Norton Air Force Base

Norton Air Force Base (1942–1994) was a United States Air Force facility east of downtown San Bernardino in San Bernardino County, California.

Overview For the majority of its operational lifetime, Norton was a logistics depot and heavy-lift transport facility for a variety of military aircraft, equipment and supplies as part of Air Materiel/Air Force Logistics Command (1946–1966), then as part of Military Airlift/Air Mobility Command (1966–1994).

Major secondary missions of Norton Air Force Base was as Headquarters Air Defense Command for Southern California, during the 1950s and 1960s. The Air Force Audio-Visual Center produced air force films for training and public relations. The Air Force Now film, shown at monthly commander's calls at air force bases around the world was produced at Norton. Norton hosted numerous Air Force Reserve transport units. The Office of the Inspector General was located at Norton, as was the Directorate of Aerospace Safety and the Air Force Audit Agency Headquarters.

Norton AFB was closed in 1994 as a result of Base Realignment and Closure action 1988.

History

Leland Francis Norton Norton Air Force Base was named for San Bernardino native Captain Leland Francis Norton (1920–1944). His parents were Mr. and Mrs. Thomas F. Norton, of 716 Twenty-first Street, San Bernardino. He was commissioned 6 September 1942, at Columbus, Mississippi. Lieutenant Norton was sent to England in January 1944 after duty in the North Atlantic, flying from bases in Greenland. His parents received word on 5 May 1944 that he had been promoted to the rank of captain following a series of pre-invasion "softening-up" bombing missions.Staff, "Norton, Bomber Pilot, Promoted", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Saturday 6 May 1944, Volume 50, page 9. While attacking a marshaling yard on his 16th combat mission, Captain Norton's Douglas A-20 Havoc was struck by antiaircraft fire on 27 May 1944 near Amiens, France. After ordering his crew to bail out, Captain Norton perished with his aircraft. His portrait hung in the officers' club until base closing.

World War II Norton Air Force Base began before World War II as Municipal Airport, San Bernardino, under Army Air Corps jurisdiction. The $100,000 publicly owned was dedicated on Tuesday, 17 December 1940.Staff, "County To Dedicate Airport Today - Supervisors Sponsor Construction of Road to Desert Artillery Range", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Tuesday 17 December 1940, Volume 46, page 13. Due to inclement weather, the ceremonies were held on the grounds of the National Orange Show rather than at the airport itself.Staff, "Big Airport Development Predicted", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Wednesday 18 December 1940, Volume 46, page 13. During the summer of 1941, it became a training base to meet the needs of the 30,000 Pilot Training Program. In December 1941, within days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, combat-ready fighter planes arrived to protect the Los Angeles area from enemy attack.

The first commanding officer was Colonel (later Major General) Lucas Victor Beau Jr., from February 1942.Staff, "Army’s A.T.S.C. 'to Remain in Business for Long Time' - - Beau", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Friday, 10 November 1944, Volume 51, page 11. He set up his initial office at the San Bernardino Chamber of Commerce.

On 1 March 1942, the airport was renamed San Bernardino Army Air Field and the San Bernardino Air Depot was established there. The first aircraft arrived at the new base on 2 June 1942. The base was under the administration of the Fourth Air Service Area Command.Staff, "Depot Crews Training For Foreign Duty - Gen. Perrin Assumes Command of Fourth Air Service Area And Praises U. S. Planes", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Tuesday, 13 October 1942, Volume 49, page 6. All runways were completed by December and night flying was initiated in March 1943. Requests to establish commercial air service by Western Air Lines in mid-late 1942Staff, "Lines May Ask Use of Army's Landing Field - Western Air Virtually Assured of Operating Privileges but Facilities Are Lacking", The San Bernardino Sun, San Bernardino, California, Saturday, 10 October 1942, Volume 49, page 6. were refused.

In September 1942, the personnel and training division at the base began a training program for aircraft mechanics and maintenance men, which, by mid-1944, was the largest school of its type in the Air Service command.Staff, "S.B.A.S.C Trains Mechanics for Freight Planes - Program Conducted For Air Transport Personnel", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Sunday, 6 August 1944, Volume 50, page

The weekly newspaper for the air depot in this era was named the Areascope.

During the war, Norton's primary function was the repair and maintenance of aircraft. In mid-1944, as the Army Air Force reduced its training programs, and hundreds of basic and primary training aircraft were flown to the base from all over the west for maintenance and storage.Staff, "S.B.A.S.C. Stores Excess Planes as Training Reduced", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Monday 10 July 1944, Volume 50, page 10.

In February 1944, the Army relocated the regulating station that had operated in the facilities of the Municipal Park in Colton since September 1943 to the Base General Depot in San Bernardino. This unique operation primarily regulated rail traffic between communications and war zones, including the evacuation of patients using hospital trains. The installation also trained personnel in the important work of transportation.Staff, "Army Notified of City's Attitude on Use of Playground", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Wednesday, 9 February 1944, Volume 50, page 12.

A branch post office of the San Bernardino post office was established in mid-March 1944, replacing an APO address out of Los Angeles that previously served the Base General Depot. Civilians replaced the Army personnel that previously operated the post office at the base.Staff, "Postoffice [sic] Sets Up Branch at Army Base", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Friday, 17 March 1944, Volume 50, page 11.

A large batch of Douglas A-20 Havoc bombers were maintained at the air depot in August 1944 in strategic reserve, ready to be deployed within 72 hours to whatever fighting front required them.Staff, "Combat Ships Held at Field - Planes Kept in Trim For Instant Action", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Tuesday, 1 August 1944, Volume 50, page 11.

An open house for the public, celebrating the thirty-seventh anniversary of U.S. Army aviation, and the first since the base was established, was held on 1 August 1944. Noted the lead editorial in the San Bernardino Daily Sun that date, "At a cost of $50,000,000, approximately 1,800 acres of farmland has been converted in a period of 28 months into a bustling military establishment. The San Bernardino Air Service command is geared to rebuild 1,000 aircraft engines monthly, to provide mountains of vital supplies for Army Air force installations at home and abroad, to overhaul gun turrets, wings and tail assemblies, repair propellers and improve landing gears. To quote its own slogan, the Air Service command 'keeps 'em flying' for victory."Editors, "Army Open House", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Tuesday, 1 August 1944, Volume 50, page 20.

On 2 August 1944, the Railroad Commission authorized the Associated Telephone Company, Ltd., to sell to the War Department for $36,138 its district telephone plant at the San Bernardino Army Air Field. The War Department already owned part of the facilities, and asked for the sale to eliminate mixed ownership.Staff, "Army to Purchase Telephone Lines at S. B. Air Field", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Thursday, 3 August 1944, Volume 50, page 11.

By 1945, the base was processing hundreds of new aircraft monthly, readying them for shipment overseas. Types handled included P-51s, F-5 reconnaissance modifications of P-38s, P-47s, and P-61s. San Bernardino Air Service Technical Command also refurbished C-47s, which had seen heavy service,Staff, "Aerial Fighters Get Final Check - Hundreds of Combat Planes Go Overseas", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Wednesday, 9 May 1945, Volume 51, page 12. with the 100th C-47 refurbished at the beginning of August 1945, an overhaul process taking 16 days at a rate of one every day and a half.Staff, "Hundredth C-47 Overhauled on Line Through Hangar", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Thursday, 2 August 1945, Volume 51, page 12.

An open house celebrating the Army Air Force's thirty-eighth birthday was held on 1 August 1945, with a brand new B-29 flown from the Seattle factory and a P-80 both publicly exhibited for the first time in the region. A YP-59A, 42-108771,Staff photo, "Air Force Day Crowd Watches Jet Flight Preparations", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Thursday, 16 August 1945, Volume 51, page 13. was flown for the crowd of ~50,000.Johnson, Meribah, "Air Force Equipment, New Planes Exhibited", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Thursday, 2 August 1945, Volume 51, pages 11, 15.

At the end of the war, the base became a processing and separation center for the millions of servicemen being discharged. The separation center opened for business on 17 September 1945, part of an immediate program to speed up the release of a backlog of 135,000 AAF men and women, one of 32 temporary discharge bases established. San Bernardino was responsible for handling requests from qualified personnel within a 300-mile radius.Staff, "Separation Center Opened - Discharge Base Established at Army Air Field - Personnel of Nearby Flying Units Will Receive Releases", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Monday, 17 September 1945, Volume 52, City Section, page 3.

Desert Training Center During World War II, San Bernardino Army Airfield provided administrative and logistical support for the United States Army Desert Training Center (DTC). The DTC was a massive training facility set up in the Mojave Desert; largely in Southern California and Western Arizona. Its mission was to train United States Army and Army Air Corps units and personnel to live and fight in the desert, to test and develop suitable equipment, and to develop tactical doctrines, techniques and training methods. Known sub-bases and auxiliaries set up to support DTC Army Air Force activities were: Desert Center Army Airfield Rice Army Airfield Gibbs Auxiliary Field Peik Auxiliary Field

Post-war Western Air Lines sought again in September 1945 to introduce air service at San Bernardino but the application was denied by the Army Air Force due to heavy congestion at the depot at the time.Staff, "Western Air Lines Denied Permission To Use Army Field", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Sunday 23 September 1945, Volume 52, page 13.

Housing shortages affected the base in 1946. On 15 May, Lt. Paul Smith, in charge of housing for San Bernardino Army Airfield, disclosed that 125 enlisted men and officers were seeking accommodations for themselves and their families. "They either have their families in hotels or tourist camps or are unable to be with them. We are particularly interested in relieving this condition for the enlisted men, because of the expense to the men in maintaining their families in hotels," he said. He urged property owners to contact the field's personnel affairs office, by telephone or mail, when vacancies occur.Special, "Housing for 125 Enlisted Men, Officers Sought", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Thursday 16 May 1946, Volume LII, page 8.