Chicopee: 1950-1975

On September 19, 1939, Chicopee mayor Anthony J. Stonina was sitting at his desk wiping away tears. The three-term mayor had just finished reading a brief letter from the US War Department. The seven square miles of Chicopee’s tobacco plains had been selected as the site for the Northeast base of the Army Air Corps. The city was destined to permanently be a City with Wings. In 1942, the facility, already the largest air base in the country, was named to honor the memory of military aviation pioneer Maj. Gen. Oscar Westover. Chicopee: 1950-1975 tells the story of a three-decade Cold War relationship between the Strategic Air Command of the US Air Force and its considerable impact on a small New England city. It is the story of a community’s initial misgivings growing into a beneficial symbiotic relationship, which continues to this day.