As Utah's largest employer, Hill Air Force Base — with nearly 23,000 military and civilian personnel — is a vital part of the state and also Davis County's economy. But what is the story behind Hill? When and why did it originate? How did it receive its name?
Here is a capsule look at the early history of Hill AFB:
Hill AFB was originally named "Hill Field" in 1939, in honor of the late Maj. Ployer P. Hill. He was an aviation test pilot and instructor. Even though the base is located on a geographical hill, it is this pilot — who lost his life on Oct. 30, 1935, testing the original B-17 in Ohio — for whom the base is named. (The Army Transportation Corps also had a diesel engine, named "Major Hill," which handled freight cars at the base in the mid-1940s.)
The base traces its beginning to 1934, when operation of a temporary Army Air Corps depot in Salt Lake City to support airmail operations focused attention on the area.
In July 1934, the Air Corps Materiel Division recommended that a depot be located in northern Utah.
The Ogden Chamber of Commerce took options on 4,265 acres of Davis County land in 1936 — including 386 acres it planned to donate to the government — as a prelude to get a base there.
However, the base's current location was not the only area studied. Erda in Tooele County; west Salt Lake City in Salt Lake County; northwest Ogden in Weber County; west Clearfield in Davis County and south Kearns also in Salt Lake County were other areas studied for a potential air base in the mid-1930s.
A military appropriations bill for 1940, approved by Congress in June 1939, included $8 million for construction of an air depot south of Ogden. The site for the new depot was officially named Hill Field on Dec. 1, 1939.
Goundbreaking ceremonies, which included a 75-auto caravan to the site, were Jan. 12, 1940, in a snowstorm. However, work on the runways had begun in April 1938 and were completed by February 1940.
By January 1941, the first civilian and military personnel arrived on base.
By June 1941, there was on-base housing for 1,502 military personnel.
After Pearl Harbor was bombed, the Army Air Corps moved many airplanes to Hill as a way to save them from a possible attack on the West Coast.
Hill's innovative warehouse system soon became the model for other bases.
The base operated around the clock during World War II. It produced B-24s, and at its peak made a bomber per day. Some other war planes were also repaired on base. The peak war manpower in May 1943 included 15,780 civilians and 5,000-plus military personnel.
"D-Day, June 6, 1944, had thousands of Hill workers and servicemen gathered in front of the repair hangars to pray for victory over Axis powers.
By 1945, Hill boasted 14.2 miles of railroad; 77 miles of utility lines and almost 4.5 million square feet in building space. Storage of aircraft and parts became a major role of Hill after World War II.
On July 17, 1947, the P-80 Shooting Star jet fighter traced the route the Mormon pioneers had taken a century earlier. The plane covered the distance in 123 minutes, vs. the 110 days it took the pioneers.
The Army Air Force became the United States Air Force on Sept. 18, 1947. As such, Hill Field was officially renamed Hill Air Force Base on Feb. 5, 1948.
The workload and personnel decreased after World War II but started upward again with the outbreak of hostilities in Korea in June 1950. Hundreds of B-26 and B-29 aircraft, stored at Hill, were quickly made fit to fight over Korea.
Hill's size doubled on April 1, 1955, when the Department of Defense added the adjacent Ogden Arsenal property. This is now Hill's west side.
As a morale booster for its civilian employees, Hill opened a civilian club on Oct. 14, 1949. However, it was deemed insolvent and closed less than a year later.
The base also had two early museums. One focused on World War II and only lasted from 1946-47. Another in 1947 was also short-lived.
During the harsh winter of 1948-49, extreme snowfall and cold hampered base operations more than ever in its history. However, Hill airplanes dropped bails of hay to keep deer from starving that season.
Hill entered the jet aircraft and missile era in 1951 and many old World War II planes disappeared to museums or scrap yards. Hill received a longer runway, at a cost of $3.5 million in 1957.
An explosion on June 11, 1951, leveled the engine test building and killed one worker and seriously injured several others.
References: "History of Hill Air Force Base," by the History Office at Ogden Air Logistics Center, Hill AFB and also www.hill.af.mil/main.
E-mail: lynn@desnews.com