There was not much of anything about Hammer Field in the scrapbook. One photograph is labeled Hammer, and a couple of others might be from there. I was able to learn a lot about Hammer from both the military archives and the newspaper archives. The only newspaper clipping in the scrapbook was the one about Dad leaving Sheppard (TX) for Hammer CA), sometime between February and March 1944. Key points about Hammer Field are:
- The Fresno Army Air Base became Hammer Field in January 1942, named after 1st Lt. Earl M. Hammer of San Francisco. Lt. Hammer was the first Californian airman in World War I to be killed in action. Fresno’s new Yosemite field was established as a military base 6 months following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The purpose was to establish a central location on the West coast for both defense and training. Basic training was provided at Hammer, but the most significant role was in “training and preparing fliers and aviation technicians for their jobs overseas” (The Saga of Hammer Field, Fresno, Calif. (Dec. 21, 1945). The Night Hawk, p.7.)
- In January 1944, the Night Fighter training unit at the Orlando, Fl Army Air Base was disbanded and training reorganized at Hammer Field. Night Fighter training began at Hammer in March, 1944 “when the runways roared with activity” as planes took off for night formations in mock training missions.
- Aviation technicians were trained to provide ground support for the planes and fliers. This included training in aviation mechanics and what were called aviation engineers whose role was construction of airdromes (airfields and air bases) using heavy equipment.
All photographs are original images with all rights reserved unless otherwise credited. Kindly request permission prior to using.
Suzassippi's Lottabusha County Chronicles 
Wonderful that you have access to all this memorabilia and history. It’s fascinating.
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It is exciting to me to learn more and think about it from his perspective as well as the actual history. I love that Dad wrote the names of his buddies on the back of the picture, even though other than one name, I don’t recall any. I am learning more as I keep going through the process though.
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You just reminded me that people almost always wrote names and dates on the backs of photos. As I was recently going through lots of my old photos, I had to do a lot of guessing. Of course, with out digital cameras now, we don’t have to do that, it is recorded down to the minute! Ah, but what about when we print them out?
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I gave up on printing them a while ago as I am now trying to pare down the number of actual framed photographs in the house! It is a lot easier to just email them or text them! It does help with these really old ones that at least some of them have names and dates and even places.
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Many of these photos look so much like photos my dad had. What an interesting project to research and put the pieces together. And to think how young these men were at the time.
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I imagine there are millions of these photos floating around! It has been very satisfying to do this. I am also simultaneously working on a booklet for the family. Dad was 18 when he left home for the first training camp. By the time he turned 19, he had been stationed in 5 places.
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A booklet for your family will be a wonderful treasure!
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All too often all we have are fuzzy photographs of a time in one’s life. I always look at them and, in my mind, like a movie or tv show that merges a past photo into the present I try to envision what the scene really looked like (in living color).
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We have no photos of Hammer Field, only memories. I was very young when we were there 1959-60, I was 5-6 years old. Graduated Kindergarten from Scandinavian School, still have my mini diploma. I can recall only a couple of things from there that I still remember. My youngest sister was born there in June 1960. The base was across the road, we lived on a corner lot (very old wooden building). I was born on March AFB in 1954. My father retired from the Air Force in 1969 (Vandenberg AFB). Glenn
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Thank you for sharing your memories and experience of Hammer and Air Force, Mr. Waltrip. I think putting together the saga of Dad’s time in the AAF from Fort Walters Texas to Shanghai, China with all the stops in between from 1943-1946 and back home to Texas was most rewarding. Some places he was stationed had a lot of photos, and others only a few. I cherish that I know where he was and what it was like, even though I was not born until 4 years after he returned home.
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Hi, we were at Reese AFB from 1965-67.
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I assume Vandenberg was far more attractive than Lubbock. 🙂
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ahh, yeah. I don’t recall ever going into the city of Lubbock, went to school in Wolfforth, and lived across the “roadway” from the base, but the base was walking distance from our house. Like most BRATS I spent most of my free time on base with friends (teen club, music room, theater). Texas was definitely different than California. We moved from Hamilton AFB to Reese AFB then back to Hamilton AFB (1963-67). Quite an education.
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I briefly lived in Lubbock for less than a year, and pretty much hated it–blowing dirt and flat land. I grew up in Northwest Texas. My long-time friend grew up with a father who was career AF, which is how she ended up in Abilene at Dyess–where I also met my first husband. I learned pretty quickly that I was not suited for that life, though I enjoyed some aspects of it. She had great stories of what she learned by living so many places, including a stint in Germany.
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