James Connally Air Force Base

James Connally Air Force Base; Waco Army Airfield
	Part of Tactical Air Command
	Waco, Texas
	Aerial photo of Connally Air Force Base, 2006
	James Connally AFB Location of James Connally Air Force Base, Texas
Coordinates	31°38′16″N97°04′45″W / 31.63778°N 97.07917°W Coordinates: 31°38′16″N97°04′45″W / 31.63778°N 97.07917°W
Type	Air Base
Site information
Controlled by	United States Air Force
Site history
Built	1941
In use	1941-1966
Garrison information
Garrison	Tactical Air Command

Last updated September 23, 2019

James Connally Air Force Base was a United States Air Force base located north of Waco, Texas. After its closure in 1968, the airport reopened as TSTC Waco Airport.

The United States Air Force (USAF) is the aerial and space warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the seven American uniformed services. Initially formed as a part of the United States Army on 1 August 1907, the USAF was established as a separate branch of the U.S. Armed Forces on 18 September 1947 with the passing of the National Security Act of 1947. It is the youngest branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, and the fourth in order of precedence. The USAF is the largest and most technologically advanced air force in the world. The Air Force articulates its core missions as air and space superiority, global integrated intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, rapid global mobility, global strike, and command and control.

Waco is a city in central Texas and is the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States. It is situated along the Brazos River and I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin. The city had a 2010 population of 124,805, making it the 22nd-most populous city in the state. The 2018 US Census population estimate is 138,183 The Waco Metropolitan Statistical Area consists of McLennan and Falls Counties, which had a 2010 population of 234,906. Falls County was added to the Waco MSA in 2013. The 2018 US Census population estimate for the Waco MSA is 271,942.

TSTC Waco Airport is a public use airport located eight nautical miles northeast of the central business district of Waco, a city in McLennan County, Texas, United States. Before 1968, it was known as James Connally Air Force Base. The airport is owned by Texas State Technical College. It is included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015, which categorized it as a general aviation facility.

History

World War II

The airport opened May 5, 1942 as Waco Army Air Field and was the headquarters of the Army Air Force Central Instructors' School during World War II. It was deactivated after the war in 1945 but was reactivated in 1948 as a pilot training base under the Air Training Command.

World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from more than 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 70 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.

Air Training Command (ATC) is a former United States Air Force (USAF) Major Command designation. It was headquartered at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, but was initially formed at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. It was re-designated as Air Education and Training Command (AETC) following a merger with Air University (AU) on 1 July 1993.

Air Training Command

Waco Field was renamed for Colonel James T. Connally who had been killed in Japan in 1945. The airport was initially called Connally Air Force Base but the name evolved to also include his first name.

In 1951, pilot training was discontinued and replaced with academic and flight training for navigators, radar operators, and bombardiers, with particular emphasis for those officers slated for eventual assignment to Strategic Air Command's B-36 Peacemaker and its ever-increasing fleet of B-47 Stratojets.

Strategic Air Command (SAC) was both a United States Department of Defense (DoD) Specified Command and a United States Air Force (USAF) Major Command (MAJCOM), responsible for Cold War command and control of two of the three components of the U.S. military's strategic nuclear strike forces, the so-called "nuclear triad," with SAC having control of land-based strategic bomber aircraft and intercontinental ballistic missiles or ICBMs.

Pilot training returned in 1953 and an advanced jet pilot training organization with T-33 Shooting Stars was established in addition to navigator training in TB-25 Mitchells.

In January 1958, the base became a support facility when the USAF located headquarters of Twelfth Air Force (12 AF) in nearby Waco TX. The Headquarters complex was located near 25th Street and Windsor Ave. No remains of the buildings are present today.

In 1965, the Air Force began sharing the base with the State of Texas, the latter having established the James Connally Technical Institute (JCTI) of Texas A&M University. which would eventually become the main campus and headquarters of Texas State Technical Institute (TSTI).

Texas A&M University is a public research university founded in 1876 and located in College Station, Texas. In 1948, Texas A&M University became the founding member of the Texas A&M University System. As of 2017, Texas A&M's student body is the largest in Texas and the second largest in the United States. Texas A&M's designation as a land, sea, and space grant institution–the only university in Texas to hold all three designations–reflects a range of research with ongoing projects funded by organizations such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Office of Naval Research. In 2001, Texas A&M was inducted as a member of the Association of American Universities. The school's students, alumni—over 450,000 strong—and sports teams are known as Aggies. The Texas A&M Aggies athletes compete in 18 varsity sports as a member of the Southeastern Conference.

Tactical Air Command

In 1966, Convair / General Dynamics also established a modification center at the base to modify B-58 Hustler bombers.

The 602d Tactical Air Control Wing was established at the base on 1 March 1966.

Base Closure

In 1968, as part of a nationwide reduction in air force bases and naval air stations to stay within congressional funding limits while continuing to prosecute the war in Vietnam, James Connally AFB was closed. All navigator training consolidated at Mather Air Force Base, California and 12th Air Force relocated to Bergstrom Air Force Base in Austin, Texas. At this point, the facility was conveyed to the State of Texas by the General Services Administration (GSA). The airport and the base facilities was use as a technical school while General Dynamics remained as a tenant performing modification work on various military aircraft. The General Dynamics facility later ceased operation.

From January 2001 through January 2009, the former airfield of James Connally AFB was used by Air Force One when US President George W. Bush visited his Prairie Chapel Ranch, also known as the Western White House, in Crawford, Texas.

Civilian Operations

In 1984, ElectroSpace Systems Inc. (ESI) constructed a new hangar at the airport for aircraft modification that opened in 1985. In 1987, Chrysler bought ESI and the facility was later named Chrysler Technologies Airborne Systems or CTAS. Chrysler subsequently sold the operation to Raytheon in 1996 which renamed the facility Raytheon Aircraft Integration Systems. In 2002, Raytheon sold the facility to L-3 Communications and it is currently known as L-3 Communications Platform Integration Division (PID).^[1]

In 1991, TSTI was renamed Texas State Technical College (TSTC).

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References

This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/ .

↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-12-20. Retrieved 2009-04-30.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

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[1] "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-12-20. Retrieved 2009-04-30.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)