Gulf Coast Air Corps Training Center

The Gulf Coast Air Corps Training Center (GCACTC) was 1 of 3 regional United States organizations for primary, basic ("cross-country work"), and advanced flight training when the U.S. entered World War II. The center's various detachments in the Central United States also provided technical training for ground positions such as Air Observers and weathermen. The center included a Basic Training Command and on November 12, 1941, the GCACTC's Air Corps Replacement Center (aircrew) at Kelly Field began a preparatory course.

History
In 1939 only 2 Air Corps flying schools were operating (Randolph Field and, for advanced training, Kelly Field) and on May 24, 1940, General Henry H. Arnold submitted a plan to the War Department for 3 training centers. When the new centers for the West Coast (HQ at Moffett Field CA) and Southeast (Maxwell Field AL) were established on August 22, 1940; the existing "Air Corps Training Center" was redesignated the Gulf Coast Air Corps Training Center.

Funding of a 30,000-pilot training program was approved on April 5, 1941, and included new GCACTC bases at "Enid, Okla.; Perrin Field, Sherman, Tex.; Waco, Tex.; Moore Field, Mission, Tex.; Lubbock, Tex.; Midland, Tex.; and Lake Charles, La." In 1941, "thirty-two major flying fields comprise[d] the Gulf Coast Air Corps Training Center" for basic and advanced flying training plus 16 civilian flight schools by October (a bombing range was also part of the center).

The Central Instructors School began at Randolph in January 1942, and the first "flying sergeants" graduated as combat pilots in May 1942 "at a civil contract flying school in the Gulf Coast Air Corps Training Center" (92 of 183 in "Pilot Training Class 42-C"). On September 26, 1942, the GCACTC's Advanced Twin Engine and Bombardier Training Center at Midland, Texas, was redesignated Midland Army Airfield's Army Air Forces Bombardier School (colloq. Bombardier College) which operated 23 bombing ranges in West Texas (the school had moved to Albuquerque Army Air Base by February 28, 1945). On January 8, 1943, the 31st Flying Training Wing (Primary) was activated as an Enid tenant unit "to supervise and inspect" the GACTC's civil contract flying schools.

In conjunction with the USAAF Flying Training Command merging with the Technical Training Command; on July 31, 1943, the Gulf Coast Air Corps Training Center was deactivated when the GCACTC schools were consolidated with the separate navigator training (4 schools including 1 at Ellington Field that had been a bombardier school) and redesignated as the Central Flying Training Command. The consolidation supported the January 1943 Casablanca Conference decision regarding air power in the European Theatre and the resulting "Combined Bomber Offensive from the United Kingdom" plan, which required aircrews for 4 development phases (944, 1192, 1746, & 2702 bombers) through 31 March 1944.