Hereford Army Airfield
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Hereford Army Airfield
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| Part of Arizona World War II Army Airfields | |
| About 2 miles west-southwest of Hereford, Arizona | |
 Hereford Army Airfield, 6 Nov 1992 |
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| Type | USAAF Training Airfield |
| Coordinates | |
| Built | 1942 |
| In use | 1942-1945 |
| Controlled by | United States Army Air Forces |
| Garrison | Fourth Air Force |
Hereford Army Airfield is an abandoned military airfield located about 2 miles west-southwest of Hereford, Arizona.
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[edit] Military Use
The airfield was used during World War II as a satellite airfield for Douglas AAF, which offered specialized night training in B-25 & B-26 bombers.
A total of 2,598 acres were acquired by the War Department in 1942. Construction included 3 bituminous runways, 3 bituminous taxiways, a concrete parking apron, 38 buildings, and 18 miscellaneous structures. Due to its mission of training bomber crews, the longest runway at Hereford was 9,200’ long, which was significantly larger than the typical runway of a World War II era training field.
[edit] Civil Use
Hereford AAF was declared surplus in 1945, and custody was assumed by the War Assets Administration, which sold the property. It was apparently abandoned by 1949,
The Hereford airfield was apparently reused for some period of time as a civil airport, as the 1983 USGS topo map labeled the site as "Hereford Airport", but only depicted the north/south runway. The other two runways were not depicted at all. However, this rejuvenation of the field was evidently short lived as Hereford was not listed in the 1987 Flight Guide.
It appears that one of the runways at Hereford was used by small private aircraft until about 1990, however as of the late 1990s, the entire Hereford site was privately owned. The site has been used for a ranching operation that included removal of almost all military structures & planting of grasses. The only evidence of the USAAF construction remaining was the deteriorating concrete parking apron, deteriorating bituminous runways & taxiway, and a pile of concrete tower bases.
As of 1998, the Hereford field was apparently abandoned again, and the land has become part of the suburbs of fast-growing Sierra Vista. Plots have been subdivided, and several houses ranging from simple to elaborate have been built on the site with many more to come.
The north/south runway has been graded & reused as 'Airstrip Road', and one lucky family gets to use the old 500’ x 500’ concrete apron as their driveway. It does not appear that the 1980’s redevelopment (as an airport) resulted in any improvements to the site aside from a single prefab hangar & equipment shed which were erected on the apron.
[edit] See Also
[edit] References
- Thole, Lou (1999), Forgotten Fields of America : World War II Bases and Training, Then and Now - Vol. 2. Publisher: Pictorial Histories Pub, ISBN 1575100517
