The facility opened in August 1942 with a 4,800-foot turf runway. It began training United States Army Air Corps flying cadets under contract to Wiggings-Marden Aero Corp. It was assigned to United States Army Air Forces Gulf Coast Training Center (later Central Flying Training Command) as a primary (level 1) pilot training airfield. It had two local auxiliary airfields for emergency and overflow landings. Flying training was performed with Fairchild PT-19s and Fairchild PT-23s as the primary trainers. It also had several PT-17 Stearmans and a few P-40 Warhawks assigned.
The field was inactivated on 15 April 1944 with the drawdown of AAFTC's pilot training program. It was declared surplus and turned over to the Army Corps of Engineers on 30 September 1945. It was eventually discharged to the War Assets Administration (WAA) and became a civil airport. It appears to have closed after the war about 1951, and was later reopened.[5][6][7]
^Shaw, Frederick J. (2004), Locating Air Force Base Sites History’s Legacy, Air Force History and Museums Program, United States Air Force, Washington DC, 2004.
^Manning, Thomas A. (2005), History of Air Education and Training Command, 1942–2002. Office of History and Research, Headquarters, AETC, Randolph AFB, Texas OCLC71006954, 29991467
