Hill Air Force Base
Hill Air Force Base 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 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. Role and operations. 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. Hill AFB has also housed the 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. United States Air Force. Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) Air Combat  Command (ACC) Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC) 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. References. Note: Much of this text in an early version of this article was taken from pages on the Hill Air Force Base Website, which as a work of the U.S. Government is presumed to be a public domain resource. That information was supplemented by: