Strange air base find

[aa battery]

My cousin met me at the WW2 air base sunday and got mad because all he found was nails with his 250. There is a lot of cast iron pipe out there that makes it difficult to find the good stuff if you dont dig everything. He finally decided to keep the cast iron for scrap and in an hour he had about 250 pounds of it. I found a large cast iron elbow and threw it by his truck. As i continued metal detecting he yelled " Hey you forgot something " Cleaning out the elbow he found 3 wheat pennies. The only thing i can think of is the pipe was part of the restrooms out there. I find it really sad that so many men trained there during WW2 but there is hardly any information about it. Hammer Field lost in time but not for me. Soon i am going to post all my finds from coins to relics thanks for reading....aa

 

[JARMAN]

Its sad that the site is lost to history,other then in a few peoples minds. But such is the AMERICAN way.. Hope your friend split the wheat's. HH

 

[aa battery]

Not to many people know this but the base was named after the first Califonian airman killed in WW1.

 

[JARMAN]

Not to mention all of those who followed. Hope one day a Plaque can be placed at the site.p

 

[aa battery]

Jarmen i have had the honor of returning Dog Tags that we found out there 1 was located by Felinepeachy. Everything i find out there sends me back in time when this country was of one. Its hard for me to imagine that men in a short time learned to fly bombers and then shipped overseas to defend our country. Probably the saddest things i find are the religious medals lost before a man has to go to war..aa

 

[lockman209]

Keep searching, you never know when you are going to find silver.

 

[JARMAN]

aa, What emotions that must bring to family members with the return of the tags.Salute to you. Most of the guys were just out of High School that flew. Never to return and have a Adult life. After one or two more generations this countrys history will be lost. Lord knows not many kids pick up a book, or could even care. I pray I'm wrong.

 

[stefen]

Was this originally an Army Air base? Air Force didn't come into its own until later during WWII.

Take Vandenberg AFB for instance, which is located along the central coast of California...originally it was an Army tank training base during WWII, then became an Army Air Base...then a SAC (Strategic Air Command) base and now is an Air Force Base. Few, if any, flights land or take off from there...primarily missile command...great little restaurant on the air field that features run-way kill menu options

Army and Air Force bases sometimes evolved together...similar to Navy and Marine bases...

What is unique about the army bases of that era is that they were usually composed of a series of quanset huts interconnected with raised wood walkways. Each pair of huts had a buried fuel oil tank, most of which were never cataloged...and are found today when a backhoe happens to rip into them...anyways the open-space between the huts were used for parade grounds and sometimes as grab-a$$ fields...

If you can find an old aerial picture or base layout you may be able to zero in to areas that would be more profitable...need to find and identify the areas where the soldiers would spent their spare time...PX, NCO clubs, and the like...

 

[Calworks]

Stephen,
I'm working here at Vandenberg, all you said is true, only problem they won't let you MD anywhere on the base for fear of either hitting an unexploded ordinance or a native american tribal site.

There is more junk buried here than you can imagine.

 

[LadyDigger]

aa....keep on digging...the history is there...

I did some newspaper searches and most of what I found was based on SPORTS...Hammer Field had their softball, basketball and other sports...most of the articles pertained to their winning and losing.

However, I did run across this one and hope you haven't seen it yet...so it will be NEW news to you.

Enjoy and good luck on your future hunts....history is there...!
Annmarie

PS: a little bit of history of Earl M. Hammer:

WWI, WWII, and Korean War Casualty Listings
Name: Earl M. Hammer
State Registered: California
Death Date: 19 May 1918
Cemetery: Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery
Cemetery Burial Plot: Plot G Row 20 Grave 9
Cemetery City: Romagne
Cemetery Country: France
War: World War I
Title: First Lieutenant, U.S. Army
RANK: First Lieutenant
Service: U.S. Army
Division: Air Service Signal Corps
Data Source: World War I Honor Roll

Apparrently...his parents: William and Laura Hammer were travellers (was it business, pleasure....not sure)...but I found a ship's manifest that list Earl at age 9 returning from Yokohawa (can't read the spelling to well), returning to San Fran....

California Passenger and Crew Lists, 1893-1957
Name: Earl Hammer
Arrival Date: 12 Jan 1906
Age: 9
Birth Date: abt 1897
Gender: Male
Ship Name: Siberia
Port of Arrival: San Francisco, California
Port of Departure: Hong Kong, China

 

[RickyP]

Interesting post. Hope he cleaned those pennies real good.

 

[aa battery]

Ron and Ann I have never seen that article. You do not know how much that article means to me because i have started short history of the base. As a child we use to play on the ammo storage areas because they were above ground. At 8 years old i helped tear down the gym for scrap and at 15 we rode our dirtbikes out there. Like any base there are things hidden and the area is contaminated with God knows what. Stefen the base was an Army Air Base covering hundreds of acres. Lockman as soon as i get a camera i will show you the silver. ...AA ( Amateur Historian )

 

[LadyDigger]

aa...you are so very welcomed and I'm glad it's something you haven't seen, so know you have it for your collection.

I tried doing a newspaper search on Earl M. Hammer....thinking maybe I could find something on his death...but found nothing....YET!!!

I'll search some more and see what else I can find...but like I said, most of the articles pertained to the sports side of the base and it's men.

I'll post if I can find anything else for you.

Good Luck on your research and if you need help in looking something up..don't hesitate to ask and I'll see what I can find!
Annmarie

PS: here's a weblink (don't know if you have seen this)... http://www.militarymuseum.org/FresnoANGBase.html

What I found interesting in this article, they talk about the municipal airport...I did find an article about the city and such discussing using the land for an airport...I'll see if I can locate that article again. I did find some articles on Camp Pinedale also...which Hammer Field was a sub-base of Camp Pinedale.

 

[stefen]

Stephen,
I'm working here at Vandenberg, all you said is true, only problem they won't let you MD anywhere on the base for fear of either hitting an unexploded ordinance or a native american tribal site.

There is more junk buried here than you can imagine.

Try working the Super Block area which was the old army bunk area...know the area from experience...designed the Super Block and a number of other facilities when I was with Sverdrup...