HORACE MEEK HICKAM

Horace Hickam landed and signed our Registers three times. He signed the Davis-Monthan Register twice, and the Peterson Field Register once. He landed at Colorado Springs on Friday, May 20, 1932 at 4:35PM. He was solo in the Boeing P-12E he identified as 31-562. He gave no reason for his visit, and appeared to be alone as there were no other military aircraft who landed near the same time. He was enroute from Amarillo, TX to Denver, CO. Below, an image of him at Bolling Field, Washington, DC.

H.M. Hickam, Bolling Field, Washington, DC, May, 1920 (Source: Web)

Hickam was born August 14, 1885 at Spencer, IN. Hickam was a West Pointer, graduating with a commission as 2nd iieutenant in 1908. He was assigned to Vermont, the Philippines, and to Mexico, where he earned the Silver Star for actions against Pancho Villa. At the outset of WWI, he joined the Signal Corps in the aviation section and was transferred to Rockwell in San Diego, CA for flight training. He completed gunnery training and, by October, 1918, was recognized for his administrative skills and took command of Dorr and Carlstrom Fields in Florida.

Almost immediately, he was transferred to Washington, DC and assigned as chief of the Information Division, Office of the Director of Air Service. Interestingly, in this capacity Hickam started and promulgated the Air Corps Newsletter, which consistently was published between 1918 and 1944. The Newsletters are a rich source of information that include mention of many Register pilots. Occasionally their flights can be identified in the Newsletters and correlated with their signatures in our Registers. One example is found in the Air Corps Newsletter of May 28, 1932 (just a week after he landed at Tucson!). Follow the link and about 2/3 down the page you'll find a citation in the Newsletter that documents Register pilot Albert Hegenberger's very first solo flight under instrument conditions. This was a significant aeronautical milestone, recorded appropriately and tersely in Hickam's Newletter for all to see and appreciate.

Through the 1920s he was a strong proponent of air power and lobbied for a separate air force. In that capacity, he was a supporter of Billy Mitchell. In 1928, he began a four-year assignment as a member of the War Plans Division. On March 1, 1932, he was promoted to Lt. Colonel. In June, 1932, he assumed command of the Third Attack Group at Fort Crockett in Galveston, TX. This brings us to his flight through Peterson Field, which originated in Amarillo, TX, a reasonable stopping point on a journey from Galveston to Denver.

In 1934, he was again transferred to Chicago to manage the Central Zone component of the air mail transport system as it was operated by the federal government. The system would soon prove untenable for the government and mail transport was given over to civil commercial entities. Hickam would not be a part of that transition.

Hickam Air Force Base Sign (Source: Web)

 

Hickam died young on November 5, 1934 while practicing night landings on an unlighted air strip at Fort Crockett, TX. Hickam Field, located on Oahu, HI, was named after him. The Field was named after him about six months after his death, on May 31, 1935. The Field was one of the major targets of the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The Field later became Hickam Air Force Base. The entry sign for the contemporary base is at left. Hickam Field, with the approval of Davis-Monthan Register pilot Major General Benjamin D. Foulois, was a new facility build on Oahu.

Hickam has an excellent Web presence. A concise biography of Hickam with good photographs is at the link. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, and his associated obituary is at the link.

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