Lowry Air Force Base

From 1937 to 1994, Lowry Air Force Base, located on the eastern edge of the city of Denver, served the nation and the surrounding community in many
distinguished ways. The air base, primarily a technical training center, graduated more than 1.1 million enlisted members and officers in skills ranging from armament to photography, tremendously strengthening the country's war efforts in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War. In addition, from the 1980s, Lowry Air Force Base remained one of Colorado's largest employers, with approximately 10,000 military and civilian men and women, providing an economic impact approaching $1 billion annually. Thus Lowry significantly contributed to maintaining the world's largest air force and to promoting the accelerated growth of the Denver metro area and Colorado.

Author Jack Stokes Ballard holds a doctorate of philosophy in American history from UCLA, taught history at the Air Force Academy, served a career in the Air Force, and, as a lieutenant colonel, was chief of the Plans and Requirements Division at Lowry (1974–1980). John Bond, a retired Air Force master sergeant, was a student at Lowry and served at the base, and when assigned to the Air Force Academy, he greeted the first cadets at the Lowry interim site. He worked for IBM (1965–1988) and as a volunteer historian and photograph archivist at the Wings Over the Rockies Museum. George Paxton holds a bachelor of arts degree from Columbia, a doctor of medicine degree from Boston University, and a master of science degree from the University of Colorado. He is a retired Denver physician, served as a Public Health Service medical officer, and was in the Naval Reserve, attaining the rank of captain.