Working in the Barstow Route 66 Mother Road Museum I have been seeing ads and
information about the cafe and this museum at the Kingman Arizona airport and
had been wanting to stop here for a few years now. We are not in the area very
often and when we are never seem to have the time to stop. The Kingman Army Airfield was
founded at the beginning of WW II as an Aerial Gunnery Training Base. It was
one of the Army Air Corps largest, training some 35,000 individuals. The
airfield and Kingman played a significant role in this important era of
America's history.
click photo to enlarge
In addition to the main base, the Kingman Ground to Ground Gunnery Range and
Kingman Air to Air Gunnery Range was located about six miles north of the
present city limits of the City of Kingman. The Gunnery Ranges were used to
train gunners in air-to-air firing. Five target flight lines and two
auxiliary landing fields were established within this range. Initially,
gunnery trainees fired at targets towed along these target flight lines.
click photo to enlarge
Kingman Army Air Field was set up to handle two classes of about 200
students at any one time. During 1943, the policy was to have a class fire
1,200 rounds per student for one week on the Kingman Air to Air Gunnery
Range (week five of the training cycle) and then move to Yucca AAF and have
them fire 1,000 rounds during the second week.
Oh.. and lunch at the
airport cafe was pretty good too. Nothing spectacular but pretty good.
