TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — After his historic 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic, Charles Lindbergh piloted his "Spirit of St. Louis" to Tucson in September of that year. He came to dedicate the new Davis-Monthan Municipal Airfield.
By 1940, with a second world war on the horizon, Davis-Monthan was acquired by the military and renamed Davis-Monthan Army Air Field.
"The town at that time was about four to five miles west of Davis-Monthan," explained Larry Herndon.
Herndon is the collections curator at Pima Air & Space Museum and is also a Davis-Monthan historian.
While touring Pima Air & Space, he showed KGUN 9 one of the first plans based at D-M in 1940 the Douglas B-18 Bolo.
"On the 8th of December, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the plans departed to the west coast," said Herndon. "They became submarine hunters and reconnaissance."
By 1942, Davis-Monthan had become a primary training base for the B-24 Liberator crews.
"You had your navigators come in, your bombardiers would come in," Hendon said. "Pilots, after they did their initial pilot training. They kind of married up here and became a crew. They were assigned an aircraft and then they began to work to solidify their procedures."
D-M's mission changed in late 1944. It was out with the B-24 Liberator and in with the B-29 Superfortress. The focus turned to long-range bombers in the Pacific.
"The air crews were in full training from January '45 to August, when the war abruptly ended with the dropping of the atomic bomb," said Herndon. "They literally woke up the next morning and they were unemployed."
The end of World War II wasn't the end of Davis-Monthan, though. It led to the creation of what we know today as AMARG, or the boneyard.
Some 600 B-29s were mothballed in the Tucson desert.
Davis-Monthan then played a key role in the cold war, serving as the home to the 390th Strategic Missile Wing and its Titan II Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles.
D-M was responsible for the crews for the 18 Titan II missile sights throughout the Tucson area.
Davis-Monthan was also home to the U-2 Dragon Lady spy plane. The 100th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing is credited with photographing the Soviet Missiles in Cuba that began the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The U-2 spy plane flew out of D-M from 1963 until 1974.
"That tells you how technologically advanced that plane is if they can get missiles on the ground in 1963," Herndon said.
Also during that time frame, Davis-Monthan trained every pilot who flew the F-4 Phantom II, a Vietnam War fighter jet.
By the 1970s, the F-4 was phased out at D-M -- giving way to the A-10 Thunderbolt II.
The A-10 was uniquely designed around its Gau-8 30 mm gun to provide close air support to troops on the ground.
"A-10 played a pivotal role in the global war on terror," Herndon said. "A lot of soldiers are home today."
It is an emotional time for those who understand the role the A-10 has played at Davis-Monthan for nearly 50 years. Now the A-10s are being taxied to their final home at the Boneyard.
MORE LIVE FROM DAVIS-MONTHAN | Davis-Monthan expecting new mission to replace the A-10
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Pat Parris is an anchor and reporter for KGUN 9. He is a graduate of Sabino High School where he was the 1982 high school state track champion in the 800 meters. While in high school and college, he worked part-time in the KGUN 9 newsroom. Share your story ideas and important issues with Pat by emailing pat.parris@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.