Hill Air Force Base in northern Utah, about 30 miles from Salt Lake City, is part of the Air Force Materiel Command. Its host organization, the Ogden Air Logistics Center, is charged with maintaining and managing America's ICBMs, F-16 Falcons and C-130 Hercules aircraft. Hill also hosts two fighter wings, the 388th and the 419th, which is an Air Force Reserve wing.

The site is named in honor of Major Ployer Peter Hill, Chief of the Flying Branch of the Air Corps Material Division. Major Hill died after the Boeing experimental aircraft Model 299 crashed at Wright Field, Ohio, in 1935. This craft was the prototype of what would later become the famous B-17 Flying Fortress long-range heavy bomber.

Hill AFB Keeps Them Flying

During World War II, peak employment at Hill reached to more than 22,000 military and civilian personnel. Shifts worked around the clock to repair and maintain combat planes and return them to active duty. Those that could not be repaired were overhauled or stripped for parts.

As the war wound down, Hill became a long-term storage facility for surplus aircraft and support equipment. By the end of 1947 more than $200 million worth of aircraft had been preserved in case they were needed again. Hill AFB still continues its mission as the repair garage of the Air Force. In fact, in 1980 Hill air traffic totaled 145,243 takeoffs and landings--the busiest single runway of any airfield in the free world!