Scott AFB celebrates 95 years Published June 13, 2012 By Staff Sgt. Stephenie Wade 375th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. -- Scott Air Force Base celebrates its 95th anniversary today, and to help celebrate, its hosting a picnic from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. near the ALS Pavilion Area, now renamed "Warrior Park." All Scott AFB personnel and their families can enjoy free food, soft drinks, entertainment and family games. There will also be a "cool car" display, arts and craft demos and more. The origins of Scott AFB dates back to 1917 long before the United States Air Force became a designated branch. During World War I, when the Secretary of War, Newton D. Baker advocated for an expanded role for aviation. Business and political leaders on both sides of the Mississippi River wanted the Midwest to be the site chosen for one of the new "flying fields" for ballooning missions. Aerial expert Albert Bond Lambert joined with the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce and directors of the Greater Belleville Board of Trade to negotiate a lease agreement for nearly 624 acres of land. After inspecting several sites, the U.S. War Department agreed to the lease land for what is now Scott AFB on June 14, 1917. Lambert said, "The establishment of this field adds greatly to the prestige of the St. Louis district and will undoubtedly play an important part in the development of aeronautics from a commercial standpoint after the war." It took a large amount of time, money and manpower to build an aviation field from scratch. Congress appropriated $10 million for construction and 2,000 laborers. The government gave the Unit Construction Company 60 days to erect 59 buildings, lay a mile-long railroad spur to connect the field with the main line of the Southern Railroad (the railroad that still goes through base), and level off an airfield with a 1,600-foot landing circle. Construction was well underway when the government announced it would name the new field after Corporal Frank S. Scott. He was the first enlisted person killed in an aviation crash at College Park, Md., Sept. 28, 1912, while flying as a passenger with 2nd Lt. Lewis G. Rockwell, who was engaged in a course of tests for Military Aviator ratings. Since 1917, Team Scott has had many missions and was home to many firsts for the Air Force. 1917: Scott Field was one of the first aviation stations built as part of the nation's World War I effort. The 11th and 21st Aero Squadrons of the American Expeditionary Forces Air Service arrived from Kelly Field, Texas, on Aug. 12, 1917. In 1917, Scott Field Commander, Maj. George E. A. Reinburg, made the first flight from Scott Field in a Standard two-seater biplane and the first Curtiss JN-4D "Jenny" arrived to Scott Field to become the primary trainer used on Scott Field. Flying instruction officially began on Sept. 11, 1917, and 17 days later Cadet Merrit O. White became Scott's first pilot trainee to make a solo flight. 1918: Determined to improve the recovery of Scott's downed pilots, four officers designed two air ambulances, or hospital ships. By the summer of 1918, Scott Field's engineering department had completed the rear cockpit modifications needed to convert two Jennies. Not long thereafter, on Aug. 24, 1918, an aviator with a broken leg became Scott's first air evacuated patient. Despite the many jokes made about the "red coffin," its presence was certainly reassuring to all. 1919: Scott Field's future became uncertain after the 1918 signing of the armistice ending World War I. Scott's remaining units were organized into a Flying School Detachment, and the field itself was designated as a storage site for demobilized equipment. In 1919, the War Department made its decision to purchase Scott Field--a decision influenced by Scott's central location and exceptional purchase price of just $119,286. 1921: With approval, and $1.25 million in funding, the Air Service set about making Scott Field into the first inland airship port in the nation. The new mission was finally selected in 1921, when the Secretary of War authorized building a lighter-than-air, or LTA. Scott Field needed many new facilities to accommodate its new balloon/airship mission. The most notable addition was the new airship hangar. Constructed between September 1921 and January 1923, it was three blocks long, nearly one block wide and 15 stories high. One report stated that 100,000 men--nearly the entire U.S. Army in 1923--could have stood in formation inside it. Scott's hangar was second in size only to the naval station hangar in Lakehurst, N.J., the largest one in the world at the time. 1923: Scott Field's TC-1 set a speed record for dirigibles at 74 mph. 1927: American free balloon altitude record of 28,510 feet set by Capt. Hawthorne C. Gray. Gray would have set a 42,470-feet world record later that same year had he survived that flight. 1937: In May 1937, following a series of airship mishaps, the Chief of the Army Air Corps recommended ending all LTA activities, and the following month Scott's LTA-era came to an abrupt end. 1938: On Jun. 2, 1938, the field was selected to become the new home to the General Headquarters Air Force which would have made Scott Field the nerve center of the entire Army Air Corps. To prepare for the new mission, the old wooden barracks, administration buildings, airship mooring mast, and even airship hangar had to be torn down. 1939: Buildings began to be knocked down planning for the $7.5 million expansion program, the 628,572-acre LTA station more than doubled in size to 1,882,382 acres. In August 1938 nearly 100 buildings began construction. With the outbreak of World War II, the GHQAF move to Scott was cancelled. Instead, Scott Field reverted back to its former role as a training installation. On June 1, 1939, one of Scott's Balloon Groups was re-designated as a headquarters unit of the Scott Field Branch of the Army Air Corps Technical Schools. Subsequently, various technical schools moved to Scott. The arrival of the Radio School on Sept. 19, 1940, marked the beginning of Scott Field's communication training-era. 1940: During a two-year period, approximately 400 temporary wooden structures were built in four areas. Area 1 (adjacent to the brick structures) was a 2,205-man area consisting of barracks, mess halls, and recreational buildings. Area 2 (south end of the airfield) was a 5,670-man area that consisted of the radio school, barracks, admin buildings, recreational buildings, and others, to include a 6,000-man mess hall (Bldg. 700)--one of the largest in the nation. 1940: Two of the communications schools more well known graduates were Medal of Honor recipient Tech. Sgt. Forrest Lee Vosler, and the first Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force, Paul Airey. 1949: Headquarters Air Training Command became the first major command on Scott and the Aeromedical Evacuation mission arrived. 1957: Military Air Transport Service arrived. 1964: Scott was selected to become the headquarters for all AE operations within the U.S. 1966: Military Airlift Command arrived. 1969: 932nd Aeromedical Airlift Group arrived. 1968-1973: Large base construction projects to included: Galaxy Housing, Shiloh Housing, the new MAC headquarters, the BX; the bowling center, the bank, the movie theater, the youth center, and the commissary; the James Gym, the aeromedical staging facility, the computer facility, and the dental clinic. 1976: Shiloh and Belleville gates were opened. 1980-90: Scott continued to grow establishing the Air Force Communication Agency Headquarters, the USTRANSCOM Headquarters, the 126th Air Refueling Wing facilities, the MidAmerica Airport, plus the Patriot and Lincoln Landing housing areas. 1991: 375th Military Airlift Wing became Airlift Wing 1992: MAC became Air Mobility Command 2009: 375th AW became 375th AMW Among all the construction on base there are a few original buildings that still remain. The hospital that opened in 1958, Chapel I, Scott Lake opened in 1962 and the original Scott Gate entrance Bldg. P-7.