Phi Eta's History Blog

I read an article titled The Half-Life of History: Wendover and the 'Enola Gay.' It was an interesting article because it discussed some of the changes that have happened to Wendover since the end of the Second World War. The town has become quite run down besides a couple of casinos that rest on the border of Utah and Nevada, attracting gamblers from Utah to help fuel the towns dwindling economy. During the war however, Wendover was turned into a booming war-time town, at one time supporting over 20,000 people who were training to fly in the great bombers used by the US during the war.
It was in this atmosphere that Paul Tibbet, an officer in the US Air-force, arrived in Wendover to begin preparation for the training of the crews that would eventually be chosen to drop the atomic bombs on the Japanese mainlands. Chosen for its remote, out-of-the-way location in the desert in Utah, the Airfield was perfect for the operation because of its isolation as well as its relatively close proximity to railways that ran through Utah and its relative proximity to the production facilities on the West coast.
The article's main focus was a comparison of modern day Wendover to the Wendover during the war years, discussing what was left of its "golden age." Many of the massive plane hangers from the war still exist on the former airbase, but apart from these, there are no planes, no military personnel, and only a tiny local museum dedicated to the preservation of the airbase's legacy.
What interests me about this whole situation is that US military bases have shifted from being primarily located within the confines of US territory to being scattered around the world. Today, many of the airbases are located in different countries around the world. We no longer have need of them at home, and as a result, the economies of many local cities and airbase-towns have fallen apart. Those dollars which used to fuel these Urban centers now being spent over seas in other countries. Many things can be said about the negative effect that our assumed role as world police force has had on the US, but this would be an interesting one to bring up that I do not think I have ever heard said before by an American politician.