By Tim Unruh
City’s “best and brightest” lead bounce-back from base closing
Thanksgiving turkeys were on the thaw in November 1964 when shockwaves bounded like a thorny tumbleweed through Salina and north-central Kansas.
The Department of Defense announced it was stripping the regional center of its major employer with the closing of Schilling Air Force Base, part of the nation’s Strategic Air Command. It was home to more than 5,000 men.
The move eliminated a substantial chunk of the city’s workforce and threatened the futures of countless businesses. Some churches even closed.
Schilling was among 574 other military bases around the world that were marked for closure, “due to a shift in military strategy and budget constraints,” according to some news reports. Others suggested it was for political reasons.
“We could not understand why Schilling was selected for closure,” said Roger Morrison, a retired Salina businessman, who was newly graduated from the University of Kansas at the time.
“The irony was they had spent a lot of money at the base to lengthen, widen and deepen the runway to meet the specifications for the B-52s, which were heavier and longer-range bombers than the B-47s,” he said. “I felt like (Schilling) wasn’t utilized for all of the benefits of the number of sunny days and its central location.”
The base closure was a huge jolt to Salina, said Gordon Fiedler, retired Salina Journal reporter, who was 15 at the time. By June 30, 1965, the base was nearly deserted.
Gone was that “constant roar, when the wind was right,” he said, from the B-47 bombers at and near the base, along with many more people.
“You had your schoolmates, some of them Air Force brats,” Fiedler said. “When you returned for the fall semester (1965), they were all gone.”
In a Nov. 15, 2014, Salina Journal article, Fiedler wrote “The news was cataclysmic on an epic scale,” in part because the base injected more than $154 million a year (in 2014 dollars) into the local economy, employing 763 officers, 4,244 airmen and 357 civilians.
“Like the 9.2 magnitude earthquake that shook Alaska eight months earlier, this seismic disaster spared no part of the community. Real estate, retail, civic involvement, church attendance, population — all were rattled like never before,” his story reads.
Salina schools had “lots of empty chairs.”
For a time, the vast collections of buildings of many sizes stood silent, flanked by a sea of thick concrete and a long runway.
The base represented the end of a long presence — starting in 1942 as the Smoky Hill Army Airfield, and changed to Schilling AFB in 1957.
The shattering exodus turned the outpost into a ghost town, aging on 3,300 acres, read a 2015 Salina Journal remembrance.
“It was a typical old World War II Air Force base, with the old raunchy barracks and other things,” said Ed Pogue, a former executive at Kansas Power and Light executive and later at Planter’s Bank, who served seven years on the Salina Airport Authority board, four as chairman. He died last May.
Pogue said you could drive through many neighborhoods and see “For Sale” signs outside three-fourths of the homes.
“There were 28 pawn shops in town and there were only two or three left. It was an extremely difficult time for the community,” he was quoted as saying in the 2015 story.
But a wonderful new beginning lay ahead for the land when the federal government deeded the base to Salina for one dollar.
The city formed the Schilling Development Council in 1965, a precursor to the Salina Airport Authority. The council’s first major decision came Jan.22, 1965, deeming that the former base would be “tied to industrial expansion.”
Evolving out of that first statement was a plan to promote industry, aviation, education and the overall growth of jobs.
It was up to local visionaries to return some luster to the complex.
They pulled it off, taking Schilling from a $12 million annual payroll to $140 million a year, according to a March 8, 2015 Journal story. The annual payroll today is $142 million, with total employment of roughly 7,005 people, according to the SAA.
Major stars of the comeback are a long list of Salina Airport Authority board members who led the Salina Airport and Airport industrial center back to economic prominence.
“Since 1965, fifty-six of the best and brightest business and civic leaders have served on the Salina Airport Authority board of directors. Each board member contributed to the successful transformation of the former Schilling AFB to today's vibrant and dynamic airport and airport industrial center,” wrote Tim Rogers, who served 39 years as Airport Authority executive director, retiring last July.
“Early board members saw the Salina Regional Airport and Airport Industrial Center as a ‘diamond in the rough.’ ” Rogers wrote. “Since 1965 at the direction and guidance of (those) dedicated men and women, that ‘diamond in the rough’ shines a bit brighter today!”
Numbers confirm it.
Using 2019 data, the Fort Hays State University Docking Institute reported the airport and industrial area provided nearly $1.3 billion to the economy, from private businesses, public education institutions, military units, governmental units and nonprofits.
An updated impact study is expected in mid-April from the Docking Institute.
Decades that followed the 1960s included a number of challenges — recessions, a revolving door of scheduled commercial air carriers, and the Raytheon/Hawker Beechcraft closing its Salina division at the end of February 2012, when Rogers confidently responded, “Let’s get to work.”
The Salina Public Entities — the SAA, City of Salina, K-State Salina and USD 305 — is currently in the midst of overseeing a massive cleanup of contamination left by the military at the former Schilling Air Force Base, using a $65.9 million settlement from the U.S. government in June 2020.
Recovery has been forthwith many times, leading to today. The SAA has begun a major remodel of the M.J. Kennedy Air Terminal, including adding a second boarding gate, and there are plans for major industrial and warehouse expansion at the southern end of the Airport Industrial Area.
Major developments include 1 Vision Aviation, a maintenance, repair and overhaul firm that leased the massive Big Bertha hangar in 2019, and more space since, also adding aircraft paint services. The company employs more than 300 workers, most of them airframe and power plant mechanics.
Schwan’s Company added 400,000 square feet to its pizza manufacturing facility in the Airport Industrial Area, increasing its space to more than 1 million square feet with the $600 million investment, adding 225 jobs. More than 1,000 people are employed there today.
In May, United Airlines’ schedule will add nonstop flights to Houston to its Salina schedule that already includes daily roundtrips to Chicago and Denver.
The SAA counted 25,326 passenger enplanements last year, mostly on United Airlines service, operated by SkyWest. More than 2 million gallons of aviation fuel was dispensed on the airport in 2024.
K-State Salina started K-AIRES, the Kansas Advanced Immersive Research for Emerging Systems Center, aimed at advancing aerospace, defense training, immersive storytelling, manufacturing, simulation and other domains. The $40 million project is a partnership between K-State and Pure Imagination Studios of Hollywood. The 47,500-square-foot center is expected to open in 2026.
With decades of expertise and passion from locals, new opportunities continue to sprout at the big airport.
“I’m proud of the forefathers. Man, the visions that they had. What they did was phenomenal,” said John Vanier, a local businessman and former Salina mayor who served from 1999 to 2005 on the Airport Authority board.
It was, and still is, all about “collaboration and teamwork,” said Rogers, former executive director of the Salina Airport Authority, who replaced the inaugural leader, Mike Scanlan, in 1985.
“The plan for reuse of the former Schilling Air Force Base from the time of the base closure to today is unique,” Rogers said. “It included action to create the airport authority to become the leading entity for industrial and aviation-aerospace growth; more importantly to replace jobs and payroll lost. The collaborative efforts continue to this day.”
The airport and industrial center is still considered hallowed ground, said Pieter Miller, airport authority executive director, who is well into his first year at the helm.
"Taking over the controls at SAA is both a privilege and a responsibility. You're handed the keys to an operation with decades of history and a track record of impact — and now it's your turn to steer,” he said. “The challenge is to honor that legacy while pushing for the kind of growth that ensures it continues to matter 10, 20, 50 years from now."
Much has been written about this place, and there’s likely more to come.
Coming from someone who learned to fly at the airport, Miller said he’s enjoying an awesome experience at the helm.
“You walk through these hangars and see the history, the potential, the partnerships — and it's humbling. But with that comes the weight of making sure we don’t lose momentum. We have to keep earning our place in this region’s future,” he said. “I grew up admiring this place—watching the planes, hearing the stories, wanting to be a part of it. To now be trusted to lead the organization I looked up to as a kid... that’s not lost on me. It’s humbling, and it’s personal."
The enduring mission brought diversity to the old base, which built in stability that’s still firmly in place.
“You’re not counting on just that one industry — the military — to come and go,” Vanier said. “When the government gives you a runway that’s one of the longest in the world — 13,332 feet — that’s quite a gift.”
Three-year unpaid terms on the five-member Salina Airport Authority Board of Directors were eagerly accepted to find ways to make the most of the priceless property.
“There were some great ones, like Bob Miller and Dr. Randy Hassler,” Vanier said. “It was just a real pleasure to be able to sit around the table with those guys. It’s a tribute to Tim Rogers, the Airport Authority and the Salina City Commission.”
The airport is a happening place, said Hassler, a retired Salina urologist who came to Salina in 1979. He previously served as a flight surgeon in the Air Force, kept a general aviation plane at Salina Regional Airport and spent 12 years on the SAA board.
“It was the most effective board I ever sat on,” he said. “When suggestions were made, things moved. Things got done out there. It was fun to watch the Airport Authority continue to grow and grow. Tim Rogers was a lot of that.”
Economic impact is significant, with revenue produced by the airport operations and the business community.
“It is a job producer,” Hassler said.
As an Airport Authority board member from 1987 to 1993, Roger Morrison was in on the planning of a new Fixed Base Operator building for Moore Aviation.
“My contribution was to make the bathrooms big with lots of urinals. I said ‘Make them with more stalls, like Las Vegas, more luxurious that you would expect. When they get off their planes, that’s where they’re going.’ he recalled. “I would guess that the fuel revenue would have paid for that bathroom many times.”
Vanier was a young lad when the base was in operation, but remembers when his mother, the late Donna Vanier, christened an A-10 Thunderbolt 11, named “Thunderbolt of Salina,” June 25, 2008. She first christened a B-47 bomber Dec. 17, 1954, dubbed “City of Salina,” according to SAA records.
Today, the Salina Regional Airport & Airport Industrial Center covers 2,832 acres that’s home to 1.154 million square feet of buildings and hangar space. As of Feb. 26, all but 125,834 square feet was leased, adding a fortune in value to the local and regional economies.
The main runway — since shortened to 12,300 feet, is still long enough to land a Space Shuttle. SLN served as an alternate runway for those crafts. The airport is a major fueling stop for cross-country travel, the military, including deployments from Fort Riley and the Kansas National Guard Training Center, general aviation, pilot training from Kansas State University at Salina and scheduled air service.
“The collaborative efforts continue to this day,” Rogers said, with team members including the City of Salina, Saline County, SAA, Salina Area Chamber of Commerce, SCEDO, K-State Salina, State of Kansas, Kansas Wesleyan and Salina Technical College.
