Mailman: The search for lost WW2 airfields in the desert

Mailman

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A little over a week ago , I was just looking for an interesting place to ride to. I was looking at satellite images of open desert when I saw an old unmarked airfield. I wrote about it here,

( stumbling into history, one ride at a time )
http://www.xs650.com/threads/just-ride.54772/page-23#post-610742
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Even as I was standing there, happily taking photographs, I didn’t realize the significance of where I was.
It wasn’t until I went back home and began looking into it , that I realized it was an old abandoned WW2 air field. I wrote a little article about it and Jim responded with a challenge.

“Go on... go find a 'nuther... I dare ya. :whistle:

Challenge accepted! And I did find another one, in fact.....I found eight of them.
All I had to go on was a single website, Abandoned and Little known airfields.
I could find references to their existence, but very little details regarding their actual usage, or exact locations, which really made locating them a challenge.

I have lived near Luke Air Force Base for most of my life. It is the 800 lb gorilla in the room. I have known countless servicemen from Luke. I have had friends and neighbors that ran the gamut from enlisted men to fighter pilots to Colonels who commanded squadrons, and the point I’m getting at here is, I have never heard anyone ever mention the existence of these airfields.

A quick history of Arizona during WW2; Arizona was heavily involved in war production, I won’t go into all the gory details, but we had clear dry sunny weather, lots of open land, good railway access, cheap labor and close proximity to California sea ports. All of these things made us desirable for military training and production. ( still do )

Now about all those airfields........

The time is March, 1941. Just three short months after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and brought us into the war.

Construction began on Luke Field ( that’s what it was called when it was an Army air field) , back then they did things with urgency! It didn’t take years and years to build. It took just a few months. By June 6th 1941
The first class of pilots began advanced flight training in AT-6 Texans. Ten short weeks of instruction and off to fight the war!
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There were just 45 men in that first class. But Luke went on to become the largest training base in the world for single engine advanced training, during the war. In just a few short years , more than 17,000 pilots would be trained at Luke Field. Training on AT-6 Texans, Curtiss P-40 Warhawks, P-51 Mustangs and P-47 Thunderbolts.
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As large as Luke Field was, it simply could not accommodate the sheer number of planes and students that were being trained at the time and so, eight auxiliary fields were hastily constructed for additional use.

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These were very minimalist fields, with only rudimentary buildings and usually a fire crew stationed there.

My challenge was just how to locate them. I soon realized that they were all built to universal design.
A giant triangle. 300 ft wide by 4000 ft long runways.
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I broke out my old friend Google maps and started scouring the desert for big triangles that look out of place.

Auxiliary #1
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Auxiliary #2
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Auxiliary #3
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Auxiliary #4
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Auxiliary #5
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Auxiliary #6
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Auxiliary #7

I couldn’t find. It may have been covered up by construction.
Auxiliary #8
From what I could find out, the land was purchased , but the airfields never were built.

So it was my intent to visit and photograph all of these airfields, I have been to the first five and the results were rather disappointing for reasons you will see.

At the top of this article, those three photos were Auxillary #1. The airfield was surrounded by barb wire fence. I found a spot where the fence was down and entered, only to find the runways had crumbled to loose gravel and were grown up with weeds and brush.

Auxiliary #2 , was as far as I could see, in the most imminent danger of disappearing. There was a housing development being built right on top of it. I rode out there and was too late. When I first found it, there was only half of it left, and by the time I got there, they had already graded the other half. This street is literally on top of an old runway.
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On to Auxiliary #3
This one was just unbelievable to me. This is right in my neighborhood. The City of Surprise has its municipal buildings built right on top of it. Court houses, police, and just over to the left is the spring training facility where the Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals play. I guarantee you nobody that drives their car over this old airfield on a daily basis has a clue that young men in old war birds were here before them.
Here I am parking as close as is possible for me.
The blue spot shows my location.
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At this point , a few things are beginning to dawn on me.
1. The runways have crumbled to the point that they are unrecognizable, and the desert has reclaimed them.
2. There is very little land that isn’t private property out here. Barb wire fences and no trespassing signs abound.
3. Civilization is plowing them under.

I am hopeful for Auxiliary #4. It is still in a rather remote part of the desert. I ride out there. The first thing I see is........more barb wire fencing. :(
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I followed the fence line, looking for an opportunity, then I found it! An old ranchers gate, someone is running cattle on this land.
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I opened the gate and went through and closed the gate behind me. There was a rutted dirt road about 1/4 of a mile long leading to the runway. And I reached it. Here I am.
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To the left of my bike is one runway and in front of my bike is another.
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Same old story. All that remains is gravel, decomposed and unrecognizable. Out here where there has been no activity except for cattle ranching, this runway is especially overgrown.

What appear to be intact runways in the satellite images are just changes in color. The native desert is just brown dirt and the old runways are crushed gravel.

I have decided not to visit the others, because I can see where this is going. There is one more interesting note here however.

Auxiliary #5 lies right beneath Buckeye Municipal Airport. That is the location where I have rode my bike to , numerous times to visit the old warplanes. I have ridden on the old runways. I remember riding in there on a long gravel road that was one of the runways. In fact this plane sits on one of them.
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After researching all of this, I have been struck and amazed by all of this history that has surrounded me my whole life that I have been completely unaware of. I have never known anyone here that knows of this chapter of our past. For a few short years on the 1940’s our state was fully involved in the war effort. And this area in particular, the air must’ve been thick with old warplanes and the roar of their engines. All those young men who passed through here, brave and full of swagger and at the same time filled with the anxiety of what lies ahead. Who will even know they were here? We are all too busy trying to get to work and picking up the kids and rushing to Starbucks. How can all of this be forgotten in the span of a lifetime?
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Love the story Bob.
I was in Wickenby at the old WW2 airfield on Sunday, it’s in Lincolnshire, there are loads of bomber bases in that part of England due to its flat terrain. Some still exist as airfields such as Conningsby that is a home to the BBMF.
East Kirkby is home to the Lancaster bomber, Just Jane, that is being restored to flying condition. Of course we don’t have the amount of old warbirds and museums you have but still some interesting stuff.
Be careful there is a lot of dust out there, your bike looks pristine.

 
what a huge amount of research ! a really interesting story and some great images ,I really enjoyed reading that thanks .
Who'd have thought that you could find such interesting rides out there in the desert :)

These Historic rides are a great idea :thumbsup:. They offer some really interesting local research and are very interesting subjects for some great pictures and the motivation for an interesting ride out as well . I'm going to see if I can fit one in as Autumn arrives.
 
Bob,

You should pitch this photo essay to The History Channel. This is truly fascinating and moving stuff, and much more interesting than 90% of the crap on TV today. My dad (passed, 12 years ago) was stationed in California (Navy, radio operator) during WW II, and either passed through some of these bases, or heard of them during the war. That these places aren't revered as Hallowed testaments to our history is a crime. I mean, c'mon, "World's biggest ball of yarn"? and these air bases don't have their own museums? :wtf: Unless we build enormous monuments, the collective memory of "the public" is very, very short. Only when things are sensationalized, do people take a moment out of their busy little lives, and remember that something important happened here. This task may have become your calling. I can only hope... Thank you for reminding all of us that history is alive, and "out there..." :bike:

Tebo
 
Interesting! I went to that site and sure enough I was able to find mention of an air field that was located about 2 miles from where I grew up. I had always know that there had been one there from my mom who also grew up a few miles from there.

According to the article"http://www.airfields-freeman.com/NY/Airfields_NY_Centr.htm#auburn" it had three "sod" runways. So if you think those in Arizona have succumbed to ravages of nature in a desert just imagine what happens to sod runways in the northeast. I seem to recall that land being farm land at one point it now looks like the trees have taken over!

I'm thinking this was not a military airfield although I'd guess that just about any air field in the early 1940's had some military significance.

Actually found one picture of the field when in use and also included the latest Google map view of the land. In the Google picture you will see a group of three buildings that I know have been there since the 1950's and at one time were used by an ink factory, or at least that was what I recall being told back then!
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Not a good place to try to land a plane today! Those roads in the upper right and right side were always there. The center of the picture is where the runways were!
 
My Father was a captain in the Army Air corps during WW2 he was a pilot and flew different planes but ended up flying the p47 Thunderbolts in the Pacific theatre..My dad never mentioned where he he got his pilot training but i believe it was in AZ...
 
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Now this is a scavenger hunt I could sink my teeth into....Well done Bob! As a hard core military and aviation history buff... and a 22 yr. Air Force veteran, I'm just tickled to see you do this. Looks like somebody needs a good drone for Christmas... ;)
 
Thanks guys for all the nice comments! These little forays into local history have been a lot of fun for me. I enjoy researching and following link after link, trying to find a nugget of information, and then riding out and being somewhere , where you know a historical event took place is just cool to me.

Do you remember the scene from the movie Patton? George C Scott, commands his driver to veer off of the road and drive out to a field of ruins and says,

“It was here. The battlefield was here. The Carthaginians defending the city were attacked by three Roman legions. The Carthaginians were proud and brave but they couldn’t hold. They were massacred. The Arab women stripped them of the tunics and swords, and lances. And the soldiers lay naked in the sun. Two-thousand years ago. I was here.”

That always resonated with me, the thought that you could stand on a spot where something happened and somehow feel connected to the event.

You guys in the U.K. are knee deep in history!

Tebo, thanks for the appreciative comments, but I am strictly a hobbyist. ;)

Ken, seeing your photographs made me realize that the ONLY reason any trace of those old airfields still exist is our hot dry desert environment. Still I’m happy you rooted out a little bit of history in your backyard.

Madmax, my father was also assigned to the Army Air Corp in WW2. He served in the Philippines and after Japan’s surrender he was part of the first occupying forces sent int Japan. He never had anything to do with planes. He drove a truck and was attached to an artillery unit.

Jim, you old instigator you. Now I’ll challenge you. You got your bike running......show me what you got!

I’ve added a link to a collection of my rides.
http://www.xs650.com/threads/mailman-rides-again-a-collection-of-my-rides.55450/
 
Ok Bob. Go find where the " Vin Fiz" plane crashed. It was a pre WWI airplane flying ( more like trying to) fly cross country. If I recall correctly it's final crash or resting place is around Phx area.
For you In the UK, find a copy of the book " Air fields of the 8th. Then and now". My copy is from the late 70's, so it's way outdated.
Because of the "Pease Dividend" with the fall of the former USSR, my old base in Germany is now Frankfort west airport. Not Hahn AB. It is sad for me to see her changed so much. 1/4 of my career was there. locally here around Tucson are former Aux feilds for D-M. Ryan and Marana Regional Airport come to mind.
I'll stop rambling now. Bob, fantastic job finding, researching and documenting these feilds. They should not be forgotten!
 
Ok Bob. Go find where the " Vin Fiz" plane crashed. It was a pre WWI airplane flying ( more like trying to) fly cross country. If I recall correctly it's final crash or resting place is around Phx area.
For you In the UK, find a copy of the book " Air fields of the 8th. Then and now". My copy is from the late 70's, so it's way outdated.
Because of the "Pease Dividend" with the fall of the former USSR, my old base in Germany is now Frankfort west airport. Not Hahn AB. It is sad for me to see her changed so much. 1/4 of my career was there. locally here around Tucson are former Aux feilds for D-M. Ryan and Marana Regional Airport come to mind.
I'll stop rambling now. Bob, fantastic job finding, researching and documenting these feilds. They should not be forgotten!

Thank you! When I started researching Arizona’s role in WW2, believe me I did not miss all that went on in the Tucson area. I was going to write about all the air bases in the Phoenix / Tucson area, but it would’ve just made the article too big. Arizona had fighter plane factories, and prisoner of war camps.
It was hard to know where to make the cut off.
In the end I decided to just focus on Luke field and that little slice of history.
 
I still have my miltary ID from when i was a military dependant and used Davis Monthan AFB privilages...Officer's Club...Movies..Commisary..etc...crisp salutes by the MPs' when they see the officers decal on the front bumper...at the gate...1967..F4 Phantoms were screaming across Tucson... We lived on the flight plan ..loud jets day or night...height of Viet nam war..wow some memories......oh sorry fellas
 
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Now this is a scavenger hunt I could sink my teeth into....Well done Bob!

Ok Bob. Go find where the " Vin Fiz" plane crashed
Bob your Desert treks are very interesting and fun to follow. Anybody who still has the open country and time to explore it should experience this ;)
Years ago when the Central/Eastern Oregon high desert was still largely available for lone remote exploring I too found much peace in being far out there.
Searching mostly for pre-history evidence (unrecorded history) and rock hounding and such, I too was in areas used by WWII Air Force training.
It was fun to once or thrice to walk up on spent 50 caliber shell casings and ammo chains which fell from the era planes out there flying and shooting at who knows what ? But to imagine the sight and sounds of that was very worthwhile.
Amongst all the other things a guy can actually encounter so far out and alone in quiet untreaded places.
 
Yeah Randy,
I could really open up some explorations if I had a bike such as a Suzuki DR650 , you know that very simple air cooled 650 single enduro. I looked really hard at them for a while. I tried exploring off road on my Suzuki V Strom, but it was WAY too heavy for me to handle off road. There are a ton of Jeep trails worth exploring here.
 
There are a ton of Jeep trails worth exploring here.
Nailed it “Jeep trails” CJ5 was my getaway vehicle with a 20+ something gallon fuel tank after the stock 16 gallon seemed to only get me far out and uncomfortably low on fuel ..
A dual sport in the back of a pickup is also very handy . Good Idea Bob :bike:
 
Nailed it “Jeep trails” CJ5 was my getaway vehicle with a 20+ something gallon fuel tank after the stock 16 gallon seemed to only get me far out and uncomfortably low on fuel ..
A dual sport in the back of a pickup is also very handy . Good Idea Bob :bike:

My first motorcycle was an RD350, but my second bike was a Honda XL250 enduro that was not street legal and had been modified for desert riding. It had an open reverse cone high exhaust and the air box removed, a foam sock air filter, no battery, no lights, big oversized knobby tires for the rocky terrain, and a great big oversized plastic gas tank. That little 250 got good fuel mileage as it was, but with that big tank on it, it would be good for over 200 miles.
I was a fearless ( and stupid ) teenager, I used to load that bike in the back of my pickup and go out into the desert and just take off. I’d be gone all day , by myself, nobody knew where I was, and I would ride like hell. How I didn’t manage to kill myself is beyond me.
 
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