McCook Air Base depended on local housing

An early view of the McCook Army Air Base. (Courtesy Floyd Mellon)

In April 1943, after extensive construction during most of 1942, the Army activated an Army Air base at McCook, to be used for the final training phase for Heavy Bomber Crews for B-24 Bombers -- later including B-17 and B-29s. These McCook trained bomber crews served admirably in action against the enemy in Europe, North Africa, and the Pacific, all key areas of operations during World War II.

In a period of about 31⁄2 years the Airfield, 8 miles northwest of McCook, arose from 2,100 acres of prairie to become a major training station for bomber crews, who helped shorten the war. I believe it is safe to say that during its entire lifetime, the airfield was in a state of major construction, trying to alleviate cramped quarters and compensate for shortages of almost everything needed to equip and serve large and changing numbers of fighting men and their flying machines. This period of time proved to be a very busy time for the city of McCook as well.

The McCook air base was one of 11 Army Air bases built across Nebraska during World War II. The first commander of the McCook Army Air base was Major Leo Mellon, who had helped with the preliminary aerial survey of the area. The base itself was under the command of the 2nd Air Force Headquarters in Colorado Springs. During the time of existence of the McCook Air base, its trainees included groups from the 8th, 15th, and 20th Air Forces.

The McCook Air base barracks, at its peak, could accommodate about 5,000 men out of the 15,000 military men that trained at McCook during this period, in addition to 500 civilian employees. At no time were there barracks enough at the air base to house everyone, even with temporary tents and trailers, so that meant that many of the airmen, especially those who had brought family with them, had to find housing in McCook. For those three-plus years McCook faced a severe housing shortage. During wartime no new houses could be built, so attics, garages, and basements all over town were converted into apartments for soldiers and their families. McCook families who had never taken in boarders before opened their homes to soldiers and their families. Some of those wartime guests, from all parts of the U.S., remained friends of their hosts for years afterwards. And, of course, some of the soldiers at the air base met and married local girls. Some of those fellows stayed in McCook and became an important segment of our community.

Almost immediately the air base became an integrated community, larger than the city of McCook. The base consisted of three divisions. There was:

* The Basic Services division, which provided services for the men. There was a chapel, 118-bed hospital, gym, theater, post office, barber shop, library, fire station, photo lab, and military police. There was a base band that played for military formations, as well as twice weekly social dances for the troops and their guests from McCook.

* Maintenance and Supply Division, which included the Air Service Groups, Post Engineers, Machine Shops, and Warehouses.

* The Training Division, which provided Celestial Navigation, Gunnery and Bombing, Communications, Radar, and Aircraft Maintenance training.

Carl Mohr, of McCook, has fond memories of the Air base. He was commissioned to set up the lone barber shop at the air base. That shop was quite busy, depending upon how diligent the inspecting officers were about keeping the haircuts strictly GI. The barber shop employed from three to five civilian barbers, who charged 50 cents for a haircut -- as opposed to 75 cents in town.

At the heart of the McCook Air base were the three 7,500-foot concrete landing strips, which were still being used in 1970. The concrete for the landing strips was some 7 inches thick, with another 2 inches at the edges. It held up quite well for the wear that it was subjected to by the big bombers.

There were five huge hangars at the base, constructed with wooden trusses, with doors well over 170 feet wide and 25 feet tall, enough to accommodate the nearly 150-foot wingspread of the B-29s. Though these hangars have been subjected to a great deal of use, misuse, and neglect over the last 60 years, all five are still standing in 2009. An ongoing movement by the friends of the air base would restore and preserve at least some of these hangars.

One of the problems that the Army encountered with the McCook Air Base was with the road from the base to McCook. Originally, the location was picked for its relative isolation from traffic. This also posed a problem. The road from town was winding, through rather rough country. It was not paved, so it was dusty when the weather was dry and slippery when the weather was damp. It was not unusual to find several vehicles in the ditch after a rain. Though attempts were made to spray the roads with water and waste oil, to keep down the dust, it was still dangerous to traverse that road, and there were continual efforts by patrolling military police to enforce speed limits -- with only marginal success. Since there was no rail spur to the base, all equipment had to be brought over these roads by convoys of heavily laden trucks, heavier traffic than the roads were designed to carry. This imposed constant maintenance.

Originally, aircraft fuel was hauled, almost non-stop, around the clock, to the base by tank trucks from train tankers in McCook. Later a pipeline was laid, above ground, to the air base, which alleviated the traffic problem considerably, on the air base road.

After continual feverish activity at the McCook Air base for 31⁄2 years -- all designed to allow the Army to train bomber crews for service overseas -- on Aug. 6, 1945, one of the Air Force B-29s, the Enola Gay, dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Suddenly the war was over. There was no more need to train bomber crews. There was no need for the McCook Air Base to exist. Though "business as usual" at the base was the official attitude, airmen began to leave almost immediately for home, and drill schedules were altered. On Dec. 31, it was official and the base began shutting down in earnest. Several sales were held to eliminate the masses of equipment that had accumulated at the base, including PX equipment and office equipment and furniture. Most of the base vehicles were shipped to Denver or other bases for dispersal.

It had been a whirlwind experience for the people of McCook, and there was general agreement that the experience had been good for the town. It had been good economically and McCook was proud of the part it had done in helping to win the war. In turn, the Army was pleased and grateful for the cooperation that had been shown to the troops by the people of McCook. These sentiments were summed up by Base Commander, Col. Lewis Lyle, in his final speech to the people of McCook:

"I wish to take this opportunity to thank the residents of McCook for the many services they have rendered to Army personnel who have been stationed here. Those services include the housing bureau operated by the Chamber of Commerce, the downtown Servicemen's Center, donation of the ballpark for the men stationed here, and many other services.

"Speaking for all the personnel at the air base, I wish to thank everyone in McCook for your cooperation during the war and after V-J Day."

**Source: McCook Daily Gazette Centennial Review