Hickam Air Force Base
<tr style="border-bottom:2px solid; background:#efefef;"><td colspan="2">
Hickam Air Force Base is a U.S. Air Force base located in the City & County of Honolulu on the Island of O'ahu, Hawai'i. Hickam AFB consists of 2,850 acres (12 km²) of land and facilities bordering Pearl Harbor and valued at more than $444 million. Sharing its runways with adjacent Honolulu International Airport (HIA), Hickam and the HIA constitute a single airport complex operated under a joint-use agreement. As of the 2000 Census, this military base had a total population of 5,471.
Hickam AFB is home to the 15th Airlift Wing, and headquarters of the Pacific Air Forces (PACAF)
Geography
Hickam is located at 21°19'50" North, 157°57'59" West (21.330433, -157.966281)1.
History
In 1934, the Army Air Corps saw the need for another airfield in Hawai'i and assigned the Quartermaster Corps the job of constructing a modern airdrome from tangled brush and sugar cane fields adjacent to Pearl Harbor on the island of O'ahu. The site selected consisted of 2,200 acres (9 km²) of ancient, emerged coral reef, covered by a thin layer of soil, with the Pearl Harbor entrance channel and naval reservation marking its western and northern boundaries, John Rodgers Airport (HIA today) to the east, and Fort Kamehameha on the south. The new airfield was dedicated on May 31, 1935 and named in honor of Lt. Col. Horace Meek Hickam, a distinguished aviation pioneer who was killed in an aircraft accident on Nov. 5, 1934 at Fort Crockett in Galveston, Texas.
While construction was still in progress, the first contingent of twelve men and four aircraft under the command of 1st Lt. Robert Warren moved from Luke Field on Ford Island to Hickam on Sept. 1, 1937. Hickam Field, as it was then known, was completed and officially activated on Sept. 15, 1938. It was the principal army airfield in Hawai'i and the only one large enough to accommodate the B-17 bomber. In connection with defense plans for the Pacific, aircraft were brought to Hawai'i throughout 1941 to prepare for potential hostilities.
The first mass flight of bombers (21 B-17Ds) from Hamilton Field, California, arrived at Hickam on May 14, 1941. By December 1941, the "Hawaiian Air Force" had been an integrated command for slightly more than one year and consisted of 754 officers and 6,706 enlisted men, with 233 aircraft assigned at its three primary bases (Hickam, Wheeler, and Bellows).
When the Japanese attacked O'ahu's military installations on December 7, 1941, Hickam suffered extensive property damage, aircraft losses, and personnel casualties totaling 139 killed and 303 wounded. The bombing and strafing of Hickam Field was an important objective, because the success of the Japanese attack on the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor was dependent on eliminating air opposition and precluding US planes from following the Japanese aircraft back to their carriers and bombing the task force. During the war years, the base played a major role in pilot training and aircraft assembly work, in addition to seeing as a supply center for both air arid ground troops. Hickam served as the hub of the Pacific aerial network, supporting transient aircraft ferrying troops and supplies to—and evacuating wounded from—the forward areas, not only during World War II but also during the Korean conflict and the Vietnam War.
After World War II, the Air Force in Hawai'i was primarily comprised of the Air Transport Command and its successor, the Military Air Transport Service, until 1 July 1957 when Headquarters Far East Air Forces completed its move from Japan to Hawai'i and was redesignated the Pacific Air Forces. The 15th Air Base Wing, host unit at Hickam AFB, supported the Apollo astronauts in the 1960s and 1970s; Operation Homecoming (return of prisoners of war from Vietnam) in 1973; Operation Babylift/New Life (movement of nearly 94,000 orphans, refugees, and evacuees from Southeast Asia) in 1975; and NASA's space shuttle flights during the 1980s, continuing into the 1990s. Throughout those times, and continuing today, Hickam has served as "America's Bridge Across the Pacific". In mid-2003, the 15th Air Base Wing was converted to the 15th Airlift Wing as it was assigned C-17 transport aircraft.
In October 1980, the Secretary of the Interior designated Hickam AFB as a National Historic Landmark, recognizing it as one of the nation's most significant historic resources associated with World War II in the Pacific. A bronze plaque reflecting Hickam's "national significance in commemorating the history of the United States of America" took its place among other memorials surrounding the base flagpole. Dominating the area is a large bronze tablet engraved with the names of those who died as a result of the 7 December 1941 attack. Other reminders of the attack can be seen at Hickam today, including the tattered American flag that flew over the base that morning. It is encased and on display in the lobby of the Pacific Air Forces Headquarters building, where bullet-scarred walls have been carefully preserved as a constant reminder to never again be caught unprepared.
For more historical information and photographs of Hickam AFB, visit the web site: .
