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Hill Air Force Base

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Hill Air Force Base

Part of Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC)
Hill AFB, Utah, 4 October 1997
Location of Hill Air Force Base
Summary
Airport typeMilitary
OperatorUnited States Air Force
LocationOgden, Utah
Elevation AMSL4,789 ft / 1,459.7 m
Coordinates41°07′26″N 111°58′22″W / 41.12389°N 111.97278°W / 41.12389; -111.97278
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
14/32 13,508 4,117 PEM
File:F16A fighter.jpg
The F-16A Fighting Falcon is used in missions from Hill Air Force Base.

Hill Air Force Base (IATA: HIF, ICAO: KHIF) is a major U.S. Air Force Base located in northern Utah, just south of the city of Ogden, and near the towns of Clearfield, Roy, Sunset, and Layton. It is about 30 miles north of Salt Lake City. The base was named in honor of Major Ployer Peter Hill of the U.S. Army Air Corps, who died test-flying a prototype of the B-17 Flying Fortress bomber. In this decade Hill A.F.B. is still the sixth-largest employer in the state of Utah, and the third-largest one excluding the State Government and Higher Education employers.[1] Hill A.F.B. is the home of the Air Force Materiel Command's (AFMC) Ogden Air Logistics Center which is the worldwide manager for a wide range of aircraft, engines, missiles, software, avionics, and accessories components. The commander of the Air Logistics Center is currently Major General Andrew E. Busch. The Ogden Air Logistics Center is one of the three U.S.A.F.'s Air Logistics Center, with the others being the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center at Tinker AFB, Oklahoma, and the Warner-Robins Air Logistics Center at Robins AFB, Georgia.

The host unit at Hill A.F.B. is the Air Force Material Command's 75th Air Base Wing, which provides services and support for the Ogden Air Logistics Center and its subordinate organizations. The Wing and Installation Commander of Hill Air Force Base is presently Colonel Patrick Higby. Additional tenant units at Hill A.F.B. include operational fighter wings of the Air Combat Command (ACC) and the Air Force Reserve Command {AFRC).

Units

Main Units

Tenant Units

Utah Test and Training Range

The Utah Test and Training Range is one of the only live-fire U.S. Air Force training ranges within the United States. It is located in far western Utah, close to the Nevada border, and it extends both north and south of Interstate Highway 80, with several miles of separation on each side of the Interstate Highway. The portion of the bombing range that lies north of Interstate 80 is also west of the Great Salt Lake. The Utah Test and Training Range lies in Tooele County, and the land is owned by the state of Utah, but the use of the airspace and training exercises are scheduled by Hill A.F.B.

On September 8, 2004, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Genesis space probe crash-landed on the nearby U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground, as planned.

Hill AFB Image Gallery

  • AFMC Emblem
    AFMC Emblem
  • Ogden Air Logistics Center
    Ogden Air Logistics Center
  • 75th Air Base Wing
    75th Air Base Wing
  • 84th Combat Sustainment Wing
    84th Combat Sustainment Wing
  • 309th Maintenance Wing
    309th Maintenance Wing
  • 388th Fighter Wing
    388th Fighter Wing
  • 419th Fighter Wing
    419th Fighter Wing
  • 508th Aerospace Sustainment Wing
    508th Aerospace Sustainment Wing
  • 526th ICBM Systems Wing
    526th ICBM Systems Wing

History

Hill Air Force Base is named in honor of Major Ployer Peter Hill (1894 - 1935), the Chief of the Flying Branch of the U.S. Army Air Corps Material Division of Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio. Major Hill had died as a result of injuries he received from the crash of the Boeing Aircraft Company's experimental aircraft Boeing Model 299 at Wright Field, the prototype airplane for what became the famous B-17 Flying Fortress.

Major Commands

  • Materiel Div, Office of Chief of the Air Corps, 1 Dec 1939 – 11 Dec 1941
  • Air Service Comd, 11 Dec 1941 – 17 Jul 1944
  • AAF Materiel and Services, 17 Jul 1944 – 31 Aug 1944
  • AAF Technical Service Comd, 31 Aug 1944 – 1 Jul 1945
  • Air Technical Service Comd, 1 Jul 1945 – 9 Mar 1946
  • Air Materiel Comd, 9 Mar 1946 – 1 Apr 1961
  • Air Force Logistics Command, 1 Apr 1961 – 1 June 1992
  • Air Force Materiel Command 1 June 1992 – Present
Hangar at Hill Air Force Base.

Base Operating Units

  • Ogden Air Depot, 7 Nov 1940 – 8 Apr 1942
  • 9th Station Complement, 8 Apr 1942 – 2 Jan 1943
  • 482d Base HQ and Air Base Sq, 2 Jan 1943 – 1 Apr 1944
  • 4135th AAF Base Unit, 1 Apr 1944 – 26 Sep 1947
  • 4135th AF Base Unit, 26 Sep 1947 – 27 Aug 1948
  • HQ and HQ Sq, Ogden AMA, 27 Aug 1948 – 4 May 1950
  • 25th Air Base Gp, 4 May 1950 – 1 May 1953
  • 2849th Air Base Wg, 1 May 1953 – 8 Jul 1964
  • 2849th Air Base Gp, 8 Jul 1964 – 1994
  • 75th Air Base Wing 1994 – Present

Operational History

Hill Air Force Base traces its origins back to the ill-fated U.S. Army's Air Mail "experiment" of 1934, when the idea originated for a permanent air depot in the Salt Lake City area. In the following years, the Army Air Corps surveyed the region for a suitable location for the permanent western terminus of the air mail. Several sites in Utah were considered, and the present site near Ogden emerged as the clear favorite.

In July 1939, Congress appropriated $8.0 million for the establishment and construction of the Ogden Air Depot. Hill Field officially opened on 7 November 1940, and with the outbreak of war for the United States in December 1941, it soon became a key maintenance and supply base of World War II, with a peak of 22,000 military and civilian workers in 1943.

During W.W. II, Hill Field was an important maintenance and supply base, with round-the-clock operations geared to supporting the war effort. Battle weary warplanes like the A-26, B-17, B-24, B-29, P-40, P-47, P-61, and others depended on the men and women of Hill Field for structural repairs, engine overhauls, and spare parts. The peak wartime employment at Hill Field was reached in 1943 with a total of just over 22,000 military and civilian personnel. These dedicated men and women rehabilitated and returned thousands of warplanes to combat.

File:HillAFBmuseum2.jpg
A retired U.S.A.F. double-rotor helicopter at the Hill Air Force Base Museum.

Starting in 1944, Hill Field became responsible for the long-term storage of surplus aircraft and their support equipment, including outmoded P-40 Tomahawks and P-40 Warhawks which had been removed from combat service and replaced by newer and better warplanes. Also ending up at Hill Field over the approaching years were warplanes like the P-47 Thunderbolt, the B-24 Liberator, the B-29 Superfortress, and many other types of airplanes were prepared for storange and stored at this air base over the course of the 1940s and 1950s.

Hill Field became the Hill Air Force Base on 5 February 1948, following the transition of the new U.S. Air Force away from the Army and the United States Army Air Force, into an independent service, as called for by the National Security Act of 1947. This transition actually took place in October 1947, but it took many months to fully implement.

During the Korean War, Hill A.F.B. was assigned a major share of the Air Materiel Command's logistical effort to support the combat in Korea. Hill A.F.B. personnel quickly removed needed warplanes from storage, renovated them, and added them to active-service U.S.A.F. flying squadrons.

Then during the 1960s, Hill A.F.B. began to perform the maintenance support for various kinds of jet warplanes, mainly the F-4 Phantom II during the Vietnam War, and then afterwards, the more modern F-16 Fighting Falcons, A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, and C-130 Hercules, and also air combat missile systems and air-to-ground rockets. Hill A.F.B. continues to carry out these tasks to the present day.

Hill A.F.B. has also housed the 30-acre Hill Aerospace Museum since 1981. This contains more than 80 former U.S.A.F. airplanes and helicopters.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Utah's Largest Employers" (PDF). Utah Department of Workforce Services, Workforce Information. Retrieved 2009-04-08.

Note: Much of this text in an early version of this article was taken from pages on the Hill Air Force Base Website, which as a work of the U.S. Government is presumed to be a public domain resource. That information was supplemented by:

  • Mueller, Robert (1989). Active Air Force Bases Within the United States of America on 17 September 1982. USAF Reference Series, Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-912799-53-6
  • Ravenstein, Charles A. (1984). Air Force Combat Wings Lineage and Honors Histories 1947-1977. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0912799129.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hill Air Force Base.


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