Since its inception in 1941, Luke Air Force Base has always served a pilot training mission. Today it is home to the 56th Fighter Wing, the largest fighter training wing in the Air Force and the only active F-16 training base in the world. Luke has turned out more than 50,000 pilots in the course of its history, training them on aircraft from the AT-6 to the F-16.

The Barry M. Goldwater Range

The Barry M. Goldwater Range was also established in 1941, as the Luke Air Force Range. (Young Capt. Goldwater, later an Arizona Senator and Presidential candidate, served as director of ground training in 1942.) The Range serves the Air Force and Marines as a testing area for highly hazardous armament and a training ground for aerial gunnery, rocketry and electronic warfare. About 95 percent of all fighter pilots in the Persian Gulf War were trained on the Goldwater Range.

Luke is located near Phoenix, Arizona, the fifth largest metropolitan area in the country. Luke itself has 7,000 military and reserve personnel and 1,500 civilian employees. With retirement communities and housing complexes encroaching steadily, the base was in danger of closing. To forestall that, Luke was annexed in 1995 by the nearby city of Glendale. Noise pollution and other environmental concerns are a matter of continuing study.

Luke Air Force Base is named for Lt. Frank Luke Jr., the first aviator ever to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. Lt. Luke, a Phoenix native, was known as the "Arizona Balloon Buster" for his exploits during World War I. Flying in the skies above France, he scored 18 aerial victories, 14 of them over German observation balloons. He was killed in 1918, at the age of 21.