USAFA’s First Home: Lowry AFB

This is where it all began.  July eleventh, 1955, 306 basic cadets arrived at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, Colorado, to begin their journey at the United States Air Force Academy.  ----more----

Not much remains of the former base.  But if you listen intently enough, you can still hear the faint echoes of the first members of the Long Blue Line.  President Dwight Eisenhower signed legislation that established the Air Force Academy on April first, 1954 – Founders Day.  Less than three months later, on June twenty-fourth, Secretary of the Air Force Harold Talbott announced that Colorado Springs would be the Academy’s permanent home.  He also tasked Lieutenant General Hubert Harmon with finding a temporary location in Denver while the Academy's permanent campus was being built.  He chose, Lowry Air Force Base.  Lowry has a rich history.  The Denver branch of the Army Air Corps training school opened for business in the old Agnes Phipps tuberculosis sanitarium on October first, 1937.  A few months after opening, it gained the name Lowry, in honor of Second Lieutenant Francis B. Lowry.  A Denver native, he was killed in France during World War I aerial combat while serving as an artillery observer and aerial photographer for the Army Air Service.  In the early 1950s, Lowry Air Force Base served as the Summer White House for President and Mrs. Eisenhower.  Lowry hosted cadets for a little more than three years, from the Academy’s opening in 1955, until the whole operation moved to its permanent site in late August 1958.  While at Lowry, the Academy established its academic, military, and athletic identities, formalized its Honor Code, chose the falcon as its mascot, and started many traditions that continue to this day.  After the Academy moved south, Lowry continued on as a training installation.  By 1966, however, commercial air traffic from nearby airports had increased and the city grew up around the base.  Flying operations were ended due to concerns about crashes into surrounding residential areas.  In 1991, the Commission on Base Realignment and Closure recommended the base’s closure, citing savings by consolidating training at other locations, the lack of active runways, and the base’s high resale potential.  Lowry Air Force Base ceased to exist on 30 September 1994.  More than a quarter-century later, many remnants of the base remain, and the Academy’s former presence is still felt.  One important structure, Building 880, which served as the Commandant of Cadet’s office, was added to the National Register of Historic Places during a dedication ceremony on September fourth 2007.  Here in Lowry's Hangar One, now home of the Wings Over the Rockies Museum, is a display highlighting the early years of the Academy.  Other Lowry buildings that remain from the Academy years include “The U” Academic buildings, the Eisenhower Chapel, and Hangars One and Two.

 

The Heritage Minute Channel is a production of the Long Blue Line Podcast Network and presented by the U.S. Air Force Academy Association and Foundation