Texas World War II Army Airfields | |
---|---|
Part of World War II | |
Amarillo AAF
Big Spring AAF
Jones Fld
Bryan AAF
Childress AAF
Corsicana MAP
Cuero AAF
Ellington AAF
Fort Worth AAF
Foster AAF
Garner APT
Gibbs AAF
Goodfellow AAF
Hondo AAF
Kaufman APT
Lamesa AAF
Laredo AAF
Laughlin AAF
Schreiner FLD
Lubbock AAF
Marfa AAF
Harlingen AAF
Midland AAF
Mineral Wells AAF
Moore AAF
Pampa AAF
Pecos AAF
Pounds AAF
Perrin AAF
Randolph AAF
Brooks AAF
San Angelo AAF
San Marcos AAF
Killeen AAF
Sheppard AAF
Terrell MAP
Waco AAF
Temple AAF
Wink AAF
Abilene AAF
Biggs AAF
Brownsville AAF
Dalhart AAF
Galveston AAF
Majors AAF
Pyote AAF
Brownwood AAF
Del Valle AAF
|
|
Type | Army Airfields |
Site information | |
Controlled by | United States Army Air Forces |
Site history | |
Built | 1940–1944 |
In use | 1940–present |
Garrison information | |
Garrison | Army Air Force Training Command |
Many United States Air Force personnel have spent some of their military service being trained in Texas at fields originally built during World War II. Be it basic military training at Lackland Air Force Base, technical training, officer training, or flight training at other facilities across the state. Texas is the home of the Air Education and Training Command (AETC) located at Randolph Air Force Base, near San Antonio.
This tradition of training goes back to the very beginnings of the Air Force, with early fight training being held at various Army camps and airfields in Texas prior to World War I, and in the 1920s and 1930s.
From the poorly armed and understaffed United States Army Air Corps that existed at the time the first bombs were dropped on Pearl Harbor, the United States produced, just a few years later, the greatest Air Force the world has ever seen. The effort to achieve this was unprecedented.
During World War II, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) established numerous airfields in Texas for training pilots and aircrews of USAAF fighters and bombers.
Most of these airfields were under the command of Fourth Air Force or the Army Air Forces Training Command (AAFTC) (A predecessor of the current-day United States Air Force's Air Education and Training Command). However the other USAAF support commands (Air Technical Service Command (ATSC); Air Transport Command (ATC) or Troop Carrier Command) commanded a significant number of airfields in a support roles.
To build the facilities needed to train personnel, a massive land acquisition program was carried out, but many cities offered land to the US Government (e.g., San Angelo for what became Goodfellow AFB) to entice the military to build a base and help the local economy.