Norton Air Force Base
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Norton Air Force Base
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| Part of Air Mobility Command (AMC) | |
| Located near San Bernardino, California | |
 Norton AFB, 6 June 2002 |
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| Type | Air Force Base |
| Coordinates | |
| Built | March 1942 |
| In use | Open May 1942 - closed March 1994 |
| Controlled by | United States Air Force |
| Garrison | Air Mobility Command |
| Occupants | 63d Airlift Wing (various designations) (1967-1994) |
- For the civil use of this facility after March 1994, see San Bernardino International Airport
Norton Air Force Base (1942-1994) is a former front-line United States Air Force facility located 79 miles (127 km) east of Los Angeles, California adjacent to the east side of the City of San Bernardino in San Bernardino County.
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[edit] Overview
For the vast majority of its operational lifetime, Norton was a logistics depot and heavy-lift transport facility for a wide variety of military aircraft, equipment and supplies as part of Air Materiel/Air Force Logistics Command (1946-1966), then as part of Military Airlift/Air Mobility Command (1966-1994).
Major secondary missions of Norton Air Force Base was as Headquarters Air Defense Command for Southern California, during the 1950s and 1960s. The Air Force Audio-Visual Center produced a wide variety of Air Force films for training and public relations. The "Air Force Now" film, shown at all monthly Commander's Calls at Air Force Bases around the world was produced at Norton. Norton also hosted numerous Air Force Reserve transport units. The Office of the Inspector General was also located at Norton.
Norton AFB was closed as a result of BRAC 1988 in 1994.
[edit] Current Status
The aviation facilities of the base were converted into San Bernardino International Airport, and 3 of the 4 stationed squadrons (all 4 of which were part of the 63rd and 445th Military Airlift Wings) - C-141 Starlifter, C-21, and C-12 Huron aircraft - were moved to nearby March Air Force Base, while the remaining squadron - C-141 aircraft - was moved to McChord Air Force Base, Washington.
[edit] History
[edit] Leland Francis Norton
Norton Air Force Base was named for San Bernardino native Capt. Leland Francis Norton (1920-1944). While attacking a marshaling yard on his 16th combat mission, Captain Norton's A-20 Havoc was struck by antiaircraft fire on 27 May 1944 near Amiens, France. After ordering his crew to bail out, Captain Norton perished with his Havoc. His portrait hung in the Officers' Club until base closing.
[edit] Major Commands to which assigned
- Fourth Air Force, 2 July 1942 - 13 October 1942
- Air Service Command, 13 October 1942 - 14 July 1944
- AAF Materiel and Services Command, 14 July - 31 August 1944
- AAF Technical Services Command, 31 August 1944 - 1 July 1945
- Air Technical Services Command, 1 July 1945 - 9 March 1946
- Air Materiel Command, 9 March 1946 - 1 April 1961
- Air Force Logistics Command, 1 April 1961 - 1 July 1966
- Military Airlift Command, 1 July 1966 - 1 June 1992
- Air Mobility Command, 1 June 1992 - March 1994
[edit] Major Units Assigned to Norton AFB
- 11th Station Compliment, 11 May 1942 - 1 February 1943
- 499th Base HQ/Air Base Squadron, 1 February 1943 - 1 April 1944
- 4126th Army Air Force Base Unit, 1 April 1944 - 26 September 1947
- 4126th Air Force Base Unit, 26 September 1947 - 31 August 1948
- 2928th Depot Maintenance Group, 31 August 1948 - 1 May 1953
- San Bernardino Air Material Area, 1 December 1949 - 1 July 1966
- 2950th Depot Training Wing, 7 November 1951 - 19 November 1952
- 1st Fighter-Interceptor Wing, 1 December 1951 - 6 February 1952 (Air Defense Command)
- 27th Air Division, 1 February 1952 - 1 October 1959 (Air Defense Command)
- 2848th Air Base Wing, 1 May 1953 - 1 April 1967
- HQ, Los Angeles Air Defense Sector, 1 February 1959 - 25 June 1966 (Air Defense Command)
- 67th Military Airlift Wing, 1 April 1967 - 30 March 1994
- 944th Military Airlift Group, 25 March 1968 - 1 July 1993 (AFRES)
- Air Force Audio-Visual Center, 8 April 1969 - 30 March 1994
- 445th Military Airlift Wing, 1 July 1973 - 30 March 1994 (AFRES)
[edit] Operational History
Norton Air Force Base began before World War II as Municipal Airport, San Bernardino under Army Air Corps jurisdiction. During the summer of 1941 it became a training base to meet the needs of the 30,000 Pilot Training Program. In December 1941, within days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, combat-ready fighter planes arrived to protect the Los Angeles area from enemy attack
On 1 March 1942, the airport was renamed San Bernardino Army Air Field and the San Bernardino Air Depot was established there. The first aircraft arrived at the new base on 2 June 1942. All runways were completed by December and night flying was initiated in March 1943. During the war, Norton's primary function was the repair and maintenance of aircraft. At the end of the war, the base became a processing and separation center for the millions of servicemen being discharged. On April 7 1947, George G. Lundberg was named base commander.[1]
With the Air Force moving into the jet age in the late 1940s, Norton began overhauling jet engines in 1951, and the San Bernardino Air Materiel Area became one of three Air Force jet overhaul centers by 1953. To accommodate the largest Strategic Air Command bombers, the main runway was extended to 10,000 ft by 1954.
[edit] WAF Band
In 1957, while flying aboard a C-124 Globemaster II, the WAF Band was invited by General James L. Jackson, Deputy Commander of the San Bernardino Air Materiel Area, Air Materiel Command,[2] to move to his headquarters at Norton AFB. The move took place in January, 1958. The band retained its training and chain-of-command connection with the USAF band school at Bolling AFB. At Norton, the band found it easier to schedule C-124 planes and pilots to keep up their touring schedule. Upon arriving, the 55 female airmen discovered that their new housing facilities were tiny cubicles for rooms and that the shared bathroom had no doors on the toilet stalls, a disappointing change from their former quarters at Lackland AFB and at Bolling. The women worked to transform the barracks into a more homey atmosphere. The WAF Band was deactivated in 1961. Because of the warm climate and welcoming environment, some of the women airmen settled permanently in the San Bernardino area after their tour of duty.[3]
[edit] 1960s
In the 1960s, Norton expanded its depot support mission by supporting Titan and Atlas Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM)s, with depot-level logistical support. Also SAMSO, the Space and Missile Systems Organization, which managed the Minuteman and Peacekeeper programs, was located at Norton from the 1960s. Upon base closure, the mission was transferred to Los Angeles Air Force Station, later, Los Angeles Air Force Base.
A change of mission in 1966 from Air Force Logistics Command to Military Airlift Command (MAC) meant that Norton became one of six Military Airlift Command strategic-airlift bases, supporting US Army and Marine Corps' airlift requirements among other functions. Also, a new MAC passenger terminal was built to replace the World War II era (1944) facility to better handle passenger traffic, primarily to and from Southeast Asia. The new airline-style building was activated in 1968. The base newspaper in this era was named "The Globetrotter".
Discrete C-130 Hercules modification tests were conducted out of Area II of the base in the late 1960s, with the 1198th Operational Evaluation and Test Squadron flying electronic C-130 testbeds modified at Lockheed Air Services, at near-by Ontario Airport. [4][5]
[edit] Closure
Norton was placed on the Department of Defense's base closure list in 1989 (the same year that the DoD signed the Federal Facilities Agreement with the EPA).
The closure was cited as due to environmental wastes, inadequate facilities, and air traffic congestion (due to air traffic from Ontario International Airport, twenty miles (32 km) west, and Los Angeles International Airport, 60 miles (97 km) west) .
The last of the facilities on the base were closed in 1995.
[edit] Highlights
- Norton AFB served as the last assignment for Chuck Yeager. He retired at the base on 1 June 1975.
- Norton AFB was the filming site of the The Twilight Zone episode "The Last Flight" in which a World War I Royal Flying Corps pilot is transported in time in a cloud to the 1960s. A vintage fighter was provided and flown by Frank Tallman, a Hollywood stunt pilot. The episode first aired on 5 February 1960.
- Norton AFB is mentioned in the 1992 Film Sneakers. Dan Aykroyd's character Mother states "O.K., boss, this LTX-27 concealable mike is part of the same system that NASA used when they faked the Apollo moon landings. Yeah, the astronauts broadcast around the world from a soundstage at Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino, California. So it worked for them, shouldn't give us too many problems." [6]
- The famed C-141 Starlifter Hanoi Taxi was based at Norton AFB with the 63rd MAW at the time of its famous missions as part of Operation Homecoming.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Biography of Brig. General George G. Lundberg
- ^ Air Force biography: Brigadier General James L. Jackson
- ^ Dixie L. Johnson. Tribute to MaryBelle Johns Nissly (GIF image)
- ^ Olausson, Lars, Lockheed Hercules Production List - 1954-2008 - 25th ed., Såtenäs, Sweden, April 2007. Self-published. No ISBN.
- ^ Mueller, Robert, Air Force Bases Volume I - Active Air Force Bases Within the United States of America on 17 September 1982; Office of Air Force History, United States Air Force, Washington, D.C., 1989, page 447. ISBN 0-912799-53-6.
- ^ Sneakers (1992) - Memorable quotes
[edit] External links
- BRAC Recommendation for Closure of Norton Air Force Base
- EPA Page on Norton Air Force Base
- Old Norton Air Force Base to Become Industrial Park
- FAA Airport Diagram(PDF), effective 5 June 2008
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