Albuquerque veteran recalls early days at Kirtland

Published June 3, 2016
By Kendahl Johnson
Kirtland Public Affairs

KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. -- As Kirtland Air Force Base celebrates the 75th anniversary of military in Albuquerque, one former Air Force officer recalls his service as a member of the first cadre tasked with opening the base here.

Albuquerque resident Arnold Ringstead was a member of the Army Air Corps serving at March Field in California when in 1941 he was transferred to what was then the Albuquerque Army Air Field.

"The base was not even finished," Ringstead said. "They were still building it. The hangar was still being built, so we rented half of TWA's hangar."

At the air field, which became Kirtland Army Air Field in 1942 in honor of pioneer aviator Col. Roy Kirtland, Ringstead's first assignment was to the 3rd Air Base Squadron in the 4th Air Base Group. He was a private first class assigned to aircraft maintenance working on a B-18A Bomber.

Perhaps his most exciting day at Kirtland was the day Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941.

"If you were here, you would have thought the war broke out at Kirtland," Ringstead said. "I don't know what the report was they got at Kirtland, but they put every available man they could guarding the base. We were a bunch of scared soldiers. The way they were acting, you'd have thought the enemy was ready to come through the front gate. We managed to get through that first night and things settled down."

Ringstead started at Kirtland as an enlisted member, but when an opportunity arose to test to become an officer, he took it. He passed the test with flying colors and was promoted from an enlisted member to warrant officer one, a rank no longer used in the Air Force.

He eventually retired as a chief warrant officer four.

While an officer at Kirtland, Ringstead was responsible for the base's fueling operations.

He recalls a competition in the major command, where inspectors were visiting bases to judge the best looking fueling operations. Kirtland officials decided the area around the fuel tanks needed beautification, due to weeds and discarded welding rods.

Ringstead had several truckloads of sand brought in to cover them.

"The weeds and the rods were completely covered; it looked very nice," Ringstead said. "The Air Force inspectors arrived and along with them that night came one of our canyon winds. By the time the inspectors came to our site, there wasn't a damn bit of sand left."

Ringstead, who turns 99 this summer, still visits the base from time to time. He said the Kirtland he remembers no longer exists.

The base moved from being almost entirely on the westside near today's airport to mostly on the eastside. All the barracks and hangars from that time have been moved or torn down. The chapel that he married his wife is gone.

"It was sold as excess and moved off the base and it's now in Albuquerque on Zuni," he said. "It's still a functioning church."

Ringstead spent 15 of his 30 years of service at Kirtland, over several tours. He liked Albuquerque so much that he made it his permanent home after retiring in 1971.

"I thought this was an awful place when I first got here, but it grows on you. There is something about New Mexico people like. Many of my friends who got out of the military went to the east coast to retire and it wasn't six months before they'd be back in New Mexico," he said.