Cannon AFB, NM

Cannon AFB is a census-designated place about eight miles west of Clovis in eastern New Mexico, on the open high plains near the Texas Panhandle. Before the military arrived, the site was Portair Field, a civilian passenger stop built in the late 1920s for early transcontinental flights. The Army chose the field during World War II for a large training base; construction began in 1942, and Clovis Army Air Base trained B-24, B-17, and later B-29 aircrews. After the war the installation was inactivated, reopened for the Air Force, and passed through several names before becoming Cannon Air Force Base in 1957.

The name honors Gen. John K. Cannon, a World War II commander who later led the Tactical Air Command. The base’s modern mission is tied to the 27th Special Operations Wing and specialized airpower, with Melrose Air Range extending the working map beyond the runways. Clovis remains the nearby service and community center, while Cannon’s own landscape is a mix of aircraft, hangars, prairie, and long training corridors. The local scoop is that Cannon began as a civilian airport, became a bomber school, and now carries a special-operations mission under a name that arrived only after several earlier chapters.