Maxwell Air Force Base (IATA:
MXF, ICAO:
KMXF, FAA LID: MXF), officially
known as Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base, is a
United States Air Force (USAF)
installation under the Air Education and
Training Command (AETC). The installation is located in
Montgomery, Alabama, US. Occupying the site of the first Wright Flying School, it was named in
honor of Second Lieutenant William C. Maxwell, a native of Atmore, Alabama.
The base is the headquarters of Air University
(AU), a major component of Air Education and
Training Command (AETC), and is the U.S. Air Force's center for
Joint Professional Military Education (PME). The host wing for
Maxwell-Gunter is the 42d Air Base Wing (42 ABW).
The Air Force Reserve Command's
908th Airlift Wing (908 AW) is a tenant
unit and the only operational flying unit at Maxwell. The 908 AW
and its subordinate 357th Airlift Squadron (357 AS)
operates eight C-130H Hercules aircraft for theater airlift
in support of combatant commanders worldwide. As an AFRC airlift
unit, the 908th is operationally gained by the Air Mobility Command (AMC).
Gunter Annex is a separate
installation under the 42 ABW. Originally known as Gunter Field, it
later became known as Gunter Air Force Station
(Gunter AFS) when its runways were closed and its operational
flying activity eliminated. It was later renamed Gunter Air
Force Base (Gunter AFB) during the 1980s. As a hedge
against future Base Realignment and Closure
(BRAC) closure actions, Gunter AFB was consolidated under Maxwell
AFB in March 1992 to create a combined installation known as
Maxwell/Gunter AFB.
Maxwell AFB is also the site of Federal Prison Camp,
Montgomery, a minimum security facility for male inmates.
Toward the end of February 1910, the Wright Brothers decided to open one of the
world's earliest flying schools at the site that would subsequently
become Maxwell AFB. The Wrights taught the principles of flying,
including take-offs, balancing, turns, and landings. The Wright Flying School closed on May 26,
1910.[1]
The field served as a repair depot during World War I. In fact, the depot built the first
plane made in Montgomery and exhibited it at the field on September
20, 1918. Repair activity at the depot was sharply curtailed at the
end of the war.
The Aviation Repair Depot's land was leased by the U.S. Army during World War I, and later purchased
on January 11, 1920 for $34,327. Diminished postwar activity caused
the U.S. War Department in 1919 to announce that it planned to
close thirty-two facilities around the country, including the
Aviation Repair Depot. In 1919, the Aviation Repair Depot had a
$27,000 monthly civilian payroll in 1919, and was a vital part of
the city's economy. The loss of the field would have been a serious
blow to the local Montgomery economy. The field remained open into
the early 1920s only because the War Department was slow in closing
facilities. After this initial reprieve, the War Department
announced in 1922 that facilities on the original closure list
would indeed close in the very near future. City officials were not
surprised to hear that Aviation Repair Depot remained on the list,
because 350 civilian employees had been laid off in June 1921. On
November 8, 1922, the War Department
redesignated the depot as Maxwell Field in honor
of Atmore, Alabama native, Second Lieutenant William C. Maxwell. On
12 August 1920, engine trouble forced Lieutenant Maxwell to attempt
to land his DH-4 in a
sugarcane field in the Philippines. Maneuvering to avoid a group of
children playing below, he struck a flagpole hidden by the tall
sugarcane and was killed instantly. On the recommendation of his
former commanding officer, Major Roy C. Brown, the Montgomery Air
Intermediate Depot, Montgomery, Alabama, was renamed Maxwell
Field.[2]
In 1923, it was one of three U.S. Army Air Service aviation depots.
Maxwell Field repaired aircraft engines in support of flying
training missions such as those at Taylor Field, southeast of
Montgomery.
Maxwell Field, as most Army air stations and depots developed
during World War I, was on leased properties with temporary
buildings being the mainstay of construction. These temporary
buildings/shacks were built to last two to five years. By the
mid-1920s, these dilapidated wartime buildings had become a
national disgrace. Congressional investigations also showed that
the manning strength of the U.S. Army's air arm was seriously
deficient. These critical situations eventually led to the Air
Corps Act of 1926 and the two major programs that dramatically
transformed Army airfields. The Air Corps Act changed the name and
status of the Army Air Service to the U.S. Army Air Corps and authorized a
five-year expansion program. In the late 1920s and early 1930s,
this program and its companion, the 1926 Army Housing Program,
produced well-designed, substantial, permanent buildings and
infrastructure at all Army airfields retained after World War
I.
Taking up the cause of Maxwell Field was freshman Congressman
J. Lister Hill, a World War I veteran who
served with the 17th and 71st U.S. Infantry Regiments. He, as well
as other Montgomery leaders, recognized the historical significance
of the Wright Brother’s first military flying school and the
potential of Maxwell Field to the local economy. In 1925 Hill, a
member of the House Military Affairs Committee, affixed an
amendment to a military appropriations bill providing $200,000 for
the construction of permanent buildings at Maxwell Field. This
amendment did not have the approval of the War Department nor the
Army Air Corps, but as a result of this massive spending on Maxwell
Field, the War Department kept it open. Hill recognized that to
keep Maxwell Field open, it needed to be fiscally or militarily
valuable to the War Department.
In September 1927, Hill met with Major General Mason M. Patrick, chief of the Army
Air Corps, and his assistant, Brigadier General James E. Fechet, to discuss the
placement of an attack group at Maxwell Field. Both made it clear
that Maxwell Field was too close to Montgomery and was not a
suitable location for an attack group. In fact, they asked Hill as
"a friend of the Air Corps" not to "embarrass" the Corps by asking
that the group be placed there. They warned that if he persisted,
they would "very much oppose" the effort. However, General Patrick
not wanting to alienate the new and up and coming Congressman (who
was also a member of the House Military Affairs Committee) sought
to appease Hill by offering to create an observation squadron at
Maxwell Field. Hill welcomed the gesture; however, the creation of
an observation squadron fell short of the long term on-going
mission sought by Hill for Maxwell Field.
Hill continued to argue for the attack group to be placed at
Maxwell Field. He argued that because of the permanent buildings
scheduled to be built, it would be fiscally advantageous for the
placement of the attack group at Maxwell Field. Hill's arguments
were an extension of ones that had been presented to him by Major
Roy S. Brown, former commandant of Maxwell Field from 1922-1925. In
1927, Major Brown was the commander of the Air Corps Tactical School located
at Langley Field, Virginia. Major Brown urged Hill
to keep his name out of it because of the easily traceable insider
information. Hill, frustrated with the lack of positive response
from Generals Patrick and Fechet, moved up the chain of command and
passed on the correspondence he had with General Fechet to
Secretary of War Dwight Davis, Assistant Secretary of War for Air
F. Trubee Davison, and Army Chief of Staff
Charles P. Summerall. His request to
them was given the answer: that they would give the matter "full
consideration."
The depot's first official flying mission was carried out after
that. Observation missions originated there in 1927–1929.
Pilots from the field were also involved in completing the first
leg of a test designed to establish an airmail
route between the Gulf
Coast and the northern Great Lakes area. The successful test played a
major role in the eventual establishment of permanent airmail
service in the Southeast.
By early 1928, the decision of basing a new Army Air Corps
attack group had come down to Shreveport, Louisiana, and Montgomery.
Both cities vied for the federal money to be spent in their
respective local areas, but Shreveport the more economically
developed city than its counterpart Montgomery won the day. In
April 1928 Hill, via his contacts in the War Department, found out
that Montgomery would not be getting the attack group. Flexing his
congressional muscle, Hill persuaded Assistant Secretary Davidson
and now chief of the Air Corps Major General Fechet to hold off the
official announcement until Montgomery had a second look by the War
Department. During the interim Montgomery leaders had set forth
actions to acquire over 600 acres (2 km2) for
Maxwell Field’s expansion in hopes of wooing the War
Department into placing the attack group in Montgomery.
In May 1928 General Benjamin Foulois, General Fechet's
assistant, during an inspection visit with Third Army commander
General Frank Parker to Maxwell Field mentioned that the Air Corps
Tactical School would be moving from Langley Field to a still
undecided location. During his stay General Foulois met with local
Chamber of Commerce chairman Jesse Hearin and Maxwell Field post
commandant, Major Walter R. Weaver. Hearin and Weaver touted
the feasibility of Maxwell Field and the Montgomery area for the
placement of the attack group at Maxwell Field. However, General
Foulois guided the conversation towards the impending movement of
the Air Corps Tactical School and he favored Maxwell Field for the
new home. Hearin immediately worked up an option on another one
thousand acres (4 km²) for the Air Corps Tactical School
should Montgomery not be favored with the attack group.
In July 1928, word "via rumor" of the decision for the
establishment of an attack group came out that Shreveport was
indeed the victor of the final decision. In December 1928, after
much debate and political maneuvering it was announced officially
by the Assistant Secretary of War that Shreveport would be getting
the attack group and that the Army Air Corps Tactical School (ACTS)
would be coming to Maxwell Field. The move to Maxwell Field from
Langley Field was initially expected to increase Maxwell Field's
population by eighty officers and 300 enlisted. It was expected
that the ACTS would be to the Army Air Corps what Fort Benning, Georgia was to the infantry.
On January 15, 1929, it was announced that the ACTS would be
twice as large as originally planned. On February 11, it was
announced that $1,644,298 had been allowed for ACTS construction.
This was not including an additional $324,000 the Secretary of War
had approved previously for non-commissioned officer barracks and a
school building after a conference with Congressman Hill. On March
12, a conference between a Major Kennedy, Chief of Buildings and
Grounds of the Army Air Corps and commandant of the ACTS, and
Congressman Lister Hill to determine the locations of the buildings
and types of construction. In March 1929, personnel at Maxwell
provided flood relief to citizens of Montgomery. This was the first
time at which food and supplies were airdropped by U.S. military forces during a major
civilian emergency.
On July 9, 1929, Captain Walter J. Reed and a battery of
attorneys checked titles for the land. The War Department also
announced the same day that the plan had changed to where the ACTS
would now be four times as large as originally planned with 200
officers and 1,000 enlisted men. At the time, this made Maxwell
Field the largest (as far as personnel) Army Air Corps installation
in the southeast. Approximately 300 signatures to the deed of the
land occupied by the Air Corps Tactical School were signed, of
which one was signed by a minor. Chairman of the Montgomery Chamber
of Commerce James Hearin said, "...several cases had to be taken to
court." Despite the obvious rush for signatures, by October 5,
deeds to the land were signed and mailed to the War Department.
On December 17, 1929, Congressman Lister Hill introduced a bill
to appropriate $320,000 for the acquiring of 1,075 acres
(4 km2) of land in Montgomery County as a part of an
expansion program for Maxwell Field. This was a particularly bold
move at the time by Hill because of the stock market crash. Effects
of the crash had yet to take place; however, the panic caused by
the crash had certainly captured Montgomery’s attention.
Austin Hall was built in 1931 to
serve as the Air Corps Tactical School's main building.
On January 25, 1930, President Herbert Hoover asked Congress to
re-appropriate an additional $100,000 for the main school building
at Maxwell Field. President Hoover’s policy was to speed
public works to offset unemployment. In February 1930, Congressman
Hill’s resolution was passed in the House of Representatives
and 80 acres (320,000 m2) were to be added to
Maxwell Field for expansion purposes. George B. Ford and Frederick
Law Olmsted, Jr., were hired by the Army Quartermaster
Corps and they designed the overall layout of ACTS at Maxwell.
Ford used an approach that clustered similar functions together.
This technique provided plenty of open space and gave each cluster
a distinct appearance.
On September 17, 1931, the first ACTS training occurred at
Maxwell Field. Forty-one students met at 8:40 a.m. in the
operations office conference room for general instruction. Classes
were divided into sections, with some pilots sent on check flights,
while others were sent out to become familiar with the surrounding
countryside to become familiar with emergency landing field
locations.
On the morning of September 22, 1931, opening exercises of the
Air Corps Tactical School were held. On September 24, the Air Corps
Tactical School was officially launched. The address was made by
Major General James E. Fechet, chief of the Army Air Corps also
attending were Congressman Lister Hill and commandant of the Air
Corps Tactical School, Major John F. Curry. General Fechet, along
with announcing his impending retirement, declared that the
forty-one student officers could be future generals of the Air
Corps. At a later luncheon, General Fechet also lauded
Montgomery’s attitude toward the Air Corps.
The 1931-1932 faculty included Army Air Corps (AC), Army
Infantry (Inf), Army Chemical Warfare Service (CWS), and Army Field
Artillery (FA) instructors. Initially, the school's curriculum
reflected the dominating influence of Brigadier General Billy Mitchell. Mitchell was a strong believer
in the importance of gaining and maintaining air superiority during
a conflict. He argued strongly for pursuit (e.g., "fighter")
aircraft in combination with bombers and regarded enemy pursuit
forces as the most serious threat to successful bombing operations
and felt that the task of American pursuit was not necessarily to
escort bombers, but to also seek out and attack enemy fighters.
During the first five years of the school's operation, Mitchell's
beliefs formed the basis for instruction at the tactical school.
However, by the mid-1930s the school's emphasis had shifted from
pursuit to bombardment aviation.
On July 16, 1933, Congressman Lister Hill secured approval from
the War Department for $1,650,075 for immediate spending at Maxwell
Field. Hill’s request was justified by increased enrollment
at the Air Corps Tactical School and the desperate need for
employment for the local Montgomery population. At the start of
October 1933 bids opened for four construction projects that were
to start immediately; 1933-1934 construction at Maxwell Field later
employed an average of 500 plus workers.
The Air Corps Tactical School opened
July 15, 1931. The school evolved into the Army Air Corps (later,
U.S. Air Force's) first tactical center until
the imminence of American involvement in World War II forced a suspension of classes in
June 1940 that resulted in permanent closure of the school. One of
the school's notable achievements was its development of two aerial
acrobatic teams: the "Three Men on a Flying Trapeze", put together
by then-Captain Claire L. Chennault in 1932, and the
Skylarks in 1935.
In 1940, it was announced that the installation was to be
converted into a pilot-training center. On 8 July 1940 the Army Air
Corps redesignated its training center at Maxwell Field, Alabama as
the Southeast Air Corps Training Center. The
Southeast Air Corps Training Center at Maxwell handled flying
training (basic, primary and advanced) at airfields in the Eastern
United States.
An Air Force Pilot School (preflight) was also activated which
instructed Aviation Cadets
in the mechanics and physics of flight and required the cadets to
pass courses in mathematics and the hard sciences. Then the cadets
were taught to apply their knowledge practically by teaching them
aeronautics, deflection shooting, and thinking in three dimensions.
In June 1941, the Army Air Corps became the U.S. Army Air Forces, and on 8 January
1943, the War Department constituted and redesignated the school as
the 74th Flying
Training Wing (preflight).
During following years, Maxwell was home to six different
schools that trained U.S. military aviators and their support teams
for wartime service. As World War II progressed, the number of required
pilot trainees declined, and the Army Air Forces decided
not to send more aircrew trainees to Maxwell Field. The following
known sub-bases and auxiliaries were constructed to support the
flying school:
On 31 July 1943, the Southeast Air Corps Training Center was
redesignated as the Eastern Flying Training Command. Also in July,
the Army Air Forces announced a specialized school for pilots of
four-engine aircraft. The first B-24 Liberator landed at the field later that
month and in early 1945, B-29 Superfortress bomber training
replaced the B-24 program.
Training at Maxwell continued until 15 December 1945, when the
Eastern Flying Training Command was inactivated and was
consolidated into the Central Flying Training Command at Randolph Field, Texas.
Air
University, an institution providing continuing military
education for Army Air Forces personnel, was established at Maxwell
in 1946, prior to the U.S. Air Force becoming an independent service
the following year. Today, it remains the main focus of base
activities at Maxwell. In 1992, the 3800th Air Base Wing (3800 ABW) was
disbanded and the 502d Air Base Wing (502 BW) took over as
the host wing, which two years later gave way to the current
42d Air Base Wing.
As home of the Air University, Maxwell became the postgraduate
academic center of the U.S. Air Force. Air University evolved first
as an institution influenced by air power as shaped in World War
II, then by the Cold War under the threat of nuclear
annihilation, and by air power as applied during the Cold War's
Korean and Vietnam conflicts. In the early twenty-first century,
the emphasis shifted to air power's role in confronting
international and transnational terrorism by both state-sponsored
and non-state actors. AU grew materially from inadequate quarters,
classrooms, and instructional technology into a campus that is as
modern and up-to-date as those of any other in the U. S. armed
forces. Construction of Maxwell's Academic Circle, Air University's
primary education complex, began in the 1950s. Its centerpiece was
the Air University Library, eventually one of several major
libraries on a military installation.
Over the years, other activities were established or relocated
to Maxwell AFB, to include Headquarters, Civil Air Patrol - USAF;
the Air Force Reserve's 908th Tactical Air Support Group (908
TASG), which evolved into the present day 908th Airlift Wing; the
Ira C. Eaker Center for Professional Development; the Air Force
Financial Systems Operation office (SAF/FM); the Center for
Aerospace Doctrine, Research and Education (CADRE); and the Air
Force Historical Research Agency, a support organization and
repository for air power scholars and AU students. In 1994,
Air Force Officer
Training School (OTS) was also relocated from Lackland AFB/Medina Annex, Texas to
Maxwell AFB, joining the national headquarters of the Air Force's
other non-Academy officer accession source, Air Force ROTC.[3]
Montgomery /mɒntˈɡʌməri/
is the capital of the U.S.
state of Alabama and is the county seat of Montgomery County.[7]
Named for Richard Montgomery, it is located on the
Alabama River, in the Gulf Coastal Plain. As of the 2010 Census, Montgomery had a
population of 205,764. It is the second-largest city in Alabama,
after Birmingham,[8]
and the 103rd
largest in the United States. The Montgomery Metropolitan Statistical
Area had a 2010 estimated population of 374,536. It is the
fourth-largest in the state and 136th among United
States metropolitan areas.[9]
The city was incorporated in 1819, as a merger of two towns
situated along the Alabama River. It became the state capital in
1846, representing the shift of power to the south-central area
with the growth of cotton as a commodity crop of the Black Belt and Mobile's rise as a
mercantile port. In February 1861, Montgomery was selected as the
first capital of the Confederate States of
America, until the seat of government moved to Richmond, Virginia, in May of that year.
During the mid-20th century, Montgomery was a major site of events
in the African-American
Civil Rights Movement,[10]
including the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the
Selma to Montgomery
marches.
In addition to housing many Alabama government agencies,
Montgomery has a large military presence due to
Maxwell Air Force Base; public
universities Alabama State University, Troy University (Montgomery campus), and
Auburn University at
Montgomery; private colleges/universities Faulkner University and Huntingdon College; high-tech
manufacturing, including Hyundai Motor
Manufacturing Alabama;[11]
and cultural attractions such as the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and
Montgomery Museum of Fine
Arts.
Two ships of the United States Navy have been named after
the city, including USS Montgomery (LCS-8).[12]
Montgomery has won several national awards including being voted
Best Historic City by USA
Today, being named an All-America City in 2014 by the National Civic League, being named a
"Top City For Job Growth" in 2014 by ziprecruiter.com, and being
named the happiest city in Alabama. Montgomery has also been
recognized nationally for its successful, and ongoing downtown
revitalization and new urbanism projects with Montgomery having
been one of the first cities in the nation to implement Smart Code
Zoning.
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