| UT3182 |
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Military |
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| Today, the old airbase is abandoned and partially converted to civilian use. In 1943 Wendover Airbase was one of the largest military reserves in the world. 23,000 military personnel were based in 668 buildings and trained on 3.5 million acres of the surrounding desert (a lot of the bombing range area is still restricted, as Dugway Proving Ground, the Utah Test and Training Range, and as the Wendover Bombing Range, managed by Hill Air Force Base). Much of the airbase was unused by the 1950's, and the Air Force officially moved out in the late 1970's (though they have used some of the buildings in Red Flag training exercises in the 1980's). The Air Force has retained a few parts of the original base as a radar site for the western end of the Utah Test and Training Range, and additional barrack-type structures were built to support training operations. Hill Air Force Base and the National Guard still use the runway areas occasionally as well. Though the military has reserved the right to take it all back if it needs it, the airbase site is now managed by Tooele County, which hopes to develop the area as a commercial and industrial zone. The county maintains an aviation services business located on the flightline of the old Wendover Airbase, and has a gallery, open to the public, depicting the Airbase when it was active during WWII, including a large model of the entire installation. The Enola Gay was housed in a hanger that is still standing at the Airport. It is now used for miscellaneous storage. A self-guided tour through the base has recently been constructed, with informative signs at many of the landmarks at the base. Wendover Airbase became the home for the training program for the first atomic bombing missions, later carried out on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The remains of the assembly and modification areas associated with this top-secret program, code-named "Project 47," can be seen less than a mile south of the flightline of the Wendover Airport. Relics from the military and movie makers ("Con-Air" is among the films shot at Wendover) litter the flats south of the flightline. Several buildings at the airbase are leased by the Center for Land Use Interpretation for its Wendover-based activities. |
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| 120 miles W of Salt Lake City, in Wendover |
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| UT |
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http://www.wendoverairbase.com/
http://www.lnett.com/page9.html
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