Distinctly Montana Magazine

27 w w w. d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m mercial structure flanked by auto body shops, storage buildings and hangars. Yet each is identified with their National Register plaques explaining their story. Elements of the original base footprint are found today in the blueprints that laid out num- bered streets and avenues, still in use amid the municipal air- port's complex. As for the structures, they were squatty, devoid of any archi- tectural flair, and had the lookalike feel that only a utilitarian military installation could present. They were no beauty queens. The cookie-cutter layout of the buildings replicated similar in- stallations across the nation. Each building had its focused pur- pose. In the training building, air crews spent eight hours for every hour of flight time learning how to guide the lumbering B-17s into and out of bombing runs. The "camouflage" build- ing, for example, featured a wraparound elevated catwalk that enabled painters to view wing and fuselage panels from above to perfect color and application schemes. But since the Army Air Corps eschewed camo designs on B-17s, the building was modi- fied as a hangar for smaller aircraft used for gunnery practice. The quartermaster's building had large door openings on ei- ther side to allow for freight trucks drive through to load and offload food, clothing, spare parts, bedding, machinery, and just about everything else required to supply a one-thousand- man installation. Here, and in other base buildings, vintage cal- endars and pin-up posters still adorn the walls. A peek inside the recreation building reveals the original wooden floor still echoing in the hollow room with the tunes of Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey. The only missing buildings are the thirty-four barracks, infirmary, and mess hall, razed years ago to make room for civilian airport hangars. Even the humble little fire pump station remains frozen in time as if someone padlocked the door and walked away eighty years ago. Inside, its hulking diesel generator, used for backup power, remains bolted to the concrete floor with the original oil still registering on the dipstick. On the southeast wall is a wooden cabinet, and on the inside of the door are signatures and hometowns of many of the airmen who served at the base. Nearby is the still intact high-capacity electric pump ready to deliver water through underground pipes to the base's all-wood buildings. The "camouflage" building, where chemicals, paints, thinners and assorted flammable fluids were stored, was espe- cially vulnerable to structural fire, making the pump station a key component of base security. Not far away is the base's water tower, still marked with the original, though faded, white and red iconic checkerboard paint scheme, common to the period on military airfields. It was originally built in 1906 in Billings by a firm that specialized in designing steel windmills, then disas- sembled and freighted to Lewistown. By coincidence, Lewistown's line of longitude WAS ONLY FIVE DEGREES DIFFERENT THAN BERLIN'S. IT WAS BELIEVED THAT THE MONTANA AIRSPACE, TERRAIN, BAROMETRIC PRESSURE, AND WINTER TEMPERATURES WOULD REPLICATE WHAT AIR CREWS MIGHT EXPECT OVER GERMANY.

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