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
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. “
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!
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.
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.
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.
I broke out my old friend Google maps and started scouring the desert for big triangles that look out of place.
Auxiliary #1
Auxiliary #2
Auxiliary #3
Auxiliary #4
Auxiliary #5
Auxiliary #6
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.
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.
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.
I followed the fence line, looking for an opportunity, then I found it! An old ranchers gate, someone is running cattle on this land.
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.
To the left of my bike is one runway and in front of my bike is another.
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.
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?
( stumbling into history, one ride at a time )
http://www.xs650.com/threads/just-ride.54772/page-23#post-610742
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. “
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!
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.
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.
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.
I broke out my old friend Google maps and started scouring the desert for big triangles that look out of place.
Auxiliary #1
Auxiliary #2
Auxiliary #3
Auxiliary #4
Auxiliary #5
Auxiliary #6
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.
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.
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.
I followed the fence line, looking for an opportunity, then I found it! An old ranchers gate, someone is running cattle on this land.
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.
To the left of my bike is one runway and in front of my bike is another.
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.
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?