Martinus Stenseth

Nellis Air Force Base is a huge facility. It has two 10,000-foot-long runways and is home for more Air Force units than any other military installation. The base is located on the northeast side of Las Vegas (that's "The Meadows" in Spanish FYI), a sprawling metropolis with a permanent population getting close to three quarters of a million. "Vegas" is the entertainment and gambling capital of North America and visitors can swell the area's population by 50%.

In the 1930s, about 8,400 people lived in Las Vegas, but the town already had a reputation as "sin city." What would become Nellis Air F...