Wendover, Utah
Half a mile south of Wendover, along the Nevada border
Wendover Air Force Base played an important role in training heavy bombardment crews and ushering in the atomic age. The base served as the test and training site for the first atomic bombs. The 509th Composite Group trained here under the command of Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, Jr., who dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945 out of his B-29, Enola Gay. In all, 21 heavy bomb groups trained in Wendover including the 306th BG (first to daylight bomb Nazi Germany), the famed 100th BG (known as the bloody 100th due to aircraft losses) and the Flying Tigers 308th Bomb Group, which served in China, Burma, and India. Members of three bomb groups trained at Wendover won the Medal of Honor. The site now offers a self-guided driving tour by the Wendover Airfield Museum, which preserves the restored hangars and other buildings and displays maintenance and training equipment.
Photo: 393rd Crew at Wendover Air Force Base
– Courtesy Thomas Peterson, Historian, Historic Wendover Airfield Museum
