Wings and Wheels Auto Air Show 1998

This is from the 1998 issue of the Air & Auto Show newspaper... The group changed its name in 1997 to Wings and Wheels and created the Kingman Air and Auto Show... I believed the 97 show used the same newspaper format....

A History: KAAF Revisited

In the course of human progress it seems an almost universal rule that, whenever someone states a need, someone comes along to fill it. In 1934, with the clouds of war building in Europe and threatening to drift westward, the Army Air Force stated a need for a heavy bomber. Boeing Aircraft Company of Seattle obliged with its Project 299. After putting the prototype through its paces in 1935, the Army ordered a fleet of the aircraft, now dubbed the B-17, and popularly known as the Flying Fortress. And a fortress it was. It bristled with armament fore and aft, port and starboard, above and below.

Now the need was to recruit gunners and find a place to train them in the use of the weapons aboard the Fortress. Each gunner would be required to become proficient in all positions.

In 1941, Major John C. Horton of the West Coast Flying Training Command Headquarters at Moffett Field, Ca., took a trip to Kingman, Az., and found it the perfect location. The land was fairly level, the population was sparse, and the land was available at a fair price. 

Now the pace quickened, for on December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. War was declared against Japanese Empire, and shortly afterward, against Germany. The B-17, along with the rest of the family of warplanes, was needed immediately on both fronts.

During construction of the base, there were a few problems among the workers. Food delivery was slow. Cafeterias were hurriedly built to feed the hands. There was also a housing problem. 

Eventually, the ease of the emergency construction of new units. Some of the construction workers began agitating for Union representation. This problem was solved by drafting the agitators.

Davis Dam was being built during this time. Work on the dam was temporarily suspended, and the construction crews were sent to Kingman to help with the new base.

They worked fast in those days. On August 4, 1942, under the command of Lt. Col. Harvey P. Huglin, the Army Air Force Flexible Gunnery School was officially declared open for business only a couple of months after the project started. 

But before the business of the base could be conducted, the operation had to be organized. This was the job of 460^th Base Headquarters Squadron which moved on December 1, 1942. Shortly afterward, a new base commander was assigned this was Col. George E. Henry, who reported on duty December 10.

Now came the first wave of people for whom the base was built, the 1120^th, 1121^st, 1122^nd, and 1123^rd Flexible Gunnery Training Squadrons. Also taking up residence at this time was the all black 334^th Aviation Squadron, and the 1100^th Guard Squadron—otherwise known as the Military Police.

The new gunners were put to work immediately, but not in airplanes. The first part of their training was to assure their familiarity with weaponry of any kind. They were introduced to the BB guns Range. Here they used devices similar to the armament in the aircraft except their weapons fired only BBs. Once proficient with their BB guns, they graduated to shotguns (possibly to grow accustomed to the recoil). On completion of their preliminary training, the gunners were finally allowed to enter the B-17 and fire the actual weapons for which they had volunteered. This method of training paid dividends, for later on, in competition with other gunnery schools, the Kingman School often took top honors.

Morale was always an issue among a large group of young men miles from home, many for the first time, and no place to go with their weekend passes but the tiny desert town of Kingman. Enter Bob Hope, et. al. to the rescue. Other big-name entertainers came to the base, such as the Three Stooges with their zany tomfoolery and Kay Kaiser with his orchestra and his fun and games. The USO organized other shows to help keep the people happy and willing to work all out for the war effort.

Bugs Bunny was there, too. With sanction from Warner Brothers, Bugs was adopted as the official base mascot The poster of Bugs with a fierce countenance and armed to the teeth for war, was displayed in a most prominent location on the base.

On May 7, 1943, the facility was officially named the Kingman Army Air Field. The base continued to grow and change during 1943. Many new squadrons were added to the base some of the existing ones were combined. The 1120^th and the 329^th merged with 328^th to become the 328^th Flexible Gunnery Training Group. The 1122^nd, 537^th and 538^th were consolidated to form the 1123^rd Flexible Gunnery Training Group. The 536^th and the 760^th Flexible Gunnery Training Group were added to the list. Also assigned to the B-17 flight groups was the 31^st Altitude Squadron, training for operation at high altitudes.

Serving to augment the training groups were 1012^th Quartermaster Platoon, the 684^th Army Band, the 1^st Weather, Detachment 25 of the 858^th Signal Service Company, Detachment 14 of the 909 Quartermasters and the 2053^rd Ordnance Company. In 1943 a detachment of Chinese gunners was sent to Kingman for training.

There were aircraft other than the B-17 assigned to the base. The AT-6, AT-11, and the AT-23 were used for flight training and target towing. The BT-18 was used for flight training.

As often happens in massive programs employing large numbers of people and machinery working to the limit of their endurance, sudden tragedies will strike. The Kingman training school was no exception. On January 2, 1944, a B-17 flying near McClellan Field, Ca disintegrated in bad weather. Of the thirteen men killed in the resulting crash, eleven were from Kingman. Four days later, on January 6, a bus loaded with gunnery students bound for the base, crossed the railroad tracks just north of the entrance. The driver did not see the oncoming train. Train and bus collided, and 28 students died. 

On April 22, 1944, the Kingman Army Air Field was consolidated and redesignated the Army Air Force Unit 3018. Each of the units on the base became subdivisions of the 3018^th. On June 15 Col. Donald P. Philips became the new base commander. During 1944 the 3018^th was one of the top training schools in the United States.

The war ended on both fronts in 1945. With peace in the world, there was no further need for a gunnery school. Or for the airplanes that carried the guns. The year saw the base gradually wind down to a stop.

Command of the base change again to Col. Walter L. Wheeler, who became commander on April 1, 1945. Kingman Army Air Field was temporarily inactivated on June 30. Col. Lance Call became the base commander to supervise the deactivation. In the last quarter of 1945, the base designation changed again, becoming the 4184^th. Base commander changed twice more to Lt. Col. James L. Meadows and John J. Ratigan. At midnight, February 25, 1946, the gunnery training base became history.

On February 26, the training base became Storage Depot 41.

“Storage Depot” was a misnomer. The intent was to render thousands of airplanes down to aluminum ingots. Kingman was one of five sites chosen for the task. Never mind they were created for the purpose of mass destruction, those airplanes represented some the finest and most complex examples of mechanical art ever produced by the human race up to that time. In addition to the B-17s, other airplanes brought into the base includes B-24s, P-38s, B-26s, and A-26s. The job was finished by the first quarter of 1948. Seventy million pounds of aluminum from 7000 airplanes were shipped out of Kingman.

A relatively few of the airplanes escaped by destruction, and some are still flying today. Others rest in museums to be viewed by people who do not remember, or who do not understand the meaning of what they are seeing. 

In July 1948, the military released the base for civilian use, and it became the property of Mohave County. In 1979, Mohave County Airport Authority was formed. This later became the Kingman Airport Authority, the entity which currently controls the field now known as the Kingman Airport and Industrial Park. 

A National Emergency gave birth to a grand adventure. Peacetime brought the adventure to an abrupt end. To the people who were there and participated in the adventure, it was an unforgettable experience. Writers of history books may grant it a line or two of text…. Or may not. But there is a group of people in and around Kingman who refuse to let the memories die. The result of their unflagging efforts in the annual Kingman Army Air Field Reunion.

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