Lowry Air Force Base Lowry Air Force Base ( Lowry Field 1938 - 1948 ) was a United States Army Air Forces and USAF training base during World War II and the Cold War ( e . g . , USAF Academy from 1955 to 1958 ) . The military installation land is now commercial and residential property ( Lowry Campus ) with many of the military buildings still in use such as 2 hangars used for the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum , another hangar for the Big Bear Ice Rink , a dormitory for the Logan School for Creative Learning , base housing for the Stanley British Primary School , and other buildings for the Community College of Aurora . A dormitory and a former medical building on the east end of the base are owned by the state as part of the Higher Education and Technology campus . The last remaining military facility at the former Lowry base was the DFAS Finance Center ( 6760 E Irvington Place ) , which had its own USAF Base Facility identifier in 2004 ( 08002D ) . The Lowry Community Master Association ( LCMA ) is located at 7581 E Academy Blvd , the former hangar with the name " Lowry Air Force Base " and which also has suites for Martifer Solar USA , Mor Beverage Corp , Montessori Casa International , and Extra Space Storage . Background . The City of Denver , Auraria , and Highland was chartered as the 1859 territorial capital after the start of the 1858 Pikes Peak Gold Rush ; and the 1887 Fort Logan was established in the modern Denver Metropolitan Area . East of the state capital , military training at Montclair , Colorado , began at the future airfield when the 1887 Jarvis Hall Military School opened . Montclair was incorporated into Denver in 1903 and Jarvis Hall burned down in 1904 . " After several fires at Chanute Field , Illinois and deterioration of the buildings " , a 1934 Air Corps announcement solicited a replacement training location and Denver submitted a bid . On 27 August 1937 , the Denver Branch , Air Corps Technical School , was formed with Departments of Photography and Armament and on 4 October 1937 , the WPA began converting the sanatorium grounds into a Colorado military airfield . In February 1938 the airfield being installed adjacent to Fairmont Cemetery was assigned to the Air Corps Technical School headquartered at Chanute , and " the Denver branch of the Army Air Corps became an Army post of 880 acres . " Lowry Field . Lowry Field was named on 11 March 1938 for 2d Lt Francis Lowry , the only Colorado pilot killed in WWI combat ; and the paved runway opened on 4 April ( 1st used by a B - 18 Bolo . ) The sanatorium ' s main building became the Army post ' s headquarters , and the largest single barracks ( 3 , 200 men ) was completed in mid - 1940 . The " Northeast - Southwest runway was completed in 1941 " and the same year , the United States Army Air Corps moved a Clerical School to Fort Logan from Lowry Army Airfield . Beginning July 16 , 1940 , the 1st class of the AAF bombardier schools was at Lowry and used the nearby bombing and gunnery range through 14 March 1941 graduating 3 classes of instructors who opened the Barksdale Field bombardier school . Fourth Technical Training District . Technical Training Command ' s " Fourth District " was headquartered " at Denver , Colo " on 5 March 1942 ( designated Western Technical Training Command 31 August 1943 ) and construction of a cantonment at the Lowry Auxiliary Landing Field ( " Lowry Field Number 2 " ) " began on 5 May 1942 " where armament training commenced 6 July 1942 . Circa January 1943 , Lowry ' s courses for " communications , engineering , armament and photography aviation cadets " transferred to Yale University which was the lead for contract facilities . Lowry training for Boeing B - 29 Superfortress pilot qualification and for B - 29 operational crew readiness began in 1943 , and the base had a July 1943 – Jan 1944 clerical school . In 1944 expansion of Lowry ' s airfield was planned and Lowry gained B - 29 Flight Engineer training . Lowry transferred under Technical Training Command in mid - October 1945 ( Air Training Command on 1 July 1946 ) and by the end of 1945 , Lowry ' s separation center was processing an average of 300 discharges a day . The nearby WWII bombing range transferred from " Buckley Field by authority of Tech - Division Air Training Command … to Lowry A . F . B . on 20 September 1946 " . In July 1947 , formal courses in Intelligence Training were established at Lowry for combat reporting , photographic intelligence , prisoner of war interrogation , and briefing and interrogation of combat crews . USAF base . Lowry Air Force Base was designated on 24 June 1948 and on 26 August 1948 established all Lowry training organizations under the 3415th Technical Training Wing ( redesignated " Lowry Technical Training Center " on 1 Jan 1959 ) . Lowry provided Operation Hayride emergency response for people and livestock threatened by eighteen December 1948 - January 1949 snowstorms from Utah to Kansas ( e . g . , a C - 47 of the 2151st Air Rescue Unit delivered 115 blankets and 30 cases of C rations on 4 January to 482 people at Rockport , Colorado . ) By 25 August 1949 , the 3903rd Radar Bomb Scoring Squadron had a unit at Lowry — Detachment A operated SAC radar station ( call sign " Denver Bomb Plot " ) on the hill at Buckley for Radar Bomb Scoring of simulated nuclear attacks on Denver ( e . g . , for the 1955 Bomb Comp ) . In 1959 the unit with 4 trailers , after being designated Detachment 1 , 11th Radar Bomb Scoring Squadron ; moved to La Junta Bomb Plot at the WWII La Junta Army Airfield . In 1951 , plans called for the headquarters of Technical Training Air Force to be at Lowry and after expansion at the beginning of the Korean War , Lowry courses included couphotography , armament , rocket propulsion , electronics , radar - operated fire - control systems , computer specialties , gun and rocket sights , and electronically operated turret systems . The 3415th Wing formed a Guided Missiles Department on 7 June 1951 and from 1952 – 1955 , Lowry functioned as President Eisenhower ' s Summer White House . In July 1954 USAF officials named Lowry as the interim site for the USAF Academy military installation to be built at Colorado Springs and beginning in September 1954 , the 3415th TTW moved intelligence , comptroller , and transportation training programs to Sheppard AFB . On 11 July 1955 , the first class of 306 USAFA cadets was sworn in at Lowry . In 1956 Lowry ' s bombing range support ended when the bombing range mission was terminated and Lowry ' s first general courses for missiles were developed . Courses were for Falcon , Rascal , Snark , and Navaho missiles and in 1958 , Nuclear Weapons Training . Also early in 1958 , the USAF concluded that the new NORAD headquarters ( different from the planned nuclear bunkers for NORAD and the Denver ADS ) should be relocated from Ent AFB to Lowry AFB ( CO Springs ' Chidlaw Building became the new NORAD HQ ) . In 1960 , Lowry was the 3rd ranked technical training base of ATC . ICBM headquarters and training . The Air Force Ballistic Committee formed in 1955 approved the former bombing range on 13 March 1958 for the first Titan I ICBM launch complex ( the Titan missile plant was built at Waterton Canyon . ) The 703d Strategic Missile Wing was activated on 25 Sep 1958 and redesignated the 451 SMW on 1 Jul 1961 , at the same time the 848th and the 849 SMS were redesignated the 724th and 725 SMS . Construction on all nine silos at the three launch complexes for the 724 was completed by 4 August 1961 . On 18 April 1962 , Headquarters SAC declared the 724th SMS operational , and 2 days later the first Titan Is went on alert status . A month later , the sister 725th SMS ( initially designated the 849th SMS ) declared it had placed all nine of its Titan Is on alert status , which marked a SAC first . Both the 724th and 725th Strategic Missile Squadrons formed components of the Lowry - headquartered 451st Strategic Missile Wing . Lowry ' s personnel course moved to Greenville AFB by early 1961 . By 1962 , Lowry ' s Department of Missile Training was graduating over 1 , 000 trained missile specialists per year , and the " Tactical Missile School at Lowry " ( e . g . , for Matador missile training ) in January 1962 " was located in the Black Hangar . " On 25 June 1965 , the 724th and 725th Strategic Missile Squadron s were inactivated , and the last missile supported by Lowry was removed on 14 April 1965 . Air Intelligence Training Center . The Armed Forces Air Intelligence Training Center was established at Lowry effective 1 July 1963 with student training beginning on 17 July ( by 14 March , " the Defense Department had assigned responsibility for all DOD air intelligence training and advanced training in photographic , radar , and infrared interpretation to the Air Force . " ) In 1965 , all Lowry AFB flying activities moved to nearby Buckley Air National Guard Base . Ten courses from Amarillo AFB were planned to be moved to Lowry in mid - 1968 , and Amarillo ' s 3320th Retraining Group for convicted airmen moved to Lowry 1 July - 1 September 1967 . In 1974 , the Air Staff approved Lackland AFB ' s Special Treatment Center to transfer to the 3415th Special Training Group at Lowry AFB . Construction began in 1970 for enlisted and officer billeting facilities to replace World War II vintage barracks , five 1 , 000 - man dormitories and completed by 1974 , a 187 - space mobile home park . Other added facilities included a youth center , a child - care center , a chapel ( in addition to the 1941 chapel ) , and a new Airmen ’ s Open Mess . In 1976 , the Defense Finance and Accounting Service ( formerly Air Force Accounting & Finance Center ) & the Air Reserve Personnel Center opened in the Gilchrist Building ( Building 444 ) . USAF School of Applied Aerospace Sciences , Lowry . In 1972 , the 3415th Technical Wing became the USAF School of Applied Aerospace Sciences , Lowry . The Department of Aerospace Munitions Training continued missile training and in 1978 was redesignated the 3460th Training Group . In 1980 Lowry acquired a Davis - Monthan AFB B - 52D and stabilized another B - 52 for training ALCM and SRAM loading procedures . New courses in the 1980s included flight line and in - shop avionics maintenance courses for the F - 4 Phantom II , F - 111 Aardvark , F - 15 Eagle and F - 16 Fighting Falcon ( e . g . , communications , flight controls , navigation , weapons guidance , and electronic countermeasures & warfare systems ) . In 1982 , Lowry ' s 1941 Eisenhower Memorial Chapel ( cf . the Eisenhower Chapel at Fort Knox ) was listed in the National Registry of Historic Places . LGM - 118 Peacekeeper ICBM training began at Lowry in 1985 , and after Lowry became the primary training center for USAF space operations , Undergraduate Space Training ' s 1st graduation was in 1987 . Lowry also handled ground & armament training for several interceptor models , the A - 10 Thunderbolt II , and the B - 1 Lancer . After being considered for closure in 1978 and since " Lowry lacked a runway " ( closed July 1966 ) , Lowry AFB was designated for closure by BRAC 1991 . The 3400th Technical Training Wing inactivated on 27 April 1994 , and the base officially closed on 30 September 1994 . The National Civilian Community Corps used Lowry facilities from 1994 until 2004 ; and Space Systems Support Group Detachment 1 " located at the former Lowry AFB " in March 1995 moved to Peterson AFB . The Bonfils Blood Center " became the first commercial tenant at Lowry " in the former commissary during September 1995 , and the site development company was presented facility and real estate awards in 1997 ( asbestos was remediated from the Formerly Used Defense Site of " 1 , 866 acres " — remediation at buildings included Building 402 : PCBs , 606 : groundwater , & 1432 : soil ) . Buckley Annex . The Buckley Annex was the remaining military installation after the " Whole Base Transfer " of Lowry AFB in 2006 , the year the USGS listed the closed Lowry AFB in the Geographic Names Information System . In 2007 , the annex of with DFAS & ARPC was planned for closure . The last remaining Air Force facility at Lowry was the Air Reserve Personnel Center , which BRAC 2005 moved to Buckley AFB in August 2011 . The Buckley Annex ' Whole Base Transfer was in 2012 , and the " final stages of cleanup " of the base and annex were underway in February 2013 .