McClellan Air Force Base - History

History

McClellan Air Force Base, was established in 1935. It was named after Major Hezekiah McClellan (1894–1936) on 1 December 1939, a pioneer in arctic aeronautical tests. Major McClellan was a posthumous recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross who prepared early charts and records while pioneering Alaskan air routes. He died on 25 May 1936 when his Consolidated P-30 which he was flight testing, crashed near Centerville, Ohio.

Construction of the Pacific Air Depot began in 1935, and the main structures, including administrative buildings, barracks, warehouses and a hospital were completed on 18 April 1938. It was one of only four such air depots in the country. In 1938 the base was renamed Sacramento Air Depot and underwent a major expansion as a repair and overhaul facility for P-38 and P-39 fighter planes. The planes were serviced on an assembly line basis. In 1940 an assembly line was added to overhaul P-40 fighters.

In December 1941, soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor, P-40s as well as B-26 and B-17 bombers began arriving at the field to be armed and prepared for immediate shipment overseas. Some B-17s came direct to McClellan from the factories. During this time most of the Army Air Forces planes that went to the Pacific Theater were prepared at McClellan. In March 1942 Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle's B-25s arrived at McClellan for arming in preparation for their famous Tokyo raid. The Doolittle Raiders practiced their aircraft carrier takeoff techniques at the Yolo County Airport, about 20 miles west: The airport runway was painted to represent the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hornet.

During World War II, numerous planes arrived at McClellan from all over the U.S. to be armed and otherwise prepared for shipment overseas to combat areas. After the war McClellan became a storage center of several types of aircraft including B-29 bombers.

The base was renamed McClellan Air Force Base in 1948 and its repair and overhaul mission continued throughout the Cold War as an installation of the Air Force Logistics Command (AFLC) and later the Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC), with the overhaul facility being known as the Sacramento Air Logistics Center. During the 1950s and 1960s, the base also hosted the 552d Airborne Early Warning Wing, operating RC-121 and EC-121 Warning Star aircraft. After the Cold War ended, McClellan's closure was announced in 1995 by the BRAC Commission during the Clinton administration.

Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, McClellan functioned as the main depot for overhauling the Air Force's F-111, FB-111 and EF-111 aircraft, as well as the A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft. It also hosted a tenant WC-135 unit and supported the sophisticated electronic Operation Red Flag at Nellis AFB Nevada. A small contingent of F-111D and F-111F aircraft of the 431 Test & Evaluation Squadron, 57 Fighter Weapons Wing, Nellis AFB Nevada was also detached to McClellan.