Wendover - It’s a Dry Heat
Many, many years ago when dirt was still young, I flew in the first operational F-16 squadron at Hill AFB, UT. This was the early 1980s when we were at “peace” but the Cold War was the Thing. I was in the 4th Tactical Fighter Squadron (4TFS), the Fighting Fuujins. The airplanes we flew smelled like new cars and the performance…well, zowie! We were the new kids on the block as far as fighters. Rumor was the F-16 performance was so good it jeopardized future production of other fighters, like the F-15, so we were told NOT to toot our own horns or be arrogant or trash talk anyone. Right. Our fighter wing and squadron had deployed to Norway and to a competition in England but we weren’t really able to show our stuff in the U.S. The biggest simulated combat training were the Red Flag Exercises, massive air-to-ground and air-to-air exercises held at Nellis AFB in Las Vegas, NV several times a year. We were aching to go but didn’t get a slot for months after we went operational.
At last we were assigned a slot in July. July! And unlike the hundreds of other aircrews, support crews, and airplanes, we did not get to deploy to Nellis. No…we were deploying to Wendover Airport, UT. Now…there’s not much at Wendover Airport. That’s an understatement. Wendover sits at the edge of the Bonneville Salt Flats 120 miles or so west of Salt Lake City. It’s where the Enola Gay practiced some of its bombing procedures in World War II. But the base closed decades before we went. All that remained were a few buildings to support the still functioning airport, an old hanger occupied by someone off limits for us to contact, and a few dozen old barracks mostly falling apart at the seams. Why, do you ask, is there a functioning airport in the middle of nowhere. Well, Wendover the town, is divided by the Utah and Nevada state line and there are many casinos on the Nevada side. The interstate on Friday nights use to be a solid line of headlights going from Salt Lake City to Wendover and the reverse of that on Sundays. I digress.
An Army combat engineering team deployed to Wendover to bring the airfield up to standards for the F-16 and as much as possible for the aircrews and support teams. They put up a huge tent which was a chow hall, clinic and operations center. It may have had air conditioning, I don’t think so. The Army cooked us “Hot A’s” in the morning and at night. In the morning, they gave us box lunches, I don’t remember how we stored them, coolers probably. Maintenance had tent hangers sort of and huge fuel bladders.
The Army team fixed the barracks by patching the floors, hanging curtains on the doorways, putting fans in the dozen or so rooms we occupied but…no air conditioning. They refurbished an old swimming pool and tapped into the VERY deep well to fill it. The water was ice cold, actually too cold to enjoy but everybody had to try it. Once.
We hadn’t been allowed to drive our cars and so were on foot. We could walk to the casinos but only did that a couple of times in the two weeks I was there. It was better just to sit out in the cooling night desert air, discuss the day’s victories, and look at the stars and moon. And drink beer. It was an awesome trip…the full moon this week took me back.