Origins In 1929, the General Aviation Committee of the Savannah City Council recommended that the Belmont Tract, belonging to J. C. Lewis, be accepted by the council as the future site of the Savannah Municipal Airport. The cost of the land was $35,000. By September 1929, the runway and several buildings were ready and the city officially opened the new facility, known as Savannah Municipal Airport. The airport became a part of
Eastern Air Transport Incorporated air route on 2 December 1931, when Ida Hoynes, daughter of the Mayor, Thomas M. Hoynes, broke a bottle of
Savannah River water on a propeller blade of an 18-passenger
Curtiss Condor II during the christening ceremony. The airport was named Hunter Municipal Airfield during Savannah Aviation Week in May 1940, in honor of
Lieutenant Colonel (Lt. Col.)
Frank O'Driscoll Hunter, a native of Savannah and a
World War I flying ace. Lt. Col. Hunter was not scheduled to appear in Savannah that week; However, he paid a surprise visit to the field on the first day of Aviation Week while en route to France to serve as a United States Military Air Attaché.
Savannah Army Air Base On 30 August 1940, the
United States Army Air Corps received approval to build a base at Hunter Municipal Airfield. Official dedication of the airfield as Savannah Army Air Base took place 19 February 1941. The Army Air Corps assigned Savannah AAB initially to the
Southeast Air District (later Third Air Force), III Air Support Command. The
27th Bombardment Group, equipped with
Douglas B-18 Bolo medium bombers was the first assigned unit to the new airfield. The 27th was reassigned to the field from
Barksdale Field,
Louisiana. The group consisted of the 15th, 16th and 17th Bombardment Squadrons. In 1941, the group was reequipped with
Douglas A-24 Banshee Dive Bombers, and on 21 October 1941 the group was ordered to the
Philippine Islands in response to the growing crisis in the Pacific. The 27th returned to Hunter, without personnel or equipment on 4 May 1942 after being severely depleted in strength during the
Battle of the Philippines (1942), and subsequent combat in the Dutch East Indies and New Guinea Campaigns (1942). The unit was reequipped with
A-20 Havocs, remanned and retrained at Hunter. It was then deployed for combat with
Twelfth Air Force in North Africa in July 1942. During early 1942 after the
Pearl Harbor Attack, Savannah AAB became a base for several Antisubmarine groups and squadrons of
I Bomber Command and later
Army Air Forces Antisubmarine Command with a mission to patrol the Atlantic coast, locate and attack German
U-boats. Throughout 1942, light bomber and dive bomber groups received combat training at Savannah AAB before being deployed to the combat zones overseas. These groups included the: •
85th Bombardment Group (Light), 9 June – 15 August 1942 •
86th Bombardment Group (Light), 20 June – 7 August 1942 •
311th Bombardment Group (Light), 4 July – 22 October 1942 •
339th Bombardment Group (Dive), 10 August 1942 – 6 February 1943 With the U-boat mission taken over by the
Navy after mid-1943, Savannah AAB became a training base for
Martin B-26 Marauder medium bomber crews. Marauder groups which received final combat training were: •
344th Bombardment Group (Medium), 19 December 1943 – 26 January 1944 •
397th Bombardment Group (Medium), 1 November 1943 – 13 March 1944 At the end of the war, Savannah AAB was used as a Separation Center for the discharge and furlough of service members returning from Europe. In June 1946, the airfield was returned to the City of Savannah. From 1946 to 1949, many of its buildings were leased to industrial plants. Some of the buildings were used as apartment houses, and an
orphanage was located in the former commanding officer's quarters. The
University of Georgia established an extension campus on part of the old base, as well.
United States Air Force On 1 March 1949,
Chatham Air Force Base, located northwest of Savannah, was reopened by the
United States Air Force Strategic Air Command. The
2d Bombardment Group was reassigned from
Davis-Monthan AFB,
Arizona to Chatham, with the
B-50 Superfortress. The limited facilities at Chatham made the base unfit for permanent use. Plans were made to close the base and move the B-50s to more suitable facilities. Rather than see the Air Force move elsewhere, Savannah offered to exchange airfields with the
federal government along with of additional land around Hunter for future base expansions. This arrangement was agreed upon and on 29 September 1950, the 2d Bomb Group moved to the base, reopened as
Hunter Air Force Base and Chatham was turned over to the City of Savannah. At the time, Hunter AFB became the only U.S. military installation named for a living American, Major General (Retired) Frank Hunter.
Strategic Air Command Hunter AFB was assigned to the
Strategic Air Command's (SAC)
Second Air Force. Two major SAC medium bombardment wings were assigned to Hunter during the 1950s. Both came under the
38th Air Division which was also headquartered at Hunter. •
2nd Bombardment Wing, 22 September 1950 – 1 April 1963 : The 2d Bomb Wing was the host unit at Hunter from the time the base reopened in 1950 until SAC left in 1963. It was initially equipped with
B-50 Superfortress heavy bombers, being replaced by the
B-47 Stratojet in 1953. From Hunter, the 2d Bomb Wing frequently deployed to SAC bases, primarily in the United Kingdom on
Operation Reflex deployments where it came under control of the
7th Air Division. The limited range of the B-47 made it critical to locate it close to bases near Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in case of war. With the phaseout of the B-47 beginning in the early 1960s, the Wing moved to
Barksdale AFB,
Louisiana in 1963 where it was reequipped with
B-52s and remains to this day. •
308th Bombardment Wing, 17 April 1952 – 15 July 1959 : The 308th Bomb Wing was a second B-47 Wing assigned to Hunter. The 308th deployed primarily to SAC bases in
Morocco on Reflex deployments where it came under the control of the
5th Air Division. The closing of USAF bases in Morocco in 1959 led to the wing being reassigned to
Plattsburgh AFB, New York as a
KC-97 Stratofreighter wing, and later as a
Titan II Strategic Missile Wing at
Little Rock AFB,
Arkansas in 1962. On 11 March 1958, a B-47E which departed Hunter on a simulated combat mission
accidentally dropped a Mark 6 fission bomb minus its nuclear component near
Florence, South Carolina. A home was destroyed and several people were injured. The aircraft was taking part in
Operation Snow Flurry at the time of the incident.
Military Air Transport Service The phaseout of SAC Medium Bomber (B-47 Wings) in the early 1960s resulted in SAC leaving Hunter in 1963. The base was reassigned to the
Military Air Transport Service (MATS). The MATS Eastern Transport Air Force
63d Troop Carrier Wing, Heavy was assigned to Hunter from
Donaldson AFB,
South Carolina which was closing. From Hunter, the 63d flew the
C-124 Globemaster II intercontinental cargo aircraft to points around the world.
Air Defense Command Beginning in 1955
Air Defense Command designated Hunter AFB as part of a planned deployment of forty-four Phase I Mobile Radar stations. It was one of twenty-nine stations which were sited around the perimeter of the country to support the permanent ADC network of seventy-five stations. The ADC radar site at Hunter was given designation
M-112. On 1 March 1955 the 702d Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron began operating
AN/MPS-7,
AN/TPS-10D, and
AN/MPS-14 radars at Hunter, and initially the station functioned as a Ground-Control Intercept (GCI) and warning station. As a GCI station, the squadron's role was to guide interceptor aircraft toward unidentified intruders picked up on the unit's radar scopes. From 1956 to 1958, an
AN/GPS-3 also saw service. By 1959 only
AN/FPS-20A and
AN/MPS-14 sets were operating. Circa 1961 Hunter received an
AN/FPS-26 height-finder radar. During late 1961 Hunter AFB joined the
Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) system, feeding data to DC-09 at
Gunter AFB, Alabama. After joining, the squadron was re-designated as the
702d Radar Squadron (SAGE) on 1 February 1962. The radar squadron provided information 24/7 the SAGE Direction Center where it was analyzed to determine range, direction altitude speed and whether or not aircraft were friendly or hostile. Later that year, the AN/FPS-20A was upgraded to become an
AN/FPS-67, and on 31 July 1963, the site was redesignated as NORAD ID Z-112. The AN/FPS-67 was upgraded to an
AN/FPS-67B in 1966, and the AN/MPS-14 was removed in 1968. In addition to the main facility, Air Defense Command at Hunter operated three unmanned
AN/FPS-18 Gap Filler sites: • MCAS Parris Island, SC (M-112A): • Alma, GA (M-112C): • Jeffersonville, GA (M-112E): When Hunter AFB was transferred to the US Army in 1967 becoming Hunter Army Airfield, the radar site was renamed
Savannah Air Force Station (AFS) . The 702nd Radar Squadron continued routine operations for many years, and, the equipment at the station was upgraded or modified to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the information gathered by the radars. The station was deactivated on 5 June 1979.
United States Army Airfield at Hunter Army Airfield in 2004. In 1964, the
Department of Defense announced that the base would be closed, along with 94 other military installations. The Air Force was given a period of three years to phase out operations. In December 1966, at the height of the
Vietnam War, the
Department of the Army announced that the
Secretary of Defense had approved an increase in the number of Army helicopter pilots to be trained. At the time, the
United States Army Aviation School at
Fort Rucker, Alabama was operating at capacity and additional facilities were needed. Hunter Air Force Base was turned over to the Army and operated in conjunction with Fort Stewart, located southwest of Hunter.
Brigadier General Frank Meszar, Commanding General of Fort Stewart, formally accepted the base from
Colonel James A. Evans Jr., Commander of Hunter AFB, in a formal change of command and service ceremony on 1 April 1967, at which point the facility was renamed Hunter Army Air Field (Hunter AAF). The headquarters of the Army Aviation School Element moved to Hunter from Fort Stewart, where it had been established during the summer of 1966. The element's mission was to coordinate the training of fixed-wing and rotary-wing aviators as an extension of the Army's training programs at Fort Rucker and
Fort Wolters,
Texas. On 28 July 1967, the combined facilities of Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield were re-designated the
United States Army Flight Training Center. Included was the Attack Helicopter Training Department ("Cobra Hall"), the Army's first attack helicopter school whose purpose was to train pilots in the
AH-1G Cobra, the world's first purpose-built attack helicopter. The first class of
Republic of Vietnam Air Force students began Advanced helicopter training at Hunter on 13 March 1969. As the number of Vietnamese flight students increased, flight training for U.S. Army officers and warrant officers at Hunter was gradually phased out, ending on 16 June 1970. In 1973, Hunter AAF was deactivated, but it was later reopened in 1975, serving as a support facility for the
24th Infantry Division (Mechanized), at Fort Stewart. The 24th Infantry Division, or Victory Division, became part of the nation's Rapid Deployment Force on 1 October 1980. The Victory Division's ability to deploy on short notice was enhanced by its large runway (the Army's longest runway east of the
Mississippi River), Savannah's deep-water port facility and excellent rail and road networks. Military jet and turboprop aircraft based at
Moody AFB,
Robins AFB,
Dobbins ARB and
Savannah ANGB in Georgia;
NAS Jacksonville and
Jacksonville ANGB in Florida; and
MCAS Beaufort,
Charleston AFB and
Shaw AFB in South Carolina also continue to make regular use of Hunter AAF's long runway for local training, to include practice approaches and landings. ==See also==