In 1934, the Army Air Corps saw the need for another airfield in Hawai‘i and assigned the Quartermaster Corps the job of constructing a modern airdrome from tangled brush and sugar cane fields adjacent to Pearl Harbor. The site consisted of 2,200 acres (9 km²) of ancient, emerged coral reef covered by a thin layer of soil, with the Pearl Harbor entrance channel and naval reservation marking its western and northern boundaries, John Rodgers Airport (HIA today) to the east, and Fort Kamehameha on the south. The new airfield was dedicated on 31 May 1935 and named in honor of Lt. Col. Horace Meek Hickam, a distinguished aviation pioneer who was killed in an aircraft accident the previous November 5 at Fort Crockett in Galveston, Texas.
Construction was still in progress when the first contingent of 12 men and four aircraft under the command of 1st Lt. Robert Warren arrived from Luke Field on Ford Island on September 1, 1937. Hickam Field, as it was then known, was completed and officially activated on September 15, 1938. It was the principal army airfield in Hawai‘i and the only one large enough to accommodate the B-17 bomber. In connection with defense plans for the Pacific, aircraft were brought to Hawai‘i throughout 1941 to prepare for potential hostilities.
The first mass flight of bombers (21 B-17Ds) from Hamilton Field, California arrived at Hickam on 14 May 1941. By December, the "Hawaiian Air Force" had been an integrated command for slightly more than one year and consisted of 754 officers and 6,706 enlisted men, with 233 aircraft assigned at its three primary bases (Hickam, Wheeler, and Bellows).
When the Japanese attacked O‘ahu's military installations on 7 December 1941, their planes bombed and strafed Hickam to eliminate air opposition and prevent U.S. planes from following them back to their aircraft carriers. Hickam suffered extensive damage, aircraft losses, 189 people killed and 303 wounded.
During World War II, the base became a major center for training pilots and assembling aircraft. It also served as the hub of the Pacific aerial network, supporting transient aircraft ferrying troops and supplies to—and evacuating wounded from—the forward areas -- a role it would reprise during the Korean and Vietnam wars and earning it the official nickname "America's Bridge Across the Pacific".
After World War II, the Air Force in Hawai‘i was primarily comprised of the Air Transport Command and its successor, the Military Air Transport Service, until 1 July 1957 when Headquarters Far East Air Forces completed its move from Japan to Hawai‘i and was redesignated the Pacific Air Forces. The 15th Air Base Wing, host unit at Hickam AFB, supported the Apollo astronauts in the 1960s and 1970s; Operation Homecoming (return of prisoners of war from Vietnam) in 1973; Operation Babylift/New Life (movement of nearly 94,000 orphans, refugees, and evacuees from Southeast Asia) in 1975; and NASA's space shuttle flights in the 1980s and the 1990s. Hickam is home to the 65th Airlift Squadron which transports theatre senior military leaders throughout the world in the C-37 and C-40 VIP airplanes. In mid-2003, the 15th Air Base Wing was converted to the 15th Airlift Wing as it prepared to beddown and fly the Air Force's newest transport aircraft, the C-17 Globemaster III. The first Hickam-based C-17 arrived in February 2006, with seven more to follow during the year. The C-17s will be flown by the 535th Airlift Squadron.
In October 1980, the Secretary of the Interior designated Hickam AFB a National Historic Landmark, recognizing its key role in the World War II Pacific campaign. A bronze plaque reflecting Hickam's "national significance in commemorating the history of the United States of America" took its place among other memorials surrounding the base flagpole. Dominating the area is a large bronze tablet engraved with the names of those who died as a result of the 1941 attack. Other reminders of the attack can still be seen, including the tattered American flag that flew over the base that morning. It is on display in the lobby of the Pacific Air Forces Headquarters building, whose bullet-scarred walls have been carefully preserved as a reminder to never again be caught unprepared.
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