The quiet plans that became Hill Air Force Base

What drove the news: Hill Field began operations Nov. 7, 1940, barely a year before the attack at Pearl Harbor pulled the United States into World War II.

Why it mattered: It was part of an infusion of military resources that President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Congress undertook in 1939 — while the American public was dead-set against joining the war.

Behind the scenes: FDR had long seen war as inevitable, but wanted to avoid isolationist backlash, which was rampant. So he promised not to deploy troops while quietly pushing for preparations, sometimes speaking out of both sides of his mouth.

• "He could (and often did) espouse both sides of an issue," wrote military journalist John Correll. "He was not one to let consistency hold him back."

Zoom in: Military planners had decided a few years earlier that a Utah base could supply the Pacific coast but was far enough inland to avoid attack.

• It was named for Maj. Ployer B. Hill, who died in 1935 while testing a forerunner of the B-17 bomber.

Catch up quick: After the Pearl Harbor attack, antiwar misgivings vanished nationally and in Utah.

• Hill Field became a critical maintenance and supply base during WWII, when thousands of workers repaired aircraft and built spare parts.
• "Utah prepares to do part in war on Japan," the Deseret News declared on Dec. 8, 1941.

The bottom line: Quietly maneuvering against public sentiment can be a dicey proposition for an elected official in a democracy.

• But in 1939, those preparations laid the groundwork for FDR's legacy, America's midcentury rise as a superpower and the defeat of fascism — at least for the time being.