Hill Air Force Base

Hill Air Force Base (IATA: HIF, ICAO: KHIF, FAA LID: HIF) is a major U.S. Air Force base located in northern Utah, just south of the city of Ogden, and near the towns of Layton, Clearfield, Riverdale, Roy, and Sunset. It is about 30 miles (48 km) north of Salt Lake City. The base was named in honor of Major Ployer Peter Hill of the U.S. Army Air Corps, who died test-flying NX13372, the original Model 299 prototype of the B-17 Flying Fortress bomber. As of 2018 Hill AFB is the sixth-largest employer in the state of Utah. Hill AFB is the home of the Air Force Materiel Command's (AFMC) Ogden Air Logistics Complex which is the worldwide manager for a wide range of aircraft, engines, missiles, software, avionics, and accessories components. The commander of the Air Logistics Complex is Brigadier General C. McCauley von Hoffman. The Ogden Air Logistics Complex is part of the Air Force Sustainment Center.

The host unit at Hill AFB is the Air Force Material Command's 75th Air Base Wing (75 ABW), which provides services and support for the Ogden Air Logistics Complex and its subordinate organizations. The Wing and Installation Commander of Hill Air Force Base is Colonel Jenise M. Carroll. Additional tenant units at Hill AFB include operational fighter wings of the Air Combat Command (ACC) and the Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC).

History
Hill Air Force Base is named in honor of Major Ployer Peter Hill (1894–1935), the Chief of the Flying Branch of the U.S. Army Air Corps Material Division of Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio. Major Hill had died as a result of injuries he received from the crash of the Boeing Aircraft Company's experimental aircraft Boeing Model 299 at Wright Field, the prototype airplane for what became the famous B-17 Flying Fortress.

Hill Air Force Base traces its origins back to the ill-fated U.S. Army's Air Mail "experiment" of 1934, when the idea originated for a permanent air depot in the Salt Lake City area. In the following years, the U.S. Army Air Corps surveyed the region for a suitable location for the permanent western terminus of the air mail. Several sites in Utah were considered, and the present site near Ogden emerged as the clear favorite.

In July 1939, Congress appropriated $8.0 million for the establishment and construction of the Ogden Air Depot. Hill Field officially opened on 7 November 1940.

Following American entry into World War II in December 1941, Hill Field quickly became an important maintenance and supply base, with round-the-clock operations geared to supporting the war effort. Battle-worn warplanes like the A-26, B-17, B-24, B-29, P-40, P-47, P-61, were sent to Hill Field for structural repairs, engine overhauls, and spare parts. The peak wartime employment at Hill Field was reached in 1943 with a total of just over 22,000 military and civilian personnel. Men and women at the depot rehabilitated and returned thousands of warplanes to combat.

Starting in 1944, Hill Field was utilized for the long-term storage of surplus airplanes and their support equipment, including outmoded P-40 Tomahawks and P-40 Warhawks which had been removed from combat service and replaced by newer and better warplanes. P-47 Thunderbolts, B-24 Liberators, B-29 Superfortresses, and many other types of aircraft were also prepared for and placed in storage at Hill over the course of the 1940s and 1950s.

Hill Field became the Hill Air Force Base on 5 February 1948, following the creation of the United States Air Force. During the Korean War, Hill AFB was assigned a major share of the Air Materiel Command's logistical effort to support the combat in Korea. Hill AFB personnel quickly removed needed warplanes from storage, renovated them, and added them to active-service USAF flying squadrons.



Then during the 1960s, Hill AFB began to perform the maintenance support for various kinds of jet warplanes, mainly the F-4 Phantom II during the Vietnam War, and then afterwards, the more modern F-16 Fighting Falcons, A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, and C-130 Hercules, and also air combat missile systems and air-to-ground rockets. Hill AFB continues to carry out these tasks to the present day.

Major commands assigned

 * Materiel Div, Office of Chief of the Air Corps, 1 December 1939 – 11 December 1941
 * Air Service Command, 11 December 1941 – 17 July 1944
 * AAF Materiel and Services, 17 July 1944 – 31 August 1944
 * Army Air Forces Technical Service Command, 31 August 1944 – 1 July 1945
 * Air Technical Service Command, 1 July 1945 – 9 March 1946
 * Air Materiel Command, 9 March 1946 – 1 April 1961
 * Air Force Logistics Command, 1 April 1961 – 1 June 1992
 * Air Force Materiel Command 1 June 1992 – present

Base operating units

 * Ogden Air Depot, 7 November 1940 – 8 April 1942
 * 9th Station Complement, 8 April 1942 – 2 January 1943
 * 482d Base HQ and Air Base Sq, 2 January 1943 – 1 April 1944
 * 4135th AAF Base Unit, 1 April 1944 – 26 September 1947
 * 4135th AF Base Unit, 26 September 1947 – 27 August 1948
 * HQ and HQ Sq, Ogden AMA, 27 August 1948 – 4 May 1950
 * 25th Air Base Gp, 4 May 1950 – 1 May 1953
 * 2849th Air Base Wg, 1 May 1953 – 8 July 1964
 * 2849th Air Base Gp, 8 July 1964 – 1994
 * 75th Air Base Wing 1994 – present

Ogden Air Logistics Complex
The Ogden Air Logistics Complex provides worldwide engineering and logistics management for the F-35 Lightning II, F-16 Fighting Falcon, A-10 Thunderbolt II, and Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile.

75th Air Base Wing
The 75th Air Base Wing is responsible for the base operating support of all units at Hill AFB. The 75th ABW provides base operating support for the Ogden Air Logistics Complex, the 388th and 419th Fighter Wings, and 50+ mission partner units.

Hill Aerospace Museum
A retired USAF H-21C Shawnee double-rotor helicopter at the Hill Aerospace Museum.

Hill AFB has also housed the 30-acre (120,000 m2) Hill Aerospace Museum since 1981. This contains more than 80 retired USAF, USAAF, USN and former Warsaw Pact fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and missiles.

Utah Test and Training Range
The Utah Test and Training Range is one of the only live-fire U.S. Air Force training ranges within the United States. It is located in far western Utah, close to the Nevada border, and it extends both north and south of Interstate Highway 80, with several miles of separation on each side of the Interstate Highway. The portion of the bombing range that lies north of Interstate 80 is also west of the Great Salt Lake. The Utah Test and Training Range lies in Tooele County, and the land is owned by the state of Utah, but the use of the airspace and training exercises are scheduled by Hill AFB.

On September 8, 2004, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Genesis space probe crash-landed on the nearby U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground, as planned.

Based units
Flying and notable non-flying units based at Hill Air Force Base.

Units marked GSU are Geographically Separate Units, which although based at Hill, are subordinate to a parent unit based at another location.

Connections to the Hi-Fi murders
Three enlisted United States Air Force airmen stationed at Hill AFB – Pierre Dale Selby, William Andrews and Keith Roberts – were convicted in connection with the Hi-Fi murders, which took place at the Hi-Fi Shop in Ogden, Utah, on April 22, 1974. Selby and Andrews were both sentenced to death for murder and aggravated robbery while Roberts, who had remained in a getaway vehicle, was convicted of robbery. Evidence gathered from a trashbin on base and from the perpetrators' barracks was instrumental in their convictions.

One of the survivors of the attack, Cortney Naisbitt, later trained in computers and worked at Hill Air Force Base.

In Rifts Earth
(Note: the information below requires the Macross II Roleplaying Game)

After the Chaos of the Rifts destroyed the base, some time in P.A. 98 another Rift opened in the remains of the Hill Air Force Base, replacing it with a U.N. Spacy base from Macross II. The new arrivals have been building new mecha and maintaining the old ones ever since. Still, the U.N. Spacy base is commanded by General Theodore Grant, and he doesn't like the general lawlessness of the Utah Territory. Some of the pilots want to return home, but the Rift was a fluke, and are forced to stay.

The General is actively recruiting from around the towns, asking youngsters to become Mecha Pilots. The General is building a considerable presence here, and hopes to be able to bring law and order to the Utah Wilderness. The base has five squadrons of Valkyries and three squadrons of Metal Siren Valkyries. So far, the General has met with the Cyber-Knights of the region and is making alliances with them. The general has ordered a mecha manufacturing plant to be built in Layton, so more mecha based off the Valkyries and Metal Siren Valkyries to be built. Amid the new recruits are some shifters. They keep the nexus in the base under control.