Air Training Command
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| Air Training Command | |
|---|---|
 Emmblem of Air Training Command (ATC) |
|
| Active | 1946 - 1993 |
| Country | United States |
| Branch | United States Army Air Forces (1946-1947) United States Air Force (1947-1993) |
| Type | Major Command |
| Role | Air Force Basic, Flight and Technical training |
| Garrison/HQ | Randolph Air Force Base, Texas |
| Nickname | ATC |
Air Training Command (ATC) is a former major command of the United States Army Air Forces and United States Air Force. ATC came into being as a redesignation of the Army Air Forces Training Command on July 1, 1946. Its headquarters were located at Randolph Air Force Base near San Antonio, Texas.
Air Training Command and Air University merged to form the Air Education and Training Command (AETC) on July 1, 1993. Headquarters AETC is located at Randolph AFB today.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Bases
Major Air Force Bases of Air Training Command (in 1992) were:
- Closed in 1993 by BRAC I
- Realigned as Gunter Annex, 1992
- Closed in 1994 by BRAC II
- Closed in 1993 by BRAC I
- Closed in 1997 by BRAC IV
- Closed in 1993 BRAC II
[edit] History
Air Training Command (ATC) was originally formed in January 1942 as Army Air Forces Technical Training Command and trained more than 13 million people.
[edit] Postwar Era 1940s
At the end of World War II, the post-war drawdown resulted in several organizational changes for the Army Air Forces. In February 1946, AAF Training Command’s headquarters moved from the leased facility in Forth Worth, Texas to Barksdale Field, Louisiana. On 1 July 1946, Army Air Forces redesignated the command as Air Training Command (ATC). On 1 November 1946, Air Training Command adopted a three-division organizational structure – Flying Division, Technical Division, and Indoctrination Division. And in September 1947, the National Defense Act established the United States Air Force as a separate service.
During the late 1940s, ATC first began using the Lockheed T-33 “Shooting Star” jet aircraft in advanced single-engine pilot training. But when the Berlin Blockade ended in 1949, the Air Force was again hit with reductions that resulted in forced reorganizations and reduced training.
Because the long runways at Barksdale AFB were better suited to strategic bombers than trainer aircraft, Air Force transferred Barksdale to Strategic Air Command in September 1949. Headquarters ATC consequently was moved to Scott AFB, Illinois, effective 17 October 1949. And in November 1949, Defense Department directives targeting intermediate levels of command compelled ATC to abolish its three-division organizational structure and take over direct administration of the entire training program.
[edit] Korean War and the 1950s
This lull in training production, combined with Fiscal Year 1950 budget cuts, resulted in a shortage of trained manpower when the Korean War erupted in June 1950. The Air Force resorted to an involuntary recall of reservists to fill the gap while Air Training Command expanded its training efforts to meet wartime demands.
Shortly after the war began, the Air Staff transferred most of the combat aircrew training mission from the operational commands to ATC, placing an even heavier burden on the command. Air Force directed Air Training Command to double pilot production to 7,200 per year, and to increase technician production to 225,000 per year. With the end of the Korean War on 27 July 1953, Air Training Command again began to reduce its training activities.
Many of the command’s facilities were transferred to Strategic Air Command (SAC) and Tactical Air Command (TAC) in the 1950s. Over the next ten years, ATC reduced its bases from 43 to 16, and its personnel from 271,849 to 79,272. In large part this was due to the return of the crew training mission to the operational commands. In 1958, ATC returned bomber crew training to SAC and fighter crew training to TAC.
At about the same time, ATC gained another mission when it took over responsibility for the recruiting mission in 1954. Then in 1957, Headquarters Air Training Command moved from Scott AFB, Illinois, to Randolph AFB, Texas, in order to reduce operating costs by being closer to its primary training facilities.
One year later, the command began experimenting with eliminating propeller-driven aircraft from primary pilot training. “Project All-Jet” was a success, and in 1959, ATC began replacing the North American T-28 “Trojan” propeller-driven trainer with the Cessna T-37 “Tweety Bird” jet engine primary trainer.
[edit] Vietnam War and the 1960s
In the early 1960s, ATC converted from specialized to generalized undergraduate pilot training (UPT). During this time, the command retired the World War II-era North American B-25 “Mitchell” it had been using for advanced multi-engine training under specialized UPT. Under generalized UPT, all pilots received the same training, regardless of what type of operational aircraft they would ultimately fly. ATC acquired the North American T-38 “Talon” jet, and it became the main advanced trainer aircraft for all student pilots.
The first T-37/T-38 undergraduate pilot training course was held at Webb AFB, Texas, in February 1962. During the next few years, increasing numbers of US service members went to Southeast Asia as military advisors to the South Vietnamese armed forces, but the effect on ATC was negligible.
When President Lyndon B. Johnson increased America’s military involvement in South Vietnam in 1965, there was a resultant increase in Air Force military and technical training. However, unlike previous wars, the Vietnam War did not result in a drastic increase in the command’s bases or personnel. This was because ATC reverted to a split-phase program of basic military training, and because the command’s training philosophy was geared toward generalized rather than specialized technical training.
Pilot training gradually increased as the war dragged on. But officials reassigned many of ATC’s best instructor pilots to the operational commands, creating severe flying training difficulties. Then in 1969, ATC’s involvement in a program of training and equipping the South Vietnamese Air Force to become a self-sufficient, 40-squadron air force caused technical training production to surge by approximately 50 percent, to over 310,000. This increase, however, was not to last long.
[edit] Post-Vietnam and the 1970s
As popular support for the Vietnam War waned and American forces began to pull out of Southeast Asia, ATC’s training requirements gradually diminished. President Richard Nixon ended the draft on 30 June 1973, converting the military to an all-volunteer force. Also, during this period the percentage of recruits with a high school education declined to the lowest point in the history of the Air Force. These factors combined to make the 1970s yet another era of change for Air Training Command.
One change was in the command’s approach to technical training. Poor retention rates and the generally lower quality of recruits prompted ATC to shift from a “career oriented” technical training philosophy to one of teaching only those tasks recruits needed during their first enlistment. This reduced the length of training while also lowering training costs. To supplement on-duty training, and in hopes of attracting higher-quality recruits, Air Force established the Community College of the Air Force in 1972 as part of ATC.
Another change came in the form of increased opportunities for women. The first class of 10 women pilots in the USAF received their wings on 2 September 1977, and the first class of female graduates from undergraduate navigator training received their wings at Mather AFB, California, on 12 October 1977.
Other changes came out of the need to reduce training costs in order to fund the F-15, F-16 and A-10 modernization programs. These included closing Craig and Webb Air Force Bases, increasing reliance on flight simulators, and reducing flying hours in undergraduate pilot training.
Still another change was the way in which ATC conducted undergraduate navigator training. In 1978, navigator training shifted from generalized to specialized, with follow-on advanced training specific to the student’s career track.
In keeping with the consolidations of the 1970s, Air Training Command assumed responsibility in 1978 for two additional functions: Air University and cryptologic training. Air Force transferred Air University to ATC effective 15 May 1978. This consolidation brought all professional military education under the same roof as basic military, technical, and flying training. However, Air Force officials soon became concerned this arrangement lowered the visibility and diminished the importance of Air War College and the other schools.
Therefore, on 1 July 1983 – little more than five years after the realignment – Air Force once again conveyed separate command status upon Air University. The USAF Security Service at Goodfellow AFB, Texas, had conducted all Air Force cryptologic training since 1958. On 1 July 1978, both Goodfellow and the cryptologic training mission transferred to ATC.
[edit] Reagan Era and the 1980s
During the military expansion of the Reagan Administration in the early 1980s, ATC was able to improve training in several areas. The command added more flying hours to the pilot training program and extended the course by three weeks.
In the fall of 1981, ATC began training pilots from North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries under the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training (ENJJPT) program at Sheppard AFB, Texas.
In 1984, expanded training budgets allowed the command to change back to a philosophy of training technical personnel to the fullest extent possible, rather than limiting training to the skills needed only for the first enlistment. Technical training courses, especially those in “sortie-producing” specialties, were expanded from generalist courses to specialized instruction. By 1985, the average length for these courses had risen to nearly 17 weeks.
However, several events in the middle and late 1980s brought about the next cycle of restricted military spending affecting ATC’s mission. By Fiscal Year 1988, funding for technical training dropped by over 15 percent, and the command had to institute a civilian hiring freeze. Then, in rapid succession beginning in 1989, the Berlin Wall came down, the Soviet Union collapsed, and the Cold War was over. Suddenly, the threat from the East that had dominated American military thinking for decades was gone. Congress quickly cut military spending in response to the diminished threat.
[edit] Persian Gulf War and Post-Cold War Reorganization of the 1990s
In the midst of these world changes, the Persian Gulf War erupted when Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait on 2 August 1990. In support of wartime demands, ATC deployed over 3,000 command personnel to other commands. Then ATC called up 2,387 individual mobilization augmentee reservists and over 1,000 inactive reservists and Air Force retirees to fill active duty positions vacated by wartime deployments.
Air Force also activated ATC’s 11th Contingency Hospital and deployed it to the United Kingdom to treat expected casualties from the war. Fortunately, the Persian Gulf War did not produce large numbers of American casualties, and the conflict was soon over.
Air Training Command got on with the task of consolidating training and in Fiscal Years 1993 and 1994 closed Chanute, Mather, Williams, and Lowry Air Force Bases. However, despite the return to tightened budgets, ATC did not back off from its commitment to fully train personnel to be mission ready upon arrival at their first operational assignment.
An especially important Year of Training initiative was the recommendation to create a single, coherent education and training structure for officer, enlisted, and civilian personnel. As a result of this recommendation, Air Force again merged Air University and ATC, redesignating the command as the Air Education and Training Command (AETC) on 1 July 1993.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
Much of this text in an early version of this article was taken from pages on the Air Education and Training Command (AETC website, which as a work of the U.S. Government is presumed to be a public domain resource.
