Moore Air Force Base: Difference between revisions

Moore Air Base
Moore Air Base
Part of Air Training Command (ATC)
Located near Mission, Texas
	Aerial photo of Moore Air Base, 15 Jan 1995
Coordinates	26°23′01.2444″N 98°20′01.0572″W / 26.383679000°N 98.333627000°W
Type	Air Base
Site information
Controlled by	United States Air Force
Site history
Built	1941
In use	1941-1961
Garrison information
Garrison	Air Training Command
Occupants	3301st Pilot Training Group (Contract Primary)

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Revision as of 00:46, 17 May 2009

Moore Air Base is an inactive United States Air Force facility located fourteen miles (21 km) northwest of Mission, Texas. It was inactivated on 1 February 1961. The installation was sold to private concerns and partially transferred to the Department of Agriculture on 15 July 1963.

History

World War II

Moore Field was opened on 20 September 1941 as a Army Air Forces Training Command single-engine training school. It was named for 2d Lt. Frank Murchison Moore, on 22 November. Moore was a native of Houston, who was killed in World War I. The 1,087-acre (4.40 km²) airfield was the home of the 503d, 504th and 506th school squadrons (Army Air Forces Pilot School (Advanced Single Engine) were the flying training units. The flying school was redesignated as the 2d Training Group in 1943.

The facility conducted advanced pilot training of 6,000 pilots using BT-13, PT-19, AT-6, P-36 and P-43 aircraft. The school was reorganized as the 2529th Army Air Force Base Unit (Pilot School, Advanced Single Engine) on 1 April 1944. The school and airfield were closed on 31 October 1945.

Postwar use

In 1950 part of the field was operating as the Weaver H. Baker Memorial Sanatorium, and part was jointly operated by Mission, McAllen, and Edinburg as Tri-Cities Municipal Airport.

Contract flying base

In June 1954, after the closing of the sanatorium and as part of the Cold War military expansion by the United States, the United States Air Force Air Training Command announced that Moore Field would be reactivated as a contract pilot training school. Air Training Command had planned to reopen the base in 1954, but delayed the reopening 12 months due to a freeze in military construction budgets.

The 3301st Pilot Training Group (Contract Primary) was reassigned to Moore from Columbus AFB, Mississippi on 1 April 1955. Training was conducted by California Eastern Airways Incorporated, using T-28s and T-34s. In August 1959, Moore began using the jet-powered T-37 in place of the T-38s. With the upgrade to jet trainers, the contractor at the base was changed to Beiser Aviation Corporation.

In 1960, plans were made by Air Training Command to redesign the flight training program, and consolidate its flight schools. As a result of the Consolidated Pilot Training (CPT) program, contractor flying schools were planned to be phased out. All contract primary training ended at Moore in December, however several ground training classes continued at the base until 1 February 1961 when the 3301st was inactivated. Some 4,000 Air Force pilots received their primary flight training and academic instruction by the 3301st at Moore Air Base.

Closure and current use

In February 1962 about half of the site was turned over to the US Department of Agriculture which was trying to eradicate the screwworm fly. It continues to be known as Moore Air Base under this new mission.

In 1977 Scientists of the Screwworm Research Unit relocated from the laboratory at Moore Air Force Base, to the sterile fly production facility near Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas, Mexico.

As of 1983 The USDA-ARS Screwworm Research laboratory at Moore Air Force Base has been closed. It is depicted as a private airfield on current Sectional Charts.

References

Thole, Lou (1999), Forgotten Fields of America : World War II Bases and Training, Then and Now - Vol. 2. Publisher: Pictorial Histories Pub, ISBN 1575100517

External links

Moore Air Force Base from the Handbook of Texas Online
Template:WAD
http://www.screwworm.ars.usda.gov/HISTORY1.htm

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@@ Line 36: / Line 36: @@
 ===Contract flying base===
-In 1954, after the closing of the sanatorium and as part of the [[Cold War]] military expansion by the United States, the base was reactivated under the name Moore Air Force Base. It served as a contractor operated USAF primary pilot training school (with T-28s & T-34s). Training was conducted by California Eastern Airways Incorporated (1954-59) and Beiser Aviation Corporation (1959-61).
+In June 1954, after the closing of the sanatorium and as part of the [[Cold War]] military expansion by the United States, the [[United States Air Force]] [[Air Training Command]] announced that Moore Field would be reactivated as a contract pilot training school.   Air Training Command had planned to reopen the base in 1954, but delayed the reopening 12 months due to a freeze in military construction budgets.
+The 3301st Pilot Training Group (Contract Primary) was reassigned to Moore from Columbus AFB, Mississippi on 1 April 1955.   Training was conducted by California Eastern Airways Incorporated, using T-28s and T-34s.  In August 1959, Moore began using the jet-powered T-37 in place of the T-38s.  With the upgrade to jet trainers, the contractor at the base was changed to Beiser Aviation Corporation.
-By December 1960 some 4,000 Air Force pilots received their primary flight training and academic instruction at this base. From July 1959 until the base was again deactivated, the six-month training program featured jet-plane flight instruction. USAF jet training in the [[T-37 Tweet|T-37]] at Moore was concluded in 1961.
+In 1960, plans were made by Air Training Command to redesign the flight training program, and consolidate its flight schools.   As a result of the Consolidated Pilot Training (CPT) program,  contractor flying schools were planned to be phased out.   All contract primary training ended at Moore in December, however several ground training classes continued at the base until 1 February 1961 when the 3301st was inactivated. Some 4,000 Air Force pilots received their primary flight training and academic instruction by the 3301st at Moore Air Base.
 ===Closure and current use===