Luke Air Force Base is named for the first aviator to receive the Medal of Honor posthumously, Lt. Frank Luke, Jr. Born in Phoenix in 1897, the "Arizona BalloonBuster" scored 18 aerial victories during World War I - 14 German observation balloons and 4 enemy planes - in the skies over France before being killed in battle on Sept. 29, 1918. He was 21 years old. In 1940, the U.S. Army sent a representative to Arizona to choose a site for an Army Air Corps training field for advanced training in conventional fighter aircraft. The City of Phoenix bought 1,440 acres of land which they leased to the government for $1 per year effective March 24, 1941. On March 29th, the Del Webb Construction Co. began excavation for the first building at what was known then as Litchfield Park Air Base. Another base known as Luke Field, in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, released its name when that base was transferred to the Navy in June, 1941, and the fledging Arizona base was called "Luke Field" at the request of its commander, Lt. Col. Ennis C. Whitehead.The first class of 45 students, Class 41-F, arrived on June 6, 1941 to begin advanced flight training in the AT-6 "Texan", although only a few essential buildings had been completed. Flying out of Sky Harbor Airport until the Luke runways were ready, pilots received 10 weeks of instruction and the first class graduated on Aug. 15, 1941. Capt. Barry Goldwater served as director of ground training the following year. During World War II, Luke was the largest fighter training base in the Air Corps, graduating more than 12,000 fighter pilots from advanced and operational courses in the AT-6, P-40 "Warhawk", P-51 "Mustang", and P-38 "Lightning" aircraft, earning the name "Home of the Fighter Pilot. "By Feb. 7, 1944, pilots at Luke had achieved a million hours of flying time. By 1946, however, the number of pilots trained dropped to 299 and the base was deactivated Nov. 30th of that year. Soon after combat developed in Korea, Luke Field was reactivated on Feb. 1, 1951 as Luke Air Force Base, part of the Air Training Command under the reorganized U. S. Air Force. Students progressed from the P-51 "Mustang" to the F-84 "Thunderstreak" jet. The official Air Force aerial demonstration team, the "Thunderbirds", was formed at Luke in 1953.In 1957, Luke began training West German pilots under an international agreement, using the F-84 until 1964, then the F-104 "Starfighter". Today a large contingent of the Singapore Air Force trains in F-16s at Luke AFB. Flight training at Luke changed to the F-100 "Super Sabre" and on July, 1958, the base was transferred from the Air Training Command (ATC) to the Tactical Air Command (TAC).During the 1960s, thousands of American fighter pilots left Luke to carve their niche in the annals of Air Force history in the skies over Vietnam.In July 1971, the base received the F-4C "Phantom II" and assumed its role as the main provider of fighter pilots for TAC and fighter forces worldwide. In November 1974, the Air Force's newest air superiority fighter, the F-15 "Eagle", came to Luke. It was joined in December 1982 by the first F-16 "Fighting Falcon", which officially began training pilots Feb. 2, 1983. The first two-seat, dual-role F-15E "Strike Eagle" arrived at Luke in 1988. Presently only the newer F-16 C (single seat) and F-16 D (two-seat) models are based at Luke although it remains the largest fighter training base in the world.

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