Postwar Use
In the initial postwar years, Hamilton remained Air Transport Command's primary West Coast facility until 1948 when Military Air Transport Service (MATS) moved most activities to nearby Travis AFB. During this time Hamilton functioned also as a major separation center for returning troops. MATS, and later Military Airlift Command (MAC), retained a presence at Hamilton through the Air Force Reserve, which based several Air Transport, and later Military Airlift wings at the base until it closed in 1976. Strategic Air Command also assigned several reserve reconnaissance groups to Hamilton in the late 1940s, flying photographic missions with RB-29 Superfortresses. Tactical Air Command assigned the F-84 Thunderjet-equipped 349th Fighter-Bomber Wing in the mid 1950s to Hamilton also as part of its reserve forces.
However, the new Air Defense Command, was the major presence at Hamilton after World War II, using the base as headquarters for the air defense of the Pacific Coast. The base went through a series of command redesignations during this period. In the United States Army Air Force reorganization of 1946 it was assigned to Air Defense Command. Later, in 1948 the base was assigned to Continental Air Command, then back to Air Defense Command/Aerospace Defense Command in 1951 then, as its usefulness waned, to the Air Force Reserve in 1970.
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Famous quotes containing the word postwar:
“Fashions change, and with the new psychoanalytical perspective of the postwar period [WWII], child rearing became enshrined as the special responsibility of mothers ... any shortcoming in adult life was now seen as rooted in the failure of mothering during childhood.”
—Sylvia Ann Hewitt (20th century)