Army Air Forces Training Command: Difference between revisions

Army Air Forces Training Command
Army Air Forces Training Command emblem
Active	1943-1946
Country	United States
Branch	United States Army Air Forces
Type	Command
Role	Air Force Indoctrination, Flight and Technical training
Nickname(s)	AAFTC

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Army Air Forces Training Command (AAFTC) (1943-1946) was a command of the United States Army Air Forces. It was redesignated Air Training Command on 1 July 1946 as part of the reorganization of the Army Air Forces after World War II.

AAFTC was created as a result of the merger of the Army Air Forces Flying Training Command and the Army Air Forces Technical Training Command on 31 July 1943.

• Established as Army Air Forces Training Command on 15 March 1942

Redeisgnated as Air Training Command on 1 July 1946

• Chief of Air Corps, 15 March 1942
• Headquarters, Army Air Forces, 7 July 1943-1 July 1946

• Randolph Field, Texas, 15 March 1942
• Fort Worth, Texas, 21 August 1942
• Barksdale Field, Louisiana,25 February-1 July 1946

Constituted and established on 23 January 1942. It's mission was to train pilots, flying specialists, and combat crews. Redesignated on or about 15 March 1942, after the Army Air Forces became a subordinate but autonomous arm of the US Army.

The command struggled with the challenge of a massive wartime expansion of the air forces. Throughout 1942, the need for combat crew personnel far exceeded the current and contemplated production of the command’s flying training schools. The rate of expansion of housing and training facilities, instructors, as well as the procurement of aircraft and other equipment, though at a breakneck pace, constrained the rate of increase of production. Facilities were used to their maximum capacity as quickly as they could be stood up. Some schools were expanded while they were still under construction.

Until the late 1930s, flying training in the Army remained quite small after the rapid demobilization with the end of World War I. In 1922 all flying training was consolidated in Texas, considered to be an ideal location because of climate and other factors. Brooks Field became the center for primary training and Kelly Field for advanced training. However, it was discovered that facilities in the San Antonio area were insufficient to accommodate the number of cadets entering primary training. Hence, in violation of the principle of geographic concentration, primary pilot training was also performed at March Field, California, from 1927 to 1931.

Another problem for the training center was the growth of the city of San Antonio, which created hazards for training. Consequently, in June 1927 plans were created for the construction of a single large airfield outside of the city to house all flying training. Congress funded the new field's construction but not the purchase of the land, so the city of San Antonio borrowed the $546,000 needed to purchase the site selected for what became Randolph Field. By the fall of 1931, construction was essentially completed, so the Air Corps Training Center at Duncan Field, adjacent to Kelly, and the primary schools at Brooks and March moved to the new installation.

Advanced training remained at Kelly because experience showed that Randolph Field would become quite congested with only primary and basic training located there. Following the expansion, the number of pilots in training declined until only 184 graduated in 1937, compared to an average of 257 per year prior to 1931. But with the emergence of Nazi Germany as a potential threat to the United States, the Air Corps proposed a period of expansion to train 4,500 pilots over a two-year period.

Beginning in 1939, the Army contracted with nine civilian flying schools to provide primary flying training, while Randolph handled basic training, now completely separate from primary. Kelly Field, with Brooks as a subpost, took care of advanced flying training. In July 1939 the full course of flying instruction was shortened in length from a year to nine months--three for each phase. The number of primary contract schools expanded to 41 by the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and to 60 at various times in 1943.

On 8 July 1940, the Air Corps redesignated its training center at Randolph as the Gulf Coast Air Corps Training Center and established two additional training centers to manage the growing number of flying schools.

• The Southeast Air Corps Training Center headquartered at Maxwell Field, Alabama, managed those in the eastern third of the nation, basically east of the Mississippi River.

• The Gulf Coast Air Corps Training Center at Randolph Field handled those in the central sector, from west of the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains.

• The West Coast Air Corps Training Center at Moffett Field, California (later moved to Santa Ana Army Air Base), managed those in the western tier, consisting of the Pacific Coast to the Rocky Mountains.

Constituted and established on 26 March 1941. It's mission was the orientation, classification, basic, and technical training of enlisted men and the training of nonrated officers at officer candidate and officer training schools and in technical subjects like armament, engineering, communications, and photography.

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency

• Manning, Thomas A. (2005), History of Air Education and Training Command, 1942–2002. Office of History and Research, Headquarters, AETC, Randolph AFB, Texas ASIN: B000NYX3PC