McChord Air Force Base History Started Pre-World War II

While locals might think of McChord Air Force Base as the smaller sibling of Fort Lewis in the new Joint Base-Lewis McChord military installation, planes leaving that field routinely landed on air strips around the globe.

But that wasn’t always the case.

In the late 1920s, Pierce County purchased 900 acres of what was largely prairie land to create a municipal airfield. It was named “Rigney Field,” after John Rigney, a pioneer who owned the property. That name lasted a few years. Pierce County Commissioners voted to rename the new airport “Tacoma Field” in 1929.

"The field represents one of the finest landing areas in the country and its $370,000 cost was most reasonable,” the Tacoma Ledger wrote at the time. “The airport offers a splendid potential site for manufacturing, airplane repair, and distribution."

The hope was the field would become an economic engine for the area, but it quickly found itself in the red. The airport was too big for the largely rural area.

Pierce County soon sought ways to cut its losses by either closing the airstrip or selling it outright. Pierce County taxpayers were bailed out with the federal spending related to the military buildup of World War II.

During the early 1930s, the United States Secretary of War was tasked with establishing a strategic field in the Pacific Northwest. The local field won out against other sites around the coast.

Pierce County officials signed a deed passing the title of Tacoma Field—900 acres of land with buildings—to the War Department. It was used as part of a giant airbase to defend the Pacific Northwest in 1938.

The new airfield was designated McChord Field, in honor of Colonel William C. McChord, who had been killed in an accident near Richmond, VA in 1937. He was piloting a Northrop A-17 single engine attack bomber from Bolling Field, District of Columbia, to Randolph Field, TX, when his plane malfunctioned and crashed.

The following war years saw the 55th Fighter Group flying using McChord Airforce Base for takeoff to combat air patrols over the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the mouth of the Columbia River. By January 1942, McChord's military population had jumped from 4,000 to 7,400.

Bomber training facilities and troop movement buildings meant large aircraft filled the skills of Lakewood as they shuttled to Alaska and the war in the South Pacific.

After the war ended, the field was realigned to the newly formed Air Force, changing its role from troop and bomber missions to supply and support, including the famed Berlin Airlift in 1948. Crews from McChord would see humanitarian missions during wars, famine, hurricane and rescues as the years passed.

In 2005, McChord would merge with Fort Lewis to form the new Joint Base Lewis-McChord under the command of the Army. The new base has seen renovations and expansions since the consolidated base plays not only roles in the war on terror, but humanitarian and supply runs around the world, from the South Pole to Pacific islands and Middle East repatriation missions.