CASPER, Wyo. – In 1941, the land about nine miles west of Casper looked like most of the areas outside of city limits – miles of flat , wind-swept prairie covered in sage, migrating antelope and numerous other small critters.
That changed with breakneck speed the following year, when the United States Army Airforce commissioned the land while building scores of new training facilities around the country.
“They started construction in in May (1942), and by mid-August the base was mostly complete,” says John Woodward, director of the Wyoming Veterans Museum located near the Natrona County International Airport.