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By 1934, the Army Air Corps had outgrown its
facilities at Chanute Field, Illinois, and was actively searching
for a site for all of its Air Service Technical training schools.
After looking at more than eighty sites across
the nation, a military committee submitted a list to Congress with
the names of six cities that would meet their needs. Denver ranked
first.
Congress approved the Air Corps project in 1937,
but Chanute remained the headquarters of the Air Corps Technical
School and home to the aircraft mechanics school. The Army formed
a new branch for armament and photography training in Denver.
The Works Progress Administration (WPA) began
work October 4, 1937 to convert the grounds of the former Agnes
Memorial Sanatorium into a modern airfield. The new field was to
be named in honor of Francis B. Lowry.
Francis Brown Lowry
Francis Brown Lowry was born in Denver on December
1, 1894. Second Lieutenant Brown died September 26, 1918 when,
while serving as an aerial observer, his plane was shot down by
German antiaircraft fire. He was originally buried in Argonne Cemetery
in Romagne, France. In 1921 his remains were transferred to Denver's
Fairmount Cemetery, adjacent to the land that was to become Lowry
Field.
Lowry's name was first used for an airfield
in 1924, when the Colorado Air National Guard dedicated an installation
in the vicinity of 38th Avenue and Dahlia Street, east of the present-day
Park Hill Golf Club. This installation served the Guard until 1938
when it was inactivated.
The Early Years
Once construction started, the Denver branch
of the Army Air Corps became an Army post of 880 acres. A bombing
range of 64,000 acres was acquired in 1938. In 1941, the Army acquired
an additional 960 acres a few miles to the east as an auxiliary
landing field, and named it Buckley Field.
Classes at Lowry began on February 28, 1938.
Ten students graduated from the Armament Department on March 19,
1938. Several months later, ten photography students received diplomas
in advanced aerial photography.
Flying Activity at Lowry
While construction was underway, the Army kept
aircraft assigned to the Denver branch at the Municipal Airport,
where they shared a hangar with the Colorado National Guard. When
Lowry’s first unpaved runway became operational on April
4, 1938, the first of four portable National Guard hangars was
erected. On June 30, nine aircraft flew from Municipal Airport
to Lowry Field. Construction continued and Hangar No. 1 was completed
in August 1939, the 8,000-foot north/south runway was completed
in December. The first aircraft to land on the new, paved runway
was a B-18A, similar to one displayed in the Museum.
Gearing Up for War
In January 1940, Lowry Field had a complement
of 44 officers, 1,350 enlisted men including 600 students, and
27 aircraft. As the international situation worsened, the Army
acquired additional land. Following December 7, 1941, the inflow
of trainees increased.
The Army Air Corps became the Army Air Force
on June 20, 1941. The Air Force initially set a goal of training
more than 15,000 men in the period July 1, 1941 to June 30, 1942.
In January 1942, the War Department tasked Lowry with annually
training 57,000 men. To accommodate the larger student population,
construction of Lowry Field No. 2 was begun.
Lowry No. 2 was built on the northeast side
of the post beyond Sixth Avenue. It opened in July 1942. In addition,
Armament School No. 2 was established at Buckley Field. Lowry trained
only bombardment armorers while Buckley prepared armorers for fighter
aircraft.
In October 1943, Lowry Flight Engineers School
was moved to Lowry. In 1944, Lowry introduced courses in radar
photography, autopilot maintenance, and B-29 crew training. In
April 1945, the Crash Fire Fighting and Rescue School moved to
Lowry from Buckley Field. Also in 1945, production of B-29 Superfortresses
reached a level that necessitated another school for pilot and
crew training. Forty-two B-29s arrived at Lowry in May and the
six-week course began in July. At war’s end, two classes
remained at Lowry along with thirty-nine Superfortresses. The classes
never completed training. The end of the war in Europe in May and
V-J Day on August 15 ended Lowry’s short history as a pilot
transition training school.
Lowry quickly returned to a peacetime schedule.
Staffing decreased and student enrollment plummeted. It became
a separation center for returning veterans. By the end of the 1945,
Lowry was processing an average of 300 discharges a day.
Lowry in the 50s
In 1948, with the postwar reorganization of
the military, Lowry Field became Lowry Air Force Base. The 1950s
saw the beginning of the Cold War, a new Selective Service Act,
and the entry of the Air Force into the aerospace age. Jet-powered
aircraft, guided missiles, nuclear ordnance, and electronic and
computerized equipment were introduced into the inventory. And
North Korea attacked across the 38th Parallel.
The Korean War
Lowry Air Force Base immediately responded to
the North Korean incursion with an expanded training program. Courses
taught, in addition to photography and armament, included rocket
propulsion, missile guidance, electronics, radar-operated fire-control
systems, computer specialties, gun and rocket sights, and electronically
operated turret systems. Lowry lost one of its traditional courses,
aerial photography, in February 1956. Changing technology in the
form of remote-control cameras on reconnaissance aircraft made
aerial photography specialists redundant. Programs in camera repair
and ground photography, however, continued to be taught.
In 1954, President Eisenhower signed a bill
authorizing an Air Force Academy. Lowry was selected as the Academy’s
interim home until construction was completed in Colorado Springs.
The first class of cadets arrived in July 1955. The Air Force Academy
occupied facilities at Lowry No. 2 until 1958.
The 60s
The 1960s marked the end of an era at Lowry.
The 3415th Technical Training Wing became Lowry Technical Training
Center. Headquarters shifted from the Sanatorium buildings. Flight
activity began to be phased out. The base was closed to all transient
air traffic in June 1960. Four years later, Lowry's remaining
flight operations were shifted to Buckley. All flying activities
ceased completely in June 1966 when the last T-29 was flown out
of Lowry to Buckley.
New programs were added. Titan I missiles were
installed on the old bombing range. Intelligence training returned,
and airmen were trained for the Southeast Asia conflict.
The Century Series fighters became the main-line
fighters for the Aerospace Defense Command and the Tactical Air
Command. Wings Over the Rockies has examples of the F-100, F-101,
F-102, F-104, and the F-105 as well as their predecessors, the RF-84K
and the F-86. Although not a Century Series fighter aircraft, the
F-111 tactical bomber is also in the Museum, as is the F-4E Phantom,
used in Vietnam by both the Air Force and for Navy carrier operations.
In 1962, the Department of Weapons Training
offered sixty courses in conventional munitions, disaster control,
armament, nuclear weapons, and weapons loading. The Nuclear Weapons
branch became the only Air Force organization that instructed in
storing, maintaining, assembling, testing, and handling nuclear
components. By 1964, the 3415th Technical School was graduating
more than 10,000 people annually.
The 70s
The look of Lowry began to change in the 1970s.
Almost 200 WWII-era wooden buildings were replaced with brick structures.
The new facilities included five dormitories housing 1,000 people
each, a youth center, a child-care center, a chapel, an Airmen's
Open Mess, and five buildings for the 3320th Correction and Rehabilitation
Group. In 1976, the Air Force Accounting and Finance Center and
the Air Reserve Personnel Center opened in the Gilchrist Building
(Building 444).
To put more emphasis on technical training and
the aerospace mission, the Air Training Command reorganized its
schools in 1972. The 3415th Technical School became the USAF School
of Applied Sciences'Lowry, comprised of Avionics, Aerospace
Photography, Aerospace Munitions, Special Instruments, and Logistics
departments.
In 1977, the Air Training Command was realigned
along more traditional military lines. Lowry's school became
the 3400th Technical Training Wing. The training departments became
technical training groups. They were the 3420th Intelligence, 3430th
Audiovisual, 3440th Logistics, 3450th Avionics, and 3460th Munitions
groups. The basic wing-group structure continued into the 1980s.
Lowry first faced the base closure issue in 1978. Ultimately, the
Air Force recommended keeping Lowry open.
The 80s
With the base closure issue settled, Lowry Technical
Training Center introduced new and improved courses for the 1980s.
Lowry became the primary training center for space operations courses
and began Undergraduate Space Training for officers.
Lowry also handled ground and armament training
for the F-15, F-16, A-10, and B-1 bomber, as well as the Short
Range Attack Missile (SRAM). Lowry was also instrumental in training
munitions handling for modified B-52 bombers.
On October 1, 1987, Lowry observed its 50th
anniversary.
The 90s
Characterized by more reorganization,
the 1990s saw the beginning of the end at Lowry. Budget cuts
and downsizing made base closure a reality. In 1993, Lowry prepared
to end fifty-six years of technical training. While training
continued, Lowry's command structure planned to implement
the closure in an efficient manner. The Air Force deactivated
the 3400th Technical Training Group on April 27, 1994. A parade
and pass-in-review was planned, but the death of former President
Richard M. Nixon caused the ceremonies to be postponed to the
28th. The official deactivation date, however, remained the 27th.
On September 30, 1994, the American flag came
down for the last time at Lowry Air Force Base, almost fifty-seven
years to the day that it was first raised at a new base.
Today houses, office buildings, businesses,
and paved streets cover the land once occupied by hundreds of
acres of concrete runways. Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum preserves
the memory of those active years.
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