Bryan Air Force Base

Bryan Air Force Base Bryan Army Airfield
Part of Air Training Command (ATC)
Brazos County,nearBryan, Texas
2006 USGS Airphoto
Bryan AFB
Coordinates	30°38′16″N96°28′43″W
Type	Air Force Base
Site history
Built	1942
In use	1942–1947; 1951–1958; 1960–1961

Bryan Air Force Basewas aUnited States Air Forcebase inBrazos County, Texas,located west ofBryan.

Bryan Air Force Base was originally activated in 1943 as aU.S. Army Air Forcesinstallation known asBryan Army Air Field.The base housed a flight instructors' school and was assigned the task of developing a standardized system ofinstrument flighttraining. The Full Panel Attitude System developed at the base was one of the most significant contributions the base made to pilot training. The instrument training school at Bryan AAF was the only one of its kind in the United States Army Air Forces.

With the end ofWorld War II(WWII), the base was inactivated. The installation became Bryan Air Force Base upon the establishment of theU.S. Air Force(USAF) as a separate service in September 1947.

Following WWII, enrollment at the nearbyAgricultural and Mechanical College of Texas(later renamed Texas A&M University) soared due to theG.I. Bill.Housing was in short supply, so between 1946 and 1950, an estimated 5,500 students lived, studied, ate, and attended classes at what became known as the Annex, located in buildings the USAF was not using. Former students lived and studied in cramped, cheaply built and already-dilapidated WWII buildings without heating, air conditioning or indoor plumbing, and described having to hitchhike to and from the remote site if they did not have their own cars.

In 1951, with the outbreak of theKorean War,the base was reactivated for USAF pilot training and the runways were extended.Assigned to theAir Training Command,it conducted advanced flight training in theT-33 Shooting Star.In 1955, after combat in Korea had wound down, the USAF began reducing operations at the base, and in 1957, it announced that the base would be inactivated again in 1958.The USAF fully vacated the base in May 1961.

In 1962, the land and buildings were leased for twenty years to Texas A&M under an arrangement that allowed theGeneral Services Administrationto reclaim the base in the event of a national emergency, but with the eventual "purchase price" of the facility being reduced by five percent each year of the lease.Texas A&M continued to renew the lease, and in 1988, full ownership of the former base was transferred to Texas A&M at virtually no cost.The site is now home to A&M'sRELLIS campus.

See also

• Texas World War II Army Airfields
• 77th Flying Training Wing (World War II)

References

• Manning, Thomas A. (2005),History of Air Education and Training Command, 1942–2002.Office of History and Research, Headquarters, AETC, Randolph AFB, TexasOCLC71006954,29991467
• Shaw, Frederick J. (2004),Locating Air Force Base Sites, History’s Legacy,Air Force History and Museums Program, United States Air Force, Washington DC.OCLC57007862,1050653629

External links

• Bryan Air Force Base| The Handbook of Texas Online| Texas State Historical Association (TSHA)

This article incorporatespublic domain materialfrom theAir Force Historical Research Agency