Travis Air Force Base

Soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the Fairfield-Suisun Army Air Base, later to become Travis, was born on the windswept plains of Solano County. To meet the urgent need for an air gateway to the Pacific, the base soon had two runways on a 945-acre site between the twin farming communities. The gusty winds challenged the gutsy young pilots who trained here, many of whom saw the Golden Gate--their last view of the mainland--as they flew out to do battle. Expanding through the next two decades until it encompassed over 6,000 acres, Travis is now the largest base under the U.S. Air Force Mobility Command.

Author Major Diana Stuart Newlin has served over 20 years in the military and is currently a reservist assigned as an Air Force historian and deputy curator at the Travis Air Museum. She has surveyed the archives of the museum and gathered more than 200 of its best images to create this entertaining visual flyby of Travis AFB history.