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Then, there is the hulking hangar itself, the mother ship of
the whole installation. Despite its enormous size, it went up
quickly with contracted crews laying out its bowstring trusses
on the ground, disassembling them and then glueing and spik-
ing them overhead when installed. Each training squadron that
rotated through the base every three months consisted of nine
B-17s. Though cramped, five could be accommodated inside the
hangar. And at the far south edge of the complex, silhouetted
against a lush Montana wheat field, is the Norden bombsight
storage building, thought to be the last of its kind in the United
States.
The town, with a 1940 population of 5,874, turned out to wel-
come the airmen with patriotic fervor. Lewistown's Civic Cen-
ter played host to nonstop social events for off-hours trainees
yearning for their hometowns. On base, the recreation building
for enlisted men was the site of boxing matches and other ath-
letic events with the townspeople, card parties, amateur hours,
newsreel and movie nights and other social gatherings with
Lewistown's citizens. "Young women of certified good moral
character, escorted by senior USO chaperones, rode buses to the
base on Wednesdays for the dances. Elsewhere known as 'Vic-
tory Belles,' in Lewistown these patriotic dance partners dubbed
themselves the 'bomba-dears,'" reads the National Register
plaque outside the Recreation Hall.
The Lewistown Airbase went as quickly as it came. The entire
base was only operational from November 1942 to October 1944
BILLINGS AIRPORT 1/2 H
BILLINGS
LOGAN
INTERNATIONAL
AIRPORT
in Montana's
Fall Landscapes
F L Y B I L L I N G S . C O M
ALANNA J. OBER
