Namesakes

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EDWARD FITZGERALD BEALE Born: Feb. 4, 1822, Washington, D.C. BEALE Died: April 22, 1893, Washington, D.C. Rancher, Sailor, Soldier, ... Camel Driver College: Philadelphia Naval School Service: US Navy, California Militia Beale Air Force Base, near Sacramento, In the 1860s, Beale founded Tejon Ranch Grade: Lieutenant (Navy); brigadier general (Militia) bears the name of a legendary American of in California, at the time the largest private Honors: US ambassador the 19th century—a hero in war, explorer and landholding in the . (He kept Occupations: Naval officer, surveyor, rancher, diplomat frontiersman, close friend of the famous, ad- some of the camels there.) He soon became Famous Friends: , Cody, Ulysses visor to presidents, rancher, multimillionaire, one of the nation’s richest men. S. Grant, Franz Josef and diplomat extraordinaire. In his lifetime, Beale received personal Who exactly was Edward Fitzgerald Beale? appointments from five Presidents: Andrew Beale—“Ned” to his friends—was the son Jackson (to Philadelphia Naval School); of George Beale, a prominent naval officer (as Indian Affairs super- BEALE AIR FORCE BASE in the . The son, too, became a intendent in California); naval officer, sailing to Russia, Brazil, and (to map the wagon road); State: California Europe. He also acted for a time as naval (as surveyor general of California and Ne- Status: Operational spy in London for President James Polk. vada); and Ulysses S. Grant (as US envoy Opened: (by Army) October 1942 While on detachment from his ship in San to -Hungary). He had other famous Original Name: Camp Beale Diego, he fought in the 1846-48 Mexican friends (see right). Closed: (by Army) May 1947 War, emerging as a hero in the Battle of In retirement, Beale lived at Decatur Reopened: (by USAF) January 1948 San Pasqual. He became famous in 1848 House, near the , until his Named as AFB: April 1951 for carrying east the first gold samples from death in 1893. The men who witnessed his Area: 36 sq mi / 23,000 acres the California strikes. will were Grant and Gen. William Tecumseh Nearest City: Sacramento Beale left the Navy in 1851 and settled in Sherman. Current Owner: Air Combat Command California. He became the state’s first super- The name of Beale was also lent to a fa- Former Owners: Air Training Command, Conti- intendent of Indian Affairs, and was made mous street in San Francisco and a mountain nental Air Command, Strategic Air Command a brigadier general in the California Militia. chain in California. Home Of: 9th Reconnaissance Wing In the late 1850s, he surveyed Beale’s Camp Beale, established by the Army Wagon Road, a 1,000-mile trail from New in World War II for armor training, passed to California. For this, he enlisted officially to the new US Air Force and be- 1. U-2 Dragon Lady at Beale AFB, Calif. 2. An artist’s as pack animals 25 camels imported from came a full-fledged air base in 1948. It long conception of the Beale camel train deployed to Egypt and Turkey. Beale thought highly of served as a Strategic Air Command facility survey the 1,000-mile trail from New Mexico to “this noble and useful brute,” but his view and now is home of Air Combat Command’s California. 3. U-2 pilots with a spyplane at Beale. 4. Edward Fitzgerald “Ned” Beale. was not universally shared. 9th Reconnaissance Wing.

124 AIR FORCE Magazine / September 2016