Cheli Air Force Station (site) (Bell, California)

 Second World War 1939-1945, Cold War 1947-1991, historical layer / disappeared object, United States Air Force

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The 91.48 acre site was acquired in 1943 for the Maywood Army Air Forces Specialized Storage Depot. It was garrisoned by the 822th Army Air Forces Specialized Depot, which became the 4822th Army Air Forces Base Unit (Specialized Depot). The function of the depot was to store and distribute aircraft parts. The site transferred to the United States Air Force when the Air Force became a separate service branch in 1947. At this time it was named Cheli Air Force Station in honor of San Francisco born Medal of Honor recipient Major Ralph Cheli.

This was also the site of Los Angeles Bomb Plot #7, which was a Radar Bomb Scoring site established at Cheli AFS around 1952. The bomb plot was used for evaluating bomber training missions on practice targets in Southern California. The site was controlled by Detachment 8 of the 3903rd Radar Bomb Scoring Group. The RBS site was near Beale, Castle, and March bomber bases, as well as the Brown Field Bombing Range, Camp Beale Bombing Range, Madera Bombing Range, Muroc Bomb & Gunnery Range, Saline Valley Bombing Range, and Trabuco Bombing Range. Bomb run locations included those of a Castle AFB bomber using the "A/B Santa Barbara" Initial Point and the " LA # 'I' " target. The radar site closed when the RBS unit moved to the Badlands Bombing Range site in Wall, South Dakota that had opened in August 1960.

Cheli AFS was officially closed on November 3, 1961 when it was transferred to the General Services Administration. 27 acres were transferred to the Patton United States Army Reserve Center (now United States Armed Force Reserve Center, Bell) and other parcels have been transferred to USPS, the Salvation Army, Los Angeles Unified School District, and other organizations over the years. The S. Mark Taper Foundation Shelter Resource Bank is housed in Building 1101 (formerly Building 6), which is one of the original Cheli AFS buildings.

www.militarymuseum.org/CheliAFS.html
www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=AD0273891