Nearly 70 years ago, a progressive group of citizens in Savannah, sensing that
aviation would develop into a major mode of transportation, persuaded city
officials to establish a municipal airport to the southwest of the city.
Scarcely could these individuals envision that the tiny underdeveloped grass
landing strip would one day develop into a major training center of the U.S.
Army.
In 1929 the general aviation committee of the Savannah City Council recommended
that the 730-acre Belmont Tract, belonging to J.C. Lewis, be accepted by the
Council as the future site of the Savannah Municipal Airport. The coast of the
land was $35,000. By September 1929, the runway and several buildings were
ready and the city officially opened the new facility.
The airport became part of Eastern Air Transport Incorporated intrastate route
on December 2, 1931, when Miss Ida Hoynes, daughter of the Mayor and Mrs.
Thomas M. Hoynes, broke a bottle of Savannah River water on a propeller blade
of an 18-passenger Curtiss Condor during the christening ceremony.
The airport was named Hunter Municipal Airfield in May 1940 during Savannah
Aviation Week in honor of Lt. Col. Frank O’Driscoll Hunter, a Savannahian and
World War I flying ace. Lt. Col Hunter, who would later climb to the rank of
Major General, was not scheduled to appear in Savannah that week. However, he
paid a surprise visit to the field on the first day of Aviation Week while
enroute to France to serve as a United States Military Air Attaché.
Washington gave the Army Air Corps approval to build a base at Hunter on August
30, 1940. The Third and 27th Bombardment Groups and the 35th Air Base Group
with 2,700 soldiers from Barksdale Field, Louisiana, were the first tenants.
Official dedication of the base, renamed Savannah Air Base, took place February
19, 1941.
The base was an operational training unit for several years. B-10s, B-18s and
B-23s gave way to A-20s, P-38s and P-40s as the air arm of the nation matured.
It later became a final staging base for B-17 crews on their way to the
European Theater of Operations. The Army’s Eighth Air Force was activated at
Savannah Air Base during that period.
At the end of the war, the field was used as a separation center until its
return to the City of Savannah in June 1946. Hunter returned to its peacetime
role as a civilian airport. Many of its buildings were leased to industrial
plants. Some of them became apartment houses. An orphanage was located in the
commanding officer’s quarters and the University of Georgia established an
extension campus on part of the old base.
In 1949, the recently re-activated Second Bomb Wing was moved from Tucson,
Arizona, to Savannah’s Chatham Air Force Base. The limited facilities at the
base, located eight miles northwest of Savannah, made the site unfit for
permanent use. Rather than see the Air Force move elsewhere, Savannah offered
to exchange airfields with the Federal Government. The City and County
governments purchased 3,500 acres of additional land around Hunter for future
base expansions. Following a token payment of $1.00 to make the transaction
legal, Hunter was back in uniform in September 1950 as an Air Force
installation.
The Department of Defense announced in 1964 that the base, along with 94 other
military installations, would be closed. The base was given a period of three
years to phase out.
In December 1966, at the height of the Vietnam conflict, the Department of the
Army announced that the Secretary of Defense had approved an increase in the
number of Army helicopter pilots to be trained. Because of this increase,
coupled with the fact that the United States Army Aviation School at Fort
Rucker, Alabama was operating at capacity, Hunter Air Force Base was turned
over to the Army and operated in conjunction with Fort Stewart, located 40
miles southwest of Hunter.
Brigadier General Frank Meszar, commanding general of Fort Stewart, formally
accepted the base from Col. James A. Evans, Jr. commanding officer at Hunter,
in a formal change of command and service ceremony on April 1, 1967.
The headquarters of the U.S. Army Aviation School Element, which was
established at Fort Stewart during the summer of 1966 to train fixed-wing
pilots, was moved to Hunter. The mission of the element was to coordinate the
training of fixed wing and rotary wing aviators as an extension of the Army’s
training program at Fort Rucker and Fort Wolters, Texas.
On July 28, 1967, the combined facilities of Fort Stewart and Hunter Army
Airfield were re-designated the United States Army Flight Training Center.
Advanced helicopter training for Republic of Vietnam Air Force students began
March 13, 1970, with the arrival of the first class of students.
Concurrent with the increase in the Vietnamese student input flight training
for U.S. Army officers and warrant officers was gradually phased out. The final
class was on June 16, 1970.
In 1973, Hunter Army Airfield went into caretaker status. It was reopened in
1975 as a support facility for the re-activated 24th Infantry Division
(Mechanized), at Fort Stewart. The 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized), or
Victory Division, became part of the nation’s Rapid Deployment Force on October
1, 1980.
The Victory Division’s ability to deploy on short notice was enhanced by
Hunter’s 11,340-foot runway (the Army’s longest runway east of the Mississippi
River and capable of accommodating the Air Force’s C-5 Galaxy transport
aircraft), Savannah’s deep-water port facility and excellent rail and road
networks.
The 24th Infantry Division’s rapid deployment capability was put to the supreme
test in 1990 after Iraq invaded Kuwait. Alerted on August 7, the first soldiers
of the division deployed from Hunter Army Airfield in just six days. Six and
one-half months later, on February 24, 1991, the Division attacked 370
kilometers deep into the enemy’s flank and rear. Moving farther and faster than
any other mechanized force in military history, the 24th severed Iraqi lines of
communication with Baghdad and systematically destroyed six Iraqi divisions
while taking more than 5,000 prisoners.
Currently, Hunter Army Airfield has approximately 5,000 soldiers on station. It
is home for units of the 3d Infantry Division (Mechanized) headquartered at
Fort Stewart. There are also a number of non-divisional units assigned to
Hunter as well.
The major divisional units stationed at Hunter include the 3d Aviation Brigade,
and 603d Aviation Support Battalion. Non-divisional units which make up the
major tenant units include: the 260th Quartermaster Battalion; the 1st
Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment; 3d Battalion, 160th Special Operations
Aviation Regiment (Airborne); and the 224th Military Intelligence Battalion
(Aerial Exploitation).
The Coast Guard Air Station Savannah is also located on Hunter Army Airfield.
It is the largest helicopter unit in the Coast Guard and provides Savannah and
Coastal Georgia with round-the-clock search and rescue coverage of the area.
Source: Ft. Stewart
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