| Randolph Air Force Base Joint Base San Antonio |
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| Part of Air Education and Training Command (AETC) | |
| Bexar County, near San Antonio, Texas | |
T-38 Talons of the 560th Flying Training Squadron |
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| Type | Air Force Base |
| Built | 1928 |
| In use | 1930-Present |
| Controlled by | United States Air Force |
| Garrison | 902d Mission Support Group |
| Airfield information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| IATA: RND – ICAO: KRND – FAA LID: RND | |||
| Summary | |||
| Elevation AMSL | 761 ft / 232 m | ||
| Website | |||
| Runways | |||
| Direction | Length | Surface | |
| ft | m | ||
| 14L/32R | 8,351 | 2,545 | Concrete |
| 14R/32L | 8,351 | 2,545 | Concrete |
Randolph Air Force Base (IATA: RND, ICAO: KRND, FAA LID: RND) is a United States Air Force base located 14.8 miles (23.8 km) east-northeast of San Antonio, Texas. The base is under the jurisdiction of the 902d Mission Support Group, Air Education and Training Command (AETC).
Randolph AFB is part of Joint Base San Antonio, an amalgamation of the United States Army Fort Sam Houston, the United States Air Force Randolph Air Force Base and Lackland Air Force Base, which were merged on 1 October 2010.[1]
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JBSA was established in accordance with congressional legislation implementing the recommendations of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission. The legislation ordered the consolidation of the three facilities which were adjoining, but separate military installations, into a single joint base – one of 12 joint bases formed in the United States as a result of the law.
Randolph AFB is named after Captain William Millican Randolph, a native of Austin, who was on the base naming committee at the time of his death in a crash. It serves as headquarters of the Air Education and Training Command (AETC) as well as the Air Force Personnel Center (AFPC) and is known as "the Showplace of the Air Force" because of the Spanish Colonial Revival Style architecture in which all structures including hangars were constructed. The symbol of the base is a large water tower atop Building 100, housing the headquarters for Randolph's major flying unit, the 12th Flying Training Wing (12 FTW). With its distinctive architecture, the wing's headquarters has come to be known throughout the Air Force as "the Taj Mahal," or simply "The Taj".
Tenant units of Randolph AFB also include the Air Force Personnel Center (AFPC), Air Force Manpower Agency, Air Force Office of Special Investigations Field Investigations Region 4 and the Air Force Recruiting Service.
The idea for Randolph began soon after passage in the United States Congress of the Air Corps Act of 1926, which changed the name of the Army Air Service to the Army Air Corps, created two new brigadier general positions and provided a five-year expansion program for the under-strength Air Corps. One of the new general officer positions was given to Frank P. Lahm, who was placed in charge of all flying training.
General Lahm established the Air Corps Training Center in August 1926 and set up its headquarters at Duncan Field, next to Kelly Field, Texas. He soon learned that the facilities at Kelly and Brooks Fields were not sufficient for proper training. The buildings, erected during World War I with a life expectancy of five years, had no suitable areas for ground training, and the living quarters were inadequate. San Antonio's rapid growth was also beginning to interfere with flying training operations. Maj. Gen. Mason Patrick, Chief of the Air Corps, visited San Antonio in December and recommended that an additional training field be built, and in April 1927 a board of officers appointed by Gen. Lahm approved an unusual circular layout.[2]
In 1927, newly-assigned to Kelly Field as a dispatch officer in the motor pool, 1st Lt Harold Clark designed a model four-quadrant airfield having a circular layout of facilities between parallel runways, after learning a new field was to be constructed. Having trained as an architect prior to entering the military during World War I, Clark sketched ideas for a perfect "Air City" on the back of old dispatch sheets, aligning the runways with prevailing winds and placing facilities by function between the runways to keep planes from having to make landing approaches over hangars, as they were forced to do at Kelly. Clark took his drawings to Lahm's executive officer, who immediately brought him before the planning board. On November 1, 1927, Clark submitted a finished plan to Lahm, and impressed with Clark's designs, Lahm detailed him to ACTC Headquarters on December 8, to revise and develop the plans.[3]
The Military Affairs Committee of the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce quickly took the forefront in the search for an airfield location, which had to be suited to the airfield design, rather than the other way around as commonly done. A site east on San Antonio was chosen in May 1927 but rejected for those reasons. A second site near Schertz, Texas, was acquired and offered to the Air Corps on December 31, 1927. The land had to have clear title, be donated to the government, and have no restrictions as to use. Legal processes delayed the acceptance of the donated property until August 16, 1928. In the meantime, after a dispute with a blue ribbon committee of senior Air Corps officers who did not favor the circular design, Clark's layout was approved, also on August 16, and construction began on November 1, 1927.[4]It was "the largest construction project undertaken by the Army, up to that time, with the exception of the Panama Canal."[5]
Clark's design was submitted to and drawn upon by George B. Ford, a city planner and civilian advisor to the Construction Service of the Quartermaster Corps whose approval of all site plans for the Army was required between 1926 and 1930. The 2001 National Park Service nomination for the Randolph Field Historic District as a National Historic Landmark commented on the architectural layout of the field:
It appears that Clark’s plan, submitted by the Air Corps Training Center, was one of the new layouts that George B. Ford, in his position as City Planning Adviser to the War Department, chose for extensive revisions. Other than the circular roads at the center of the layout and the location of flight lines at the edges, Lt. Clark’s plan and the final layout for Randolph Field have few major features in common. The "official post layout," signed by George B. Ford, A.I.A., was approved by the Chief of the Air Corps, the Quartermaster General, and the Chief of Staff for the Secretary of War in January 1929. It elegantly combined the Air Corps’ operational and training needs with advanced city planning principles. Key features of Ford’s design (and which do not appear in Lt. Clark’s plan) include the dramatic, impressive entranceway, its termination at Washington Circle (a smaller circle below Main Circle, formerly known as North Circle), and the siting of three notable buildings around Washington Circle on the east, west, and south. The final layout for Randolph Field is clearly the work of a master planner.[6]
Once the site for the field was selected, a committee decided to name the base after Captain William Millican Randolph, a native of Austin and graduate of Texas A&M, who was killed on February 17, 1928, in the crash of a Curtiss AT-4 Hawk, 27-220, on takeoff from Gorman Field, Texas. Ironically, Captain Randolph was serving on the committee to select a name for the new field at the time of his death. Captain Randolph is buried at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery.
Although barely half-completed, Randolph Field was dedicated June 20, 1930, with an estimated 15,000 people in attendance and a fly-by of 233 planes. The mayor of San Antonio, C.M. Chambers, formally presented the "West Point of the Air" to the Chief of the Air Corps, Maj. Gen. James Fechet.[7] Early in 1931, the School of Aviation Medicine from Brooks Field and the initial service squadron began relocating to Randolph. On October 1, the Air Corps Training Center moved its headquarters from Duncan Field to Randolph and the principal movement of personnel followed. The flying school at Brooks Field closed on October 20, followed by the school at March Field on October 25, and the Primary Flying School opened at Randolph on November 2, 1931.[8]
The Air Corps Act of 1926 mandated that rated pilots comprise 90% of all commissioned officers of the Air Corps. Because of this requirement, nearly all new officers of the Air Corps underwent Randolph's rigorous pilot training program and, in combination with the architectural beauty of the base, Mayor Chamber's term West Point of the Air became the unofficial nickname for Randolph Field. A 1935 Hollywood film, West Point of the Air, was filmed on location at Randolph.
In June 1941, the Army Air Corps became the Army Air Forces. Basic flying training at Randolph continued until March 1943, when the central instructors school took over. For the next two years, training instructors for the Air Corps's ground training and primary, basic and advanced flying training was the main mission. Randolph produced 15,396 instructor graduates from this course before it moved to Waco Field in 1945. When the central instructors school moved to Waco Field it was replaced by the Army Air Forces pilot school, which specialized in transition training for B-29 bomber pilots, copilots and engineers. Primary pilot training returned to Randolph from Goodfellow Field in December 1945.
Like many military installations during World War II, Randolph fielded an intercollegiate football team, nicknamed the Ramblers. In 1943, under Coach Frank Tritico, the team achieved a 9-1-0 record, and was invited to play in the January 1, 1944 Cotton Bowl Classic, where they battled the University of Texas to a 7-7 tie.[9] In the 1944 season, with such players as former All-American and National Football League Rookie of the Year Bill Dudley, as well as eight other former NFL players,[10] the team went undefeated and untied in 11 games, and was voted #3 in the nation by the Associated Press poll.[11]
The Army Air Forces also planned to return basic pilot training to Randolph on February 1, 1946. Even though basic training transferred from Goodfellow Field in February 1946, the Army Air Forces suspended all pilot training when it found itself desperately short of maintenance personnel. The U.S. Air Force became a separate service on September 18, 1947, and Randolph Field was officially renamed Randolph Air Force Base on January 13, 1948.
When the suspension was lifted in March 1948 and Randolph resumed its pilot training mission, the Air Force reshaped pilot training into two separate four-month phases. Primary pilot training moved on in December 1950. Basic pilot training changed over to nine new contract schools in July 1951.
Randolph became the Air Force's Instructor Pilot (IP) training base and had that as its primary mission until requirements for new pilots during the Vietnam War revived its basic training function.
From 1967-1971 1,269 pilots earned their wings at Randolph. Also, Randolph produced pilots in two unique classes. During World War II, Class 42-X gave 235 pilots their wings in an experimental course. Class 62-FZ produced 25 pilots who completed their training in the new T-38A, then undergoing test and evaluation.
Before the current 502d Air Base Wing, the 12th Flying Training Wing, and the 3510th Flying Training Wing were the host units at Randolph. The 3510 FTW started out as the 3510th Basic Pilot Training Wing on August 28, 1948. This unit became the 3510th Combat Crew Training Wing on January 1, 1952 and then the 3510 FTW on June 11, 1952. Another change of designation took place on September 1, 1954, when the wing was redesignated 3510th Combat Crew Training Wing to describe its mission better.[12][13] On June 1, 1958, ATC redesignated the 3510th Combat Crew Training Wing at Randolph AFB as the 3510th Flying Training Wing.[14] The 12th Flying Training Wing (12 FTW) replaced the 3510 FTW on May 1, 1972. The 502d Air Base Wing replaced the 12 FTW on 31 January 2010.
Today, the 12 FTW provides instructor pilot training and refresher/recurrency training in the T-6A Texan II, T-38C Talon and T-1A Jayhawk. The wing also operates the T-1A in support of Specialized Undergraduate Navigator Training (SUNT), a mission it assumed following the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) closure of Mather AFB, California and inactivation of the 323d Flying Training Wing. SUNT trains prospective USAF Navigators/Combat Systems Officers destined for the B-52 Stratofortress, E-3 Sentry, E-8 Joint STARS, RC-135, non-PACER CRAG KC-135 Stratotanker, and various models of the C-130 Hercules (i.e., C-130, AC-130, EC-130, HC-130, MC-130, etc.), as well as prospective Naval Flight Officers en route to fly land-based U.S. Navy P-3C Orion, EP-3 Aries and E-6 Mercury aircraft.
The 12 FTW also provides training to numerous NATO/Allied officer students via SUNT, as well as supporting Marine Corps and Coast Guard enlisted navigator training via the Marine Aerial Navigation School (MANS). The Marine Aerial Navigation School remained at Randolph until the school was decommissioned with the graduation of Class 04-01 on 31 July 2004. Advanced Electronic Warfare Officer (EWO) training is also conducted by the 12 FTW for those navigators/CSOs destined for eventual assignment as USAF EWOs.
The 12 FTW also operates an additional airfield for practice approaches and touch-and-go landings approximately 12 miles east-northeast of Randolph in Seguin, Texas. Known as Randolph AFB Auxiliary Field/Seguin Field, this airfield was originally constructed with three runways in 1941. Normally unattended, the airfield has a single active 8350-ft runway and is supported by a manned runway supervisor unit (RSU) and aircraft rescue and fire fighting (ARFF) vehicles when conducting flight operations.[15]
Randolph has also completed major renovations to the Base Commissary as well as completely re-paving Harmon Drive, the main entrance to the base leading to "The Taj". Additional plans include construction of a new Base Exchange, which is managed by the Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES).
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Randolph Field Historic District, located at the center of Randolph Air Force Base, is a National Historic Landmark. The district consists of 350 contributing buildings, 47 non-contributing buildings, and other features, most of which were built between 1929 and 1932, in an area of about 405 acres (1.6 km²). The historical society makes it very difficult for the base to plan improvements, constructions, and renovations.
Media related to [//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Randolph_Air_Force_Base,_San_Antonio,_Texas Randolph Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas] at Wikimedia Commons
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