When my family drove north to visit Indiana’s lake country, we always saw the somewhat mysterious Bunker Hill and then later Grissom Air force Base on the west side of the road. I never knew much about it, though, except that it was military and had loads of airplanes. Tom Kelley’s new book, Bunker Hill and Grissom Air Force Base, educated me on the facility. The latest in the Arcadia Publishing “Images of Aviation” series, it is laid out in their familiar yearbook style with short chapter introductions, many pictures and captions.
Silly me, with all the airplanes, I assumed it was always an Air Force installation. This book immediately educated me on the birth of Bunker Hill as a Navy training installation early in World War II. Since Navy airmen might have to bail out into an ocean, the lack of large bodies of water in central Indiana was a problem. To solve the water training problem, the Navy built the second largest indoor swimming pool in the world. After being vital in winning World War II, the base was deactivated in 1949. Agriculture then overtook much of the base.
Later the base was reactivated as part of the Air Force Strategic Air Command. It was on constant alert throughout the Cold War. The base and activities there constituted a vital cog in the American ability to assure there would be mutually assured destruction if a Soviet block state attacked U.S. soil. Of course, all personnel assigned to the base hoped that would never be necessary.
While stationed on the base, personnel also enjoyed less ponderous activities. They built an exact scale model of the White House, adopted a dog and had Santa Claus review the snow removal equipment every winter.
This book is an interesting overview of the base. In telling the story of the base, it touches on the Peru circus, airplane history, Gus Grissom, military history and much more. It is available at Bookmamas, 9 S. Johnson in Irvington.
