Historical:  Mather Field

Each year, the Shriners Hospital Concours d’Elegance

is held on historic Mather Field, just outside Sacramento in Rancho Cordova.

Before becoming part of the regional Sacramento airport system

serving corporate and executive clients,

Mather Field was a critical, strategic military base for the United States.  

 

In 1918, the U.S. Army Signal Corps built Mills Field

to serve as a flight training school for the then-new field of flying. 

Second Lieutenant Carl Spencer Mather, an Army Signal Corps test pilot

earned his pilot's license at the age of 16 on January 20, 1918. 

Tragically – five days later – Mather was killed in an air collision at Ellington Field in Texas.

He was participating in one of the first training classes for prospective World War I pilots. 

 

After completing their training, the remainder of Mather’s class stationed at Mills Field,

requested that the facility be renamed in Lt. Mather’s honor.  

On May 2, 1918, the name was officially changed from Mills Field to Mather Field.

 

 Two wars and a Great Depression later, the U.S. Air Force was formed on September 18, 1947. 

With that addition to the force, Mather Field became Mather Air Force Base (AFB)

and became the sole aerial navigation school for the U.S. military and our allies. 

In 1958, the Strategic Air Command (SAC B-52) squadron was assigned to Mather AFB

where it remained until 1989.  Nevertheless, the original purpose of the base,

Air Training Command (ATC), remained the primary mission of Mather AFB through 1993.

 

 That year, Mather AFB was decommissioned as an active air base

as part of the Base Realignment and Closure Act (BRAC). 

At the time of closure, the base comprised 5,845 acres, including 129 acres of easements. 

In 1995, Mather Airport was officially reopened as a 2,675-acre cargo airport

and another 1,432 acres became the Mather Regional Park. 

Other areas of the former AFB have been developed for housing,

a business park, the Veterans Administration Medical Center,

and the Federal Aviation Administration’s Northern California TRACON facility.

 

The Shriners Hospital is extremely pleased

to continue the rich tradition of Concours d’elegance each year on this historic site,

we greatly appreciate your continued support of this event

which totally benefits the children.

 

 

+ respectfully submitted +

+ John Manby, retired USAF+