Harlingen Air Force Base

Harlingen Air Force Base, originally Harlingen Army Airfield, is a former United States Air Force base located in northeast Harlingen, Texas, United States. After its closure, the airport was redeveloped into Valley International Airport.

History

World War II

Harlingen Army Airfield opened in July 1941 and was used by the United States Army Air Forces as a training base during World War II. It was initially assigned to the AAF Gulf Coast Training Center as a flexible gunnery school. Training was conducted in both air-to-air & air-to-surface gunnery. The air-to-air training used a variety of aircraft, including AT-6 Texans, BT-13 Valiants, P-63 Kingcobras, B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators. For ground-based training, a number of facilities were available, including the moving target ranges and a number of gunnery simulators.

On 8 January 1943, the War Department constituted and activated the 79th Flying Training Wing (Flexible Gunnery) at Harlingen and assigned it to the AAF Eastern Central Training Command. In 1944, Harlingen began training B-29 Superfortress gunners. They received practically the same training as those for other aircraft, but at the end of the year a few of them began to receive training in B-24s modified by the addition of central fire control turrets to make them more like B-29s. Among the training devices used in this instruction was the manipulation trainer—12 towers arranged to resemble a formation of planes. The towers ranged in height from 10 to 40 feet, each equipped with 2 nose, 2 tail, 2 ring sighting, and 4 blister positions. As students in these positions faced simulated attacks from PT-13 and PT-17 aircraft, they "fired" camera guns at the attacking fighters.

The 79th conducted flexible gunnery training until 1 October 1945. Redesigned as a basic training center 1 November 1945 and conducted basic training until inactivated 1 February 1946.

Cold War

Harlingen was reactivated on 17 March 1952 by the United States Air Force, who renamed it Harlingen Air Force Base and placed it under the operational control of the Air Training Command (ATC). Harlingen AFB's focus was Undergraduate Navigator Training (UNT), primarily with Convair T-29 aircraft, until being closed in 1962. Undergraduate Navigator Training at Harlingen AFB ended on 6 June 1962 with the graduation of Class 62-22N. Thereafter, all new navigators were to be trained at Mather AFB, California and James Connally AFB, Texas.^[1]

Current uses

The former Harlingen AFB was turned over to the local government and the facilities were converted to civilian use as Valley International Airport after Hurricane Beulah significantly flooded the original Harlingen civilian airport in 1967.

See also

• Texas World War II Army Airfields

Notes

1. ^ http://www.aetc.af.mil/library/history/aetcsignificantevents/1960-69.asp

References

This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.

• Shaw, Frederick J. (2004), Locating Air Force Base Sites History’s Legacy, Air Force History and Museums Program, United States Air Force, Washington DC, 2004.
• 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
• Thole, Lou (1999). Forgotten Fields of America: World War II Bases and Training, Then and Now. 2. Pictorial Histories Publishing. ISBN 9781575100517.

External links

Categories: USAAF Gulf Coast Training Center | 1941 establishments | Closed facilities of the United States Air Force | USAAF Gunnery School | Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in Texas | Cameron County, Texas