Arizona Daily Star from Tucson, Arizona • Page E007

Sun E6-E7 Star E6 ARIZONA DAILY STAR Sunday, September 9, 2007 Sunday, September 9, 2007 ARIZONA DAILY STAR E7 cover story It was dedicated in '27 by Charles Lindbergh, named for 2 local fliers M's dusty beginnings Homesteaders were still working the land in the mid-192 0s when Tucson's city fathers turned their eyes to the scrub and cactus so far to the south and east of Tucson. Object: to acquire enough land for a new municipal airport to replace our old airport, out where the Rodeo Grounds lie today. Dedicated by Charles Stories by BONNIE HENRY A. Lindbergh on Sept. 23, 1927, Davis-Monthan Field was named for two deceased Tucson military fliers, Samuel H.

Davis and Oscar Monthan. Davis graduated from Tucson High School and attended the University of Arizona. He enlisted in the Army in 1917, served at Fort Huachuca and died in an aircraft crash at Carlstrom Field, near Arcadia, in 1921. Monthan, whose family operated ranches in the Vail and Tanque Verde areas, also enlisted in the Army in 1917. He died in 1923 in the crash of a Martin B-2 bomber at Luke Field in Hawaii.

iatff KfifiHiiiffiiiiiiiliitinil Hi west end of the runway as it comes in for a landing at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. The base began in Tucson as a municipal airport, which was dedicated by Charles A. Lindbergh in 1927. It became a military air base in 1940, shortly before World War after Dec. 7, 1941, quickly became a major BENJIE SANDERS ARIZONA DAILY STAR training field for bombing crews.

Not long after D-M's dedication, Standard Airlines later absorbed by American Airlines began scheduling flights. Other pilots signing the logbook included famed female flier Amelia Earhart and around-the-world aviator Wiley Post. With World War II looming, Tucson became one of several sites under consideration for a major air base. On Sept. 20, 1940, the War Department established Tucson Air Base on property leased from the city for $1 a year.

A new civilian airport would open south of town in 1941. But the new military field boasted mainly obsolete aircraft, as well as an assortment of desert critters. Tucson Air Base again became Davis-Monthan Field on Dec. 1, 1941. Six days later and with Pearl Harbor in ruins, the base went on full alert.

Soldiers passed the ammunition and carried gas masks at all times. Davis-Monthan quickly became a major training field for bombing crews. The training sometimes brought tragedy. Between 1941 and 1945 there were 26 major accidents, resulting in the deaths of more than 145 crew members and passengers on aircraft assigned to or using the base. Civilians also paid a price.

In DID YOU KNOW COURTESYOF DAVIS-MONTHAN AIR FORCE BASE The Spirit of Tucson, made out of cacti, is a replica of Lindbergh's plane, Spirit of St. Louis. It was made by local florist Hal Burns. Lindbergh received a real cactus welcome in 1927 broke out, and 6,623 Number of military personnel stationed at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in 2006. 3,315 Number of civilians employed at the base as of 2006.

$316 million Annual military payroll for 2006. $114 million Annual civilian payroll for 2006. 17,559 Number of military retirees served by the base in 2006. 3,500 Number of people who live on the base. 4,423 Number of aircraft stored at the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group.

Two Of each on base: swimming pools, chapels, gas stations. One Of each on base: golf course, bowling alley, movie theater, paintball range, skeet range, horse stable. Source: 355th Fighter Wing Public Affairs ARIZONA DAILY STAR ARCHIVE PHOTO Tucson's new municipal airport was dedicated in 1927 by Charles A. Lindbergh, second from right. Spirit of St.

Louis touches down BENJIE SANDERS ARIZONA DAILY STAR Staff Sgt. Joe Champion, left, loads a WP rocket into an A-10 as Airman 1st Class Daniel Kealy makes adjustment. Commander trains airmen but strives to quell noise 1967, a Phantom jet crashed into a Food Giant supermarket, killing four civilians and injuring 14 others. In 1978, an Air Force A-7D Corsair II slammed into a car carrying two sisters, both University of Arizona students, killing both. During the war, women civilian and military did everything from driving trucks to serving in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps.

The base also ran a camp for German prisoners of war. After the war, Davis-Monthan started storing planes in a remote area that is now the country's largest military plane storage and maintenance site. Two B-29 groups brought the Strategic Air Command to D-M in 1946, ushering in 30 years of SAC command. The whir of the propeller on a dusty runway gave way long ago to the whine of jet engines on acres of pavement. Today, Davis-Monthan sprawls across 10,000 acres.

The latest figures from 2006 indicate 6,623 military personnel work there, along with 3,315 civilians. Sources: Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona Daily Star and "The Story of Davis-Monthan AFB, by Gary P. Myers, master sergeant, United States Air Force. captured on film on Jan. 15, 1941, at An A-10 flies over a large hangar near the AIR FORCE ROOTS IN BALLOONING It began with balloons.

In 1907, the U.S. Army Signal Corps created a small Aeronautical Division to, among other things, take "charge of all mat i ters pertaining to military ballooning." During World War the division became the Air Service, still under Army control. In 1926, it became the Army Air Corps. Ranks and aircraft started to swell with the advent of World War II. By then, another name change had taken place, this time to Army Air Forces.

Following the National Security Act of 1947, the United States Air Force was established as an independent force in September of '47. Source: Air Force Link, the official Web site of the United States Air Force. KUAT SPECIAL Can't get enough of WWII history? Then tune in tonight to "Tucson Remembers: The Battle for Europe," which airs at 7 on KUAT-TV, Channel 6. The program, which includes interviews with World War II veterans, repeats at 7 p.m. Sept.

23 and 8 p.m. Sept. 27. View more photographs of Davis-Monthan AFB at azstarnet.comslideshows COURTESY OF DAVIS-MONTHAN AIR FORCE BASE what was then called Tucson Air Base. Flowers, platitudes and overflow crowds greeted Charles A.

Lindbergh everywhere he went following his historic solo flight across the Atlantic back in 1927. But a cactus welcome? Yep, cactus all fashioned by Tucson florist Hal Burns into a life-size replica of Lindbergh's plane, Spirit of St. Louis. "Dad didn't wear gloves. He said his fingers were full of cactus," says Burns' daughter, Dorothy Myrick, 71.

Just months past his trans-Atlantic flight, Lindbergh popped into Tucson on Sept. 23, 1927, as part of a goodwill tour and to dedicate Davis-Monthan Field. It could have been Davis-Tattersfield Air Force Base. In 1917, Oscar Monthan, as in Davis-Monthan, had his last name legally changed fromTatte rsfield to Monthan, his mother's maiden name. Two years after becoming a widow, Alma Monthan Tattersfield marched all four of her sons to the county courthouse, says her grandson and Oscar's nephew Tucsonan George Monthan.

Three were going into the service. "They thought Tattersfield was too long," says George Monthan. Incidentally, the name is pronounced "Montan," though George Monthan gave up long ago trying to get Tucsonans to quit lisping his name. They came by car, by train, on foot, on horseback 20,000 in all to catch a glimpse of the most famous man in the world. They were not disappointed.

At a little before 2 on the afternoon of Sept. 23, 1927, "a mere speck in the northwest" appeared. It was the Spirit of St. Louis, flown by Charles A. Lindbergh on a cross-country goodwill tour.

Piloting the same monoplane he had flown solo across the Atlantic Ocean just four months earlier, Lindbergh, 25, flew over the Tucson Mountains, circled the city and landed at the civilian airfield he would soon dedicate as Davis-Monthan Field. "When he landed, there was a cloud of dust as he taxied in," says George Monthan, then 5 and nephew of the late Lt. Oscar Monthan, partial namesake of what is now Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Bells rang, banks and schools For most of us, it's always been there, propelling planes into the wild blue yonder and cash into the local economy. Eighty years after Charles A.

Lindbergh dedicated its dusty field, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base has long been part of the Tucson landscape. And that's just the way he aims to keep it, says Col. Kent Laughbaum, who's halfway through his two-year assignment as commander of D-M's 355th Fighter Wing. "Davis-Monthan and the city of Tucson grew up together," says Laughbaum, 47. "Most air bases are in small towns.

If I walk Downtown in Tucson, someone will come up and shake my hand. For a base Col. There to greet him was the thorniest "flying machine" ever devised. "Lindbergh walked to the plane with my dad and said, 'Sure you don't want me to get in says Myrick, whose father died in 1982. Ocotillo ribs formed the fuselage and wings, prickly pear pads were on the propeller and tail, and a barrel cactus substituted for the nose.

White cholla flowers spelled out "Spirit of Tucson" on the fuselage. "Dad never saw Lindbergh again, but every time an anniversary would roll around, he would get calls," remembers Myrick. "He never dreamed it would get all that attention." MAMTAPOPAT ARIZONA DAILY STAR and the Caribbean in case of war. um on the University of Arizona campus. Loudspeakers were set up for 25,000.

That evening, Lindbergh was the guest of honor at a banquet at the university, where he dedicated Davis-Monthan, then the largest municipally owned airport in the country. A rotating beacon dubbed the "Lindy Light" was switched on at the field, paid for with donations from Tucsonans. The next morning, Lindbergh flew out of town. About 200 people were on the field when he departed, reported the next day's Star. That morning, young George Monthan got one last look at the Spirit of St.

Louis. "I remember my dad taking me out to the airplane." Lindbergh's visit also left another memory: an 8-pound girl delivered to Mr. and Mrs. Ernesto Lopez just 20 minutes after the famous flier's arrival. They named the baby "Lindy." TUCSON opened in 1927, and the first Tucson rodeo, held in 1925.

Wolf donated the camera and projector to the Arizona Historical Society and the film to the city archives on the condition that video cassettes were made for the family and for Tucson television stations. "We appreciate that people enjoy it," says Wolf, who revisits the films from time to time. "When he landed, there was a cloud of dust as he taxied in" George Monthan, nephew of the late Lt. Oscar Monthan closed, and dignitaries poured in from Mexico and Phoenix. After greeting the waiting crowds, the "boy flier" good-naturedly posed with others in front of a life-size cactus replica of his plane.

Lindbergh then visited Pastime Park, a hospital for veterans, and spoke at Arizona Stadi says Tucson contractor Les Wolf, who discovered eight reels filmed by Pheiffer after his widow Wolf's grandmother died in 1988. "We opened a steamer trunk and inside was a camera, a projector and eight reels of film, stored in mothballs." Wolf got a friend who knew how to operate the projector. Among the footage: the building of the Temple of Music and Art, which tary retirees served by the base last year. Not that it's all a love fest between the city and D-M, especially when it comes to noise. As the training base for all active-duty A-10 pilots, D-M sends plenty of Warthogs, as they're affectionately dubbed, into the skies over Tucson, along with rescue helicopters.

The base also hosts a number of other aircraft. The Border Patrol uses its runway, and the Arizona Air National Guard keeps F-16s on alert on its flight line. To quell both the noise and the criticism, the base under Laughbaum's command eliminated por tions of the traffic pattern, changed arrivals and departures, and increased altitudes for jets and helicopters. "One of the big efforts at this base is to take down the walls," says Laughbaum, who regularly meets with political leaders and community members. But his No.

1 priority is making sure the airmen who come here get the training they need "to win our wars." Much of that training involves the A-10, which provides close air support to soldiers and Marines on the ground, mainly in Afghanistan. Laughbaum learned to fly the A-10 in Tucson in the summer of 1984. "When I came here, most people felt it would fly another 10 years." But then the Persian Gulf War came along and the A-10 did "exceedingly well," says Laughbaum. "You can never tell about an airplane until it fights in a war." Today, the A-10, which first came off the production line straight to D-M in 1975, is slated to be in service until 2028. Obviously, this bodes well for the viability of Davis-Monthan.

Thousands of old planes stretched across 2,600 acres are also stored, cannibalized or refurbished here as part of the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group. "We have drones there that I used as targets," says Laughbaum. Deployed six times, Laughbaum, a Texas native with 24 years in the Air Force, commanded expeditionary fighter squadrons over Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War and again over Afghanistan after Sept. 11, 2001. Married and a father of two, he has no idea where he'll be sent after his time here, though he clearly loves the desert.

"There's nothing like this anywhere," he says. Meanwhile, he'll keep working with the city on issues such as noise and encroachment issues vital to keeping Davis-Monthan part of the local landscape. Kent Laughbaum WATCH CLIP OF LINDBERGH ARRIVING IN to be in a big city and it be this way is unusual." Laughbaum, who is a history buff, credits Tucson's former movers and shakers. "The leaders of this town were visionary. They wanted an airport, so they invited the most famous man in the world to come to Tucson, a town of 20,000." After D-M shifted from a civilian airport to a military base on the eve of World War II, thousands of airmen trained here, then decided to put down roots.

Many are still around, judging from the more than 17,000 mili- Pure luck and a family's generosity have given us a treasure: a short clip of Charles A. Lindbergh's arrival and reception in Tucson on Sept. 23, 1927. However, the clip, at www. dmairfield.comflvslindbergh lindbergh.html, is but a small slice ofTucson history filmed from about 1916 to the late 1920s by John Pheiffer.

"He was my dad's stepfather," These Douglas B-18s and crews were D-M's Doolittle center will oversee operations in Central and South America.