Hill AFB, named for Major Ployer Peter Hill, an active Air Corps test pilot of the 1930s, was originally conceived of as an Air Corps air mail depot, and constructed near Ogden, Utah in 1939 and 1940. This air mail mission was cast aside in the early days of the buildup to World War Two, and Hill Field became a primary aircraft maintenance and supply depot. With the outbreak of the war, Hill began round-the-clock operations in support of Army Air Force aircraft, repairing superstructures, overhauling engines, and otherwise bringing aircraft back into service or breaking them up into spare parts. Over 22,000 service and civilian personnel worked at Hill at its peak. By 1944 US aircraft production was at full speed, and Hill Field began a long term storage facility for outdated aircraft.

1948 saw Hill Airfield renamed Hill Air Force Base, and at the start of the Korean War Hill pulled later model World War II aircraft into active service. The 1960s and following decades continued Hill's mission in maintenance and storage maintenance, now of jet aircraft, a mission that continues to this day. 1981 saw the creation of the Hill Aerospace Museum, housing a collection of more than 80 USAAF, USAF, and USN, and some Warsaw Pact aircraft from over 70 years of aviation history.