South Plains Army Airfield

By Donald R. Abbe

South Plains Army Airfield in Lubbock, Texas, was a major training base for US Army Air Force glider pilots during World War II. Approximately 80 percent of the roughly 6,000 pilots trained to fly the combat cargo glider received their advanced training and were awarded their G Wings at SPAAF, as it was known. The base was conceived, built, used, and then closed in a short five-year period during World War II. Today, little remains to remind one of the feverish and important military training program that once took place on the flat, featureless South Plains of Texas. During World War II, American military strategy and tactics included a significant airborne component. Major invasions, such as D-Day at Normandy, were preceded by huge aerial fleets carrying paratroopers and their equipment. These airborne invasion fleets sometimes exceeded well over 1,000 Allied gliders. The American airborne forces depended upon an ungainly looking aircraft, the CG-4A glider, to carry the vehicles, munitions, and reinforcements needed to survive. The pilots who flew them learned their trade at South Plains Army Airfield.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Apr 28, 2014
• ISBN: 9781439642788

Donald R. Abbe

Donald R. Abbe, PhD, serves as the curator at the Silent Wings Museum. He has coauthored several books on the history of Lubbock and the South Plains of Texas.

Book preview

author.

INTRODUCTION

As the clouds of war gathered across the world in the late 1930s and early 1940s, the United States began to prepare for its eventual entry into the spreading hostilities. The Roosevelt administration began to accelerate the move toward military preparedness in 1940 by passing a draft law to enlarge the Army. In 1941, the country began the Lend-Lease program to provide warships and matériel to the English in return for long-term leases on certain English islands in the Caribbean.

The presence of the military buildup was felt all across the nation; defense-related industries began to accelerate production, and the military began to plan for the eventual creation and training of what it knew would be a huge military force once war began. State, county, and city governments from coast to coast began to campaign for the location of military facilities and defense-industry facilities in their jurisdictions. These campaigns were motivated by both patriotism and opportunism. Most civic leaders believed the location of these kinds of facilities, whether military or industrial, would be of long-term benefit.

The City of Lubbock, Texas, not to be outdone by anyone in the quest for potential beneficial opportunities, took action to get in the game, so to speak. Lubbock Army Flying School, later renamed Lubbock Army Air Field (LAAF), was established in the spring of 1941. This land, located west of the city, was purchased by the City of Lubbock and offered to the military at a lease price of $1 per year.

Then, in the early months of 1942, the city offered the Army the use of the municipal airport, located north of the city, as the site of a second facility. By purchasing more land, the city could offer the Army a parcel of almost 1,600 acres, with some newly completed concrete runways, one sheet-metal hangar, the brick municipal airport hangar, a control tower, and a manager’s residence already in place.

As a result, South Plains Army Airfield (originally South Plains Army Flying School) was established in April 1942 as an advanced-training base for the US Army Air Forces (AAF) combat glider–training program. The city agreed to lease, not sell, the property to the US Army for $1 per year. The lease provided for the return of the base, with or without government improvements, after the war.

South Plains Army Airfield (SPAAF) became one of the premier bases in the glider-training program, and by early 1943, it was the only base in the system where the pilots received advanced training. Over 80 percent of the 6,000 or so World War II glider pilots trained at SPAAF. In a short time, it became a small city, with a population of several thousand people living and working there around the clock.

In January 1945, the mission of SPAAF as a glider-training facility was ended, and the training program quickly wound down. The last class graduated on January 15 of that year. With no other potential mission for the base, it was placed on the inactive list in February 1945 and transferred to the Air Technical Services Command.

The inactive status of the base stimulated the City of Lubbock to initiate efforts to regain the use of the facility for commercial air travel. In fact, the city was already thinking about this issue before closure and approached the Army in February 1944 about using the base for limited civilian commercial flights, but there was no response. With the base closed, the city felt the time was right to reclaim its property and reestablish the municipal airport. In February 1945, the city approached the Army with a plan to share the facility until a final reclamation could be made. The Army, very reluctant to enter into any kind of discussions with the city, announced the airbase would be used for the storage of surplus airplanes.

Lubbock leadership was unhappy with the situation and pointed out to Gen. Hap Arnold, head of Army aviation, that the city already had contracts with commercial airlines. This communication, in April, led to the beginning of commercial flights by Braniff in July 1945, Essair in August 1945, and Continental in March 1946. Continental Airlines began its service only as a result of the USAAF lifting all controls and restrictions to civil aviation.

Yet, the Army refused to relinquish control of the airport to the city. In November 1945, the city commission attempted to terminate the lease with the AAF, but to no avail. The commission even offered to only reoccupy the original airport property and not the major