Centennial Souvenir Program, 1954
Scott Air Force Base
DIRIGIBLE HANGAR
Scott Air Force Base (the name officially changed from Scott Field on February 4, 1948) had its inception in the summer of 1917 when the government opened one of its first schools for training pilots to fly planes, the newest weapon of war. It was appropriately named for Corporal Frank S. Scott who lost his life in an aircraft accident at College Park, Maryland in 1912.
Actual construction work was begun June 27, 1917. Congress appropriated $10,000,000 for its construction and 2,000 laborers and carpenters were immediately put to work. Work was pushed with such feverish haste that the project, a maze of frame buildings on approximately a square mile of land, was completed by September 1917. In September, four of the 72 airplanes ordered for the field arrived and soon the actual training of airplane pilots began. Wartime "crates," a far cry from the sleek, fast planes of today, became a familiar sight to O'Fallon people.
In 1920, the government decided that the field should be turned over to the lighter-than-air branch of the Air Corps. The field became the only inland airship port in the nation. Here the lighter-than-air development was carried on, balloon observers and airship pilots trained. It was the day of the blimps, sausage balloons, and round free balloons.
In March, 1920, the government purchased outright the land on which Scott Field was located. The purchase price for the 640 acres was $119,285.00, about $170.00 per acre.
The center of the lighter-than-air development was the gigantic hangar which was completed in 1922 at a cost of $1,360,000. The inside measurements of the building were 810 feet long, 200 feet wide and 172 feet high. Its floor had space enough for 100,000 men to stand in formation. The two doors at its entrance weighed almost 2,000,000 pounds each and it took electrically driven motors 71/2 minutes to open them. The old hangar dominated the countryside for miles. It was a greater attraction than the dirigibles themselves.
On May 14, 1937, the lighter-than-aircrafts were discontinued at the field and the War Department changed Scott to a heavier-than-air field.
On June 2, 1938 the field was designated as the new home of the General Headquarters of the Air Forces of the entire United States Army, making the field the nerve center of the entire Army Air Corps. In preparation for this new role, down went the old Scott Field. Demolition of the old buildings began July 18, 1938. The huge hangar, now useless to the army, was sold to the wreckers for $20,051.00. The mooring mast, the old wooden barracks and administration buildings were all wrecked. Colonial style administration buildings, family quarters, barracks, together with new hangars and other buildings (in all 73 major buildings) were erected through a $7,500,000.00 building program.
On June 1, 1939, Scott was designated as the Scott Field branch of the Army Air Corps. Technical Schools and the basic section of the school which was located at Chanute Field, Rantoul, Illinois, was transferred to Scott Field.
In August, 1941 an allotment of $1,710,150.00 was made for the construction of 160 new buildings for with the designation of Scott as the communications training center of the Air Force more housing was needed for students. Cantonment areas were constructed in the southeast and northeast sections of the field. A short time later the Army built an induction center across the Southern Railroad tracks. This area was later annexed to Scott Air Force Base.
In 1952, two additional housing areas were added: Paeglow Apartments, 80 units for officers, and a 1,000 unit "city" north of the base under the provisions of the Wherry Housing Act. Also in 1952 a modernization program was begun to provide quarters for bachelor officers and bachelor non-commissioned officers, training areas, and warehouse space at a cost in excess of $14,000,000.00.
Scott today, as Headquarters for Air Training Command, a vital link in the Military Air Transport Services air evacuation program, a training center for Air Force reservists in this area, as well as a great communication center, is undoubtedly downstate Illinois' largest "industry."
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