Named to honor Major Dana H. Crissy, a brave young aviator who died in 1919 while stretching the limits of airpower, Crissy Field played an important role in the pioneering years of military and commercial aviation as one of the earliest army air bases on the West Coast. Flying records were set here, aviators who became famous for their contributions were stationed here, and history-making long-distance flights started and ended here.

From Race Cars to Biplanes

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The western portion of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition was sited on military land and briefly contained a racetrack that doubled as a drill ground and aviation field. The Grand Prix was held there, and the winning auto reached the dizzying speed of 56 miles per hour.

When the exposition closed, a board of army officers recommended the site for an Air Coast Defense Station-an airfield whose mission would be to cooperate with the artillery defenses of San Francisco Bay. From their lofty vantage point, they would scout for the approach of an enemy, observe and correct the fire of our big guns on the coastal bluffs, and pass messages to troops in the field.

The Last Word in Airfields

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The permanent air base was built in 1921 under the supervision of "Hap" Arnold, a young major destined to lead the largest air force the world has ever known during WWII. The original facilities consisted of a kidney-shaped field on which the outline of the former racetrack was still visible. In an era of open-cockpit, fabric-covered biplanes, an airfield was just that: a wide expanse planted in grass to soften the landing and to slow the plane after touch-down (no brakes in those days!).

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Against the bluffs of the Presidio uplands, the field's southern edge was lined with hangars for seaplanes and landplanes, workshops, and a garage. Farther east was a cluster that included an administration building, enlisted barracks, flagstaff, and a guardhouse built in attractive Mission Revival style. On top of the bluff, where the approach to the Golden Gate Bridge would eventually be built, were bachelor officers' quarters and a row of small homes for married officers. Later that year, no less an authority than Marshal Ferdinand Foch, commander of the victorious Allied armies in WWI, inspected the new installation and pronounced it "the last word in airfields."

One-or More-for the Record Books

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Between 1921 and 1936, aerial operations at Crissy Field consisted primarily of observation of artillery fire for the Coast Defenses of San Francisco; aerial photography; liaison flights for headquarters personnel; special civilian cooperation missions, such as search-and-rescue and publicity flights; and support for the U.S. Air Mail Service. The first Western aerial forest fire patrols were undertaken by Crissy Field pilots, who also checked for diseased trees, identified archeological sites in remote southwestern deserts, and participated in the dedication of Lassen National Park from the cockpits of their flying machines.

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It was, however, a series of record-breaking long-distance flights during the Roaring Twenties that put Crissy Field securely in the record books of aviation history and contributed to the growth of the modern aviation industry. In 1924, the first Dawn-to-Dusk transcontinental flight ended in triumph at Crissy Field. In doing so, one of the "great goals of the Air Service," to "reduce the time for deploying army aircraft from one part of the country to another," had taken a giant practical step forward. Later that same year, the army's Round-the-World Race stopped at Crissy Field, with Lieutenant Lowell H. Smith of Crissy Field leading the flyers upon their return. This was "the most important pioneering flight of the time in terms of difficulty and international prestige. . ."

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In 1925, two navy seaplanes took off from Crissy Field inthe first attempt to fly from the mainland to Hawaii. Expected to last twenty-six hours, the trip took twelve days and was only partially completed by one plane, whose flyers had to be rescued at sea. Two years later, they tried again. Army lieutenants Lester J. Maitland and Albert F. Hegenberger readied their big Fokker three engine plane, the Bird of Paradise, at Crissy Field and flew non-stop to the islands.

Winding Down

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In 1936, Crissy Field closed as a first-line air base. Wind and fog had always made for difficult flying conditions; the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge made operating aircraft from Crissy Field even more challenging; and its location near the ocean, though convenient to coast artillery batteries, also made it vulnerable to enemy bombardment by sea. There was little room for expansion, and the activation of Hamilton Field in Marin County offered an up-to date alternative location for the air corps.

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After the air corps left Crissy Field, the headquarters of the 30th U.S. Infantry Regiment moved into the administration building and the landing field was routinely used as an assembly area for troop mobilization. With the coming of WWII, temporary wooden barracks sprang up at both ends of the airfield, and more of the landing field was paved. The former air mail hangar became barracks and classrooms for the army's top-secret Military Intelligence Service Language School; here, Nisei soldiers (second-generation Americans of Japanese descent) trained as battlefield interpreters as their families were being sent to isolated inland internment camps.

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In the years after WWII, the Sixth Army Flight Detachment operated light airplanes and helicopters from the paved runway that replaced the grass landing field. By this time, Crissy Field traffic consisted primarily of liaison flights, and MedEvac flights bringing soldiers wounded in Vietnam from Travis Air Force Base to Letterman Hospital. In 1974, it was finally closed to fixed-wing aircraft, although helicopter operations continued until very recently.