Courageous pilots taking off into clouds without knowing when the clouds would break, flying through rain and snow while being pelted in the face, flying without any type of guide or any communication with ground personnel, crashing due to weather or engine loss resulting in loss of life, running into and killing livestock in attempts at safe crash landings, and many other heroics and accomplishments are all part of the history of the pioneers of the U.S. airmail. Those pilots' achievements played a role in making aviation what it is today.
In February of 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the Army Air Corps to fly U.S. mail after he cancelled airmail contracts the government had with commercial airlines. The postmaster had determined the commercial airlines were in collusion, monopolizing the market and setting prices too high for the relatively new and even potentially risky service.
The Air Corps, following President Roosevelt's order to the best of its ability, soon realized it simply was not ready for such a task because of its antiquated equipment and limited training for this kind of flying; that is, against the clock over unfamiliar routes at maximum weight in all kinds of weather.
The Air Corps was directed to operate 12 of the 26 air routes previously flown by the commercial airlines. The routes were split into three zones with the headquarters of the western zone at Salt Lake City. Without success, leaders had pushed to headquarter the western zone at Ogden City's airport instead of Salt Lake because Ogden's original airport was closer to Weber Canyon. Pilots generally preferred the Ogden area over points south along the Wasatch Front because Weber Canyon was the largest one on the Front; it had railroad (the "iron compass") and, even more importantly, strong canyon winds which cleared out fog and aided in lift.
By March 1934, pilots had begun to familiarize themselves with the routes they would be assigned to. Unfortunately, many of the planes did not have any instruments or lights to aid in landing, navigation or situational flight awareness. Many fatalities occurred in the western zone, including the familiarization flights, due to these problems and harsh winter conditions.
Training and operational mishaps were not confined to the western zone and severe weather conditions affected other flight zones. President Roosevelt ordered the Air Corps to phase out its airmail service by June 1934.
Although early U.S. military aviation was no match for the mail, this fiasco of 1934 exposed the upgrades and improvements needed to develop the nation's air arm. It helped to gain the public's and congressional support for greater appropriations for Army air. It also helped to establish a General Headquarters Air Force, or GHQ, which was to have an independent strike mission separate and apart from the rest of the Army Air Corps.
Creation of the GHQ Air Force afforded priority to and recognized the importance of military aircraft in national defense. Making the GHQ Air Force a reality, or at least more than a paper command, required modern equipment and bases.
From the Air Corps perspective, the most important piece of new equipment was the prospective B-17, in which Maj. Ployer P. Hill, this base's namesake, lost his life in 1935 during the first flight test at Wright Field, Ohio. Equally important was a system of bases, including new depots, to support expanded air operations. In 1935, Congress approved establishment of a "Rocky Mountain Air Depot," which would later become Ogden Air Depot at Hill Field, Utah, in 1940.
Today, Ogden Air Depot is called Ogden Air Logistics Center -- one of our service's three remaining air depots -- and Hill Field is called Hill Air Force Base -- one of the smaller number of Air Force installations whose roots in early U.S. military air history were established before World War II.
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