municipal airport in U.S. 6

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Early Years Contd. Municipal Airport Standard Airlines (later acquired by American Airlines) began flights to and from Tucson Military Operations Began at the field when Sergeant Simpson relocated his fuel and service operation to the site in October 1927 Civil and military operations worked well together until the early 1940s when military requirements forced civilian aviation activities to relocate 7

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WWII Era As the United States prepared for WWII Davis-Monthan Airport became Tucson Army Air Field in 1940. The U.S. Army Air Corps first assigned the 1 st Bomber Wing, 41 st Bomb Group, and 31 st Air Base Group, activation on 30 April 1941. With its new military role, on 3 Dec 1941 the name of the base was changed to Davis-Monthan Army Air Field. Corps leaders started to increasingly utilize the airfield, sending Boeing B-24 Liberator heavy bombers and Douglas B-18 Bolo which were utilized for training and observation missions. 8

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Postwar Years On 13 January 1948 the name was changed to Davis- Monthan Air Force Base The base became the storage site for hundreds of decommissioned aircraft. Tucsons dry climate and alkali soil made it an ideal location for aircraft storage and preservation B-29s and C-47 Gooney Birds And Eventually most all aircraft 9

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The 43 rd Air Refueling Squadron activated there and became the first unit dedicated to air refueling in history Cold War Strategic Air Command (1949) established the 355 th FW Base was Transferred to Tactical Air Command 30 years later A-10 became the main aircraft for training and deployment 10

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Currently Air Combat Command MAJCOM 93 rd Rescue and 214 th Reconnaissance groups operate out of DM AFB Modern Era General Atomics MQ-1B PredatorPararescue Jumpers 11

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355 th Fighter Wing Info Col James P. Meger 355 th FW/CV Col John A. Cherry 355 th FW/CC Chief Master Sgt. Vincent L. Howard 355 th FW/CCC 12

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Namesake Early Years WWII Era Postwar years Cold War Modern Era Base InfoSummary 13

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QUESTIONS? 14 www.dm.af.mil www.dm.af.mil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davis%E2%80%93 Monthan_Air_Force_Base http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davis%E2%80%93 Monthan_Air_Force_Base