Mather Air Force Base (Mather AFB) was a United States Air Force Base, which was closed in 1993 pursuant to a post-Cold War BRAC decision. It was located east of Sacramento, on the south side of U.S. Route 50 in Sacramento County, California. Mather Field was one of 32 Air Service training camps established after the United States entry into World War I in April 1917.William R. Evinger: Directory of Military Bases in the U.S., Oryx Press, Phoenix, Ariz., 1991, p. 147.
The Mather AFB land has various post-military uses including Sacramento Mather Airport, established in 1995. Some of the land was included in the City of Rancho Cordova, when it was incorporated in 2003. Mather Field also now serves as home of the 149th Intelligence Squadron of the 195th Wing, Air National Guard.
History Mather Air Force Base was named after Second Lieutenant Carl Spencer Mather, a 25-year-old army pilot killed in a mid-air collision while training at Ellington Field, Texas, on 30 January 1918. Mather learned to fly in 1914 at the Curtiss Flying School in Hammondsport, New York, and became an instructor there at the age of 20. He enlisted as an aviation cadet in August 1917 and as a licensed pilot was commissioned with part of his class as a second lieutenant on 20 January 1918. He continued training to earn a Reserve Military Aviator rating and promotion to first lieutenant but was killed ten days later. The remainder of his class requested that Mills Field be renamed in Mather's honor.
World War I In January 1918, the Department of War sent a cadre of officers to the Sacramento, California, area to survey sites for an aviation school. The group decided on a location about 12 miles southeast of Sacramento called Mills Station. An agreement to lease the land to the Army was concluded, and the construction of some 50 buildings began on 15 March 1918. Mills Field, named after the local community, was opened on 30 April 1918. It covered over 700 acres and could accommodate up to 1,000 personnel. Dozens of wooden buildings served as headquarters, maintenance, and officers' quarters. Enlisted men had to bivouac in tents. Mather Field's first commander was 1st Lieutenant Sam P. Burman, who assumed command on 15 March 1918. The first unit stationed there was the 283d Aero Squadron, which was transferred from Rockwell Field, North Island, California.Special Collections of the Sacramento Public Library, Mather Field, Images of America, Arcadia Publishing (9 January 2012),
Flight training
Only a few U.S. Army Air Service aircraft arrived with the 283d Aero Squadron; most of the Curtiss JN-4 Jennys to be used for flight training were shipped in wooden crates by rail. Mather Field served as a base for primary flight training with an eight-week course. The maximum student capacity was 300.
In 1917, flight training occurred in two phases: primary and advanced. Primary training consisted of pilots learning basic flight skills under dual and solo instruction. After completion of their primary training at Mather, flight cadets were then transferred to another base for advanced training. Training units assigned to Mather Field:Order of Battle of the United States Land Forces in the First World War, Volume 3, Part 3, Center of Military History, United States Army, 1949 (1988 Reprint) Post Headquarters, Mather Field April 1918 – November 1919 200th Aero Squadron, June 1918 – November 1918 (redesignated as Squadron A, Mather Field July 1918) 201st Aero Squadron, June 1918 – November 1918 (redesignated as Squadron B, Mather Field July 1918) 283d Aero Squadron (II), April 1918 – November 1918 (redesignated as Squadron C, Mather Field July 1918) 294th Aero Squadron (II), June 1918 – November 1918 (redesignated as Squadron D, Mather Field July 1918) Squadron E, Mather Field July 1918 – November 1918 Flying School Detachment (Consolidation of Squadrons A-E), November 1918 – October 1919
With the sudden end of World War I in November 1918, the future operational status of Mather Field was unknown. Many local officials speculated that the U.S. government would keep the field open because of the outstanding combat record established by Mather-trained pilots in Europe. Locals also pointed to the optimal weather conditions in the Sacramento area for flight training. Cadets in flight training on 11 November 1918 were allowed to complete their training, however no new cadets were assigned to the base. The separate training squadrons were consolidated into a single Flying School detachment, because many of the personnel at Mather were being demobilized. Flight training activities finally ceased on 8 November 1919.
Inter-war years With the end of World War I, in December 1919 Mather Field was closed as an active airfield. However, a small caretaker unit was assigned to the facility for administration. Nonetheless, on 13 December 1919, the United States House of Representatives passed an appropriations bill for $9.6 million for the purchase of additional land at military camps "which are to be made part of the permanent military establishment". Mather Field was allocated $78,000 of this amount.United Press, "House Passes Bill To Buy March Field", Riverside Daily Press, Riverside, California, Saturday evening, 13 December 1919, Volume XXXIV, Number 269, page 8.
Mather was used by the aerial forestry patrol. It also was used intermittently to support small military units. However, with the return to a peacetime economy, Mather Field were deemed unnecessary as a military training facility, and it was closed on 12 May 1923. The War Department ordered the small caretaker force at Mather Field to dismantle all remaining structures and to sell them as surplus. Throughout the remainder of the 1920s, the War Department leased the vacant land to local farmers and ranchers.
Mather Field was reactivated on 1 April 1930 as a sub post of the Presidio of San Francisco and Hamilton Field during the 1930s, and of Stockton Field briefly in 1941. Mather, however, had to be refitted with new electrical, water, and telephone lines. Soon, Mather was again alive with activity, though the renovation process could not compare to the original base construction.
Note: The airfield served only for aerial forest patrol, beginning 8 January 1919. It was placed on inactive status, 22 June 1922; and closed on 12 May 1923. The airfield was reactivated 1 April 1930; and placed in inactive status, 1 November 1932. It was designated a subpost of the Presidio of San Francisco, unk-13 May 1935; designated a subpost of Hamilton Field, 13 May 1935; designated a subpost of Stockton Field, 21 February 1941.
World War II
The Field was reestablished as a separate post and activated on 13 May 1941. The field area was increased from 872 to in June 1941. Sub-bases and auxiliary fields of Mather included: Concord Army Air Field Franklin Auxiliary Airfield (Aux 1) Lincoln Auxiliary Airfield (Aux 2) Winter-Davis Flight Strip (Aux 4) Elk Grove Auxiliary Airfield (Aux 5)
In 1941 Mather Field became the site for advanced navigator training. The Army Air Forces Navigator School began operating on 2 August 1941. Major new construction was completed 16 March 1942. The school consisted of a rigorous 18-week course consisting of instruction in celestial navigation and dead reckoning. To complete the course, cadets were required to spend 100 hours navigating during both local and long-range flights. However, in 1943, Army Air Forces Training Command transferred the Navigator School from Mather Field to Ellington Field, near Houston, Texas.
Mather became a twin-engine Advanced Flying School, training pilots on North American B-25 Mitchell medium bombers. In 1944–45 it became an aerial port of embarkation to the Pacific in preparation for the expected transfer of large numbers of men and aircraft from Europe to the Pacific.
During the summer of 1945, the 509th Composite Group was transferring from its Second Air Force training base at Wendover Army Air Field, Utah, the group landed at Mather prior to embarking on its trans-Pacific movement to Tinian (in the Marianas Island chain).
Cold War
Air Training Command
During the Cold War, Mather AFB became the sole aerial navigation school for the United States Air Force (USAF) after its companion navigation schools at Harlingen AFB, Texas, and James Connally AFB, Texas, were closed and Ellington AFB was converted into a joint Air National Guard base, Coast Guard air station and NASA flight facility in the 1960s.
The 3535th Navigator Training Wing of Air Training Command (ATC), was responsible for bombardier training beginning in 1946 and later transitioned to undergraduate navigator training (UNT), advanced navigator bombardier training, electronic warfare officer training and weapon systems officer training after the closure of the other navigator training bases. Renamed the 3535th Flying Training Wing, the wing initially flew the Convair T-29 for USAF navigator training until 1974, when it was replaced by the Boeing T-43A (Boeing 737-200) aircraft.
The 3535th was replaced by the 323d Flying Training Wing on 1 April 1973. In 1976, following the decommissioning of Training Squadron Twenty-Nine (VT-29) at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas, the 323d began training student Naval Flight Officers (NFO) in the Advanced Maritime Navigation training pipeline. U.S. Navy students in this pipeline were destined to fly land-based naval aircraft such as the Lockheed P-3 Orion, Lockheed EP-3 Aries and Lockheed EC-130 and Lockheed LC-130 Hercules aircraft. This resulted in the UNT course being redesignated as Interservice Undergraduate Navigator Training (IUNT). The Navy also activated Naval Air Training Unit (NAVAIRTU) Mather as the parent activity for Navy instructors, Navy students and NATO/Allied naval aviation students assigned to the 323d at Mather. The Marine Aerial Navigation School also relocated to Mather in order to train enlisted United States Marine Corps and United States Coast Guard navigators for Marine Corps KC-130 and Coast Guard HC-130 aircraft. Cessna T-37 aircraft were added to the IUNT curriculum in the late 1970s for USAF students destined for high performance aircraft such as the F-4 Phantom II/RF-4, F-111/FB-111 and B-1 Lancer.
The 323d continued training USAF navigators, NFOs, NATO/Allied students, and conducting advanced training for radar navigator/bombardiers, electronic warfare officers and weapons systems operators until it was inactivated on 30 September 1993. Concurrent with the wing's inactivation, all USAF navigator and NFO maritime navigation pipeline training was moved to Randolph AFB, Texas, and consolidated under the 12th Flying Training Wing, which up until that time trained and certified instructor pilots.
Radar stations Mather AFB had a late 1940s/early 1950s Radar Bomb Scoring detachment of the 3903rd Radar Bomb Scoring Squadron.