Mather Field was one of 32 Air Service training camps established after the United States entry into World War I in April 1917.

[2] Mather Field also now serves as home of the 149th Intelligence Squadron of the 195th Wing, Air National Guard.

He enlisted as an aviation cadet in August 1917 and as a licensed pilot was commissioned with part of his class as a second lieutenant on 20 January 1918.

He continued training to earn a Reserve Military Aviator rating and promotion to first lieutenant but was killed ten days later.

[3] In January 1918, the Department of War sent a cadre of officers to the Sacramento, California area to survey sites for an aviation school.

The first unit stationed there was the 283d Aero Squadron, which was transferred from Rockwell Field, North Island, California.

[3] Only a few U.S. Army Air Service aircraft arrived with the 283d Aero Squadron, Most of the Curtiss JN-4 Jennys to be used for flight training were shipped in wooden crates by rail.

Primary training consisted of pilots learning basic flight skills under dual and solo instruction.

Many local officials speculated that the U.S. government would keep the field open because of the outstanding combat record established by Mather-trained pilots in Europe.

The separate training squadrons were consolidated into a single Flying School detachment, because many of the personnel at Mather were being demobilized.

[3] With the end of World War I, in December 1919 Mather Field was closed as an active airfield.

However, with the return to a peacetime economy, Mather Field were deemed unnecessary as a military training facility, and it was closed on 12 May 1923.

The War Department ordered the small caretaker force at Mather Field to dismantle all remaining structures and to sell them as surplus.

[3] Mather became a twin-engine Advanced Flying School, training pilots on North American B-25 Mitchell medium bombers.

[3] During the summer of 1945, the 509th Composite Group was transferring from its Second Air Force training base at Wendover Army Air Field, Utah, the group landed at Mather prior to embarking on its trans-Pacific movement to Tinian (in the Marianas Island chain).

[7]: 124  Site L-37 began operation with an AN/CPS-6 in June 1950, and the 668th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron was assigned on 1 January 1951 .

By 1960 the station became a joint-use facility with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and in 1961, the two height-finder radars were removed.

The station became part of the San Francisco Air Defense Sector with the radars providing radar data to the Beale AFB DC-18 SAGE Direction Center via the Burroughs AN/FST-2 Coordinate Data Transmitting Set at Mill Valley Air Force Station (Z-28).

The Strategic Wings were formed in the late 1950s as part of SAC's plan to disperse its heavy bombers over a larger number of bases, thus making it more difficult for the Soviet Union to knock out the entire fleet with a surprise first strike.

In addition to SAC nuclear alert, the 320th also conducted conventional operations, including maritime missions in support of the U.S. Navy with aerial mines and AGM-84 Harpoon missiles.

The chiefly grassland ecological community continues to hold a considerable number of plants, mammals, birds and arthropods.

[17] This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency