Home : Hillard E. Johnmeyer :

Sheppard Field And
Pre-Flight Training

Sheppard Field

Wichita County is in the extreme north central portion of the state, on the Oklahoma border. Wichita Falls, the largest city and county seat, is 144 miles northwest of Dallas and 141 miles southwest of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The county comprises 606 square miles, most of which lies in the eastern part of the Central Texas Rolling Red Plains.

Sheppard AFB has been providing top-notch instruction in a diverse array of Air Force specialties for more than half a century.

Though the mission has changed several times, Sheppard has always been in the training business since it was officially opened as an active Army Air Corps base in October 1941.

Major General Rush B. Lincoln, commander, Air Corps Technical Training Command, Chanute Field, Ill., arrived in Wichita Falls, Texas, November 29, 1940 to survey four sites on which to build a proposed technical school. Though secret negotiations had been underway for some months, the first acknowledgment that the city of Wichita Falls was under consideration for a training base occurred in July 1940 when Major Oscar Beal and Captain Joe A. Miller, both stationed at Chanute, landed at Kell Field to survey the area for a possible military training site.

Bedmate & Buddy Frankie R. Johnson, April, 1943 in rear of our Barracks Sheppard Field, Texas.

With substantial concessions from millionaire oilman J. S. Bridwell, who owned more than half of the land under consideration, the Army concluded an agreement with the city of Wichita Falls to build a training school on 600-plus acres of land surrounding the municipal airport, Kell Field. On February 1, 1941, the Army leased the land for $1 per year and immediately began to let contracts worth more than $6 million for construction of an aircraft mechanic school and its support facilities.

Thus Sheppard Field began as a World War II Army Air Corps training center when representatives of the War Department and the city of Wichita Falls entered into a lease agreement. The lease gave the government the right to build and operate a military installation adjacent to the Wichita Falls Municipal Airport, and granted the government the right to full use of the airport's land, runways, and facilities.

Official dedication of the field was October 17, 1941, following the arrival of the first military members June 14. The field was named for the late Senator Morris E. Sheppard, former chairman of the Senate Military affairs Committee, who died unexpectedly in April, 1941. Senator Sheppard had worked to improve America's defense capability in response to the war in Europe he felt would inevitably involve the United States. Construction of buildings began in May 1941. Most of the dormitories were ready by August. Facilities were completed sufficiently to allow the first class of 22 aviation mechanics to enter training that October; the first class of 210 mechanics graduated in February 1942 during the crucial opening months of American involvement in World War II.

During World War II, Sheppard conducted basic training, and it also trained glider mechanics, technical and flying training instructors and B-29 engineers. In addition to the basic flying training, the base also provided advanced pilot training for ground officers, and helicopter pilot training.

The Field reached its peak strength of 46,340 people, the largest concentration of air troops in the world, while serving as a separation center for troops being discharged following World War II from September through November 1945.

Sheppard Field was deactivated August 31, 1946 and declared surplus to the War Department's needs; it was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Corps of Engineers April 30, 1947.

College Preparatory Pre-Flight Training Program

Springfield's state university had its beginnings as the privately owned Springfield Normal School, founded in 1894 at Pickwick Avenue and Cherry Street, an institution which had the distinction of playing the first night football game west of the Mississippi River in 1904.

After the State of Missouri approved establishment of a normal school in 1905, the building at Pickwick and Cherry housed State Normal until a new campus was started in the present location on South National Avenue in 1906 with the construction of the present administration building. During that first year, State Normal had 543 students.

In 1919, the school's name was changed to Southwest Missouri State Teachers College and it had a fall enrollment of 499 students. By 1945, "Teachers" had been removed from its name and in 1972 its designation was further upgraded to that of a University, representing the broad range of educational opportunities it offered.

Military training made its first official appearance on campus with the initiation of the Student Army Training Corps late in World War I. During World War II, Springfield State Teachers' College participated in the Air Corps Cadet Training Program. Early in 1943, State Teachers College was selected as a preliminary training school for U.S. Army Air cadet. During the latter part of February they arrived on campus, 500 strong, and established headquarters in the new field house (McDonald Arena).

Under the College Preparatory Pre-Flight Training Program, Aviation Cadet candidates are enrolled as enlisted men in one of several score colleges and universities throughout the country for a five-month preparatory course, prior to being assigned for flight training in schools of the Flying Training Command.

This course of preparatory instruction is devoted largely to academic subjects. These comprise sixty hours each of English, geography, and modern history; eighty hours of mathematics; and 180 hours of physics. The instruction also comprises twenty-four hours of civil air regulations, 280 hours of basic military indoctrination, including infantry drill, ceremonies and inspections, physical training, interior guard duty, and other military subjects. During this time the Aviation Cadet may also receive ten hours of flight training in cooperation with the Civil Aeronautics Administration.

State Teachers College Springfield, Missouri
Dad - almost cut out of picture Walking tours for Disciplinary Punishment. "always getting gigged, good athelete"	Front steps of Field House

top of page

back a page