1940-1941

It was during Underhill’s term that great expansion came to Las Vegas.  Tommy Hull had recently completed his El Rancho Hotel, thus starting a tourist boom; and shortly thereafter, the U.S. Army Flexible Gunnery School was started out at the Western Air Field, which is where Nellis AFB now stands.  Western and the Army Air Force shared the field for the duration of the war.

As was only natural, airmen were commonplace on the streets of Las Vegas, and the Rotary Club was instrumental, along with the Chamber of Commerce, in staging several Christmas parties for the cadets training at the base just before leaving for combat duty in the South Pacific.