Authorized by Congress in 1936 as the Sacramento Air Depot and formally named McClellan Field in 1939 for Major Hezekiah McClellan, the base was built to support West Coast operations and stage aircraft and materiel for the Pacific, then quickly became a major center for aircraft maintenance, supply, and logistics after the transfer of workers, parts, and equipment from Rockwell Air Depot. During World War II it repaired thousands of aircraft for the Pacific theater, expanded to round-the-clock production, and grew rapidly in workforce and facilities, then continued to adapt through the Korean War, the Cold War, the missile age, the Vietnam era, and later decades by overhauling bombers, fighters, and attack aircraft, supporting supply and communications-electronics workloads, aiding space and radar programs, and sending Rapid Area Maintenance teams to Southeast Asia, where four McClellan team members were killed in Saigon in 1965. In the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s the base diversified further into advanced technology, logistics management, and repair of increasingly complex systems while continuing to support major U.S. military operations, including the Persian Gulf War and later conflicts. After declining defense spending in the 1990s, the Base Realignment and Closure Commission recommended closing the base, and on July 13, 2001, after 65 years of operation, control was transferred to Sacramento County as its military workload moved elsewhere, ending an era in which McClellan had grown from a small depot into a vast installation whose military and civilian personnel played a vital role in the defense of the United States.