History
Construction of the Pacific Air Depot began in 1935, and the main structures, including administrative buildings, barracks, warehouses and a hospital were completed on 18 April 1938. It was one of only four such air depots in the country. In 1938 the base was renamed Sacramento Air Depot and underwent a major expansion as a repair and overhaul facility for Lockheed P-38 Lightning and Bell P-39 Airacobra fighter planes. The planes were serviced on an assembly line basis. In 1940, an assembly line was added to overhaul Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighters.
In December 1941, soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor, P-40s as well as Martin B-26 Marauder and Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers began arriving at the field to be armed and prepared for immediate shipment overseas. Some B-17s came direct to McClellan Field from the factories. During this time most of the Army Air Forces planes that went to the Pacific Theater were prepared at McClellan. In March 1942, Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle's B-25s arrived at McClellan for arming in preparation for their famous Tokyo raid. The Doolittle Raiders practiced their aircraft carrier takeoff techniques at the Willows Airport in Glenn County, about 90 miles north on U.S. Route 99. The airport runway was painted to represent the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hornet.
In 1943, the center was formed as the Sacramento Air Depot Control Area Command to control not only the Sacramento Air Depot, but other depots and sub-depots in the central Pacific area. During World War II, numerous planes arrived at McClellan from all over the U.S. to be armed and otherwise prepared for shipment overseas to combat areas. After the war McClellan became a storage center of several types of aircraft including Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers.
The base was renamed McClellan Air Force Base in 1948 and its repair and overhaul mission continued throughout the Cold War as an installation of the Air Force Logistics Command and later the Air Force Materiel Command, with the overhaul facility being known as the Sacramento Air Logistics Center.
The center had the 2874th Test Squadron assigned to it from 15 January 1988 – 30 September 1992. It conducted flight tests on aircraft returning to active service after depot maintenance, modification, or repair. In 1992, the squadron was consolidated with the 337th Tactical Fighter Squadron as the 337th Test Squadron. [1] It was inactivated with the closure of McClellan AFB.
Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, McClellan functioned as the main depot for overhauling the Air Force's General Dynamics F-111, FB-111 and EF-111 aircraft, as well as the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft. It also hosted a tenant Boeing WC-135 unit and supported the sophisticated electronic Operation Red Flag at Nellis Air Force Base Nevada. A small contingent of General Dynamics F-111D and F-111F aircraft of the 431st Test and Evaluation Squadron of the 57th Fighter Weapons Wing at Nellis was also detached to McClellan.
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